Apparent rendering:  “Place on the land, place close on the land, very red oxen, heavy troop which hears, truly manlike ? troops, strong heavy placing of trees, very red . . . is led past them with twisted wattles, weary hands, the eye slants aside (squints) because of one woman.  To you the vengeance, to you the heavy ? oxen ? splendour of sovereignty over white men, . . . man sorrow on thee . . . of childbirth, rushes over Tethba, clearing of stones from Meath . . . where the benefit where the evil, causeway over . . . moor.”  It seems that the oxen were transformed people of Mider’s race; this appears from fír-ferdi, which is taken to mean “really men”; and duib in digail duib in trom-daim, which is taken to mean “to you the vengeance, to you heavy oxen.”

Professor Strachan disagrees with this, as daim, to be “oxen,” should not have the accent, he makes trom-daim “heavy companies.”  He also renders clunithar fír ferdi buindi, as “which hears truth, manly troops.”  The rest of the translation he agrees to, most of it is his own.

The passage from fomnis fomnis to lamnado seems untranslatable.

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Line 1.  Lit. “no evil wedding feast (banais, text banas) for thee?

MAC DATHO’S BOAR

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Line 3.  The Rawlinson version gives, instead of “who was the guardian of all Leinster,” the variant “who would run round Leinster in a day.”  This semi-supernatural power of the hound is the only supernatural touch in either version of the tale.

Line 6.  The verse “Mesroda son of Datho” is from the Rawlinson Ms. The literal version of it is in Anecdota Oxoniensia, Mediaeval Series, part viii. p. 57. (This reference will in future be given as A.O., p. 57.)

Line 20.  The list of the hostelries or guest-houses of Ireland includes the scene of the famous Togail Da Derga, in the sack of which Conaire, king of Ireland, was killed.  Forgall the Wily was the father of Emer, Cuchulain’s wife.  The tale of the plunder of da Choca is in the Ms. classed as H. 3, 18 in the Trinity College, Dublin, Library.

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The literal version of the dialogue between Mac Datho and his wife is given in A.O., p. 58, following the Leinster text (there are only two lines of it given in the Rawlinson Ms.); but I note a few divergencies in the literal version from which the verse translation was made.

Verse 3, line 1.  Asbert Crimthann Nia Nair, “Crimthann Nia Nair has said” (A.O.).  Nia is “sister’s son,” and has been so rendered.  Nia is a champion, and this is the meaning given in the Coir Anmann; but nia has no accent in either the Leinster or Harleian manuscripts of the text.  The Coir Anmann (Ir.  Tex., iii. 333) says that Nar was a witch.

Verse 4, lines 1, 2.  Cid fri mnai atbertha-su Mani thesbad ní aire, “Why wouldest thou talk to a woman if something were not amiss?” (A.O.).  “Why dost thou speak against a woman unless something fails on that account” seems as good a translation, and fits the sense better.