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CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE FOLK LORE OF THE ISLE OF MAN.*

By C. ROEDER , MANCHESTER.

INTRODUCTION.

My love for  Ellan Vannin and the Manninee drew me this summer again to the heathery purplehills of the South, and where the golden gorse and cushags grow and dream. I went with the

intention to renew my Manx reading, to gather botanical specimens, as well as Manx plant,

 place, and field names, to study the peasantry, live in their midst in daily intercourse, and, aboveall, to devote my chief attention to the gathering-in of the old, fast-vanishing legends, beliefs,

and customs of the country. I purposely limited the area of my wanderings, which extended from

the Mull Hills right up to Dalby, taking in a radius that includes on the east Lhingague,

Ballakilpherric, Ballagawne, right down to Port St. Mary, and coming round the Chasms over 

Cregneish to Port Erin, Spaldrick, and Bradda, so that I might ascertain the prevailing colour of legendary lore that attaches to that partcular soil. I was incessantly on the move, and there was

neither country-side nor cot I did not struggle up to for friendly talk or examination. I spent,indeed, some very happy time in the midst of these hospitable and warm-hearted people, and our 

acquaintance, in many instances, ripened into intimate friendship. Many were the long summer 

noons we sat together at the turf fire, talking and laughing, and smoking and feasting in true oldManx style. I visited alike both chapel and school, and lodged for the time with a fisherman’s

family, much to my benefit in my inquiries. Amongst the young women and children I met some

of the finest types of black and blue eyes, the tint of deep brilliant jet, or blue-bell and hare-bell.;amongst the men, specimens of such build, endurance, and physical power, and withal so shy

and gentle that it often made me wonder and think. With a deep feeling of earnest religiousness

and God-fearing I found implanted abiding traces of much primitive cult that unconsciouslylingers yet in their mind. I also discovered that the old Manx know their Scriptures well, and wasstruck with their readiness to quote this or that passage, either in Manx or English. I also give a

 broad sketch of rural life, manners, and domestic existence, as it is remembered yet by the old

 people, which throws us back some two or three generations—a faithful mirror of a social stateof days gone, that gives us glimpses into the internal life of the Manninagh who is gone, or going

quick. It will be seen that I have put myself in the background, and I prefer to let my friends act,

and talk, and relate their charming tales in their own racy fashion. I have not mended or clipped,and thus their speech runs and tinkles on in a channel and vein I was fain to fix and preserve, to

show the native pulse. There you have the true fragrance and gossamer that floats in the country.

I encountered much genuine kindness, and desist from pointing out by name all those many

helpful friends and hands who freely have given me their time and ear, if not confidence,otherwise this paper could never have been produced in its present form ; and the following

 pages are the flowers I culled in my happy way-farings and journeyings up and down the bright

and glorious hills and glens, or along the shore line, that adorn and endear to us this sequesteredand romantic region which forms the South-western corner of Ellan Vannin. Where I have given

now and then a rendering of some already previously ascertained matter, it has been done either 

to elucidate or point out some valuable variation.

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*Previous Folk-Lore Notes have appeared in former numbers of this Magazine (Vol. I., Part 2

collected by the Folk-Lore Section of the Society (Miss A. M. Crellin, secretary). Others have

 been received, but not yet published—ED.

DRESS.

" The old men in our time dressed something like the Irish in the west do at present. They had

coats of white flannel, and keear lheeah* knee breeches, the colour of the wool being dyed, and

carranes of raw hide for shoes. The white coat they called Perree bane, and generally wore felthats.

The women wore petticoats of linen and woollen mixed together, they called it linsey wolsey,

and a short jacket of cotton called a beggon (bed gown) and checkered aprons. When a young

woman got an on print beggon, and a checkered apron on her, she was full rigged. The womenwore great big black silk bonnets, and you could not see their faces unless you went round that

 point, while they donned cotton hoods for everyday use. The head dress were bonnets, something

nearly like a coal-box, and if you wanted a kiss on one of the young women there was a fear that both of you would tumble and fall, as you did not know how to approach that promontory-

 bonnad. Some of the women wore men’s hats, black big top hats, and my grandmother was

married in one of these Belles toppers. The old and married women wore white caps (mob caps),

made of muslin, and the young ones went bare headed."

* Keear lheeah, two colours of wool (grey mouldy), spun and woven into cloth, are so called,

which cloth was formerly the garb generally worn by the Manx peasantry—CR.

FOOD AND DRINK.

" On Sundays we used to have Manx broth, porridge and milk, potatoes and herrings, and in themorning sollaghyn for breakfast, which was made of porridge and meat broth. On Saturday nightwe took binjean, milk turned to crud (curd) with rennet or " steep," which was terrible good, then

we had cowree (sowins, or flummery), and the leavings of it were used on Sunday morning for 

 breakfast, along with new boiled milk. A favourite dish was the prinjeig, of which we had prinjeig baagh keyrragh, and prinjeig mart. It is a " hackage,"* made of the plucks, the livers

chopped up, and this pudding is stuffed with chopped onions, groats, pepper and salt, and

 potatoes. If sometimes they overfeasted themselves with it, they would say, " Oddagh yn prinjeig ye brisht ayn-ym " (the paunch might be broken in me). We had also batter puddings,

made of milk and eggs, on Sundays, and dumbling oarn, made of barley meal. I remember the

coming-in of rice pudding, which was called first by the people " sweet porridge with currants

in," and quite a new thing with us at that time. Tea, when it was first used, they ate the leaveswith butter, throwing the water away, and then they made it in the pot and boiled it, and I still

recollect getting tea once a week on Sunday evening, and I was always sick with it on the night.

