Part 9

The _Annals of Clonmacnois_ preserves for us a totally different tradition of the origin and upbringing of the saint. Modernising the haphazard spelling and punctuation of the seventeenth-century English translation (the original Irish of this valuable book is lost), we may note what it tells us. "His father's name was Beoit, a Connacht man (_sic_) and a carpenter. His mother Darerca, of the issue of Corc mac Fergusa mic Roig of the Clanna Rudraige. He in his childhood lived with his father and mother in 'Templevickinloyhe' [wherever that may have been] in Cenel Fiachach; until a thief of the country of Ui Failge stole the one cow they had, which, being found, he forsook together with his father and mother the said place of the stealth [= theft], fearing of further inconvenience." Here note: (1) that Darerca is given the ancestry attributed in the _Book of Leinster_ pedigree to Beoit, thus hinting at an originally _matrilinear_ form of the official pedigree: (2) that the settlement of the family in Cenel Fiachach, _i.e._ the place of Darerca's dwelling, is definitely stated; (3) that the migration of the family does not take place till after Ciaran's birth; (4) that a totally different reason is assigned for the migration; (5) that incident X of the _Lives_ is directly referred to; (6) that we hear nothing in this passage about the rest of the numerous family of Beoit; and (7) that the family is poor, having but one cow.

Cenel Fiachach (the clan of Fiachu) occupied a territory covering parts of the present counties of Westmeath and King's Co. VG erroneously writes this Cenel Fiachrach, which occupied a territory of the modern Co. Sligo. _See_ further, p. 171.

_The Princes._--Unfortunately Ainmire mac Colgain, lord of Ui Neill, and Cremthann, a chieftain of Connacht, are not otherwise known; we cannot therefore test the chronological truth of this part of the story. Ainmire reappears as an oppressor in the life of Aed (VSH, ii, 295). LA anachronistically confuses this Ainmire with Ainmire mac Setna, King of Tara, A.D. 564-566.

It is noteworthy that VG calls Cremthann "King of Ireland." This is in accordance with the fact that the dynasty which united Ireland under the suzerainty of the King of Tara was of Connacht origin.[10]

_The Wizard's Prophecy._--The phrase "the noise of a chariot under a king" is a stock formula in this connexion; compare, with Stokes, _Vita Sancti Aedui_ in Rees' _Lives of Cambro-British Saints_, p. 233 (also VSH, ii, 295). With the incident compare the story of the druid rising to welcome the parents of Saint Senan, and when ridiculed for thus showing honour to peasants explaining that it was to their unborn child that he was paying honour (LL, 1875). Observe that in both tales the druid is _mocked_. This touch doubtless belongs to the Christian chronicler, taking the opportunity of putting the minister of the rival creed in an invidious position.

_Deacon Iustus_, according to VTP (p. 104) and Tirechan's _Collections regarding Saint Patrick_ (edited in VTP, see pp. 305, 318) was consecrated by Saint Patrick, who left with him his ritual book and his office of baptism, in Fidarta (Fuerty, Co. Roscommon). It was in his old age that he baptized Ciaran, out of Patrick's book--he was, indeed, according to the documents quoted, no less than 140 years of age. The glossators of the _Martyrology of Oengus_ (Henry Bradshaw Society edition, p. 128) confuse him with Euthymius, the deacon, martyred at Alexandria. The play on words ("it were fitting that the _just one_ should be baptized by a _Just One_") is lost in the Irish version, whence Plummer (VSH, i, p. xlix) infers that this document is a translation from a Latin original: but the fact proves nothing more than that the author of VG borrowed _this particular incident_, as he borrowed his preface, from a Latin writing. All these Lives are patchworks, and their component elements are of very different origins and dates.

_The date of Ciaran's birth_ was 25 February, A.D. 515. The _Annals of Ulster_ says 511, or "according to another book," 516. The _Annals of Clonmacnois_ has the correct date, 515.

