Part 13

The _Annals of Clonmacnois_ narrates the story of the death of Ciaran and the visit of Coemgen, with an interesting additional miracle. "Dying, he desired his monks that they would bury his body in the Little Church of Clonmacnois, and stop the door thereof with stones, and let nobody have access thereunto until his companion Coemgen had come; which they accordingly did. But Saint Coemgen dwelling at Glendaloch in Leinster then, it was revealed to him of the death of his dear and loving companion Saint Ciaran, whereupon he came suddenly to Clonmacnois: and finding the monks and servants of Saint Ciaran in their sorrowful and sad dumps after the death of their said lord and master, he asked them of the cause of their sadness. They were so heartless for grief as they gave no answer; and at last, fearing he would grow angry, they told him Saint Ciaran was dead and buried, and ordered or ordained the place of his burial should be kept without access until his coming. The stones being taken out of the door, Saint Coemgen entered, to whom Saint Ciaran appeared: and [they] remained conversing together for twenty-four hours, as is very confidently laid down in the Life of Saint Ciaran; and afterwards Saint Coemgen departed to the place of his own abiding, [and] left Saint Ciaran buried in the said Little Church of Clonmacnois. But king Diarmait most of all men grieved for his death, insomuch that he grew deaf, and could not hear the causes of his subjects, by reason of the heaviness and troublesomeness of his brains. Saint Colum Cille being then banished into Scotland, king Diarmait made his repair to him, to the end [that] he might work some means by miracles for the recovery of his health and hearing: and withal told Saint Colum Cille how he assembled all the physicians of Ireland, and that they could not help him. Then said Saint Colum: 'Mine advice unto you is to make your repair to Clonmacnois, to the place where your ghostly father and friend Saint Ciaran is buried: and there to put a little of the earth of his grave or of himself in your ears, which is the medicine which I think to be most available to help you.' The king having received the said instructions of Saint Colum, took his journey immediately to Clonmacnois; and finding Oenna maccu Laigsi, who was abbot of the place after Saint Ciaran, absent, he spoke to Lugaid, then parish priest of Clonmacnois, and told him of Saint Colum's instructions unto him. Whereupon priest Lugaid and king Diarmait fasted and watched that night in the Little Church where Saint Ciaran was buried, and the next morning the priest took the bell that he had, named then the White Bell,[28] and mingled part of the clay of Saint Ciaran therein with holy water, and put the same in the king's ears, and immediately the king had as good hearing as any in the kingdom, and the whole sickness and troubles of his brains ceased at that instant, which made the king to say, _Is feartach an ní do ní an clog orainn_, which is as much as to say in English, 'The bell did do us a miraculous turn.' Which bell Saint Lugna conveyed with him to the church of Fore, where he remained afterwards. King Diarmait bestowed great gifts of lands on Clonmacnois in honour of Saint Ciaran, for the recovery of his health."

The bell, called the _bóbán_ of Coemgen, reappears much later in history as a relic on which oaths were taken (_Annals of Clonmacnois_, anno 1139; _Four Masters_, anno 1143). It was doubtless a relic preserved at Glendaloch, in which the people of Clonmacnois rightly or wrongly claimed a part-proprietorship. The name is obscure: it means, according to O'Davoren's Glossary, a calf or little cow: and Plummer (VSH, i, p. clxxvii) suggests that this name may be an allusion to its small size. But why "calf"? Is it an allusion to the original use of the type of bells used for ecclesiastical purposes in Ireland, as cow-bells?

Angels were seen by Saint Colman to fill the space between heaven and earth to receive the soul of Pope Gregory (VSH, i, 264).

LI. THE EARTH OF CIARAN'S TOMB DELIVERS COLUM CILLE FROM A WHIRLPOOL (LA, LB)

This is perhaps an imitation of the tale of the Empress Helena, who, when returning after her discovery of the True Cross, was delivered from a storm by casting one of the Nails into the sea. Colum Cille was saved from the whirlpool of Coire Bhreacain (Corrievreckan, between Jura and Scarba) on another (?) occasion, by reciting a hymn to Brigit (LL, 1706).

