Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 3, 1892.djvu/479

 The Bodleian D inns henc has. 471

f^remidh Tulchaine a tabairt-si co twcadh a dam le. Robo duaP do %idt in Morrigan, ■] rogaid-sium di tabairt do na himana sin co mbeith im-Maig Olgaide .1. cetna ainm in maige,'-(3 rochar Brega in mag sin). Unde Mag mBregh dicitur.

No comad o Breoga mac Bveogain lasro slectad in mag no hainmnig[the]a, et quod uerius est, et unde poeta dLxi't :

Mag mBreogrt:, buaid ar mbunaidh, CO Tuaim Trebain cen trelaim, sinds^fr na laech dar leru, Breog'a, rogab for Bregai^.

Mag mBng, to wit, Brega, the name of Dil's ox, that is Dil, daughter of Lugh-mannair, who went from the Land of Promise, or from the land of Falga, with Tulchine, the druid of Conaire the Great, son of Etirscel, son of Mess Buachalla. In the same hour that Dil was born of her mother the cow brought forth the calf named P\alga. So the king's daughter loved the calf beyond the rest of the cattle, for it was born at the same time (that she was) ; and Tulchine was unable to carry her off until he took the ox with her. The Morrigan was good unto him, and he prayed her to give him that drove so that it might be on Mag nOlgaidi, (which was) the first name of the plain; (and Brega loved that plain). Hence Mag mBreg is (so) called.

Or maybe it was named from Breogan, by whom the plain was cleared. This is truer, and hence the poet said :

Mag Breoga, palm of our origin, As far as Tuaimm Trebain without weakness.^ The eldest of the heroes over seas, Breoga, overcame Brega.

Also in BB. 406 b 45 ; Lee. 517 a ; R. 122 b i.

Mag fit Br eg (also Bregmag), the name of a large plain in East Meath.

"The Land of Promise", one of the names for Fairy-land.

"The land of Falga" (or "of the men of Falga") seems to have been a name for the Isle of Man. O'Curry, Lectures, 588, note 172.

Conaire the Great, the hero of the Bruden Da-Derga, said to have been king of Ireland, and killed by outlaws B.C. 40. His druid, or rather buffoon {druiA), is described in LU. 92 b — 93 a.

The Alorrfgan {morigai/i, g\. lamia, Regina 215, fo. loi), one of the Tuatha D6 Danann. See infra, s.v. Berba.

The Breogan "here mentioned is, perhaps, the Spanish sovran in Keating, pp. 178, 179, 196.

[3. Laigin.] — Laigin a laginis uocatur .1. donaib laignib lethan- glassaib dombe?rtsat leo na Dubgaill dar muir anall .1. da CiV ar fichit cet a li'n maroen la l^ohraid I.oingsech Moen, m^c Ailella Aine maic Loega/r/ Luirc raaic \Jgaini Moir. IS ond Labraidh sin ille fil grain •] geretacht •] omun j urfuath {or Laig;//<5' etir firu Erenn. Ar ba mor ind neim ^ in duabais -j in duaig ro himredh

1 dual .1. maith, O'Dav. 79. - MS. muigie.

^ trealamh, weakness, O'R.