Pictish Mystic · Lore · Book of Invasions
Ugoine the Great and the Feud of His Heirs
In the Book of Invasions, the Roll of the Kings tells of Ugoine the Great, and the bitter feud among his heirs.
Rechtaid Rígderg held the kingship of Ireland twenty years, till Ugoine Mór, foster-son of Cimbáeth and Macha, slew him in vengeance for his foster-mother.
Ugoine the Great took the kingship of Ireland and of Alba, to the Sea of Wight. He took to wife Cessair Chrothach, daughter of the king of the Franks, and she bore him twenty-five children: twenty-two sons and three daughters. Some say Ugoine took the kingship of all Europe.
He divided Ireland into twenty-five shares, and so it stayed for three hundred years, till the Provincials came. Ugoine fell at the hands of his own brother, Bodbchad, in Mag Maireda in Brega.
Of all his children, only Cobthach Cóel Breg and Loiguire Lorc left offspring. Loiguire Lorc took the kingship after Ugoine, till Cobthach Cóel Breg slew him in treachery. Then Cobthach slew Loiguire's son, Ailill Áine, and exiled Ailill's son, Labraid Lonn, over the sea.
At the end of thirty years Cobthach made peace with him, and gave him the province of the Gailian, that is, Laigin. From that onward there was war between Leth Cuinn and Laigin.
Then Cobthach Cóel Breg fell in Dinn Ríg, with thirty kings around him, on Great Christmas night, at the hands of Labraid Loingsech, in vengeance for his father and his grandfather.
Labraid Loingsech took the kingdom of Ireland for nineteen years; some say thirty. There was vengeance upon the children of Cobthach in his time, till Labraid fell at the hands of Melge Molbthach, son of Cobthach.
A legend, not history.
Sources
- Lebor Gabála Érenn (The Book of Invasions), The Roll of the Kings, kings LV–LIX, from R. A. S. Macalister's edition, on Mary Jones's Celtic Literature Collective: https://www.maryjones.us/ctexts/lebor6.html (condensed from the translation)
Story told by John.
These are legends from medieval manuscripts, not recorded history.
First shared on X @dalriada36963.
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