DeDanaan

Filed by Aine MacDermot

We are fortunate in possessing examples of the art of the filid which bear as their titles all the rubrics or technical terms which occur in the closing lines of the passage from Cormac’s Glossary which we have been considering. One of the fullest examples of a verse sung ‘through imbas forosnai’ (triasa n-imbas forosnai) is the poem attributed to Finn when he tracks Ferchess and avenges on him the death of Mac Con. The text will be found in the story of Ailill Aulom, Mac Con, and Find Ua Baisene, to which fuller reference will be made below. A tentative translation is given by Meyer as follows: -

‘Here is the abode of Ferchess, at Ess Mage ….swiftly after great deeds; a great heroic champion has fallen swiftly after great deeds. To my lordly god I swear the oath of everyone in the world a … deed will be avenged, Mac Con was slain here.’

Another example of a poem (dicetal) chanted through imbas forosnai occurs in the story of Finn and the Man in the Tree. Here we are told that when Finn finds his servant disguised in the tree he puts his thumb into his mouth, and when he takes it out again his imbas illumines him (fortnosna a imbus) and he chants the following rhetorics:

‘Con fri lon leth cno contethain cotith indithraib Dercc Corra comol fri hich ni ba filliud fobaill a uball fin mblais cona fricarbaith mac ui co dedail Daigre.’

Whereupon he recognises his servant and declares his identity.

As a further example of imbas forosnai (here, immus forosnudh) we may refer to the following brief passage which is quoted in Tractate III. (no. 187) of the Metrical Tractates.’

Fegaid uaib sair fothuiadinmuir muad milach adba ron rebach rán rogab lan linad.

The same passage is quoted also in ‘Tractate’ II. (No. 24), where in the text from the Book of Leinster, the poem is attributed to Finn.

An example of the tenm laida (here, tedmleoda) is given in ‘Tractate’ III. immediately before the passage just cited relating to imbas forosnai. The passage is as follows:

Amhairbthese mongthigi mhinchuile asalchide
sinnchaidhe salachluim
imarith galaidhe imcleacaire abrataire
imarith galaidhe imcleacaire abrataire
inbecuidhe ingataile
incetaile rigataile
nichetaile inlataile
indleacaile apaidhe acaite anachlaim

As an example of cetal do chennaib, reference may be made to the poem contained in the first of the ‘Metrical Tractates’ (No. 123), published by Thurneysen. Here it is actually cited as an example of cetal do chennaib; but the same poem is also quoted in the Leabhar na Gabhala, where it is attributed to the fili Amargin, and where it is said to have been recited by him when he first set foot on Irish soil.

The poem is too long to quote here in full, and a few lines will suffice to give an idea of its form and content.

Amm goeth i muirAmm tonn trethain,
Am fuaim mara
Am dam setir . . .
Coiche notglen clochar slebe?
Cia seacht siecht sith gan eccla?
Cis ( sic ) non dogar eassa uiscci?
Cia ber a buar a tigh Teathra? . . .
Cainte gaeth.

Which Macalister and MacNeill translate as follows:

I am wind on the sea.
I am a wave of the ocean,
I am the roar of the sea.
I am a powerful ox . . .
Who clears the stone-place of the mountain?
What the place in which the setting of the sun lies?
Who has sought peace without fear seven times?
Who names the waterfalls?
Who brought his cattle from the house of Tethra? . . .
A wise satirist.

In the second of the ‘Metrical Tractates,’ where examples of various metres are cited, the following passage is given as an example of cetal na haisnese:

Adruid adoini dia huas domun dindnisnech ruithre
adaitfrifebru fuilged forta bith lalaile ifailsid lasuba
lam dia dilgedach rodaelb imniulu nemthech.

This text, as has been pointed out by Stokes, is identical with a laid or song which occurs in the story of Morann contained in the Echtra Cormaic, etc. (’The Irish Ordeals and Cormac’s Adventures in the Land of Promise). Here we are told that when Morann was born, a membrane covered his head, which was subsequently removed by immersion in the sea. As the ninth wave washed over him the membrane separated, releasing his head, whereupon he sang the laid which Stokes translates as follows:

‘Worship, ye mortals, God over the beautiful world!
wherein is a festival with joyance with my forgiving God, Who formed about clouds a heavenly house.’

Morann, whose laid is identical with the example of cetal na haisnese in the ‘Metrical Tractates,’ afterwards became a great sage. It is interesting to note that in this particular text of the ‘Metrical Tractates,’ the example of cetal na haisnese occurs as No. 125 of the examples of metres cited. The example of the metre cited as No. 123 is cetal do chendaib. The aisneis, or cetal na haisnese and the cetal do chendaib are therefore closely associated together in the traditional répertoire of the filid, and may be presumed to be connected in some way with one another.

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