Footnotes
2:1 Imram, lit. 'rowing about,' denotes a voyage voluntarily undertaken, as distinguished from longes, 'a voyage of exile.'
2:2 Echtre, f. (a derivative of echtar = Lat. extra), lit. 'outing,' specially denotes expeditions and sojourns in Fairy-land, as in Echtra Bresail Bricc maic Briuin (LL. p. 170 b, 25), who stayed fifty years under Loch Láeg; Echtra Cormaic i Tír Tairngiri, Ir. Texte iii. p. 202; Echtra Nerai (Rev. Celt. x. p. 212), Echtra Nectain maic Alfroinn (LL. p. 189 b, 59) = Nechtán mac Collbrain, infra § 63, etc.
2:3 That it was the branch that produced the music, when shaken, appears from a similar incident in Echtra Cormaic, Ir. Texte iii. p. 212.
4:1 All the MSS. contain only twenty-eight quatrains.
4:2 aball, f., which glosses Lat. malus in Sg. 61 b, has come to denote any fruit-tree, as in fic-abull mór arsata, 'a large ancient fig-tree,' LBr. 158 a, 55. CL Stokes, Rev. Celt. x. p. 71, n. 3.
4:3 i.e. nomen regionis (gloss).
4:4 A kenning for 'crested sea-waves.' Cf. groig maic Lir, 'the Son of Ler's horses,' Rev. Celt. p. 104. Zimmer misrenders: 'um welche die rosse des meeres spielend auftauchen.'
4:5 Lit. 'white-sided wave-swelling.'
4:6 Zimmer, following the corrupt reading of R (cethror instead of cetheoir), renders: 'dem wohnsitz auf fussen von vier mann'!
4:7 i.e. nomen regionis (gloss), 'White-Silver Plain.'
6:1 i.e. here below (gloss).
6:2 gairim is often used of the notes of birds, e.g.: int én gaires isint ṡail, 'the bird that sings in the willow,' Ir. Texte iii. p. 19.
6:3 trátha, the canonical hours, an allusion to church music. Zimmer, wrongly, 'zu den zeiten.'
6:4 i.e. nomen regionis (gloss), 'Silver-Cloud Plain.'
6:5 Zimmer, wrongly, 'vor den gerichten.'
6:6 Lit. 'with harshness.' Zimmer, 'fur die kehle'?
6:7 Cf. i lobrai ocus i n-ingás, Sergl. Conc. 10.
6:8 i.e. nomen regionis (gloss).
8:1 i.e. regio (gloss), 'Bountiful Land.'
8:2 dracoin = Lai. dracontiae.
8:3 'Mane' and 'hair' are frequent kennings in Irish poetry for the crest and spray of a wave, e.g.: in n-ed maras mong for muir, 'while a 'ested wave remains on the sea,' Ir. Texte iii. p. 16. Cf. also the adj. tibrech, 'hairy' (from tibre .i. finda na grúaide flacbas in altan dia hése, Harl. 5280, fo. 41 a) in úas tuind tibrig, LL. 17 b, 2 = fri tuinn tibhrigh, wrongly explained by O'Clery, s.v. tibhrigh.
8:4 i.e. insola (gloss), i.e. nomen regionis (gloss), 'Gentle Land.'
8:5 Cf. Sg. 122 b, where céitegrinne fíno glosses 'nectar.'
8:6 'Plain of the Sea.'
8:7 i.e. regio (gloss), 'Plain of Sports.'
10:1 Lit. 'against which the sea beats.'
10:2 Lit. 'it increases music.'
10:3 Here and in § 60 the nominative Emne is used instead of Emain (§§ 3, 10).
10:4 Ir. brec, 'variegated,' probably referring to their dress. Cf. cóíca ingen ildathach, Sergl. Conc. 45.
10:5 i.e. nomen regionis (gloss), 'Very Gentle Land.'
12:1 Or, perhaps, if we read la suthaini síne, 'It is through lasting weather (lit. lastingness of weather) that silver drops on the lands.'
12:2 i.e. mare, 'Plain of Sports.'
12:3 i.e. nomen regions, 'Many-coloured Land.'
