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Compert Con Culainn, and Other Stories

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Compert Con Culainn, and Other Stories M<«13(. A^ 7?<^S^^ rs^^^^ 'í^^ MEDIAEVAL AND MODERN IRISH SERIES Volume III CoMPERT Con Culainn AND OTHER STORIES EDITED BY A. G. VAN HAMEL Professor of Celtic at the University of Utrecht PUBLISHED BY THE STATIONERY OEFICE DUBLIN 1933 Five Shillings To be purchased (!ii-ec-tly from the GOVERNMENT STATIONERY SALE OFFICE, 5 NASSAU STREET, DUBLIN, C.2. ^RV \ iS8l / MEDIAEVAL AND MODERN IRISH SERIES In order to further the study of Irish Hterature the Department of Finance has made a special grant to provide for the re-publication of mediaeval and modern texts in a form suitable for class work and for the general reader. At the instance of the Minister for Finance an editorial committee has been formed- to direct the work. The members of the committee are : Dr. E. J. Gwynn, Provost of Trinity, Miss Knott, Dr. Bergin, Dr. Best, Professor O'Toole, Mr. Delargy, Dr. Dillon. It is hoped to supply editions of stories from the Ulster, Fenian and mythological cycles, and of what is best in Irish poetry and prose. In the matter of editing, uniformity has not been attempted, the different editors being free to adopt the system which they prefer, subject to the approval of the committee. The price of the volumes will not be uniform, as they will vary in size, but it will be kept as low as possible. Published :— Buile Suibhne, ed. J. G. O'Keeffe. 3/6. Tromdámh Giiaire. ed. Maud Joynt. 3/-. Compert Con Culainn and other stories, ed. A. G. Van Hamel. 3/-. At the press : — Caithréim Cellaig, ed. Kathleen Mulchrone. Desiderius, by Florence Conr\', O.F.M., ed. T. F. O'Rahilly. Togail Bruidne Da Derga, ed. Eleanor Knott. Tain BÓ Fraich, ed. the late Mary E. Byrne and Mvles Dillon. It! preparation : — Fled Bricrend, ed. Michael A. O'Brien. Tóruigheacht Dhiarmuda agus Ghráinne, ed. Éamonn O Tuathail. Tain BÓ Cúalnge (Stowe), ed. Tomás O Máille. EDITOR'S PREFACE. The present edition of four texts from the Ulster cycle was designed with a double object. Being part of the Mediaeval and Modern Irish Series, it is intended for class work and for the general reader. At the same time, as it includes two texts (Tochmarc Emire and Aided Con Culainn) of which the most representative manuscript has not been printed before, it may also be of use to scholars. It is the editor's conviction that for beginners in the field of Irish studies a certain amoimt of normalizing in the speUing is indispensable. Advanced students, on the other hand, require to have the texts before them in their exact manuscript form, with the emendation only of evident scribal errors. Of the two smaller tales (Cora- pert Con Culainn and Aided Oenfir Aife) scholarly editions are available and easily accessible ; here it was not deemed necessary to point out all the deviations from the manu- script readings introduced for the purpose of uniformity. But for Tochmarc Emire and Aided Con Culainn it is different. Of these two stories a reliable edition from the best sources was a long-felt want ; hence no change, however small, has been made in these texts without indication of the actual readings in a note. This could easily be done, as it has not been judged expedient, even for class work, to normalize the spelling of the later stories to the same extent as has been done in Compert Coji Culainn and Aided Oenfir Aife. The choice of the texts was directed by the intention to bring together four outstanding moments of Ci'i Chu- lainn's career : the story of his birth, his courtship, the tragic encounter with his only son, and his death through demoniacal magic. For practical purposes the chrono- logical order has been changed, the Death of Aife's Only- One preceding the Wooing of Emer in the present volume. In fact, the difiiculties of the latter text exceed those of the former in such a degree that the editor thinks himself sufficiently justified for committing this anachronism. The language of Compert Con Culainn is strictly Old- Irish, that of Aided Óenfir Aife later Old-Irish. In Toch- marc Emire different strata may be discerned, varying from archaic to Middle-Irish ; this text has been handled and extended a good deal before it received the form in which we now possess it. Aided Con Culainn is a fine specimen of an early Modern-Irish story. A comparison of the four stories, as to both language and style, will prove highly instructive to the beginner. The volume has been provided with a complete glossary. In compiling this a serious difficulty was caused l)y the necessity of bringing together