Now it happened that in a battle fought in 524 Murtogh had killed
Shin's father and brother, and though the beautiful woman continued to
exercise her blandishments on the king, she had vowed revenge in her
heart against him. She awaited her opportunity. It came on the eve of
Samhain, All Hallows, when high revelry was kept in the hall at Cletty,
where Murtogh was residing. She had the hall secretly surrounded by her
men, and herself set fire to it. Murtogh was very drunk, the fire
caught his clothes, and, unable to escape by the doors, which were
guarded, he threw himself into a vat of wine to quench the flames, and
so perished, partly by fire, partly by wine, in 527.
It is possible--I cannot say more--that as this incursion, mentioned by
the Irish writers, took place precisely at the period of the Brychan
descent, it may refer to it, and that Brychan may actually have been
Murtogh's half-brother, who accompanied him to Britain to carve out for
himself a kingdom.
III. The third group is likewise Irish, but unmixed with Welsh
elements. This consists of a swarm, or succession of swarms, that
descended about the year 500 upon the Land's End and Lizard district.
Concerning them we know something more than we do about the second
group.
Happily Leland, who visited Cornwall in the reign of Henry VIII., made
extracts from their legends then in existence, very scanty extracts,
but nevertheless precious. Moreover, we have one complete legend, that
of S. Fingar or Gwinear, written by a Saxon monk of the name of Anselm.
And we have the lives of many of those who made a temporary stay in the
Land's End and Lizard districts, preserved in Irish MSS.
IV. A fourth group is that of saints, half Welsh and half Breton, who
made a short stay in Cornwall on their way to and fro.
According to Celtic law, all sons equally divided the inheritance and
principalities of their father. The consequence was that on the death
of a king the most masterful of his sons cut the throats of such of his
brothers as he could lay hold of. And as these little games were
enacted periodically in Brittany, the breath was no sooner out of the
body of a prince than such sons as felt that they had no chance of
maintaining their rights made a bolt of it, crossed into Cornwall, and
either halted there or passed through it on their way to Wales, where
they very generally got married.
Then either they or their sons returned to Cornwall and lingered there,
watching events in Brittany for the safe moment to go back and reassert
their rights, and as they rarely could recover princely rights, they
became ecclesiastics; a compromise was effected, and they were allowed
to return and set up as founders of saintly tribes.
Whilst they tarried in Cornwall they occupied their leisure in founding
churches.
Such was S. Samson, with his disciples S. Mewan, S. Austell, and S.
Erme.
Such again was S. Padarn, who established a large settlement where are
the Petherwins.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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