Heroic Romances of Ireland Part 25

We see all on every side, and yet no one seeth us, the cloud of the sin of Adam it is that encompa.s.ses us from the reckoning.

O woman, if thou wilt come to my strong people, it is top of head of gold shall be on thy head, unsalted pork, new milk and mead for drink shalt thou have with me there, O fair-haired woman.

Line 2. Hi fil rind. The meaning of rind (?) music) is uncertain.

Line 3. Is barr sobarche folt and. This line is often translated as "hair is wreathed with primrose": the image would be better, but it is not the Irish. Barr is "top of head," and folt is "hair."

Line 4. Is and nad bi mui na tai. Muisse is in old Irish the possessive of the first sing when followed by a noun it becomes mo, when not so followed it is mui; tai is also found for do. O'Curry gave this line as "there is no sorrow nor care."

Lines 7 and 10. Is li sula lin ar sluag and is li sula ugai luin are so similar that is li sula must mean the same in both, and cannot mean "splendour of eyes" in the first case unless it does so in the second.

The idea in the first case seems to be that the hosts are reflected in the eyes; it is so rendered in the verse translation. A blackbird's egg has a blue ground, but is so thickly powdered with brown spots of all shapes that it looks brown at a distance. At first I was inclined to take the idea to be "hazel" eyes, but comparing line 7, it seems more likely that the idea is that all sorts of shapes appear in the pupil.

Line 12. The translation of annam as a "wilderness" is very doubtful, it more probably is "seldom"; and the line should be "seldom will it be so after knowledge of, &c."

Line 16. This has always been rendered "no youth there grows to old age." But the Irish is ni thecht oac and re siun, and re siun can only mean "before an old (man)." The sense possibly is, that as men do not become feeble with advancing years, the younger man has not the same advantage over his elders in the eyes of women that he has in this world.

Line 17. Teith millsi, "smooth and honey-sweet" (Meyer, MacCongl., p.

196).

Line 24. Compare a story of some magical pigs that could not be counted accurately (Revue Celtique, vol. xiii. p. 449).

Line 31. Muc ur, "unsalted pork"; see Glossary to Laws, p. 770; also MacConglinne (Kuno Meyer), p, 99.

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Line 23. "He ascended." Fosrocaib for sosta: fosrocaib is an unknown compound (=fo-sro-od-gaib). Perhaps frisocaib for sosta, "mounted on the heights."

Line 29. Co brainni a da imdae, "to the edges of his two shoulders"; see braine, in Meyer's Contributions.

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Line 19. "Casting their light on every side," cacha air di = cacha airidi, "in every direction."

Line 25. "If thou dost obtain the forfeit of my stake," mad tu beras mo thocell. For tocell see Zimmer, Kuhn's Zeitsch., x.x.x. 80.

Line 29. "Eager" (?), femendae. See Bruiden da Derga (Stokes), 50, 51.

Line 30. "Easily stopped," so-ataidi suggested for sostaidi in the text: cf. Bruiden da Derga. The conjecture has not Strachan's authority.

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Line 19. Literal translation of rhetoric: "Put it in hand, place it close in hand, n.o.ble are oxen for hours after sunset, heavy is the request, it is unknown to whom the gain, to whom the loss from the causeway."

Line 28. "Over the chariot-pole of life" seems to be a literal rendering of for fertas in betha. Strachan renders "on the face of the world," which is of course the meaning of the simile.

Line 30. "High was he girt," ard chustal. The meaning of custal is not known; it was used of some arrangement of the dress. See Ir.

Text., iii. 226; also L.U. 79a, 35, L.L. 97a, 40; 98a, 51; 253a, 30.

Line 31. "Eochaid arose," Atrigestar Eochaid. Strachan thinks it much more likely that this is "Eochaid feared him," the verb coming from atagur. It is, however, just possible that the word might be a deponent form from atregaim, "I arise." Eochaid does not elsewhere show any fear of Mider, the meaning given agrees better with the tone of the story, and is grammatically possible.

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Line 1. "All things that seemed good, &c.," lit. "I have been accustomed to get what seemed good to thee," adethaind ni bad maith.

Line 3. "Anger for anger," bara fri bure. Compare the word bura in Meyer's Contributions.

Line 25. "In order that Eochaid should stand in his debt," lit. "that there might be cause of reproach for him to Eochaid."

Line 32. "Forest that is over Breg." MS. fid dar bre, with mark of abbreviation. This is read to be dar Breg. Professor Rhys (Arthurian Legend, p. 28) renders "to cover Darbrech with trees."

Line 33. "As it is written in the book of Drom Snechta. "This is a conjecture by Mrs. Hutton as a restoration of the words in L.U., which is torn just here: the words appear to be amal atbert lebor drums.

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Line 1. This rhetoric is very obscure; much of it cannot be translated. The text seems to be as follows, according to Strachan: Cuisthe illand tochre illand airderg damrad trom inchoibden clunithar fir ferdi buidni balc-thruim crandchuir forderg saire fedar sechuib slimprib snithib scitha lama indrosc cloina fo bith oen mna. Duib in digail duib in trom daim tairthim flatho fer ban fomnis fomnis in fer mbranie cerpiae fomnis diad dergae fer arfeid soluig fria iss esslind fer bron for-ti ertechta in de lamnado luachair for di Thethbi dilecud (? diclochud) Midi in dracht coich les coich amles ? thocur ? dar c? moin.

Apparent rendering: "Place on the land, place close on the land, very red oxen, heavy troop which hears, truly manlike ? troops, strong heavy placing of trees, very red . . . is led past them with twisted wattles, weary hands, the eye slants aside (squints) because of one woman. To you the vengeance, to you the heavy ? oxen ? splendour of sovereignty over white men, . . . man sorrow on thee . . . of childbirth, rushes over Tethba, clearing of stones from Meath . . . where the benefit where the evil, causeway over . . . moor." It seems that the oxen were transformed people of Mider's race; this appears from fir-ferdi, which is taken to mean "really men"; and duib in digail duib in trom-daim, which is taken to mean "to you the vengeance, to you heavy oxen."

Professor Strachan disagrees with this, as daim, to be "oxen," should not have the accent, he makes trom-daim "heavy companies." He also renders clunithar fir ferdi buindi, as "which hears truth, manly troops."

The rest of the translation he agrees to, most of it is his own.

The pa.s.sage from fomnis fomnis to lamnado seems untranslatable.

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Line 1. Lit. "no evil wedding feast (banais, text banas) for thee?

MAC DATHO'S BOAR

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Line 3. The Rawlinson version gives, instead of "who was the guardian of all Leinster," the variant "who would run round Leinster in a day."

This semi-supernatural power of the hound is the only supernatural touch in either version of the tale.

Line 6. The verse "Mesroda son of Datho" is from the Rawlinson MS.

The literal version of it is in Anecdota Oxoniensia, Mediaeval Series, part viii. p. 57. (This reference will in future be given as A.O., p.

57.)