The Latin & Irish Lives of Ciaran Part 18

"_A maic in tsaeir, cot clasaib, cot coraib, It casair chaeim, cot cairpthib, cot ceolaib._"

The transposition has probably been caused by the error of some scribe who copied first the parts of the two lines preceding the caesura.]

[Footnote 6: The roll of the Kings of Tara was evolved from various sources by the Irish historians of the early Christian Period.

Tigernmas was properly a pagan culture-hero, to whom was traditionally attributed the introduction of gold-smelting and of other arts, and who was said to have perished, apparently as a human sacrifice, at some great religious a.s.sembly.]

[Footnote 7: This is certainly the reading, curiously misread in LL p.

356, (Irish text), and in VSH i, p. li, note 3.]

[Footnote 8: Ossianic Society's _Transactions_, vol. v, p. 84 ff.]

[Footnote 9: Edited by Dr. Hyde in _Celtic Review_, vol. x, p. 116 ff.]

[Footnote 10: On this whole subject see Chapter IV of MacNeill's _Phases of Irish History_, a book which may be unreservedly recommended as giving a clear and accurate view of the early history of the country.]

[Footnote 11: It may be noted for the benefit of the reader unaccustomed to Irish nomenclature, that persons are named in one of the following formulae: "A mac B" (_mac_, genitive _mic_, in syntactic relation _mhic_ [p.r.o.nounced _vic_] = son): "A o B" (_o_ or _ua_, genitive _ui_ = grandson or descendant): and "A maccu B" (_maccu_ = descendant, denoting B as the name of a remote ancestor). Of course the name B will in every case be in the genitive.]

[Footnote 12: For division of labour between the s.e.xes, see Frazer, _Spirits of the Corn and of the Wild_, ii, 129. For prohibitions of the presence of males when specifically female work was being transacted, Plummer quotes Grimm, _Teutonic Mythology_, Eng. Trans., iv, 1778 ("Men shall not stay in the house while women are stuffing feathers in the beds, otherwise the feathers will p.r.i.c.k through the bed-ticking"). O'Curry (_Manners and Customs_, iii, p. 121), commenting on this story, refers to times and seasons deemed unlucky for dyeing, at the time when he wrote; but the prohibition of the presence of males was forgotten.]

[Footnote 13: Vafthrudnismal 41; Grimnismal 18. (_Edda_, ed. Hafn, 1787, vol. i, pp. 24, 48.)]

[Footnote 14: F.M. Luzel, _Contes populaires de Ba.s.se-Bretagne_ (Paris, 1887), vol. i, p. 219 ff. Some other parallels are quoted by Plummer, VSH, i, p. cxliii, note 5.]

[Footnote 15: There is evidence from various literary sources that cattle thus peculiarly coloured were accounted sacred in ancient Ireland.]

[Footnote 16: There should be no hypermetric syllables, but I have been unable to avoid them.]

[Footnote 17: _Horae Hebraicae_ in Evangel. Matt., xv, 36, following the tract _Berakoth_.]

[Footnote 18: O'Donnell's _Life of St. Columba_, ed. O'Kelleher, p.

120.]

[Footnote 19: For the story of Coirpre, see _Lismore Lives_, ed.

Stokes, preface p. xvi; _Revue celtique_, xxvi, 368. For the story of Ambacuc, see _Silua Gadelica_, no. x.x.xi; _Eriu_, vol. vi, p. 159.]

[Footnote 20: A fully ill.u.s.trated description of this relic by Mr. E.C.R. Armstrong will be found in _Journal_, Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, vol. xlix, p. 132.]

[Footnote 21: _Book of the Dun Cow_, printed in _Zeitschrift fur Celtische Philologie_, iii, 218.]

[Footnote 22: _Feilire Oengusso_, Henry Bradshaw Society edition, p.

12.]

[Footnote 23: _Revue celtique_, xv, at p. 491.]