12:4 This quatrain reappears in a somewhat modified form in a poem (Laud 615, p. 18) addressed to Colum Cille by Mongan, who had come from the Land of Promise (Tír Tairngiri) to meet the saint at Carraic Eolairg on Lough Foyle. See Appendix, p. 88.
14:1 i.e. Christ (gloss).
14:2 Lit. 'upon its ridge-poles or roof-trees,' alluding probably to the lowly birth of Christ.
14:3 Cf. ar attú cen tosach cen forcenn gl. qui ante creaturæ exordia idem esse non desinas, Ml. 110 d, is.
14:4 Cf. Stokes, Goid. p. 182: beith fo étoil mac Maire, 'to he under the unwill of Mary's Son.'
14:5 An allusion to baptism.
16:1 Zimmer renders 'ob sin gegangen.' But cía here means 'whither' (=Doric πεῖ, Strachan). Cf. noconḟess cía deochatar, LL. 290 a, 27. ni fetatar cia deochaid nó can donluid, Sergl. Conc. 12, etc. In the sense of 'whether,' cía occurs only in the phrase cía . . . cenco, 'whether . . . or not,' e.g.: fó leiss cía nothiasta ass, fó leiss cenco tiasta, LL. 109a, 30; cía fogabad cenco fagbad, rabeindse ar a chind, LL. 51 b, 17.
16:2 Lit. 'men of the same age.'
16:3 The MSS. again contain only twenty-eight quatrains.
16:4 Ir. slonnud means to make known one's name, or patronymic, as in Rawl. B. 502, fo. 73 a, 2: Buchet a ainm, mac hui Inblæ a slonnud, or one's native place, as in LU. 15 b, 5: ro íarfaig Finnan a slonniud de. Asbert friu: de Ultaib dam-sa.
18:1 Or Mag Mell may here be a place-name. Cf. § 39. It is the most frequent designation of the Irish elysium.
18:2 This seems to be the meaning of the verb tibrim, another example of which occurs in Rev. Celt. xi. p. 130: ni ḟuil tráich nach tiprai tonn, which I ought to have rendered 'there is no strand that a wave does not beat'
18:3 'Plain of Sports,' glossed by 'mare' above, § 23.
18:4 This I take to be the meaning of écomras, the negative of comras, 'smooth,' which occurs in cornaib sruachaib comrasaib (LL. 276 a, 6), 'with hooped smooth horns.' Stokes conjectures -ras to be cognate with W. rhathu, 'to file.'
18:5 i.e. The salmon which Bran sees are calves and are lambs (gloss).
20:1 'Pleasant, or Happy Plain.' See note on § 34.
20:2 i.e. There were many hosts near him, and Bran did not see them (gloss).
20:3 This rendering rests on the very doubtful connection of drepa with Lat. drappus, from which it might be a loan. Should we compare the obscure line drengaitir (sic legendem?) dreppa daena, Goid. p. 176?
20:4 A mere guess at the meaning of imrborbach.
20:5 Lit. 'a wood under mast (acorns) in which is beauty.'
22:1 I take foirbthe to be the neuter form of the passive participle of forbenim used as a substantive.
22:2 i.e. of the grave.
22:3 I take mbeth to be the 3rd sing. injunctive of biu, with the relative n prefixed.
22:4 i.e. to Adam in Paradise.
22:5 This rendering of saibse (saibsi) ceni is not much better than a guess. Perhaps sáibse is a noun derived from sáib, 'false.'
22:6 viz. Adam.
22:7 Cf. LU. 17 b; 26: do bithaitreb péne ocus rége cen nach crích etir = LL. 281 a, 38: do bithaittreb péne ocus régc cen nach n-díl etir.
22:8 i.e. worshipping idols (gloss).
22:9 i.e. Christ (gloss).
24:1 i.e. to Ireland.
24:2 i.e. to the wife of Fiachna, king of the Ulster Dalriada, whose royal seat was Rathmore, in Moylinny (Linemag), co. Antrim.
24:3 i.e. 'the Conception of Mongan' (gloss).
24:4 i.e. Mangan son of Fiachna (gloss).
