Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 3, 1892.djvu/508

 500 The Bodleian Dinnshenckas.

[36. BOANN.] — Boann can[a.s] rohainmni[g]ed ?

Ni ansa .1. Boann bean Nechtain mate Labrada maic Namhat dodesichaid lasna deogbairib [dochum in tobuir] a hurlainde in duine. Cach n-aen no tegeadh chuicce ni teigedh uadha cen athais. Badar heat a n-anmanna seo tra batar ic N^^r/z/ain .1. Flesc -^ Lesc ^ Luam. Metihlxs iat [Nechtan 3] na deogbaire tra ristais dochum in topair, ni thicfad nech daenna uada cen athaiss.

Luid^ ian/m ind rigan la huaill ■] diraraus dochum in topair, ~\ asbert nad boi occa do na^r/z diamair no do nach cumachtu mani^ coimsedh aithis for a deilb, ^ dosaig ior tuaithfiul in topuir fot?-i do airi[g]ud a cumar/z/ai in topuir. Maidhid tri tonna asin topur tarrsi, coro immidh (sic) co ro-obann [14^ i] a des-sli[a]sait ^ a dess-lam^ 3 a des-suil, j is iarmo roteag assa sidh ior teichedh"* na haitisi 3 {or teichedh'' in topuir iar;/m, co riacht in muir .1. in t-uisce^ ina diaid 3 ros-baid i n-Inbiur Bonne. Unde Boann ] Inher mBonne?,

Dia Boann broga Breag brissis cach fal co find-lear, ba Boan[n] a hainm fria la mna Nechtain maic Labradha.

B6ann, wife of Nechtan, son of Labraid, son of Nama, went with the cupbearers to the well of the green of the fortress. Whoever went alone to it came not from it without disgrace. Now these were the names of the cupbearers whom Nechtan had, even Flesc and Lesc and Luam. Unless the cupbearers went to the well, no human being would come from it without disgrace.

Then, with pride and haughtiness, the queen went (alone) to the well, and said that it had no secret or power unless it could dis- grace her shape. And she went round the well withershins thrice, to perceive the well's (magic) power. Out of the well three waves break over her, and suddenly her right thigh and her right hand and her right eye burst, and then she fled out of the fairy-mound, fleeing the disgrace and fleeing the well, so that she reached the sea with the water (of the well) behind her. And the Inber B6inne (" Rivermouth of Boyne") drowned her. Hence "Boann" and " Inber B6inne".

(One) day Boyne of the mark of Bregia Broke every fence as far as the white sea ; ' Boann' was the name on (that) day Of the wife of Nechtan, son of Labraid.

Also in BB. 361 a 49 ; H. 9a ; and R. 97 a.

Bdatin, now the river Boyne, which rises at tlie foot of Si'd Nechtain, a hill in the barony of Carbury, co. Kildare. The story is versified in the Book of Leinster, 191a. See also Rhys, Hibbert Lectures, pp. 123, 556.

1 MS. luaid. ^ ms. mino. ^ ^3. deislaim. * MS. teithedh. ^ MS. teithetrh. "^ MS. in'muir.