_The Geographical Names in this Incident._--_Temoria_ (LA) is Tara (Irish _Teamair_), Co. Meath, the site of the dwelling of the Kings of Ireland. _Midhe_ (LA) means the province of Meath; LA is, however, in error in placing the Latronenses therein. The _Connachta_ are the people who give their name to the province of Connacht. _Mag Ai_, variously spelt, is the central plain of Co. Roscommon; _Raith Cremthainn_ ("the fort of Cremthann") was somewhere upon it, presumably near the royal establishment of Rathcroghan, but the exact site is unknown. _Isel Chiarain_ (VG), a place reappearing later in the Life, is unknown, but doubtless it was close to Clonmacnois. _Cluain maccu Nois_, the "Meadow of the Descendants of Nos," now Clonmacnois, stands on the right bank of the Shannon about twelve miles below Athlone. Extensive remains of the monastery founded by Ciaran are still to be seen there. As for _Tech meic in tSaeir_, "the house of the wright's son," we might have inferred that this place was also somewhere near or in Clonmacnois; but a note among the glosses of the _Martyrology of Oengus_ (under 9th September) says that it was "in the house of the son of the wright" that Ciaran was _brought up_. It is therefore to be identified with the mysterious place corruptly spelt "Templevickinloyhe" (church of the son of the ----?) in the extract from the _Annals of Clonmacnois_ printed above.[11]

_The Verses in this Section of VG._--The epigram on Ciaran's parents is found in many MSS. The rendering here given expresses the sense and reproduces the rhythm of the stanza, but does not attempt to copy the metre in every detail. This is known as _cro cummaisc etir casbairdne ocus lethrannaigecht_, and consists of seven-syllable lines with trisyllabic rhymes, alternating with five-syllable lines having monosyllabic rhymes. Literally translated the sense would run, "Darerca my mother / she was not a bad woman // Beoit the wright my father / of the Latharna of Molt."

The second stanza is misplaced, and should properly have been inserted in the following paragraph. Its metre is _ae freslige_--seven-syllable lines in a quatrain, rhyming _abab_: _a_ being trisyllabic, _b_ dissyllabic rhymes. The stanza is obscure and probably corrupt; so far as it can be rendered at all, the literal translation is: "He healed the steed of Oengus / when he was in a swathe, in a cradle // there was given ... / from God this miracle to Ciaran."

III. HOW CIARAN RAISED THE STEED OF OENGUS FROM DEATH (LA, LB, LC, VG)

_The Four Versions._--This incident is told in all four lives, and it is instructive to note the differences of detail which they display. In LA Oengus goes to fetch Ciaran, after consulting with his friends. In LB he sends for him. In LC he goes to him, and in VG Ciaran comes without being fetched. The stanza interpolated in the preceding section of VG introduces us to another variant of the tradition, in which Ciaran was a swaddled infant when the miracle was wrought. In LB the incident is given a homiletic turn, by being told to illustrate the saint's care for animals.

_Parallels._--A similar but not identical miracle is attributed to Saint Patrick (VTP, 228; LL, 565). Here the saint resuscitates horses with holy water; but in this case the saint's own curse had originally caused the horses' deaths, because they grazed in his churchyard. Saint Lasrian also restored a horse to life (CS, 796).

_Tir na Gabrai_ ("the land of the horse") is unknown, though it presumably was near Raith Cremthainn. The story was probably told to account for the name of the field. It has been noticed that the Latin Lives are less rich in details as to names of places and people than the Irish Life. This is an indication of a later tradition, when the recollection of names had become vague, or, rather, when names which had been of interest to their contemporaries had ceased to rouse such feelings.

IV. HOW CIARAN TURNED WATER INTO HONEY (LA, LB, LC, VG)

One of the numerous imitations of the story of the Miracle of Cana. Compare incident XLIV. An identical story is told of Saint Patrick (LL, 108). Note the variety of reasons given for sending the honey to Iustus.

V. HOW CIARAN WAS DELIVERED FROM A HOUND (LA, LB, LC, VG)

_Parallels._--The same story is told of Saint Patrick, in Colgan's _Tertia Vita_, cap. xxxi, _Septima Vita_, I, cap. xlvii. Patrick likewise quoted the verse _Ne tradas bestiis animus confitentes tibi_ (Ps. lxiv, [Vulgate lxiii] 19).

_The Fate of the Hound._--This varies in the different versions. In the Patrick story just quoted it was struck immovable, as a stone. In LA it thrusts its head _in circo uituli_, which I have rendered conjecturally as the context seems to require, but I can find no information as to the exact nature of this adjunct to the cattle-stall. Du Cange gives _arcus sellae equestris_ as one of the meanings of _circus_.

