Against German, at door of his dun;
I slew Rind, who from Niul[FN#64] was descended,
I slew Rood, of Finnool was he son.
[FN#64] Pronounced Nyool.
'Twas Ferdia slew Bla by the water,
Son of Cathbad red-sworded was he:
And from Lugaid Mugarne gat slaughter,
The grim lord of the Torrian sea.
Four times fifty men, stubborn in battle,
By my hand in that gateway were slain;
To Ferdia, of grim mountain cattle
Fell a bull, and a bull from the plain.
Then his hold to the plunderers giving,
Over ocean waves spangled with foam,
Did we German the wily, still living,
To the broad-shielded Scathach bring home.
There an oath our great mistress devising,
Both our valours with friendship she bound;
That no anger betwixt us uprising
Should 'mid Erin's fair nations be found.
Much of woe with that Tuesday was dawning,
When Ferdia's great might met its end;
Though red blood-drink I served him that morning:
Yet I loved, though I slew him, my friend.
If afar thou hadst perished when striving
With the bravest of heroes of Greece,
'Tis not I would thy loss be surviving;
With thy death should the life of me cease.
Ah! that deed which we wrought won us sorrow,
Who, as pupils, by Scathach were trained:
Thou wilt drive not thy chariot to-morrow;
I am weak, with red blood from me drained.
Ah! that deed which we wrought won us anguish,
Who, as pupils, by Scathach were taught:
Rough with gore, and all wounded, I languish;
Thou to death altogether art brought.
Ah! that deed that we wrought there was cruel
For us pupils, from Scathach who learned:
I am strong; thou art slain in the duel,
In that conflict, with anger we burned.
"Come now, Cuchulain," said Laeg, "and let us quit this ford, for too
long have we been here." "Now indeed will we depart, O my friend
Laeg!" said Cuchulain, "but every other combat and fight that I have
made hath been only a game and a light matter to me compared with this
combat and fight with Ferdia." Thus it was that he spoke; and in this
fashion he recited:
Wars were gay, and but light was fray[FN#65]
Ere at the Ford his steeds made stay:
Like had we both been taught,
Both one kind mistress swayed;
Like the rewards we sought,
Like was the praise she paid.
[FN#65] Metre and rhyme-system of the Irish imitated, but not exactly
reproduced.
Wars were gay, and but light was fray
Ere at the Ford his steeds made stay:
Like were our fights, oft fought,
Like were our haunts in play;
Scathach to each of us brought
A shield one day.
Wars were gay, and but light was fray
Ere at the Ford his steeds made stay:
Pillar of gold, loved well,
Low at the Ford's side laid;
He, when on troops he fell,
Valour unmatched displayed.
Wars were gay, and but light was fray
Ere at the Ford his steeds made stay:
Lionlike, on he sped;
High, in his wrath, he blazed;
Rose, as a wave of dread;
Ruin his onset raised.
Wars were gay, and but light was fray
Ere at the Ford his steeds made stay:
Never, till hour of doom,
Ferdia's form shall fade;
High as a cliff it loomed,
Now is but left his shade.
Three great armies went this Raid,[FN#66]
All the price of death have paid;
Choicest cattle, men, and steeds
Lie in heaps, to tell my deeds.
[FN#66] The metre is that of the Irish.
Widely spread their battle-line,
Less than half their host was mine;
Though to war stout Croghan came,
All I slew, for me a game!
None the battle neared like thee,
None of all whom Banba nursed
Passed thy fame; on land, on sea,
Thou, of sons of kings, art first!
SPECIAL NOTE
ON THE "COMBAT AT THE FORD"
The episode translated in the foregoing pages is not only one of the
famous examples on which Irish literature can fairly rest its claim to
universal recognition, but it also affords an excellent instance of the
problems involved when it comes to be studied critically. These
problems, upon the solution of which must to some extent depend our
estimate of the place of Irish in the general development of European
literature) axe briefly dealt with in Mr. Leahy's Preface, as well as
in his special Introduction (supra, pp. 114, 115), but may perhaps be
thought worthy of somewhat more detailed examination.
