Aided Cheit maic Mágach

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Title Aided Cheit maic Mágach
‘The death of Cet mac Magach’

Manuscripts
Version A:

Edinburgh, National Library of Scotland, Adv. MS 72.1.40 (Gaelic XL) [s. xv-xvi], part 1, f. 4r–4v

Version B:

Dublin, Royal Irish Academy, MS 23 G 21 (Betham 2, 917) [s. xviii-xix], p. 140
Dublin, Royal Irish Academy, MS 23 B 21 (Betham 49, 184) [1824], p. 174

Type or category aideda

Language Version A: Middle Irish (?)
Version B: Early Modern Irish

Description A tale of the Ulster Cycle, set after the death of Conchobar.

Textual relationships It appears in tale-lists as Orgain Bélchon Bréifne and Togail Bruidne Bélchon Bréifne, and is alluded to in the poem Fianna bátar i nEmain, attributed to Cináed ua hArtacáin, which suggests there was once a version where Conall's death was plotted at a feast by Bélchú. Version B is more or less identical to the version in Geoffrey Keating's Foras feasa ar Éirinn (I 34).

Cet mac Mágach
- Cet's charioteer
Conall Cernach
- physicians
Bélchú Bréifne
- sons of Bélchú

Provinces

Ulster
Connacht

Other

Bréifne » Connacht
Áth Ceit » name(s): Áth Cheat » Cet's Ford, where Cet mac Mágach is slain by Conall Cernach

Summary

Conall Cernach pursues Cet mac Mágach, after a raid by the latter on Ulster, to Bréifne in Connacht, and, after being chided for cowardice by his charioteer, fights him at Áth Ceit. The fight leaves Cet dead and Conall seriously wounded. Bélchú of Bréifne comes across the incapacitated Conall, who tries to goad him into finishing him off, but Bélchú decides to nurse him back to health, then fight him. He soon regrets this decision, and sends his three sons to kill Conall as he sleeps, but Conall forces Bélchú to take his place in the bed, and the sons kill their father instead. Conall kills the sons and takes all four heads back to Ulster.

Notes

Sources

Editions and translations

Meyer, Kuno (ed. and tr.), The death-tales of the Ulster heroes, Todd Lecture Series 14, Dublin: Royal Irish Academy, 1906. 36—41 CELT: edition and translation; Internet Archive

Draak, Maartje, and Frida de Jong (trs.), Van helden, elfen en dichters: de oudste verhalen uit Ierland, Amsterdam: Meulenhoff, 1979. 104—107.

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