Cover art is ‘A Tipperary Village’ by J.W. Gozzard

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Book of Leinster Book I

Notes

Author: Anonymous

• Túathal Techtmar is a celebrated High King of Ireland, legendary founder of the Bórama (cattle-tribute) imposed on Leinster as revenge for the deaths of his two daughters.
• Fithir and Darine: the two daughters whose tragic deaths — Fithir dying of shame on discovering her sister had been taken as a second wife by Eochu of Leinster — form the mythological origin of the tribute.
• The Bórama (cattle-tribute) is a major theme of this text; the elaborate enumeration of pledges is a rhetorical celebration of its binding power.
• Coirpre: a king who fought to free Leinster from the tribute, listed with his battles.
• Finnachta: the High King Finnachta Fledach, who famously remitted the Bórama at the request of St Moling — a well-known episode in early Irish history.
• Dondchad: likely Donnchad mac Brain, king of Leinster at the time of composition.
• The closing prose note on testimony (fiadnaise) and the Fir Bolg is a legal digression on the earliest form of legal witness in Ireland.

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Translation

Túathal Techtmar was king of Tara

1. {MS folio 35b} Túathal Techtmar was king of Tara — a proud, noble place. {MS folio 35b40} Eochu son of Echdach — the judgement — was lord of Leinster.
2. Lende, a woman-daughter, was Túathal’s wife — a woman of fortress-counting. Báne was her name, a daughter with renown, a phantom from the síde.
3. True tidings of his two daughters — a worthy kindred. Fithir and Darine — a bond of tender affection — of wondrous power.
4. It was to woo them that Eochu came — a noble, unconcealed deed — until he took Fithir, illustrious in sovereignty, with him to the Liffey.
5. Thereupon he devised — Fithir was dead — a true concealment; Darine was thereafter brought in full reckoning to Eochu.
6. When she chanced upon her sister — a tale without smoothness — {MS folio 35b50} Fithir was dead of shame and radiance, for her honour.
7. Túathal launched forth to avenge her — a proud kindling — he crushed Leinster broadly, a remnant, a well of fire.
8. {MS folio 36a} He imposed bondage upon the Leinstermen swiftly, as we see — the great cattle-tribute, a dignity most great, which had not been before.
9. Túathal drove three rightful battles — lord of the sun — he subdued them through the force of vengeance for thirty years.
10. {MS folio 35b5} Feidlimid bore it for seven years — power with rightful claim; Conn subdued them — he was lord of sovereignty — twenty times.
11. The Fianna were brought to Art — the force of them twofold — three decades of vigorous strength, without any defeat.
12. The Leinstermen broke free from Cormac — a fame not spoken; they brought it upon him — against the hostages — on the night of Samhain.

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p. 161

13. {MS folio 36a} A special deed was done by Dunlang — a demonic deed — the deed of the famous, satirised daughters at the side of Tara.
14. {MS folio 36a15} Thirty daughters of the one royal company — of victorious law; a hundred of their daughters, the fair ones, bright and new.
15. Thirty daughters for thirty hundreds — a fair, rightful triumph — that was the quarry of the host over Brega-plain — the warriors of Leinster.
16. With ten daughters to Cormac — a company of splendour — Ailbe Gruadbrec, Treithne, Lethleór, and Gráinne.
17. Lemuin, Letherthe, with Scéith, Admór, Ainge, {MS folio 36a20} Fásse, Talinne — a bond of splendour — Innerb, fair and lovely in attendance.
18. Fair seven daughters with Fergus — without forceful guilt — Domnae the good, and Semmoir, with Tar and Forcal.
19. Echtan, Cailech, Sand, Bé Tibre — a gathering most certain — Inderb, Iten, Bilene from Tuirbiu, Cear from Cerno.
20. {MS folio 36a25} The twelve of them as arms to Ailill — a noble womanly company — Emer, Tailten, and Náirne, and Moirne.
21. Sogen, Fedelm, Frithnán — of noble meetings — Brechtan, Buadach — a delight to the eye — the three Mammas.
22. Cormac avenges his noble children — sovereign of the fair — {MS folio 36a30} he harried Leinster — a renown not to be reversed — his bundle of spear-points.
23. This is what remained to the renowned children — the southern boundary of Clóined — twelve kings, a company without pride, with the prowess of one man.
24. Wondrous was the battle-power that surrounded them — vigorous, ever-returning — Fergus Foltlebor was famous, Ailill of Cenn Nathrach, victorious in battle.
25. {MS folio 36a35} He bound the cattle-tribute — vigorous was the victorious flame — he bound it firmly through each year, he bound hostage-giving and hosting.

