L. Winifred Faraday Review By: L
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Review Author(s): L. Winifred Faraday Review by: L. Winifred Faraday Source: The Celtic Review, Vol. 4, No. 15 (Jan., 1908), pp. 287-288 Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/30069953 Accessed: 18-06-2016 23:32 UTC Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at http://about.jstor.org/terms JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Celtic Review This content downloaded from 137.99.31.134 on Sat, 18 Jun 2016 23:32:12 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms BOOK REVIEWS 287 Sualtam, Cuchullin's reputed father, was not exactly 'a famous warrior.' The Tdin is very explicit on that point: '6r is amlaid ra b6i Sualtam acht nir bo drochlaech 6 7 nir do deglaech, acht muad6clach maith ata-caemna- cair' (thus was it with Sualtam: he was neither bad warrior nor good warrior, but a good worthy man was he). Professor Ridgeway repeatedly calls the Tdin a poem (I have also seen it described as a favourite milking- song). It is a prose tale interspersed with lays. W. J. WATSON. The Feill Books. Glasgow : Archibald Sinclair. A brave show they make, different and yet alike-different in colour, shape, and contents, yet in each the essential Celtic touch. First comes the Cookery Book. As a Cookery Book, nothing could be better nor more comprehensive, and the Gaelic recipes-not to mention Athole Brose-give the necessary old-world flavour. If, however, the Comunn were to issue a penny book with simple recipes for the appetising use of vegetables, sea-ware, and shell-fish, also herb-tea such as Betony, we feel sure it would meet with a ready sale. Is. net. The Fairy Tales contains three tales, reprinted from other sources, it is true, but here they are illustrated beautifully by two gifted ladies, and a literal translation is given on the facing page. The orthography of the first two tales is very correct, and that and the translation will recommend this book as suitable for a Gaelic reading-book so much needed. 2s. net. The Celtic Ornament Book contains some exquisite designs. No doubt the adjudicators had excellent reasons for awarding the first prize; but to us that winning second place, with a different design on either side, seems to recall the Book of Kells in its truly Celtic tracery-almost elusive in delicacy of treatment. Is. net. The Pedlar's Pack--'Am Bolg Solair'--is a veritable budget. Dr. Magnus Maclean speaks some needed words of wisdom in the ' Gaelic Outlook' and Mr. Maclean Watt's 'Inishail' alone would make it a memorable volume. The illustrations, especially Hugh Cameron's 'Study,' are interesting, and the Pictish sketch quaint. It might have been a little more representative of Scottish Celtic writers, and have only one article from each. 3s. net. Last, but not least, comes the Sop as Gach Seid. The epigram on the front page,' Man's selection from books composes his selection from life,' we hold in the main to be true. Many and various are the lives here por- trayed: from the injunction neither to 'Hurry nor worry' to ' Cha'n eil ceb an tigh na h-uiseig,' and from ' Mairidh gaol 'us ceol' to ' O wad some Pow'r the giftie gie us' are far cries indeed i Those who are fortunate enough to possess all five books have a Celtic library in miniature. E. MACKENZIE. The Irish AEneid. Edited and translated by the Rev. GEORGE CALDER, M.A., B.D. Irish Texts Society, vol. vi. David Nutt. 1907. 10s. The Imtheachta .4niasa, from the sole copy in the Book of Ballymote, is here edited for the first time, with the exception of one episode previously This content downloaded from 137.99.31.134 on Sat, 18 Jun 2016 23:32:12 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 288 THE CELTIC REVIEW published by Professor T. H. Williams in the Zeitschrift fiir Celtische Phiollogie, 1899. It is a fourteenth century work, and belongs therefore, like con- temporary work in England, to a parasite literature which gathered stories from any available source, with little care for their original form. The writer's intention was more to supply a story than to interpret Virgil; and on the literary side the work is rather interesting as a specimen of compilation than to be judged as a translation. It is more of a paraphrase than a trans- lation, and the author freely condenses, expands, rearranges, and interprets by Irish phrases familiar to his audience, but only distantly connected with the text. Thus he begins with the wanderings of 4Eneas (narrated episodi- cally in Book III. of the original) with an evident intention to proceed chronologically in the Irish method, but found the task of rearrangement too troublesome and abandoned it. A typical instance of his treatment of his original may be found in Book viII. (Irish version, 11. 1784-1967), where he omits most of the conversation between Eneas and Evander, and Evander's farewell to Pallas, and briefly summarises the description of the shield, but inserts a description of Pallas in all the terms conventional in Irish narrative. The speeches suffer most : vEneas's speech to his shipwrecked comrades, ' O passi graviora'is repre- sented by ' It will be pleasant for you to be in Italy, relating every danger you will meet,' below the level even of Irish speeches. Dido's speeches are given at greater length, ' Dissimulare etiam ' being left almost intact. Expressions of feeling are described in extravagant terms; lacrimans, for instance, is expanded into ' he wept so that his garment was wet'; and arma amens capio is translated by the characteristic metaphor, ' Then anger seized me and made a mad ox of me, and I took my weapons of war.' The strings of alliterative epithets, which form a prominent feature of Middle Irish descriptive writing, are also introduced; and the translator adds a conclusion, apparently thinking the original close too abrupt. The whole work is suggestive of difference in national character; sentiment, excessive feeling, appeal to the sense of colour, are dwelt on; but there is no attempt to represent Roman fortitude and Virgilian pathos. The publication of this text makes generally accessible another valuable source for the study of Middle Irish forms. Its phonetic characteristics are fairly late; the aspiration of consonants is very fully marked, and the voicing of Old Irish c is common. It has one or two mis-spellings, e.g., part- lairgi (1. 1928), icafaffand (1. 781). A short vocabulary notes some of the more uncommon words and infrequent grammatical forms. Nothing but praise can be given to the English version, which is very faithful and represents accurately the spirit of the Irish without any affectation of archaism. The translation of findruine by electron seems doubtful. The volume has an additional interest from the fact that it is one of the last publications connected with the name of the late Professor Strachan, who read it in proof. The dedication to him reads now like one more acknowledgment of an irreparable loss. L. WINIFRED FARADAY. This content downloaded from 137.99.31.134 on Sat, 18 Jun 2016 23:32:12 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms.