[167] The War of the Gaedhil with the Gaill, p. 203, says that when the Norsemen were fleeing after the battle of Clontarf, Earl Broder, accompanied by two warriors, passed by the tent in which King Brian was. One of these men, who had been in Brian’s service, saw the King and cried “Cing, Cing” (This is the King). “No, no, acht prist, prist” said Broder (No, no, it is a priest, said Broder).
[168] These annals state that on one occasion (A.D. 869) Cennedigh of Leix, a brave Irish chieftain, was pursued by the Norsemen, who “blew their trumpets and raised angry barbarous shouts, many of them crying ‘nui, nui.’”
[169] Marstrander (op. cit., p. 156) suggests, however, that roth may be an archaic form of the Irish ruadh, ‘red.’
[170] Cf. W. A. Craigie: Gaelic Words and Names in the Sagas and Landnámabók. (Zeitschrift für Celtische Philologie, Band I., pp. 439-454).
A. Bugge: Vesterlandenes Indflydelse paa Nordboernes i Vikingetiden, ch. 9. See especially pp. 358-359.
[171] There is an interesting account of the gelt in the Old Norse Konungs Skuggsjá (Speculum Regale):
“It happens that when two hosts meet and are arranged in battle-array, and when the battle-cry is raised loudly on both sides, cowardly men run wild and lose their wits from the dread and fear which seize them. And they run into a wood away from other men, and live there like beasts and shun the meeting of men like wild beasts. And it is said of these men then when they have lived in the woods in that condition for twenty years, that feathers grew on their bodies like birds, whereby their bodies are protected against frost and cold…”
Cf. Kuno Meyer: On the Irish Mirabilia in the Old Norse “Speculum Regale” (Eríu, Vol. IV., pp. 11-12).
This bears a striking resemblance to a certain passage in the mediæval romance Cath Muighe Rath (Battle of Moy Rath, p. 232. Ed. by O’Donovan). It may also be compared with another romance, which probably dates from the same period, viz., Buile Suibhne, (The Madness of Suibhne, ed. by J. G. O’Keefe for the Irish Texts Society). Cf. also Hávamál (ed. Gering), str. 129, etc.
[172] Vilbald, a descendant of Kjarval, King of Ossory, had a ship called Kuthi, cf. Landnámabók, IV., ch. II. Todd (War of the Gaedhil with the Gaill, p. 299, n.) suggests Ir. Cuthach.