Heroic Romances of Ireland Part 28

Rouse thyself from the contest of distress (Gloss, "the sickness sent by the fairy women") for all is gone of thy vigour among heroes who ride in chariots, and thou sittest (?) in the place of the young and thou art conquered (? condit ch.e.l.lti if connected with toch.e.l.l), and thou art disturbed (?) in thy mighty deeds, for that which Labraid's power has indicated rise up, O man who sittest (?) that thou mayest be great.

"Chased thee away" in line 7, for condot ellat, perhaps connected with do-ellaim (?).

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Thurneysen's translation (p. 91) of Emer's lament may be referred to, but he misses some strong points. Among these are:

Line 5. "Woe to Ulster where hospitality abounds."

Line 12. "Till he found a Druid to lift the weight."

Line 25. "Were it Furbaide of the heroes."

Line 27. "The hound would search through the solid earth."

Line 29. "The hosts of the Sid of Train are dead."

Line 30. "For the hound of the Smith of Conor."

Line 34. "Sick for the horseman of the plains."

Note the familiarity with the land of the fairies which Laeg is a.s.serted to have in the first verse of the poem: this familiarity appears more than once in the Literary form of the story. Laeg speaks of the land of Labraid as "known to him" in his- first description of that land, again in the same description Laeg is recognised by Labraid by his five-folded purple mantle, which seems to have been a characteristic fairy gift. Also, Laeg seems at the end of the tale to be the only one to recognise Manannan. There is no indication of any familiarity of Laeg with the fairy country in the Antiquarian form.

The different Ulster heroes alluded to are mostly well-known; all except Furbaide are in "Mae Datho's Boar." Furbaide was a son of Conor; be is one of the eighteen leaders who a.s.semble on the Hill of Slane in the "Tain bo Cuailgne."

The Smith of Conor is of course Culann, from whom Cuchulain got his name.

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A translation of Emer's "Awakening of Cuchulain" may be found in Thurneysen, p. 92 but there are one or two points that seem to be noted as differing from the rendering there given.

Lines 3 and 4 seem to mean: "Look on the king of Macha, on my beauty / does not that release thee from deep sleep?" Thurneysen gives "Look on the king of Macha, my heart! thy sleep pleases him not." Mo crath can hardly mean "my heart."

Line 6 is in the Irish deca a churnu co comraim! "see their horns for the contest!" Instead of comraim Thurneysen seems to prefer the reading of the second MS., co cormaim, and translates "their horns full of beer." Churnu may mean trumpets as well as drinking-horns, and Emer would hardly call on Cuchulain to throw off a drunken sleep (line 21) and then take to beer!

The following translation of lines 17 to 20 seems preferable to Thurneysen's:

"Heavy sleep is decay, and no good thing; it is fatigue against a heavy war; it is 'milk for the satiated,'

the sleep that is on thee; death-weakness is the tanist of death."

The last line is tanaisi d'ec ecomnart. The tanist was the prince who stood next to the king; the image seems too good a one to be lost; Thurneysen translates "weakness is sister to death."

Line 14 seems to mean "see each wonder wrought by the cold"; Emer calls Cuchulain's attention to the icicles which she thinks he is in danger of resembling.

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For the literal translation of Liban's invitation see Thurneysen, p. 93.

Line 14 should run: "Colour of eyes his skin in the fight;" the allusion is, apparently, to a bloodshot eye.

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Line 4. The Plain of Speech (Mag Luada) and the Tree of Triumphs (Bile Buada) are apparently part of the Irish mythology; they appear again in Laeg's second description of Fairyland, which is an additional reason for keeping this poem where it is in the second version, and not following Thurneysen in transferring it to the first. Mag Luada is sometimes translated as "moving plain," apparently deriving the word from luath, "swift."

Laeg's two descriptions of the Fairyland are (if we except the voyage of Bran) the two most definite descriptions of that country in Irish literature. There is very little extravagance in these descriptions; the marvellously fruitful trees, the ever-flowing vat of mead, and the silver-branched tree may be noted. Perhaps the trees of "purple gla.s.s"

may be added, but for these, see note on line 30. The verse translation has been made to follow the original as closely as possible; for a literal translation Thurneysen's versions (pp. 94 and 88) may be referred to, but some alterations may be made.

The first description seems to begin thus:

I went with n.o.ble sportiveness to a land wonderful, yet well-known; until I came to a cairn for twenty of troops where I found Labraid the Long-haired.

There I found him on that hill sitting among a thousand weapons, yellow hair on him with beautiful colour, an apple of gold for the confining of it.

And it ends thus:

Alas I that he went not long ago, and each cure (should come) at his searching, that he might see how it is the great palace that I saw.

Though all Erin were mine and the kingship of yellow Bregia, I would resign it; no slight trial; for knowledge of the place to which I came.

The following points should also be noted:

Line 30 of this first description is tri bile do chorcor glain. This undoubtedly means "three trees of purple gla.s.s"; but do chorcor glan would mean "of bright purple"; and this last rendering, which is quite a common expression (see Etain, p. 12), has been adopted in the verse translation. The order of the words in the expression in the text is unusual, and the adoption of them would give an air of artificiality to the description which is otherwise quite absent from it.

Lines 37 and 38 run thus:

There are there thrice twenty trees, their tops meet, and meet not.

Lines 43, 44, rendering: "Each with splendid gold fastening well hooked through its eye," are literally "and a brooch of gold with its splendour in the 'ear' of each cloak." The ears of a cloak, usually described as made of the peculiar white bronze, occur elsewhere in the tales, and there are different speculations as to their use and meaning. The most probable explanation is that they were bronze rings shaped like ears, and sewn into the cloak; a brooch to fasten the cloak being pa.s.sed through the rings. This explanation has been suggested by Professor Ridgeway, and seems to fit admirably the pa.s.sages in which these "ears" occur. Compare Fraech, line 33, in the second volume; also the "Courtship of Ferb" (Nutt), p. 6.

There are also a few corrections necessary to Thurneysen's translation of the second description.

Lines 13 to 20 should run thus:

A beautiful band of women;--victory without fetters;-- are the daughters of Aed Abra; the beauty of Fand is a rushing sound with splendour, exceeding the beauty of a queen or king.