The Latin & Irish lives of Ciaran

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suggestive Ard Tistrat, V the high place of the moly

well. ' By no stretch of language can the site of Clon-macnois be called physicalty high: as in the stangaquoted in VG 3o, the word Ard must be used in thesense of distingui Shed, eminent, ΟΓ Sacred. of the prophecy attributed to Brigit there appears to be no record in any of her numerous Lives r norcan I identify with certainty the story of the streand the angel. V There were Crosses of Brigit V at Armam: but as there were probably many other crosses throughout the country dedicated to this popularsaint we cannot infer that Armagh was the scene of the prophecy. Becc mac De was chi ef soothsayer to Κing Dia ait mac Cerrbeil. Very litile is certainly known of him: most of the traditions relating to him consist of tales of his remarkable ost os foretelling the future tales similar to those related of the Covenanter Alexander Peden in Scottand, or of the Seventeenth-century Μayopeasant Red Brian Carabine.' He clied in or about the year A. D. 555 the annalisis waver belween 552

i Mentioned in Annals of Visteri anno II 66, Annals of Loch Cή, anno II 80, Annals of the Four Masters. anniS IIa I, II 66.

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Celtische Philologie, iX, 169ὶ, or in Leabhar Breac, P. 26O, where Some further particulars about his are given. I have ventured to emend the passage regaming Beccmac De Sliotly, restoring the verse form whicli the prophecy Seems to have had originalty. As it appeam in the Lismore Lines printeo texi it is oven in prose an insignificant transposition of the wotas, and thetaking of the word andsin out of the inverted commasis ali that is necessary. In the rendering in the text

four-syllabie and si x-syllabie lines alternating. but with trisyllabic rhyme in the ghori lines . The person to whom Colum Cille ultered his prophecywas Aed mac Brenainn. Prince of Tethba Testia), theregion compriSing Various baronies in the modern CO.

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Thus both genealogies claim a royal descent for thesaint. This is an instance of a widespread poticy, of

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whicli many traces are to be found in the old Iristi Genealogies. The whole country was divided into territories of different clans, under which were Sub- ordinate and tributary sepis. The lalter bore the chiel burden os taxation: and they were for the greater partcomposed os descendants of the aboriginal pre-Celtictribes, who hau been reduced to vassatage on the comingos the Celtic-spearing invaders sabout the third oriourth century B.C. in . When a tributary Sept became Strong enouis to resist the pressure of theSe impoStS,eXemption was claimed by a sort os legat fiction, byWhicli they were genealogicalty assiliated to the mlingsept. This practice led to the fabrication os spurious links, and even of whole PedigreeS. In potnt of faci severat indications show that Claranbelonged to a tributary seph, and was of pre-Celticblood. These tributary sepis were distingui ined immtheir Celtic conquerors by sociat organisation, racialcharacter, and probably stili to some extent by religionand language. They had much the fame position Gihe sterioeci in ancient Sparta. The following are theevidences of his pre-Celtic nationalit aὶ The tribal names of his parenis Latharna, GlGraigei. There are two forins os tribal names in ancient Irelaiad: those consisting of two words, and thOSe consisting of one. The firsi are in such formulae M tribe of ΝΝ seed of ΝΝ V or the lik-ΝΝ being

pre-Celtic Sepis, though in many cases they have been fitted with Celticising genealogieS. bi The nantes of Claran himself and his brothem,

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and of one of his sisters. Donnan, Claran, Odran, Cronan are ali diminutives founded umn colour-thelitile brown, blach, grey, and tawny one. These indicate that the family was clark complexioned, which wouldalso accord with a pre-Celtic orion. The Cetts were fair, their predecessors dark. One of the Sisters was

called Pata; with an initiat P. This is impossibie in a

ci The subordinate position os Claran's fallier, and his liability to taxation. In the Book of Leinster and, in

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interesting. telis us nothing about either Claran or

di The fact; specialty mentioned in LA; that Claran

liis wife from a sepi differing from his own: and thechildren are relateo to the mother's, nos the father'skin. The male responsible for the education of thechild is not so much the fallier as the maternat uncte. The law of exogamy was Strictly followed in the case

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It is possibie that the prominence of the mollier in the liousehold, and Claran's birth away from his ancestrathonie as the result os a taXation, are Specialty emphasised because they offer obvious parallels with the Gospei story. The character of Darerca iS, howeVer, by no means ideatiSed, as we might have expected itto be; had this been the clites purpose of the narrator. The Parents of Claran, their Names and OriginS.- The name of Claran's fallier is variousty Latini sed

in the Latin Lives. The Irish lives cali him Beoit, a name analysed in the Book of Leinster, p. 349, into Beo-n-Aed, which would mean something like ' Living

Limericli. Os her poet grandiather Glas nothing is

It would perhaps be too far-latched to see a hintat a mythological element in the traditions os Claran in the signification of his parenis' nameS. Indeed, considering the Tendena of the Ciaran Lives, it is remarkable that there is no supernormal element in the

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account of the birth of this particular Saint: Supernatural birilis are almost a commonplace in Irish sainis'

3ὶ that the migration of the family does not take placetili aster Claran's birth: in that a totalty disserent re onis assigned for the migration: 5ὶ that incident X of the Lines is directly referred to: 6ὶ that we hear nothingin this passage about the rest of the numerous family

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are nos other Se known: we cannot thereiore test the

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edition, p. 128ὶ confuse his with Euthymius, thedeacon, martyred at Alexandria. The play on words it were fitting that the iust one Ahould be baptized by a justone Vi is tost in the Iristi version, whence Ρlumnier VSH,

i, v. xlixi infers that this document is a translationfrom a Latin original: but the faci proves nothingmore than that the author of VG borrowed this particular incident, as he bonowed his preface, from a Latinwriting. Ait these Lives are patchworks, and their Component elements are of very disserent origins and