LB and LC, which have many points of affinity, are in this incident almost word for word identical. They agree in saying that the men setting on the hound were spurred (_uexati_) by an evil spirit. The misplacing of this incident in LB is probably due to a transposition of the leaves of the exemplar from which it was copied.

VI. HOW CIARAN AND HIS INSTRUCTOR CONVERSED, THOUGH DISTANT FROM ONE ANOTHER (LA, VG)

_Topography of the Story._--Assuming that Raith Cremthainn was somewhere near Rathcroghan, the distance between this and Fuerty would be about fourteen miles. There is no indication on the Ordnance map of any rock that can be identified with the cross-bearing stone on which Ciaran used to sit, though it clearly was a landmark well known to the author of LA. (_Pacé_ LA, Rathcroghan is _north_ of Fuerty.)

_Parallels._--The closest parallel is the story of Brigit, who heard a Mass that was being celebrated in Rome, though unable to hear a popular tumult close by (TT, 539). Something resembling the action of a wireless telephone is contemplated, the voices being inaudible to persons between the speakers. Thus the tales of saints with preternaturally loud voices are not quite in point. Colum Cille was heard to read his Psalms a mile and half away (LL, 828); Brenainn also was heard at a long distance (LL, 3419). The burlesque _Vision of MacConglinne_ parodies such voices (ed. Meyer, pp. 12, 13).

VII. CIARAN AND THE FOX (VG)

_Parallels._--There are endless tales of how saints pressed wild animals into their service; indeed the first monastic establishment of Ciaran's elder namesake, Ciaran of Saigir, consisted of wild animals only: a boar, a badger, a wolf, and a stag (VSH, i, 219; _Silua Gadelica_, i, p. 1 ff.). Moling also kept a number of wild and tame animals round his monastery--among them a fox, which, as in the tale before us, attempted to eat a book (VSH, ii, 201); otherwise, however, the stories differ. Aed rescued a stag from hunters, and used its horns as a book-rest (VSH, ii, 296); Coemgen similarly rescued a boar (VSH, i, 244). So, in Wales, Saint Brynach caused stags to draw his carriage, and committed his cow to the charge of a wolf (_Cambro-British Saints_, pp. 10, 296). Saint Illtyd tamed a stag which he had rescued from hunters (_ibid._, pp. 164, 473).

_Herding of Cattle._--There is abundant evidence from the Lives of the saints that the herding of the cattle while pasturing was an important duty of the children of the household. There was no little risk in this, owing to the prevalence of wolves.

_Reading the Psalms._--The Psalms seem to have been the first subject of instruction given to young students; LB, 4, indicates that Ciaran's lessons with Iustus did not go beyond the mere rudiments of learning. There is in the National Museum, Dublin, a tablet-book containing six leaves of wax-covered wood, on which are traced a number of the Psalms in the Vulgate version; this was most likely a lesson-book such as is here described. The story evidently grew up around an actual specimen, that bore injuries, explained as being the tooth-marks of the fox.

_Versions of the Tale._--It would appear that this story was originally an account of how Ciaran and his distant tutor could communicate, quite independent of incident VI. It has become awkwardly combined with VI into a conflate narrative, as is shown by the silence about the fox in LA. According to the one story, they used their supernatural "wireless telephone." According to the other, the fox trotted back and forth with the book. In the conflate version, it would appear that Iustus dictated Psalms to Ciaran by "telephone," Ciaran then wrote them on his tablets, and the fox waited till he was finished and then carried them for correction to Iustus. (As is observed in the footnote _in loc_, p. 73, we must read "Iustus" for "Ciaran" in the passage describing the proceedings of the fox).

_The Homiletic Pendant._--The unexpected homiletic turn given to this story in VG may perhaps find its explanation in facts now lost to us; the passage reads like a side-thrust at some actual person or persons. It may possibly refer to the act of sacrilege committed by Toirdelbach ó Briain, in 1073, who carried away from Clonmacnois the head of Conchobar ó Maeil-Shechlainn; but being attacked by a mysterious disease--imparted to him, it was said, by a mouse which issued from the head and ran up under his garment--he was obliged to return it, with two gold rings by way of compensation. He did not recover from the disease, however, but died in 1086 (_Annals of Four Masters_).

