920. Gladness. ⁊ forbailti, for ⁊ forfailti. Omitted in A. L.
921. Attendant woman, ben imtha. In the account of this vision in the Mart. Donegal, at June 9, the expression is ben formaid ⁊ iom thnuith, ‘a woman of jealousy and envy.’
922. Eithne. The original of this sentence is not in A. L.
923. It was. The original would also bear to be translated ‘he was.’
925. Gortan. This name signifies ‘a little field.’ It is now written ‘Gartan,’ and is the name of a townland and parish in the barony of Kilmacrenan, Co. Donegal.
926. Corprige. In Aengus’s Tract on the Mothers of Irish Saints, Eithne is said to have been of the Corpraide of Fanad (Co. Donegal). See Reeves’s Adamnan, p. 164, note.
927. Noble. Olmar; lit. ‘very great.’
928. Fostered. Rosail; lit. ‘nursed him.’
929. Should learn. The literal translation of the Irish is, ‘when the time of learning came to him’ (Colum Cille).
930. Cleric. Cruithnechan.
931. Observed the heavens. Ro fég nem; lit. ‘looked (at) heaven.’
932. What he said was. Ised atbert. Not in A. L.
933. Water. The words fri usci anair, literally translated, would be ‘against (the) water, from the east;’ water being put for ‘river.’
934. The original of this sentence is not in A. L.
935. Raths of Magh-enaig. Now Raymoghy, barony of Raphoe, Co. Donegal.
936. Cleric. Cruithnechan.
937. Fell. Tanic; lit. ‘came.’
938. ‘Misericordias.’ The 100th Psalm.
939. In the place. Do raith; lit. ‘for the good,’ but idiomatically signifying ‘in place of,’ or ‘for the sake of.’
940. Names. Ainm, ‘name,’ in the original text.
941. And his guardian. ⁊ a aiti; om. in L. B.
942. On the path. Forsin conair. L. reads don carraic, ‘from off the rock.’
943. Fell, and died. L. B. has merely conepil de, ‘died thereof.’
944. Thinking. Andar leis, ‘it seemed to him,’ L. B., A. L., and L. have ar ni fhitir nach ina chotlud bói; ‘for he knew not that he was not asleep.’
945. Rehearsing. Mebrugud; lit. ‘remembering.’
946. Sound. This stanza, apparently quoted from the Amra Choluim Cille, a very ancient composition, is not in L.
947. Before them. Ar a cind; lit. ‘on their head,’ or ‘ahead of them;’ i.e. when they arrived at the place.
948. Resuscitate. Duscad; lit. ‘to awaken.’
949. Went. The phraseology of this clause in A. L. and L. is (translated), ‘he went to the cleric, to resuscitate him.’
950. Permission. Cet, L. B. A. L. and L. have deonughad, which means the same thing.
951. Magh-bile. Movilla, in the Co. Down.
952. Wine. Finbairgen; lit. ‘wine-bread,’ A. L. and L. B. L. has fin ⁊ bairgen, ‘wine and bread,’ which seems more correct.
953. Master Gemman. Of this man little or nothing is known. The name is written ‘German’ in many places in the Book of Lismore. But see Reeves’s Adamnan, p. 274, Notes.
954. Learning. Ic denam; lit. ‘doing.’
955. Ruffian. In duidli. The word duidli is not found in any Irish Dictionary or Glossary; and the meaning here assigned to it is only conjectural. It seems to be the word rendered by ‘persecutor,’ in Colgan’s Third Life of St. Colum Cille (Tr. Thaum., p. 333).
956. Laid. Ro fuirim; lit. placed; apparently related to Lat. formo, formare.
957. Cluain-Eraird. Clonard, Co. Meath.
958. At. In the orig. the word is in, which in form and meaning is the same as the Eng. prepos. ‘in.’ But the sense in which it is used above is correctly represented by ‘at.’
959. Supper-time. Feis aidche; lit. ‘night-feast.’
960. Apostles. Finden’s disciples are meant.
961. Island; i.e. Ireland. The orig. of this sentence is not in A. L.
962. Rested over. The orig. has rogab imon Sinaind, which would actually mean ‘took up about the Shannon.’
963. Colum. This sentence is fuller in A. L. than in L. and L. B., which have merely the clause, ‘with the gold of his nobility and wisdom.’
964. Son of the carpenter. Mac in t-sair; om. in A. L. and L. St. Ciaran of Clonmacnois, on the Shannon, is the person meant.
