Mongán

Mongán [Ir. mong, head of long and abundant hair; cf. moing, mane, i.e. a poetic kenning for the sea]. Character in several fantastic narratives in the Cycle of Kings whose persona is rooted in a historical (d. c.624) leader of Dál nAraide. Although his seat was at Ráth Mór [ang. Rathmore] in Mag Líne [ang. Moylinny], near Lough Neagh, Co. Antrim, Mongán is not a character in the Ulster Cycle. The Annals record that he was wellspoken and fond of wooing women, and that he was killed with a stone by a Welshman named Artur ap Bicior. Key aspects of his story, such as his magical conception and his capacity for shape-shifting, appear to date from many years after his lifetime.

By historical record, Mongán was the son of powerful Dál nAraide king Fiachna mac Báetáin and his queen, Caíntigern, thus bearing the occasional patronymic mac Fiachna. In texts dating from the 8th century and after, the sea-god Manannán mac Lir fathers Mongán by cuckolding Fiachna in three different ways: (a) Manannán appears in disguise on a battlefield in Lochlainn offering victory to Fiachna in return for a night with Caíntigern. Fiachna agrees, especially as Manannán takes the husband's form, and he is rewarded with victory. Manannán takes the child three days after birth. (b) Manannán bargains with Caíntigern, offering victory to Fiachna if she will lie with him, to which she agrees. Later Manannán informs Fiachna and grants him victory. (c) Fiachna is fighting in Scotland when Manannán disguised as a handsome stranger visits Caíntigern, telling her that he will protect her husband if she will lie with him. She agrees; soon afterwards the ‘stranger’ departs for Scotland, where he intervenes on Fiachna's behalf and tells him what has happened. Mongán's repeated associations with Manannán make word-play on their names, cf. moing [mane]. When he is three days old Mongán joins Manannán in Tír Tairngire [the Land of Promise], where he gains esoteric knowledge and develops the capacity to take the form of a deer, salmon, seal, swan, and wolf. At 12 he leaves Tír Tairngire, and at 16 he returns to Ulster.

Accounts of Mongán's adult life name three different women as his wife: Fintigernd (or Findthighearn) [fair leader], Breóthigernd (or Breothigearn) [flame leader], and Dub Lacha; texts vary on whether he has children. Fintigernd is most curious to hear about Mongán's adventures, and after he has stalled her request for seven years she asks him again to recount them while they are at the hill of Uisnech during a shower of hailstones. Mongán and his wife find refuge in a beautiful house with a bronze roof, attended by seven men with seven vats of ale. Driven to buile [frenzy; see BUILE SHUIBHNE] by the ale, Mongán fills what seems like a night with stories; at light of morning the listeners know that a year has passed. The text does not provide the words Mongán speaks.

Another of Mongán's wives, Breóthigernd (perhaps another name for Fintigernd), almost becomes a prize in a dispute with the poet Forgoll. Every night through the whole of winter, Forgoll (perhaps modelled on Dallán Forgaill) recites stories uneventfully at the palace of Ráth Mór until he claims to have seen the hero Fothad Airgthech slain. Mongán confutes this, sending Forgoll into a rage. The poet challenges the king to prove Fothad has not been killed as he says or he will satirize him mercilessly. Further, he disdains all recompense except for the pleasure of Breóthigernd, who must sleep with him in three days unless Mongán can back up his challenge with evidence. By the morning of the third day Breóthigernd is understandably forlorn, but Mongán produces by sundown the Fenian warrior Caílte, who testifies that he has seen Fothad killed at the Olarba [Larne] River in Co. Antrim, and identifies the site of the grave. More important than refuting Forgoll, Caílte addresses Mongán by the name Find (i.e. the predecessor of Fionn mac Cumhaill). The anonymous author of the text asserts that Mongán was indeed a reincarnation of Find, probably confusing what had earlier been a conceit in oral poetry.

In the most widely known of Mongán's stories, Tóruigheacht Duibhe Lacha Láimh-ghile [The Pursuit/Rescue of Dubh Lacha of the White Arms], we once again see a wife bargained to another man and an impostor sleeping with her. Of his three wives Mongán has the most sensual relations with Dub Lacha [Ir., black duck], born on the same night as he to Fiachna Dub, a rival of Mongán's father Fiachna mac Báetáin. She is smitten with Mongán and bares her breasts to him; they become husband and wife. After Fiachna Dub kills Fiachna mac Báetáin and divides Ulster, Mongán wreaks vengeance upon him with the help of Brandub, king of Leinster. Brandub's price for this ‘friendship without refusal’ is Dub Lacha. She goes to live with him but disavows sexual relations for a year, during which time Mongán visits her by using tricks and disguises, but Brandub finds them out. Mongán then seeks the help of the hag Cuimne in recovering his wife. Cuimne transforms herself into a beautiful princess of Munster with a love-spot on her cheek, to be offered to Brandub in exchange for Dub Lacha. Once Dub Lacha is free, Cuimne reverts to her former shape, a rare instance of such reversal.

Forgoll (see above) is not the only poet with whom Mongán contends. According to another story, Eochaid Éigeas (also Eochu Rígéces), chief poet of the Ulaid, becomes the household poet of Fiachna mac Báetáin but fears the superior wisdom of the young Mongán. Putting on a disguise and joining three other youths, Mongán begins to goad Eochaid about the origin of six large pillar-stones and other ancient structures. The poet fails to answer three times and is put to shame. Blaming Mongán for this humiliation, Eochaid curses him with a sterility that will deny him any royal issue.

According to the Annals, Mongán foretells his own death. While he is walking on the shore with his mother, she picks up a beautifully coloured stone which he then says will be used to kill him. Horrified, she throws it into the sea far from shore, but the tide carries it back. Later, after Mongán has defeated an army of invading Britons and allowed them a safe retreat, one of the Britons, Artur ap Bicior, picks up the appointed stone and hurls it at Mongán's head, killing him.

Bibliography

Texts: Kuno Meyer and Alfred Nutt , Immram Brain: The Voyage of Bran, i (London, 1895–7), 16–17, 24–8;
Séamus Mac Mathúna , Immram Brain (Tübingen, 1985), 54–6, 101–7;
Eleanor Knott , ‘Why Mongán Was Deprived of Noble Issue’, Ériu, 8 (1915–16), 155–60;
Séamus Ó Duilearga (ed.), ‘Tóruigheacht Duibhe Lacha Láimhghile ’, Zeitschrift für celtische Philologie, 17 (1928), 347–70;
T. P. Cross and C. H. Slover (eds.), ‘Stories of Mongan’, in Ancient Irish Tales (New York, 1936), 546–50. Studies: James Carney , Studies in Irish Literature and History (Dublin, 1955), 280–95;
Proinsias MacCana , ‘ Mongán mac Fiachna and “ Immram Brain ”’, Ériu, 23 (1972), 102–42.