Things used to be put on the table on wooden trenchers, scoured with white sand. There were noforks, and the knives had black handles of horn. The potatoes came in on a long wooden tray.

The mashed potatoes were put in a dish ; beside, there was a cup of butter, and we dipped all in it

; the fish and all were eaten with the fingers, which is the Manx fashion now in the country. Of cakes we have the Manx bonnacks, and the arran oarn, arran corkey, and arran flooyr. + In my

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time they drank as they do yet, but a generation or two before they had large " coffers," or what

they called pans, and everyone, as could afford, made malt and brewed for themselves, and those

that couldn’t just joined together, the same as we did with beasts. We killed a quarter, or half a beef or pig amongst ourselves, when a whole one was too much, or could not be afforded. I think 

 beer was the chief jough, and we had good Manx ale ; as for strong drink, they could have it if 

inclined for it, as it had been of old."

* Haggis.—Lit. Sheep’s belly and cow’s belly—ED.+ Barley, oaten, and flour cake.

WEDDINGS.

" I remember fiddlers going to weddings. I have been at a wedding myself; the fiddlers going

with us to church and back, and the young men and girls dancing at intervals on the road. Therewould be four or five dozen young people at the wedding, when I was young, walking in pairs,

 but that is given up for many years. It was a custom for the young men to run a race, when

returning from church, the first that reached the house broke the wedding cake into small pieces,and scattered them out of a plate over the head of the bride, as she entered, which was thought to

increase the dreaming charm."

" It was a slice which had been thrice .

Passed through the wedding ring :To place the cake beneath my head,

Repeating o’er the charm,

I backwardly walked to my bed, Not fearing any harm ;"

" ... I, on the wall,

Saw Johny’s figure loom." Kennish.- —" The Manx Courtship."

" There was some song they used to sing at the weddings in English, but I never heard but very

little of it long time : "I’ve laid alone, laddie, lie near me." When women got married, they cut

their hair, and put a cap on, ever after ; my mother did the same, and that is 60 to 70 years ago."

BURIALS.

"At the death there was a wake kept, a night or two, and plenty: of beer and pipes and tobacco,and the funeral day one going round with a can and quart, serving all who would take it, and

some better off sent one with wine and a glass, and another with him with biscuits ; and the bearers, or those as lifted the bier from the door, got about six quarters of crape on their hats, andthe ends falling on their backs, and the next-of-kin next the bier, with long scarves, the same.

The coffins were generally of fir planks, and the better class had them covered with black stuff."

LIGHTS.

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" We had the rush lights, cainle shuin, which were clamped in the asstayrn (rush candle case), or 

wooden stands ; there were the farthing, and halfpenny rush lights, of various size, and for that

 purpose they collected the rushes, and put them. in bundles in the,: water, and the old womenused to take the parings, or peels, of which they made sheep-linkets formerly, which they offered

for sale. to the farmers. The peeled rush was then dipped in oil, out of the codfish’s liver. They

also took a scollop shell and put the rush in. it, which was hanging out from the edge, and theformer was filled: with cod-oil. Then we had the cainle slutt, which was made from a piece of 

rag of linen, or cotton, and squeezed in the hand, into the, shape of a candle ; and mould or 

tallow candles (of the fat of beef or sheep) with a wick, or rush, in. For striking a light we hadtinder and steel. Later there came into use long sticks of wood, dipped into sulphur."

DWELLINGS.

There is an old cottage in Spaldrick, which. I wish to choose as a type, which has been inhabited

in succession by four generations of a very long-lived family (who reached the age of ninety),

and is said to be 200 to 250 years old. The cottage is 30 feet x 15 x 12), the kitchen (sliamyr 

aarlee), 18 x 14, the loft (lout),12 x 12 ; the walls whitewashed, and thatched with straw-ropes(sugganyn), made fast to pieces of stones (bwhid suggane), which jut out from the walls. The

thatch is sewed through with briars, then called (goll thoo), when tied merely with ropes alonethe name is simply (thoo). Outside there is a little muclagh, or pigsty ; the little opening in the

outer wall is called the muclagh giark, or hen-roost ; because formerly the hens used to sit in the

muclagh. There is always a little garden in front, for the Manx are very fond of flowers ; theygenerally keep a few useful, medicinal herbs, ready for cures ; the outside of the house or cottage

is hung with fish for curing, or has the fishing nets suspending from it ; the floor (sole y dorrys)

consists of concrete of clay, hardened by age and use, or stone flags ( flaggyn). The doorway is

 just high enough to admit a man, called essyn ydorrys, and the lintel goes by the name of claghlinteyr. You go up the loft (pronounced laf or lout) by a few steps (greeishyn irree seose yn lout),

which is used for a bedroom. The rafters of the roof, or cass cubbyl, rafters ny thie, consist of acouple of feet, A shaped, hence the name. Under the thatch you have the scaghyn yn thie, or scregs, which are sods of turf, rolled up, two inches thick, and laid under the thatch. The parlour 

or cuillee is on the left side, and often serves as a bedroom for the parents. It means toe back of 

the room. The windows are mostly two, and so small that they scarcely admit any light. The door is generally open, and often consists of an upper and lower part, the latter with a wooden latch to

open. Coming to the fire-place (chiollagh) — the fireside is keeil-chiollee —you always have the

 pot with lugs over the fire, suspended on the drolloo’s (pot hooks) from a chain, the slouree ("

cur er y slouryn"). For resting your-self you have the settle with straight backs and handles on,

and the stool ( stoyl ), for a table, the form or boayrd, the chairs proper ( stoyl ghrommey)

 pronounced "cheers" ; for their linen and things they have the chesses (koir or kishtey). In some

of the cots you still see the spinning-wheel at work, and the women make jerseys for thefishermen. The price of a spinning-wheel was given to me as 19s. ; for making a jersey you

require 3 lbs. of wool, price 1s. 3d. per lb. ; carding, 3d. ; spinning, 7d. ; dyeing, 10d. per lb. each

; total, 9s. , so that, including 4s. for knitting, one jersey cost 13s. There is also still some hand-loom weaving going on at present in Ballafesson, the cloth they make is so strong and durable

that it resists wear and tear for many years. It is dyed in the usual old Manx colours. They used

also to make a lot of linen, and among old Manx field-names are some faaie lieenatgh (flaxfield).

