Gruadh inghean Bodhe mac Cineadh mhic Dubh
Three pages into Chapter One, the first-person narrator gives the reader her full regal name. But for the sake of brevity and pronunciation, we’ll just leave it at what we all know best: Lady Macbeth. At that opening stage, she is forty-two and already widowed from her famous husband. Actually, it turns out that Shakespeare’s tragic hero is the Lady’s second husband. The much more famous one. You already know the basic outlines of the story, but the author creates her fiction based on what historical record there is concerning history’s second most famous hand-washer.
Mac Bethad mac Finlach
More commonly known simply as Macbeth. The domestic and political intricacies of the marriage of this bloody duo turns out to be far more complicated than anything that can be gleaned from the Bard’s interpretation. Indeed, turns out that the Scottish usurper didn’t just start his bloody road with Duncan. His killing ways go way back.
Bodhe
The future widow of the unrightful King of Scotland is the daughter of a fearsome warrior named Bodhe. He is a staunch traditionalist in most ways, but is surprisingly progress in allowing his daughter to how to handle a sword. Family is the thing for Bodhe—in the sense of lineage. His lineage assures he will never rise to become rightful King of Scotland, but sees his daughter’s second marriage as an element to add to his machinations to increase the odds that perhaps his lineage is not completely doomed relative to that ambition.
Gilcomgan
So, then, if the future Thane of Cawdor was not the Lady’s first husband, who was? The once and past mormaer of Moray, Gilcomgan. While mormaer of Moray does not really sound quite as impressive as Thane of Glamis, it does sound much cooler. So cool to Macbeth, in fact, that he wants the title for himself. And what do you know? Guess who is the person who murders the Lady’s first husband? Those spots of blood isn’t likely ever coming off those hands.
Lulach
Interesting thing about Shakespeare’s version of this tale which can be summed up in two quotes:
Lady Macbeth: I have given suck, and know / How tender 'tis to love the babe that milks me.
Macduff: He has no children.
The paradox: the Lady suggests that she has given birth, but apparently not to a Macbeth. Lulach is the answer. The Lady may not have gotten much from Gilcomgan before Macbeth stole the man’s title and wife, but she did come out of widowhood with one thing very much intact. A son from her first marriage. Macbeth only kills Gilcomgan partly due to the mormaer of Moray’s lusty wife and title; it is also greatly out of familial revenge. That revenge occurs when Lulach is still just an infant. Although Shakespeare ends his play with Macduff famously hailing Macolm as the new King of Scotland, in this version Macbeth’s death leads to—temporarily at least—Lulac taking the throne.
