Pictish Mystic · Lore · Book of Invasions
The First Battle of Mag Tuired
The Fir Bolg had ruled Ireland for thirty years when the Tuatha Dé Danann came. This is the battle in which the Tuatha took the land, the fifth taking of Ireland, told here from J. Fraser's translation of Cath Maige Tuired Cunga. These are legends from medieval manuscripts, not recorded history.
The King's Dream
The Tuatha Dé landed in Ulster and burned all their ships. That night Eochaid son of Erc, high king of the Fir Bolg, dreamed of a great flock of black birds coming out of the ocean to fight the people of Ireland. His druid Cesard read it: warriors were coming across the sea, a people skilled in every art.
Sreng and Bres
The Fir Bolg sent Sreng, a huge and fearsome champion, to see the strangers. Bres came out from the Tuatha camp to meet him. The two stood in silence behind their shields, each amazed at the other's weapons, until they found they spoke the same language and came of the same ancestors. They swapped spears as samples. "Tell the Fir Bolg," said Bres, "that they must give my people either battle or half of Ireland." Sreng told his kings it would be better to share the land. They refused: "If we do, the land will all be theirs."
Sorcery and a Well of Healing
Badb, Macha and the Morrígan sent showers of sorcery, mist and a rain of fire and blood on the Fir Bolg for three days, until the Fir Bolg druids stopped it. Both sides dug a well of healing filled with herbs, and the wounded came out of it whole.
The Plain of Props
The armies met on Mag Nia, and the fighting went on day after day. At nightfall the warriors brought their king a head and a stone each, and built great cairns of them. One morning the Fir Bolg came on under a roof of shields and a forest of javelins, and the Tuatha said, "With how much pomp do those battle-props enter the plain." From then on it was called Mag Tuired, the Plain of Props.
Nuada's Arm
In the thick of the fighting Sreng met Nuada, king of the Tuatha Dé. Each gave the other thirty wounds, and then Sreng's sword cut away the rim of Nuada's shield and took his right arm off at the shoulder. The king's arm fell to the ground with a third of his shield.
The King's Thirst
Eochaid fought on with his son Slainge until a burning thirst came over him. He left the battle to find a drink, but the Tuatha wizards hid every stream and river in Ireland from him until he came to the strand of Eothail. There the three sons of Nemed caught up with him, and they fought until all four fell together. His cairn stands on that strand.
a One-armed King
Sreng fought on for a day and a night after his comrades, until neither side could strike another blow. When the hosts met again, he challenged Nuada to single combat. Nuada faced him as if he were whole and said, "If single combat on fair terms is what you seek, fasten your right hand, as I have lost mine." Sreng refused: their first fight had been fair. So the Tuatha Dé offered him his choice of the provinces of Ireland, with peace and friendship between the two peoples. Sreng chose Connacht, and the Fir Bolg went west with him. The Tuatha Dé made Bres their king, until Nuada's lost hand was replaced and he became king of Ireland.
These are legends from medieval manuscripts, not recorded history.
First shared on X @dalriada36963 and TikTok @johnshaw333.
Read in the Pictish Mystic app · Draw a free Pictish rune reading