Brian Boru

Brian Boru is the holy king who wins his last battle by losing his life. The aged high king of Ireland, old and devout, he would not bear arms on the fast-day of Good Friday — so at the battle of Clontarf his men drew a wall of shields around him and fought while he stayed within at his prayers. The strange prophecy spoken before the battle came exactly true: Brian fell, and Brian's side won. As the rout swept the field the fleeing viking Bróðir broke through the thinned shield-wall and cut the praying king down in his tent, in the very hour of victory. The saga, telling a Christian-Irish triumph through Norse eyes, wraps him in awe — even noting the marvel that his severed head had grown fast again to his trunk. Brian is the still, devout centre around which the slaughter of Clontarf wheels: the king whose sanctity is both why he wins and why he dies.