[Footnote 24: I should here have quoted as a parallel the oft-described Indian rope-trick, which is alleged to be a hypnotic feat, had I not been recently a.s.sured by a relative who knows India well that no one has yet been discovered who has actually seen this trick performed, and that it is probably nothing more than a piece of folk-lore.]

[Footnote 25: See his important series of papers, _Ueber directe Handelsverbindungen Westgalliens mit Irland im Altertum und fruher Mittelalter_, published in _Sitzungsberichte der konigliche preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften_, 1909, vol. i.]

[Footnote 26: _Life of Colman mac Luachain_, Todd Lectures Series, Royal Irish Academy, vol. xvii, p. 86.]

[Footnote 27: Bede's _Life of Cuthbert_, -- x.x.xix.]

[Footnote 28: This is evidently a mistranslation of _boban_, the translator having in mind the word _ban_, "white."]

[Footnote 29: Henry Bradshaw Society edition, vol. i, p. 157.]

[Footnote 30: Although the sense appears to run continuously from one stanza to the next in their present collocation.]

[Footnote 31: MS. illegible.]

=APPENDIX=

THE LATIN TEXT OF LB

[Sidenote 1: R1 162b; R2 127d]

[Sidenote 2: R2 128a]

[Sidenote 3: R1 162c]

1.[1] Vir gloriosus, et uita sanctissimus abbas, Quera.n.u.s, ex patre Boecio, matre Darercha [Darecha R2] ortus fuit. Hic traxit originem de aquilonali parte Hibernie, Aradensium silicet genere. Diuina quoque gratia a puerili etate sic ipse ill.u.s.tratus est, ut qualis[2] foret futurus luculenter appareret.[3] Erat [Cras MSS.] enim tanquam lucerna ardens eximia caritate, ut non solum feruorem pii cordis et deuocionem erga hominum inopiam releuandam [reuelandam MSS.]

exhiberet; uerum et in creaturum irrationabilium necessitatibus infatigabilem ostenderet affectum. Et quia tanta lucerna non debuit sub modio abscondi, ideo a puerili etate cepit miraculorum prod[ig]iis coruscare.

2. Quum enim equus fili regis terrae illius subita morte periret, ac de eius casu iuuenis ille multum doleret, apparuit ei in sompnis uir uultus uenerabili ac rutilentis, qui eum prohibuit tristari pro morte equi, dicens ei, "Voca" inquit "sanctum puerum Keranum, qui aquam in os equi tui infundat, frontemque aspergat, et reuiuiscet. Illum quoque pro resuscitatione eius munere debito dotabis." c.u.mque regis filius de sompno euigila.s.set, misit pro puero Kerano ut ad se ueneret; qui c.u.m sui presentiam ei exhiberet, atque sompnium scriatim [seruatem _or_ seritatem R1] audiret, secundum quod angelus illum docuit, equum aqua benedicta aspergens de morte resuscitauit. Viso hoc magno miraculo, agrum fertilem et amplum rex terrae illius in honore Dei Omnipotentis, in cuius nomine equus suus est resuscitatus, sancto Kerano contulit.

3. Accidit autem quadam die [q.d. _omitted_, R2] quod mater ipsius Kerani eum reprehenderet, eo quod mel siluestre, sicut ceteri pueri suis parentibus ferebant, non portaret. Quod c.u.m dilectus Deo et hominibus audiret, mentem eleuans ad Puerum illum qui subditus erat parentibus, aquam de fonte uicino allatam benedixit, in nomine Eius qui mel potens est producere de petra, et oleum de saxo durissimo; et mox aqua illa in mel dulcissimum, Deo cooperante, conuert.i.tur, et sic matri defertur. Hoc mel parentes eius sancto Dermicio diacono, cognomento Iusto, qui eum baptizauit, transmiserunt.

