The Latin & Irish Lives of Ciaran Part 11

In point of fact several indications show that Ciaran belonged to a tributary sept, and was of pre-Celtic blood. These tributary septs were distinguished from their Celtic conquerors by social organisation, racial character, and probably still to some extent by religion and language. They had much the same position as the _perioeci_ in ancient Sparta. The following are the evidences of his pre-Celtic nationality--

(_a_) The tribal names of his parents (Latharna, Glasraige). There are two forms of tribal names in ancient Ireland; those consisting of two words, and those consisting of one. The first are in such formulae as "tribe of NN," "seed of NN" or the like--NN being the name of a more or less legendary ancestor. The second are either simple names which cannot be a.n.a.lysed, or else are derived from an ancestral name by adding the suffix _-rige_ or _-raige_. As a rule the names consisting of one word only are fundamentally pre-Celtic, or denote pre-Celtic septs, though in many cases they have been fitted with Celticising genealogies.

(_b_) The names of Ciaran himself and his brothers, and of one of his sisters. Donnan, Ciaran, Odran, Cronan are all diminutives founded upon colours--the little brown, black, grey, and tawny one. These indicate that the family was dark complexioned, which would also accord with a pre-Celtic origin. The Celts were fair, their predecessors dark. One of the sisters was called Pata, with an initial P. This is impossible in a Gaelic name.

(_c_) The subordinate position of Ciaran's father, and his liability to taxation. In the _Book of Leinster_ and, in part, in _Leabhar Breac_, after the genealogy, we read "He [_i.e._ Ciaran] was of one of the seven clans of the Latharna of Molt. His father was originally in slavery in Britain; he went thereafter to Ireland to Cenel Conaill [north of Co. Donegal], and after that to Connacht[7] to avoid a heavy tax, so that Ciaran was born at Raith Cremthainn in Mag Ai." LA describes Ciaran's father as "a rich man," and certainly the family seems to have been comfortably provided with cattle, the chief wealth of their time. In reference to his father's trade Ciaran is regularly called _mac in tsair_, "son of the wright." The Rabelaisian extravaganza called _Imtheacht na Tromdhaimhe_ ("The Adventures of the Burdensome Company") introduces Ciaran as himself practising smith's craft;[8] but no importance can be attached to so irresponsible a production. a.n.a.logous in this respect are the references to our saint in _The Adventures of Leithin_,[9] which also introduces Ciaran and his monks; but as Dr. Hyde points out in his edition, these are merely a kind of framework for the legend, and the story, though in itself extremely curious and interesting, tells us nothing about either Ciaran or Clonmacnois.

(_d_) The fact, specially mentioned in LA, that Ciaran was reared by his parents, not put out to fosterage as would have been done had he been of gentle birth.

(_e_) The pre-eminent position of Ciaran's mother in the home. The pre-Celtic tribesmen of Ireland, like their Pictish kinsmen in Scotland, were organised on the system of mother-right, in which property and descent and kinship are all traced through the maternal side of the ancestry. Throughout the _Lives_, Beoit is a cypher: the house and its contents and appurtenances are almost invariably treated as Darerca's property. Matriarchate usually implies exogamy, a man choosing his wife from a sept differing from his own; and the children are related to the mother's, not the father's kin. The male responsible for the education of the child is not so much the father as the maternal uncle. The law of exogamy was strictly followed in the case before us. Beoit comes from north-east Ulster; Darerca belonged to a family which drew its origin from the south-east of the present county Kerry, though she seems to have settled in Cenel Fiachach at the time when Beoit met her. Incidents VIII and X of Ciaran's Life are laid in that territory, which falls in with a tradition, presently to be noted, that the dwelling-place of the family of the saint was not Raith Cremthainn, but the place where the parents had first met--which would be an instance of the husband dwelling with the wife's people, as is frequent under the matriarchate. The Celtic authors of the _Lives_ have transferred the kinship of the son to the father's clan, in accordance with their own social system; but an older tradition has left an unmistakable trace in the confusion of the relationships of "father" and "uncle" in LA, ---- 9, 10.

It is possible that the prominence of the mother in the household, and Ciaran's birth away from his ancestral home as the result of a taxation, are specially emphasised because they offer obvious parallels with the Gospel story. The character of Darerca is, however, by no means idealised, as we might have expected it to be, had this been the chief purpose of the narrator.

_The Parents of Ciaran, their Names and Origins._--The name of Ciaran's father is variously Latinised in the Latin Lives. The Irish lives call him Beoit, a name a.n.a.lysed in the _Book of Leinster_, p.

349, into _Beo-n-Aed_, which would mean something like "Living Fire."

