Mac Neill — Three Poems in Middle Irish. 555 



would seem as if, when the instinct of the old dative construction was lost, some 

 such equation was present to the writer's mind. Thus, side by side with mac 

 Flannacdin linib sloiff, LL., and a cldr Jincl-glan fictih sluag, LIT. 51/3, we find 

 laechrad Laigen linmar sluag. — Silva Gad., p. 351. Cf. A 27, en co nertaih nual, 

 ' a bird with powers of cries, i.e. of powerful cry.' Along with the dative plural, 

 Jichtib glond (No. 5), connici in card Jichtib drong, Ir. Texte, p. 218 ; Jictih sluag, 

 LU. 51 y8, we find the singular la Fergus fein fiched gail, LL. . . . (showing thatW. 

 does not rightly assign jfc/i^ji to Jiche = twenty) ; with het-sa bliadain linib Id, 

 Silva Gad., p. 243, stands a maccii legind lin cell, LB. 130 3, if, indeed, this last 

 is not of difi'erent construction. That the true instinct of the dative plural con- 

 struction was early lost appears also from the loss of the dative ending : Ulaid uile 

 aidble gal, CRnaR, p. 4, &c., and from the use of nouns not plural in sense in these 

 locutions: ar gelladh do tolaib gal, Silva"Gad., p. 138. - This kind of locution may 

 he treated, therefore, as a single adjective ; sometimes, perhaps, as an adverb. I 

 would equate fergaib ftr -with fir-fhergaeh {iromferg = hero ?), and ditnib doss in 

 the same stanza with doss-ditnech, affording protection like a bush, a common simile 

 (see MS. Mat., p. 484, &c.). 



In the first seven instances cited, (1) I should render bile buidnib reb, 'a tree of 

 sportive bands' {reb-buidnech, reabh .1. cleas, O'Cl. ; (2) a delb trtimmib tor, ' his pon- 

 derous image'; (= tJior-tromm, cf. tortroinmad, oppression); (3) trognaib triath 

 = triath-trognach, 'of lordly lines,' trog .i. clann, Cormac ; (4) milib molta, as 

 given by 0' Curry; (5) = glond -fhichtech, 'stout in combat'; (6) = tur-adbal, 

 * (man) of great journeys' ; (7) = sel-buidnech, ' (the land) covered with bands 

 arrayed at distances apart' {sel bee, a short distance, Atk.). Such renderings, if 

 they seem to add little to the meaning — chevilles are not meant to convey much of 

 import — are at least clear and consistent efforts to grapple with an obscure though 

 frequent construction. 



(6) Dumha Dergluachra a ainm gus anois, 7 hidh Tre-fhod [a] ainm 6 so aniach 

 do na tri fhodaibh rwgklcUija bhainfead-sa do chois na cleithe Jiadhai^ fuil ani' 

 Idimh .i. fod fdni' chosaibh, J6d fairC cheann, "] fod ceachtar mo dhd thaoibh, gurab 

 <zm[w] sin aidhneac\_f'\ar mo chorp. — Modern version. 



(7) Cf. is lim-sa aid do thig-lecht. — Man. and Oust., III. p. 434. 



(8) " Seal dtha na ndeise, now Anglicised Athneasy, the name of a ford and parish 

 in the barony of Coshlea, county of Limerick, four miles to the east of Kilmallock. 

 This ford, according to the Four Masters (1579) is in the very centre of the terri- 

 tory of Cliu Mail mic Ugaine." — 0'' Bon. Sup. 



(9) St. Lonan of Trevit. 



(10) Temraig in trir. I do not kno^' the allusion. Cf. stanza 24. 



(11) The rhyme trir : cain shows that the diphthong ai, = modern aoi, was 

 pronounced as at present, or nearly so. 



(12) Bliadain do {Mac Con) iar sain ir-rigu i Temraig oeusnithdnicfer tria thai- 

 main nd duille tre fhidbaid nd grdinne i n-arbur, Silva Gad., p. 317 ; ticfa ith sceo 

 blicht d'' eehtra Airt do thig Uilc do gein a meie mSir. — lb., p. 253. 



(13) Luagni : see GRnaE, p. 237. 



(14) lir evidently = ?m^jr, 'as numerous as,' see Trip. Life, I. 216 ; Rev. Celt., 

 III. 177. Note the ord^er, Jidbad fer = 'woods' grass.' Cf. cath cot, 32, Eroid 

 iath, 38, perhaps tailcend treb, 4 ; fednajiach, 38. Bas put for bid, owing to 

 the frequency of the relative form before comparatives (?). 



b 



