On the consecrated Paschal fire, see Frazer, _Balder the Beautiful_,
vol. i, p. 120 ff.
_Parallels._--Coemgen carried fire in his bosom (CS, 837, VSH,
i, 236). Cadoc also carried fire in his cloak without injury
(_Cambro-British Saints_, pp. 30, 319). Elsewhere we hear of flames
which do not consume, as in the burning bush of Moses, and probably
in imitation of it (Exod. iii, 2). Thus the magic fire that delivered
Samthann from a forced marriage appeared to ignite a whole town,
which, however, suffered no injury (VSH, ii, 253). The fall of fire
from heaven in answer to prayer is most likely imitated from 1 Kings
xviii, 38.
The verse extracts at the end of LB (which see) contain a form of this
story incompatible with the prose narratives.
The boy slain but not torn by wolves is, of course, imitated from the
Prophet whose story is told in 1 Kings xiii, which is directly quoted
in LA.
The mutual blessings of the two saints may be compared with the
prophecy said to have been uttered by Ciaran of Saints Cronan and
Molan who visited him at Clonmacnois (CS, 542). The one (Cronan) took
away with him the remains of his repast for distribution to the poor,
the other left them behind in the monastery; whereupon Ciaran said
that the monastery of the one should be rich in wealth and in charity,
that of the other should always maintain the rule (of poverty). Such
tales as this, of compacts between saints, are probably based on
mutual arrangements of one kind or another between the monasteries
which claimed the saints as founders; we have already seen leagues
established between Clonard and Aran on one side and Clonmacnois on
the other, expressed as leagues made by Ciaran with Findian and Enda
respectively. Contrariwise, we read of the disagreement of saints when
their monasteries were at feud with one another. Ciaran was not always
so successful in making treaties with his ecclesiastical brethren.
Thus, he is said to have made overtures to Colman mac Luachain of Lann
(now Lynn, Co. Westmeath)--a remarkable feat in itself, as Colman died
about a century after his time--but not only did Colman refuse, but he
sent a swarm of demons in the shape of wasps to repel Ciaran and his
followers, who were journeying towards him. Ciaran then made a more
moderate offer, which Colman again refused.[26] Lann was in the
territory of the Delbna, who, although friendly to Clonmacnois in
the middle of the eleventh century, plundered it towards its close
(_Chronicon Scotorum_, 1058, 1090; _Annals of Four Masters_, 1060).
The chronology of Ciaran the Elder is entirely uncertain. He is said
to have been one of the pre-Patrician saints, in which case he could
hardly have been a contemporary of Ciaran the Younger, unless we
believe in the portentous length of life with which the hagiographers
credit him (over three centuries, according to the _Martyrology of
Donegal_, though others are content with a more moderate estimate).
The story of Crithir is told again in the Lives of Ciaran the Elder
(see _Silua Gadelica_, vol. i, p. 14, and corresponding translation).
The culprit is there called Crithid, and the version adds that the
event took place in a time of snow.
_The Geographical Names in LA._--Saigyr, properly Saigir, is now
Seir-Kieran in King's Co. Hele, properly Eile, was a region comprising
the baronies of Clonlisk and Ballybrit in King's Co., and Eliogarty
and Ikerrin in Tipperary.