Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 3, 1892.djvu/495

This page needs to be proofread.

The Bodleian D inns henc has. 487

Connaf/itaib a Sid^ C/'uachan int[sa]inruth. Con tardsat a ceird muccada for aird con targlamsat dail m6ir imon cocnch andes ;j atuaith immun n-inbir, gac[h] laech co lumain i cechtar na da dal. F(?ruabratar cluiche imon sruth. His e sin tan tainic a thuile lais oc tindtud, conid and atbe^rtatar na derccaide san chan im sruth na Sinda"'^ de Tul Tuindi co n-athi buille : " Is luimnechda in t-inbiur !"

No intan batar na trenfhir ic imargail con tompacht tonn tuile a sciatha dib, co ndebratar in da rig don cnucc dianidh ainm Tul Tuinde : "Is luimnechda" .1. i[s] sciathach "in t-inber indorsa," ol seat.

Isi sein da/w in cocnch cert in da coiced, unde Luimnech dicitur.

Dia da Luimnech, liss na long,

isam cuimnech cen imroU ;

dia sui in sruth, cen tiacra cnedh,

sciatha mora na xiAed,

Luimnech, hence is it (so) called, when the contest arose between the two champions who were with the king of Munster and the king of Connaught. Rind and Foebur were their names; two brothers were the twain, to wit, two sons of Smucaill, son of Baccdub. One of the twain took service with Bodb of Sid Femin in Munster. The other took service with Ocaill in Connaught, of Sid Cruachan especially. So they displayed their swineherd's art, and collected, from south and from north, a great assembly at the frontier at the inver, every hero in each of the two assemblies having a shield {hanaiii). They began the game at the stream (of the Shannon). That was the time when the flood came at the turn (of the tide). So then said the onlookers, to and fro, from Tul Tuinne, by the stream of the Shannon, with its deadly blow : " The inver now is full of shields {luimnechda) !"

Or, when the champions were contending, a wave of the flood tore their shields away from them. So the two kings exclaimed from the hillock named Tul Tuinne (" Front of the Wave") : " The inver is now luimnechda,^ that is, " full of shields," say they.

That, then, is the right mering of the two provinces (Munster and Connaught). Hence " Luimnech" is said.

Whence is ' Luimnech', the garth of the ships,

I am mindful without error :

When the stream turned, without afifliclion of wounds.

The great shields of the soldiers.

Also in BB. 379a ; H. 33a ; Lee. 477 b ; and R. 108 a 2. Versified, LL. i,i;sa 25. Bodb of Sfd Femin, the fairy-king above mentioned, No. 4. Ocaill of Sid

1 MS. sig. ^ The gen. sg. of a fem. «-stem=Skr. sindhu F. river.