|
|
|
|
|
 Detail View |
|
|
| Mad Suibhne |
|
| Suibhne (Sweeney), King of an Antrim sept, had offended a saint who cursed him and prophesied his death from a spear. Called on to fight on the side of one king against another, Suibhne became deranged in battle, seeing a terrible vision in the sky. He fled from the battlefield and took refuge in a yew tree to hide from the world. Despite many attempts to retun to normal and rejoin his wife Eorann, he failed and spent his time wandering from place to place, joining other lunatics in leaping contests, eating berries and living in trees. Horrendous phantoms persistently tracked him down, roaring and bellowing at him that he would be a lunatic for ever. When a woman took pity on him and gave him milk, her husband became jealous of him and killed him with a spear - fulfilling the prophecy. "...demons are surely sent to haunt us ..." |
|
|