_The Visit of Colum Cille to Clonmacnois._--This took place during the rule of Ailithir, the fourth abbot of Clonmacnois (A.D. 589-595). It is described in Adamnan's _Vita Columbae_, where we read of the honour paid to the distinguished visitor, and how he was greeted with hymns and praises, while a canopy was borne over him on his way to the church, to protect him from inconvenient crowding. A humble boy, a useless servitor in the monastery, came behind Columba to touch the hem of his garment: the saint, miraculously apprised of this, caught him by the neck and held him, despite the protests of the brethren that he should dismiss this "wretched and noxious boy." Then he bade the boy stretch forth his tongue, and blessed it, prophesying his future increase in wisdom and knowledge, and his eminence as a preacher. The boy was Ernin or Ernoc, the patron saint of Kilmarnock; and Adamnan had the tale from Failbe, who was standing by as Ernin himself related the incident to Abbot Segine of Í. Colum Cille also prophesied the Easter controversy, and told of angelic visitations that he had had within the precincts of Clonmacnois: but Adamnan says nothing about the hymn to Ciaran, or the wonder-working clay from his tomb, although elsewhere in his book the terrors of Corrievreckan are alluded to. According to a prophecy of Colum Cille narrated in O'Donnell's Life of that saint, Patrick is to judge the men of Ireland on the Last Day at Clonmacnois.

_The Hymn of Colum Cille._--This composition has not been preserved in its entirety. Fragments of it are introduced into the Homiletic Introduction of VG, which are enough to identify it with a short hymn to be found in the Irish _Liber Hymnorum_, and published by Bernard and Atkinson in their edition of that compilation.[29] It is as follows--

Alto et ineffabile apostolorum coeti celestis Hierosolimæ sublimioris speculi sedente tribunalibus solis modo micantibus Quiaranus sanctus sacerdos insignis nuntius

inaltatus est manibus angelorum celestibus consummatis felicibus sanctitatum generibus quem tu Christe apostolum mundo misisti hominem gloriosum in omnibus nouissimis temporibus

rogamus Deum altissimum per sanctorum memoriam sancti Patrici episcopi Ciarani prespeteri Columbæque auxilia nos deffendat egregia ut per illorum merita possideamus premia

Obviously the third stanza, with its reference to Colum Cille himself, is a later addition, so that only the first two stanzas belong to the original hymn. The sixth line, _quem tu Christe_, is quoted in the section of VG referred to; but the three other excerpts, _lucerna_..., _custodiantur_..., _propheta_..., do not appear in the text before us: nor do the surviving stanzas justify the extravagant praise said to have been heaped on the composition at Clonmacnois--though no doubt a composition by Colum Cille, had it only the artless simplicity of a nursery jingle, would have been sure of an appreciative audience. However, the text seems to indicate something much more elaborate, and probably the original composition was an acrostic, like Colum Cille's great _Altus Prosator_.[30] The two authentic stanzas of the _Liber Hymnorum_ are incorporated in the metrical patchwork at the end of LB.

Another version of the hymn was known to Colgan, and is given by him in TT, p. 472. Unfortunately he quotes only one couplet--

Quantum Christe O Apostolum mundo misisti hominem Lucerna huius insulæ lucens lucerna mirabilis

which is evidently corrupt, and (as Colgan seems to regard it as the opening stanza) must show that the whole text had become disturbed by the time when Colgan wrote. Indeed, it does not appear that Colgan knew any more of the hymn than these two lines.

LIII. THE ENVY OF THE SAINTS (VG)

Note how the Latin texts soften down the saying attributed in VG to Colum Cille. A curious incident of disagreement between Ciaran and Colum Cille is thus related by Colgan (TT, p. 396). "Once there arose a petty quarrel between Kieranus and Columba, in which perhaps Kieranus, jealous for the divine honour, appeared either to prefer himself to Columba, or not to yield him the foremost place. But a good Spirit, descending from heaven, easily settled the quarrel, whatever it may have been, in this wise. He held out an awl, a hatchet, and an axe, presenting them to Kieranus: 'These things,' said he, 'and other things of this kind, with which thy father used to practise carpentry, hast thou abjured for the love of God. But Columba renounced the sceptre of Ireland, for which he might have hoped from his ancestral right and the power of his clan, before he made offering.'" The same tale is told in Manus O'Donnell's Life (ed. O'Kelleher, p. 60).

