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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 December 2020
The Irish tale recounting the fabulous adventures in “The Land of Promise” of King Cormac Mac Airt, who according to the Annals reigned in the third century A.D., survives in several recensions. The first recension forms part of the text called [Seél na Fír Flatha], Echtra Cormaic i Tir Tairngiri, ocus Ceart Claidib Cormaic, “The Tale of the Ordeals, Cormac's Adventure in the Land of Promise, and the Decision as to Cormac's Sword”, which has been published by Whitley Stokes on the basis of the extant copies in two late fourteenth century MSS, The Book of Ballymote and The Yellow Book of Lecan. As these two copies exhibit only minor, insignificant variations in their readings, they would seem to derive from a common exemplar or archetype. The age of this common exemplar or archetype remains, however, a matter for conjecture. The linguistic evidence at least suggests that the text as transmitted antedates the actual compilation of the MSS by some two hundred years, for linguistically it hardly can be much later in date than the version of Acallamh na Senórach, “The Colloquy of the Ancients”, which Whitley Stokes has edited. Now since Acallamh na Senórach was composed about the middle of the twelfth century, the text of the first recension in its present state of transmission probably was written sometime between A.D. 1150–1200, whereas the exemplar or archetype upon which it is based was, of course, made at an earlier period.
1 Irische Texte, ed. W. Stokes and E. Windisch (Leipzig, 1891), iii, i, 183–299. On pp. 193–198 occurs the first recension to which Stokes has given the title Cuach Cormaic, “Cormac's Cup”, because it begins with these words. His translation will be found on pp. 211–216. For other translations, compare the German rendering based on The Book of Ballymote with excerpts from The Yellow Book of Lecan and The Book of Fermoy by H. Zimmer, “Keltische Beiträge, ii”,Zeitschrift fur Deutsches Alterthum und Deutsche Lilteralur, xxxiii (1889), 264–268, and the condensed English translation by M. Dillon, Early Irish Literature (Chicago, 1948), pp. 110–112.
2 Irische Texte, ed. W. Stokes and E. Windisch (Leipzig, 1900), iv, i, 1–438.
3 See T. Ó Máille, “Contributions to the History of the Verbs of Existence in Irish”, Ériu, vi (1912), 1–2.
4 A grant from the Penrose Fund by the American Philosophical Society afforded me the opportunity of making a transcript of this tale in Dublin during the summer of 1947.
5 The text commences at the top of p. 92, col. b, and continues to p. 93, col. b, 1. 32.
6 Compare Catalogue of Irish Manuscripts in the Royal Irish Academy (Dublin and London, 1926–43), pp. 3091–3096.
7 In the translation, on the contrary, parentheses are employed to indicate that the material within them is not in the Irish text but is required by the English rendering. As is customary, the use of capitals, the punctuation, and the paragraphing have been made to conform to modern usage. Furthermore, only those contractions, which may be expanded in more than one way are italicized. At the same time, all slanting strokes over vowels, whether they are intended to be marks of length or not, are faithfully reproduced.
8 The occurrence of two cases where the independent objective pronoun is employed (ro-crailhedh hí; tucadh do-som hí) does not militate against such an early date since in the Annals of Ulster the independent objective pronoun prevails already from the middle of the 12th century on; cf. S. Ó Catháin, “Some Studies in the Development from Middle Irish to Modern Irish, based on the Annals of Ulster”, Zeitschrift für Celtische Philologie, xix (1931), 7.
9 Only ten copies of this recension are known to me, but there may be other copies of which I am not aware.
10 The MS, for example, upon which S. H. O'Grady based his edition in the Transactions of The Ossianic Society, iii (1857), 212–229, is not designated by him.
11 MS. H.5.4 (1376) in Trinity College, Dublin, bears the date A.D. 1699–1702.
12 See R. Flower, Catalogue of Irish Manuscripts in the British Museum (London, 1926), ii, 336–337.
13 Ibid., p. 341, article 3.
14 Ibid., p. 389, article 22.
15 See Catalogue of Irish Manuscripts in the Royal Irish Academy (Dublin and London, 1926–1943), p. 104.
16 Ibid., p. 2037.
17 As already has been pointed out in footnote 10, the MS that O'Grady employed for his edition is unknown. Apart from some slight variations in the details, the source of his text, however, belongs to the tradition which is represented by the copies in the ensuing four MSS that are listed above.
18 See Catalogue of Irish Manuscripts in the Royal Irish Academy (Dublin and London, 1926–1943), p. 677.
19 To my knowledge, no complete catalogue of the Irish MSS at Maynooth College has been made. Compare R. I. Best, Bibliography of Irish Philology and Manuscript Literature, Publications 1913–1941 (Dublin, 1942), p. 57.
