primtellach i nErind, conid[d]esin dli[g]es a comarba [miach la
muic] cacha cleithi i nErinn, co nderbratar druide Erenn: "Is
mide duin in tene-sa rofatad[1] isin tir." Luidh Mide (
symbol characters) bentais a
tengtha a cennaib na ndruadh, (symbol characters) dobeir leis co mbatar hi talmain
Uisnigh fo suide. Conid aim asbert Eriu ingen hUmoir, muime
Mide isede: "Is uais neach atat[h]ar sund [innocht]," ol sisi.
Unde Uisnech (symbol characters) Mide dicuntur.
Mide, he was the son of Broth, son of Dëath. This is why Mide was his name, because it is he that first lit a fire in Erin before the expedition[2] of the children of Nemed. And the fire spread throughout the whole of Erin, and for seven years was it ablaze. And from that fire were kindled every chief fire and every chief hearth in Ireland. Wherefore Mide's successor is entitled to a sack (of corn) with a pig from every house-top in Ireland. And the druids of Erin said: "Hateful (mide[3]) to us is the fire that hath been kindled in the land." (Whereupon) Mide went and cut the tongues out of the heads of the druids, and took them with him, and buried them under him in the ground of Uisnech. So then Mide's foster-mother, Eriu, daughter of Umor, said this: "Haughty (nais) is someone (nech) to-night!" saith she. Hence "Uisnech" and "Mide" are said.
Also in BB. 356 b; H. 6 a; and R. 94 a 2. In verse, LL. 199 b 34.
See O'Curry, Manners and Customs, ii, 191.
Mide, now Meath. Uisnech, now Usnagh Hill, co. West Meath.
The "children of Nemed", the second colonists of Ireland. See Keating, 121.
Eriu, daughter of Umor. She is called Gairech in R., Gairi in BB.
[8. Eithne.]—Eithne cidh diata?
Ni ansa .1. Eithni, ingen echach Feidlig,[4] máthair Furbaidhi
maic Concobair maic Nessa, dochoidh o Emain Maiche
siar com-Meidb Cruach'an dia hassait, fobith asbert in drui fria
Clothraind mac a seathar dia marbad. Luidis dano dia fo-
thrucadh isin abaind, co tard in sruth buille fuirre, co ros-baidh.
Luidh dono Lu[g]aidh Mac con, co tucc in mac trena toeb
ammach .1. Furbuide, (symbol characters) is de sin ata Eithne for[s]an abaind (symbol characters)
Carnn Furbaidi uastu sede. Unde poeta dicit:
Eithne máthair maic in rig,
ingen Echach Feidlig fír[5]:
- ↑ MS. indesa itened rofhata mide.
- ↑ tascar "expedition": so the word is rendered in Ir. Nennius, p. lxx, l. 16. O'Clery explains it as "a fleet", "an assembly", "emigrants".
- ↑ So O'Clery: Midhe .1. droichthene, "a bad fire", Rev. Celt., v, 23. But O'Curry, Manners and Customs, ii, 191, seems to render mide by "insult". It is probably from an Old-Celtic mitio-s, cognate with Gr. (
Greek characters) from mītsos, and N.H.G. meiden.
- ↑ MS.eathac feidlid.
- ↑ MS. eathach feidlid fir.