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TIME-KEEPING.

"There were the sun-dials, we had in the village, but there were more primitive ways of getting at

the time, and the shadow of the big mountain served the shepherds whom I remember, too, blowing their horns." Kennish alludes to this fashion

" The sumimt of vast Snaafield’s crest

Throwing its shadow o’er the lowland plain,

The well-known gnomon of the lab’ring swain."

SURNAMES.

The ancient custom of the Manx was to call the children after the Christian name of the father or 

mother and not the Surname, sometimes adding the name of the farm, and extending back to four 

generations, as, for instance, Jemmy-Jem-Jemmey-Jem mooar. Besides this, nicknames used to

 be very prevalent. I shall, later on, have more to say on this when discussing the Surnames of the

South of the Island.

Costume

Few works deal specifically with the costume of the general population on the Island. Moore

[1900] has a section, based on entries in Encyclopedia Britannica dealing with Ireland which purports to describe the pre-Norse costume but would appear to make no further mention of 

costume.

The work by McClintock [1943] was probably the first attempt to examine the costume of the

Gaelic people and was picked up by B. Megaw as the basis for his paper of 1944 since which

time there would appear to be no further paper dealing with costume.

The Isle of Man with its unique mixture of Gael, Norse and later English can be supposed to

have followed trends in each.

Irish

Taken from Megaw and McClintock [1944]:

The earliest records of Gaelic dress come from a variety of Irish sources older than the

AngloNorman invasion. These sources include early writings and heroic tales, carvings on ninth-

and tenth-century stone crosses, figures on metal shrines, as well as marginal drawings in thefamous Book of Kells. From these we learn that before the invasion of A.D. 1170, and probablyfor centuries earlier, two distinct forms of costume were worn by men: one was definitely

aristocratic, while the other was in use among the ordinary people and fighting men.

(i) Chieftains and men of rank wore two main garments: a smock-like tunic known as leine (pronounced layna), long enough to reach the ankles unless drawn up through a belt. The leine

was generally made of linen, but was occasionally of silk; it might be either white or dyed and

was often decorated with a band of embroidery round the bottom hem. Over this was worn a

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large woollen cloak, or mantle, called a brat which had no sleeves and was shaped something

like a bishop's cope. This mantle was usually a bright colour such as crimson, blue or green with

a fringe round its edge, and was fastened on the breast with a metal brooch or pin.

(ii) The lower classes and ordinary fighting men wore a short and sometimes sleeveless jacket,

with a shorter version of the mantle, and tight ' trews ' Gaelic triubhas (a word from which theEnglish 'trousers' is derived) Trews were not unlike the medieval 'trunk hose' of Western Europe:

when of full length they reached to the instep and were fastened by a strap beneath the sole of thefoot but they were often much shorter, ending just below or even above the knee.

Women's dress, so far as our scanty evidence goes, seems to have consisted of a mantle like that

of the men, worn over a leine which reached almost to the ground. While men usually went bare-headed with long hair, women probably wore a linen wrapping round the head as they did in later 

times.

They go on to conjecture that these two styles of costumes have different origins - the aristocratic

one being based on earlier Roman models whilst that of the lower classes is the original Celticdress (breeches being also worn by continental Celts).

Norse

A description of Viking women's costume is given by Judith Jesch :

The most characteristic items of female jewelry are the pairs of oval brooches

(sometimes called tortoise brooches, from their shape), usually made of bronze,found in many female graves from the Viking Age. ... These brooches must not

 be thought of as purely decorative objects, they served the highly practical

 purpose of keeping a woman's dress up! In fact, apart from their diagnosticvalue in identifying female graves, oval brooches can tell us a great deal aboutthe dress of Viking Age women, when they and the textile remains preserved

around them are subjected to detailed archaeological analysis. Were it not for 

the brooches, we would in fact know very little about what the well-dressedwoman wore in this period.

Textiles do not normally survive very well in the ground, unless there are very

special conditions. However, there are quite large numbers of textile fragments found inassociation with the oval brooches and other metal objects. Some are still attached to the brooch

and have been protected from disintegration by its proximity. In other cases, the textile hasdisappeared but has left an impression on the metal of the brooch. Painstaking research, particularly by Agnes Geijer and Inga Hagg on the textiles of Birka, has helped to establish what

fabrics the brooches were attached to. On this basis, it has been possible to reconstruct the entire

habit of the women of Birka, even though no whole dress is preserved. Finds from elsewhere, particularly Hedeby, confirm that fashions were essentially the same throughout the Viking

world. Normally, a woman would wear an outfit consisting of two or three layers. First, a shift or 

underdress was worn. This could be of linen or wool, had sleeves, and was sometimes pleated

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and gathered at the neck. The neck opening was usually held together by a small disc brooch.

