Senchas Fagbála Caisil andso sis 7 Beandacht Ríg. The History of the Founding of Cashel and the Blessing of the King

Abstract

The article presents a commented translation of a medieval Irish text ‘The Story of the Finding of Cashel and the Blessing of the King’. The text is preserved in a single copy in manuscript TCD H.3.17 (15th century). It belongs to the “royal cycle” of Irish medieval literature and is one of the narratives about Conall Corc, the semi-legendary king of Munster and the founder of the Eóganachta dynasty, which dominated southern Ireland from the 5th to the 10th centuries. The article examines a synopsis of the story, possible dating of the text, mechanisms of dynastic legitimation of Eóganachta kingship in Munster, the sacralisation of the Rock of Cashel as a political and religious center of Munster, as well as investigates the system of vassalage between the king of Cashel and its subordinate kingdoms. The author demonstrates that the text has ideological inspirations, and that it uses mythological and biblical motifs to legitimise the power of the Eóganachta and justify the existing political order of medieval Munster.