20 See T. K. Abbott and E. J. Gwynn, Catalogue of the Irish Manuscripts in the Library of Trinity College, Dublin (Dublin and London, 1921), p. 184.
21 Ibid., p. 232.
22 See Mil na mBcack (Dublin, 1911), pp. 7–13, 82–83. For a loan of this work, which does not seem to be available in any of our large libraries, I am indebted to the kind offices of Dr. Fred N. Robinson.
23 “The Pursuit or Discovery of Cormac's Branch.”
24 O'Fihelly, p. 83. It is regrettable that O'Fihelly did not examine the other extant copies of this recension when he discovered the defective nature of his text. Quite aside from that fact, his edition leaves much to be desired. Since he normalizes the orthography, gives no variant readings, except for the concluding paragraph, and does not indicate the relationship of his four MSS, his edition is of little service for scholarly purposes; indeed, its chief service resides in the fact that it establishes the existence of a deficient version of the third recension.
25 See Flower, op. cit., p. 337.
26 Ibid., p. 341, article 3.
27 Such is its deficiency that at times O'Fihelly has been forced to supply words from O'Grady's text. These additions he indicates by means of brackets.
1 Eclra, MS.
2 a, MS.
3 The MS adds Cormac iar sin ceol but with dots of deletion under these words.
1 For this place name, see E. Hogan, Onomaslicon Goedelicum (Dublin and London, 1910), p. 488, under the last one of several entries which are spelled liath druim idruimm).
2 Literally “It is thus that was the warrior and a fairy branch in his hand.”
3 Literally “what wood it.”
4 For ro choideldais, read no choideldais. Compare Máirín O Daly, “The Verbal System of the LL Táin”, Ériu, xiv (1943), 126.
5 Literally “used to be on.”
6 Literally “of.”
7 In Old Irish one would expect do icfed. Perhaps the t of do ticfed is to be construed as an infixed pronoun without apparent force, for such meaningless infixes occur in Middle Irish. Since the verb is a compound, do can hardly stand here for earlier no.
8 For Druim Cain, which seems to be another name for Temair Breg, see Hogan, p. 359.
9 Perhaps here fir Éirenn, “men of Ireland”, means the people of Leth Cuinn, “Conn's Half”, as distinguished from the Leinstermen and the Munstermen.
10 Note the use of the datives of apposition.
11 Literally “in their one sleep of sleeping.” For the collocation suan cotalta, compare Nessa Ni Shéaghdha, Agallamk Na Seanórach (Dublin, 1942), ii, 153.
12 The objective genitive occurs frequently in Irish.
13 Literally “and.”
14 Literally “at the bewailing of the girl.”
18 Literally “women of labor and men of wounding.”
16 Literally “to the seeking of the second present.” Kenneth Jackson suggests that an should be na since aiscid is feminine.
17 Literally “and though.”
18 The nominative singular of this place name may be Marg, for which see Maud Joynt, Contributions to a Dictionary of the Irish Language, M (Dublin and London, 1939), col. 63. Compare therewith the place names Maircc Lagen and Temair Mairci in Hogan, pp. 535 and 630.
19 Literally “and after that.”
20 Literally “so that it struck their affliction and their grief.”
21 Literally “the.”
22 Literally “to seeking of a countergift of his branch.”
23 Literally “to her bearing.”
24 Literally “a cloud of mist.”
25 Literally “what side.”
26 Literally “in his oneness.”
27 Literally “and.”
28 Literally “after thatching of its side.” As Kenneth Jackson suggests, ar stands for earlier iar. Since in Middle Irish leth, “side”, genitive singular leilhe, often is confused with leth, “half”, genitive singular leith, perhaps in this case the genitive singular leithi should be taken to mean “half.”
29 Although eite usually signifies “wing”, the meaning “feather” also is recorded. At all events, the modern recension of this tale in the corresponding passage (p. 216) reads clumh, “feather.”
30 Literally “at gathering of feathers.”
31 Literally “and those feathers.”
32 The MS reading no longer is legible, but a verb with approximately this signification is required by the context.
33 Several letters are here illegible in the MS.
34 Literally “that is.”
35 Literally “after departing to Cormac.”
36 Literally “at kindling of a fire.”
37 Literally “bottom (and) top.”
38 For teighedh, one expects no teíghedh.
39 Literally “and.”
40 Literally “before his head”; hence, “awaiting him.”
41 Literally “yonder.”
42 Literally “without burning.”
43 Literally “that is.”
44 Literally “the.” In Irish, however, the definite article often is used to introduce a new object or person into a narrative.
