The Latin & Irish Lives of Ciaran Part 17

The authorities differ as to the att.i.tude which Colum Cille adopted with regard to Ciaran. But as regards the other saints of Ireland there is no ambiguity. The cutting-short of Ciaran's life was one of the "three crooked counsels of Ireland" according to the glosses to the _Martyrology of Oengus_ (9th September): the same authority adds that the saints "fasted for Ciaran's death," as otherwise all Ireland would have been his. The ancient legal process of fasting was an inheritance from Pagan times. If A had a case against B, he might, and under certain circ.u.mstances was obliged to, abstain from food till the case was settled; he was then said to "fast upon B." The idea probably was that if a litigant permitted his adversary to starve to death, the angry ghost would ever afterwards disturb his rest. Parallels have been found in ancient Indian practice. Sometimes B performed a counter-fast; in such a case he who first broke his fast lost his cause. But the process seems to have been strangely extended, even in Christian times, to obtain boons from the supernatural Powers. We read of a saint "fasting upon G.o.d" that a king might lose a battle; and in _Revue celtique_, vol. xiv, p. 28, there is printed a story of a childless couple who fasted with success upon the Devil, that he might send them offspring. Two of the saints--Odran of Letrecha Odrain and Mac Cuillind of Lusk--went and told Ciaran for what they were fasting: Ciaran simply replied, "Bless ye the air before me"--the air through which I must travel in pa.s.sing heavenwards--"and what ye desire shall be given you." The _Book of Leinster_ contains a poem attributed to Saint Ciaran relating to the shortness of his life: as it has apparently never been printed it is given here with a translation, so far as the obscurity of the language permits--

An rim, a ri richid rain corbom etal risin dail: co cloister cech ni atber i sanct cech sen, a De mair.

(Stay for me, O King of glorious heaven, till I be pure before the a.s.sembly; till everything that I shall speak be heard in the sanctuary of every blessing, O great G.o.d.)

A Mic Maire, miad cen on ammochomde corric nem, a ruiri na nangel find, innanfa frim corbom sen?

(O Son of Mary, a dignity without blemish, O my Lord as far as Heaven, O King of the white angels, wilt Thou stay for me till I am old?)

Attchimse mo guide rutt arbaig Maire diandit Macc menbad tacrad latt a Ri condernaind ni bud maith latt

(I make my prayer unto Thee, for the love of Mary to whom Thou are Son, if it be not displeasing in Thy sight, O King, that I may do somewhat pleasing to Thee.)

Maccan berair rian a re ni fintar feib ar a mbe asaoete lenta baeis aggaes cach aes bes nithe

(A young man who is taken before its time, the honour in which he may be is not discovered: from his youth of following folly, to his age every company ... (?).)

Ni horta laeg rianaes daim ar cach sen as tressiu achach, ni horta uan na horc maith ni coilte cr ... [31] a blath

(A calf is not slaughtered till it is of ox's age, 'tis the ploughing (?) of every old one which waxes stronger: a lamb or a good pigling is not slaughtered, the (saffron?) is not plucked till its flower.)

Buain guirt riasiu bas abbuig is m ... cacaid, a Ri rind?

is e in longud riana thrath blath do choll in tan bas find

(To reap a field before it is ripe, is it a right (thing), O King of stars? It is eating before the time to violate a flower while it is white.)

Fuiniud immedon laa ni hord baa rian ...

matan in aidche, in dedoil ria na medon cia mo col

(Sunset in midday, no order of profit before...; morning in night, twilight before its noon, though it be greatest wrong.)

Cluinti itgi notguidiu is mo chridiu deroil duir a Mic mo De cianomrodba is bec mo thorba donduir

(Hear Thou the prayer I pray Thee in the depth of my wretched hard heart, O Son of my G.o.d, although Thou cuttest me off, small is my profitableness ... )

Duitsi a Mic motholtu cen cope sentu dom churp, cenambera cen taithlech no co bia maith fe[in] fort

(To Thee, O Son, ... (?), that without my body becoming aged, I be not taken without reason till I shall myself be good in Thy sight.)

Is fort shnadud cach ambi ria ndula m' chri, a Ri slan, ic do guide dam cen dichil, an rimm a Ri richid ran

(On Thy protection is every one whereso he is; before departure of my body, O Perfect King, I am praying Thee without negligence, stay for me, O King of glorious heaven.)

LIV. THE PANEGYRICS (LA, VG)

There is little that need be said about these paragraphs, which are of conventional type. There are two references in VG which may, however, be noted. The first is to the relics left in the hollow elm, of which we have already heard at the beginning of these annotations: here said to have been deposited by Benen (the pupil of Patrick, and his successor in Armagh) and by c.u.mlach (the leper of Saint Patrick). The second is an allusion, on which I am unable to throw any light, to some evidently well-known story of a certain Peca and his blind pupil.

