Page:The Gael Vol XXII January to December 1903.djvu/319

354 {|
 * Fifteen thousand shining linen bed-draperies (13), with the color of horns of precious myrrh;
 * Fifteen thousand copper cauldrons, in which was boiled the mead of Magh-moen;
 * A wether with which would touch the breast of another, that was the load of the fine cauldron.
 * A copper cauldron of them in Tara, twelve pigs down in it apart;
 * The twelve pigs were not too much (?), it was they that filled half (the cauldron).
 * Just with that number of pigs, the same number of calves, that used to fill it long ago;
 * With that the cauldron was filled; a slaughter of calves was in it
 * From the time of Tuathal they levied it (the Tribute), to the time of Finnachta of the spears (15),
 * Forty kings of the race of Tuathal exacted it from the borders of Brigh-mott (16).
 * }
 * A copper cauldron of them in Tara, twelve pigs down in it apart;
 * The twelve pigs were not too much (?), it was they that filled half (the cauldron).
 * Just with that number of pigs, the same number of calves, that used to fill it long ago;
 * With that the cauldron was filled; a slaughter of calves was in it
 * From the time of Tuathal they levied it (the Tribute), to the time of Finnachta of the spears (15),
 * Forty kings of the race of Tuathal exacted it from the borders of Brigh-mott (16).
 * }
 * With that the cauldron was filled; a slaughter of calves was in it
 * From the time of Tuathal they levied it (the Tribute), to the time of Finnachta of the spears (15),
 * Forty kings of the race of Tuathal exacted it from the borders of Brigh-mott (16).
 * }
 * From the time of Tuathal they levied it (the Tribute), to the time of Finnachta of the spears (15),
 * Forty kings of the race of Tuathal exacted it from the borders of Brigh-mott (16).
 * }
 * Forty kings of the race of Tuathal exacted it from the borders of Brigh-mott (16).
 * }
 * }

Before noticing some of the difficult words and phrases in the above poem, it is only proper to warn students of ancient Irish poetry that they will find that the poets who wrote in it took more liberty with the language in which they wrote than, perhaps, was ever taken by any poets, ancient or modern, with any other language. Ancient Irish poets sacrificed not only orthography and grammar, but often sense, for rhyme, alliteration, and vowel and consonantal correspondence, as may be noticed in many places in this poem. They used to transpose words in an extraordinary way to suit the exigencies of their metres.

These things, along with the vast number of words that have become obsolete and that cannot be found in any dictionary, make it very hard to understand the verses of the old Irish poets. It should also be said that the scribe who copied this poem into the Book of Leinster seems to have taken great liberty with both orthogrphyorthography [sic] and grammar.

1. Tuathal formed the province of Meath by taking parts of the four original provinces, or, as the poet puts it, by cutting their heads off.

2. The exact meaning of this line is obscure; the translation is partly a guess; but it must refer to rods or wreaths of some kind.

3. This phrase, means literally what it has been translated to mean,, meaning the pupils of the eyes, occurs in Destruction of Da Dergas Hostelry: but the phrase may have a conventional meaning in old times quite different from its literal meaning.

4. "How it will be," ; here the relative future of the verb seems to be used instead of the past tense, and, apparently, in order to make it rhyme with

5. It does not appear that the two sisters had ever any disputes. The phrase might be translated "about the two."

6. "The mountain of Collain-cash." This pharsephrase [sic] puzzles me. I cannot find mention of any mountain of that name. It may be a euphemistic way of expressing what would hardly bear to be translated.

7. means both fruit and a foster child; either translation would suit, for the two sisters were foster children.

8. If this word Dathi means King Dathi, he did not reign until some centuries after Tuathal.

9. "Mould of the strong." This is a mere guess. The Irish is. O'Reilly gives as an adjective meaning strong, brave, stout; but it is a noun in the poem. might have been intended for, the ancient name of the Mourne Mountains in the County Down, for a and o and u were often used indiscriminately, one for another, in old Irish, and in middle Irish also; and the slender vowels, e and i, were used in the same way. may be a proper name. O'Reilly gives as also meaning a battle.

10. "That stream of the wife of Nechtan." This phrase will show how hard it is to fully understand the old writings because of the many allusions found in them to legends and things that are now forgotten, and can be known only by the merest accident. I am indebted to Mrs. Hutton for the following explanation of the above curious line: There is a legend preserved in the Dinseanchus in the Book of Leinster that there was a well in the place where a man named Nechtan lived. There was some sort of spell on the well; whoever broke the spell was to suffer for breaking it. Nechtan's wife broke the spell; the well burst out, drowned her, and formed the River Boyne. So "the stream of the wife of Nechtan" means the forces of the chief king and his vassals, who had come from the Boyne. That river's name was in ancient times, to a great degree, synonymous with the name of Meath, and between Meath and Leinster the greatest hostility prevailed from the time it had been made into a province by Tuathal Teachtmhar.

11. "Fifteen thousands cows, etc." This enormous tribute exacted from ancient Leinster, which extended no farther north than the Liffey, and the Brosna in the King's County, will show how great were the wealth and. population of Ireland in ancient times. Almost every old manuscript that is translated; almost every treasure-trove that is found, prove these facts. That the tribute was intended to be paid every year is certain; but that it was not paid every year is equally certain, for the Leinstermen rarely paid it without a fight; and they seem to have beaten the combined forces of the provinces as often as they were vanquished by them.

12. "A short time was full leaping left with them." This is very satirical. It means that the cattle used to be soon killed to feed their hungry captors. I heard a somewhat similar remark made by a herd when he saw a lot of stall-fed cattle jumping about after having been let loose to go to Liverpool to be slaughtered; he said, {{insular|“ni fad go mbainfear an láim asta," or, the jumping will soon be knocked out of them, for the poor beasts had only a day or two to live.

13. "linen bed draperies." The whole of this line is very obscure; but that {{insular|anart nimda}} refers to some sort of linen cloth, seems clear. The n with which the word commences in the text is, as I take it to be, what is called a "transported" n; that is, an n taken from the immediately preceding word with which it ended, or was supposed to have ended, formerly.

14. "Of the beautiful Liffey," did not mean the river, but the country watered by it.

15. "Of the spears." {{insular|na forc}}. I cannot find out the real meaning of the word {{insular|forc}}. O'Reilly gives it as meaning what it means in English, a fork; but "fork" can hardly be an Irish word; the dictionaries say it is of Teutonic origin; if so, how did it get into Irish so early? But the word may be Irish, only I cannot find it except in O'Reilly. It should be remembered that a fork in old English did not always mean a two-pronged instrument. Compare Shakespeare's "Soft and tender fork of a poor worm"; consequently a spear might be called a fork.

16. "Brigh-molt." I have not been able to find out where this hill is. but it must be somewhere in Leinster under a different name. It means the hill of wethers.

It is to be hoped that some of the learned men who, not like myself, have made old and middle Irish their particular study, will rectify whatever mistakes I have mader in translating this curious and interesting poem.