The authorities differ as to the attitude which Colum Cille adopted with regard to Ciaran. But as regards the other saints of Ireland there is no ambiguity. The cutting-short of Ciaran's life was one of the "three crooked counsels of Ireland" according to the glosses to the _Martyrology of Oengus_ (9th September): the same authority adds that the saints "fasted for Ciaran's death," as otherwise all Ireland would have been his. The ancient legal process of fasting was an inheritance from Pagan times. If A had a case against B, he might, and under certain circumstances was obliged to, abstain from food till the case was settled; he was then said to "fast upon B." The idea probably was that if a litigant permitted his adversary to starve to death, the angry ghost would ever afterwards disturb his rest. Parallels have been found in ancient Indian practice. Sometimes B performed a counter-fast; in such a case he who first broke his fast lost his cause. But the process seems to have been strangely extended, even in Christian times, to obtain boons from the supernatural Powers. We read of a saint "fasting upon God" that a king might lose a battle; and in _Revue celtique_, vol. xiv, p. 28, there is printed a story of a childless couple who fasted with success upon the Devil, that he might send them offspring. Two of the saints--Odran of Letrecha Odrain and Mac Cuillind of Lusk--went and told Ciaran for what they were fasting: Ciaran simply replied, "Bless ye the air before me"--the air through which I must travel in passing heavenwards--"and what ye desire shall be given you." The _Book of Leinster_ contains a poem attributed to Saint Ciaran relating to the shortness of his life: as it has apparently never been printed it is given here with a translation, so far as the obscurity of the language permits--

An rim, a rí richid ráin corbom etal risin dáil: co cloister cech ní atber i sanct cech sen, a Dé máir.

(Stay for me, O King of glorious heaven, till I be pure before the assembly; till everything that I shall speak be heard in the sanctuary of every blessing, O great God.)

A Mic Maire, miad cen ón ammochomde corric nem, a ruiri na nangel find, innanfa frim corbom sen?

(O Son of Mary, a dignity without blemish, O my Lord as far as Heaven, O King of the white angels, wilt Thou stay for me till I am old?)

Attchimse mo guide rutt arbaig Maire diandit Macc menbad tacrad latt a Ri condernaind ni bud maith latt

(I make my prayer unto Thee, for the love of Mary to whom Thou are Son, if it be not displeasing in Thy sight, O King, that I may do somewhat pleasing to Thee.)

Maccan berair rian a ré ní fintar feib ar a mbé asaóete lenta baeís aggáes cach aés bes nithé

(A young man who is taken before its time, the honour in which he may be is not discovered: from his youth of following folly, to his age every company ... (?).)

Ni horta laeg rianáes daim ár cach sen as tressiu achách, ni horta uan na horc maith ni coilte cr ... [31] a bláth

(A calf is not slaughtered till it is of ox's age, 'tis the ploughing (?) of every old one which waxes stronger: a lamb or a good pigling is not slaughtered, the (saffron?) is not plucked till its flower.)

Buain guirt riasiu bas abbuig is m ... cacaid, a Rí rind? is e in longud riana thráth blath do choll in tan bas find

(To reap a field before it is ripe, is it a right (thing), O King of stars? It is eating before the time to violate a flower while it is white.)

Fuiniud immedon laa ni hord baa rian ... matan in aidche, in dedoil ria na medon cia mó col

(Sunset in midday, no order of profit before...; morning in night, twilight before its noon, though it be greatest wrong.)

Cluinti itgi notguidiu is mo chridiu deroil dúir a Mic mo De cianomrodba is bec mo thorba dondúir

(Hear Thou the prayer I pray Thee in the depth of my wretched hard heart, O Son of my God, although Thou cuttest me off, small is my profitableness ... )

Duitsi a Mic motholtu cen cope sentu dom churp, cenambera cen taithlech no co bia maith fe[in] fort

(To Thee, O Son, ... (?), that without my body becoming aged, I be not taken without reason till I shall myself be good in Thy sight.)

Is fort shnádud cach ambi ria ndula m' chri, a Ri slán, ic do guide dam cen dichil, an rimm a Rí richid ran

(On Thy protection is every one whereso he is; before departure of my body, O Perfect King, I am praying Thee without negligence, stay for me, O King of glorious heaven.)

LIV. THE PANEGYRICS (LA, VG)

There is little that need be said about these paragraphs, which are of conventional type. There are two references in VG which may, however, be noted. The first is to the relics left in the hollow elm, of which we have already heard at the beginning of these annotations: here said to have been deposited by Benen (the pupil of Patrick, and his successor in Armagh) and by Cumlach (the leper of Saint Patrick). The second is an allusion, on which I am unable to throw any light, to some evidently well-known story of a certain Peca and his blind pupil.

THE METRICAL PANEGYRIC IN LB

This is a patchwork of extracts from different sources.

1. Fifteen-syllable lines, with caesura at eighth syllable; every line ending in a trisyllabic word, rhyming (not always) with a word preceding the caesura. A dissyllable or trisyllable precedes the caesura. Rhythm of Tennyson's _Locksley Hall_, proceeding by stress only, independent of vowel-quantity or hiatus. In line seven, 'Keranus' must be pronounced in four syllables, Kiaranus. Refers to the wizard's prophecy, incident II.