THE METRICAL PANEGYRIC IN LB

This is a patchwork of extracts from different sources.

1. Fifteen-syllable lines, with caesura at eighth syllable; every line ending in a trisyllabic word, rhyming (not always) with a word preceding the caesura. A dissyllable or trisyllable precedes the caesura. Rhythm of Tennyson's _Locksley Hall_, proceeding by stress only, independent of vowel-quant.i.ty or hiatus. In line seven, 'Kera.n.u.s' must be p.r.o.nounced in four syllables, Kiara.n.u.s. Refers to the wizard's prophecy, incident II.

2. Four lines, in _Locksley Hall_ rhythm, with a dissyllabic rhyme running through the quatrain. Relates incident IX.

3. Four lines, twelve syllables trochaic, caesura at seventh syllable.

Each line ends with a trisyllable or a tetrasyllable, with dissyllabic rhyme running through the quatrain. The rhythm is that of the following line (which is intentionally misquoted to serve the present purpose)--

"Gather roses while you may, time is still a-flying."

The incident is not recorded in the prose lives; but it appears in the _Book of the Dun Cow_, in the story of the Birth of Aed Slaine (son of King Diarmait, reigned A.D. 595-600). Diarmait, it appears, had two wives (for, notwithstanding his friendship to Ciaran, he was but a half-converted pagan), by name Mugain and Muireann. Muireann had the misfortune to be bald, and Mugain, who, as is usual in polygamous households, was filled with envy of her, bribed a female buffoon to remove her golden headgear in public at the great a.s.sembly of Tailltiu (Telltown, Co. Meath), so as to expose the poor queen's defect to the eyes of the mob. The messenger accomplished her purpose, but Muireann cried out, "G.o.d and Saint Ciaran help me in this need!" and forthwith a shower of glossy curling golden hair flowed from her head over her shoulders, before a single eye of the a.s.sembly had rested upon her.

Compare Ciaran's own experience, incident XLVI.

4. Three lines in the same metre, but apparently with three instead of four lines in each rhyming stanza. Refers to incident XVIII.

5. Three lines in the same rhythm as extract 1, but with a different rhyme-scheme; apparently three lines from a quatrain rhyming _abab_.

Refers to incident XLI.

6. Six lines in elegiac couplets. This probably refers to XLVI, but without their original context the lines must remain obscure. In any case the versifier has the story in a rather different form from the prose writers, and appears to regard it as an incident of the boyhood period.

7. Eight lines from the hymn of Colum Cille, already commented upon.

ADDITIONAL NOTE ON CIARAN'S BIRTHPLACE

Some place-names in the barony of Moycashel (S. Co. Westmeath), which lies in Cenel Fiachach, support the tradition that Ciaran's birthplace is to be sought there, and not in Mag Ai at all. I can find nothing in the local nomenclature to suggest Raith Cremthainn; but "Templemacateer" (_Teampull mhic an tsaoir_, the "Church of the Wright's son") may be compared with, and perhaps equated to the similarly named "house" (p. 111); "Ballynagore" (_Baile na ngabhar_, the "town of the goats," or "horses") perhaps echoes the "Tir na Gabrai" of VG 3. About half a mile to the west is _Tulach na crosain_, the "Mound of the crosslet"--possibly the missing cross of Ciaran (LA 4). At the outflow of the Brosna from Loch Ennell is "Clonsingle,"

which it is tempting to equate to the place-name corrupted to "Cluain Innsythe," in LA 12.

An additional suggestion may here be made to the effect that the eldest son and daughter of Beoit were twins. Their names, _Lug-oll_ "big Lug," and _Lug-beg_ "little Lug," are in correspondence, as twins' names often are.

[Footnote 1: For brevity we shall refer to certain books, frequently quoted in these Annotations, by the following symbols--

LL. _Lives of Saints from the Book of Lismore_, ed. Stokes.

CS. _Codex Salmaticensis_ (Acta Sanctorum Hiberniae), ed. de Smedt and de Backer.

VTP. _Vita Tripart.i.ta Patricii_, ed. Stokes.

VSH. Plummer's _Vitae Sanctorum Hiberniae_.

TT. _Trias Thaumaturga_ (Colgan's collection of the lives of SS. Patrick, Brigid, and Colum Cille).]

[Footnote 2: There is a different version, which need not be given here, in the _Martyrology of Oengus_ (Henry Bradshaw Society edition, p. 204).]

[Footnote 3: Mentioned in _Annals of Ulster_, anno 1166, _Annals of Loch Ce_, anno 1189, _Annals of the Four Masters_, annis 1121, 1166.]

[Footnote 4: A collection (in Irish) of the traditions of this person will be found in _Targaireacht Bhriain ruaidh ui Chearbhain_, by Micheal o Tiomhanaidhe (Dublin, 1906).]

[Footnote 5: The pa.s.sage would then read thus--_Rothircan Bec mac De condebairt andsin_--