Cairenn Chasdub; Caireann ("curly-black (hair)") was, according to medieval Irish legend and historical tradition, the daughter of Sachell Balb, king of the Saxons

Anglo-Saxons

Anglo-Saxon is a term used by historians to designate the Germanic tribes who invaded and settled the south and east of Great Britain beginning in the early 5th century AD, and the period from their creation of the English nation to the Norman conquest. The Anglo-Saxon Era denotes the period of...

, the second wife of the Irish High King

High King of Ireland

The High Kings of Ireland were sometimes historical and sometimes legendary figures who had, or who are claimed to have had, lordship over the whole of Ireland. Medieval and early modern Irish literature portrays an almost unbroken sequence of High Kings, ruling from Tara over a hierarchy of...

 Eochaid Mugmedón

Eochaid Mugmedon

-Biography:According to medieval Irish legend and historical tradition, Eochaid was a High King of Ireland, best known as the father of Niall of the Nine Hostages and ancestor of the Uí Néill and Connachta dynasties...

, and the mother of Niall of the Nine Hostages

Niall of the Nine Hostages

Niall Noígíallach , or in English, Niall of the Nine Hostages, son of Eochaid Mugmedón, was an Irish king, the eponymous ancestor of the Uí Néill kindred who dominated Ireland from the 6th century to the 10th century...

.

When she was pregnant with Niall, Eochaid's first wife Mongfind

Mongfind

Queen Mongfind was the wife, of apparent Munster origins, of the legendary Irish High King Eochaid Mugmedón and mother of his eldest three sons, Brion, Ailill and Fiachrae, ancestors of the historical Connachta, through whom she is an ancestor of many Irish and European nobility today...

 was jealous and made her do heavy labour, hoping to make her miscarry

Miscarriage

Miscarriage or spontaneous abortion is the spontaneous end of a pregnancy at a stage where the embryo or fetus is incapable of surviving independently, generally defined in humans at prior to 20 weeks of gestation...

. She gave birth beside a well as she was drawing water, and, out of fear of Mongfind, left the baby exposed to the birds. But the child was rescued and brought up by a poet called Torna. When the child, Niall, grew up he returned to Tara

Hill of Tara

The Hill of Tara , located near the River Boyne, is an archaeological complex that runs between Navan and Dunshaughlin in County Meath, Leinster, Ireland...

 and relieved his mother of her labour, and went on to become High King himself.

Given Niall's dates (he is traditionally supposed to have died around the turn of the 5th century, although modern historians place him half a century later), it is anachronistic for his mother to have been a Saxon, but O'Rahilly argues that the name Cairenn is derived from the Latin name Carina

Carina

Carina may refer to:* Carina, a given name in Portugal and some other countries. It is a pet form of Cara, which can mean either "beloved" in Italian or "friend" in the Irish language-Locations:Carina is the name of the towns or villages:...

, and that it is plausible that she might have been a Romano-Briton. Indeed, Geoffrey Keating

Geoffrey Keating

Seathrún Céitinn, known in English as Geoffrey Keating, was a 17th century Irish Roman Catholic priest, poet and historian. He was born in County Tipperary c. 1569, and died c. 1644...

describes her not as a Saxon but as the "daughter of the king of Britain".