Niall of the Nine Hostages – High King around the late 4th and early 5th centuries.

 Niall is one if the High Kings that is both legendary and, possibly, historical as it is said he began the Uí Néill dynasty that was prevalent in Ireland from the 6th century through to the 10th Century. Early records place Niall as ruling sometime in the late 4th to early 5th centuries.

Although his descendants went on to become extremely important, it is presumed that Niall was a real historical person, but in the early Irish annals there is very little mention of him and even where there is mention, there is discrepancy over the dates of his life and reign.

If we take information from the Annals of Inisfallen then his death would be placed before 382, whilst the Chronicon Scrotorum places this death around 411.

Further information found in the Annals of the Four Masters puts his reign to 379-405 and in Geoggrey Keating’s Foras Feasa ar Éirinn places his reign from 386 – 395. As with many ancient documents, it is important to have a varied research base rather then totally reply on one document.

The issue that arises is that most of the early annals document the activities of Niall’s sons as being between 429-516, which is much too big a gap for one single generation. This is one of the reasons that scholars have come to the conclusion that Niall was around in the later half of the 5th century. It is possible that the dates were moved so that as early a date as possible could be recorded for the arrival of Saint Patrick.

Niall of the Nine Hostages was a name he acquired when he used hostage taking as a way to secure the loyalty of the rival kingdoms, which is not an uncommon strategy throughout early history. In Niall’s case, he took hostages from nine different kingdom’s across Ireland, Britain, and France to ensure that they would be loyal to his reign. Nothing secures obedience like keeping someone’s beloved family member hostage.

We are getting ahead of ourselves here so we will jump back to Niall’s early life and the information that is available in the Echtra mac nEchach Muimedóin (The Adventure of the Sons of Eochaid Mugmedón) from the 11th century.

Eochaid Mugmedón was the father of five children. He had four sons, Brión, Ailill, Fiachrae, and Fergus, with his first wife Mongfind, and one son, Niall with his second wife, Cairenn Chasdub.

Both of Eochaid’s wives came from important, powerful families. Mongfind was the sister of Crimthann mac Fidaig, the king of Munster and Cairenn was the daughter of Sachell Balb, the king of the Saxons. Mongfind was extremely jealous of Cairenn, and this became even worse then Cairenn fell pregnant, with Niall. Mongfind wanted to ensure that one of her son’s came to the throne and not Cairenn’s child.

Whilst Cairenn was pregnant, Mongfind forced her to carry out as much heavy work as possible, hoping that this would cause a miscarriage of Cairenn’s unborn child. This did not work, but Cairenn knew that her child would always be at risk of harm due to Mongfind’s jealousy and so when she went into labour whilst drawing water, she abandoned the baby on the ground.

Fortunately for Niall, he was found and rescued by the poet, Torna said to be the ‘the last great bard of Ireland.’ Torna was also the foster father to another king of Ireland, Corc. Niall grew up in Torna’s care, before returning to Tara for rescue this mother fronm the abuse perpetrated upon her.

The Succession Trials

When a king has a large number of son’s succession is always a touchy subject. Whilst it could be assumed that the oldest son would be the obvious successor, that is not always accepted by his younger siblings, or other powerful people who may wish to see a younger son take to the throne as it would suit their purposes better.

As time passed, Mongfind started to push Eochaid to formally name a successor, preferably one of her sons. Eochaid decided that the best way to deal with things would be to set a succession trail for his sons – a sort of let the best man win situation.

The first trial was a contest which was set by the druid, Sithchenn. The trail would involve locking all five sons into a forge, setting it on fire and telling them to save whatever they could. They would be judged on the items that they chose to save.

They chose as follows –

Niall rescued an anvil, Brión a sledgehammer, Fiachrae brought out bellows and a pail of beer, Ailill rescued a chest of weapons and Fergus carried out a pile of wood.

The druid accessed the items that were recovered and declared that Niall was the winner as his item was the greatest and most important thing to be recovered. Mongfind, determined that one of her sons should be the successor, refused to accept this result and so another task was set.

Sithchenn took the brothers to the smith and ordered that each of them be give weapons with which to head out to hunt. Whilst hunting, the brothers needed water, finding a well which was, unfortunately, guarded by a hideous looking hag. She demanded that if the brothers wanted water, they would have to kiss her first.

