Colum Cille and the sod of death

Abstract

The belief that for every individual there is a ‘sod of death’ (fód an bháis), or spot where he or she is fated to die, is well attested in Irish folklore. The idea is brought into association with various saints, but the only saint to be so associated in multiple sources is Colum Cille. This essay considers two early texts which have been proposed as reflecting the concept of the ‘sod of death’: the Old Irish Immacaldam Choluim Chille ₇ ind Óclaig, and Adomnán’s Vita Sancti Columbae. It is suggested that in the latter work the word terrula, which Adomnán appears to be the only medieval Irish author to have employed, was used by him as an equivalent of Irish fód (or its diminutive fódán), indicating that the concept of the ‘sod of death’ was already well established in his time.