(6) Maine Milscothach, or M. of Honey-bloom;[1] (7) Maine Andóe, the meaning of whose surname I cannot find; (8) Maine cotageib Ule, or M. that contains them All. This last name has called forth from the scribe of the Táin the explanation that the Maine bearing it partook of the form of his mother Medb and of his father Ailill, together with the nobility and dignity of both combined in his own person; but it fails to meet the words used, which are to the effect that the last Maine contained or comprehended all the others. One cannot help seeing in it a case corresponding to that of Woden's ring, which dropped eight others like itself: the last Maine contains all the others, as being the boundary and limit within which the week was comprised. The only other Maine calling for a remark is that called Maine mó Epert, which I interpret, with some diffidence, to have meant a Maine that was greater than was said, or greater than uttering the name would imply; this is favoured by its being set in the fifth place; for the fifth night would just mark the end of the first noinden, or half of the nine-night week; and in regarding the week as made up of two noindens, this fifth night would have to be reckoned twice over,[2] namely, as the end of the one noinden and the beginning of the other. That, I think, is the explanation of the description of this middle Maine.
- ↑ The scribe identified Nos. 5 and 6; but the group remains eight in the Bruden, also in Stokes & Windisch's Ir. Texte, II. ij. 225, where Milscothach is Milbel, 'Honey-mouth.'
- ↑ This is the sort of reckoning, probably, which, applied by the Greeks to the last day of the month, gave rise to the term ἕνη καὶ νέα, 'old and new.' Compare the Irish 'full week between two áige,' or termini (?), in Stokes & Windisch's Ir. Texte, II. ij. 211, 219.