The _-n-_ is inserted, according to a law of Old Irish accidence, because _aed_, "fire," is a neuter word. Thus arises the Latin form _Beonnadus_. By metathesis the name further becomes transformed to _Beodan_ or _Beoan_. The _Latharna_ were the people who dwelt around the site of the modern town of _Larne_, which preserves their name; Mag Molt ("the plain of wethers") is probably the plain surrounding the town. The _Aradenses_, to whom LB ascribes the origin of Beoit, were the people known in Irish record as _Dal n-Araide_, the pre-Celtic people of the region now called Antrim.

Dar-erca, "daughter of brightness" or "of the sky," was a common female name in ancient Ireland. The Glasraige to whom she belonged was a tribe with divisions scattered in various parts of Ireland.

Irluachra was south-east Kerry with adjoining parts of Cork and Limerick. Of her poet grandfather Glas nothing is known.

It would perhaps be too far-fetched to see a hint at a mythological element in the traditions of Ciaran in the signification of his parents' names. Indeed, considering the _Tendenz_ of the Ciaran _Lives_, it is remarkable that there is no supernormal element in the account of the birth of this particular saint; supernatural births are almost a commonplace in Irish saints' lives as a rule.

The saint's own name is regularly spelt with an initial K or Q in the Latin texts, doubtless because Latin _c_ was p.r.o.nounced as _s_ before _e_ and _i_ in mediaeval Ireland.

The _Annals of Clonmacnois_ preserves for us a totally different tradition of the origin and upbringing of the saint. Modernising the haphazard spelling and punctuation of the seventeenth-century English translation (the original Irish of this valuable book is lost), we may note what it tells us. "His father's name was Beoit, a Connacht man (_sic_) and a carpenter. His mother Darerca, of the issue of Corc mac Fergusa mic Roig of the Clanna Rudraige. He in his childhood lived with his father and mother in 'Templevickinloyhe' [wherever that may have been] in Cenel Fiachach; until a thief of the country of Ui Failge stole the one cow they had, which, being found, he forsook together with his father and mother the said place of the stealth [= theft], fearing of further inconvenience." Here note: (1) that Darerca is given the ancestry attributed in the _Book of Leinster_ pedigree to Beoit, thus hinting at an originally _matrilinear_ form of the official pedigree: (2) that the settlement of the family in Cenel Fiachach, _i.e._ the place of Darerca's dwelling, is definitely stated; (3) that the migration of the family does not take place till after Ciaran's birth; (4) that a totally different reason is a.s.signed for the migration; (5) that incident X of the _Lives_ is directly referred to; (6) that we hear nothing in this pa.s.sage about the rest of the numerous family of Beoit; and (7) that the family is poor, having but one cow.

Cenel Fiachach (the clan of Fiachu) occupied a territory covering parts of the present counties of Westmeath and King's Co. VG erroneously writes this Cenel Fiachrach, which occupied a territory of the modern Co. Sligo. _See_ further, p. 171.

_The Princes._--Unfortunately Ainmire mac Colgain, lord of Ui Neill, and Cremthann, a chieftain of Connacht, are not otherwise known; we cannot therefore test the chronological truth of this part of the story. Ainmire reappears as an oppressor in the life of Aed (VSH, ii, 295). LA anachronistically confuses this Ainmire with Ainmire mac Setna, King of Tara, A.D. 564-566.

It is noteworthy that VG calls Cremthann "King of Ireland." This is in accordance with the fact that the dynasty which united Ireland under the suzerainty of the King of Tara was of Connacht origin.[10]

_The Wizard's Prophecy._--The phrase "the noise of a chariot under a king" is a stock formula in this connexion; compare, with Stokes, _Vita Sancti Aedui_ in Rees' _Lives of Cambro-British Saints_, p. 233 (also VSH, ii, 295). With the incident compare the story of the druid rising to welcome the parents of Saint Senan, and when ridiculed for thus showing honour to peasants explaining that it was to their unborn child that he was paying honour (LL, 1875). Observe that in both tales the druid is _mocked_. This touch doubtless belongs to the Christian chronicler, taking the opportunity of putting the minister of the rival creed in an invidious position.

_Deacon Iustus_, according to VTP (p. 104) and Tirechan's _Collections regarding Saint Patrick_ (edited in VTP, see pp. 305, 318) was consecrated by Saint Patrick, who left with him his ritual book and his office of baptism, in Fidarta (Fuerty, Co. Roscommon). It was in his old age that he baptized Ciaran, out of Patrick's book--he was, indeed, according to the doc.u.ments quoted, no less than 140 years of age. The glossators of the _Martyrology of Oengus_ (Henry Bradshaw Society edition, p. 128) confuse him with Euthymius, the deacon, martyred at Alexandria. The play on words ("it were fitting that the _just one_ should be baptized by a _Just One_") is lost in the Irish version, whence Plummer (VSH, i, p. xlix) infers that this doc.u.ment is a translation from a Latin original: but the fact proves nothing more than that the author of VG borrowed _this particular incident_, as he borrowed his preface, from a Latin writing. All these Lives are patchworks, and their component elements are of very different origins and dates.

