Part 10

The site of _Cluain Cruim_ (LA) is unknown (perhaps Clooncrim, Co. Roscommon). The _Desi_ (VG), or Dessi, were a semi-nomadic pre-Celtic people once established in the barony of Deece, Co. Meath, but afterwards in the baronies of Decies in Waterford: both these baronies still bear their name. A branch of them settled in Wales. Evidently the donors of the cauldrons which purchased the freedom of the saint were of the Decies; they are said to have been Munster folk (the name of the province is variously spelled).

XV. HOW CIARAN REPROVED HIS MOTHER (LA, LC)

I have found no parallel to this story; it contains no miraculous element, and may quite possibly be at least founded on fact. Its chief importance is the prominence given to the _materfamilias_.

XVI. THE BREAKING OF THE CARRIAGE-AXLE (LA, LC)

Unlike LA, LC seems to imply that the injury to the axle was not repaired. This would be parallel to the story of Aed, who, when his carriage met with a similar mishap, was able to continue his journey on one wheel only (CS, 336; VSH, i, 36).

XVII. HOW CIARAN WENT WITH HIS COW TO THE SCHOOL OF FINDIAN (LA, LB, LC, VG)

_The blessing of the Cow._--In this story we again note the prominence of the _materfamilias_: it is she who in most of the versions withholds the desired boon. Note how LB endeavours to tone down the disobedience of the saint by making the cow follow him of her own accord, or, rather, upon a direct divine command. The _Annals of Clonmacnois_ presents the story in a similar form: "He earnestly entreated his parents that they would please to give him the cow [which had been stolen and recovered; _ante_, p. 108], that he might go to school to Clonard to Bishop Finnan, where Saint Colum Cille ... and divers others were at school: which his parents denied: whereupon he resolved to go thither as poor as he was, without any maintenance in the world. The cow followed him thither with her calf; and being more given to the cause of his learning than to the keeping of the cows, having none to keep the calf from the cow, [he] did but draw a strick of his bat between the calf and cow. The cow could not thenceforth come no nearer [_sic_] the calf than to the strick, nor the calf to the cow, so as there needed no servant to keep them one from another but the strick." A totally different version of the story of the cow is recorded in the glosses to the _Martyrology of Oengus_ (9th September). Here Ciaran applied to his _father_, who, so far from refusing his request, bade him go through the herd and take whatever beast would follow him. "The Dun Cow of Ciaran" yielded to the test. Further, the same cow followed him when he left Clonard, instead of remaining with Ninned as in the _Lives_ before us.

Note how the author of LA has been unable to keep a very human touch out of his arid record: _matri displicebat, uolebat enim eum secum semper habere_. This is our last glimpse of poor Darerca, and it does much to soften the rather lurid limelight in which our homilists place her.

_The Division of Kine and Calves._--This miracle is one of the most threadbare commonplaces of Irish hagiographical literature; it is most frequently, as here, performed by drawing a line on the ground between the animals with the saint's wonder-working staff. It is attributed, _inter alia_, to Senan (LL, 1958), Fintan (CS, 229), Ailbe (with swine, CS, 240), and Finan (CS, 305).

_A miraculous abundance of milk_ was also given by kine belonging to Brigit (CS, 44) and to Samthann (VSH, ii, 255).

_The Hide of the Cow._--Plummer quotes other illustrations of such mechanical passports to the Land of the Blessed (VSH, i, p. xciii). The main purpose of this whole incident is doubtless to explain the origin of a precious relic, preserved at Clonmacnois. Its history is involved in some doubt: it is complicated by the fact that there exists a well-known manuscript, now preserved in the library of the Royal Irish Academy, written at Clonmacnois about A.D. 1100, and called the _Book of the Dun Cow_, from the animal of whose hide the vellum is said to have been made. But whether this book has any connexion with the Dun Cow of Ciaran may be considered doubtful. For down to the comparatively late date at which our homilies were put together, the hide of Ciaran's Dun was evidently preserved _as a hide_, on or under which a dying man could lie: therefore it cannot have been made into a book. Yet _Imtheacht na Tromdhaimhe_ (p. 124 of the printed text) tells us, for what it may be worth, that Ciaran wrote the great epic tale called _Táin Bó Cúalnge_ upon the hide of the Dun Cow. There is actually a copy of this tale in the existing book; but the book was written not long after the time when our homilists were describing the relic as an unbroken hide. Either there were two dun cows, or the name of the Manuscript has arisen from a misunderstanding.