VIII. HOW CIARAN SPOILED HIS MOTHER'S DYE (VG)

I have found no parallel to this most remarkable story. It displays the following noteworthy points--

1. It belongs to the Ciaran-tradition which places the home of the family in Cenel Fiachach.

2. It preserves what has every appearance of being an authentic tradition of a prohibition against the presence of males, even of tender years, when dyeing was being carried on.[12]

3. Most likely the saint's curse--indeed, the whole association of the tale with Ciaran--is a late importation into the story: it was probably originally a [Pagan] tale, told as a warning of what would happen if males were allowed to be present at the mystery. The different colours which the garments assumed are perhaps not without significance; Sullivan, in his introduction to O'Curry's _Manners and Customs_ (i, p. 405), says "the two failures ... are simply the failures which result from imperfect fermentation and over-fermentation of the woad-vat."

4. There is an intentionally droll touch given to the end of the _Märchen_.

5. The independence of parental control which the youthful Ciaran displays will not escape notice.

_The Stanza._--This is written in a peculiar metre; two seven-syllable lines, with trisyllabic rhymes, followed by two rhyming couplets of five-syllable lines with monosyllabic rhymes.

_Iarcain_ is a word of uncertain meaning: it probably denotes the waste stuff left behind in the vat.

IX. HOW CIARAN RESTORED A CALF WHICH A WOLF HAD DEVOURED (LA, LB, LC, VG)

_Parallels._--Practically the same story is told of Abban (VSH, i, 24; CS, 508) and of Colman (CS, 828). A similar story is told of Saint Patrick (LL, 91), but it is not quite identical, inasmuch as here the wolf voluntarily restored a sheep which it had carried off. Something like this, however, is indicated in the Latin verse rendering of the story (No. 2 of the Latin verse fragments at the end of LB). More nearly parallel is the tale of Brigit (LL, 1250; CS, 19) who gave bacon which she was cooking to a hungry dog; it was miraculously replaced. A converse of this miracle is to be found in the Life of Ailbe, who first restored two horses killed by lions, and then miraculously provided a hundred horses for the lions to devour (CS, 239). Aed gave eight wethers to as many starving wolves, and they were miraculously restored to save him from the indignation of his maternal aunt (VSH, ii, 296). It is obvious, but hypercritical, to complain that in these artless tales the kindness shown to the beasts is illogically one-sided!

_The Process of Resuscitation._--The important point in the tale, though the versions do not all recognise this, is the collection of the bones of the calf. VG preserves the essential command to the wolf not to break these. Colum Cille reconstituted an ox from its bones (LL, 1055). Coemgen gave away to wayfarers the dinner prepared for the monastic harvestmen, and when the latter naturally protested, he collected the bones and re-clothed them with flesh, at the same time turning water to wine (VSH, i, 238). Aed performed a similar miracle in the nunnery at Clonmacnois, replacing Ciaran's dinner which he himself had eaten (VSH, i, 39). There is here no mention of the bones, but very likely this has become lost in the process of transmission. By all these tales we are reminded of the boar Sæhrimnir, on whose flesh the blessed ones in Valhalla feast daily--sodden every evening and reconstituted from its bones every morning.[13] In a Breton folk-tale, _La princesse Troïol_, the hero has been burnt by the wiles of his enemy, but his sorceress fiancée seeks among the ashes till at last she finds a tiny splinter of bone. With this she is able to restore her betrothed; without it she would have been powerless.[14]

Very probably the practice of "secondary interment" of human bones, which we find so far back as the later stages of the Palaeolithic age, is based upon the same belief; that if the bones are preserved, their owner has a chance of a fresh lease of life.

There is a curious variant of the story in the Life of Coemgen. Here the cow is driven home, and Coemgen, called upon to soothe its lamentations, fetches, not the bones of the eaten calf, but the culprit wolf, which comes and plays the part of the calf to the satisfaction of all concerned (VSH, i, 239). It is evident that in this case there is another element of belief indicated: the personality of the calf has passed into the wolf which has devoured it--in fact, the wolf _is_ the calf re-incarnate.

_Resurrection of Beasts._--Calling dead animals back to life is a not infrequent incident in the lives of Irish saints. We have already seen Ciaran resuscitating a horse. Mo-Chua restored twelve stags (VSH, ii, 188); but perhaps the most remarkable feat was that of Moling, who, having watched a wren eating a fly, and a kestrel eating the wren, revived first the wren and then the fly (VSH, ii, 200). Saint Brynach's cow having been slain by a tyrannical king, was restored to life by the saint (_Cambro-British Saints_, pp. 11, 297).

