Eigse Paged 2004 - National University of Ireland

AILBE’S SPEECH TO CITHRUAD 7
effecting a slight emendation of on to on[g] (gen. pl.), which
results in a figura etymologica meaning ‘because of the tribulations
that oppress me’.
13 Bangnīma menma: ‘the mind of woman’s deed’, that is ‘the mindful
deed of a woman’. In this construction the attributive notion is
shifted towards the head-noun (GOI §250a).
fri tuind trebairi: If we take tonn in the rare sense of ‘land, soil’
(DIL T 248.36-40), this can be taken as a case of attraction of a
preposed genitive to the case required by the preceding preposition
thus creating hendiadys: ‘to soil (and) tillage’ = fri trebairi
tonnae ‘to tillage of the soil’. See Wagner 1982 on this construction.
For an example of independent occurrence in two early texts
see Corthals 1995: 119-120 (di thúathaib táirgiuth ‘from the
people’s supply’). It remains doubtful, however, if all such examples
are genuine. They may be partly due to scribal intervention
(Breatnach 1981: 75-76).
17 remchisin: If the dot over c in the manuscript really indicates lenition,
the resulting remchisin for remcisin could be explained as a
case of recomposition after the example of compounds with rem-
(e.g. remf·ocul). But as lenition of voiceless spirants is otherwise
not indicated by a suprasegmental mark in our text, I doubt if this
reading is correct.
19 fri cairp[th]i: The underlying form of MS cairpi is cairpthi (on
the omission of th see the introduction), a Middle-Irish equivalent
of O. Ir. cairptiu.
fri cluræ cræslīnad: I cannot find any sense in cluræ. If the
abbreviation stroke for ur should have been miswritten for a
straight stroke, the abbreviated form could have been for cléræ,
gen. sg. of clíar ‘company, band’ which makes perfect sense in
this context.
20 fri daiddingmāil c[h]éle: On daid- for dag- compare daidben for
dagben later on in Tochmarc Ailbe (Thurneysen 1920-21: 266, l.
17). In view of the next line (‘to concord and contemporaries’) I
would understand dingbáil in its derived meaning ‘being a match
for’ rather than in its original sense of ‘removing, repelling’ (DIL
D 127. 68ff).
21 fri cuib[d]i 7 comæsa: Both cuilus (so Thurneysen) and cuibi are
possible readings, but, whereas cuilus gives no sense, cuibi can be
seen as a modern reading for older cuibdi ‘fitness, harmony’ (see
my introductory remarks on the orthography). The manuscript
reading comæsArom suggests that A was felt as belonging to the