Pictish Mystic · Lore · Fomorians
The Fomoire After Mag Tuired: The Roll of the Kings
The Fomorians are best remembered as the foes of the Tuatha Dé Danann, but the Book of the Taking of Ireland keeps finding them long after Mag Tuired. In its Roll of the Kings, when the Sons of Míl ruled Ireland, three Fomorian names still turn up: Eochu Echcenn, Eochu Menn and Smirgoll son of Smethra.
The Roll of the Kings
The Lebor Gabála Érenn ends with a list of kings: “Incipit of the princedoms of Ireland, and of their times, from the era of the Sons of Míl to the time of Túathal Techtmar.” It is mostly reigns, battles and deaths. But among them, the Fomoire are still there.
Tenmag
“Íriel Fáid, son of Érimón, youngest of the family, took the kingship of Ireland thereafter.” “Twelve plains were cleared by him”, “and seven royal forts were dug by him”. He broke “the battle of Tenmag against Eochaid Echcenn, king of the Fomoire”. The poem remembers it as “the battle of Tenmag which was severe, / where Eochu Echcenn fell”.
Dún Sobairce
Later two brothers, Sobairce and Cermna Finn, took the kingship together, “the first kings of Ireland from the Ulaid”. “They divided Ireland into two, each of them from his fort; Dún Sobairce and Dún Cermna.” Then: “Sobairce fell at the hands of Eochu Menn, son of the king of the Fomoire.”
The verses tell it two ways. One says: “The death of Sobairce in his fort / by Eochu Menn across the rampart”. Another: “The fate of Sobairce in his fort / by Eochu Menn upon the sea”. And of the fort itself: “the sea to the Red Point lies beneath it”.
Ard Achaid
Later still, Óengus Olmucaid took the kingship and broke battle after battle, among them “the battle of Ard Achaid, in which Smirgoll s. Smethra king of the Fomoire fell.” (This Smirgoll is not the Smirgoll son of Enboth found elsewhere in the same Roll.)
From Their Side
This part is a reading, not the text: the book never says where these Fomoire came from or what they looked like. They are only names in a list of kings. A king of the Fomoire falls at Tenmag. A son of their king strikes across a rampart, or from the sea. Long after Mag Tuired, the sea-rovers were still coming. Another book on the same site, Cóir Anmann, explains the name itself: “Fomoraig, that is, fo-muiride, folk who are robbing and reaving on the sea”.
Sources
- The Roll of the Kings, Lebor Gabála Érenn Part V (R. A. Stewart Macalister, Irish Texts Society vol. 44), Mary Jones, Celtic Literature Collective: https://www.maryjones.us/ctexts/lebor6.html
- Cóir Anmann, The Fitness of Names (Whitley Stokes), Mary Jones, Celtic Literature Collective: https://www.maryjones.us/ctexts/fitness_of_names.html
Story told by John.
These are legends from medieval manuscripts, not recorded history.
First shared on TikTok @johnshaw333.
Read in the Pictish Mystic app · Draw a free Pictish rune reading