The existence of two markedly different versions of the "Tain bo
Cuailnge," one, obviously older, represented by the eleventh-century
MS. Leabhar na h-Uidhri (L.U.), and the fourteenth-century MS. Yellow
Book of Lecan (Y.B.L.); the other, obviously younger, by the
twelfth-century Book of Leinster (L.L.), was pointed out by Professor
Heinrich Zimmer twenty-seven years ago in his study of the L.U. heroic
saga texts (Keltische Studien V.: Zeitschrift für vergleichende
Sprachforschung, vol. xxviii.). The conclusion that he drew from the
fact, as also from the peculiarities disclosed by his analysis of the
L.U. texts, is substantially that stated by Mr. Leahy: "On the whole it
seems as if the compiler of the manuscript from which both the Leabhar
na h-Uidhri and the Yellow Book of Lecan were copied, combined into one
several different descriptions of the 'War,' one of which is
represented by the Book of Leinster version." He furthermore
emphasised a particular aspect of this compiler's activity to which Mr.
Leahy also draws repeated attention; he (the compiler) was a man
interested in the historical and antiquarian rather than in the
literary side of the texts he harmonised and arranged: hence his
preference for versions that retain archaic and emphasise mythical
elements; hence his frequent interpolation of scraps of historical and
antiquarian learning; hence his indifference to consistency in the
conduct of the story, and to its artistic finish. Professor Zimmer
urged that the "compiler" was no other than Flann, Abbot of
Monasterboice, who died in 1047, and was regarded as the most famous
representative of Irish learning in his day. There has come down to us
under his name a considerable mass of chronological and historical
writing, partly in prose, partly in verse, and it seems certain that he
was one of the chief artisans in framing that pragmatic redaction of
Irish myth, heroic legend, and historical tradition most fully
represented by the two great compilations of the seventeenth century:
the Annals of the Four Masters, emphasising its antiquarian, historical
side; Keating's History, emphasising its romantic, legendary side.
Whilst Professor Zimmer's conclusion as to the personality of the L.U.
compiler has been challenged, his main thesis has remained unshaken.
On the whole, it can be asserted positively that the common source of
L.U. and Y.B.L. goes back to the early eleventh century; on the whole,
that this common source itself utilised texts similar to those
contained in the Book of Leinster. Moreover, the progress of
linguistic analysis during the past quarter-century has strengthened
the contention that some of the elements used by Flann (or another) in
compiling his eleventh-century harmony are as old, in point of
language, as any existing remains of Irish outside the Ogham
inscriptions; in other words, being as old as the earliest glosses,
they may date back to the eighth or even seventh century. In
particular the L.U.-Y.B.L. version of the "Tain bo Cuailnge" contains a
large proportion of such elements and may, in the main, be treated as
an eighth-century text.
It must, however, be pointed out, and for this reason I have italicised
the qualifying "on the whole," "in the main," that this conclusion does
not enable us to declare dogmatically (1) that all portions of the
L.U.-Y.B.L. version must go back to the eighth century; (2) that all
portions of the Book of Leinster version must precede the compilation
of the common source of L.U. and Y.B.L. For as regards (1), not only
must the definitely ascertained activity of the eleventh-century
compiler be taken into account, but also the possible activity of later
scribes. If we possessed the complete text of the L.U.-Y.B.L.
redaction in both MSS., we could at least be sure concerning the
possible variations introduced during the two centuries that elapsed
between the writing of the Yellow Book (early fourteenth century) and
that of L.U. (late eleventh century). But most unfortunately both MSS.
are imperfect, the Yellow Book at the opening, L.U. at the close of our
tale. Thus of the special episode under consideration, the "Combat at
the Ford," the older redaction is only extant in the fourteenth-century
MS., and it is always open to impugners of its archaic character to say
that it has been introduced there from the rival Leinster version.
Again, as regards (2), whilst it is practically certain that the great
mass of the Leinster version was in existence before the time of the
source whence both L.U. and Y.B.L. are derived, and must therefore date
back to the early eleventh century, it is by no means certain that this
version was not considerably altered and enlarged before it came to be
written down in the Book of Leinster some time before 1154.
The older version of the "Tain bo Cuailnge" has been translated by Miss
Winifred Faraday (Grimm Library, No. xvi. 1904). In her Introduction
(p. xvii.) Miss Faraday argues against the assumption "that L.L.
preserves an old version of the episode," and questions "whether the
whole Fer Diad[FN#67] episode may not be late." The truth of this one
contention would by no means involve that of the other; and again, both
might be true without invalidating any of the conclusions drawn by Mr.