965. Glaisnoiden. Glasnevin, near Dublin.
966. Water. The river at Glasnevin. Fri usci aniar, translated above ‘at the west side of the water,’ literally means ‘towards the water from the west.’
967. Said Ciaran. Ar Ciaran. Not in L. B. or L.
968. Full of. The expression in the orig., literally translated, is ‘what full each of them would like to have in the church.’
969. Canonical hours. Na trath. Trath properly signifies ‘time,’ or ‘season;’ but in ecclesiastical tracts it is used to express the canonical hours.
970. Chose. Do rega. The text in A. L. is robad maith leam fain ar C. C., ‘I should like myself,’ said C. C., etc.
971. Both in. Etir; lit. ‘between’ (= Lat. inter).
972. Unknown. Anaichnid; i.e. ‘unprecedented,’ in a secondary sense.
973. Buidhe Chonaill. See Reeves’s Adamnan, p. 182, note a, for an account of this plague, which was also called Crom Chonaill. The first appearance of the plague occurred in a.d. 550, according to Tighernach’s Annals and the Chronicon Scotorum. Dr. Todd supposed that it was called Buidhe Chonaill, from some eminent person named Conall, who died of it, but of whose memory no other record now remains.—(Obits and Martyrology of Christ Church, pref. p. lxxv.) But the old form of the name being Buidhe Chonnaill, it is more likely that it was derived from Connall (glossed ‘stipula’ in the MS. quoted in Nigra’s Reliq. Celt., p. 38); and that the plague was so called from the hue (Buide Chonnaill, ‘straw-yellow’) which its victims exhibited.
974. Biur. Dr. Reeves states (Adamnan, p. 52, note d) that is, the river in Tyrone, now called the Moyola, which flows into the N.-W. arm of Lough Neagh.
975. ‘Bir against fochainne.’ There is apparently a play on words here. Fochainne is the Irish name of the river now called the Faughan, which rises somewhat to the N.-W. of the Moyola, and flows into Lough Foyle. The expression might also signify ‘Bir against “diseases”’ (fochainne; lit. ‘causes’).
976. Daire. Derry. Anciently Daire-Calgaig, ‘Calgach’s oak-wood.’
977. Girdle. These words should be repeated, to complete the line.
978. Hair. Loa. The orig. is niptar simne imm loa; lit. ‘they were not rushes round hair;’ i.e. the girdle was not soft as rushes round Mobii’s hair cloak.
979. Settled. Gais, A. L. and L. B.; gabais, Lismore. Gabais properly means took, received, occupied.
980. Colum. This paragraph is translated from A. L., the corresponding original being omitted in L. B. and L.
981. Wood. Daire. The orig. name of Derry (or Londonderry) was daire Calgaig, the ‘wood of Calgach,’ or the ‘oak-wood of Calgach.’ Adamnan Latinises daire by ‘roboretum’ (Reeves’s ed., pp. 19, 160), and the contemporary glosses quoted by Zeuss (Gram. Celt. 8) gives it the same meaning; in later times the word was used to express any kind of wood. In the Book of Fermoy, for instance, we find itir daire ocus maigi ocus atha ocus line, ‘between woods and plains, and fords and pools’ (fol. 24, a 1).
982. Uttered. Conderna, ‘until he made.’
983. Dant. This line is very obscure in A. L.; and the reading here is unreliable. A translation has not therefore been attempted.
984. Wattles. Coelach. Wattles, twigs, or osiers; from coel, ‘slender.’ This is curious, as showing the material used in building churches at the time.
985. Recles. Thus in L. B. But A. L. and L. read eclais, the church.
986. In the ground. Isin talam, L. B. A. L. has isin inad ar boinged an fidh, ‘in the place where the wood was cut.’
987. Tor-inis. Tours, in France. The form of the name in the text, Tor-inis, would in Irish signify ‘tower-island’ (from tor, a tower, and inis, an island); but this form is probably an attempt of the scribe or translator to represent Turonensis, the Latin for Tours.
988. For. The orig. has for (‘upon’).
989. Rath-Both. Raphoe, Co. Donegal.
990. Visit of instruction. Cuairt procepta (‘circuitus præcepti’). This corrupt Irish form of the Lat. præceptum (sometimes written procecht) is also used to express ‘preaching.’
991. Tethba. Teffia; the ancient name of a large territory, including part of the present counties of King’s, Westmeath, and Longford.
