both forms of the romance and once by Laeg in the second description of
Fairyland, is Labraid Luath lamar-claideb, the title being as closely
connected with him as {Greek boh`n a?gaðo`s Mene'laos}with Menelaus in
Homer. It is usually translated as "Labraid quick-hand-on-sword," but
the Luath need not be joined to lam, it is not in any of the places in
the facsimile closely joined to it, and others than Liban give to
Labraid the title of Luath or "swift," without the addition.
The literal translation of the short pieces of rhetoric on pages 62, 63
are,
"Where is Labraid the swift hand-on-sword,
who is the head of troops of victory?
(who) triumphs from the strong frame of his chariot,
who reddens red spear-points."
"Labraid the son of swiftness is there,
he is not slow, abundant shall be
the assembly of war, slaughter is set
when the plain of Fidga shall be full."
"Welcome to thee, O Laeg!
for the sake of her with whom thou hast come;
and since thou hast come,
welcome to thee for thyself!"
The metre of the first two pieces is spirited and unusual. The second
one runs:
Ata Labraid luithe cland,
ni ba mall bid immda
tinol catha, cuirther ar,
día ba Ian Mag Fidgae.
PAGE 63
Line 24. "Fand." The derivations of the names of Fand and of Aed Abra
are quite in keeping with the character of the Antiquarian form, and
would be out of place in the other form of the romance. It may perhaps
be mentioned that the proper meaning of Abra is "an eyelash," but the
rendering "Aed Abra of the Fiery Eyebrows," which has been employed in
accounts of this romance, would convey a meaning that does not seem to
have been in the mind of the authors of either of the two forms.
For the literal translations of the three invocations to Labraid, on
pp. 63, 66, Thurneysen (p. 87) may be referred to; but there would be a
few alterations.
In the first, line 2 should be "heir of a little host, equipped with
light spears," if Windisch's Dictionary is to be followed; line 5 would
seem to begin "he seeketh out trespasses" (oirgniu); and line 7 should
begin, "attacker of heroes," not "an attacking troop," which hardly
makes sense.
In the second invocation the first line should alter Labraid's title to
"Labraid the swift hand-on-sword-of-battle;" line 3 should end with
"wounded his side." In line 6 and again in the third line of the third
invocation, Thurneysen translates gus as "wrath": Windisch gives the
word to mean "strength."
Line 4 of the third invocation is rendered "he pierceth through men" by
Thurneysen; the Irish is criathraid ocu. Criathraim is given by
O'Reilly as meaning "to sift": "he sifteth warriors" seems a
satisfactory meaning, if O'Reilly is to be relied on.
PAGE 65
Labraid's answer to the three invocations seems to run thus, but the
translation is doubtful, many words are marked unknown by Windisch: "I
have no pride or arrogance, O lady, nor renown, it is not error, for
lamentation is stirred our judgment" (reading na ardarc nid mell, chai
mescthair with the second MS.), "we shall come to a fight of very many
and very hard spears, of plying of red swords in right fists, for many
peoples to the one heart of Echaid Juil (?), (let be) no anbi of thine
nor pride, there is no pride or arrogance in me, O lady." I can make
nothing of Anbi.
PAGE 66
Thurneysen does not translate the rhetoric; the translation seems to
run thus:
Great unprofitableness for a hero to lie
in the sleep of a sick-bed;
for unearthly women show themselves,
women of the people of the fiery plain of Trogach,
and they have subdued thee,
and they have imprisoned thee,
and they have chased thee away (?) amid great womanish folly.
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 chellti if connected with tochell),
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 (?).
PAGE 67
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
asserted 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 assemble on the Hill of
Slane in the "Tain bo Cuailgne."
The Smith of Conor is of course Culann, from whom Cuchulain got his
name.
PAGES 68, 69
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.
PAGE 69
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.
PAGE 71
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 glass"
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 noble 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 glass"; 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 passed through the rings. This explanation has been suggested by
Professor Ridgeway, and seems to fit admirably the passages 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.
(The last line is more literally, "not excepting a queen or, &c.")
I will say, since it hath been heard by me,
that the seed of Adam was sinless;
but the beauty of Fand up to my time
hath not found its equal.