2. Four lines, in _Locksley Hall_ rhythm, with a dissyllabic rhyme running through the quatrain. Relates incident IX.

3. Four lines, twelve syllables trochaic, caesura at seventh syllable. Each line ends with a trisyllable or a tetrasyllable, with dissyllabic rhyme running through the quatrain. The rhythm is that of the following line (which is intentionally misquoted to serve the present purpose)--

"Gather roses while you may, time is still a-flying."

The incident is not recorded in the prose lives; but it appears in the _Book of the Dun Cow_, in the story of the Birth of Aed Slaine (son of King Diarmait, reigned A.D. 595-600). Diarmait, it appears, had two wives (for, notwithstanding his friendship to Ciaran, he was but a half-converted pagan), by name Mugain and Muireann. Muireann had the misfortune to be bald, and Mugain, who, as is usual in polygamous households, was filled with envy of her, bribed a female buffoon to remove her golden headgear in public at the great assembly of Tailltiu (Telltown, Co. Meath), so as to expose the poor queen's defect to the eyes of the mob. The messenger accomplished her purpose, but Muireann cried out, "God and Saint Ciaran help me in this need!" and forthwith a shower of glossy curling golden hair flowed from her head over her shoulders, before a single eye of the assembly had rested upon her. Compare Ciaran's own experience, incident XLVI.

4. Three lines in the same metre, but apparently with three instead of four lines in each rhyming stanza. Refers to incident XVIII.

5. Three lines in the same rhythm as extract 1, but with a different rhyme-scheme; apparently three lines from a quatrain rhyming _abab_. Refers to incident XLI.

6. Six lines in elegiac couplets. This probably refers to XLVI, but without their original context the lines must remain obscure. In any case the versifier has the story in a rather different form from the prose writers, and appears to regard it as an incident of the boyhood period.

7. Eight lines from the hymn of Colum Cille, already commented upon.

ADDITIONAL NOTE ON CIARAN'S BIRTHPLACE

Some place-names in the barony of Moycashel (S. Co. Westmeath), which lies in Cenel Fiachach, support the tradition that Ciaran's birthplace is to be sought there, and not in Mag Ai at all. I can find nothing in the local nomenclature to suggest Ráith Cremthainn; but "Templemacateer" (_Teampull mhic an tsaoir_, the "Church of the Wright's son") may be compared with, and perhaps equated to the similarly named "house" (p. 111); "Ballynagore" (_Baile na ngabhar_, the "town of the goats," or "horses") perhaps echoes the "Tir na Gabrai" of VG 3. About half a mile to the west is _Tulach na crosáin_, the "Mound of the crosslet"--possibly the missing cross of Ciaran (LA 4). At the outflow of the Brosna from Loch Ennell is "Clonsingle," which it is tempting to equate to the place-name corrupted to "Cluain Innsythe," in LA 12.

An additional suggestion may here be made to the effect that the eldest son and daughter of Beoit were twins. Their names, _Lug-oll_ "big Lug," and _Lug-beg_ "little Lug," are in correspondence, as twins' names often are.

[Footnote 1: For brevity we shall refer to certain books, frequently quoted in these Annotations, by the following symbols--

LL. _Lives of Saints from the Book of Lismore_, ed. Stokes. CS. _Codex Salmaticensis_ (Acta Sanctorum Hiberniae), ed. de Smedt and de Backer. VTP. _Vita Tripartita Patricii_, ed. Stokes. VSH. Plummer's _Vitae Sanctorum Hiberniae_. TT. _Trias Thaumaturga_ (Colgan's collection of the lives of SS. Patrick, Brigid, and Colum Cille).]

[Footnote 2: There is a different version, which need not be given here, in the _Martyrology of Oengus_ (Henry Bradshaw Society edition, p. 204).]

[Footnote 3: Mentioned in _Annals of Ulster_, anno 1166, _Annals of Loch Cé_, anno 1189, _Annals of the Four Masters_, annis 1121, 1166.]

[Footnote 4: A collection (in Irish) of the traditions of this person will be found in _Targaireacht Bhriain ruaidh uí Chearbháin_, by Micheál ó Tiomhánaidhe (Dublin, 1906).]

[Footnote 5: The passage would then read thus--_Rothircan Bec mac De condebairt andsin_--

"_A maic in tsaeir, cot clasaib, cot coraib, It casair chaeim, cot cairpthib, cot ceolaib._"

The transposition has probably been caused by the error of some scribe who copied first the parts of the two lines preceding the caesura.]

