Pictish Mystic · Lore · Red Branch
The Founding of Emain Macha
Three kings of the Ulster race once shared the sovereignty of Ireland: Dithorba son of Díman, Áed Rúad son of Badurn, and Cimbáeth son of Fintan. Each was to reign seven years in turn, bound by three times seven guarantees: seven druids to scorch them with incantations, seven poets to satirise them, and seven captains to wound and burn them if any king clung to the throne when his seven years were done. A rightful reign had its signs: abundance of fruit every year, no failure of the dye-stuffs of every colour, and no women dying in childbirth. Each king held the kingship three times, sixty-three years in all, until Áed Rúad drowned at Eas Rúaid and was buried in the hill named for him.
Áed left one child, a daughter: Macha Mong Rúad, Red-haired Macha. She claimed her father's turn. Cimbáeth and Dithorba said they would not give the sovereignty to a woman. There was a battle, and Macha won it, and she reigned seven years. Dithorba died in the Corann, and his five sons, Báeth, Bras, Betach, Uallach and Borbchas, demanded the kingship. Macha refused, because she had not won it by sureties but "in the battle-field by force." She beat them too, and drove them out into the wildernesses of Connacht. Then she took Cimbáeth as her husband and gave him the command of her soldiers.
Then Macha went after the sons of Dithorba alone, disguised as a leprous woman, smeared with rye dough and red dye. She found them in Bairenn in Connacht, cooking a wild hog, and they gave her food at their fire. "Beautiful is the eye of the hag," said one of them, and one by one each brother led her into the wood, and one by one she bound each of them by her own strength. She carried all five back to Ulster in one tie. The Ulstermen wanted them killed. "Not so," said Macha, for that would defile the righteousness of a sovereign. They would be slaves instead, and raise a rath around her, "and it shall be the chief city of Ulster for ever." She marked out the fort with the gold brooch from her neck, and so, the old text says, Emain takes its name: eó, brooch, and muin, neck. The brooch of Macha.
These are legends from medieval manuscripts, not recorded history.
Source: "The Foundation of the Palace of Emain Macha" (Book of Leinster), translated by Eugene O'Curry, on Mary Jones's Celtic Literature Collective.
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