Elin Gow, the Swordsmith from Erin, and the Cow Glas Gainach.
Glas Gainach. In this name of the celebrated cow glas means gray; gainach is a corruption of gaunach, written gamhnach, which means a cow whose calf is a year old, that is, a cow without a calf that year, a farrow cow. Gamhnach is an adjective from gamhan, a yearling calf.
In Donegal, gavlen is used instead of gaunach; and the best story-teller informed me that gavlen means a cow that has not had a calf for five years. He gave the terms for cows that have not had calves for one, two, three, four, and five years. These terms I wrote down; but unfortunately they are not accessible at present. The first in the series is gaunach, the last gavlen; the intervening ones I cannot recall.
King Under the Wave is a personage met with frequently in Gaelic; his name is descriptive enough, and his character more or less clear in other tales.
Cluainte is a place in the parish of Bally Ferriter, the westernmost district in Ireland. The site of Elin Gow’s house and forge was pointed out by the man who told the story, also the stone pillars between which the cow used to stand and scratch her two sides at once when coming home from pasture in the evening. The pillars are thirteen feet and a half apart, so that Glas Gainach had a bulky body.
Glas Gainach went away finally through the bay called Ferriter’s Cove. In Gaelic, this bay is Caoil Cuan (Caol’s harbor), so called because the body of Caol, foster-son of Fin MacCool, was washed in there after the Battle of Ventry. (See last paragraph of [the Battle of Ventry].)
Saudan Og and the Daughter of the King of Spain, &c.
Saudan Og means young Sultan. This is a curious naturalization of the son of the Sultan in Ireland, a very striking example of the substitution of new heroes in old tales.
Conal Gulban was the great grandfather of Columbkil, founder of Iona and apostle of Scotland; hence, he lived a good many years before any King of the Turks could be in any place. In a certain tale of three brothers which I have heard, the narrator made “two halves” of Mark Antony, the three heroes being Mark, Antony, and Lepidus.
Laian, written Laighean in Gaelic, means Leinster; the King of Laian is King of Leinster.