[Footnote 6: The roll of the Kings of Tara was evolved from various sources by the Irish historians of the early Christian Period. Tigernmas was properly a pagan culture-hero, to whom was traditionally attributed the introduction of gold-smelting and of other arts, and who was said to have perished, apparently as a human sacrifice, at some great religious assembly.]

[Footnote 7: This is certainly the reading, curiously misread in LL p. 356, (Irish text), and in VSH i, p. li, note 3.]

[Footnote 8: Ossianic Society's _Transactions_, vol. v, p. 84 ff.]

[Footnote 9: Edited by Dr. Hyde in _Celtic Review_, vol. x, p. 116 ff.]

[Footnote 10: On this whole subject see Chapter IV of MacNeill's _Phases of Irish History_, a book which may be unreservedly recommended as giving a clear and accurate view of the early history of the country.]

[Footnote 11: It may be noted for the benefit of the reader unaccustomed to Irish nomenclature, that persons are named in one of the following formulae: "A mac B" (_mac_, genitive _mic_, in syntactic relation _mhic_ [pronounced _vic_] = son): "A ó B" (_ô_ or _ua_, genitive _ui_ = grandson or descendant): and "A maccu B" (_maccu_ = descendant, denoting B as the name of a remote ancestor). Of course the name B will in every case be in the genitive.]

[Footnote 12: For division of labour between the sexes, see Frazer, _Spirits of the Corn and of the Wild_, ii, 129. For prohibitions of the presence of males when specifically female work was being transacted, Plummer quotes Grimm, _Teutonic Mythology_, Eng. Trans., iv, 1778 ("Men shall not stay in the house while women are stuffing feathers in the beds, otherwise the feathers will prick through the bed-ticking"). O'Curry (_Manners and Customs_, iii, p. 121), commenting on this story, refers to times and seasons deemed unlucky for dyeing, at the time when he wrote; but the prohibition of the presence of males was forgotten.]

[Footnote 13: Vafthrudnismál 41; Grimnismál 18. (_Edda_, ed. Hafn, 1787, vol. i, pp. 24, 48.)]

[Footnote 14: F.M. Luzel, _Contes populaires de Basse-Bretagne_ (Paris, 1887), vol. i, p. 219 ff. Some other parallels are quoted by Plummer, VSH, i, p. cxliii, note 5.]

[Footnote 15: There is evidence from various literary sources that cattle thus peculiarly coloured were accounted sacred in ancient Ireland.]

[Footnote 16: There should be no hypermetric syllables, but I have been unable to avoid them.]

[Footnote 17: _Horae Hebraicae_ in Evangel. Matt., xv, 36, following the tract _Berakoth_.]

[Footnote 18: O'Donnell's _Life of St. Columba_, ed. O'Kelleher, p. 120.]

[Footnote 19: For the story of Coirpre, see _Lismore Lives_, ed. Stokes, preface p. xvi; _Revue celtique_, xxvi, 368. For the story of Ambacuc, see _Silua Gadelica_, no. xxxi; _Eriu_, vol. vi, p. 159.]

[Footnote 20: A fully illustrated description of this relic by Mr. E.C.R. Armstrong will be found in _Journal_, Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, vol. xlix, p. 132.]

[Footnote 21: _Book of the Dun Cow_, printed in _Zeitschrift für Celtische Philologie_, iii, 218.]

[Footnote 22: _Féilire Oengusso_, Henry Bradshaw Society edition, p. 12.]

[Footnote 23: _Revue celtique_, xv, at p. 491.]

[Footnote 24: I should here have quoted as a parallel the oft-described Indian rope-trick, which is alleged to be a hypnotic feat, had I not been recently assured by a relative who knows India well that no one has yet been discovered who has actually seen this trick performed, and that it is probably nothing more than a piece of folk-lore.]

[Footnote 25: See his important series of papers, _Ueber directe Handelsverbindungen Westgalliens mit Irland im Altertum und früher Mittelalter_, published in _Sitzungsberichte der königliche preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften_, 1909, vol. i.]

[Footnote 26: _Life of Colman mac Luachain_, Todd Lectures Series, Royal Irish Academy, vol. xvii, p. 86.]

[Footnote 27: Bede's _Life of Cuthbert_, § xxxix.]

[Footnote 28: This is evidently a mistranslation of _bóbán_, the translator having in mind the word _bán_, "white."]

[Footnote 29: Henry Bradshaw Society edition, vol. i, p. 157.]

[Footnote 30: Although the sense appears to run continuously from one stanza to the next in their present collocation.]

[Footnote 31: MS. illegible.]

* * * * *

=APPENDIX=

THE LATIN TEXT OF LB