For the allusion to Adams sin, compare Etain, p. 26. Allusions like
these show that the tales were composed in Christian times. There
seems no reason to suppose them to be insertions, especially in cases
like this one, where they come in quite naturally.
Line 21 is literally "with their arms for slaying"; not "who warred on
each other with weapons" as in Thurneysen.
PAGE 76
For the cooling of Cuchulain's battle-frenzy with water compare the
similar treatment in the account of his first foray (L.U., 63a; Miss
Faraday's translation, p. 34).
For a literal translation of Faud's triumph song over Cuchulain's
return see Thurneysen's translation on page 97 Of the work already
referred to. Thurneysen's translation is very close; perhaps the last
verse should run: "Long rain of red blood at the side of the trees, a
token of this proud and masterful, high with wailing is the sorrow for
his fiend-like frenzy."
The description of Cuchulain's appearance in verses 5 and 6 seems to
point to a conception of him as the sun-god. Compare the "sunlike"
seat of his chariot on page 79.
PAGE 78
The literal translation of Liban's rhetoric in welcome to Cuchulain
seems to be, "Hail to Cuchulain! King who brings help, great prince of
Murthemne! great his mind; pomp of heroes; battle-triumphing; heart of
a hero; strong rock of skill; blood-redness of wrath; ready for true
foes of the hero who has the valour of Ulster (?); bright his
splendour; splendour of the eyes of maidens; Hail to Cuchulain!"
Torc in the second line is glossed in the MS. by "that is, a king."
Cuchulain's account of his own battle is omitted by Thurneysen,
possibly because the account that he gives differs from that in the
text, as is pointed out by Windisch, Ir. Text., vol. i. p. 201). But
it is quite in keeping with the hero's character that he should try to
lessen his own glory; and the omission of this account destroys one of
the features of the tale.
The literal rendering is:
I threw a cast with my light spear
into the host of Eogan the Stream;
not at all do I know, though renowned the price,
the victory that I have done, or the deed.
Whether he was better or inferior to my strength
hitherto I chanced not on for my decision,
a throw, ignorance of the man in the mist,
certainly he came not away a living man.
A white army, very red for multitudes of horses,
they followed after me on every side (?),
people of Manannan Mac Lir,
Eogan the Stream called them.
I set out in each manner
when my full strength had come to me;
one man to their thirty, hundreds,
until I brought them to death.
I heard the groan of Echaid Juil,
lips speak in friendship,
if it is really true, certainly it was not a fight (?),
that cast, if it was thrown.
The idea of a battle with the waves of the sea underlies the third
verse of this description.
PAGE 79
Five pieces of rhetoric follow, all of which are translated by
Thurneysen. A few alterations may be made, but all of them would be
small ones. The verse translations given are, it is believed, a little
closer to the text than Thurneysen's. The metres of the first three
pieces are discussed by Professor Rhys in Y Cymmrodor for 1905 (pages
166, 167). Professor Rhys reduces the second of these to a hexameter
followed by three pentameters, then a hexameter followed by a
pentameter. The other two reduce to hexameters mixed with curtailed
hexameters and pentameters. The last two pieces of the five, not
mentioned by Professor Rhys, show a strophic correspondence, which has
been brought out in the verse translation; note especially their
openings, and the last line of Emer's speech, cia no triallta, as
balancing the last line but four of Cuchulain's speech, cia no
comgellta. The last of these five pieces shows the greatest
differences between the verse and literal translations. A literal
translation of this would run:
"Wherefore now, O Emer!" said Cuchulain, "should I not be permitted to
delay with this lady? for first this lady here is bright, pure, and
clear, a worthy mate for a king; of many forms of beauty is the lady,
she can pass over waves of mighty seas, is of a goodly shape and
countenance and of a noble race, with embroidery and skill, and with
handiwork, with
understanding, and sense, and firmness; with plenty of horses and many
cattle, so that there is nothing under heaven, no wish for a dear
spouse that she doth not. And though it hath been promised (?), Emer,"
he said, "thou never shalt find a hero so beautiful, so scarred with
wounds, so battle-triumphing, (so worthy) as I myself am worthy."
PAGE 81
Line 11. "Fair seems all that's red, &c.," is literally "fair is each
red, white is each new, beautiful each lofty, sour is each known,
revered is each thing absent, failure is each thing accustomed."