Over the shift, the woman wore a strapped gown, or overdress. This was basically a rectangular 

 piece of material (usually wool) wrapped around the woman's body and reaching to her armpits.Holding the gown up were looped straps over the woman's shoulders which were sewn on at the

 back and which were joined to smaller loops sewn on to the front by means of the two oval

 brooches, the pins of which passed through the loops. Thus, the term 'brooch' is something of amisnomer, since their function was more like that of a buckle. The strings of beads found in

many women's graves could be hung between the oval brooches. Pendants of amber, jet or silver 

could also be strung between the beads at intervals: this is where the woman from Bjorke mayhave hung her Anglo-Saxon book mount. Here also the woman newly converted to Christianity

could wear a small silver cross. Useful implements, like scissors and knives, could also hang

from the brooches on straps or rings. Another garment which could be worn in addition to the

 basic shift and gown was a tunic worn between them, known from Birka and clearly of orientalinspiration. The better-dressed woman would have her tunic decorated with bands of tablet-

woven braid of linen or silk, often with a metal weft for a particularly luxurious effect. Over all

these garments, for outdoors, a woman might wear a sleeved caftan or a cloak, also held together 

 by a brooch or pin. There was more variation in this fastening, it could be a disc brooch, a trefoil brooch, an equal-armed brooch, or even a refashioned metal souvenir from the British Isles.

Although the garments were of simple design, they were carefully made. In a study of textilefragments from twenty-five women's graves in the west of Norway, Inger-Marie Holm-Olsen

found evidence of stitching, hems, sewn-on cord, loops and pleating. The women of Birka,whose

clothing has been studied in most detail, were however not representative. As members of a richtrading community with wide international contacts, they did not have to make do with

homespun. In fact most of the textiles at Birka appear to have been imported, at least those used

for women's clothing and studied in connection with the grave finds. It is also likely that women

were buried in their best clothing. They undoubtedly had simpler textiles for everyday wear thatare not preserved in burials.

While burials tend to give us information about clothing worn by the higher levels of society,

new archaeological techniques can indicate what kind of clothes were worn by poorer people in

the Viking Age, often from unexpected sources. Thus, the largest collection of Viking Agetextiles comes from the underwater excavation in 1979-80 of the harbour at Haithabu (Hedeby),

the southernmost emporium of Viking Age Scandinavia, now in Germany near the Danish

 border. These textile fragments were all discarded clothing which had been tom up into rags andused in shipbuilding, either for tarring the outside of a ship, or for stuffing into cracks to make it

watertight.

The simplest clothes found at Haithabu were made of the roughest woollen fabric, suggesting

that these were the clothes of slaves, servants and the poor, or the daily dress of the better-off.The women's garments consisted of very simple ankle-length, long-sleeved dresses, cut loose to

enable freedom of movement at work, and possibly a simple wrap or shawl.

Better-quality clothing was also found in the rags of Haithabu and here the finds are similar to

those of the clothing from Birka and elsewhere in Scandinavia: over a linen shift, women worean overdress of fine woollen fabric, held up by the ubiquitous pair of brooches. However,

whereas elsewhere the overdress has always been reconstructed as a straight garment, the

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Haithabu finds indicate that there at least it was tailored at the waist. Tucks and decorative braid

running vertically further emphasised the wearer's shape. Outdoors, the better-off women of 

Haithabu wore an ankle-length coat, again quite wide at the bottom. These coats were made of high-quality dyed wool that had been felled to make it weather-resistant, and were lined, and

often quilted with down or feathers for added warmth.

This love of decoration was also noted by Foote and Wilson[]:

Embroidery was a common occupation; silks, coloured wools and even filaments of preciousmetal were used. Needles of iron, bone and bronze, sometimes in cylindrical needle-cases, are of 

quite common occurrence and it has been suggested that the gold and silver thread was inserted

with tweezers. To this type of embellishment were added certain simple lace-making techniques.Various embellishments could be added during weaving Tablet-woven strips were used as

 borders and an interesting technique of manufacturing shaggy cloaks has been found in Viking

contexts in the Isle of Man, the Western Isles and Iceland. This pile-weave (ON tong, f., r~oggr,

m.) is executed by laying short lengths of wool in the shed or tying them round the warp threads.

When woven, the short lengths of wool appear as tufts. The garment produced had theappearance of a shaggy fur. It was an important Icelandic export, but it was also made in Ireland

and elsewhere.

However it is unlikely that any Norse female dress was in widespread use on the Island as unlikeother parts of the British Isles no characteristic brooch fastening has ever been found.

Medieval-17th Century

Very little seems to have recorded about either Irish or Manx costume until the 17 th Century.

Blundell , writing in 1648 to disabuse the comment originated by Bishop Merrick (and insertedin Camden's History) that the women went about in their winding sheets states:

First, yt ye women of the Island of Man going abroad they gird themselves about with their 

winding sheet yt they purpose to be buried in, to shew themselves to be mindful of their 

mortality.2 I met many so clothed in the Island I confess, and I questioned many of them to knowthe reason why they did wear them; all answered me that they had no other intention but to keep

themselves from the cold and from the bleake and boisterous weather and winds which indeed do

much molest them all the winter months.

But Bishop Merrick's relation needs no other eviction than these 3 demonstrations. First, in the

Island they are called neither sheets nor shrouds, but are called blankets.

2dly. These blanketts there worn are as well of woolen as of linen cloth (yea ye better sort of 

them in the country have one blanket for Sundays, another for working days, but all shrouds are

of linnen).

