Aislinge Meic Conglinne = the Vision of Macconglinne : a Middle-Irish

VIRION KVNO MEYER Kí^-lo AISLINGE MEIC CONGLINNE THE VISION OF MacCONGLINNE A MIDDLE-IRISH WONDER TALE WITH A TEAXSLATIOy (BASED ON W. M. HEXNESSY'S), XOTES, AND A GLOSSARY BY KUNO MEYER ^VITH AX INTRODUCTION BY WILHELM WOLLNER LONDON DAVID NUTT, 270-271, STRAND 1892 ) (Riijhts of trandation and reprodurtion reserved. WHITLEY STOKES. CONTENTS. PREFACE. The famous Irish tale known as "The Vision of Mac- Conglinne" is now for the first time printed in the different versions which have come down to us. The longer of these versions, to which, on account of its literary merits, I have assigned the chief place, is taken from the huge vellum codex known as the Leahhar Breac, or Speckled Book, now preserved in the Royal Irish Academy, Dublin, by which it was published in fac- simile in 1876. This MS. was compiled from various sources in the fourteenth century. It is noteworthy that, with the exception of the Vision and a version of the mediteval legend of Alexander, the contents of this MS. are almost wholly ecclesiastical and religious. The second shorter version, printed infra, pp. 114-129, and translated on pp. 148-155, is taken from a paper MS. of the end of the sixteenth century, preserved in the library of Trinity College, Dublin, where it is classed H. 3. 18 (pp. 732-742). In printing the text, I have added a punctuation of my own. I have separated words according to the method followed by Windisch and Stokes. I have ex- tended contractions, using italics in all cases where there could be the smallest doubt as to the correctness of such extensions. Long vowels are marked by an accent wherever this is the case in the MS., and by a horizontal line in cases where the scribe has omitted viíi Preface- to put the accent. Obvious corrections are received into the text, but the reading of the MS. will then be found at the foot of the pages, where I have also put some few conjectural emendations. After the text was in print, I had an opportunity of comparing the fac- simile of Leahhar Breac with the original. The results of this comparison will be found in the Corrigenda. As regards the translation, my first intention was simply to republish the late W. M. Hennessy's spirited rendering of the Leahhar Breac version in Fraser^s Maga- zine of September 1873. However, on carefully comparing it with the original, I soon became convinced that this was not feasible. Mistakes, inaccuracies, and omissions were too frequent. I should have had to alter and to add so much that the character of Hennessy's work would have been completely changed. Nor did I feel that Hennessy had been happy in his style. Like many of his countrymen, he seems to have been over-fond of Romance words, and to have preferred these where the simpler Saxon equivalents were at least as effective. For these reasons I decided to make a translation of my own, basing it on Hennessy's, and adopting his rendering wherever it seemed accurate and forcible. I thought it right, however, in the notes to indicate where my rendering differs most from his, as also to give a list of the more serious mistakes into which he has fallen. T hope no one will think that this was done in a fault-finding spirit. I honour the memory of W. M. Hennessy as one of the few native scholars who did not shut their eyes to the progress of Celtic research on the Continent, and as one who was generous enough to place his intimate knowledge of his mother-tongue at the disposal of any student wise enough to consult Preface. íx him. It is always instructive to see how and where a man of Hennessy's learning went astray. One of the snares into which he often fell was his habit of reading older Irish with modern pronunciation, as I have repeatedly heard him do : a source of error, against which native students cannot too carefully guard themselves. In the Glossary I have collected all words not found in Windisch's Worterhuch, as well as some the form or meaning of which he has left doubtful. Although many riddles offered by the text remain unsolved, I hope my work will be of some use to the Irish lexico- grapher, whose advent we are still expecting. "The Vision of MacConglinne" will prove a mine where the folk-lorist as well as the student of mediaeval insti- tutions may find much precious material. It is rich in allusions to customs and modes of thought, many of which I at least was unable to illusti'ate or explain- But wherever I was able to throw light on these, either from Irish or general literature, I have done so in the notes. As to the place of the Vision in Irish and general mediaeval