An Chraobh Airgid

Treasure

The Crown of Brión

barr Briúin

A diadem of gold kept in a well in the síd of Cruachan: one of the three wonders of Ireland.

Open it on the full site There every name opens, and a web shows who is kin to whom.

The king of the síd of Cruachan wore it on his head, and kept it in a well before his dún. Every day a blind man carried a lame man out to the well on his neck, to see that it was still there: they were the two the king trusted with it, and one of them had been blinded and the other lamed. The woman of the síd promised Nera that Ailill and Medb would carry it off, and when the men of Connacht plundered the síd, they did. The tale counts it one of the three wonders of Ireland, with the mantle of Lóegaire in Armagh and the shirt of Dúnlang in Kildare.

In the tales

  • The Adventure of Nera On Samhain night a man goes out in the dark to tie a withe round a hanged man’s foot, and follows the host of the sídhe into the cave of Cruachan.

See also

  • Ailill mac Máta King of Connacht, Medb’s husband.
  • Medb Queen of Connacht, who went to war for the Brown Bull of Cúailnge.
  • Nera The man who followed the sídhe into the cave of Cruachan.
  • Ráth Cruachan Rathcroghan and Oweynagat. Queen Medb’s royal seat, and a cave called the gate of hell.
  • The Woman of Síd Cruachan Nera’s wife in the síd of Cruachan, who showed him how to save his people.

Sources

Medieval manuscript. Written down by Irish scholars between the eighth and seventeenth centuries.

Each tale above lists the sources it is retold from. Every source the site draws on is listed on the full site.