Myths and Legends of the Celtic Race by T.W. Rolleston

Author:T.W. Rolleston
Language: eng
Format: epub

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CHAPTER VII

: THE VOYAGE OF MAELDUN

Besides the legends which cluster round great heroic names, and have, or at least pretend to have, the character of history, there are many others, great and small, which tell of adventures lying purely in regions of romance, and out of earthly space and time. As a specimen of these I give here a summary of the "Voyage of Maeldun," a most curious and brilliant piece of invention, which is found in the manuscript entitled the "Book of the Dun Cow" (about 1100) and other early sources, and edited, with a translation (to which I owe the following extracts), by Dr. Whitley Stokes in the "Revue Celtique" for 1888 and 1889. It is only one of a number of such wonder-voyages found in ancient Irish literature, but it is believed to have been the earliest of them all and model for the rest, and it has had the distinction, in the abridged and modified form given by Joyce in his "Old Celtic Romances," of having furnished the theme for the "Voyage of Maeldune" to Tennyson, who made it into a wonderful creation of rhythm and colour, embodying a kind of allegory of Irish history. It will be noticed at the end that we are in the unusual position of knowing the name of the author of this piece of primitive literature, though he does not claim to have composed, but only to have "put in order," the incidents of the "Voyage." Unfortunately we cannot tell when he lived, but the tale as we have it probably dates from the ninth century. Its atmosphere is entirely Christian, and it has no mythological significance except in so far as it teaches the lesson that the oracular injunctions of wizards should be obeyed. No adventure, or even detail, of importance is omitted in the following summary of the story, which is given thus fully because the reader may take it as representing a large and important section of Irish legendary romance. Apart from the source to which I am indebted, the "Revue Celtique," I know no other faithful reproduction in English of this wonderful tale.

The "Voyage of Maeldun" begins, as Irish tales often do, by telling us of the conception of its hero.

There was a famous man of the sept of the Owens of Aran, named Ailill Edge-of-Battle, who went with his king on a foray into another territory. They encamped one night near a church and convent of nuns. At midnight Ailill, who was near the church, saw a certain nun come out to strike the bell for nocturns, and caught her by the hand. In ancient Ireland religious persons were not much respected in time of war, and Ailill did not respect her. When they parted, she said to him: "Whence is thy race, and what is thy name?" Said the hero: "Ailill of the Edge-of-Battle is my name, and I am of the Owenacht of Aran, in Thomond."

Not long afterwards Ailill was slain by reavers from Leix, who burned the church of Doocloone over his head.

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