Of the undoubtedly historic spoliation of those Boyne "hillocks" in the ninth century, something more may be said here. "We have on record," says Lady Ferguson,[226] "both in the Irish chronicles and the Norse Sagas, that in the year 861 the three earls, Olaf, Sitric, and Ivar, opened, for purposes of plunder, the sepulchral mounds of New Grange, Dowth, and Knowth on the Boyne, and the mound of the wife of the Gobaun Saer,[227] the mythic builder, or Wayland Smith of the Irish Celts, still a conspicuous object at Drogheda."
One of the Irish chronicles referred to by Lady Ferguson is that known as the "Annals of Ulster" ("compiled in the year 1498," says Dr. Skene), and the passage is as follows: "Aois Cr. ocht cced seascca a haon, ... Amlaoibh, Iomhair, 7[228] h Uailsi, tri toisigh Gall. 7 Lorcain me Cathail tigerna Midhe, do ionnradh ferainn Floinn me Conaing. Uaimh Ach Alda hi Mugdhornaibh Maighen, Uaimh Cnoghbhai, Uaimh Feirt Bodan os Dubath, 7 Uaimh mna an Gobhand ag Drochat atha do croth 7 d orggain las na Gall cedna."[229]
This is rendered into Latin by Dr. O'Conor thus: "Ætas Christi DCCCLXI..... Amlafus, Imarus et Magnates trium Ducum Alienigenarum, et Lorcanus filius Cathaldi Princeps Midiæ, vastant terras Flanni filii Conangi. Crypta subterranea campi Alda in regione Mugdornorum planitiei, Crypta Cnovæ, Cryptæ miraculorum Bodani supra Dubath, et Crypta fœminæ fabri apud Droghedam, vastatæ et destructæ ab Alienigenis iisdem."
Neither Dr. Todd nor Dr. Skene, however, have a high opinion of O'Conor's translation.[230] And his rendering of "Uailsi" by "Magnates" is palpably a blunder based upon the acceptance of that word as uaillse or uaisle, a nobleman; whereas, Uailsi, Oisli, Oisill, &c., was the name of a comrade (some accounts say a brother) of the Olaf and Ivor referred to.[231] Thus, the Annals state that in 861, Olaf (or Anlaf, or Aulay), Ivor and Uailsi (or Oisli), three chiefs of the Foreigners, and Lorcan, son of Cathal, lord of Meath,[232] devastated the lands of Flann, son of Conang; in other words, the territory of "Bregia,—a district including the counties of Meath, Westmeath, Dublin (north of the Liffey), and part of Louth."[233] And these same "foreigners" pillaged and destroyed certain underground chambers, which O'Conor refers to as "crypts." The term is correct enough, signifying, as it does, an underground place of concealment. But the Gaelic term is more suitable, if the quickened pronunciation which in many parts of Scotland has occasioned the spelling "weem" (i.e., uaim) be adopted. For by "weem" is understood the subterranean gallery previously described, if it is not at any time applied to the actual "hollow hill."[234] Of the "weems" in the territory of Flann, which the Annals state were plundered, three are easily recognized;—viz., that of "Cnoghbha," the modern "Knowth" (which is portrayed in the accompanying plate), the still more celebrated "Uaimh Feirt Bodan," described as "above Dubath,"[235] now known as Dowth, which is also here represented, and thirdly, the "weem" of the wife of the Gobban Saor, or "noble smith," at Drogheda. The first-named of all is said to be that of the "Brugh of the Boyne," at New Grange; and no doubt there is evidence for this identification, although the term "Mugdhornaibh Maighen" would otherwise lead one to place this "weem" at "Mugornn or Mugdhorn, now Cremorne,"[236] in the county of Monaghan.
Two of these "weems" are mentioned in the Gaelic poem of Sith Eamhna, wherein, as has been seen, "the son of noble Sabia" was assumed to be equally the son of some god "from Bru of the Boyne." In this poem, whose meaning is somewhat obscure, there are several references to the Boyne and to various "broghs," of which one is "the cave of Ferna, the fair cave of Knowth (uaim fhearna, uaim chaomh cnodhbha, or chnoghdha)." This Sith Eamhna itself appears to have been of the same order, and not improbably was that Eamhain which was "the ancient palace of the kings of Ulster." "The ruins of Eamhain, or, as it is now corruptly called, the Navan Fort, are to be seen about two miles to the west of Armagh," says Mr. O'Donovan, in a note to his "Book of Rights."[237] This is certainly farther north than the territory of Flann Mc Conang, ravaged by the "foreigners" in 861, as defined on a previous page; but one writer states that that territory of "Bregia" (or Breagh) extended into Ulster, in the eighth century;[238] and if the plundered "weem" first-named in the Annals was really in county Monaghan, that would show that a portion of "Breagh" was situated in Ulster in 861.