Leahy (supra, p. 115). If the episode as we have it first took shape
in the tenth century, it would be late as compared with much of the
rest of the "Tain," and yet it would be the earliest example in
post-classic European literature of the sentiments and emotions to
which it gives such fine and sympathetic expression. In comparing the
two versions, the following fact is at once noticeable. The Y.B.L.
text occupies pp. 100-112 of Miss Faraday's translation, in round
figures, 320 lines of 8 words to the line, or some 2600 words; the
Leinster version, omitting the verse, fills some 500 lines of 14 words,
or 7000 words. Up to a certain point, however, the actual meeting of
the two champions, there is no difference between the versions in
length; the prose of both runs to about 2200 words. But the whole of
the actual fight (supra, pp. 129-153 in the Leinster version) is
compressed into a page and a half in the older redaction, some 800
words as against over 4000. Obviously this cannot represent the
original state of things; it would be psychologically impossible for
any story-teller to carry on his narrative up to a given stage with the
dramatic vigour, point, and artistically chosen detail displayed in the
first portion of the Y.B.L. version of the combat, and then to treat
the culmination of the tale in such a huddled, hasty, scamped manner.
The most likely explanation is that the original from which the Y.B.L.
scribe was copying was imperfect, and that the lacuna was supplied from
memory, and from a very faulty memory. No conclusion can thus, I
think, be drawn from the fact that the details of the actual combat are
so bald and meagre in the only extant text of the older redaction.
[FN#67] This is the spelling in Y. B. L. In L.L. the name appears as
one word, "Ferdiad"; usually scanned as a dissyllable--though
occasionally as a trisyllable. The spelling Ferdia is the conventional
one sanctioned by the usage of Ferguson, Aubrey de Vere, and others;
the scansion of the word as a trisyllable is on the same authority.
If the two versions be compared where they are really comparable, i.e.
in that portion which both narrate at approximately the same length,
the older redaction will be found fuller of incident, the characters
drawn with a bolder, more realistic touch, the presentment more
vigorous and dramatic. Ferdiad is unwilling to go against Cuchulain
not, apparently, solely for prudential reasons, and he has to be goaded
and taunted into action by Medb, who displays to the full her wonted
magnificently resourceful unscrupulousness, regardless of any and every
consideration, so long as she can achieve her purpose. The action of
Fergus is far more fully dwelt upon, and the scones between him and his
charioteer, as also between him and Cuchulain, are given with far
greater spirit. The hero is indignant that Fergus should think it
necessary to warn him against a single opponent, and says roundly that
it is lucky no one else came on such an errand. The tone of the older
redaction is as a whole rough, animated, individualistic as compared
with the smoother, more generalised, less accentuated presentment of
the Leinster version. But to conclude from this fact that the older
redaction of the actual combat, if we had it in its original fulness
instead of in a bald and fragmentary summary, would not have dwelt upon
the details of the fighting, would not have insisted upon the courteous
and chivalrous bearing of the two champions, would not have emphasised
the inherent pathos of the situation, seems to me altogether
unwarranted. On the contrary the older redaction, by touches of
strong, vivid, archaic beauty lacking in the Leinster version leads up
to and prepares for just such a situation as the latter describes so
finely. One of these touches must be quoted. Cuchulain's charioteer
asks him what he will do the night before the struggle, and then
continues, "It is thus Fer Diad will come to seek you, with new beauty
of plaiting and haircutting and washing and bathing.... It would
please me if you went to the place where you will got the same adorning
for yourself, to the place where is Emer of the Beautiful Hair.... So
Cuchulain went thither that night, and spent the night with his own
wife." There is indeed the old Irish hero faring forth to battle as a
lover to the love tryst! How natural, how inevitable with warriors of
such absurd and magnificent susceptibility, such boyish love of
swagger, how natural, I say, the free and generous emotion combined
with an overmastering sense of personal honour, and a determination to
win at all costs, which are so prominent in the Leinster version of the
fight.[FN#68]
[FN#68] The trait must not be put down as a piece of story-teller's
fancy. In another text of the Ulster cycle, Cath ruis na Rig,
Conchobor's warriors adorn and beautify themselves in this way before
the battle. The Aryan Celt behaved as did the Aryan Hellene. All
readers of Herodotus will recall how the comrades of Leonidas prepared
for battle by engaging in games and combing out their hair, and how
Demaretus, the counsellor of Xerxes, explained to the king "that it is
a custom with these men that when they shall prepare to imperil their
lives; that is the time when they adorn their heads" (Herodotus vii.
209.)
