Máel Umai mac Báetáin (died ) was an Irish prince, the son of
Báetán mac Muirchertaig
Báetán mac Muirchertaig (died 572), also Baetán Bríge, was an Irish king who is included in some lists as a High King of Ireland. He was the son of Muirchertach mac Muiredaig (died 534), also considered a high king. He was a member of the C ...
of the northern
Uí Néill, who appears to have been a significant figure in early Irish tales. His father and his brother
Colmán Rímid are both uncertainly reckoned
High Kings of Ireland.
Two reports
The
Irish annals
A number of Irish annals, of which the earliest was the Chronicle of Ireland, were compiled up to and shortly after the end of the 17th century. Annals were originally a means by which monks determined the yearly chronology of feast days. Over t ...
have two reports of Máel Umai. The first, in the ''
Annals of Tigernach'' states that he fought alongside
Áedán mac Gabráin of
Dál Riata at the
Battle of Degsastan where Áedán was defeated by the
Northumbrian ruler
Æthelfrith. According to the annals, Máel Umai killed Æthelfrith's brother, who is incorrectly called Eanfrith.
Bede
Bede ( ; ang, Bǣda , ; 672/326 May 735), also known as Saint Bede, The Venerable Bede, and Bede the Venerable ( la, Beda Venerabilis), was an English monk at the monastery of St Peter and its companion monastery of St Paul in the Kingdom o ...
confirms the death of Æthelfrith's brother at Degsastan, giving his name as Theodbald, and adding that he was killed along with all of his retinue. Bede dates the battle to 603 and the ''Annals of Tigernach'' to 598. The second report of Máel Umai is the notice of his death, probably in 608.
Irish tales
A list of early Irish tales includes the now-lost ''Echtra Máel Uma meic Báetáin'' (Adventures of Máel Umai mac Báetáin). Proinsias Mac Cana notes that the compiler of this list included this tale alongside another, also seemingly lost, concerning Áedán mac Gabráin, and a third dealing with the equally historical
Mongán mac Fiachnai, concerning whom several unhistorical tales survive. He suggests that the subject of the tale may have been the battle of Degsastan. All three were involved in events in northern
Britain in the years around 600 AD. Tales of Máel Umai were also known in medieval
Wales, for he appears among a list of otherwise legendary Irish heroes taken from the tales of the
Ulster Cycle which is included in ''
Culhwch and Olwen''.
Surviving genealogies refer to Máel Umai as "the fierce" and as a "war leader", leading Mac Cana to propose that he was remembered as a heroic warrior, similar to the legendary figures of the
Ulster Cycle.
[Mac Cana, pp. 35–36.]
Notes
References
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Mael Umai mac Baetain
600s deaths
6th-century Irish people
Year of birth unknown