XXIII. THE BLESSING OF CIARAN'S FOOD (LA, LC)
I cannot find any authority for the ritual indicated by this curious story, in which the blessing of a second person is necessary before food can be consumed. There is a Jewish formula described by Lightfoot,[17] in which, when several take their meals together, one says Let us bless, and the rest answer Amen. But it is not clear why a response should have been required by a person eating alone.
XXIV. THE STORY OF THE MILL AND THE BAILIFF'S DAUGHTER (LB, VG)
The full details of this narrative have evidently been offensive to the author of LB, who has heroically bowdlerised it. It is obviously an independent Märchen, which has become incorporated in the traditions of Ciaran.
The Famine.—Famines are frequently recorded in the Irish Annals: and it is noteworthy that they were usually accompanied by an epidemic of raids on monasteries. The wealth of the country was largely concentrated in these establishments, so that they presented a strong temptation to a starving community. The beginning of the story is thus quite true to nature and to history, though I have found no record of a famine at the time when we may suppose Ciaran to have been at Clonard.
Transformation of Oats to Wheat, and of other Food to Flour.—Such transformations are common in the saints' Lives. We read of swine turned to sheep (CS, 879), snow to curds (LL, 127), sweat to gold (TT, 398) flesh to bread (CS, 368). The later peculiarities of the food—bread or some other commonplace material having the taste of more recondite dainties, and possessing curative properties—are not infrequently met with in folk-lore. Saint Illtyd placed fish and water before a king, who found therein the taste of bread and salt, wine and mead, in addition to their proper savours (Cambro-British Saints, pp. 165, 474).
The Resistance of the Saint to amorous Advances.—The reader may be referred to Whitley Stokes's note ad loc., in LL. We may recall the well-known story of Coemgen (Kevin) at Glendaloch: though it must be added that the version of the tale popularised by Moore, in which the saint pushed his importunate pursuer into the lake and drowned her, has no ancient authority. On the rather delicate subject of the arrangement made between Ciaran and the maiden's family, consult the article Subintroductae in Smith and Cheetham's Dictionary of Christian Antiquities. This feature of the story is enough to show its unhistorical character, at least so far as Ciaran is concerned: for Ciaran did not belong to the Primus Ordo of Irish saints, who mulierum administrationem et consortia non respuebant, quia super petram Christum fundati ventum temptationis non timebant, but to the Secundus Ordo, who mulierum consortia et administrationes fugiebant, atque a monasteriis suis eas excludebant (CS, 161, 162). The description of Ciaran as transcending his contemporaries in beauty is probably suggested by Ps. xlv, 2, and is another illustration of the Tendenz already referred to.
The Eavesdropper and the Crane.—This incident reappears in the Life of Flannan (CS, 647). Wonder-workers do not like to be spied upon by unauthorised persons. This is especially true in the Fairy mythology surviving to modern times. Compare a tale in the Life of Aed (VSH, ii, 308). A quantity of wood had been cut for building a church, but there was no available labour. Angels undertook the work of transportation on condition that no one should spy upon them. One man, however, played the inevitable "Peeping Tom," and the work ceased immediately. The reader may be referred for further instances to the essay on "Fairy Births and Human Midwives" in E.S. Hartland's Science of Fairy Tales.
There is a touch of intentional drollery at the end of the story where the brethren are shown as having so thoroughly enjoyed the feast miraculously provided for them that their observance of the canonical hours was disjointed. For other instances of intoxication as resulting from saints' miracles see VSH, i, p. ci.