Notes to Poem III

i. MS Text: This poem occupies the lower part of p. 31 of the MS. The text is clear throughout.

ii. General background: The poem belongs to a genre which is well attested in BDL, and which consists primarily of catalogues of Fian (or other) warriors. In this piece, Oisean claims to have “seen” certain members of Fionn’s band or family. An element of humour, and even of sarcasm, is evident in the way they are described.

iii. Later versions: No later versions of this poem are known.

iv. Metre: Rannaigheacht Mhór

v. Line annotation

Ascription: A <h->ughdar: It is difficult to know what significance to attach to initial h- of the MS form houdir. In Mid. Scots h- could be written as the initial letter of words with a vowel as their second letter, but the h- was not sounded (SMS, p. xxiii). It could therefore be mute in this context also, in which case it could be omitted from the restored text. However, it is conceivable that the scribes regarded the poem as feminine, and that they are trying to convey the 3 sg. f. poss. pron. which regularly prefixes h- to vowels in Gaelic. Against this view are instances in the MS where h- is prefixed to vowels following the 3 sg. m. poss. pron.

Note that the MS does not attest the demonstrative so after ughdar in this instance. It occurs regularly as part of the standard formula of ascription in the MS, and its absence here could be accidental.

etc.: This is merely a scribal cipher indicating that the poem is to follow.

1 Do-chonna[ic]: Di chonna MS. In Sc. G. the form chunnaic (E. Mod. Irish do-chonnairc) regularly drops the final consonant before a pers. pron. beginning with a consonant. This process accounts for the MS reading, and similar forms predominate in this poem (3, 5, 8, 9, 16); do-chonnaic is represented once (12).

mè: mee MS. In the MS ee normally represents /i:/, and there is a possibility that the vernacular Sc. G. form of the pron. is intended here and in 3, 5, 7, but see 8 n and 9 n.

2 teaghlach: HP assumes that the definite article an has been lost before this noun; its insertion does serve to strengthen the line.

4 a ndé: HP takes this phrase as qualifying the preceding an fhir: “of the man of yesterday”. But it could be purely adverbial, referring to the time when the speaker saw the characters whom he lists.

5 teaghlach Airt: This Art cannot be identified, since the name was evidently common among the Fian (DF, III, p. 345 s.v.).

6 The line as it stands lacks a syllable, and HP inserts the definite article before fear. The difficulty may be caused by lerbh, which could possibly have developed an epenthetic vowel, thereby becoming disyllabic and displacing a syllable elsewhere in the line. The MS does not, however, show evidence of an epenthetic vowel.

8 mé: maa MS. MS aa normally represents /a:/, but here either mi or mé is required, possibly the former if the scribe produced an aicill rhyme with vernacular mi in the preceding line. It is hard to account for the use of MS aa to represent /i:/ or /e:/. It could be a development of MS a representing unstressed e (>/ə/) which is very common in BDL. Cf. MS maá.ñ, 16 n, where m‚ is probably intended. 

9 Dán bhfaicthea: Dane vaga MS. In E. Mod. Ir. dán would normally be followed by the subjunctive, here the past subjunctive: hence the restoration of MS vaga.  But the MS does not distinguish significantly between the form here represented and the 3 sg. pret. dep. of do-chí which is found in 11: na vagga MS. Thus one wonders whether the MS form Dane vaga foreshadows modern Sc. G. nam faca, and the general Sc. G. practice of using nan/m with the 3 sg. pret. dep. in the protasis of unfulfilled conditions with past reference.

mar a chonna[ic]: The line is hypermetric, and the intrusive syllable would seem to be the particle a. This implies that when the poem was composed the prefix do- was not necessarily used in the pret. absolute of do-chí. The a in this case derives from the preverb do which had come to be regarded simply as a rel. pron. Here it would seem natural to insert it, as mar was normally followed by the rel. form of the vb.

mé: The vernacular form mi for mee would obviously break aicill with Léith in the following line, and shows conclusively that mé would have been used in the original version of the poem. Cf. é : mé, 11-12.

10 <Conán>: chona MS. The bar indicating the presence of a second n in the MS form is clearly located over the a, thereby suggesting that a final n may be intended by the scribe. HP, however, reads chonnaic, taking the bar to signify a double n (as it generally does in BDL, when placed directly over one n). The distinction is a fine one, made all the more tantalising by the identity of the character, who can be no other than Conan mac an Léith. He is said to have given his services to Fionn unwillingly (Stokes (ed.), Irische Texte, IV, l. 3549), and he also abducted Eargna, daughter of Aodh Rinn (DF, III, p. 353, s.v. Conán). His unsavoury behaviour is reflected in the comment in 11.

fá fhionn: HP reads fá Fhionn, and translates “by Fionn”, taking MS fa as the preposition. This is entirely feasible but we should perhaps consider the possibility that the phrase was intended to mean “who was white”, fionn being an adj. rather than a proper noun. This involves taking fa as the past of the copula; fa, admittedly, did not normally lenite the following initial, but it may do so here by analogy with other forms of the past of the copula. There may be some play on the colours represented by liath and fionn.

13 na <h-iocht[a]>: ni Iyg MS. The MS may represent a form of the gen. sg. of iocht in which /xk/ has become /ɣ/ and the final syllable has been lost.

16 mé: ma<.> MS. A pen-mark like the beginning of a letter appears after the a, but ultra-violet light reveals no significant outline. See 8 n.