Dancing With Demons

‘There might have been no question of love on his part at all,’ Eadulf pointed out. ‘But your expression tells me that you do not agree.’

‘It would make sense if he had not known that Gormflaith and Sechnussach lived apart, albeit in the same royal enclosure. But the path to Sechnussach clearly lay elsewhere, and not through an estranged wife.’

Eadulf looked disappointed. ‘I suppose you are right,’ he admitted reluctantly.

‘It was a good point to consider, though,’ she smiled encouragingly. ‘Now, don’t forget to keep a sharp lookout for Cuan. I just hope that he has not been warned as yet.’

Eadulf inclined his head in acknowledgement and went off about thistask. He saw Gormán with the Fianna commander, Irél, by the stables and crossed to them.

‘Any sign of Cuan yet?’ he asked at once.

‘No,’ Irél said, ‘but that is not unusual. He is not due on watch duty until later today so he may well have gone hunting or even walked down to the market. He is certainly not in the royal enclosure or at the Tech Láechda.’

Eadulf understood this, literally the ‘house of heroes’, as the name of the military barracks of the Fianna.

‘Well, at least he has to return to take his watch,’ Eadulf observed brightly. ‘I was going to walk to the place where you have the Great Assembly to see if there is anyone there who might have known Dubh Duin. I need someone to enlighten me about what sort of man he was.’

‘There is no one about at the place of the Great Assembly at this time,’ Irél told him. ‘What sort of information were you looking for, because I knew the chief of the Cinél Cairpre to some extent.’

Eadulf was surprised and said so.

‘I thought I had mentioned it before,’ Irél said. ‘Part of the duty of the Fianna is to provide guards at the Great Assembly. I met Dubh Duin there many times. I do not say that I knew him well, but I did have a few conversations with him. He was a man of firm opinions.’

Eadulf grinned. ‘Is that a way of saying that he had set ideas and would not bend with discussion?’

‘Just that, Brother Saxon.’ Irél chuckled. ‘I suppose it is a quality that is necessary for a chieftain, especially one whose territory lies on the borderlands.’

‘Borderlands?’

‘There is Connacht to the west and Bréifne to the north, and neither have much respect for the Cinél Cairpre who, if truth be known, are too out of step with them.’

Eadulf cocked his head. ‘In what way, out of step?’

‘The Cinél Cairpre have always been … shall we say, traditionalists? They don’t like change.’

‘Do you speak of a change in religion?’ asked Eadulf.

Irél examined Eadulf with a soft smile of amusement. ‘You have been listening to gossip, my friend.’

‘And is there no truth in gossip?’

Irél shrugged. ‘There have been such stories, and Dubh Duin has beenaccused of being obsessive among those in the Great Assembly. Indeed, surely his actions have now proved it?’

‘You use the word fraoch to describe him,’ Eadulf said. ‘I am not entirely fluent in the language. Is there another word with which you could help me to understand it?’

‘Very well. He could be called a fanatic about the past customs and traditions of his people,’ explained Irél.

‘Fanatic to what degree?’ asked Eadulf after a few moments’ thought.

‘To what degree?’ Irél chuckled again. ‘You may have heard stories about the dibergach, the brigands who have been creating some problems throughout the kingdom, claiming that they act in the name of the old gods and goddesses?’

‘We did see the result of their handiwork on our journey to Tara,‘Eadulf recalled. ‘Some brothers of the religion were slain at a tiny chapel on the road that passes the Plain of Nuada. What has Dubh Duin to do with that?’

‘He was once accused in the Great Assembly of defending the dibergach. My men and I once chased a small band of them into the territory of the Cinél Cairpre, which was Dubh Duin’s clan.’ He shook his head. ‘There was nothing to link them with the clan. I do not think Dubh Duin would be as fanatic as that. He merely argued that the New Faith was denying rights to those who would follow in the traditions of their fathers. He suggested to the Great Assembly that the same rights and freedoms of worship should be given to those who did not want to accept a new and foreign God and Faith. I think the argument was that withdrawing the cause of the raids would end them. Of course, he distanced himself from those involved by saying that he was only the mouthpiece for those who asked him to plead their cause to the High King.’

