Location: Ireland

Year: Manuscript 16th century, text 11-12th century, possibly compiled from 9th century material

Informant:

Unknown

Item:

Irish Gaelic (bold added for this entry)

33

Boí dano Núadae oga uothras, & dobreth láim n-argait foair lioa
134] Díen Cécht go lúth cecha lámha indte. Nír'uo maith dano liaa macsium
135] sen .i. le Míach. Atréracht-sim don láim & atbert, ault fri halt di
136] & féith fri féth; & ícuis fri téorai nómaidhe. In cétna nómaid immus-curid
137] comair a táeib, & rotonigestar. An dómaid tánisde immas-cuirid
138] aro brundib. An tres nómaid dobidced gelsgothai di bocsibnibh
139] dubhoib ó rodubtis a ten.

34

Ba holc lia Díen Cécht an freapaid-sin. Duleicc claidimh a
141] mullach a meic go rotend a tuidn fri féoil a cinn. Ícais an gillai tre
142] inndeld a eladon. Atcomaic aithurrach go roteind a féoil co rrodic
143] cnáim. Ícais an gilde den indel cétnae. Bissis an tres bém co ránic
144] srebonn a inchinde. Ícais dano an gille don indell cétnae. Bisius dano
145] an cethramad mbém co nderba a n-inchind conid apud Míoach &
146] atbert Díen Cécht nach-n-ícfad lieig badesin ont slaithie-sin.

35

Íar sin roadhnocht lia Díen Cécht Míoach & ásaid cóic lube
148] sescut ar trí cétuib tresin athnocul fo líon a altai & féthe. Is íar sen
149] scarais Airmedh a prat & decechlaid na lube-sin íarna téchtai. Tosárluid
150] Díen Cécht & conmesc-side na lube cona fesai a frepthai
151] córi manis-tecaisceth an Spirut íar tain. Ocus atbert Dén Cécht,
152] ‘Mane pé Míoach, méraidh Airmeth.’

English translation by Elizabeth Gray (bold added for this entry)

33

Now Núadu was being treated, and Dían Cécht put a silver hand on him which had the movement of any other hand. But his son Míach did not like that. He went to the hand and said ‘joint to joint of it, and sinew to sinew’; and he healed it in nine days and nights. The first three days he carried it against his side, and it became covered with skin. The second three days he carried it against his chest. The third three days he would cast white wisps of black bulrushes after they had been blackened in a fire.

34

Dían Cécht did not like that cure. He hurled a sword at the crown of his son's head and cut his skin to the flesh. The young man healed it by means of his skill. He struck him again and cut his flesh until he reached the bone. The young man healed it by the same means. He struck the third blow and reached the membrane of his brain. The young man healed this too by the same means. Then he struck the fourth blow and cut out the brain, so that Míach died; and Dían Cécht said that no physician could heal him of that blow.

35

After that, Míach was buried by Dían Cécht, and three hundred and sixty-five herbs grew through the grave, corresponding to the number of his joints and sinews. Then Airmed spread her cloak and uprooted those herbs according to their properties. Dían Cécht came to her and mixed the herbs, so that no one knows their proper healing qualities unless the Holy Spirit taught them afterwards. And Dían Cécht said, ‘Though Míach no longer lives, Airmed shall remain.’

Source:
This text is available online via CELT:

• Irish text: https://celt.ucc.ie/published/G300010/index.html, sections 33-35

• English translation: https://celt.ucc.ie/published/T300010.html

Observations:

Observations by Danielle Cudmore: This is a fascinating item. The dating of Cath Maige Tuired [The (Second) Battle of Moytura] is notoriously tricky. The text exists in a single, 16th-century manuscript and contains both Old and Middle Irish forms, as well as insertion of Middle Irish material. The general consensus is that the oldest parts of the text as we have it date to the late 9th century but were redacted considerably in the 11th or 12th (for example; Stokes 1891, Murphy 1955, Carey 1989/90 and 2014), though some argue that the text as a whole cannot be older than the early 11th century (for example Chesnutt 2001). The tale as a whole deals with legendary waves of settlement of Ireland, in particular relationships and conflicts between the chthonic Fomorians and the Túatha Dé Dannan, who emerge victorious from the eponymous battle. This episode involves healing of the severed hand or arm of Núadu, king of the Túatha Dé Dannan (a necessity, as a physical blemish could disqualify one from kingship), first by his physician, Dían Cécht, and then by Dían Cécht’s son, Miach, both of whom create magical prostheses. Dían Cécht produces a hand of silver (whence Núadu’s epithet Airgetlám, “Silver hand/arm”), while Miach, using the “bone to bone” formula, restores the flesh, joints and sinews to the hand. Included above is Miach’s murder by his jealous father, an act which results in 365 herbs growing from his body, corresponding to the belief that the human body contained 365 joints (for a discussion, see Hayden 2014: 36-40 and Carey 2019: 18-20).

