NOTES

'Contending against knowledge,contending without proofs,taking refuge in bad language,a stiff delivery,a muttering speech,hair-splitting,uncertain proofs,despising books,turning against custom,shifting one's pleading,inciting the mob,blowing one's own trumpet,shouting at the top of one's voice.'

'O Cormac, grandson of Conn,' said Carbery, 'who are the worst for whom you have a comparison?'

'Not hard to tell,' said Cormac.

'A man with the impudence of a satirist,with the pugnacity of a slave-woman,with the carelessness of a dog,with the conscience of a hound,with a robber's hand,with a bull's strength,with the dignity of a judge,with keen ingenious wisdom,with the speech of a stately man,with the memory of an historian,with the behaviour of an abbot,with the swearing of a horse-thief,

and he wise, lying, grey-haired, violent, swearing, garrulous, when he says "the matter is settled, I swear, you shall swear."'

'O Cormac, grandson of Conn,' said Carbery, 'I desire to know how I shall behave among the wise and the foolish, among friends and strangers, among the old and the young, among the innocent and the wicked.'

'Not hard to tell,' said Cormac.

'Be not too wise, nor too foolish,be not too conceited, nor too diffident,be not too haughty, nor too humble,be not too talkative, nor too silent,be not too hard, nor too feeble.

If you be too wise, one will expect too much of you;if you be too foolish, you will be deceived;if you be too conceited, you will be thought vexatious;if you be too humble, you will be without honour;if you be too talkative, you will not be heeded;if you be too silent, you will not be regarded;if you be too hard, you will be broken;if you be too feeble, you will be crushed.'

'The Isles of the Happy' and 'The Sea-god's Address to Bran' are poems interspersed in the prose tale called 'The Voyage of Bran son of Febal to the Land of the Living.' For text and translation see my edition (London: D. Nutt, 1895), pp. 4 and 16. The tale was probably first written down early in the eighth, perhaps late in the seventh century.

'The Tryst after Death' (Reicne Fothaid Canainne) belongs to the ninth century. For the original text and translation see my 'Fianaigecht, a collection of hitherto inedited Irish poems and tales relating to Finn and his Fiana' (Dublin: Hodges, Figgis and Co., 1910), p. 10 ff.

'Deirdre's Farewell to Scotland' and 'Deirdre's Lament' are taken from the well-known tale called 'The Death of the Children of Usnech.' The text which is here rendered is that of the Middle-Irish version edited and translated by Whitley Stokes (Irische Texte, ii., Leipzig, 1884), pp. 127 and 145. My rendering follows in the main that of Stokes.

'The Hosts of Faery.'—From the tale called 'Laegaire mac Crimthainn's Visit to the Fairy Realm of Mag Mell,' the oldest copy of which is found in the Book of Leinster, a MS. of the twelfth century, p. 275b. See S.H. O'Grady'sSilva Gadelica(Williams and Norgate, 1892), vol. i. p. 256; vol. ii. p. 290, where, however, the verse is not translated.

The two poems from the 'Vision of MacConglinne' are taken from my translation of the twelfth-century burlesque so called (D. Nutt, 1892), pp. 34 and 78.

'A Dirge for King Niall of the Nine Hostages.'—Text and translation inFestschrift für Whitley Stokes(Harrassowitz, Leipzig, 1900), p. 1 ff., and in theGaelic Journal, x.p. 578 ff. Late eighth or early ninth century.

'The Song of Carroll's Sword.'—Edited and translated inRevue Celtique, xx. p. 7 ff., and again in theGaelic Journal, x.p. 613. Dallán mac Móre, to whom the poem is ascribed, was chief bard to King Carroll (Cerball) mac Muiregan of Leinster, who reigned from abouta.d.885 to 909.

'Eochaid's Lament.'—Text published inArchiv für celtische Lexikographie(Niemeyer, Halle a. S., 1907), vol. iii. p. 304.

'Lament on King Malachy II.'—Ibid., p. 305.

'King and Hermit.'—First published and translated by me under that title with Messrs. D. Nutt, 1901. The language is that of the tenth century.

'Song of the Sea.'—Text and translation inOtia Merseiana(the publication of the Arts Faculty, University College, Liverpool), vol. ii. p. 76 ff. Though the poem is ascribed to the celebrated poet Rumann, who died in 748, its language points to the eleventh century.

'Summer has come.'—Text and translation in myFour Songs of Summer and Winter(D. Nutt, 1903), p. 20 ff. The piece probably dates from the tenth century.

'Song of Summer.'—Ibid., p. 8 ff., andÉriu, the Journal of the School of Irish Learning, i. p. 186. The date is the ninth century, I think.

'Summer is gone.'—Ibid., p. 14. Ninth century.

'A Song of Winter.'—From the story called 'The Hiding of the Hill of Howth,' first printed and translated by me inRevue Celtique, xi. p. 125 ff. Probably tenth century.

