"IT IS A HARP WITHOUT A ceis, it is a church without an abbot—i.e., ceis is a name for a small harp which is used as an accompaniment to a large harp in co-playing; or it is a name for the small pin which holds the cord in the wood of the harp; or for the tacklings, or for the heavy cord. Or the ceis in the harp is what holds the side part with its chords in it, as the poet said—it was Ros[6] mac Find who sang it, or Ferceirtné[7] the poet,
"'The base-chord concealed not music from the harp of Crabtene,
Until it dropped sleep-deaths upon hosts.
* * * * *
Sweeter than any music, the harp
Which delighted Labhraidh [Lowry] Lorc the Mariner,
Though sullen about his secrets was the King,
The ceis, or base-chord of Craftiné concealed it not.'"
This poem is an allusion to the sagas which grouped themselves round the sons of Ugony the great and Lowry the Mariner, who reigned about 530 years B.C.
In another place he quotes a poem of Finn mac Cúmhail's.
"'AND SEA-COURSE'—i.e., he was skilful in the art of renis[8] that is 'of the sea,' or it may be rian that would be right in it, as Finn, grandson of Baoisgne [Bweesgna] said—
"'A tale I have for you. Ox murmurs,
Winter roars, summer is gone.
Wind high cold, sun low,
Cry is attacking, sea resounding.
Very red raying has concealed form.
Voice of geese [Barnacles] has become usual,
Cold has caught the wings of birds,
Ice-frost time; wretched, very wretched.[9]
A tale I have for you.'"
Another verse quoted alludes to the chess-board of Crimhthann Nianáir, who came to the throne eleven years before the birth of Christ.[10]
"FECHT AFOR NIA NEM—i.e., the time when the champion would come, that is Columcille, for nia means a champion, as is said—
"'The chessboard of Crimhthann, brave champion,
A small child carries it not on his arm (?)
Half of its chessmen are of yellow gold.
The other half of white bronze.
One man of its chessmen alone
Would purchase six married couples.'"
The ancient commentator quotes, thirty-five times in all, from various poems, in explanation of his text, including poems ascribed to Columcille himself, and to Gráinne, the daughter of Cormac mac Art, who eloped from Finn mac Cúmhail. He quotes the satire made on Breas in the time of the Tuatha De Danann, and a verse of St. Patrick (some of whose Irish poetry is also quoted by the "Four Masters"), and a poet called Colman mac Lenene, who was first a poet, but afterwards became a saint, and founded the great school of Cloyne.
Dallán wrote two other Amras, one on Senan of Innis Cathaigh, "which," remarks Colgan, "on account of antiqueness of style and gracefulness is amongst those fond of antiquity, always held in great esteem," and another in praise of Conall of Inskeel in Donegal, in one grave with whom he was buried. There has also come down to us in the same inscrutable Fenian dialect a poem of his consisting of eighty-four lines on the shield of Hugh, King of Oriel, which, unlike his Amra, is in perfect rhyme and metre.[11]
It was he who headed the bardic body when they were so nearly banished from the kingdom, and were only saved by the intervention of St. Columcille at the Synod of Drom Ceat [Cat], of which more hereafter. There is a curious specimen of his overbearing truculence in a story preserved in the same manuscript (of about the year 1100) that has preserved his Amra; it is headed "A Story from which it is inferred that Mongan was Finn mac Cúmhail." The poet was stopping with Mongan, King of Ulster.