_The Stanza in VG._--The metre is _ae freslige_. The rendering in the text is close to the literal sense.

_The Ejaculation "Mercy on us"_--or, more literally, "mercy come to us." The sentence recording this habitual ejaculation, in VG, breaks so awkwardly into the sense of the passage in which it is found, that it must be regarded as a marginal gloss which has become incorporated with the text. It has dislodged a sentence that must have legitimately belonged to the text, restored in the foregoing translation by conjecture. Probably the lost sentence, like the intrusive one, ended with the word _trocuire_, "mercy," which, indeed, may have suggested the interpolation; this might easily have caused the scribe's eye to wander. An habitual expletive is also attributed to St. Patrick (_modébroth_, apparently "My God of Judgment!").

Here, again, the versions in LB and LC are very closely akin.

X. HOW CIARAN WAS DELIVERED FROM ROBBERS (LA, LC, VG)

_Parallels._--Robbers were smitten with blindness (cf. Genesis xix. II) by Darerca (CS, 179) and restored on repentance. The same fate befell a man who endeavoured to drive Findian from a place where he had settled (CS, 198). Robbers who attempted to attack Cainnech (CS, 364, 389; VSH, i, 153), Colman (VSH, i, 264), and Flannan (CS, 669), were struck motionless. The story before us is a conflation of the two types of incident, blindness and paralysis being accumulated on the robbers. The same accumulation befell a swineherd who attempted to slay Saint Cadoc (_Cambro-British Saints_, pp. 31, 321).

Note that this incident, like No. VIII, belongs to the Cenel Fiachach tradition. We have already seen that it was known to the compiler of the _Annals of Clonmacnois_, though he ignores the miraculous element.

XI.-XIII. HOW CIARAN GAVE CERTAIN GIFTS (LA): XIV. HOW CIARAN GAVE THE KING'S CAULDRON TO BEGGARS AND WAS ENSLAVED (LA, LC, VG)

These four incidents may be considered together: they are all variants of one formula.

_Parallels_.--Brigit took "of her father's wealth and property, whatsoever her hands would find, ... to give to the poor and needy" (LL, 1308). A story is told in the Life of Aed which is evidently a combination of our incidents XII and XIII: to the effect that when ploughing he made a gift of one of his oxen and of the coulter, and continued to plough without either (VSH, i, 36).

The angels grinding for Ciaran reappear in incident XVIII: this is a frequent type of favour shown to saints. Angels ground for Colum Cille at Clonard (LL, 850), swept out a hearth for Patrick (LL, 121), and harvested for Ailbe (CS, 241).

_Beoit an Uncle._--This is an important link between incidents XII and XIII in LA. Its bearing upon the question of the origin of Ciaran's family has already been noticed.

_The Oxen ploughing._--Incident XIII would be meaningless if we did not understand from it that at the time of the formation of the story it was not customary to use horses in the plough. This is an illustration of the way in which these documents, unhistorical though they may be in the main, yet throw occasional sidelights, which may be accepted as authentic, on ancient life.

_King Furbith._--I have not succeeded in tracing this personage, who reappears in incident XXVII. But the story of his cauldron is found in the Life of Ciaran of Saigir (CS, 815), in a rather different form--to the effect that he deposited his considerable wealth for safe-keeping with Ciaran, who was already abbot of Clonmacnois. Ciaran promptly distributed it to the poor. Furbith was human enough to be annoyed at this breach of trust, and ordered Ciaran to be summoned before him in bonds. This done, he addressed him "insultingly," as the hagiographer puts it, in these words: "Good abbot, if thou wilt be loosed from bonds, thou must needs bring me seven white-headed red hornless kine:[15] and if thou canst not find them, thou shalt pay a penalty for my treasures which thou hast squandered." Ciaran undertook to provide the required cattle, "not to escape these thy bonds, which are a merit unto me, but to set forth the glory of my God"; and therefore he was set free to obtain them. Another variant of these stories--a common type, in which the saint gives away the property of other people in alms, but has his own face miraculously saved--is illustrated by the tale of Coemgen, who, when a boy was pasturing sheep. He gave four of them to beggars, but when the sheep were led home at night the number was found complete "so that the servant of Christ should not incur trouble on account of his exceeding charity" (VSH, i, 235).