Eadulf raised his eyebrows in surprise. ‘And how was that plea received?’

‘As I have said, not with any degree of enthusiasm, you can be sure,’ Irél grunted. ‘You can imagine the outcry from the abbots and the bishops in attendance. But it did get support from some of the chieftains of the north-western clans. In spite of the New Faith being preached here for two centuries, there are still many who prefer the old gods and goddesses.’

‘Such as the old woman whom Abbot Colmán calls Mer?’

‘Mer the Demented One?’ Irél laughed heartily. ‘You must not mind her, my Saxon friend. She is crazy. She likes to scare people. She often sits for hours by river fords waiting for travellers and then pronounces acurse on them, implying that she is one of the goddesses of death and battle. It is her little joke.’

Eadulf pulled a face. ‘An effective joke,’ he observed. ‘So what happened in this Great Assembly? How was Dubh Duin answered?’

‘Well, certain of the clerics would have answered him quite violently, if you’ll pardon me for saying so, Brother Saxon. Many are just as fanatical about their beliefs as was Dubh Duin. However, Sechnussach was the person who came forward and bade them all to be calm. He told them that there, in this same Great Assembly at Tara, Laoghaire, son of Niall of the Nine Hostages, progenitor of all the Uí Néill, had asked those present to agree that henceforth the New Faith, as taught by such as Patrick, who was in attendance, be the one faith of all five kingdoms. He argued that so many of the leading chiefs, nobles and kings throughout the five kingdoms had now accepted the new teachings that the old gods and goddesses were being vanquished to the hills. They were becoming the sídhe, the people of the hills, the fairy folk who were not deities at all.’ Irél sounded quite animated as he recited the speech.

‘You sound as though you endorsed Sechnussach’s views,’ Eadulf said.

The other man nodded quickly. ‘Sechnussach was a great king and I never heard a better speech in the assembly. Anyway, he reminded them that Laoghaire’s Great Assembly agreed that henceforth the five kingdoms should follow the faith of Christ. He also reminded them that from the Great Assembly, Laoghaire chose eight people as a commission that would spend the next three years consulting with all the Brehons and clergy to gather, study and then set down all the laws of the five kingdoms. They would remove from those laws anything that was not compatible with the New Faith. That was the law system and Dubh Duin should respect it.’

Eadulf was interested. ‘So there was a commission that set down the laws in Laoghaire’s time?’

‘Laoghaire chose Corc, the King of Muman, and Dara, the King of Ulaidh, to sit with him. Then he asked his Chief Brehon, Dubhtach maccu Lugir, and the Brehons Rossa and Fergus, to join them. Finally, he asked Patrick, Benignus and Cáirnech, the preachers of the New Faith, to complete the commission. Three years later, the great books of law were drawn up, written in the new alphabet that came from Rome. What did not clash with the word of God and with the conscience of those drawing up the laws was set forth. Sechnussach reminded the assembly that they had all endorsed the modified laws when they had accepted the New Faith.And all this was two centuries ago. There were no footsteps backwards.’

‘And did Dubh Duin accept that?’

‘It was then the man showed his fanaticism, for he argued with Sechnussach that the historian, Tirechán, had written that Laoghaire refused the Christian baptism and when he was killed fighting a rebellion in Laigin, he was buried near Tech Laoghaire, his own royal house, in the traditional manner of a High King — that was, in the ramparts of Tara, upright and fully armed, facing towards his hereditary enemies — the kingdom of Laigin. Dubh Duin claimed that Laoghaire never betrayed the Old Faith to Patrick. The Great Assembly erupted in anger at the affront and Dubh Duin never afterwards attended it.’