_The stanza in VG_ is another example of _ae freslige_ metre. The literal translation is "Fifty over a hundred complete / the Dun of Ciaran used to feed, // guests and lepers / people of the refectory and of the parlour."

_The School of Findian._--Findian was born in the fifth century. He went to Tours for study, and afterwards to Britain; he then felt a desire to continue his studies in Rome, but an angel bade him return to Ireland and there continue the work begun by Patrick. After spending some time with Brigit at Kildare, and establishing various religious houses, he settled at Cluain Iraird, in the territory of Ui Neill: now called Clonard, in Co. Meath. His establishment there became the chief centre of instruction in Ireland in the early part of the sixth century. He died in 549, at an advanced age: indeed, he is traditionally said to have lived 140 years. Nothing now remains of the monastery, though there were some ruins a hundred years ago.

XVIII. THE ANGELS GRIND FOR CIARAN (LA, LC, VG)

The angels grinding have already been seen in incident XIV.

_The Stanza in VG._--This is in the metre known as _rannaigecht mór_, seven syllables with monosyllabic rhymes, usually _abab_. The translation adequately expresses the sense and, approximately, the metre.[16] The number of saints enumerated is thirteen, not twelve, but the master, Findian of Clonard, is not counted in the reckoning. The names, the principal monasteries, and the obits of these saints are as follows--

Findian of Cluain Iraird (Clonard, Co. Meath), 12 December 548. Findian of Mag-bile (Moville, Co. Donegal), 12 September 579. Colum Cille of Í Choluim Cille (Iona), 9 June 592. Colum of Inis Cealtra (Holy Island, Loch Derg), 13 December 549. Ciaran of Cluain maccu Nois (Clonmacnois), 9 September 548. Cainnech of Achad Bo (Aghaboe, Queen's Co.), 11 October 598. Comgall of Beannchor (Bangor, Co. Down), 10 May 552. Brenainn of Birra (Birr, King's Co.), 29 November 571. Brenainn of Cluain Fearta (Clonfert, King's Co.), 16 May 576. Ruadan of Lothra (Lorrha, Co. Tipperary), 15 April 584. Ninned of Inis Muighe Saimh (Inismacsaint in Loch Erne), 18 January 5..(?). Mo-Bi of Glas Naoidhean (Glasnevin, Co. Dublin) 12 October 544. Mo-Laise mac Nad-Fraeich of Daimhinis (Devenish, Loch Erne), 12 September 563.

XIX. CIARAN AND THE KING'S DAUGHTER (LA, VG)

_Parallels._--Maignenn never would look on a woman, "lest he should see her guardian devil" (_Silua Gadelica_, i, 37). The story has some affinity with the curious _Märchen_ of the Mill and the Bailiff's Daughter (incident XXIV). Cuimmin of Connor, in his poem on the characters of the different Irish saints, spoke thus of Ciaran, doubtless in reference to this incident: "Holy Ciaran of Clonmacnois loved humility that he did not abandon rashly; he never spoke a word that was untrue, he never looked at a woman from the time when he was born."

_The Stanza in VG._--Metre _ae freslige_. Literally thus: "With Ciaran read / a girl who was stately with treasures // and he saw not / her form or her shape or her make."

In LA the father of the maiden is king in Tara: in VG he is king of Cualu, the strip of territory between the mountains and the sea from Dublin southward to Arklow.

XX. HOW CIARAN HEALED THE LEPERS (VG)

Leprosy, or at least a severe cutaneous disease so called, was common in ancient Ireland; and there are numerous stories, some of them extremely disagreeable, that tell how the saints associated with its victims as an act of self-abasement. We have already seen how Patrick was said to have kept a leper. Brigit also healed lepers by washing (LL, 1620), and Ruadan cleansed lepers with the water of a spring that he opened miraculously (VSH, ii, 249). Contrariwise, Munnu never washed except at Easter after contracting leprosy (VSH, ii, 237). The miraculous opening of a spring is a common incident in Irish hagiography; we have already seen an example, in the annotations to incident I.

