Buile Shuibhne
Also known as: The Madness of Sweeney, Sweeney's Frenzy, Sweeney Astray, Buile Suibhne
A Middle Irish tale of King Suibhne, cursed by a saint at Mag Rath to madness and birdlike wandering. He roams the wilderness composing laments before finding brief sanctuary with St. Moling and meeting a tragic death.
Description
Buile Shuibhne recounts how Suibhne, a northern king, assaults St. Rónán and is cursed into a frenzy at the onset of the Battle of Mag Rath. Stripped of court and sovereignty, he becomes a wild, birdlike wanderer leaping from tree to tree, surviving on watercress and woodland fare. The tale alternates prose narrative with short lyric poems attributed to Suibhne, whose verses praise lonely places, name mountains and rivers, and mourn the loss of kingship, marriage, and sanity. Pursued by kinsmen and clerics, Suibhne refuses enclosure and repeatedly flees into remote landscapes. In his final phase, he receives shelter from St. Moling, who grants him limited peace and sacramental solace. The poem-prose sequence closes with Suibhne’s death and the end of his exile, leaving a powerful meditation on sanctity, sovereignty, poetic inspiration, and the wild.
Historiography
Composed in Middle Irish and preserved in later manuscripts, the tale interweaves prose with verse stanzas ascribed to Suibhne. It belongs to historical saga material associated with Mag Rath while reflecting monastic literary interests in ascetic exile and nature poetry. The work has been edited and translated by scholars and creatively reworked in modern adaptations, notably Seamus Heaney’s Sweeney Astray.
Date Notes
Set around the Battle of Mag Rath (AD 637); composition generally placed in the Middle Irish period with later manuscript transmission.
Symbols
Major Characters
- Suibhne
- Ronan Finn
- Eorann
- Congal Claen
- Guaire Aidne
Myths
- Madness of Suibhne
- Wandering in Exile
- Encounter with Saint Moling
- Death of Suibhne
Facts
- The narrative mixes prose with short lyric stanzas attributed to Suibhne.
- Its action is anchored to the Battle of Mag Rath (AD 637) but reflects Middle Irish literary concerns.
- Suibhne’s transformation is triggered by a saint’s curse after an assault on ecclesiastical authority.
- Toponymic catalogues map Suibhne’s wanderings across forests, rivers, and mountains.
- Nature praise poetry contrasts ascetic freedom with the constraints of kingship and court.
- St. Moling’s hospice frames the tale’s closing movement toward absolution.
- The work influenced later Irish nature poetry and inspired modern adaptations.
- Suibhne is portrayed as birdlike, surviving on wild herbs and watercress.
- The tale exemplifies tension between royal sovereignty and sanctity in early Irish literature.
- Modern English adaptations, notably Heaney’s, popularized the figure of Mad Sweeney.