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Chapter Three, Part Two: The Second Generation Companies
Chapter Three, Part Two: The Second Generation Companies, 750-800
As patterns of settlement continued to change in the New World in the latter half of the 8th Century, new trends emerged in the cultural and political landscape. Many of these had their origins in the Heroic Period that had “ended” in, for a few, living memory. Because of this, some historians have applied the label of the “Secind Heroic Period” to the years following the general end of Fánaithe familial settlement. [1]
The most important of these trends was the further development of Companies as the new social structure of the Irish settlers. While the Companies had been objects of loyalty and devotion during the Heroic Period, they were an entirely masculine affair, taking notes from earlier Irish warrior cults that were steeped in pagan mythology. They were headed by men elected from within the membership of the Company- a uniquely democratic idea for the time. The earlier companies were known for being full of hard-fighting, hard-drinking men who lived and died by the knife and spear and bow- not exactly the best environment for women and children.
The later Companies chipped away many of the more brutal aspects, replacing them with more welcoming and familiar cultural mores, resembling more and more the family clans of old Ireland. Some of the traditions remained, however, setting them apart. The democratic aspect remained, with men (exclusively) able to vote for the leader of the Company. [2] The pagan traditions were blanketed with a Christian veneer, with each Company often boasting their own priest to provide them with an added measure of legitimacy. These priests often fulfilled the role of initiator, bringing young men into the warrior traditions of the Company.
Another tradition of the earlier Companies that held true was the rivalries between them. While not approaching the levels of the Fánaithe Wars that had ripped the Insula Benedicta apart in the 7th Century, Companies generally had a fairly low level of trust for one another. Combined with the ritualized rules of formal combat that still held over from the Late Heroic Period, the stage was set for more petty violence to claim lives.
Unique to this period in consideration, however, was the surprising lack of invocations for formal combat between the Companies. Most disputes were simply allowed to simmer in a slowly escalating pattern of crop-burning, robbery, and occasional murder. Perhaps the most famous example of this is the Tale of the Brindle Cow.
Cattle were extremely rare at this point in time, due to the difficulty of transporting livestock in even the largest of currachs. Therefore, they were considered to be a very valuable resource. One cow (a brindle, as the story goes) was particularly valued for its sweet milk. Because of this, it changed hands six times, as Companies raided each other for it. The story comes to a tragic end for the poor beast, as the Bishop of Tairngire, fed up with it being an object of violence, slaughters it to prevent further conflict. [3]
While that story may be considered an exaggerated work of fiction, it does a fine job of representing the endless cycles of crime that predominated in this time period.
This crime also had the effect of hastening Measctha integration into the Companies. Much to the Bishop’s dismay, the Measctha did not last long as a calming influence on the Company men. Instead, the Measctha began to be, for lack of a better term, assimilated into the Company milleau. In a large part, this was due to the Measctha being targeted in the same raiding and plundering system as their Irish neighbors. This drove them to seek refuge in the nearby Companies, which had military experience and traditions that the Measctha themselves lacked. In turn, this gave the Companies more men and women to help build up their territory.
While this was the most likely reason for Measctha assimilation, several other theories have been floated from time to time. One of the most intriguing is the population theory. The European and Measctha population in the New World was still extremely small in this period, and though the Measctha were the overall majority, as they emigrated from the Insula to the various Company settlements on the mainland, they found themselves outnumbered or dominated by Irish immigrants.
Unfortunately for the Bishop of Tairngire, as the Continental Measctha (for this was the beginning of a division within that previously solid bloc) drifted into the spheres of the Company, the mainland drifted further and further out of his jurisdiction. Though he still had the authority of enforcing the Peace of Armagh there, he lacked the ability to project power beyond the Insula. This created a vaccuum, resulting in Company rule and rivalry dominating the Bay of Saint Peter for decades to come. It also created an opening for Owain in the 9th Century (as discussed later in this chapter).
[1] – This author also uses this term, but applied to the period immediately after that being currently considered.
[2]- The democratic nature of the Companies faded over time, as population grew and other outside factors came into play, but the idea of an election of some kind continued almost as long as the Companies did.
[3]- The Tale of the Brindle Cow is unique for many reasons. First, it remains wholly complete as a story, with an unbroken chain of manuscripts between the original and the oldest surviving copy (1087). We know this due a “pedigree” of scribes attached to the 1087 manuscript. Second, it was originally written in ogham, as attested by an entry in its pedigree stating its “translation to Latin”, meaning the alphabet. Third, it is the first time a story written by an author in the Western Hemisphere became exceedingly popular outside of it.
