Of the absurdity of the derivation of imbas, as given in Cormac’s Glossary there can be no doubt, though it is not impossible that it may have been suggested to the author by the habit of the filid or sages -as described in the sagas- of covering their faces or otherwise seeking darkness and privacy before giving mantic utterances. We shall see later that there is some ground for suspecting that such was the traditional practice. There can be no doubt, also, that Thurneysen is right in regarding the prohibition ascribed to Saint Patrick as a conjecture or deduction on the part of the author of the Glossary. We may be equally certain that Thurneysen is right in supposing that in no part of the entry is the author drawing on his own experience or his personal knowledge of contemporary practice. On the other hand, it is difficult to accept Thurneysen’s conclusion that the picture which the author of the entry gives us of the practice of the fili is wholly imaginary or based entirely on a spurious etymology. The evidence which leads Thurneysen to this conclusion appears to be largely negative in character. He points out that in the instances which he cites from the sagas where reference is made to imbas forosnai, no reference is made to mantic sleep, or to elaborate technique, such as that described in our entry. In addition he refers to the nuts of imbas (Cuill Crimaind) which occur in certain texts, and which suggest quite a different process for the acquisition of imbas.
Yet when we consider the amount of variation existing between one version of an Irish saga and another, and the summary form in which much of the narrative has been committed to writing, we may well ask the question: Can one safely assume that any of the texts give us a full description of the procedure of Fedelm and Scathach? Had the redactor of the passages in which they figure given us an account of their technique, and has this technique differed from that described by the author of our entry, Thurneysen’s argument would have been greatly strengthened; but this is not the case. It is true that when Finn’s finger or thumb has been trapped in the door of the sid-mound, and he proceeds to suck it, his imbas enlightens him. But is it clear exactly how this comes about? We shall see presently that the saga in which this incident occurs is a difficult and obscure one, notwithstanding the fact that we possess several versions of it. We shall also see that several possible explanations offer themselves as to how Finn’s enlightenment comes about by this action. I do not think that these alternative explanations are all at variance with the entry in Cormac’s Glossary. It is true that the nuts of imbas, e.g. the Cuill Crimaind cited by Professor Thurneysen, suggest quite a different procedure by which imbas is acquired. This will be referred to later.
Turning now to the text of the entry in the Glossary itself, we may note that several of the phrases occurring in the difficult portion of our entry have the appearance of technical terms. Imbas forosnai and tenm laida are well known to be such. But what are dichetal di chennaib and aisneis di chennaib (a)chnaime ?
To determine more fully the nature of these technical terms, it may be of interest to notice some occurrences of identical and similar terms in the metrical tractates preserved in the Book of Ballymote and elsewhere, and also preserved in certain other technical treatises of a similar character. Here we find these technical terms figuring largely in the course of education prescribed for the filid. In a gloss to a passage on the seven poetical grades contained in the Utraicecht Becc, or ‘Small Primer’, we are told that there are three things required of the ollam-poet, viz., the ‘ teinm laegda,’ and the ‘imus forosnad’ and ‘ dichetal do chennaib,’ as the Nemed-Judgments say: “three things which dignify the dignities of a poet, ‘tenm laegda,’ ‘imus forosnad,’ ‘dichedul do cennaib.’”
According to the second of the Metrical Tractates published by Thurneysen from the Book of Ballymote, the Book of Leinster, etc., the fili had to learn in the eighth year of his training, among other things, three songs, viz., imbas forosnai, tenm laida and dichetal do chennaib na tuaithe. In the same tractate we are told that in the 12th year of his training, a fili is expected to know 12 rochetla, of which nine are enumerated, the second being cetal do chennaib, with which Thurneysen associates dichetal do chennaib na tuaithe of the eighth year. In the third of the Metrical Tractates published by Thurneysen we again find in close association the tenm laida, the imbas forosnai, and the dichetal, and in a passage in LL. (30d) we find it stated that tenm laida belongs to the fourteen streams of poetry (srotha eicsi). There can be no doubt, therefore, that imbas forosnai, tenm laida and dichetal do chennaib are three technical terms, which are closely and constantly associated together in relation to the art of the filid. It may be added here that the three expressions, tenm laida, imbas forosnai, and dichetal di chennaib, translated by Meyer as ‘illumination of song,’ ‘knowledge which illuminates,’ and ‘extempore incantation’ respectively, are associated together also in the Macgnimartha Find, (?)19, to which fuller reference will be made below.
With these is associated in Cormac’s Glossary what appears to be a fourth technical spell term, the aisneis di chennaib a chname. This close association is found also in the second of the Metrical Tractates, where in the examples of various metres cited, No. 123 is cetal do chennaib, while No. 125 is cetal na haisnese. It is possibly worth noting that in the example immediately following the cetal na haisnese the words mo carusa cnaimine are found in all three texts. We have already seen that Thurneysen associates this cetal do chenaib characteristic of the twelfth year of training with the dicetal do chennaib na tuaithe of the eighth. We may therefore compare the construction of the aisneis do chennaib a chnamae with dichetal do chennaib na tuaithe, and with imbass forosnai dia foirciunn which occurs in several MSS. of the account of the Verba Scathaige, and to which further reference will be made later.
These expressions are all obscure. They appear to represent something in the nature of rubrics, i.e., phrases extracted from texts of spells or of mantic processes; but it is clear that they have now come to serve in many cases, as titles of the spells themselves. The variation in the number of words given, e.g., in dichetal di chennaib, etc., rather suggests this. If this surmise is correct, it is manifest that it would be absurd to attempt to translate them in any syntactical relation to the rest of our text, though we may still hope to interpret them. Meyer and others translate do (di) chennaib as ‘extempore,’ though O’Davoran glossed it ‘continuo.’ The meaning ‘extempore’ hardly fits the context in the Preface to the Amra Choluib Chille, in which the saint is represented as reproving Dallan Forgall for reciting a poem to him during his life which was only suitable for a dead man, ‘(?) is do chennaib dano do trial Dallán a dudin do denam.’ The expression dia foirciunn, to which we have referred above, is translated by Thurneysen as ‘um ihn zu vollenden.’
With the expression dichetal do chennaib we may compare do cendaib colla (? for collan) in the Gloss to the Introduction to the Senchas Mor; dicetal di cennaib coll in Laud 610, 57 b; and dicetul do chollaib cend in Rawl. B. 512, 114 b. If we accept Thurneysen’s translation the word cenn in these expressions would be translated in the sense of ‘the future,’ and dicetal do chennaib in the sense of ‘to chant in prophetic strains,’ and this must, I think, be the sense which it has come to bear in many of the passages where it is found, though there can be little doubt that it was originally used in another and more literal sense, as we shall see later. The phrase cited from Rawl. B 512, 114 b may then mean ‘chanting by means of the hazels of prophecy.’ To the hazels of prophecy also we shall return later. We may , however, compare a passage in the gloss in the ‘Small Primer,’ which enumerates the privileges of poets, dicedul dichendaib .i. dul do a cend adana focoir in cenda i act am adb asnedat gumradud. We may refer also to the phrase dicetal do ceandaibh cnoc no cnatarbarc which occurs as a part of a gloss to the poem ascribed in the Leabhar na Gabhala to the fili Amargin as he landed in Ireland, and which is translated by Macalister and MacNeill: ‘incantation from the tops of mountains or of ships.’
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