Cormac mac Cuilennain

Cormac mac Cuilennain was king and bishop of Cashel, and is traditionally credited with the Psalter of Cashel and with the glossary known as Sanas Cormaic. Sigerson, in Bards of the Gael and Gall (1907), gives his dates as 837–903 and quotes O’Curry’s judgement that he was among the most distinguished scholars of his time; he is generally said to have been killed in battle in 908.

The poem “The Heavenly Pilot”, in which a sailor asks God to steer his frail boat, is taken from the Book of Leinster. Sigerson notes that it anticipates the thought of Tennyson’s “Crossing the Bar”. It is given here in his English version.