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|--Cairenn Casdub of Britain
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CGH p.132.
O'Rahilly's "Early Irish History and Mythology":
The extant Irish traditions of raids on Roman Britain begin with Niall's
father, Eochu Mugmedon. We are told that in a raid on Britain (Alba) Eochu
carried off a lady named Cairenn, whom he made his wife, and who by him became
mother of Niall. Now this name Cairenn appears to be otherwise unknown in Irish
literature. It can hardly be mere coincidence that it has its exact counterpart
in the Latin woman's name Carina, which, borrowed into Irish would have given
Old Irish Cairenn. Accordingly I have no hesitation in accepting as trustworthy
the tradition of the British origin of Niall's mother. Keating makes her
'daughter of the king of the Britons,' and elsewhere she is 'daughter of the
king of the Old Saxons.' Corrupt forms of the last expression apparently led to
the invention of a name for her father; and so we find her described as
'ingen Sacheill Bailb di Saxanaib,' 'ingen Saxaill Bailb ri Saxan,' and 'ingen
Sgail Bailb ri Saxan,' in which the epithet Balb appears to have been borrowed
from the mythical name Scal Balb ('dumb phantom').