Eamhain, or Emania (in the Latinized form), appears to have given its name to all Ulster, but in its proper application the term refers to the stronghold itself. Dr. Skene speaks of "the fall of the great seat of the Cruithnian kingdom called Emania, before an expedition, led by a scion of the Scottish (i.e., Gaelic) royal race, who established the kingdom of Orgialla on its ruins."[239] It is this place that is associated with Oscar, the hero of the "Fians," at the time of the Battle of Gawra; and it may be remembered that, in a poem describing that battle, a chief of one section of the "Fian" confederacy is made to exclaim:—
"I and the Fians of Breatan
Will be with Oscar of Eamhain."
And as Oscar is stated to have been slain at the Battle of Gawra, and the power of the "Fians" destroyed, one is tempted to believe that the legendary battle of Gawra coincides with the historical capture of Oscar's stronghold of Emhain, and the downfall of the historical Cruithné of Ulster. However, Sith Eamhna has been mentioned here not for its own sake, but for the casual references in that poem to the "Brugh of the Boyne" and "the cave of Ferna, the fair cave of Knowth."
The Gaelic records as well as the Scandinavian have many tales of "how-breaking" exploits. For, although the accounts of the Feenic "heroes" have been preserved to us in the Gaelic language, as those of the Longobards have been preserved in Latin, it does not follow in the one case more than in the other, that the language of the chronicle was the language of the chronicled. Whatever may have been wrought eventually, by time and intercourse, the Gaelic-speaking people appear originally as the plunderers of "the hidden places of the Fians and Fairies." Professor O'Curry states that among the Historic Tales in the Book of Leinster, there are many which deal specially with adventures in "caves" or, otherwise, "weems." Tales of this class are called Uatha.[240] "These are tales respecting various occurrences in caves; sometimes the taking of a cave, when the place has been used as a place of refuge or habitation,—and such a taking would be, in fact, a sort of Toghail [the Toghail having been previously defined as a history 'which details the taking of a fort or fortified palace or habitation by force ... the term always implies the destruction of the buildings taken.']; sometimes the narrative of some adventure in a cave; sometimes of a plunder of a cave." Mr. O'Curry gives a list of the uatha in the "Book of Leinster"; and of these the most noteworthy is the Uath Uama Cruachan, or the Plundering of the Weem of Cruachan. This is referred to as "a very curious story," and the ravagers are said to have been "the men of Connacht, in the time of Ailill and Meadhbh, as told in the old tale of Táin Bo Aingen." This Meadhbh, or Maev, of Cruachan, "the Semiramis of Irish history," as Lady Ferguson calls her, has herself been identified with the "Queen Mab" of fairy tradition. She appears to have occupied this "Uama Cruachan" after it had been plundered; for it is stated that her husband "re-edified the Rath of Cruachan, employing for the purpose a fierce tribe of Firbolgic origin, the Gowanree, who were compelled to labour unremittingly at the earthworks, and are said to have completed the dyke in one day."[241] Mr. O'Curry has another reference to this place. "I have in my possession," he says, "a poem in the Ossianic style, which gives an account of a foot race between Cailté, the celebrated champion of Finn Mac Cumhaill, and an unknown knight who had challenged him. The race terminated by the stranger running into the Cave of Cruachain, followed by Cailté, where he found a party of smiths at work, etc. No copy of the full Tale has come down to us." This incident is remarkable for its association of one of the "Fians" with the underground smiths of tradition. Another uath mentioned by Mr. O'Curry is the Uath Dercce Ferna, regarding which he says:—"There is an allusion to the trampling to death of some sort of monster, in the mouth of this cave, by a Leinsterwoman, in a poem on the Graves of Heroes who were killed by Leinstermen, preserved in the Book of Leinster (H. 2. 18, fol. 27, Trin. Coll. Dubl.)."