The first two brothers to approach her were Fergus and Ailill. They both decided that there was no way that they were going to kiss her; she was much too hideous for them to lower themselves and so they returned empty-handed. Fiachrae managed to make himself give the hag a quick peck on the cheek, but she did not consider this enough and so he also had to return empty handed. Next up was Niall, who went in and kissed the hag properly. Once he had done so, the hideous hag transformed into a beautiful woman who represented the Sovereignty of Ireland.

Niall had not been put off by her appearance and so he was rewarded with water and also a promise that for twenty-six generations his descendants would be High Kings of Ireland. Fiachrae was also awarded as, unlike his brothers, he had at least kissed the hag on the cheek. He was given a lesser promise that two of his descendants would be High Kings, and this came to pass in the forms of Nath ĺ and Ailill Molt.

The idea of a hideous woman or ‘loathly lady’ is a common theme throughout mythology and many variations on this tale can be found not only in Irish mythology but in tales such as Chaucer’s ‘The Wife of Bath’s Tale,’ and the in the tales of King’s Arthur’s Court in ‘The Wedding of Sir Gwain and Dame Ragnelle.’

Alternative Succession Story

There is another version around how Niall ended up on the throne as High King, and this one is a bit darker.

In this version, Eochaid does not decided on a successor before he dies, which for a king is always a recipe for disaster. As there was no determined successor, Mongfind’s brother Crimthann, King of Munster took the throne as his own.

This is not taken well by Niall and his brothers and whilst Crimthann leaves to tour his lands in Scotland, Mongfind’s son’s seize Island. Crimthann is, obviously, not happy about this and so returns with the intention of starting a battle with his nephews. Caught in a place between her brother and her sons, Mongfind takes drastic action and hopes that this will clear the way for one of her sons to take the throne of the High King.

When her brother returns to Ireland, she invites him to a feast where she says they can talk out a peaceful way to sort out the issues between her brother and sons. Crimthann was not a trusting man, and when Mongfind offers him a drink, he suspects that she has poisoned it. He, therefore, says he will not take a drink until his sister drinks first, assuming that if the drink is poisoned, Mongfind would not take a drink and kill herself.

He underestimated how far a mother would go to ensure her sons came to power. The drink was poisoned, but Mongfind drank anyway, dying alongside her brother.

A slightly different version says Mongfind was actually trying to poison Niall to get him out of the way but accidently poisoned herself – either way she ended up dead.

Following this, Niall became High King of Ireland, and his brothers set themselves up as local kings. There was not, however, peace between the brothers. Brión was set up as ruler of the province of Connacht, however his brother Fiachrae decided to challenge his rule and went to war against him. Brión was successful and captured Fiachrae, handing him over to Niall.

As was common, Fiacharae’s son, Nath ĺ, was not happy with the situation and so he continued the war to try and avenge his father. Nath ĺ is successful and managed to kill his uncle. Following Brión’s death, Niall made Fiachrae king of Connacht, which is what he was aiming for when he started the war with his brother. He was also made Niall’s right-hand man.

The Death of Niall

As with most stories, there are different opinions and versions of how this powerful king met his end.

Niall was said to be a king who led campaigns outside of Ireland, into Roman occupied Gaul. One version of his death says he dies whilst on one of these campaigns. The Aided Néill Noígíallaig (The Death of Niall of the Nine Hostages), tell us that Niall is killed whilst near the river Loire, in Gaul.

In the Death of Niall of the Nine Hostages, Niall is killed by assassination at the hands of Eochu, the son of Énnae Cennsalach who was a prince from Leinster who had a grudge against Niall. It is believed in this version that he took the opportunity of chaos of the raids to strike.

Whilst camping near the River Loire, Eochu shot a single arrow at Niall, ending his life. This version of the death of Niall can be seen as poetic and symbolic, as Niall was a powerful king who did not die in battle, but was ended by a single arrow in an assassination. Also in this version, the fact that Niall is a warrior king is reenforced as he died not in Ireland, but by a river far away from his homeland.

It was believed that his body was brought back to Ireland, and buried at Ochann, a few miles west of Navan in County Meath.