_The date of Ciaran's birth_ was 25 February, A.D. 515. The _Annals of Ulster_ says 511, or "according to another book," 516. The _Annals of Clonmacnois_ has the correct date, 515.

_The Geographical Names in this Incident._--_Temoria_ (LA) is Tara (Irish _Teamair_), Co. Meath, the site of the dwelling of the Kings of Ireland. _Midhe_ (LA) means the province of Meath; LA is, however, in error in placing the Latronenses therein. The _Connachta_ are the people who give their name to the province of Connacht. _Mag Ai_, variously spelt, is the central plain of Co. Roscommon; _Raith Cremthainn_ ("the fort of Cremthann") was somewhere upon it, presumably near the royal establishment of Rathcroghan, but the exact site is unknown. _Isel Chiarain_ (VG), a place reappearing later in the Life, is unknown, but doubtless it was close to Clonmacnois.

_Cluain maccu Nois_, the "Meadow of the Descendants of Nos," now Clonmacnois, stands on the right bank of the Shannon about twelve miles below Athlone. Extensive remains of the monastery founded by Ciaran are still to be seen there. As for _Tech meic in tSaeir_, "the house of the wright's son," we might have inferred that this place was also somewhere near or in Clonmacnois; but a note among the glosses of the _Martyrology of Oengus_ (under 9th September) says that it was "in the house of the son of the wright" that Ciaran was _brought up_. It is therefore to be identified with the mysterious place corruptly spelt "Templevickinloyhe" (church of the son of the ----?) in the extract from the _Annals of Clonmacnois_ printed above.[11]

_The Verses in this Section of VG._--The epigram on Ciaran's parents is found in many MSS. The rendering here given expresses the sense and reproduces the rhythm of the stanza, but does not attempt to copy the metre in every detail. This is known as _cro c.u.mmaisc etir casbairdne ocus lethrannaigecht_, and consists of seven-syllable lines with trisyllabic rhymes, alternating with five-syllable lines having monosyllabic rhymes. Literally translated the sense would run, "Darerca my mother / she was not a bad woman // Beoit the wright my father / of the Latharna of Molt."

The second stanza is misplaced, and should properly have been inserted in the following paragraph. Its metre is _ae freslige_--seven-syllable lines in a quatrain, rhyming _abab_: _a_ being trisyllabic, _b_ dissyllabic rhymes. The stanza is obscure and probably corrupt; so far as it can be rendered at all, the literal translation is: "He healed the steed of Oengus / when he was in a swathe, in a cradle // there was given ... / from G.o.d this miracle to Ciaran."

III. HOW CIARAN RAISED THE STEED OF OENGUS FROM DEATH (LA, LB, LC, VG)

_The Four Versions._--This incident is told in all four lives, and it is instructive to note the differences of detail which they display.

In LA Oengus goes to fetch Ciaran, after consulting with his friends.

In LB he sends for him. In LC he goes to him, and in VG Ciaran comes without being fetched. The stanza interpolated in the preceding section of VG introduces us to another variant of the tradition, in which Ciaran was a swaddled infant when the miracle was wrought. In LB the incident is given a homiletic turn, by being told to ill.u.s.trate the saint's care for animals.

_Parallels._--A similar but not identical miracle is attributed to Saint Patrick (VTP, 228; LL, 565). Here the saint resuscitates horses with holy water; but in this case the saint's own curse had originally caused the horses' deaths, because they grazed in his churchyard.

Saint Lasrian also restored a horse to life (CS, 796).

_Tir na Gabrai_ ("the land of the horse") is unknown, though it presumably was near Raith Cremthainn. The story was probably told to account for the name of the field. It has been noticed that the Latin Lives are less rich in details as to names of places and people than the Irish Life. This is an indication of a later tradition, when the recollection of names had become vague, or, rather, when names which had been of interest to their contemporaries had ceased to rouse such feelings.

IV. HOW CIARAN TURNED WATER INTO HONEY (LA, LB, LC, VG)

One of the numerous imitations of the story of the Miracle of Cana.

Compare incident XLIV. An identical story is told of Saint Patrick (LL, 108). Note the variety of reasons given for sending the honey to Iustus.

V. HOW CIARAN WAS DELIVERED FROM A HOUND (LA, LB, LC, VG)

_Parallels._--The same story is told of Saint Patrick, in Colgan's _Tertia Vita_, cap. x.x.xi, _Septima Vita_, I, cap. xlvii. Patrick likewise quoted the verse _Ne tradas bestiis animus confitentes tibi_ (Ps. lxiv, [Vulgate lxiii] 19).