3dly. To take away all scruples and foreign conjectures (least it might be thought that thesesheets might be in former times intended to make them their shrowds when they died), I will here

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satisfy you and demonstratively prove that these women never had nor cou'd have at any time

any such intention, for I find among other their ancient and accustomed laws yt from all antiquity

it hath been there agreed upon for a law yt Sunday blankets shall not be taken for Corbes (yt is itshall not be issued amongst the mortuary goods), but y t it shall go to the next child. By this law it

appeareth yt from all antiquity neither the better nor the worser sort of these sheets or blankets

(we will not differ upon the name) were at any time used or intended to be used for winding-sheets for the better sort, yt is ye Sunday blankets were to be given to the next child; the worser 

sort for the week day were taken for corbs, yt is to be sold with the other goods of the deceased to

 pay debts and to be distributed where legacies were given.

I confidently believe the Manks women took up this custom of wearing blankets from the Irish,their old ancestors and near neighbours, who ever did and do wear mantles for warmth, and not

from any relative conceit to make them their winding-sheet; and such a custom also in Wales

have the poorer sort of women there to wear in winter men's short cloaks for the same reason, butobserve this withal concerning these blankets, that they are only worn and used by the female

 peasantry of the country inhabitants of the Island of Man, for in the towns you shall not see any

one woman (poor or rich) y

t

do wear any at any time; yet myself being there all the winter season, I did not see so much as any one yt did wear them, so likewise in Wales they are the

minor and meaner sort of women that wear men's clokes, the better sort never.

Jeffcott in 1890 discussed some of the Manx words for clothing as a possible clue to the

development of costume.

18th Century and Later

Some description of the costume of common people has been given by various travellers and

historians. Lord Teignmouth writing of 1829 states:

The usual dress of the Manks women consists of a jacket and petticoats. They are very proud of,

and cherish their long hair. They are also particularly found of showy colours, and wear muchthe tartan ; this propensity is occasionally severely rebuked from the pulpit. The cheapness and

variety of the tartan form its chief recommendation to the Manks, and not its Scotch origin ; this

would operate in an opposite manner. The only individual whom I saw in a full suit of tartan, a

man of some property, wore it in defiance of the Manks, with whom he had quarrelled. The menare invariably attired in blue coats or sailors jackets, and blue trousers, a complete naval

costume. Their shoes worn on week days are made of skins, sometimes covered with hair,

fastened with thongs across the foot, called kerranes. I saw them in the mountains. The common brogues of the Highlands of Scotland are of a very superior substance and texture. The children

wear no shoes or stockings ; and even adults, when very neatly clad, dispense with them when

walking.

That by Train [1842] is probably the most detailed.

Kennish gives a poetical description of Manx Sunday best at the turn of the 19th Century:

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While she herself appear’d so clean and prim

In her mob-cap of double-border’d rim,

In graceful folds made up by starch and quillIn small round loops by Peggy’s home-taught skill

Its strings were made of muslin fine and thin,

To form a bow beneath her dimpled chin.Her quilted silk, of many a diamond shape,

And her short body-dress, with scollop’d cape,

She would in homely-modesty display,She wore the same upon her wedding-day

It graced her mother too I’ve heard her say.— 

 

The photo published in 1901 corresponds reasonably well to Trains description of 50

years earlier. (another example, also by G.B.Cowen is the Fisherman's Daughter - note

these were specially posed shots using his usual models for such work)

See also brief description by C. Roeder .

References

Judith Jesch in Women in the Viking Age ( ISBN 0-85115-360-7) 1991

McClintock H.F Old Irish & Highland dress, and that of the Isle of Man Dundalk: DundalganPress 1950 2nd (and enlarged ed)

Megaw, B.R.S., and McClintock H.F., The Costume of the Gaelic Peoples Journal Manx

Museum Vol V No 71 pp149/160 Dec 1944

Train J., History of the Isle of Man Vol II Douglas:M Quiggin 1842 Chap XVII pp 104/6 coversdress

 Manx Woman's Costume Manx Note Book vol ii p187 1887

Manx Girls' Costume in 1800 - J.Manx Mus unpublished doc #223

Diet

According to B.Quayle (General View ..1794):

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The lower class of inhabitants live on meal of oats, and barley, and potatoes, and fish, with a

small proportion of fleshmeat. Their breakfast is of meal pottage and milk; their dinner is

 potatoes, and either salt or fresh fish; sometimes beef or pork, as they can afford; and their supper either pottage, or potatoes and milk. What bread they use is made of barley meal, which is

cheaper than oat meal, and is considered as more wholesome. The labourers have a small piece

of ground for the growth of potatoes; and those who keep cows are obliged to cultivate somecorn for their provender.

He also goes on to say:

Almost every cottager keeps one or two pigs, which makes their number considerable; they are

reared on the offal of the houses, and run about the lanes, and are killed at ten or twelve monthsold. Potatoes and grains assist their keep in summer, and potatoes, whether boiled or raw, with

some little corn, is the food used for fatting. Hams and bacon for the English market prove a

great encouragement for this species of stock. The market price for fresh pork is two pence-

halfpenny per pound, and for hams and bacon five pence. The average weight is fifty pounds per 

quarter. Poultry is also numerous, not being annoyed by foxes, foumerts, or other vermin. Fowlsfetch at market six-pence a piece, and weigh four pounds at an average. Geese are very common,

 but are considered disagreeable companions to cattle in pastures: where they can be convenientlyreared, they are well attended to; their price is from one shilling to eighteen pence, and weigh fix

or eight pounds. Turkeys and ducks are also plenty; a considerable quantity of poultry and eggs

are sent to England.

Roeder gives an account given to in in the 1880's by old Manx people of food and drink  presumeably dating from the late 18th century confirming that milk, oats and potatoes formed

the major part of the diet.