992. Dermach. Durrow, barony of Ballycowan, King’s County.
993. Colman Mòr. The death of this man is entered in the Chron. Scotorum at A.D. 553.
994. Virtue. The literal translation of the orig. is ‘the luck that was on the sword.’
995. Cormac Ua Liathain. See Reeves’s Adamnan, p. 166, note a.
996. Aedh Slane (pron. Slaw-ney). King of Ireland, 592-604.
997. Cenandas. Kells, Co. Meath. The oldest written form of the name is Cennannas (Leb. na hUidhre, 58a). In the Book of Leinster it is written cenn-arus, ‘head abode;’ from which the succeeding changes seem to have been to cenn-lis (‘head fort’) and then to Ken-lis, and finally to Kells.
998. Tarried. Ro fuirged. This seems the 3 sg. pass. form of the verb fuirech, to delay (cid arid fuirig, gl. quid detineat, Zeuss,2 458), and should therefore probably be translated ‘was delayed.’
999. The fate of the place. The orig. is don baile; lit. ‘to (or for) the place.’
1000. Becc mac Dead, A. L. and L. B. Properly Becc mac De, as in L.
1001. Young men. Oicc, pl. of óc, ‘young,’ is also used to express young warriors.
1002. Sure. Inill, gl. ‘fidus’‘fidus’(Cormac’s Glossary, Stokes’ ed., p. 77). The prophet meant that a time would come when the statements contained in the three first lines could be spoken in the present tense.
1003. Highest. Ardi, superl. of ard, ‘high;’ but in a secondary sense ‘important.’
1004. Establishment. Congbail, a residence or habitation, and figuratively a church or monastic establishment.
1005. Uttering. Oc denam; lit. ‘doing’ or ‘making.’
1006. A son ... in one night. The transcriber seems to have blundered here, for there would be no great wonder in a boy being born ‘in one night’ (in oen oidche). He was probably misled by the shape of the siglum for id est (.1.) before the words mac bethad (which looks, in the codices A. L. and L. B., very like the siglum for fifty [.l.])[.l.]); and therefore, thinking that ‘fifty sons’ were meant, added in oen oidche, ‘in one night,’ to magnify the prodigy.
1007. Solitude. Dimorach, apparently for diamarach, or diomarach (as it is sometimes written), a n. subst. derived from diamair, ‘secret,’ ‘lonely.’ The name is still preserved in the form ‘Diamor,’ the name of a place about ten miles to the west of Kells, and very near Kilskeery (Cill-Scire).—See Joyce’s Irish Names of Places, 2d series, p. 454.
1008. Grafann. There is no saint of this name in the Calendar. But the Four Masters, at A.D. 745, record the death of Dubhdaleithe na graiffne (‘D. of the writing’) abbot of Cill-Scire (Kilskeery, Co. Meath), evidently the person referred to, as na graifne is the gen. sing. of grafann, which means ‘writing’ (from graib, or graif = graphium; Reeves’s Adamnan, 205, note a). And Dubhdaleithe might well have been called Grafann, as he is supposed to have been the author of a chronicle called the Book of Dubhdaleithe, quoted in the Annals of Ulster.
1009. Seized. Ro len; lit. ‘followed.’
1010. Uttered. Conderna; lit. ‘made.’
1011. Of his age. In other words, he would only live four years longer.
1012. Cloak. Cochall = Lat. Cucullus. In ecclesiastical phraseology, a cowl; but in a general sense, a cloak, or outer garment.
1013. Suibhne. The son of Aedh Slane’s brother Colman Bec. The murder of a tribesman was regarded as fratricide under the old Irish legal system.
1014. Brega. The plain of East Meath.
1016. Fir-arda. Now the barony of Ferard, Co. Louth, in which is the parish of Clonmore.
1017. Manister. ‘The Monastery;’ now Monasterboice, Co. Louth.
1018. Crozier. Bachall = baculus.
1019. Church. Cill = cella. In the orig. of the translation above given (p. 476) of St. Buite’s prophecy regarding Colum Cille, the corresponding word is relicc, there translated ‘cemetery.’ This clause is imperfectly given in A. L.
1020. Without fault. Cen mannair. ‘Without injury’ would probably be more correct. Compare na mandair in lin; ‘don’t injure the net,’ Leb. na hUidre, 26 b.
1021. Splendid. Buadach; lit. ‘victorious;’ an adj. from buaid, gl. Victoria.—Zeuss, 27.
1022. Obliterated. Nis baithed; lit. ‘it would not be drowned.’
1023. Rechra. Lambay Island. Traces of the ancient name Rechra (gen. Rechrainn) are preserved in that of Portrane (Port-Rechrainn) or the ‘landing place of Rechra,’ on the coast of Dublin, opposite Lambay.