words and forms from different periods of the language. Tlie expedient resorted to was the adoption of a number of references to the standard-forms of the glossary. There \\as no other way to save the student from looking in vain. Simple verbs and compound verbs with one preposition have been given in the form of the first person singular of the present indicative, compound verbs with more prepositions in that of the stem. But the less obvious compound verbal forms that occur in the texts will be found in the glossary with a reference to the verb to which they belong. An attempt at an interpretation of the obscurer passages (such as the retorics) has also been made in the glossary. The editor expresses his sincere thanks to the Editorial Committee for allowing him to contribute to an enterprise M-hich is essentially Irish. This he regards as a much- valued distinction. Of the members of the Committee Dr. E. J. Gwynn has read both the texts and the glossary in manuscript to him the editor is indebted for some ; important suggestions. What Dr. M. Dillon has done for this Uttle book, cannot possibly be enumerated. He has read the manuscript and all the proofs, and it is difficult to imagine what the book would be like but for the numerous corrections proposed by him. All that the editor can wish is that his gratitude should not be in- adequate to a help so graciously offered. For all errors that remain the editor alone is responsible. A. G. Van Hamel. Utrecht, June 1933. CoMPERT Con Culainn AND OTHER STORIES EDITED BY A. G. VAN HAMEL Professor of Celtic at the University of Utrecht PUBLISHED BY THE STATIONERY OFFICE DUBLIN 19:{.{ Five Shillings CONTENTS. Page Editor's Preface ... ... ... ... v Compert Con Culainn ... ... ... 1 Aided Óenfir Aífe ... ... ... ... 9 Tochmarc Emire ... ... ... ... 16 Aided Con Culaiim .. ... ... ... 69 Glossary ... ... ... ... 134 . COMPERT CON CULAINN. The story called The Conception of Cú Chulainn has come down to us in two different versions, which may be distinguished as version I and version 11.^ Of these version I was preserved in the lost Book of Druim Snechta Version II, which (first half of the eighth century). _ also bears the name of Feis Tige Becfoltaig (The Passing of the Night in Becfoltach's House) represents an enlarged form of version I and must be later (perhaps later eighth or ninth century) The text of version I is preserved in six MSS., but in the earliest of these, Lebor na Huidre (U), the concluding passage has been erased by the Interpolator^ and replaced by the sequel of version II. Three other MSS., Trin. CoU. Dublin H. 4. 22 (H), R. Ir. Ac. 23 N. 10 (N), and Brit. Mus. Egerton 88 (E) give the text of version I without additions or material alterations, but U often has better spellings and older forms. In the fifth MS., Brit. Mus. Egerton 1782 (W) the text has been subject to a freer treatment, and our last MS., R. Ir. Ac. D. 4. 2 (D) goes even farther in this respect. Compert Con Culainn was edited by E. Windisch in Irische Texte, I (Leipzig 1880), p. 136 sqq., from U and W. A reconstruction of the original text of the Book of Druim Snechta was attempted by R. Thurneysen in the work cited above, together with all the readings from U, H, N and E, partly also of W.^ The text of U is found in the edition of that MS. by R. I. Best and Osborn Bergin (p. 320 sqq). As these editions are all easily accessible, the present edition provides only a limited number of variants. Its text is based on U and thus contains version I. The conclusion of this version, however, which was suppressed 1 See R. Thurneysen, Zii irischen Handschriften unci Literatur- denkmdlern I (Berlin 1912), p. 31 sqq. 2 See Leboy na Huidre edited by R. I. Best and O. J. Bergin (Dublin 1929), p. xvi sqq. 2 Followed by the complete text of D. A ^ in U by the Interpolator, is given from HNE ; the con- cluding passage of version II, which the Interpolator introduced instead, has been added in brackets. At the end, where U is defective, the text is supplied from the MSS. containing version II. In a small number of cases, where a comparison of U with HNE shows that the latter MSS. provide a better and older text, the readings of one of those other MSS. have been adopted. These deviations from U are accounted for in the notes. But slight alterations in the text of U, for the sake of the normalization of the spelling, are not indicated. Whenever U has an older and a later form of the same word along with one another, the former has been adopted throughout ; thus olchenae is the only form, not archenae ; Emuin, not Emain ; lurchuiriu, not lurchairiii.
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