Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 3, 1892.djvu/520

 5^2 1 he Bodleian Dinnshenchas.

The King, son of Ere, turned, When he was borne to the side of Hui Neill : Blood sought girdles in every (battle)field, He increased territories afar. I am afraid of the woman (Sin), Round whom move many storms (sina), For the man who will be burnt in fire, Whom wine will drown beside Clettech.

Also in LL. i66b36; H. 14 b; Lee. 517 b; and R. 122 b i.

Clettech, near Stackallan Bridge, on the south side of the Boyne. " Forty years was Cormac, son of Art, son of Conn, in the sovranty of Ireland, when he died at Cletech, the bone of a salmon sticking in his throat on account of the enchantment (siabrad) which Maelgenn the druid practised upon him, after Cormac had turned against the druids because he worshipped God rather than them," Four Masters, A.D. 266.

The story of Muirchertach's death, a.d. 527, is told in the unpublished Oidcd Aluirchcrtaig Moir maze Erca. " Accordmg to this story", says O'Donovan (Four Masters, A.D. 526, note b), " Muircheartach fell a victim to the revenge of a concubine named Sin (Sheen), for whom he had abandoned his lawful queen, but whom he afterwards consented to put away at the command of S. Cairneach. This concubine having lost her father, mother, sister, and others of her family, who were of the old tribe of Tara, by the hand of Muircheartach in the battle of Cirb or Ath Si'dhe, on the Boyne, threw herself in his way and became his mistress for the purpose of wreaking her vengeance upon him with the greater facility. And the story states that she burnt the house of Cletty over the head of the monarch, who, when scorched by the flames, plunged into a puncheon of wine, in which he was suffocated. Hence it was said that he was drowned and burnt." See also Tigernach's Annals, A.D. 534 (Rawl. B. 488, fo. 7b i); Chronicum Scotorutn, A.D. 531 ; Annals of Ulster, A.D. 533 ; and Petrie's Tara Hill, pp. 96, 97.

[48. Cerna.] — Cernna, cid dia ta ? ,

Ni ansa .1. Cerna, dono, [mac Ailella Olchain rohadnacht annj. Cerna, Cerm^za, copbrach [ca], Callann Mellenn, Dabilla,^ Crinda, Cerrind, Coroi rot, Cuillenn cairptech, is coem-Colt, da coicf(?r sin, se[g]da main, do sil OUeWa Olchain.^ [No Cerniam] ba hainm don sidaidhe [leg. do thoisiuch in tsi'de] fil ann, cui nomen est Cerniam. Is uad rohainmni[g]ed in dind sin a soin ille.

Cerna, then, son of Ailill Olchain, was buried there.

" Cerna, Cermna," etc. Or Cerniam was the name of the chief of the fairy-mound which is there. After him that hill has been named from that to this.

Also in LL. 168 a 39 ; H. 15 a ; Lee. 518 a ; and R. 122 b i.

O'Donovan says. Four Masters, A.D. 890, note .ff, that Cearna is not identified, but that it is referred to in the Dinnshenchas as in Meath. In H., Lee, and R., the "chief burial-place of the east of Meath and of Bregia" is stated to be at Cerna.

^ MS. Gallant dabilla callan« mellen« Coltt. ^ in the M.S. these six lines end the article.