45 Literally “and.”
46 Literally “and one big house among them.”
47 In the ecclesiastical literature of Ireland, osaig, “service, entertainment”, has developed a specialized sense: “the washing of the feet (of a guest, etc.).”
48 Literally “and.”
49 Literally “and a log.”
50 Literally “and he put recognition on Cormac.”
51 Literally “and poured welcome against him.”
52 Literally “and cut it up.”
53 Literally “and he broke small his log and.” 54 Literally “That man said.”
55 Literally “these four persons.”
56 When the main clause is in the negative, nogú, “until”, is followed by the subjunctive.
57 If the copyist intended gacha fír to mean “of every truth”, then fír should be fíre as in the modern recension (p. 220) which reads sgeulfire, “a story of truth.” Probably, therefore, gacha fír is corrupt. At all events, in the oldest recension (p. 196) the reading fir cacha ceatramhan di, “a truth for each quarter of it (namely, the pig)”, suggests that in the Book of Fermoy version several words may have been omitted at this point.
58 For this particular meaning of scolog, see Kuno Meyer, Aislinge Meic Conglinne (London, 1892), p. 193.
59 According to Kenneth Jackson, the word order prevents one from reading a ndis, “in their twoness” as a dative of apposition. Dis, therefore, is simply the later form of días.
60 Literally “and I at its serving.”
61 Literally “it is this that.”
62 Literally “from us and at him.” For agd, Kenneth Jackson proposes the emendation age.
63 If the translation is correct, then tara-sa is a mistake for tar(r)ad-sa, “I overtook, seized, etc.”, from lo-ad-reth- or lo-air-reth-. Later, however, this verb forms an i-preterite so that tara-sa may be intended for taras-sa (earlier taradas-sa). At all events, the preterite second singular tarradais and the preterite passive third singular tarras are recorded.
64 Literally “his, that one's, cows.”
65 Literally “and it is this that he said.”
68 Literally “and the log.”
67 Literally “at you every day.”
68 Literally “and like that.”
69 See note 59 supra.
70 Literally “it is then that.”
71 Literally “it is how that I.”
72 Literally “against.”
73 Literally “without a man at my serving.”
74 The translation assumes that by an oversight the copyist has omitted the words an chruithnecht.
75 Literally “it.”
76 Presumably 'na stands for in(n)a, “in his”, which is the reading of the oldest recension (p. 196).
77 For lardolh, read tarlóth.
78 Approximately six letters are illegible in the MS.
79 Literally “and though it be a multitude that is.”
80 Literally “ ‘With me now,’ ” said the queen, “ ‘a story.’ ”
81 Literally “it is it that.”
82 Literally “is.”
83 That as, “milk”, and not is, “growth”, is here the correct form seems to be indicated by the variant reading lachl, “milk”, in the oldest recension (p. 197).
84 Literally “people of art.”
85 Literally “at thatching of the house.”
86 In the MS at this point there are approximately eight illegible letters at the end of one line so that ala at the commencement of the next line may be part of the last preceding word.
87 For cacha a, one expects cacha without a following relative particle.
88 Apparently lebhaidh is a mistake for lobhaidh.
89 Literally “Is he, indeed, the man at kindling of the fire the victualer.” As Kenneth Jackson suggests, biataigh is to be emended to biatach.
90 In the MS, all that is legible is Mat fein, “they themselves.”
91 Since the other recensions do not contain this phrase, what here is not decypherable cannot be supplied from them.
92 The collation co mink (menic) generally is translated “often, frequently.”
93 Literally “and.”
94 Literally “about his mess.”
95 Literally “and.”
96 Literally “when he arose out of his sleep.”
97 See note 94 supra.
98 Literally “and Ailbe.”
99 Literally “against which is my jealousy.”
100 Literally “its breaking.” It is possible that the clause introduced by “but” is spoken by Manannan.
101 Literally “and Manannan.”
102 Literally “so that it made three fragments of it.” For this impersonal construction, see Kuno Meyer, “Miscellanea Hibernica”, Univ. of Illinois Studies in Lang, and Lit., ii, No. 4 (1916), p. 35.
103 Literally “the cup to breaking.”
104 The dot over the f of fiadhnaise marks the eclipsis of this consonant—not its lenition.
105 Literally “they came.”
106 Literally “and it is then that.”
107 For ro-budh as the ro-preterite indicative third singular of the copula, see O. Bergin, The Three Shafts of Death by Geoffrey Keating, D.D. (Dublin and London, 1931), p. xxi.
108 Literally “in that form.”
109 Literally “and that (was) very joyful with Cormac.”
110 Literally “and it is there that he arose on the following day.”
111 Literally “without that it be.”
112 Literally “in it.”
