Pictish Mystic · Lore · Red Branch
Lóegaire Búadach: The Lake That Would Not Ebb
Every lake in Ireland ebbed away rather than drown the poet, until they reached the shore of Lóegaire the Victorious. This is the death of Lóegaire Búadach of the Red Branch.
Lóegaire Búadach stood with Conall Cernach and Cú Chulainn as one of the three great champions of Ulster. When the men of Ulster drank in Emain Macha and fell to comparing their trophies, the contest ran "even between Conall and Cuchulinn and Loegaire", and in Bricriu's Feast he was one of the three who claimed the Champion's Portion. Yet the old list of the tragic deaths of the Ulster heroes counts his among eight, and his end came not in battle but at his own door.
Áed mac Ainninne, a poet of King Conchobar, lay with Mugain of the Furzy Hair, Conchobar's wife, and they were found out. Conchobar had the poet seized. Áed asked that his death might be by drowning, and the king granted it. So they carried him to every lake in Ireland, and at each one he sang a spell upon the water until it ebbed away and not a drop was left. No river or lake in all Ireland would drown him, until they came to Loch Laí in front of Lóegaire's house. There his spell failed.
While they were drowning him, Lóegaire's steward came out of the enclosure. "Woe is me, Lóegaire!" he cried. "They could not find in all Ireland a place to drown a poet till they came to this stead." Lóegaire rose, took his sword in his hand and leapt for the door, and the crown of his head struck the lintel. It took off the back of his skull, and his brains were scattered over his cloak. Even so he killed thirty of the drowners, and Áed escaped. And then Lóegaire died.
From "The Death of Lóegaire Búadach", translated by Kuno Meyer in The Death-Tales of the Ulster Heroes (CELT, celt.ucc.ie, and Mary Jones's Celtic Literature Collective). A legend from medieval manuscripts, not recorded history.
These are legends from medieval manuscripts, not recorded history.
First shared on X @dalriada36963.
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