literature, its source and origin, and its author, I do not feel myself entitled to speak. Division of labour is as yet unknown in Irish studies, and the editor of an Irish text, besides adding a translation and a glossary, without which his work would only serve the very small number of Irish students, is also expected to say something on such points. But this implies a knowledge of the most varied branches of mediaeval learning and literature, a knowledge which I do not possess. Under these circumstances, I rejoice that my friend, Professor Wilhelm Wollner,of Leipsic University, X Preface. has consented to contribute an Introduction treating the problems indicated above. There remains only one question on which the reader may desire me to say something, the question as to the probable age of the Vision. In the absence of any published investigations into the characteristics of the Irish language at diiferent periods, I cannot speak with certainty. But from a comparison of the language of the Leabhar Breac text with that of a fair number of dateable historical poems in the Book of Leinster and other early MSS., I have come to the conclusion that the original from which this copy is descended must have been composed about the end of the twelfth century. That the tale itself, in some form or other, is older, is proved by the second version, which, though much more modern in its language , represents, as Prof. Wollner will show, an older form of the tale . I may add that an incident in the story itself seems to confirm the date of the Leahhar Breac version. The ironical conscientiousness, with which MacConglinne offers the monks of Cork tithes on his bit of bread and bacon (p. 22), seems to me to derive its point from the novelty of the introduction oF titheis Tnto Ireland, and from the strictness with which they were then first exacted. Though mentioned earlier, tithes were not generally paid in Ireland till the second half of the twelfth century, and then not without much opposition. At the synod of Kells, in 1152, Cardinal Paparo, the Pope's legate, ordained that tithes should be paid. On this, Lanigan, in his Ecclesiastical History of Ireland, " iv, p. 146, remarks : On this point he was very badly obeyed ; for it is certain that tithes were, if at all, very little exacted in Ireland until after the establishment Preface. xi of the English power." In 1172, at a synod held at Cashel, it was again ordered that tithes should be paid to the churches out of every kind of property. See Lanigan, ^6., p. 205. In conclusion, I wish to thank the several friends who have encouraged me by their interest, and aided me in various ways by advice and help. Dr. Whitley Stokes has throughout assisted me with most useful criticism and many valuable suggestions, more especially in the Glossary. My kind friends and colleagues. Pro- fessors J. M. Mackay and W. A. Raleigh, have ever been ready to help me in my endeavours to make the translation as faithful and idiomatic as the great differ- ence between the two languages will allow. To the Rev. Professor E. O'Growney, Maynooth, I am indebted for many a fruitful suggestion drawn from his scholarly knowledge of the modern language. Lastly, Mr. Alfred Nutt has, by his generous offer of bearing the risk of publication, as well as by the liberality which he has shown in the worthy equipment of the book, added another to the many claims which he has on the grati- tude of Celtic scholars. KuNO ]Meyer. University College, Liverpool. INTRODUCTION. In the following investigation into the nature, origin, and authorship of the curious Irish mediaeval tale called The Vision of MacConglinne, we have first to consider the mutual relations of the two versions which have come down to us. I hope to show that the shorter of the two, that contained in the MS. H. 3. 18 (H.), the later in point of date as far as MS. tradition is con- cerned, represents an older and purer stage of the story, though one far removed from the original form, and that the longer version, that of Leabhar Breac (B.), which supplies the staple of the present volume, is the extravagantly embroidered production of a minstrel genius who had a special grudge against the Church. An analysis of the various portions of our tale shows that the origin of this luxuriant growth of fanciful imaginings must be sought for in a group of popular tales, allied to those found among other pastoral peoples, concerning a wonderful land of abundance, and not in such mediaeval lore as the fabliaus de Coquaiyiie, or the Bataille de Karesme et de Charnage.

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