_The Fate of the Hound._--This varies in the different versions. In the Patrick story just quoted it was struck immovable, as a stone.

In LA it thrusts its head _in circo uituli_, which I have rendered conjecturally as the context seems to require, but I can find no information as to the exact nature of this adjunct to the cattle-stall. Du Cange gives _arcus sellae equestris_ as one of the meanings of _circus_.

LB and LC, which have many points of affinity, are in this incident almost word for word identical. They agree in saying that the men setting on the hound were spurred (_uexati_) by an evil spirit. The misplacing of this incident in LB is probably due to a transposition of the leaves of the exemplar from which it was copied.

VI. HOW CIARAN AND HIS INSTRUCTOR CONVERSED, THOUGH DISTANT FROM ONE ANOTHER (LA, VG)

_Topography of the Story._--a.s.suming that Raith Cremthainn was somewhere near Rathcroghan, the distance between this and Fuerty would be about fourteen miles. There is no indication on the Ordnance map of any rock that can be identified with the cross-bearing stone on which Ciaran used to sit, though it clearly was a landmark well known to the author of LA. (_Pace_ LA, Rathcroghan is _north_ of Fuerty.)

_Parallels._--The closest parallel is the story of Brigit, who heard a Ma.s.s that was being celebrated in Rome, though unable to hear a popular tumult close by (TT, 539). Something resembling the action of a wireless telephone is contemplated, the voices being inaudible to persons between the speakers. Thus the tales of saints with preternaturally loud voices are not quite in point. Colum Cille was heard to read his Psalms a mile and half away (LL, 828); Brenainn also was heard at a long distance (LL, 3419). The burlesque _Vision of MacConglinne_ parodies such voices (ed. Meyer, pp. 12, 13).

VII. CIARAN AND THE FOX (VG)

_Parallels._--There are endless tales of how saints pressed wild animals into their service; indeed the first monastic establishment of Ciaran's elder namesake, Ciaran of Saigir, consisted of wild animals only: a boar, a badger, a wolf, and a stag (VSH, i, 219; _Silua Gadelica_, i, p. 1 ff.). Moling also kept a number of wild and tame animals round his monastery--among them a fox, which, as in the tale before us, attempted to eat a book (VSH, ii, 201); otherwise, however, the stories differ. Aed rescued a stag from hunters, and used its horns as a book-rest (VSH, ii, 296); Coemgen similarly rescued a boar (VSH, i, 244). So, in Wales, Saint Brynach caused stags to draw his carriage, and committed his cow to the charge of a wolf (_Cambro-British Saints_, pp. 10, 296). Saint Illtyd tamed a stag which he had rescued from hunters (_ibid._, pp. 164, 473).

_Herding of Cattle._--There is abundant evidence from the Lives of the saints that the herding of the cattle while pasturing was an important duty of the children of the household. There was no little risk in this, owing to the prevalence of wolves.

_Reading the Psalms._--The Psalms seem to have been the first subject of instruction given to young students; LB, 4, indicates that Ciaran's lessons with Iustus did not go beyond the mere rudiments of learning.

There is in the National Museum, Dublin, a tablet-book containing six leaves of wax-covered wood, on which are traced a number of the Psalms in the Vulgate version; this was most likely a lesson-book such as is here described. The story evidently grew up around an actual specimen, that bore injuries, explained as being the tooth-marks of the fox.

_Versions of the Tale._--It would appear that this story was originally an account of how Ciaran and his distant tutor could communicate, quite independent of incident VI. It has become awkwardly combined with VI into a conflate narrative, as is shown by the silence about the fox in LA. According to the one story, they used their supernatural "wireless telephone." According to the other, the fox trotted back and forth with the book. In the conflate version, it would appear that Iustus dictated Psalms to Ciaran by "telephone,"

Ciaran then wrote them on his tablets, and the fox waited till he was finished and then carried them for correction to Iustus. (As is observed in the footnote _in loc_, p. 73, we must read "Iustus" for "Ciaran" in the pa.s.sage describing the proceedings of the fox).

_The Homiletic Pendant._--The unexpected homiletic turn given to this story in VG may perhaps find its explanation in facts now lost to us; the pa.s.sage reads like a side-thrust at some actual person or persons.

It may possibly refer to the act of sacrilege committed by Toirdelbach o Briain, in 1073, who carried away from Clonmacnois the head of Conchobar o Maeil-Shechlainn; but being attacked by a mysterious disease--imparted to him, it was said, by a mouse which issued from the head and ran up under his garment--he was obliged to return it, with two gold rings by way of compensation. He did not recover from the disease, however, but died in 1086 (_Annals of Four Masters_).

VIII. HOW CIARAN SPOILED HIS MOTHER'S DYE (VG)