Fifths: According to tradition, Ireland was anciently divided into five parts, the Fifths. Though their inhabitants had much in common with each other, four of these regions had quite distinct histories and, in some particulars, ways of life. Those were Ulster, Leinster, Munster, and Connaught, which retain a meaningful existence to this day. The medieval chronicles state that Mide was formed out of parts of them, mostly Leinster, by a dynasty originating in Connaught. This dynasty took possession of holy Tara and eventually produced the High Kings who theoretically were supreme over all lesser kings throughout Ireland. Boundaries were ill-defined and often variable, not identical with those of the four modern provinces. Thus, at times Munster was divided in two, and Ulster shrank under the impact of the Uí Néill. As we have remarked above, at best the Fifths corresponded only roughly to separate kingdoms, as limited as royal powers were; and the High Kingship, which did not appear until well after Niall’s time, was more a legal fiction than a working institution. (Some modern scholars argue that the chronicles must be wrong and that Con-naught actually developed out of Mide. It may be so; but as far as possible, we have chosen to follow the traditional accounts.)

  Emain Macha: The seat of the Ulster kings, near modern Armagh.

  Hill fort sacred to Medb: The ruins of this are now known as Rath Maeve (a later form of the name ‘Medb’). They may or may not be contemporary with the main earthworks on Tara; our guess is that they are older, but were maintained. The attribution to Medb may well be right. She has been identified with the wife of Airt the Lonely, father of Corbmaqq (later called Cormac), but we suspect that originally the dedication was to Medb, tutelary goddess of Mide.

  Forest: Unlike the country today, ancient Ireland was thickly wooded.

  Boand’s River: The Boyne, of which Boand was the goddess.

  Great Rath: The remnants of this are now called the Ràth na Ríogh, or Royal Enclosure, but that is pure guesswork. ‘Rath’ means such an enclosure, surrounded by an earthen wall – usually circular – which was originally topped by a palisade and often ringed by a fosse. It might protect anything from a single farmstead to a whole group of houses.

  Pigs: The early Irish kept swine not only for food and leather, but occasionally as pets.

  Heads: Like their Continental cousins before the Roman conquest, the Celts of Ireland were head-hunters until they became Christian.

  Flaw: No man could be king who had any serious deformity or disability. Some kings abdicated after suffering mutilation in war or accident, rather than risk expulsion. Hostages: Alliances, subjugations, etc. were cemented by exchange of hostages, generally from leading families – unless a victor took his without giving any in return. As a rule, provided the terms of agreement were observed, they were well treated.

  Bodyguards and champion: Besides his retinue of full-time warriors, an Irish king had several bodyguards – the number four is in the annals – who were with him whenever he went forth, as much for his dignity as his protection. For similar reasons, he kept a champion to deal with challenges to single combat, as opposed to war. Incidentally, aggrieved parties could not bring lawsuits against him, but could do so against his steward. In case of adverse judgement, naturally the king put up the compensation. The British monarchy preserves a version of this custom.

  Equipment of the warriors: Contrary to Giraldus Cambrensis, the Irish used battle axes before the Viking invasions; but they did not wear armour, except occasionally helmets or greaves.

  Royal Guesthouse; King’s quarters: It is merely our suggestion that these may correspond to what are now dubbed, respectively, the Forradh and Teach Cormaic. Some scholars question whether Tara was ever actually occupied, proposing instead that it served just for meetings and ceremonies. But not only are there raths, there are traces of actual buildings. Our idea is that, at least after the establishment of a dynasty centred here, a maintenance staff lived permanently on the hill, while aristocrats and their retainers came for short periods during the year.

  Mound of the Kings: Today called the Mound of the Hostages, because of a story that a dormitory for hostages stood upon it. This is impossible; it is far too small. Another story says that hostages who died while in captivity were buried here; but excavation has turned up only a few post-Neolithic skeletons. Undeniably, this mound had some kind of sacredness from of old. Archaeology has revealed that it consists of earth heaped over a megalithic passage grave. Our guess is that this led to a reverence for it which grew over the years, until it was the site chosen for consecrating new kings at Tara. Phallus: The Lia Fàil, Stone of Destiny. It stands on the Teach Cormaic, but was moved there in the eighteenth century; earlier, it seems to have been on or near the Mound of the Hostages. The name ‘Phallus of Fergus’ was local in recent times, and probably well-founded. Certainly this upright pillar could not have been a stone on which kings stood at their consecrations, as they did throughout early Ireland. The legend that it roared upon contact with a true king is ancient; we have borrowed a modern idea that in fact somebody swung a bullroarer. The ‘coronation’ stone on top of the mound is our own notion; nothing of the kind is there now. Rath of the Warriors: Today called Rath of the Synods. More guesswork on our part: if kings stayed on Tara for any length of time at all, their military retinues would have needed some shelter, and this earthwork could have enclosed their barracks.

