Cáemgen mac Garbith ui Andrais

Cáemgen mac Garbith, a young Irishman striking out to test the murky waters of an Eire without the Ostmen. He set out from the southern province of Munster, where his family had long served the Eóganachta. Cáemgen was to travel north to Glendalough, where his namesake had founded a monastery of great beauty. The pilgrimage was not easy though. Along the eastern shores he found skirmishes with lingering Ostmen, and Cáemgen used his basic skills at archery to assist wherever he could. After more than a year of travelling, in 902, reckoned as A.S. 42, he arrived at the Black Pool.

Dyflin was a tattered ruin. The gaels of Áth Cliath had moved down into the settlement and were beginning to reclaim what had once been the sacred well. Cáemgen spent a month rehabilitating the area with the locals before moving to the Monastery of Saint Cáemgen. There he met with the followers of his namesake and determined he had two choices. Continue on into the heart of Eire; to Tara or Armagh, or strike outwards onto the sea - perhaps to follow the Ostmen who had held sway over his homeland for so long.

He negotiated travel on a little berlinn, taking the meagre possessions he had left Munster with: a light bow, a collection of tunics and the roadworn cloak of his uncle. He eventually made land in the Barony of Lions Gate. The poor sea-drenched boy was taken as a fosterling into the house of a beautiful Gael noblewoman, Bernadette Ebhilín Árd and her Scottish lord, Kenzie McBeighn.

Determined to take a more active part in the battles to come he began to train with the people of Lions Gate and was taken as a Man at Arms to Squire Sergeant Kerry Mac Garaidh. Not to be remiss in the other skills and talents of a Fer midboth, Cáemgen has been named Bardic Champion of Lionsdale for the next year, and foresees many opportunities to promote the art.

Perhaps a bit precociously, he is also contemplating applying to be admitted to the Sergeantry of Lions Gate as a brithem

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