Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 4, 1893.djvu/493

 The Edinburgh Dinnshenchas. 485

speak with him, on sea or on land, without being asked by him, for he was the host-steward of the men of Erin. Once upon a time the echo of his (own) voice spoke out of the crag behind him. He turned towards it to take vengeance upon it for speaking, and the crest of the sea-wave overtook him and dashed him against the crag, so that, finally, he died. There was the end of his life. Whence was said :

Linga the Arrogant, a man with fame, Lived in the time of Finntan, The sea threw him backwards violently,^ Against the side of a crag, without conflict.

Also in LL. 165 b 25 ; BB. 407 b 3 ; H. (I omitted to note the page) ; and Lee. 519 b. Of "Find, son of Finntan", I know nothing.

[66. Mag Mugna.] — Magh Mughna, canas rohainmnigheadh ? Maighnia 71b Mairgnia .1. morgnimh feadha daurbhile mora roasai ann, comti'r coimhleathna a mbarr fnssin magh. teora toirthi fodocheardais in gach bliaa'rt/w [.i. dearcain 3 ubla ;] cnai.] Intan dothuitead in dearcu dedhenach is and nofhasadh blaith na ce[t]derca;? dib, r^;ndh taibhdeisdear Ninne eigeas, go ro leagh riamh condergan ailind de .1. nith nemhannach, ^ is desin ata Magh Mugna.

Mughna durbhile gan on

forsa. mbid meas is torudh.

ba comhleathan a barr hec/it

fnsin magh mor gan eigeart .1. aine orda.

Mag Mughna, whence was it named ?

Maighnia or mair-gnia, "great sister's son," to wit, a great deed. Ifere there is a lacuna.

Wood.s, great oak-trees grew there, so that their tops were as broad as the plain. Three fruits they used to yield in every year, to wit, acorns and apples, and nuts. When the last acorn fell, then the blossom of the first of these acorns would grow, so

that Ninine the poet

and thence is Magh Mugna.

Mughna's oak-tree without blemish, Whereon were mast and fruit. Its top was as broad precisely As the great plain without ....

Also in BB. 368 b 26 ; H. 23 a ; Lee. 466 a ; and R. loi b. All the copies are obscure, and the Edinburgh copy is incomplete.

In a note to the Calendar of Ocngus, Dee. 11, Mugna is said to have been a

^ This line is a mere guess. I take rofaen to be 3rd sg. pret. of a denominative from faeii = Lat. supinus, and foil to be oil .1. mor (O'Cl.), with prothetic/ The compar. /-/c///;^ occurs in LU. 22^ 40.