Queen Maebh’s Cairn?…

County Sligo, Carrowmore, Tuesday 26th July 2022…

***

***

Whilst it is a reconstruction

there is nothing to overtly suggest

that it is modelled on the cairn on top of the hill?

***

***

The name Maebh derives from ‘mead’ which is why

in some of the Old Irish texts she is called ‘sweet-mouthed’.

***

***

Queen Maebh is another one of the major characters in,

‘The Ulster Spoil’, that huge, sprawling, epic of a tale.

***

***

The tale proper which is really

the story of a fight between the provinces

of Connaught and Ulster over

who has the stronger bull

is preceded by a number of fore-tales

all of which provide greater or lesser contributory causes

for the conflict which, inevitably, results, as most conflicts do,

in the slaughter of warriors from both sides on a massive scale.

***

***

Presumably, the tale was told, and retold, and eventually

committed to vellum, by the ecclesiastical scribes at Clonmacnoise,

to prevent such wholesale slaughter ever again happening in the future.

***

***

If that was the reason,

then, sadly, this seems, now,

the vainest of vain hopes!

*

But then again, as they like to say

in these parts, very few Irish kings

ever died in their bed.

***

***

…Said Very-White, “it is but a drop before a shower:

 I see another chariot coming over the plain.”

“Describe it,” said Sweet-Mouthed Maeve.

Said Very-White, “I see the

horses pulling the chariot:

two fiery, spirited bays of

great strength and power;

wide of hoof, with

sweat spittled chests

and curbed jaws;

high mettled their

broad foreheads

their manes curled;

swift and smooth,

they run a tumultuous course

of wild and dashing pace.

 

A chariot of fine wood,

its wicker-work new and freshly spruced,

having two wheels of bronze;

its pole bright with gold mountings.

 

In the chariot a man

much freckled,

his hair long and curly:

his tresses tri-hued;

brown at root

red in mass with

tips corn yellow.

 

About his body

a crimson tunic

striped gold.

A shield alongside

yellow bossed

edged in bronze.

From his wrist shoots

a shining broad sword.

 

A grandly moving billow

waves from his chariot frame…

***

 

Heart of Albion – Stuart France & Sue Vincent