Clague also gives an account of older Manx traditions in food

Burials - Laws & Customs

Customs

Waldron gives a description of burials in the 1720's:

When a person dies, several of his acquaintance come to sit up with him, which they call the

Wake. The clerk of the parish is obliged to sing a psalm, in which all the company join; and after 

that they begin some pastime to divert themselves, having strong beer and tobacco allowed them

in great plenty. This is a custom borrowed from the Irish, as are indeed many others much infashion with them.

As to their funerals, they give no invitation, but every body that had any acquaintance with the

deceased comes either on foot or horseback. I have seen sometimes at a Manks burial, upwardsof an hundred horsemen, and twice the number on foot: all these are entertained at long tables,

spread with all sorts of cold provision, and rum and brandy flies about at a lavish rate. The

 procession of carrying the corpse to the grave is in this manner: When they come within a

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quarter of a mile of the church, they are met by the parson who walks before them singing a

 psalm, all the company joining with him. In every church-yard there is a cross, round which they

go three times before they enter the church. But these are the funerals of the better sort, for the poor are carried only on a bier, with an old blanket round them, fastened together with a skewer.

 

The lack of a coffin, especially for the poor, would seem to be the case in Arbory in mid 17th

century. Writing in the early 1860's the Rev Wm Gill could say: There are aged people stillliving, in Lonan, who remember the time when some of the country people in that parish

sometimes buried their dead without coffins at all. The corpse, wrapped in a winding sheet, was

laid upon the bier, covered with a pall spread upon a kind of cradle, and in this manner borne tothe grave.

Roeder also includes descriptions of funerals and wakes of the early 19th Century.

The Established Church controlled all burials on the Island, there had been trouble with earlyMethodists who wished to sing a hymn during the burial, there was also the following edict

issuded by Bishop Murray

Liber Causarum No. 101Book of Petitions 1814

Rev'd Sir,

In consequence of the indecent and disorderly conduct of certain persons professing the Roman

Catholic Faith, at the Funeral of one of their People at St. Georges' Chapel, Douglas on Saturday

the 17th of September [most likely that of Lawrey MURRUN] , I think it necessary to give you

the following directions for your conduct, in case of any similar event occurring in your Parish.

If any person professing the Roman Catholic Faith shall die in your Parish and the Friend of the

Deceased shall desire burial for the Corpse in your Parish Churchyard, you will by no means

 permit any unusual ceremonies or any claim or disturbance to take place. If Decency be not in allthings observed you will refuse burial to the Corpse, and call in the aid of the civil authority to

take offenders into custody.

If the Friend of the deceased shall desire that the corpse may be placed in a grave within the

 precincts of the Churchyard without any service, this indulgence shall be granted, provided it bedone in your presence and that the Corpse be simply interred without any ceremonies

unauthorised by our Church.

If on the other hand, the said persons shall desire that the service of our Church may be performed, let it be done strictly according to the Rubrick,without the addition of any ceremonies

unauthorised custom or the ordinances of our Church.

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If any resistance or objection be made let Burial be refused and if the conductof the Friends of 

the Deceased be in anyway offers we, let recourse be had to aconstable and the offences by

delivered over to the Law.

I remain Rev'd Sir, yr faithful Friend and Brother 

G. Sodor and Mann Castle Mona September 21st 1814

Lord Teignmouth gives this description of a funeral in 1829:

The funerals are sometimes attended by large numbers of people. I witnessed that of a rich

farmer’s wife. The hearse was preceded by many persons on foot and horseback, and followed by two carts filled by females, well attired in deep mourning, gigs, men and women on

horseback, and a crowd on foot, forming a numerous assemblage. An entertainment is usually

 provided for the attendants at the house, before the ceremony, at which excess is very uncommon; and a dinner is given there to a few friends after it is concluded. It is the practice in this Island,

as in Cornwall, I was informed, to sing hymns whilst the corpse is conveyed through the

churchyard to the grave, and probably from the same reason,— the abundance of Methodists.

Detailed descriptions of 1830/40's customs are given by Train

Sir George Head gives a moving account of a child's funeral at Kirk Braddan in 1832.

Description of mid-19th Century customs are provided by Dr Clague.

See also description of Folklore Funerals

Allocation of graves

Until the 1881 Burial Act it was not compulsory to employ a sexton, thus families would diggraves for their deceased - each family would appear to have a designated area within the older 

yards (in newer yards plots would have been regulated and sold) - sometimes this gives rise to

disputes as for example the following found in Archideaconal Wills (MM RB528) possibly

caused by burials of infants Jane & Mary Caralaugh on 15 Mar 1728/9.

Deposition taken this 28th day of March 1729

touching a dispute betwixt the families of Ballacaralgh

and of Ballabroy in the parish of 

kk Braddan as followsWilliam Caralagh sworn and examined deposeth that in

the place where Patrick Caralagh's last child was buried, hisown father (who is abt 20 years buried) was buried in the same place, and addeth by hearsay his great grandfather 

Thomas Caralaugh, and hs own grandfather Jo Caralaugh was

 buried in that ground or near it and sayes he remembers hisown eldest brother Thomas Caralaugh buried there or abt it

Wm Caralagh his mk 

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Patrick Corkill & William Leece depose that they remember [10 Apr 1707] 

old Patrick Caralagh grandfather to Patrick the present occuptof Ballacaralagh to have been buried in the same place mentioned

on the oath of William Carralaugh, or abt it, without let or 

stop of any person and that the same was their burying place, as they saw and heard

Patr Corkill x; Wm Leece x

the above depositions taken by and before me Jo Curghey Vic Genllet this be recorded for the satisfaction of posterity

Housing

It is necessary to separate the towns and the countryside and the gentry from the common people.