  Dall and Dercha: The names of these two small burial mounds may or may not go back to our period. Druid (actually the plural, drui being the original singular): Unlike their Continental (and probably British) counterparts before the Romans, Irish druids were not priests. Rather, they were repositories of knowledge, tradition, and wisdom, who had undergone a long and arduous education. Some were female; women had a high standing in this society. Druids served as teachers and counsellors. In the earliest times they were also poets, judges, physicians, etc., but these gradually became separate specialists. They were believed to have powers of divination and magic. We might note that they did not collect mistletoe – a plant introduced into Ireland much later – nor pay any special regard to the oak; the trees that the Irish considered powerful were the hazel, yew, and rowan.

  Ogamm (later ogham): A primitive alphabet, its signs consisting of strokes and dots along a central line. It seems to have been used almost entirely for memorial and magical inscriptions.

  The Mórrigu (or Morrigan): The goddess of war. She seems to have had three aspects or avatars with different names. It has been suggested more than once that Morgan le Fay of Arthurian legend is a later version of her. Taking valour: Ancient Irish of the warrior classes often put their sons through a ceremony of ‘knighthood’ as early as the age of seven.

  Poets: A top-ranking poet (fili) was an awesome figure; in some respects, he was more powerful than any king. Like a druid, he had survived a relentless course of training and commanded incredible linguistic and mnemonic skills. His words could make or break a reputation; if he was angered and composed a satire, its effects were believed to be physically destructive. Probably the worst crime in old Ireland was to offer violence to a poet, druid, or other learned person. There was a lower class of versifiers, whom we may as well call bards, but they, although respected, were essentially just entertainers. Senchaide (or shanachie): Today, simply a storyteller, albeit often a delightful one. Very few remain active. In ancient times he was historian and genealogist to a basically illiterate society: he carreid the annals of the country in his head.

  The Feasting Hall: More guesswork on our part. What is now called the Banquet Hall (Teach Miodhchuarta) is the remnant of a great oblong earthwork, of approximately the dimensions that old stories ascribe to the hall where the Kings of Tara held their feasts. Some modern scholars think this was merely an open-air meeting site – but then why the ramparts? Others say the banks were formerly higher, which they doubtless were, and roofed over – but then why no traces of wood, when these have been identified elsewhere on Tara? Now it is attested in later history that the Irish could and did raise quite impressive temporary buildings, e.g., on one occasion to receive the King of England. Therefore we suggest that anciently they would erect such a hall within the elongated rath, demolishing and rebuilding it every three years for the triennial fair.

  The feast: Unlike many peoples, the Irish generally took their principal meal of the day in the evening. The cookhouse: Because of the fire hazard, cooking was usually done in a separate structure. Battle-scarred women: Celtic women not uncommonly fought side by side with their men. Laidchenn’s verse: The syllabic prosody and interknit alliterations attempt to suggest one of the numerous early Irish poetic forms. Laidchenn himself figures in the sagas. Lug: A primary god of all the Celts, remembered in place names as far off as the south of France (Lyons, which was known to the romans as Lugdunum). Magimedon: A nickname meaning ‘servant (or slave) of Medon’, who was presumably a god. Another interpretation is ‘master of slaves’.

  Carenn (or Cairinn): Laidchenn is relating the legends about Niall’s early life that have come down to us today. It is not implausible that these would have cropped up almost at once; examples of the same thing are everywhere around in our own era, usually less close to the facts than tales of him may have been. We have modified them only slightly, in order to rationalize the chronology. Our assumption is that listeners, including Niall himself, accepted even the most fantastic parts as being metaphorically if not always literally true; moreover, there could well have been a considerable amount of selective recall and actual self-hypnosis, phenomena which are also common enough today. As for his mother, the medieval account calls her a Saxon princess, but this is most unlikely. On the other hand, if we take her name to be an Irish rendition of ‘Carina’, she could have been Romano-British – perhaps the daughter of some tribal chieftain, or even a princess.

  Succession of kings: Kingship, whether over a tuath or a larger polity, was inherent in a particular family: that is, a particular line of descent on the male side. Otherwise it was elective, and illegitimacy was no barrier. Marrying the land: Well into Christian times, Irish kings at their inaugurations went through a ceremony of ‘marrying the tuath’ or ‘the realm’. This was purely symbolic; but the earlier pagans doubtless enacted it literally, choosing some maiden to embody the goddess, with whom the new king spent a night. The patron deity of the Tara line, and so presumably of Mide, was Medb. Thus legend says that Niall coupled with her, despite her disguise; and whether or not he believed this happened in fact, he did with her mortal representative.

