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{{Celtic mythology}}
The '''Cycles of the Kings''' or '''Kings' Cycles''', sometimes called the '''Historical Cycle''', are a body of [[Old Irish|Old]] and [[Middle Irish|Middle]] [[Irish literature]]. They comprise [[legend]]s about historical and semi-historical kings of Ireland (such as ''[[Buile Shuibhne]]'', "The Madness of King Suibhne"), stories about the origins of dynasties and peoples (such as ''[[The Expulsion of the Déisi]]''), accounts of significant battles (such as ''[[Cath Maige Mucrama|Battle of Mag Mucrama]]''), as well as anecdotes that explain rites and customs.<ref name="Koch">{{cite book |last1=Koch |first1=John |author1-link=John T. Koch |title=Celtic Culture: A Historical Encyclopedia |date=2006 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |page=995}}</ref> It is one of the four main groupings of early Irish sagas, along with the [[Mythological Cycle]], the [[Ulster Cycle]] and the [[Fianna Cycle]].<ref name="Koch"/>

The kings that are included range from the almost entirely fictional [[Labraid Loingsech]], who allegedly became [[High King of Ireland|High King]] in the [[4th century BC]], to the entirely historical [[Brian Boru]]. Other kings include [[Cormac mac Airt]], [[Niall of the Nine Hostages]], [[Conall Corc]], [[Diarmait mac Cerbaill]], [[Lugaid mac Con]], [[Conn of the Hundred Battles]], [[Lóegaire mac Néill]] and [[Crimthann mac Fidaig]]. It was part of the duty of the medieval Irish bards, or court [[Irish poetry|poets]], to record the history of the family and the genealogy of the king they served. This they did in poems that blended the mythological and the historical to a greater or lesser degree.

One of the most famous legends is the ''Buile Shuibhne'', a 12th-century tale told in verse and prose. Suibhne, king of [[Dál nAraidi]], was cursed by St Ronan Finn and became a kind of half-man, half-bird, condemned to live out his life in the woods, fleeing from his human companions. The story has captured the imaginations of contemporary Irish poets and has been translated by [[Trevor Joyce]] and [[Seamus Heaney]].

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Further reading==
*{{Cite encyclopedia |last=Mac Eoin |first=Gearóid |author-link=Gearóid Mac Eoin |title=Orality and Literacy in some Middle-Irish King-Tales |editor=Stephen Tranter |encyclopedia=Mündlichkeit und Schriftlichkeit in der frühen irischen Literatur |location=Tübingen |year=1989 |pages=149–83|display-editors=etal}}
*{{cite book|last1=Poppe|first1=Erich|title=Of cycles and other critical matters : some issues in Medieval Irish literary history and criticism|date=2008|publisher=Dept. of Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic, University of Cambridge|location=Cambridge|isbn=978-0-9554568-5-5}}
*Wiley, Dan M. (2008). Essays on the Early Irish King Tales. Dublin: Four Courts Press.

==External links==
*Dan M. Wiley's "The Cycles of the Kings Web Project" https://web.archive.org/web/20081227214217/http://www.hastings.edu/academic/english/Kings/Home.html

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[[Category:Cycles of the Kings| ]]
[[Category:Early Irish literature]]
[[Category:Irish mythology]]
[[Category:Irish-language literature]]


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