The Exiled King
Fergus mac Róich was the king of Ulster before Conchobar mac Nessa. He gave up the throne, became the greatest warrior at the court of the king who replaced him, and was eventually driven out when that king broke his word.
He gave up the kingship himself. Conchobar’s mother Nessa negotiated with him: let her son have the throne for one year, and she would sleep with him. He agreed. The year ended, the people preferred Conchobar, and Fergus found that a year of genuine kingship by another man was enough to transfer the loyalty permanently. He stayed at Emain Macha as the greatest warrior serving the king who had replaced him.
He still had his honour. That was the one thing he had kept from the kingship he’d surrendered.
Then Conchobar sent him to Scotland as a personal guarantor — his word, his name, his oath — to bring back Naoíse and the sons of Uisneach safely. Fergus’s word was the one guarantee in Ulster that couldn’t be broken. Conchobar broke it. The sons of Uisneach were killed on their return. Fergus’s honour — the only thing he had — was destroyed by the man he had served.
He left Ulster with his sons and went to Medb‘s court at Connacht. When the Táin Bó Cúailnge came, he fought against Ulster. But he could not fight against Cú Chulainn — his foster-son, the nephew of the king he could not forgive. He fought beside Cú Chulainn’s enemies and stepped back rather than face him at the ford. He could not do both things cleanly and he knew it.
His sword was the Caladbolg — a weapon that could sweep the tops off hills with a single stroke, one of the great weapon-treasures of Irish myth and the probable origin of the Arthurian Excalibur. His lover at Connacht was Medb herself, the queen whose war he was fighting.
He was killed after the Táin — in a lake at night, by Ailill‘s spear, thrown in the dark guided by Medb’s description of the swimming figure. The man who had survived everything that Ulster and Connacht could throw at him died in a lake, in the dark, at a word from his lover.
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