  Dàl Riata (or Dalriada): A kingdom of eastern Ulster which founded a colony of the same name in Argyll, the first important settlement of Scots in what was to become Scotland. The date of the founding is quite uncertain. Since the colony enters into the traditional story, we perforce assume that it was already in existence by Niall’s time. This is debatable but not impossible. Gess (later geas; plural gessa): A kind of taboo; a prohibition laid upon an individual or a class. It might be traditional or might be imposed by one person on another. Sometimes the gessa look very strange. For example, another of those on the King at Tara was that he must never travel widdershins around North Leinster; and the hero Finn mac Cumail (Old Irish form) was forbidden to sleep more than nine nights running at Allen. To break a gess was thought to bring disaster, and would certainly be disgraceful unless one was forced to it by trickery or circumstance, as various legendary figures were.

  3

  Burdigala: Bordeaux.

  (Gallia) Narbonensis: A Roman province incorporating part of southwestern France.

  Wine: This was produced in southern Britain under the Romans, and well into medieval times, after which the climate became too severe. With conditions now again milder, some is once more being made.

  Fish and Chi Rho: These ancient Christian symbols were still in common use, whereas the crucifix was not yet so, and the cross not often.

  Villa: To the Romans, this word meant a farm, not a house – especially a farm of some size.

  Solidus: A gold coin, one of the few that had not been debased, therefore valuable and hard to come by.

  Saddles: It is not certain whether the Mediterranean civilizations had yet adopted the Asian invention of stirrups; but improved saddles were already making cavalry more important than it had ever been before. Cataphracts: Heavy-armoured cavalrymen. Such a corps may have been the historical original of Arthur’s knights, half a century or so after our story closes. Ard: A primitive plough, wheelless, and possessing merely a pointed end. The mouldboard plough appears to have been a Celtic invention, not much employed by the Romans except in areas where heavy soil gave it the advantage. Since no effective horse collar existed, an ox was the usual draught animal.

  Curials: The curials, also called decurions, were those men of a city and its hinterland who had a certain amount of property. That is, they corresponded more or less to the middle class of modern Western civilization. They were expected to be active in local government and to meet various public expenses out of their own coffers. The caste system imposed by Diocletian froze them into this station, while the decay of the economy and the inordinate taxes of the state gradually ruined them. Londinium: London. Its official Roman name, Augusta, was falling out of use.

  Senators: In the late Empire, senatorial rank was conferred as often as it was inherited, carried privileges and exemptions rather than obligations, and was frequently attained by corrupt means.

  Theatre: Despite the generally moralistic atmosphere of the late Empire, performances – supposedly of classic stories – were apt to be as raw as anything on our contemporary screens.

  Navicularius: A shipowner. Such persons were tightly organized into a guild. Theoretically they were born to their status and could not get out of it, but in practice there must have been exceptions.

  Dubris: Dover. Rutupiae (Richborough) had supplanted it as a major military base, but being a fort of the Saxon Shore it must have kept a garrison, and it was still an active seaport.

  Navigation: The ancient mariners generally avoided sailing in autumn and winter less for fear of storms than because weather was too likely to hide the landmarks and heavens by which they found their way. (Gallia) Lugdunensis: A Roman province incorporating much of northern and part of central France. Wives: In contrast to the practice of earlier times, soldiers of the later Empire were allowed to marry during their terms of service. Doubtless this was meant as an inducement to enlist, for conscription was seldom resorted to any more, and when it was, oftenest out of subject peoples. Wives and children lived near the base, husbands joining them when off duty.

  Gesocribate: It is not certain whether this town developed into the modern Brest, or was simply near the site of the latter.

  Count (Latin comes): An official in charge of the defences of a particular area. Best known to English-speaking moderns is the Count of the Saxon Shore, who governed the fortresses along the southeastern coast of Britain. Foederate (Latin civitas foederata): A nation allied with or satellite to Rome. The word was also used for troops recruited from such peoples.

  Gratillonius and his men: The army of the late Empire was organized differently in some respects from that of the Republic or Principate. Eight men of a legion formed a contubernium, sharing a tent and pack horse; in barracks they also shared two rooms, one for equipment and one for sleeping. Ten such parties made up the usual century (centuria), commanded by a centurion: thus numbering 80 rather than the original 100. Six centuries were grouped in three pairs (maniples) to form a cohort, and ten cohorts comprised a legion. The first cohort was larger than the rest, being made up of five double centuries, because it included all the technicians and clerks of headquarters. Hence the legion contained about 5300 infantrymen. In addition there were 120 horsemen – orderlies, scouts, and dispatch carriers rather than cavalry – distributed among the various centuries; there were also higher officers and their staffs, specialists, etc. Altogether a legion was from about 5500 to 6000 strong As political, economic, and military conditions worsened, the actual total often became less.

  The backbone of the legion was its centurions, most of whom had risen from the ranks. The senior centurions (primi ordines) were in the first cohort, whose first century was commanded by the chief centurion (primus pilus), a trusted and honoured veteran who, after a year, might go on to become camp prefect (praefectus castrorum), in charge of the legion’s internal organization and operations – or might take some equally responsible post, if he did not simply retire on his savings and a large gratuity given him.