Whitley Stokes points out (LL, note _ad loc._) that the "three waves" poured over the lepers are suggested by the triple immersion in baptism.

XXI. CIARAN AND THE STAG (VG)

_Parallels._--We have already noted the use of wild animals by Irish saints. Findian yoked stags to draw wood (LL, 2552). Patrick kept a tame stag (TT, p. 28, cap. lxxxii, etc.). In incident XXXVII, Ciaran is again served by a stag. Cainnech, like Ciaran, made a book-rest of the horns of a stag (CS, 383), and books which Colum Cille had lost were restored to him by a stag (TT, _Quinta Vita_, p. 407). In the life of Saint Cadoc we read an incident which combines docile stags drawing timber and a forgotten book untouched by rain (_Cambro-British Saints_, pp. 38, 329).

For Ciaran's prompt obedience to the summoning sound of the bell, compare what is told of Cainnech, who happened to be summoned by the head of the monastic school when he was writing, and left the letter O, which at the moment he was tracing, unfinished, to obey the call (VSH, i, 153).

There is a parallel in incident XXXVI for the book unwet by rain. Books written by Colum Cille could not be injured by water (LL, 956). It is perhaps hardly necessary to infer with Plummer (VSH, i, p. cxxxviii) that this was a myth of solar origin.

XXII. THE STORY OF CIARAN'S GOSPEL (LA, VG)

This striking anecdote is unique, and probably founded on an authentic incident. The two versions before us differ in some respects, as a comparison will show. The story is told in another form in the _Quinta Vita Columbae_ (TT, p. 403) to the effect that "Once Saint Kieranus, whom they call the Son of the Wright, on being asked, promised Columba that as he was writing a book of the Holy Gospels, he would write out the middle part of the book. Columba, in gratitude to him, said, 'And I,' said he, 'on behalf of God, promise and foretell that the middle regions of Ireland shall take their name from thee, and shall bring their taxes or tribute to thy monastery.'" The same version appears in O'Donnell's _Life of Colum Cille_ (printed text, p. 128). Yet another version appears in the glosses to the _Martyrology of Oengus_ (9th September), according to which Colum Cille wished to write a gospel-book, but no one except Ciaran had an exemplar from which to make the copy. Colum Cille went to Ciaran's cell and asked for the loan of the book; Ciaran, who was preparing his lesson, and had just come to the words _Omnia quaecumque_, etc., presented him with it. "Thine be half of Ireland!" said Colum Cille. It is worth passing notice that the verse in question, here treated as the central verse of the gospel, is not one-fifth of the way through the book. Had the original narrator of the tale a copy with misplaced or missing leaves?

_The Stanza in VG._--This is apparently slightly corrupt, but the metre is evidently meant to be _ae freslige_. It probably belongs to one poem with the previous stanzas in the same metre: its first line echoes the stanza in incident XIX. Literally, "With Findian read / Ciaran the pious, with diligence // he had half a book without reading / half of Ireland his thereafter."

_The Saying of Alexander._--I regret to have to acknowledge that I have been unable to get on the track of any explanation of this appendix to the incident, as related in VG. It is probably a marginal gloss taken into the text. The "Alexander" is presumably one of the popes of that name, and if so, must be Alexander II (1061-1073), as the first Pope Alexander is too early, and the remaining six are too late. I have, however, searched all the writings bearing his name without discovering anything like this saying, nor can I trace it with the aid of the numerous indexes in Migne's _Patrologia_.

XXIII. THE BLESSING OF CIARAN'S FOOD (LA, LC)

I cannot find any authority for the ritual indicated by this curious story, in which the blessing of a second person is necessary before food can be consumed. There is a Jewish formula described by Lightfoot,[17] in which, when several take their meals together, one says _Let us bless_, and the rest answer _Amen_. But it is not clear why a response should have been required by a person eating alone.

