OI Translation of a Law

[Abhaill]

I am trying to make sense of the following law found in Lebor na Cert, although at the moment I am looking at E. O'Curry's discussion on it in Lectures on the Manners & Customs of the Ancient Irish.  I'm getting stuck on his translations of a few key words (to my purposes) and I can't locate one in particular in the DIL.  Any help would be greatly appreciated!  This law is regarding the legal contents of noblewomen's/ladies' techta 'possessions', what O'Curry translates as 'workbags' or 'work-boxes'.  Note: I can't put the lenition marker above consonants, so I'll substitute (h).

Original Irish:

Manip iadach, .i. manap tiag gan a toc(h)os dligt(h)eac(h), .i. caille, acas rond, acas land airgit, acas mind oir; ni conai fethal, .i. no ni coimedas ecosc dála coin, .i. in meirgi, no in breid sída, no in raindi, uair noc(h) nuil and inni sin; acas da mbet(h) rabad trí samaisci; uair nac(h) fuil is diablad gac(h) neic(h) uil inti no go ria na tri samaisci; acas noco téid tairsib.

O'Curry's translation:

If it be a bag without its legitimate property, namely, a veil, and silver thread, and a crescent of silver, and a diadem of gold; or what contains a painted mask, that is, what contains a painted face, [or mask] for assemblies, namely, the banner or the handkerchief of silk, or the gold thread, that is when it does not contain those things; and if those things were contained in it, three heifers [would have been the lawful fine for it]; but when those [articles] are not in it, it is double the value of everything which is in it until it reaches the three heifers [that is paid for it, but when it so reaches] it goes no further.

Ok.  1. What he translates as 'handkerchief of silk' is breid sída.  Sída is the commonly accepted word for silk, but I can't find breid in the DIL.  I'm probably looking in the wrong places because I'm missing some mutation or affectation on the word, but if anyone can translate that word for me that would be great.  'Banner' is an interesting alternative to 'handkerchief' here and gives me interesting ideas.

2. This mask issue is very interesting to me, but I can't make heads or tails of what is actually being said about it!

3. He translates rond as 'silver thread', and I think he's off his rocker.  I believe what's being referred to here is an ornamental chain, probably the counterpart to the land airgit mentioned.  The DIL mentions an example where seinm rond is translated as 'the jingle of chains'.  Last I checked, thread doesn't jingle!  Rond is also described as the ornament of a helmet, also unlikely to be 'thread'.

I'm not much concerned about the legal aspects of this law, but with the contents of the bag and what they represented.  I'm looking specifically at the concept of the caille 'veil', in conjunction with the Lament of the Old Woman of Beare, which I'll post in that thread a little later.

Thanks for any help you can afford me!

~ Abhaill

[Megli]

This is really interesting. maddeningly, my DIL is at work.
O'Curry's really old, I wonder if it's been re-edited since then. Hmm...will do some inquiring - my supervisor is the world expert on celtic law (Thomas Charles-Edwards).

Your guesses sound likely to me. The mask thing is odd - let me have a think over the weekend, it might mean the bit of cloth you pull over the lower part of your face and simper with! (all very monty python).

M /|\

[Abhaill]

Thomas Charles-Edwards, eh?  Well I suppose he would do...

I know I should be looking at Myles Dillon's translation of this... oh look!  CELT has it online!  Hooray.  Now to find the law within the text...  Yes, the mask thing seems odd to me, too.  I was thinking it might be something made of cloth, akin to the veil.  I have an idea that the veil may have been a status symbol of sorts for women of certain/special classes in early Irish society.  If this mask is another type of veil for certain/special occasions, I'd certainly be interested in figuring it out!  However, if might end up being a wild goose chase based on a bad translation.  Thanks for the offer of help, Megli!

~ Abhaill

[Megli]

Veil is interesting because it comes, as you know, from latin 'pallium', and the p-->c shows it was borrowed at a stage of irish where they still had kw- (Ogham Irish Q, QQ). So it has to have been one of the first wave of ecclesiastical borrowings into Irish from Latin, cf. 'achstal' from L 'apostolus' vs later OIr 'apstal'. That means it must be a nun's veil, specifically, and the sematic shift to 'old woman' comes later - after all, where do you go if you are an old woman on her own in early ireland? you take the veil. It always makes me grin ruefully when people start connecting the Cailleach with Kali....
so there are puns on two sense of 'cailleach' in the poem, as befits its underlying dualities - sea, land; old young; secular, ecclesiastical...etc etc etc. But you know all this.