For a translation of the poem in which Fand resigns Cuchulain reference
may be made to Thurneysen (p. 101). A more accurate translation of the
first verse seems to run thus:
I am she who will go on a journey
which is best for me on account of strong compulsion;
though there is to another abundance of her fame,
(and) it were dearer to me to remain.
Line 16 of poem, translated by Thurneysen "I was true and held my
word," is in the original daig is misi rop iran. Iran is a doubtful
word, if we take it as a form of aur-an, aur being the intensitive
prefix, a better translation may be, "I myself was greatly glowing."
PAGE 82
Line 26. "The lady was seized by great bitterness of mind," Irish ro
gab etere moir. The translation of etere is doubtful.
PAGE 83
For the final poem, in which Fand returns to Manannan, reference may as
before be made to Thurneysen's translation; but a few changes may be
noted:
Line 1 should be, "See the son of the hero people of the Sea."
Line 5 seems to be, "Although" (lit. "if") "it is to-day that his cry
is excellent."
Line 7 is a difficult one. Thurneysen gives, "That indeed is the
course of love," apparently reading rot, a road, in place of ret; but
he leaves eraise untranslated; the Irish is is eraise in ret in t-serc.
Might not eraise be "turning back," connected with eraim, and the line
run: "It is turning back of the road of love"?
Lines 13 to 16 are omitted by Thurneysen. They seem to mean:
When the comely Manannan took me,
he was to me a fitting spouse;
nor did he at all gain me before that time,
an additional stake (?) at a game at the chess.
The last line, cluchi erail (lit. "excess") ar fidchill, is a difficult
allusion. Perhaps the allusion is to the capture of Etain by Mider as
prize at chess from her husband. Fand may be claiming superiority over
a rival fairy beauty.
Lines 17 and 18 repeat lines 13 and 14.
Lines 46 and 47 are translated by Thurneysen, "Too hard have I been
offended; Laeg, son of Riangabra, farewell," but there is no "farewell"
in the Irish. The lines seem to be: "Indeed the offence was great, O
Laeg, O thou son of Riangabra," and the words are an answer to Laeg,
who may be supposed to try to stop her flight.
PAGE 85
Line 24. "That she might forget her jealousy," lit. "a drink of
forgetfulness of her jealousy," deoga dermait a heta. The translation
seems to be an accepted one, and certainly gives sense, but it is
doubtful whether or not eta can be regarded as a genitive of et,
"jealousy "; the genitive elsewhere is eoit.
There is a conclusion to this romance which is plainly added by the
compiler: it is reproduced here, to show the difference between its
style and the style of the original author:
"This then was a token given to Cuchulain that he should be destroyed
by the People of the Mound, for the power of the demons was great
before the advent of the Faith; so great was that power that the demons
warred against men in bodily form, and they showed delights and secret
things to them; and that those demons were co-eternal was believed by
them. So that from the signs that they showed, men called them the
Ignorant Folk of the Mounds, the People of the Sid."
THE EXILE OF THE SONS OF USNACH
PAGE 91
The four pieces of rhetoric, at the beginning of this text are
translated by Thurneysen, Sagen aus dem alten Irland, pp. 11 and 12.
In the first, third, and fourth of those, the only difference of any
importance between the text adopted and Thurneysen's versions is the
third line of the third piece, which perhaps should run: "With stately
eyes with blue pupils," segdaib suilib sellglassaib, taking the text of
the Yellow Book of Lecan.
The second piece appears to run as follows:
Let Cathbad hear, the fair one, with face that all love,
the prince, the royal diadem, let he who is extolled be increased
by druid arts of the Druid:
because I have no words of wisdom
to oppose (?) to Feidlimid,
the light of knowledge;
for the nature of woman knows not
what is under her body,
(or) what in the hollow of my womb cries out.
These rhetorics are remarkable for the great number of the
alliterations in the original.
PAGE 93
Thurneysen omits a verse of Cathbad's poem. A translation of the whole
seems to run thus:
Deirdre, great cause of destruction,
though thou art fair of face, famous, pale,
Ulster shall sorrow in thy time,
thou hidden (?) daughter of Feidlimid.
Windisch's Dict. gives "modest daughter" in the last line; the original
is ingen fial. But the word might be more closely connected with fial,
"a veil." "Modest" is not exactly the epithet that one would naturally
apply to the Deirdre of the Leinster version, and the epithet of
"veiled" or "hidden" would suit her much better, the reference being to
her long concealment by Conor.
