Orgain Denna Ríg

Orgain Denna Rig (The Destruction of Dinn Ríg), an Old Irish saga preserved in the Book of Leinster and in the Yellow Book of Lecan. It relates how Labraid Loingsech kills his great-uncle Cobthach Cóel and takes the kingship of Leinster.

Irish title for 9th-century Irish narrative of the Cycle of Kings usually known in English as The Destruction/ Plunder of Dind Ríg. The text survives in three manuscripts, from Rawlinson B502 (or Book of Glendalough, c.1120–30), the Book of Leinster (12th cent.), and the Yellow Book of Lecan (c.1390), and the story was repeated by the historian Geoffrey Keating (17th cent.). At the centre of the action is the arrival to power of Labraid Loingsech, ancestor-deity of Leinstermen.

Labraid has first to average the treachery against his father. Labraid's uncle, Cobthach the king of Brega (in what is now north Leinster), is so jealous of his brother, Lóegaire Lorc, king of all Ireland, that he is wasting away, gaining the name ‘the Meagre One of Brega’. Both are sons of Úgaine Mór. Cobthach invites Lóegaire to come to his residence, after which he feigns death. When Lóegaire, following custom, lies upon what he thinks is the corpse, Cobthach thrusts a knife into his back so that it comes out through his heart. Not content with this, Cobthach then poisons Lóegaire's son Ailill Áne, thus taking the kingdom of Leinster from him. Little is expected of Ailill's son as he cannot speak, hence his name Móen Ollam [móen, dumb]. But when struck in the shin while playing hurley, he cries out, ‘I am hurt’, to the amazement of all watching, who exclaim, ‘He is talking!’ [Labraid], thus giving him his new name.

Later, at an assembly at Tara, Cobthach asks who is the most generous ruler in Ireland, to which Craiphtine the harper and Ferchertne (1) the poet answer, ‘Labraid’. Annoyed, Cobthach asks them both to leave, which they do, joining Labraid in exile in the west with King Scoriath of Fir Morca in Munster, who makes them all welcome. Labraid is soon struck by the king's beautiful daughter Muiriath, and she with him, but she is closely guarded by her parents and no suitor has yet been found worthy of her. Her watchful mother always sleeps with one eye open, fixed upon her daughter. At a feast Craiphtine plays ‘sleep-music’, which closes both the mother's eyes. In the morning the mother wakes and tells her husband, Scoriath, that he has had an unlucky sleep. ‘Your daughter sleeps like a wife.’ Angered, Scoriath threatens to kill all the druids and poets until the lover is identified. Labraid tells Ferchertne to admit the truth, which Scoriath accepts joyfully, immediately ordering a feast. Not only does he give the hand of his daughter, but he promises to help Labraid in recovering the kingdom of Leinster.

After Scoriath has rallied the men of Munster, Labraid and his allies attack Dind Ríg (near Leighlinbridge, Co. Carlow), thecapital of Leinster. Repulsed, they fall back upon the power of music, having Craiphtine play more sleep-music on the ramparts while the besiegers put their fingers in their ears. Muiriath, loving the music, listens and thus sleeps for a day as no one will wake her. But when the defenders sleep, Scoriath and the men of Munster come over the walls and slay the inhabitants.

Labraid assumes the throne of Leinster and lives for a while in peace with his murderous uncle Cobthach at Tara. After a while he invites Cobthach to come and visit him in a special house made for entertainment-with walls, floors, and doors made of iron. The Leinstermen have worked on it for a year, none of them speaking of what he has done, even to family members; thus the proverb about their reticence: ‘Every Leinsterman has his own secret.’ Cobthach arrives with thirty other kings in his entourage and with an abundance of suspicion. He refuses to enter the iron house until Labraid's mother and jester go in before him. Inside, Labraid tactfully observes that plenty of drink, food, and fire have been provided. As soon as Labraid has exited, his retainers slam the door shut, locking it with a heavy chain fastened to a pillar. A fire rises around the iron house, fed by 150 bellows, each with four workmen. As the walls turn red-hot, a warrior asks Labraid if he will save his mother. Hearing him, the mother calls out to Labraid to save his honour, as she will die anyway. And thus are Cobthach, thirty kings, and 700 men roasted alive. Lóegaire Lorc is avenged, but Labraid will have yet another exile, from which he returns with 2,200 foreigners with broad spears [láigen] to repopulate the province of Leinster.

Ferchertne the poet also appears to be the narrator of the action. The episode of the burning iron house has a parallel in the Branwen branch of the Mabinogi. The Fir Morca may not be in Munster or any part of Ireland but may instead be Armorica, i.e. Brittany. In variant texts Labraid wanders as far away as Armenia and brings back 300 ships; in another he receives help from ‘the king of the Franks’ and lands in Wexford. The Book of Leinster records the death of Cobthach at 307 BC.

Bibliography

• Kuno Meyer (ed.), Rawlinson B 502, Facsimile Edition (Oxford, 1909)
• Whitley Stokes, ‘Orgain Denda Ríg’, Zeitschrift für celtische Philologie, 3 (1901), 1–14
• David Greene (ed.), ‘Orgain Denda Ríg’, in Fingal Rónáin and Other Stories (Dublin, 1958)
• Joseph Vendryes, ‘La Destruction de Dind Ríg’, Études Celtiques, 8 (1958/9), 7–40
• Michael A. O'Brien (ed.), Corpus genealogiarum Hiberniae (Dublin, 1962)
• Heinrich Wagner, ‘The Archaic Dind Ríg Poem and Related Problems’, Ériu, 28 (1977), 1–16.
• Padraic Colum's The Story of Lowry Maen (1937) is a popular retelling