Notes.
ST. PATRICK'S HYMN.
The following is the Irish preface to the Hymn found in the Liber Hymnorum, Trinity College, Dublin, folio 196. The translation is given, with the original Irish, on p. 381 of the Rolls Triparite Life of St. Patrick. We quote it as a curiosity, and nothing more, not, of course, endorsing the truth of the legend referred to.
'Patrick made this hymn. In the time of Loegaire, son of Niall, it was made. Now, the cause of making it was to protect himself with his monks against the deadly enemies who were in ambush against the clerics. And this is a corslet of faith for the protection of body and soul against devils and human beings and vices. Whosoever shall sing it every day, with pious meditation on God, devils will not stay before him. It will be a safeguard to him against all poison and envy. It will be a defence to him against sudden death. It will be a corslet to his soul after dying. Patrick chanted this when the ambushes were set against him by Loegaire, that he might not go to Tara to sow the faith, so that there they seemed before the liers-in-wait to be wild deer, with a fawn behind them, to wit, Benén. And Fâed Fiada ("Deer's Cry") is its name.'
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