G, GORT, ivy in the Ogham alphabet. The bird ... - Rodney Mackay

singing amusing verses and telling royal stories, the best to
equip horses, and to mount spears, and to plait hair; and his
intellect was acute.” In short, a Rennaissance man.
Weighted down with a sad prescience of disaster Donnbo did
not feel like entertaining the troops on the eve before
battle, but made way for Ua Maighlinne promising to provide
the victory amusements on the following night. As it
happened his head was severed in battle the next day. The
victorious king of Leinster sent a warrior to the battlefield
daring him to bring home the head of this man. In the dead of
night he heard a voice from the heavens demand that Donnbo
make good his pledge of entertainment and the astounded
warrior heard “dead singers and trumpeters and harpers
render music the like of which he had never heard before. or
after. And finally he heard the head of Doonbo give the dordfiansa,
the sweetest of all music in the world. When the
warrior made as if to lift the head it demanded reunion with
its body and the warrior did not dare to defer.
GEINTLEACH. gein, obs. a sword, The Gaels called the
northern viking-raiders geintleach, “gentiles,” or heathens.
Later they revived the old word gaill or goill, a “Gaul”, or
stranger, those of “the surly looks” to describe their
unwanted visitors. Sometimes the Irish referred to the
newcomers as Lochlannaigh, although this was also visited
upon the neighbouring Scots. Later still, Irish writers,
wishing to distinguish between the earlier and later
invaders limited the latter name to the Norwegians and
called the Danes the Danair. More commonly the viking
Norse were seen as “white” while those of Danish descent
were seen as the “black heathens.” This difference had
nothing to do with complexions, but took note of the fact
that the “whites” fought in commonplace linen albas
similar to those worn by the Gaels while the “blacks”
favoured dark metal coats-of-mail.
GELBAN. A son of the king of Lochlann, or Scotland, who
spied on the Red Branch Hostel for his king. The ard-righ
Conchobhar mac Nessa wished to know if Deirdre’s looks
had faded. Naoise was playing fidchell with Deirdre when