'Arran.'—Taken from the thirteenth-century prose tale calledAgallamh na Senórach, edited and translated by S.H. O'Grady inSilva Gadelica. The poem refers to the island in the Firth of Clyde.

'The Song of Crede, daughter of Guare.'—See text and translation inÉriu, ii. p. 15 ff. Probably tenth century.

'Liadin and Curithir.'—First published and translated by me under that title with Messrs. D. Nutt, 1902. It belongs to the ninth century.

'The Deer's Cry.'—For the text and translation see Stokes and Strachan,Thesaurus Palaeohibernicus(University Press, Cambridge), vol. ii. p. 354. I have adopted the translation there given except in some details. The hymn in the form in which it has come down to us cannot be earlier than the eighth century.

'An Evening Song.'—Printed in mySelections from Old-Irish Poetry, p. 1. Though ascribed to Patrick, the piece cannot be older than the tenth century.

'Patrick's Blessing on Munster.'—Taken from theTripartite Life of Patrick, edited by Whitley Stokes (Rolls Series, London, 1887), p. 216. Not earlier than the ninth century.

'The Hermit's Song.'—SeeÉriu, vol. i. p. 39, where the Irish text will be found. The poem dates from the ninth century.

'A Prayer to the Virgin.'—See Strachan's edition of the original inÉriu, i. p. 122. There is another copy in the Bodleian MS. Laud 615, p. 91, from which I have taken some better readings. The poem is hardly earlier than the tenth century.

'Eve's Lament.'—SeeÉriu, iii. p. 148. The date is probably the late tenth or early eleventh century.

'On the Flightiness of Thought.'—SeeÉriu, iii. p. 13. Tenth century.

'To Crinog.'—The Irish text was published by me in theZeitschrift für celtische Philologie, vol. vi. p. 257. The date of the poem is the tenth century. Crinog was evidently what is known in the literature of early Christianity asιαγαπητη,virgo subintroducta(συνεισακτοσ) orconhospita,i.e.a nun who lived with a priest, monk, or hermit like a sister or 'spiritual wife' (uxor spiritualis). This practice, which was early suppressed and abandoned everywhere else, seems to have survived in the Irish Church till the tenth century. See on the whole subject H. Achelis,Virgines Subintroductae, ein Beitrag zu i., Kor. vii. (Leipzig, 1902).

'The Devil's Tribute to Moling.'—For text and translation see Whitley Stokes'sGoidelica, 2nd ed., p. 180, and his edition ofFélire Oingusso, p. 154 ff. I have in the main followed Stokes's rendering.

'Maelisu's Hymn to the Archangel Michael.'—Text and translation in theGaelic Journal, vol. iv. p. 56. Maelisu ua Brolcháin was a writer of religious poetry both in Irish and Latin, who died in 1056.

'The Mothers' Lament at the Slaughter of the Innocents.'—See text and translation in theGaelic Journal, iv. p. 89. The piece probably belongs to the eleventh century.

'Colum Cille's Greeting to Ireland.'—From Reeves' edition of Adamnan'sLife of St. Columba, p. 285. The poem, like most of those ascribed to this saint, is late, belonging probably to the twelfth century.

'The Lament of the Old Woman of Beare.'—Text and translation inOtia Merseiana, i. p. 119 ff. The language of the poem points to the late tenth century.

'The Deserted Home.'—SeeGaelic Journal, iv. p. 42. Probably eleventh century.

'Colum Cille the Scribe.'—SeeGaelic Journal, viii. p. 49. Probably eleventh century.

'The Monk and his Pet Cat.'—Text and translation inThesaurus Palaeohibernicus, ii. p. 293. I have made my own translation. The language is that of the late eighth or early ninth century.

'The Crucifixion.'—FromLeabhar Breac, p. 262marg. sup.and p. 168marg. inf.

'Pilgrimage to Rome.'—SeeThes. Pal., ii. p. 296.

'On a Dead Scholar.'—From the notes to theFélire Oingusso, ed. Wh. Stokes (Henry Bradshaw Society, vol. xxix.), p. 198.

'Hospitality.'—From the Brussels MS., 5100-4, p. 5, andLeabhar Breac, p. 93,marg. sup.

'The Scribe.'—SeeThes. Pal., ii. p. 290.

'Moling sang this.'—From the notes to theFélire Oingusso, ed. Wh. Stokes, p. 150.

'The Church Bell.'—SeeIrische Texte, iii. p. 155.

'The Blackbird.'—FromLeabhar Breac, p. 36,marg. sup.

The 'Triads of Ireland.' Edited and translated by me in the Todd Lecture Series of the Royal Irish Academy, vol. xiii. (Hodges, Figgis and Co., Dublin, 1906). The collection was made towards the end of the ninth century.

The 'Instructions of King Cormac.' Edited and translated by me in the Todd Lecture Series, vol. xv. (Dublin, 1909). Early ninth century.

Printed by T. andA. Constable, Printers to His Majestyat the Edinburgh University Press

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