Sick-bed, vol. i. page 77. Five of the romances in the present
collection have no descriptive passages in the prose; the Combat at the
Ford and the Tain bo Fraich show examples of both the first and the
second form, but more often the first; the Tain bo Regamna, though a
very short piece, also shows one example of each; for the description
of the goblins met by Cuchulain is quite clear, and cannot be regarded
as belonging to the third form. There is also one case of the second
form in the Tain bo Dartada, and two other cases of the first in the
Court ship of Etain-one in the Egerton, one in the Leabhar na h-Uidhri
version. The best example of the first style is in the Egerton version
of Etain (vol. i. page 12); the best example of the second is the
description of Cuchulain's horses (vol. i. page 128); a still better
example of contrasts in such a description is in the Courtship of Ferb
(Nutt, page 23).
The piece of regular verse contained in the extract should give a fair
idea of the style of this form of composition. Description is common
in the verse, and it is in this case a prominent feature. It may be
noted that lines 8, 16, 23, 26 will not scan unless the present
diphthongs are divided, also that the poem has fewer internal rhymes
than is usual in this regular verse.
The two passages in rhetoric, for so I take them to be, are good
examples of the style. An attempt has been made to divide them into
lines, but this division is open to criticism, especially as some lines
in one of the two passages cannot be translated, and the translation of
some other lines is doubtful: the division suggested does, however,
appear to me to give a rough metre and occasional rhymes. It is
possible that, if attention is called to those lines which are at
present untranslatable, something may be done for them. The verse
translations given in vol. i. pages 27 and 29, give the meaning that I
take the Irish to bear where I can get any meaning at all.
As to the text, the usual abbreviation for n has in general not been
italicized, nor has that for fri; all other abbreviations, including
acht, final n in the symbol for con, and that for or in the recognized
symbol for for, have been italicized. In the rhetorics, owing to their
difficulty, the abbreviation for n has been italicized throughout; the
symbol for ocus is not italicised. A few conjectures have been
inserted, the text being given as a foot-note; a conjectured letter
supposed to be missing has been inserted in brackets, and a restoration
by Professor Strachan of a few letters where the MS. is torn are
similarly placed in brackets. The rest of the text is carefully copied
from the facsimile, including the glosses, which are inserted above the
words in the same places that they occupy in the manuscript.
TEXT WITH INTERLINEAR TRANSLATION
Fecht n-aile asraracht Eochaid Airem ri Temrach la n-alaind
Another time arose Eochaid Airem. king of Tara on a beautiful day
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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