There shall be mischief yet afterwards
on thy account, O brightly shining woman,
hear thou this! at that time shall be
the exile of the three lofty sons of Usnach.
It is in thy time that a violent deed
shall be done thereupon in Emain,
yet afterwards shall it repent the violation
of the safeguard of the mighty son of Rog.
Do foesam is read in the last verse, combining the Leinster and the
Egerton texts.
It is through thee, O woman with excellence,
(is) the exile of Fergus from the Ulstermen,
and a deed from which weeping will come,
the wound of Fiachna, the son of Conor.
Fiachna. is grandson to Conor in the Book of Leinster account of the
battle. Fiacha is Conor's son in the Glenn Masain version.
It is thy fault, O woman with excellence,
the wound of Gerrc son of Illadan,
and a deed of no smaller importance,
the slaying of Eogan mac Durthacht.
There is no account of the slaying of Eogan in the Book of Leinster
version; and Eogan appears on the Hill of Slane in the Ulster army in
the War of Cualgne. The sequel to the Glenn Masain version, however,
describes Eogan's death at the hand of Fergus (Celtic Review, Jan.
1905, p. 227).
Thou shalt do a deed that is wild and hateful
for wrath against the king of noble Ulster;
thy little grave shall be in that place,
thy tale shall be renowned, O Deirdre.
PAGE 95
Line 13. "Release me, O my wife!" eirgg uaim a ben. It is suggested
that the vocative ben is "wife," not "woman." It occurs in seven other
places besides this in Windisch's Dictionary, and in six of these it
means wife (Emer is addressed as wife of Cuchulain in a deig-ben, in
"Sick-bed," 44). In the remaining case ("Fled Bricrend," 31) the word
is abbreviated, and stands b in the text, which might be for be, "O
lady," though we should have then expected the accent. I suggest that
Naisi, by giving to Deirdre the name of "wife," accepts her offer, for
no other sign of acceptance is indicated, and the subsequent action
shows that she is regarded as his wife afterwards.
Line 30. "Near to Ballyshannon," and "which men to-day call the
Mountain of Howth," are inserted as the modern names of the places.
The words correspond to nothing in the Irish.
PAGE 97
Line 13. "Fiacha." Fiacha, the son of Fergus, corresponds to Illan in
the better known version. There is no one in this version who
corresponds to the traitor son, Buinne.
PAGE 98
The "Lament of Deirdre," one of the finest of the older Irish poems,
has been rendered by Thurneysen and by others, among which should be
specially mentioned Miss Hull, in the Cuchullin Saga, pp. 50-51.
O'Curry's and O'Flanagan's versions seem to be very far from correct,
and it will be more convenient to give that literal translation which
seems nearest to the original, instead of indicating divergencies. The
literal translation adopted runs as follows:
Though fair to you seems the keen band of heroes
who march into Emain that they lately left (lit "after departing"),
more stately was the return to their home
of the three heroic sons of Usnach.
Naisi, with mead of delicious hazel-nuts
(came), to be bathed by me at the fire,
Ardan, with an ox or boar of excellence,
Aindle, a faggot on his stately back.
Though sweet be the excellent mead to you
which is drunk by the son of Ness, the rich in strife,
there has been known to me, ere now, leaping over a bank,
frequent sustenance which was sweeter.
Line 3 of the above stanza seems to be baithium riam reim for bra,
taking reim from the Egerton text. The allusion is to a cascade.
When the noble Naisi spread out
a cooking-hearth on hero-board of tree,
sweeter than any food dressed under honey[FN#69]
was what was captured by the son of Usnach.
[FN#69] For "food dressed under honey" compare Fraech, line 544, in
the second volume.
Though melodious to you each month
(are the) pipers and horn-blowers,
it is my open statement to you to-day
I have heard melody sweeter far than these.
For Conor, the king, is melody
pipers and blowers of horns,
more melodious to me, renowned, enchanting
the voice given out by the sons of Usnach.
Like the sound of the wave the voice of Naisi,
it was a melodious sound, one to hearken to for ever,
Ardan was a good barytone,
the tenor of Aindle rang through the dwelling-place.