The King's Mirror (Speculum regale-Konungs skuggsjá)
Philosophy
The King's Mirror (Speculum regale-Konungs skuggsjá)
Education of princes; Encyclopedias and dictionaries -- Early works to 1600; Scandinavia -- Civilization
Gelt (_gjalti_) is evidently a Celtic loanword, a form of the Irish
_geilt_, meaning mad or madman. Cf. the _Adventures of Suibhne Geilt_,
translated by J. G. O’Keefe. Suibhne was an Irish king who lost his
reason in battle and for years afterwards led a wild life in the
woods. O’Keefe thinks that the author of the _King’s Mirror_ must have
heard the tale of Suibhne (pp. xxxiv-xxxv). See also _Ériu_, IV, 12.
There happened something once in the borough called Cloena,[198] which
will also seem marvelous. In this town there is a church dedicated to
the memory of a saint named Kiranus.[199] One Sunday while the populace
was at church hearing mass, it befell that an anchor was dropped from
the sky as if thrown from a ship; for a rope was attached to it, and one
of the flukes of the anchor got caught in the arch above the church
door. The people all rushed out of the church and marveled much as their
eyes followed the rope upward. They saw a ship with men on board
floating before the anchor cable; and soon they saw a man leap overboard
and dive down to the anchor as if to release it. The movements of his
hands and feet and all his actions appeared like those of a man swimming
in the water. When he came down to the anchor, he tried to loosen it,
but the people immediately rushed up and attempted to seize him. In this
church where the anchor was caught, there is a bishop’s throne. The
bishop was present when this occurred and forbade his people to hold the
man; for, said he, it might prove fatal as when one is held under water.
As soon as the man was released, he hurried back up to the ship; and
when he was up the crew cut the rope and the ship sailed away out of
sight. But the anchor has remained in the church since then as a
testimony to this event.[200]
Footnote 198:
Kuno Meyer identifies Cloena with Clonmacnois. _Ériu_, IV, 12.
Clonmacnois is in King’s county eight miles southwest of Athlone.
Footnote 199:
St. Ciaran (Kiranus) of Clonmacnois was the founder of a great
monastery there. The year of his death is given as 547.
Footnote 200:
In the _Irish Nennius_ (211-213) the following version of this tale
appears. “Congalach, son of Maelmithig, was at the fair of Teltown on
a certain day, when he saw a ship (sailing) along in the air. One of
the crew cast a dart at a salmon. The dart fell down in the presence
of the gathering, and a man came out of the ship after it. When he
seized its end from above, a man from below seized it from below. Upon
which the man from above said: ‘I am being drowned,’ said he. ‘Let him
go,’ said Congalach; and he is allowed to go up, and then he goes from
them swimming.” The translation is by Kuno Meyer: _Ériu_, IV, 13.
Congalach was an Irish king (944-956); Teltown is in county Meath. The
legend is alluded to in _Reliquiae Antiquae_, II, 105, with some
difference in details.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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