Fingal Rónáin

Fingal Rónáin (Rónán's Slaying of a Kinsman), a saga of the historical cycle in early Middle Irish. It tells how Rónán mac Aeda, King of Leinster kills his beloved only son, Máel-Fhothartaig.

Fionghal Rónáin
[Irish, How Rónán Killed His Son]

Tenth-century Irish narrative from the Cycle of Kings, also known as Aided Maíl Fhothartaig [The Death of Máel Fothartaig Son of Rónán]. Although one of the grimmest stories in early Irish literature, Fingal Rónáin is also one of the most poetic and most admired. It does not concern gods, taboos, or enchantments but rather everyday human elements such as love and jealousy. The motif of mistaken sexual rivalry between son and father (folk motif: K2111) has parallels in the biblical story of Potiphar's Wife and the Greek story of Phaedra and Hippolytus. The text is preserved in the Book of Leinster.

Rónán, king of Leinster, was the father of Máel Fothartaig, one of the most celebrated young men in the province. When the handsome prince entered assemblies, men gathered around him. As he grew he became the darling of young girls and the lover of women. As the father was a lonely widower after the death of Eithne (6), the son exhorted him to marry again, perhaps to a mature woman. Against his son's advice Rónán chose the young daughter of Eochaid (2), king of Dún Sobairche [Dunseverick] in the north. When the old man brought home his bride, she immediately fell in love with the son and sent her maidservant to persuade him to visit his stepmother's bed. When Máel Fothartaig refused, the young wife [lit. ‘girl-bride’] falsely accused him of trying to force his affections upon her. Rónán was initially doubtful, accusing his wife of lying and cursing her lips. At this moment Máel Fothartaig came in, and while drying his legs by the fire, spoke two lines of verse, which the youthful stepmother was able to match. To Rónán the exchange proved his son's guilt.

Rónán commanded one of his men, Áedán (2), to cast his spear at the son. The shaft impaled Máel Fothartaig, a second caught his foster-brother Congal, and a third killed the jester Mac Glas. As Máel Fothartaig was dying he protested his innocence and pledged to tell the truth. The son swore by the ‘tryst of death’ he was about to keep that he never wanted to lie with the queen, that Rónán was deceived, that Congal died unjustly because three times he had escorted the young queen home to prevent her from making further sexual propositions. Rónán lamented his deeds for three days. To seek vengeance, Congal's brother Donn (2) went to Dún Sobairche and murdered the queen's family, beheading each one of them; he returned to Rónán's palace and threw the heads in the girl's lap, whereupon she stabbed herself. To finish the bloodshed, the two young sons of Máel Fothartaig indirectly kill their grandfather for having caused the death of their father.

Bibliography

• David H. Greene, Fingal Rónáin and Other Stories (Dublin, 1955)
• David H. Greene, “‘Fingal Rónáin’”, in Irish Sagas, ed. Myles Dillon (Cork, 1968), 162–75
• T. P. Cross and C. H. Slover (eds.), ‘How Rónán Slew His Son’, Ancient Irish Tales (New York, 1936), 538–45.
• For links with other medieval literature, see R. E. Bennett, ‘Walter Map's Sadius and Galo’, Speculum, 16 (1941), 51–6.
• T. C. Murray reworks themes from the story in his drama Autumn Fire (1924), and William A. Fahey fictionalizes it, ‘The Death of Ronan's Son’, Journal of Irish Literature, 19 (2) (May 1990), 47–51