While many read the text diachronically, with the Túatha Dé Dannan being seen as euhemerized deities, scholars such as John Carey (1989/90) and Barbra Hillers (2014 and 2019) have argued for the value of synchronic readings and awareness of the 9th-century context of the oldest layers of the text. These scholars see the text in relation to contemporaneous Scandinavian raids; this has particularly interesting implications for the “Merseburg formula.” Hillers suggests that the formula was in fact imported through contact with Scandinavians, noting that Miach’s healing of Núadu is likewise a new, “foreign” technology (2014). Chesnutt’s argument, that the Cath Maige Tuired is a parable of the Battle of Clontarf, which took place on April 23, 1014, also reflects a shared Irish/Norse context.  There are no other attestations of this formula in medieval Irish as far as I know; Hillers argues that later attestations in Ireland were reintroduced, imported from Ulster Scots, the presence of the formula in Scotland also owing to Scandinavians (2014 and 2019:93). Indeed, as Hillers notes, Irish-language versions of this charm are comparatively few; however, there are a number in English. See the item directly below this one, as well as the attestations in Scottish Gaelic and Hiberno-English.

Bibliography & further Information

• Carey, John. “Myth and Mythography in Cath Maige Tuired,” Studia Celtica 24/25 (1989/90), 53-69 Available here: https://www.scribd.com/document/146410405/Myth-Mythography-in-the-Cath-Maige-Tuiredh

• ------------- A London Library, an Irish Manuscript, a British Myth?: The Wanderings of  The Battle of Moytura. Irish Texts Society, 2014.

• ----------- “Charms in Medieval Irish Tales, Tradition, Adaptation, Invention,” in Charms, Charmers and Charming in Ireland: From the Medieval to the Modern.”Eds. Ilona Tuomi, John Carey, Barbra Hillers, and Ciarán Ó Gealbháin. University of Wales Press, 2019. 17-37.

• Cath Maige Tuired: The Second Battle of Mag Tuired. Elizabeth A. Gray (ed and trans). Irish Texts Society [Cumann na Sgríbheann Gaedhilge], 1952. (The digital editions in Irish and English linked above are based on this text).

• Chesnutt, Michael, “Cath Maige Tuired-A Parable of the Battle of Contarf” in Northern Lights. Essays in Honour of Bo Almqvist. University College Dublin Press, 2001.  22-33.

• Hayden, Deborah. “Anatomical Metaphor in the Auraicept na n-Eces” In Authorities and Adaptations: The Reworking and Transmission of Textual Sources in Medieval Ireland, edited by Elizabeth Boyle and Deborah Hayden. DIAS, 2014. 23-61.

• Hillers, Barbara. “Keynote: The Merseburg Charms.”Sagas, Legends, and Trolls: the Supernatural from Early Modern back to Old Norse Tradition.” June 14, 2014, Tartu Ülikool, Tartu. https://uttv.ee/naita?id=19929&keel=eng&sessioon=27766375014153266446

• -------------- “Towards a Typology of European Narrative Charms in Irish Oral Tradition,” in Charms, Charmers and Charming in Ireland: From the Medieval to the Modern.”Eds. Ilona Tuomi, John Carey, Barbra Hillers, and Ciarán Ó Gealbháin. University of Wales Press, 2019. 79-102

• Murphy, Gerard. Saga and Myth in Ancient Ireland . Colm O Lochlainn, 1955.

• Stokes,  Whitley. “The Second Battle of Moytura”, Revue Celtique 12 (1891), 52-130, 306-308