Lia Fáil
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The Template:Lang (Template:IPA) or Template:Lang (Template:IPA; "Stone of Fál") is a stone at the Inauguration Mound (Template:Langx) on the Hill of Tara in County Meath, Ireland, which served as the coronation stone for the King of Tara and hence High King of Ireland. It is also known as the Stone of Destiny or Speaking Stone.<ref name=tara>Template:Cite book</ref> According to legend, all of the kings of Ireland were crowned on the stone up to Muirchertach mac Ercae, Template:Circa.
Geology
Archibald Geikie noted resemblances to the calcareous red sandstone of which the Stone of Scone is composed;<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> it is not currently believed the stones originated from connected quarry sites.Template:Citation needed It has also been identified as a whitish granitoid.Template:Needs independent confirmation
Mythical origin
There are several different, and conflicting, legends in Irish mythology describing how the Template:Lang is said to have been brought to Ireland.<ref name=skene>William Forbes Skene: The Coronation Stone. Edmonston & Douglas, 1869. p. 23</ref> The Lebor Gabala, dating to the eleventh century, states that it was brought in antiquity by the semi-divine race known as the Tuatha Dé Danann. The Template:Lang had travelled to the "Northern Isles" where they learned many skills and magic in its four cities Falias, Gorias, Murias and Findias. From there they travelled to Ireland bringing with them a treasure from each city – the four legendary treasures of Ireland. From Falias came the Template:Lang. The other three treasures are the Template:Lang or Sword of Light, the Template:Lang or Spear of Lugh and the Template:Lang or The Dagda's Cauldron.
Some Scottish chroniclers, such as John of Fordun and Hector Boece from the thirteenth century, treat the Template:Lang the same as the Stone of Scone in Scotland.<ref name=tara/> According to this account, the Template:Lang left Tara in AD 500 when the High King of Ireland Murtagh MacEirc loaned it to his great-uncle, Fergus (later known as Fergus the Great) for the latter's coronation in Scotland. Fergus's sub-kingdom, Dalriada, had by this time expanded to include the north-east part of Ulster and parts of western Scotland. Not long after Fergus's coronation in Scotland, he and his inner circle were caught in a freak storm off the County Antrim coast in which all perished. The stone remained in Scotland, which is why Murtagh MacEirc is recorded in history as the last Irish King to be crowned on it.
However, historian William Forbes Skene commented: "It is somewhat remarkable that while the Scottish legend brings the stone at Scone from Ireland, the Irish legend brings the stone at Tara from Scotland."<ref name=skene/>
The Template:Lang, recording a tradition from early Irish literature and echoing ancient legends, reports that Lia Fáil would roar in the presence of a false king pretending to hold dominion in Ireland.<ref>Book of Leister pp. 9–13.</ref>
Mythical powers
The Template:Lang was thought to be magical: when the rightful High King of Ireland put his feet on it, the stone was said to roar in joy.<ref name=tara/> The stone is also credited with the power to rejuvenate the king and also to endow him with a long reign. According to Template:Lang, Cúchulainn split it with his sword when it failed to cry out under his protégé, Lugaid Riab nDerg — from then on it never cried out again, except under Conn of the Hundred Battles<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and according to legend, at the coronation of Brian Boru in 1002.
The stone was originally called Fál, a word of obscure meaning;<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> the Dictionary of the Irish Language distinguishes this word from five homonyms in Old Irish and Middle Irish, whose meanings cluster respectively around "barrier", "chieftain", "abundance", "learning", and "valley".<ref>Template:Cite web — the six homonyms are labelled "1 fál" to "6 fál", with the stone being "5 fál".</ref> It is from this stone the Template:Lang metonymically named Ireland Template:Lang ("island of Fál"), and from this Template:Lang became an ancient name for Ireland.<ref name=tara/> The stone in turn by reverse metonymy was named Template:Lang "[Standing] Stone of Ireland". Template:Lang appears as a synonym for Template:Lang in some Irish romantic and nationalist poetry in English in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries; Aubrey Thomas de Vere's 1863 poem Template:Lang is an example.
The Template:Lang [warrior-band] of the Fenian Cycle, though usually simply "the Fianna", was sometimes poetically called Template:Lang "Fianna of Ireland". Hence Template:Lang was a sobriquet for modern Irish nationalist militias; for the Irish Volunteers it was an Irish-language alternative to Template:Lang, and the initials "FF" used on their cap badge have been retained on that of the current Irish Army. In Template:Lang ["The Soldier's Song"], the republic's national anthem, the opening "Soldiers are We" is translated "Template:Lang". For similar reasons, Fianna Fáil is the name of a major political party in the republic.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The identification of the Lia Fáil with the Scottish "Stone of Destiny" has fostered the idea that "Fá[i]l" means "[of] Destiny", and hence Template:Lang is rendered "Soldiers of Destiny".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Vandalism
Sometime in June 2012, the stone was damaged by a hammer in 11 places.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> It was vandalised again in May 2014 when green and red paint was poured on the stone covering at least 50% of its surface.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
The stone was vandalised again c. 6–7 February 2023 when the word "Fake" was spray painted on the stone.<ref>'Mindless vandalism' at Hill of Tara condemned RTÉ News, 2023-02-08.</ref><ref>Vandalism of Hill of Tara standing stone a ‘desecration’ The Irish Times, 2023-02-07.</ref>
See also
- List of individual rocks
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References
Further reading
- Nitze, William A. "The Siege Perilleux and the Lia Fáil or 'Stone of Destiny'." Speculum 31 (1956): 258 ff.
- Ó Broin, Tomás. "Lia Fáil: fact and fiction in tradition." Celtica 21 (1990): 393–401.
- FitzPatrick, Elizabeth. Royal Inauguration in Gaelic Ireland c. 1100–1600. Woodbridge, 2004.
- Bondarenko, Grigory. "Lia Fáil and other stones: symbols of power in Ireland and their origins".<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>