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p. 162

26. {MS folio 36a} Noble are the pledges that lie upon the Leinstermen — a measure of generosity — pledges of stars, pledge of the moon, and of the sun.
27. Pledges of cheek and of face — a deed not to be diminished — {MS folio 36a40} pledges of conscience and of breast, and of heart.
28. Pledges of kindred and of children, and of senses — pledges of lord and of warrior-band, and of the Fianna.
29. Pledges of his man, pledges of his woman — great their enumeration — pledges of his son, vast merriment — pledges of soul and of honour.
30. Pledges of grain and of milk — greater than all praise — {MS folio 36a45} pledges of peoples and of fortune, and of fruit.
31. Pledges of leader and of settlement — in harsh assemblies — with their shields, with their spears, with their stakes.
32. Pledges of well and of sea-storm, and of land — {MS folio 36a50} from every fourth part, a company of splendour — pledge of every creature.
33. It is a pledge upon them — dew upon a day’s heat — the certainties of assembly — pledges of their mouths, pledges of their truths, pledges of their hands.
34. Pledges of plain and of sea-wall — greater than tales — pledges of heaven with its drops, with its clouds.
35. All bonds upon all elements — that we may proclaim — between air and fire, and earth.
36. {MS folio 36b} Every element, every offspring that is in the heavens — with vast cries — these are the pledges by swift courses that lie upon the Leinstermen.
37. For their children, for their kindred — a cry at every canonical hour — for every one that is and will be until the day of judgement.

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p. 163

38. {MS folio 36b} Concerning the carrying away from them of the cattle-tribute — a power vast — as long as beloved merriment endures — heaven above earth.
39. The Munstermen came to remit it — through mightier thousands — they goaded the Leinstermen with warrior-mercenaries from their lands.
40. Coirpre came to free them — a stream not to be dried — {MS folio 36b10} around his mother in the Liffey — he fought seven battles.
41. A battle at Gabhra — a battle of Fea, the battle of the Liffey — so named — the battle of Mag nAilbe, the battle of Ferna, the battle of Commar.
42. From when he drove away three times seven battles — a tale not to be told lightly — Coirpre bound upon his kinsmen their original tribute.
43. {MS folio 36b15} What amount is the tribute, as we state in true words? — three fifties of hundreds, fairer in assemblies, ale with lustre.
44. Three fifties of hundreds of the finest pigs — not from guile — three fifties of hundreds — and from the customary dues — of the cattle.
45. All these delivered with pledges, with true and generous men — {MS folio 36b20} each one at his due time, in that place, in each year.
46. With three fifties of renowned couples — people of fierce custom — at the feasts, a cloak without distress, upon the condiment.
47. Fifty seamstresses — they drive around him — {MS folio 36b25} fifty horses — no honour-price is light — in bridles of gold and silver.
48. Fifty cauldrons — around the wondrous copper cauldron — twelve oxen, the load of the cauldron — it was a path of joy.
49. An iron spit, its two forks — a measure of wonder — it was from the Leinstermen, the manly man — for boiling the chain.
50. Thus it is due — {MS folio 36b30} the fair man of rank, for the stating — with his lime, with his river-mouths, with his firewood.

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p. 164

51. {MS folio 36b} Forty kings would have paid it — royal in sovereignty — from the reign of Túathal — a bond not hidden — to the reign of Finnachta who absolved it.
52. From the reign of Finnachta it was not taken — from the people, through pride — {MS folio 36b35} until the fair reign that stands against the storm, in which Dondchad is.
53. What I have enumerated — is it not a clear tale — a story without boasting — the form as it was composed — not without labour — since Túathal was. T.

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Prose Addendum:

{MS folio 36b} Testimony first in Ireland — who first established it? Not difficult. Ocha son of Sengand of the Fir Bolg — at a time when there was no binding contract, nor surety, nor hostage, but testimony alone — and a sixth of the value of the loss, or the forfeit which testimony would bear at that time.

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