XXIV. THE STORY OF THE MILL AND THE BAILIFF'S DAUGHTER (LB, VG)

The full details of this narrative have evidently been offensive to the author of LB, who has heroically bowdlerised it. It is obviously an independent _Märchen_, which has become incorporated in the traditions of Ciaran.

_The Famine._--Famines are frequently recorded in the Irish Annals: and it is noteworthy that they were usually accompanied by an epidemic of raids on monasteries. The wealth of the country was largely concentrated in these establishments, so that they presented a strong temptation to a starving community. The beginning of the story is thus quite true to nature and to history, though I have found no record of a famine at the time when we may suppose Ciaran to have been at Clonard.

_Transformation of Oats to Wheat, and of other Food to Flour._--Such transformations are common in the saints' Lives. We read of swine turned to sheep (CS, 879), snow to curds (LL, 127), sweat to gold (TT, 398) flesh to bread (CS, 368). The later peculiarities of the food--bread or some other commonplace material having the taste of more recondite dainties, and possessing curative properties--are not infrequently met with in folk-lore. Saint Illtyd placed fish and water before a king, who found therein the taste of bread and salt, wine and mead, in addition to their proper savours (_Cambro-British Saints_, pp. 165, 474).

_The Resistance of the Saint to amorous Advances._--The reader may be referred to Whitley Stokes's note _ad loc._, in LL. We may recall the well-known story of Coemgen (Kevin) at Glendaloch: though it must be added that the version of the tale popularised by Moore, in which the saint pushed his importunate pursuer into the lake and drowned her, has no ancient authority. On the rather delicate subject of the arrangement made between Ciaran and the maiden's family, consult the article _Subintroductae_ in Smith and Cheetham's _Dictionary of Christian Antiquities_. This feature of the story is enough to show its unhistorical character, at least so far as Ciaran is concerned: for Ciaran did not belong to the _Primus Ordo_ of Irish saints, who _mulierum administrationem et consortia non respuebant, quia super petram Christum fundati ventum temptationis non timebant_, but to the _Secundus Ordo_, who _mulierum consortia et administrationes fugiebant, atque a monasteriis suis eas excludebant_ (CS, 161, 162). The description of Ciaran as transcending his contemporaries in beauty is probably suggested by Ps. xlv, 2, and is another illustration of the _Tendenz_ already referred to.

_The Eavesdropper and the Crane._--This incident reappears in the Life of Flannan (CS, 647). Wonder-workers do not like to be spied upon by unauthorised persons. This is especially true in the Fairy mythology surviving to modern times. Compare a tale in the Life of Aed (VSH, ii, 308). A quantity of wood had been cut for building a church, but there was no available labour. Angels undertook the work of transportation on condition that no one should spy upon them. One man, however, played the inevitable "Peeping Tom," and the work ceased immediately. The reader may be referred for further instances to the essay on "Fairy Births and Human Midwives" in E.S. Hartland's _Science of Fairy Tales_.

There is a touch of intentional drollery at the end of the story where the brethren are shown as having so thoroughly enjoyed the feast miraculously provided for them that their observance of the canonical hours was disjointed. For other instances of intoxication as resulting from saints' miracles see VSH, i, p. ci.

_The Stanzas in VG._--These are in _ae freslige_ metre, so that they are probably another fragment of the poem already met with. The translation in the text reproduces the sense with sufficient literalness.

On the whole the impression which this unusually long and very confused incident makes on the reader is that originally it was an _anti-Christian_ narrative concocted in a Pagan circle, which has somehow become superficially Christianised.

XXV. THE STORY OF CLUAIN (VG)

One of the numerous tales told of the danger of crossing the will of a saint. It is possibly suggested by Matt, xxi, 28; but it may also be a pre-Christian folk-tale adapted to the new Faith by substituting a saint for a druid. On the cursing propensities of Irish saints see Plummer, VSH, i, pp. cxxxv, clxxiii. A curse said to have been pronounced by Ciaran on one family remained effective down to the year 1151, where it is recorded by the _Annals of the Four Masters_ (vol. ii, p. 1096). Another curse of the same saint, and its fulfilment, is narrated in Keating's History (Irish Texts Society's edn., iii, 52 ff.), and at greater length in the life of the victim, Cellach (_Silua Gadelica_, no. iv).

