Mongfind - Pictish Princess

Pictish Princess

Mongfind also occurs as the name of the Pictish princess wedded to Conall Corc, ancestress of the Eóganacht Locha Léin of Iarmuman and of a line of powerful Pictish kings, e.g. Óengus I of the Picts, but it appears this can be dismissed as a case of coincidental influences on the story associating Crimthann mac Fidaig with the Pictish king and father, called Feredach. From the perspective of the early Eóganachta, Crimthann mac Fidaig, named in various sources as "King of Ireland and Alba", was hostile to his supposed cousin or nephew Conall Corc, who went on a journey to Pictland and there was married to the daughter of the Pictish king. The descendants of this marriage were the Eóganacht Locha Léin and were hostile to the Inner Circle ruling at Cashel. It appears to have been in this political climate that the "original" Irish queen/goddess Mongfind became associated with the Picts.

A major remaining difficulty is how the historical Conall Corc and Crimthann mac Fidaig may originally have been related to each other. Possibly it was through marriage. Unfortunately the traditions of the Connachta provide no clues and nowhere associate the Mongfind known to them with Conall Corc, and likewise she is unassociated by name with her supposed brother or even with the Eóganachta in the Munster tales, with only the notoriously unreliable genealogies providing these links for scholars. In one and perhaps the oldest version of Mongfind's pedigree the Uí Liatháin are close kin, who are broadly associated with Crimthann mac Fidaig in other sources. Theirs is said in several early tales to have been a sister kingdom to the Uí Fidgenti mentioned above, which the genealogies confirm, but modern scholarship dismisses the two as 8th century add-ons to the Eóganachta pedigree, which may have implications for the ancestry of Mongfind and Crimthann. Additionally, the descent of the Eóganacht Locha Léin from Conall Corc has also been questioned. Only the Eóganacht Raithlind had a generally close relationship with the Inner Circle, and although they are sometimes associated with the Eóganacht Locha Léin, they were also not said to be products of the marriage of Conall Corc to the Pictish princess "Mongfind".

Notably, the other wife of Conall Corc was Aimend of the Corcu Loígde, who may also have been a goddess in origin. Unlike Mongfind, Aimend is directly stated to have been his wife in all sources.