Notes to Poem VIII
i. MS Text: The text of this poem begins at the foot of p. 126 of the MS, and occupies the whole of p. 127. It is clearly legible throughout. It is possible that qq. 11 and 12 are later additions to the original text of the poem, and the evidence might seem to suggest that the scribe had access to more than version of the poem.
ii. General background: The circumstances described in this poem are discussed in the corresponding section of the introduction to IV, with which it appears to have a close thematic relationship.
iii. Later versions: No later versions of this poem are known.
iv. Metre: Deibhidhe
v. Line annotation
3 <ní h->ioghnadh: n<ee>/Enyt MS. In the MS the two words are written very closely together and separated by an oblique stroke. The letters presently interpreted as ee in the first word are tightly written, and they could conceivably represent oe, although this seems unlikely. An h prefixed to the initial of the second word is not represented as such in the MS, although it would be normal in this context in E. Mod. Ir.
<bheith>: waa MS. For some of the uses of aa in the MS orthography, see VII, 7 n. Here, a disyllable is ruled out by metre, and bheith seems to be the only feasible restoration of the MS form.
7 a h-Oil Fhinn: It is difficult to be certain which prep. is represented in the MS form a hallinn. HP restores to go hOil Finn, “to Elphin”; but it is also possible that a derives from o, “from”. Note that prefixed h in the MS need not have any phonetic value (see II, Ascription n).
10 <Air oighr[e]>: er Ir MS. The MS reading cannot be restored with certainty. HP restores to ar fhír, evidently suggesting the meaning “which was true” (thus the transl. “I have a true tale”), but this is uncomfortable for syntactic and orthographic reasons. It might be possible to transliterate as air fhior, taking MS Ir as representing the lenited dat. sg. of fear and translating “concerning a man of Patrick’s people”. But who could this man be in the context? A further possibility is that the original reading may have been earáil, “enjoining, urging; a request” (RIA Dict. s.v. eráil), with final l represented by r in the MS form through dissimilation. It is conceivable that Oisean may have been regarded in this poem as presenting “a request [? for mercy] to Patrick’s people”.
12 Táilginn: The restored form gives better rhyme with Fhinn in the preceding line, but morphologically Táilgeann might be expected; MS talgin could represent either.
14 <maol athlom>: moeolyt lwmm MS. The restored form takes into account the requirements of airdrinn; the MS would suggest maolach lom, but this may be an example of erroneous word division. Note that for rhyme with sunn in the preceding line, lom is to be pronounced as if it were lúm (i.e. with vowel /u:/), as happens in certain W. Irish dialects (cf. de Bhaldraithe, The Irish of Cois Fhairrge, p. 110), and as the MS form lwmm itself indicates.
15 Fianaibh Fáil: feanow pail MS. Cf. liom féin, II, 9 n.
16 <chunbháil>: h<u’>wail MS. The second letter of the MS form seems reasonably likely. HP restores to thionál, which gives good sense, but is not close to the MS; chunbháil is closer to the MS in some respects, but the sense seems strained, perhaps “undertake responsibility for”. Both suggestions are therefore doubtful.
17 Dá dtrian: Note the preservation of eclipsis, following the n. dual (GOI, p. 149).
<bhroghdha>: To provide rhyme with Morna in the following line, the stressed vowel of the restored word would need to be pronounced long, when it is normally short. This may indicate a problem in the restored form, but it is difficult to make any other suggestion for MS wroyt .
23 thurt: Hurd MS. This monosyllabic form of thubhart (< adubhart, 1 sg. pret. of adeirim) is required for line length.
26 c[h]osg: cosga MS. Cf. bhrot, VII, 35 n.
30 na bhFéin: ny vane MS. HP restores to na Féine, but initial v of the MS form vane would suggest eclipsis. However, the line lacks a syllable, and this is supplied by the HP reading, which may well have been the original one.
32 mān dtéid thú: This construction shows the influence of vernacular Sc. G. in all three elements, especially in the use of téid with fut. reference. E. Mod. Ir. would perhaps have had sul rachair.
<bhrionnach>: wr<enyt> MS. HP’s restoration bhraonach, “dewy”, seems romantic in the context; brionnach, “false, lying, illusory”, is found applied to the world (RIA Dict. s.v. brinnach (b)).
33 <as> sin: is sin MS. Transl. “from there”.
34 airmdheirg: HP’s restoration rinndeirg seems to be based on a misreading of the MS form armȝerga. Note the final a of the MS form; this may be an attempt to indicate a preceding epenthetic vowel.
35 <amhra> : The MS form awnyt may include a transcriptional error involving an original r mistaken as n.
36 <ceathra cath[a]>: cachrow chaċ MS. MS cachrow may reflect confusion of cardinal and ordinal numbers in the scribe’s dialect, and it seems advisable to follow HP in its restoration. However, it is not impossible that ceathramh chath[a], “a quarter of a battalion”, is meant, although this seems a rather small amount.
40 <dān> díoth: da i’ deiċ MS. The MS form da i’ could suggest that the scribe was thinking in terms of two syllables rather than one, but metrically only one syllable is appropriate. Cf. MS da i’ tallyt for dan táillibh (44).
go [h-]anbhfann: The MS has no formal representation of prefixed h which one would normally expect at this point; thus also gi a’vin (48); but prefixed h may be represented in MS gyt Anvin (44).
41-48 It seems likely that we should regard these quatrains as additions to the original text of the poem. This is suggested by the repetition of Anbhfann in the standard fashion of the dúnadh after 40, 44, and 48. The quatrains add nothing to the story-line of the poem, and they show Oisean as having accepted Christianity. That the quatrains may have been added to the BDL text after the first draft was placed in the MS is suggested by the location of Anbhfann when it is repeated on the first occasion; it occurs below the MS line, in the position which such a word normally occupies when it signals the end of a poem in BDL. In the other two instances, the repeated Anbhfann is placed alongside the line. Cf. VI, 161-68 n.
42 cath Crunnmhóna: The circumstances of this battle between Fionn and Goll are described in DF IV.