M/|\

[Beith]

Hi Abhaill and Megli,

Abhaill a Bréit (also bréid and sometimes without the i-glide) is a piece of cloth. It can be used in the sense of a strip of cloth, a rag, a headcovering (veil) or even altar cloth.

I'm not sure which version of the DIL you have but if you have the compact edition I just checked it and it's on p83, table 174 and line 28 approx.

Regarding the veil and caillech lore ..Megli already hit the point there.

The orig translation of Caille(a)ch is "veiled one" coming from the -io-stem "caille" (lat Pallium) and applies to that of a nun, later "old woman" and used also used slightly condescendingly implying "hag".

In terms of lore, yes, many old women retired to the cloistered life "taking the veil" in their later years as it was a means to have some shelter and guaranteed food in a time where women's status in society, as you know, was pretty limited in their ability to make contracts, do business, gain wealth (unless from inheritance or by increasing the value of the home and chattles within marriage, or having had certain skills which enabled a stand-alone status rather than beind dependent on her father/husband).  

The Cailleach is "the veiled one" and I think current academic thoughts on the Cailleach Beara are putting forth the idea that she was indeed historically a nun whose lore like that of St Bridget, became intermingled with the supernatural lore of a goddess or supernatural figure. I think former thought on it would have implied some soverignty function but I don't know how well that sits now.


So yes the veil had a notion in early society as adopting a religious role.

Best wishes
Beith

[Abhaill]

Interesting points, and key components to the discussion - thank you both!

Beith - thank you for the DIL reference.  My brain deserted me and forgot to recall to memory how often d can be interchanged with t and vice versa.  A bit of a duh! moment.

I am aware (as are you both) of the issues you pointed out re caillech and its original meaning, as well as the associations between the veil and the life/vows of the nun or elderly woman.  What I'm looking into however, is the idea that the veil also denoted other classes of women in society.  The laws specifically mention that the veil was one of 4 components of the lawful possessions of a queen, and separately of the wife of an airech feibhe.  The queen's veil was to be of one colour aen dat(h)e, though no such restrictions are placed on the noblewoman's veil.  It seems to me that there is a possibility that this veil may have been an official symbol of rank for women of rank; women other than nuns.  Certainly we can see in various cultures today that the veil retains a strong connection to women around the world, and could be seen to denote a certain status - the status of being 'woman'.  I hasten to add that this is a profoundly superficial connection, but I find it interesting to note that the veil seems to be (to this day) associated with women.  The wedding veil is another example.

~ Abhaill

[Beith]

HI Abhaill,

sorry I wasn't meaning to tell you what you already knew as regards Cailleach and veil-taking (I just didn't know if you knew it from the above discussion with megli where you were asking about a status for women with veil...I misread you)

I really do not have too much on status of women in society. There has been a lot of research on that and many publications but my reference list is not to hand.

I can suggest though, if you have not already looked into them:

A Guide to Early Irish Law by Prof Fergus Kelly, as he goes through the status ranks of persons in society based on the legal texts and I am sure in the bibliography you will find further references specific to women.

Likewise D.A.Binchy. I know he has articles on "Family membership of women" and "legal capacity of women" in Studies in Early Irish Law (Dublin, 1936).

Donnchadh O Corráin may also have published in this area. I don't know.
Source: Marriage in Ireland, ed. A. Cosgrove, Dublin 1985 5-24. (see O Corráin's article on marriage. He mentions a reference to the upper  castes of society marrying only virgins...maybe there was another veil of status to indicate chastity in this case? (pure speculation on my part!)
Ó Corráin, D. ‘Medieval Irish Law’, Field Day Anthology of Irish Writing iv-v (Cork, 2002).

Swartz, D. Dilts, ‘The Legal Status of Women in Early and Medieval Ireland and Wales in Comparison with Western European and Mediterranean Societies: Environmental and Social Correlations’, PHCC 13 (1993) 107-18.

You could check out Prof Patricia Kelly in UCD (ireland) as she used coordinate a course on women in women in mythology and law and the Cailleach Bheara.


This one's a reading list for welsh studies that I found on the net, you might find something for comparative lore & legal status  in there
http://www.aber.ac.uk/history/bigbib.html


Happy hunting! let us know what you churn up.
Beith

ps. re: dictionary...I usually search for things without the glide vowels and check various consonantal endings (esp dental and guttural stops and fricatives) if I don't find them straight away. if only they'd database the dictionary it would be easier to search!