The birth of Cormac was on this wise. His father, as we have said, was
Art, son of Conn, and his mother was named Achta, being the daughter
of a famous smith or ironworker of Connacht. Now before the birth of
Cormac, Achta had a strange dream, namely, that her head was struck
off from her body and that out of her neck there grew a great tree
which extended its branches over all Ireland and flourished
exceedingly, but a huge wave of the sea burst upon it and laid it low.
Then from the roots of this tree there grew up another, but it did not
attain the splendour of the first, and a blast of wind came from the
West and overthrew it. On this the woman started from her sleep, and
she woke her husband, Art, and told him her vision. "It is a true
dream," said Art. "I am thy head, and this portends that I shall be
violently taken from thee. But thou shalt bear me a son who shall be
King of all Ireland, and shall rule with great power and glory until
some disaster from the sea overtake him. But from him shall come yet
another king, my grandson and thine, who shall also be cut down, and I
think that the cause of his fall shall be the armies of the Fian host,
who are swift and keen as the wind."
Not long thereafter Art, son of Conn, fell in battle with the Picts
and Britons at the Plain of the Swine, which is between Athenry and
Galway in Connacht.
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