Note that Ciaran sends a messenger with his rod to revive Cluain. This is probably imitated from Elisha sending Gehazi similarly equipped to raise the Shunammite's son (2 Kings iv, 29).

Cluain's thanks at being delivered from the pains of hell may be contrasted with the protest of the monk resurrected by Colman (VSH, i, 260, 265) at being recalled from the joys of heaven--an aspect of resurrection stories frequently overlooked by the narrators.

_The Stanza in VG._--The metre is _rannaigecht gairit dialtach_ (a line of three syllables followed by three of seven, with monosyllabic rhymes _aaba_). The literal rendering is "Cluain agreed to come / to me to-day for reaping // for an oppressive disease / caused him living in his house to be dead."

XXVI, XXVII. HOW CIARAN FREED WOMEN FROM SERVITUDE (LA, LB, VG)

Tuathal Moel-garb ("the bald-rough") was king in Tara A.D. 528-538. We have already met with Furbith in incident XIV.

Interceding for captives, with or without miracle, was one of the most frequent actions attributed to Irish saints: as for instance Brigit (LL, 1520) and Fintan (CS, 300). Doors opened of their own accord to Colum Cille (CS, 850). Paulinus of Nola gave himself as a captive in exchange for a widow's son at the time of the invasion of Alaric in A.D. 410 (see Smith's _Dictionary of Christian Biography_, vol. iv, p. 239, col. ii, and references there). This explains the allusion in LB. The woman passing through her enemies is perhaps suggested by Luke iv, 30. The prisoner Fallamain, rescued by Saint Samthann, also passed unscathed through a crowd of jailers (VSH, ii, 255; compare _ibid._, p. 259); his chains opened of their own accord, like the doors in incident XXVI. Compare Acts xii, 7 ff.

XXVIII. ANECDOTES OF CLUAIN IRAIRD (VG)

These four _petits conies_, found in VG only, are clearly designed to set forth the superiority of Clonmacnois above its rival establishments.

(_a_) This story tells how Findian ranked Ciaran above all the notable saints and scholars of his time, and how they had to acknowledge his pre-eminence by their very jealousy. Colum Cille is the only saint whom the homilist will allow to approach his hero.

(_b_) This is a thrust at the monastery of Birr. It says, in effect, "Clonmacnois is situated on the great river Shannon, Birr on the insignificant Brosna; and the relative importance of the two establishments is to be estimated by the size of their respective rivers--even Brenainn, the founder of Birr, said this himself!" There was a contest between the people of Clonmacnois and those of Birr at a place now unknown, _Moin Coise Bla_ (the bog at the foot of Bla) in the year 756, according to the _Annals of Clonmacnois_ and of _Tigernach_. The circumstances which led to this event are not on record; but it is not far-fetched to see an echo of it in the story before us. This would give us an approximate date for the construction of the story, though the compilation in which it is now embedded is considerably later.

(_c_) This story further exalts Clonmacnois as the place containing a valuable relic that ensures eternal happiness in the hereafter. Of this relic we have already spoken.

(_d_) Again exalts Clonmacnois by relating a dream in which the founder is put on a level with the great Colum Cille. This vision is related also in the Lives of the latter saint (see, for instance, LL, 852). An analogous vision, not related in the Lives of Ciaran, is that of the three heavenly chairs, seen by Saint Baithin. He saw a chair of gold, a chair of silver, and a chair of crystal before the Lord. As interpreted by Colum Cille, the first was the seat destined for Ciaran, on account of the nobility and firmness of his faith; the silver chair was for Baithin, on account of the firmness and brightness and rigour of his faith; and the third was for Colum Cille himself, on account of the brightness and purity--and brittleness--of his faith.[18]

XXIX. THE PARTING OF CIARAN AND FINDIAN (VG)

Compare with this narrative the parting of Senan and Notal (LL, 2031). The metre of the stanza is _cummasc etir rannaigecht mór ocus leth-rannaigecht_ (seven-syllable and five-syllable lines alternately, with monosyllabic rhymes _abab_). The translation is literal.

XXX. THE ADVENTURES OF THE ROBBERS OF LOCH ERNE (LB, LC)