Towns:

Blundell writing of the gentry in the 1640's:

There is not one of these y t beareth ye title of a gentle man in ye Isle of Man, y t doth pride it to

live in any of ye townes or villages, but have their mansion houses built up on their own lands in

the country,' and these for the major part have high handsome well-built houses, after the Englishfashion, altho' but few, for you cannot expect the number of ye gentry here to be many in so

small and poor a plott of earth,...

 

Countryside:

Illustration of old Manx cottage from 1878 Archaelogical Report

Blundell's (1640's) comments on the poor's accomodation is somewhat more critical than that of 

the gentry

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These men's habitations are mere hovels, compacted of stones and clay for the walls, thatch'd

with broom, most commonly containing one room only. Very few have 2 rooms, have no upper 

rooms,–such as in their towns they call lofts,–nor any ceiling but the thatch itself, with therafters, yet in this smoking hut, like ye wild Irish, of whom many opine them to be antiently

descended, doth the man, his wife, and children, cohabit, and in many places with ye geese and

ducks under ye

bed, the cocks and hens over his head, the cow and calf at the bed's feet,

Wilson of the early 1700's describes housing of both rich and poor:

The rest of the inhabitants have their houses built in the most convenient part of their estates for 

water and shelter; the better sort have good substantial houses of stone, and covered with slate;

others with thatch, which they have found a way to secure against the winds (which in winter are boisterous enough) by ropes of straw, very readily made, and neatly crossed like a net over one

another, which no storms can injure.

Harry Kelly's cottage at Cregneish

Feltham's comment (in 1797/8) on the housing of the poor:

 Notwithstanding this island is so populous, you would not think so from viewing the country

from an elevation. Thick as the cottages are, they do not strike the eye; the walls of the huts areseldom above seven feet high, composed generally of  sods of earth, and the roofs thatched with

straw, which soon becomes of a murky hue. This straw is bound down with straw-ropes drawn

over net-like, and fastened to pegs in the walls; this mode of thatching requires often to berenewed.

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Edwardian Postcard - 'Mud Hut' I.O.M. (strictly built from sods)

Lord Teignmouth writing of 1829 echoes this description:

The cottages are in general of a very inferior description ; often built of earth, or sod, thatchedwith straw, fastened down by ropes of the same material. A funnel of sail-cloth, covered with a

coating of lime, serves as a substitute for a chimney. The most wretched habitation which I sawwas in a retired glen near Ramsay ; its sod-walls were green, and the sail-cloth funnel was

wanting. It was tenanted by the son of an Irishman, who fled to this Island, like many of his

fellow-countrymen, during the Rebellion. He had thirteen children, for several of whom hisfriends in Dublin have provided employment and subsistence. The bishop has erected cottages

with chimnies, but the example has been little imitated.

To the above general account of the abodes of the peasantry, the little village of Craignish, forms

a remarkable exception. Expecting to find, in the dreary sequestered height on which it is

situated, forming part of the ridge terminating in Spanish Head, a collection of hovels, I wasagreeably disappointed to discern cottages built of stone, a material which is fortunately at hand

in this corner of the Island, neatly thatched, and white—washed, and equally clean within, asmost of them were provided with chimnies which carried off the smoke.

Roeder also includes a description of an old cottage in Spaldrick .

 Note in both of the illustrations the use of projecting slates from the chimnies to throw rainwater 

off from the side of the thatch.

Building practice varied across the Island depending on the availability of materials - in Peel the

red sandstone quarried from Creg Malin was used though normally covered with render to makeit waterproof. In Castletown the very localised outcrop of limestone was used - sometimes

covered with slates as it too could be somewhat porous. Elsewhere except in the Northern plainsthe ubiquitous Manx slate was used usually without lime mortar but with a rendering of 

limewash. North of the hills stone was not readily available - near the shore rounded

 boulders/stones were used as building material, elsewhere (and universally across the Island bythe poor) sod houses built by cutting tuves and layering them on a foundation of stones, to form

the walls through which a small door and windows were cut were the norm.

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Unidentified group of three Manx houses from postcard c.1905

The above photo shows a typical Manx stone built house - gable end chimnies and rendered wall;the adjacent thatched cottage shows the suggane ropes tying down the thatch and the slate

 projections from the chimney. The end cottage looks as it it was possibly once a single story

 building - note however the typical Manx habit of carrying the windows right up to the roof line

(now slates), the single chimney at rear is interesting.

Reference

Sue Cannell Rural Architecture in the North of the Isle of Man (ISBN 1-901971-01-5)

I.

MYTHS CONNECTED WITH THE LEGENDARY HISTORY OF THE ISLE

OF MAN.

 

THE reliable history of a country may be said to date from the period when its written records

 begin. Before that time, there is an epoch during which the place of history is usually supplied by

tales of imaginary personages, whose doings are calculated to gratify the national pride. Anunfailing characteristic of such an epoch is the personification of the race in an eponym, who is

its supposed ancestor and founder. Thus, in the Isle of Man, we have the famous magician and

navigator Manannan Mac Lir in this capacity, and there are various other mythical personagesconnected with the Island, all of whom appear in ancient Irish tales, though nothing can be

discovered with regard to them from purely native sources of early date. In fact, the Isle of Man

was so intimately associated with Ireland till the coming of the Northmen, that it is not likely that

it would have any early myths distinct from those in Ireland. It is, therefore, to the early Irishlegends that we have to refer for any mention of the Isle of Man, and they tell us that it was

considered to be a sort of Fairy-land to which the Irish gods and heroes occasionally resorted. In

the legends of the heroic period in Ireland, we find the deities and heroes called Lug,Cuchulainn, Curoi, and Culann connected with Man as well as Manannan; while, in the later or 

