Heroic Romances of Ireland — Volume 1 eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 211 pages of information about Heroic Romances of Ireland — Volume 1.

Heroic Romances of Ireland — Volume 1 eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 211 pages of information about Heroic Romances of Ireland — Volume 1.

In O’Curry’s rendering of the dialogue between Ferdia and his servant, line 3 should be, “That it be not a deed of prophecy,” not “a deferred deed”; and line 6, With his proud sport.”

Last stanza of the poem: 

It seems thou art not without rewards, so greatly hast thou praised him; why else hast thou extolled him ever since I left my house? they who now extol the man when he is in their sight come not to attack him, but are cowardly churls.

PAGE 128

Line 34.  “As a hawk darts up from the furrow.”  O’Curry gives “from the top of a cliff.”  The word in the Irish is claiss.

PAGE 129

The metre of this poem, which is also the metre of all the preceeding poems except the second in this romance, but does not occur elsewhere in the collection, may be illustrated by quoting the original of the fifth verse, which runs as follows: 

Re funiud, re n-aidchi
Madit eicen airrthe,
Comrac dait re bairche,
Ni ba ban in gleo: 
Ulaid acot gairmsiu,
Ra n-gabartar aillsiu,
Bud olc doib in taidbsiu
Rachthair thairsiu is treo.

Literal translation of the first two stanzas: 

What has brought thee here, O Hound, to fight with a strong champion? crimson-red shall flow thy blood over the breaths of thy steeds; woe is thy journey:  it shall be a kindling of fuel against a house, need shalt thou have of healing if thou reach thy home (alive).

I have come before warriors who gather round a mighty host-possessing prince, before battalions, before hundreds, to put thee under the water, in anger with thee, and to slay thee in a combat of hundreds of paths of battle, so that thine shall the injury as thou protectest thy head.

Line 2 of the fifth stanza, “Good is thy need of height.”

Line 8 of the seventh stanza, “Without valour, without strength.”

PAGE 133

Line 3.  Literally:  “Whatever be the excellence of her beauty.”  A similar literal translation for page 138, line 10, of the dialogue; the same line occurs in verse 3 on page 148, but is not rendered in the verse translation.

PAGE 134

Line 18.  “O Cuchulain! for beautiful feats renowned.”  O’Curry gives this as prose, but it is clearly verse in the original.

PAGE 138

Lines 5, 6 of dialogue.  “O Cuchulain! who art a breeder of wounds” (lit. “pregnant with wounds"); “O true warrior!  O true” (?accent probably omitted) “champion!”

Lines 7, 8.  “There is need for some one” (i.e. himself) “to go to the sod where his final resting-place shall be.”  The Irish of line 7 is is eicen do neoch a thecht, which O’Curry translates “a man is constrained to come,” and he is followed by Douglas Hyde, who renders the two lines: 

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Heroic Romances of Ireland — Volume 1 from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.