1024. Obeyed them. Doroine C. C. umaloit doib; lit. ‘C. C. did humility to them.’
1025. Sord. Swords, Co. Dublin.
1026. Sord. Soid, L. B.
1027. Polaires. The actual signification of the Irish word polaire is not quite clear. In some old Glossaries it is explained as a tiag lebar (‘book-satchel;’ tiag = theca). But in Lebor na hUidre it seems used in a different sense, as in the sentence sood a polaire ina etun isse comartha bias fair; ‘the change of his polaire in his forehead is the sign he (Antichrist) shall have’ (p. 18). Here the writer would seem to have in mind the signa mentioned in Apocal. chap. vii. In O’Clery’s Glossary, moreover, it is explained as comardha, ‘a sign.’ The word polaire is translated ‘cases’ in Reeves’s Adamnan, p. 115, note c. Colgan has rendered it in his edition of the Tripartite Life of St. Patrick, under the form pallaire, by tabulæ: ‘tabulis in quibus scribere solebat, vulgo pallaire appellatis.’—Tr. Thaum., pp. 123, 249. But the Irish Tripartite has no mention of this. Pollaire was apparently some kind of receptacle for books, perhaps a case for a copy of the Epistles of St. Paul, whose name is always written Pol in Irish.
1028. Said. Ut dixit, L. B. and Lismore. Ut dubairt an file, A. L.
1029. Excellent. Buadach, an adj. derived from buaid, ‘victoria,’ ‘palma.’ (Cf. ani atreba buaid, gl. palmarium.—Zeuss, 262.)
1030. Wave. This would remind one of little Dombey’s inquiry of his sister, ‘What are the wild waves saying?’
1031. The morning. The orig. is isin matainse, ‘in this morning.’
1032. Colum. This parag. is only found in A. L.
1033. Comarbship. Comarbus, i.e. cohæreditas, succession. See Zeuss, 7, 8.
1034. Cenel-Conaill. The descendants of Conall Gulban (son of Nial Naoighiallach) from whom Colum Cille was descended in the third generation.
1035. He. This parag. is also found only in A. L.
1036. Drumcliff. In the barony of Carbury, Co. Sligo.
1037. Mothairen. This saint is mentioned in the Martyrologies of Tallaght and Donegal at the 9th of June; but in the notes to the Festology of Aengus he is identified with a St. Torannan, whose festival is entered under June 12th.
1038. Curragh of the Liffey. Now the Curragh of Kildare. It is worthy of note, that whilst the name of the plain (Lifè, or Magh-Lifè), of which the Curragh formed a part, has been lost as regards the plain, it should still be preserved in that of the river that flowed through it, the abhain-Lifè, or river of the Liffey.
1039. Shamrock-flowery. Scoth-semrach. Scoth signifies a flower; and semrach is an adj. derived from semar, trefoil. The word ‘shamrock’ seems a dimin. of semar or semmor, as it is written in the Book of Leinster, 112 b. i. (old pagination).
1040. Ownership. Comus; lit. ‘power.’
1041. Recles. Put here for ‘church.’
1042. Sord. Swords, Co. Dublin.
1043. To the Lord. The construction of this clause in the orig. texts is rather rude; but it is better in Lismore than in A. L. and L. B.
1044. Druim-monach. This church is not in the list of Columban foundations given in Reeves’s Adamnan, p. 276 sq.
1045. Moen. Now Moone, in the parish of the same name, Co. Kildare.
1046. As the poet said. Amaildoraidh an fili, A. L. and Lismore. L. B. has merely ‘ut dixit.’
1047. Beguiling. Saebhail. The word saeb, from which is derived saebhail, properly means ‘false;’ but the verb saebaim is used to signify, ‘I coax, beguile, or seduce.’ See O’Donovan’s Supplement to O’Reilly, v. saebhaim. This quatrain is rudely written in the three texts.
1048. Cluain; i.e. Clonmacnois.
1049. Hair. Brodirne. It seems to be the word Latinised ‘fimbria’ by Adamnan (Reeves’s ed. p. 25). But it is certainly used in the sense of a ‘hair,’ or ‘thread,’ in the Irish Trip. Life of St. Patrick. Fer cech broithirne fil fort chasail, ‘a man for every hair that is in thy casula’ (p. 67, O’Curry’s copy, R. I. Acad.).
1050. Ernan. Otherwise called Moernoc, and Mernoc. See Reeves’s Adamnan, p. 25, note i.
1051. Cluain-Deochra. In O’Clery’s Irish Calendar, at 11th January, this place is stated to be in the Co. Longford.