The contention that the older redaction, if we had it complete, would
resemble the younger one in its insistence upon the chivalrous bearing
of the two opponents, may also be urged on historical grounds. The
sentiment which gives reality and power to the situation is based upon
the strength of the tie of blood-brotherhood; so strong is this that it
almost balances the most potent element in the ideal of old Irish
heroism--the sense of personal honour and pre-eminence in all that
befits a warrior. The tie itself and the sentiment based upon it
certainly belong to pre-Christian times, and must have been losing
rather than gaining in strength during the historic period, say from
the fourth century onwards. The episode of Cuchulain's combat with
Ferdiad must have existed in the older redaction of the "Tain" for the
simple reason that a tenth and eleventh century story-teller would have
found nothing in the feelings, customs, or literary conventions of his
own day to suggest to him such a situation and such a manner of working
it out. But--and this consideration may afford a ground of
conciliation with Miss Faraday and the scholars who hold by the
lateness of the episode--the intrinsic beauty and pathos of the
situation, the fact of its constituting an artistic climax, would
naturally tempt the more gifted of the story-telling class. There
would be a tendency to elaborate, to adorn in the newest fashion, hence
to modernise, and it is not only conceivable but most probable that the
original form should be farther departed from than in the case of much
else in the epic.
ALFRED NUTT.
GENERAL NOTES
THE COURTSHIP OF ETAIN
The translation of both versions of this romance has been revised by
Professor Strachan, and the linguistic notes are due to him, unless
otherwise stated. The rendering given in the text is noted as
"doubtful," in cases where Professor Strachan does not assent.
PAGE 7
@@both line 17?
Line 17. "By a means that he devised," do airec memman, lit. "by a
device of mind." Compare airecc memman aith (Meyer, Hib. Minora, p. 28).
Line 17. "So that she became well-nourished, &c.," lit. "till there
came to her fatness and form;" sult probably means "fatness," and feth
"form."
PAGE 8
Line 25. "Curvetting and prancing," tuagmar, foran. These are guesses
by O'Curry: curvetting may be right, but there is little authority for
rendering foran as "prancing "; this word is doubtful. "With a broad
forehead," forlethan, lit. "broad above," O'Curry renders
"broad-rumped."
Line 34. "Upon the shore of the bay," forsin purt. Windisch's
rendering of port is "bank, harbour"; but it is doubtful whether the
word means more than "place."
PAGE 9
The literal rendering adopted for the poem runs thus:
Etain is here thus
at the elf-mound of the Fair-Haired Women west of Alba
among little children to her
on the shore of the Bay of Cichmaine.
It is she who cured the eye of the king
from the Well of Loch da lig,
it is she who was drunk in a draught
by the wife of Etar in a heavy draught.
Through war for her the king will chase
the birds from Tethba,
and will drown his two horses
in the lake da Airbrech.
There shall be abundant and many wars
through the war for thee on Echaid of Meath,
destruction shall be on the elf-mounds,
and war upon many thousands.
It is she who was hurt in the land (?),
it is she who strove to win the king,
it is she as compared to whom men men speak of fair women,
it is she, our Etain afterwards.
Line 2. "West of Alba" is literally "behind Alba," iar n-Albai: iar
is, however, also used in the sense of "west of."
Line 14 is given by Windisch "through the war over Meath rich in
horses"; this is impossible.
The translation of line 17 is not quite certain; the literal
translation of the MS. seems to be "it is she who was hurt and the
land." Da Airbrech in line 12 may mean "of two chariots."
PAGE 10
Literal translation of the quatrain:
Ignorant was Fuamnach, the wife of Mider,
Sigmall and Bri with its trees
in Bri Leth: it was a full trial
were burned by means of Manannan.
PAGE 11
Line 5. "Labraid the Tracker." This is a very doubtful rendering, the
text gives Labradae Luircc.
Line 25. "That he desired full knowledge of." There seems to be
something with the Irish here; the word is co fessta which could only
be third singular subj. pass. "that it might be known," which does not
make grammar. It should be co fessed or co festais, "that he (or they)
might know."
PAGE 12
Line 9. "His officers who had the care of the roads." A very doubtful
rendering; the Irish is tarraluing sligeth.
Line 29. "A bright purple mantle waved round her," lit. "a bright
purple curling (?) mantle," but the sense of caslechta as "curling" is
not certain.
Line 30. "Another mantle." The word for mantle here is folai, in the
former line it was brat.
PAGE 13
Line 3. "As white as the snow." ba gilighuir mechto: not "whiter than
the snow," as Windisch's Dict. gives it.
Line 17. "All that's graceful, &c.," cach cruth co hEtain, coem cach
co hEtain. Compare conid chucum bagthir cach n-delb. (L.U., 124b, 17,
"Courtship of Emer "), and Ir. Text., iii. p. 356, 1. 4, from which it
may be seen that the meaning is that Etain is the test to which all
beauty must be compared.
