from Cath Maige Tuired, edited by Elizabeth Gray Translation by Isolde Carmody Introductory Note This is the first of a number of passages in Cath Maige Tuired which is in the form of roscad. Roscada are non-syllabic (non-metrical) poems, characterised by connective alliteration between lines and a condensed, syntactically obscure and archaic use of language. …
Tag: Early Irish Language
Lug Comes to Tara
from Cath Maige Tuired, edited by Elizabeth Gray This is our first encounter with Lug in our text. The main part concerns Lug’s listing of his crafts, with the door-keeper’s counter-listing of the craftspeople already in Tara. It is beautifully formulaic, and an opportunity for the storyteller to list many of the dramatis personae of…
Four Cities, Four Teachers, Four Treasures
There is much curiosity surrounding the four cities and teachers named in the opening lines of Cath Maige Tuired. The names are archaic-sounding, with their -ias endings. The “cities” do not seem identifiable with any geographic location, ancient or modern. And aside from this brief appearance, the “teachers” are never heard from again. However, the…
Cath Maige Tuired – Sections 1 – 14
Edition: Elizabeth Gray Translation: Elizabeth Gray [Isolde Carmody] This text and its published translation are made available by kind permission of CELT, the Corpus of Electronic Texts, at University Colege Cork: http://www.ucc.ie/celt/ We will not always put the full text here on our blog, and we recommend that you read Gray’s edition, or better still,…
The Story of Rúadán from Cath Maige Tuired
from Cath Maige Tuired, The Battle of Moytura edited by Elizabeth Gray translation and notes by Isolde Carmody [Terms in bold have notes and discussions below] 544] Tánic didiu frisna Fomore annísin, go tudciset-som fer n-úadaibh de déscin cathai & cosdotha Túath nDéa .i. Rúadán mac Bresi & Bríghi ingene in Dagdai. Ar ba…
The Story of Airmed from Cath Maige Tuired
from Cath Maige Tuired, The Battle of Moytura edited by Elizabeth Gray translation and notes by Isolde Carmody [Terms in bold have notes and discussions below] 133] Boí dano Núadae oga uothras, & dobreth láim n-argait foair lioa Díen Cécht go lúth cecha lámha indte. Meanwhile, Núada was debilitated. A silver hand / arm…
Many Shades of Darkness
Irish colour words and concepts In primary school, I was very confused to learn two different Irish words for “green”: glas and uaithne. I knew there was a difference, but I wasn’t clear what that difference was. As my schooling continued, more confusion arose: black people were referred to as daoine gorma, “blue people”…