24:5 Lit. 'will lie a vigorous lying.'
24:6 'Fair Lady,' the name of Fiachne's wife. Gilla Modutn, in his poem Senchas Ban (LL. 140 a, 37), written in 1147 A.D., makes her the daughter of Demmán Dublacha's son.
24:7 This is a guess at the meaning of moithfe. I take it to stand for móithfe, from móithaim, mod. maothaim, 'I soften.'
24:8 i froiss may mean 'in a shower'; but fross is also used metaphorically in the sense of 'attack, onset.' Cf.
26:1 i.e. post mortem (gloss).
26:2 i.e. famous, without end (anforcnedach? cf. LU. 26 b, 27), i.e. in futuro corpore (gloss).
26:3 Cf nosilis rói, LU. 66 b, 26.
26:4 The translation of this quatrain is very uncertain, as the Irish text is hopelessly corrupt in several places.
26:5 As to this meaning of airchend see Windisch, Bea. d. sächs. Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften, 19.7. 1890.
26:6 i.e. proprinm iloch (gloss). Here iloch is obscure to me. One expects a word for 'island.' Islay is also referred to in Boirche's poem on the death of Mongan (Four Masters, A.D. 620). According to Cinaed ua Hartacaín (+975), Mongan was killed by a host from Cantire (la féin Cindtíre, LL. 31 b, 42).
26:7 This refers to Mongan's death at the hands of Artur mac Bicoir.
28:1 i.e. in corpora (gloss).
28:2 i.e. this is the 'Death of Mongan,' a stone from a sling was thrown at him (gloss); i.e. a stone at the fight in Mongan's stronghold (gloss).
28:3 i.e. a stronghold (gloss). Senlabor has not been identified.
28:4 Not identified.
28:5 i.e. the angels.
28:6 i.e. in a chariot
28:7 Cf. note on § 19.
28:8 The Irish dath, 'colour,' is often used in the sense of 'kind, sort.'
28:9 treftech, a derivative from trefet, 'blowing.' Cf. trefet i. séitedh, ut est: for trefet a tóna H. 3, 18, p. 51, and see O’Dav. p. 122, s.v. treifet. In Laws i. p. 126, 5 (cf. p. 144, 1) it means 'bellows.'
28:10 viz. Bran.
30:1 Zimmer, adopting the corrupt reading of R (na mná instead of nammá) renders: 'sondern blickte die frauen an.' No women have been mentioned.
30:2 Zimmer renders 'ehepaar.' But there is no reason for being so particular.
30:3 For this use of écmaing = 'it really was,' cf. Ir. Texte iii. p. 17:
Góidil co ler iar n-gail gairg:
eccmuing ba rí. Midi máir
doluid do dáim óenaig aird.'
'Methought it was a hosting of men,
Gaels in numbers after fierce prowess;
But it was the king of great Meath,
Going to the company of a noble gathering.'
30:4 i.e. every man found in his food and drink the taste that he especially desired, a common incident in Irish story-telling.
32:1 He was the hero of a tale, the title of which figures in the list of sagas in LL. p. 170 b as Echtra Nectain maic Alfroinn. This tale is not now known to exist; it probably contained the incidents here narrated.
32:2 O’Curry, MS. Mat. p. 477, note 15, says that there are two places of this name--one in the west of Kerry, the other, now called Staoove or Shruve Brin, at the entrance to Lough Foyle, a little to the south of Inishowen Head. As the ancient Irish imagined Mag Mell to be in the south or south-west of Ireland (see Stokes, Rev. Celt. xv. p. 438), it seems natural that Bran coming from there should arrive at a place in Kerry. Otherwise, from Bran's connection with Lough Foyle, so called from his father Febal, the latter place might seem to be meant. See its dindsenches in Rev. Celt xv. p. 450, where Srub Brain is said to mean 'Raven's Stream.' Stokes thinks that this Srub Brain is the place in Donegal; but, considering that numbers 50 to 53 of the Rennes Dindsenchas all refer to places in Kerry, I believe the West Kerry place is meant.
32:3 viz. Nechtan mac Collbrain.
34:1 i.e. holy water.
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