PAGE 14
Line 19. "So long as they were," not "so long as he was." The Irish
is cein ropas, and ropas is the impersonal preterite passive.
Line 29. "The choking misery, &c.," lit. "he let come to him the
slaodan of a heavy sickness:" slaodan is the cough of consumption.
PAGE 15
Line 2. Lit. "worse and worse," messa a cach.
Line 18. "His burial mound," a fert fodbuigh. Compare Zimmer, Kuhn's
Zeitschrift, xxx. 9, for fotbuig.
Literal rendering of the dialogue:
B. What hath happened to thee, O young man?
long is thy bed of sickness,
prostrate is thy full and splendid pace,
however fair the weather may be.
A. There is cause for my sighs;
the music of my harp contents me not;
neither does any milk please me,
it is this that brings me into a pitiful state.
E. Tell me what ails thee, O man,
for I am a maiden who is wise;
tell me of anything which may be of benefit to thee
that thy healing may be wrought by me.
A. To speak of it is not possible for me
(lit. "finds not room in me"),
O maiden, lovely is thy form,
there is fire of some one behind her eyes (?)
nor are the secrets of women good.
B. Though the secrets of women are bad,
yet, if it is love, the remembrance remains for long;
from the time when the matter is taken into hand
this thing is not deserving of its (?) recognition.
A. A blessing on thee, O white maiden,
I am not worthy of this speech to me;
neither am I grateful to my own mind,
my body is in opposition to me.
Wretched indeed is this, O wife of the King,
Eochaid Fedlech in very truth,
my body and my head are sick,
it is reported in Ireland.
E. If there is among the troops of white women
any one who is vexing thee,
she shall come here, if it is pleasing to thee,
there shall be made by my help her courtship.
In verse 3, line 2, inniss dam gach dal, dal means no more than thing
it is not an accusative from dal, a meeting.
Verse 4, line 3. Meaning doubtful.
Verse 7, line 2. The confusion between Eochaid Airemm, the king in
this story, and his brother Eochaid Fedlech is obvious. It may, as
Windisch thinks, be an indication that the poem is not part of the
romance as originally composed, but other explanations are possible.
Line 4. "It is reported." Not quite certain; Irish is issed berair.
PAGE 17
Line 11. "And great gain, &c." Text defective, and meaning uncertain.
Line 13. Rhetoric; the literal translation seems to be as follows, but
some words are uncertain:
It is love that was longer enduring (?) than a year my love,
it is like being under the skin,
it is the kingdom of strength over destruction.
It is the dividing into quarters of the earth,
it is summit (7) of heaven,
it is breaking of the neck,
it is a battle against a spectre.
It is drowning with cold (or ? water),
it is a race up heaven,
it is a weapon under the ocean,
it is affection for an echo;
(so is) my affection and my love and my desire of the one on whom I
have set (my love).
PAGE 18
Line 2. The translation given is Windisch's, "it is sorrow under the
skin is Strachan's rendering.
Line 5. Translation uncertain. Irish is dichend nime.
Line 8. Is combath fri huacht (I read husce).
Literal rendering of the poem:
Arise, O glorious Ailill,
great bravery is more proper to thee than anything;
since thou shalt find here what was wished by thee,
thy healing shall be done by me.
If it should please thee in thy wise mind,
place hand about my neck;
a beginning of courtship, beautiful its colour,
woman and man kissing each other.
But, if this is not enough for thee, O good man,
O son of a king, O royal prince,
I will give for thy healing, O glorious crime,
from my knee to my navel.
A hundred cows, a hundred ounces of gold,
a hundred bridled horses were collecting,
a hundred garments of each variegated colour,
these were brought as a price for me.
A hundred of each other beast came hither,
the drove was great;
these to me quickly, till the sum was complete,
gave Eochaid at the one time.
Line 14. Of poem. "Were collecting," ratinol. This is the rendering
in Windisch's Dictionary, but is a doubtful one.
Line 18. Imerge means "drove," not "journey," as in Windisch.
Line 27 of text. "Wrought a great healing, &c." Irish, ro lessaig,
"healed him" (Windisch); "waited upon him" (Strachan).
PAGE 19
Line 17. "For fear of danger." Baegal, "danger," has sometimes the
sense of "chance," "risk."
Line 23. "That is what I would demand of thee." Translation not quite
certain Irish, cid rotiarfaiged.
PAGE 20