As patterns of settlement continued to change in the New World in the latter half of the 8th Century, new trends emerged in the cultural and political landscape. Many of these had their origins in the Heroic Period that had “ended” in, for a few, living memory. Because of this, some historians have applied the label of the “Secind Heroic Period” to the years following the general end of Fánaithe familial settlement. [1]
The most important of these trends was the further development of Companies as the new social structure of the Irish settlers. While the Companies had been objects of loyalty and devotion during the Heroic Period, they were an entirely masculine affair, taking notes from earlier Irish warrior cults that were steeped in pagan mythology. They were headed by men elected from within the membership of the Company- a uniquely democratic idea for the time. The earlier companies were known for being full of hard-fighting, hard-drinking men who lived and died by the knife and spear and bow- not exactly the best environment for women and children.
The later Companies chipped away many of the more brutal aspects, replacing them with more welcoming and familiar cultural mores, resembling more and more the family clans of old Ireland. Some of the traditions remained, however, setting them apart. The democratic aspect remained, with men (exclusively) able to vote for the leader of the Company. [2] The pagan traditions were blanketed with a Christian veneer, with each Company often boasting their own priest to provide them with an added measure of legitimacy. These priests often fulfilled the role of initiator, bringing young men into the warrior traditions of the Company.
Another tradition of the earlier Companies that held true was the rivalries between them. While not approaching the levels of the Fánaithe Wars that had ripped the Insula Benedicta apart in the 7th Century, Companies generally had a fairly low level of trust for one another. Combined with the ritualized rules of formal combat that still held over from the Late Heroic Period, the stage was set for more petty violence to claim lives.
Unique to this period in consideration, however, was the surprising lack of invocations for formal combat between the Companies. Most disputes were simply allowed to simmer in a slowly escalating pattern of crop-burning, robbery, and occasional murder. Perhaps the most famous example of this is the Tale of the Brindle Cow.
Cattle were extremely rare at this point in time, due to the difficulty of transporting livestock in even the largest of currachs. Therefore, they were considered to be a very valuable resource. One cow (a brindle, as the story goes) was particularly valued for its sweet milk. Because of this, it changed hands six times, as Companies raided each other for it. The story comes to a tragic end for the poor beast, as the Bishop of Tairngire, fed up with it being an object of violence, slaughters it to prevent further conflict. [3]
While that story may be considered an exaggerated work of fiction, it does a fine job of representing the endless cycles of crime that predominated in this time period.
This crime also had the effect of hastening Measctha integration into the Companies. Much to the Bishop’s dismay, the Measctha did not last long as a calming influence on the Company men. Instead, the Measctha began to be, for lack of a better term, assimilated into the Company milleau. In a large part, this was due to the Measctha being targeted in the same raiding and plundering system as their Irish neighbors. This drove them to seek refuge in the nearby Companies, which had military experience and traditions that the Measctha themselves lacked. In turn, this gave the Companies more men and women to help build up their territory.
While this was the most likely reason for Measctha assimilation, several other theories have been floated from time to time. One of the most intriguing is the population theory. The European and Measctha population in the New World was still extremely small in this period, and though the Measctha were the overall majority, as they emigrated from the Insula to the various Company settlements on the mainland, they found themselves outnumbered or dominated by Irish immigrants.
Unfortunately for the Bishop of Tairngire, as the Continental Measctha (for this was the beginning of a division within that previously solid bloc) drifted into the spheres of the Company, the mainland drifted further and further out of his jurisdiction. Though he still had the authority of enforcing the Peace of Armagh there, he lacked the ability to project power beyond the Insula. This created a vaccuum, resulting in Company rule and rivalry dominating the Bay of Saint Peter for decades to come. It also created an opening for Owain in the 9th Century (as discussed later in this chapter).
[1] – This author also uses this term, but applied to the period immediately after that being currently considered.
[2]- The democratic nature of the Companies faded over time, as population grew and other outside factors came into play, but the idea of an election of some kind continued almost as long as the Companies did.
[3]- The Tale of the Brindle Cow is unique for many reasons. First, it remains wholly complete as a story, with an unbroken chain of manuscripts between the original and the oldest surviving copy (1087). We know this due a “pedigree” of scribes attached to the 1087 manuscript. Second, it was originally written in ogham, as attested by an entry in its pedigree stating its “translation to Latin”, meaning the alphabet. Third, it is the first time a story written by an author in the Western Hemisphere became exceedingly popular outside of it.
- Rognvald
- Word Count: 980