Line 24. "Fand." The derivations of the names of Fand and of Aed Abra
are quite in keeping with the character of the Antiquarian form, and
would be out of place in the other form of the romance. It may perhaps
be mentioned that the proper meaning of Abra is "an eyelash," but the
rendering "Aed Abra of the Fiery Eyebrows," which has been employed in
accounts of this romance, would convey a meaning that does not seem to
have been in the mind of the authors of either of the two forms.
For the literal translations of the three invocations to Labraid, on
pp. 63, 66, Thurneysen (p. 87) may be referred to; but there would be a
few alterations.
In the first, line 2 should be "heir of a little host, equipped with
light spears," if Windisch's Dictionary is to be followed; line 5 would
seem to begin "he seeketh out trespasses" (oirgniu); and line 7 should
begin, "attacker of heroes," not "an attacking troop," which hardly
makes sense.
In the second invocation the first line should alter Labraid's title to
"Labraid the swift hand-on-sword-of-battle;" line 3 should end with
"wounded his side." In line 6 and again in the third line of the third
invocation, Thurneysen translates gus as "wrath": Windisch gives the
word to mean "strength."
Line 4 of the third invocation is rendered "he pierceth through men" by
Thurneysen; the Irish is criathraid ocu. Criathraim is given by
O'Reilly as meaning "to sift": "he sifteth warriors" seems a
satisfactory meaning, if O'Reilly is to be relied on.
PAGE 65
Labraid's answer to the three invocations seems to run thus, but the
translation is doubtful, many words are marked unknown by Windisch: "I
have no pride or arrogance, O lady, nor renown, it is not error, for
lamentation is stirred our judgment" (reading na ardarc nid mell, chai
mescthair with the second MS.), "we shall come to a fight of very many
and very hard spears, of plying of red swords in right fists, for many
peoples to the one heart of Echaid Juil (?), (let be) no anbi of thine
nor pride, there is no pride or arrogance in me, O lady." I can make
nothing of Anbi.
PAGE 66
Thurneysen does not translate the rhetoric; the translation seems to
run thus:
Great unprofitableness for a hero to lie
in the sleep of a sick-bed;
for unearthly women show themselves,
women of the people of the fiery plain of Trogach,
and they have subdued thee,
and they have imprisoned thee,
and they have chased thee away (?) amid great womanish folly.
Rouse thyself from the contest of distress
(Gloss, "the sickness sent by the fairy women")
for all is gone of thy vigour
among heroes who ride in chariots,
and thou sittest (?) in the place of the young
and thou art conquered (? condit chellti if connected with tochell),
and thou art disturbed (?) in thy mighty deeds,
for that which Labraid's power has indicated
rise up, O man who sittest (?) that thou mayest be great.
"Chased thee away" in line 7, for condot ellat, perhaps connected with
do-ellaim (?).
PAGE 67
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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