[Sidenote 4: R1 162d]

[Sidenote 5: R2 128b]

4. Lectis autem a[4] memorato sancto literarum rudimentis, beatum Cluayn Hir[5]ardensem abbatem, discendi causa, adire proposuit. Et c.u.m opere uellet complere quod animo cepit cogitare, uaccam unam a parentibus ad uictum sibi postulauit. Sed c.u.m eius peticionem mater eius non acquiesceret, celestis Pater, qui intimios [_sic_ R1, intuitos R2] suos quantum mater filium diligit, desiderium dilecti sui adimplere non distulit. Nam uacca una lactifera, una c.u.m uitulo, consecuta est eum, acsi a suo pastore minaretur post eum. Qui c.u.m ad sacrum collegium sancti Fynniani uenisset, gaudium non modic.u.m de eius aduentu omnes habuerunt. Vacca uero, que secuta est eum, simul c.u.m uitulo pascebatur, nec ubera materna sine licencia tangere attemptabat. Kera.n.u.s eius pascua sic discriminauit atque distinxit, ut tantum uitulum mater lambe[re]t, nec tamen ei ubera praeberet. Istius uero uacce in tanta habundancia exubrabat lac, ut xii uiris cotidie distributum sufficientem copiam uictus praeberet. Sanctus uero adolescens Kera.n.u.s, diuine scripture intentus, inter condiscipulos suos sanct.i.tate ac sapientia, uelut sidus perfulgidus inter alia [alique R2] sidera, emicabat. Erat uero perfecte caritatis fragrantia plenus, et moris probitate, et uite sanctimonia, ac humilitatis dulcedine, presentibus et absentibus gratiosus, honorabilis, et admirabilis.

[Sidenote 6: R1 163a]

5. Vna dierum ad regem quendam, Tuathlum nomine, pro cuiusdam ancille liberacione intercessurus accessit. c.u.mque regem deuote pro ea rogaret [pro ea deuote oraret R2] ac preces famuli Dei quasi deliramenta sperneret, nouam artem liberacionis eiusdem cogitans, semet ipsum regi seruiturum pro ipsa decreuit. Veniente autem eo domum in qua puella molebat, clause iam fores illi patuerunt. Intransque, alterum se illi[6] Paulinum episcopum exhibuit. Nec mora, rex illam emanc.i.p.auit, et insuper Dei famulo suum indumentum donauit. Quod ille accipiens, continuo pauperibus distribuit.

[Sidenote 7: R2 128c]

6. Nocte quadam[7] contigit ut eum doctor egregius Finnia.n.u.s c.u.m annona frumenti ad molendinum transmitteret. Regulus uero quidam prope habitans, quendam de discipulis uiri Dei illuc aduenisse intelligens, carnes et ceruisiam ei per ministrum destinauit. c.u.mque illi exenium tanti uiri presentaret, respondit ipse, "Vt commune" inquit "sit fratribus, totum in os molendini proice." Quod c.u.m nuncius compleret, in farinam totum mutatum est. Quo audito, rex uillam in qua manebat c.u.m omnibus bonis suis in perpetuam dedit illi; sed Kera.n.u.s suo condonauit magistro, ibidem enim monasterium postea constructum est.

Panis uero de illa farina factus, uelut caro et ceruisia fratribus sapiebat et eos sic recreabat.

[Sidenote 8: R1 163b]

[Sidenote 9: R2 128d]

7. Transacto autem temporis s.p.a.cio, accepta magistri sui licentia et benedictione, ad sanctum Nynnidum in quadam silua stagni Erny commorantem properauit. Et c.u.m [c.u.m _omitted_ R2] illuc peruenisset, c.u.m magno gaudio et caritate non ficta susceptus est. c.u.mque idem in moris ac uirtutum disciplina cotidie proficeret, quadam die ad nemora uicina c.u.m fratribus ad scindenda ligna ut [ut _omitted_ R2] uerus obediens properauit. Erat enim consuetudo in sacro illo collegio ut iii monachi c.u.m seniore ad ligna deportanda secundum ordinem temporis semper irent. Cedentibus uero ceteris ligna, ipse seorsum [deorsum R2]