Ossianic Cycle of legends, we have Finn and his son Oisin, who in the only really early native

legend, are made to associate with the Scandinavian Oree. But of all these deities, the mostimportant in Man is Manannan, about whom many tales have accumulated. To understand his

 place in the Legendary History of Ireland we must bear in mind that, according to the Leabkar 

Gabhala, or Book of Invasions (a compilation of the late 10th or early 11th century), there werefive conquests of Ireland, the first by Parthol or Bartholemew, and his followers; the second by

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 Nemed and his followers; the third by the Firbolg; the fourth by the Tuatba Dé Danann; the fifth

 by the Milesians. It is with the fourth body of invaders, the Tuatha Dé Danann, who conquered

the Firboig, that Manannan is connected. In the legendary and romantic literature of Ireland theTuatha Dé Danann are celebrated as magicians. By the Milesians and their descendants they

were regarded as belonging to the spirit world, and, in the imagination of the people, they

 became Fairies, who were supposed to lie in splendid palaces in the interior of green hills. Therecan be little doubt that the Tuatha Dé Danann represent the Olympus of the ancient Irish, that

hierarchy of divine beings which the Celts possessed as well as other Aryan people. In this

hierarchy Manannan occupied the position of god of the sea. But as early as the 9th and 10thcenturies of our era he had suffered the change known as euhemerisation, from an immortal he

had become a mortal. It is thus we meet him in one of the oldest monuments of Irish literature,

the so-called glossary of Cormac, King-bishop of Cashel, killed in 903 :-" Manannan Mac Lir, a

celebrated merchant who was in the Isle of Man. He was the best pilot that was in the west of Europe. He used to know, by studying the heavens, the period which would be the fine weather 

and the bad weather, and when each of these two times would change. Inde Scoti et Brittones

eum deum vocaverunt maris, et inde filium maris esse dixerunt, i.e., Maclir-, 'son of sea.' Et de

nomine Manannan the Isle of Man dictus est." 

1

 This theory of the Isle of Man being named after Manannan, when so called, has been shown to be highly improbable by Professor Rhys, who

thinks that "Manannan gave his original name corresponding to Mann and its congeners to theIsland, making it Manavia insula. . . . for which we have in Welsh and Irish respectively  Manaw

and Manann. Then from these names of the Island the god derives his in its attested forms of 

Manawydan and Manannan, which would seem to mark an epoch when he had become famousin connection with the Isle of Man."2

To Cormac's account, O'Donovan has added the following note :-"He was the son of Allot, one

of the Tuatha Dé Danann chieftains. He was otherwise called Orbsen, whence Loch Orbsen, now

Lough Corrib. He is still vividly remembered in the mountainous district of Derry and Donegal,and is said to have an enchanted castle in Lough Foyle. According to the traditions in the Isle of 

Man and the Eastern counties of Leinster, this first man of Man rolled on three legs like a wheel

through the mist."

We can follow the process of euhemerisation in later texts. Thus, according to the Book of Fermoy, a MS. of the 14th to the 15th century, "he was a pagan, a lawgiver among the Tuatha Dé

Danann, and a necromancer possessed of power to envelope himself and others in a mist, so that

they could not be seen by their enemies." The Book of Lecan (14th century) mentions aManannan whom it calls "son of Athgus, King of Manain (Man) and the islands of the Galls"

(the Western Isles), who came with a great fleet to pillage and devastate the Ultonians, to avenge

the children of Uisnech," These children of Uisnech, when compelled to fly "from Erinn," hadsailed eastwards. and conquered "what was from the Isle of Man northwards of Albain," and

after having killed Gnathal, King of the country, were induced to return to Ireland under a pledge

of safety from Conchobar, King of Ulster. The sons of Gnathal, who also sought the protectionof Conchobar, "killed the sons of Uisnech," in consequence of which Gaiar, the grandson of 

Uisnech, banished Conchobar to the islands of Orc and Cat (the Orkneys and Caithness), and

Gaiar having reigned over Ulster for a year, went into Scotland with Manannan, and died there.

The 15th century version of a story called "The exile of the children of Uisnech" tells us thatGaiar was assisted against Conchobar by Manannan, who was the fourth of his name and dynasty

who had ruled in Man.

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O'Flaherty speaks of him in his Ogygia as follows: "The merchant Orbsen was remarkable for 

carrying on a commercial intercourse between Ireland and Britain. He was commonly called

Mananan Mac Lir, that, is, Mananan, on account of his intercourse with the Isle of Man; andMac Lir, i.e., sprung from the sea, because he was an expert diver; besides, he understood the

dangerous parts of harbours; and, from his prescience of the change of weather, always avoided

tempests.3

The same author, in his West Connaught, states that Orbsen's proper name was Manannan, andthat Lough Orbsen was called from him, because when his grave was being dug the lake broke

forth; and he says that, at the adjacent Magh Vim, "Uillin, grandchild of Nuadh (silver-hand),

King of Ireland twelve hundred years before Christ's birth, overthrew in battle, and had thekilling of Orbsen Mac Alloid, commonly called Mananan (the Mankish man), Mac Lir (son of 

the sea) for- his skill in seafaring."4

Keating, in his General History of Ireland, written early in the 17th century, gives Manannan's

genealogy as follows:

"Mananan, the son of Alladh, the son of Elathan, son of Dalboeth, an immediate descendant of 

 Nemedius, the pro genitor of the Tuatha de Danans in Ireland ; that weird and mystic colony who

never, through the lapse of ages, have relinquished their dominion over the superstitions of the

 peasantry of Ireland; but who are still believed to rule the spirit or fairy land of Erin; to reign paramount in the us, the cave, the mine to occupy genii palaces in the deepest recesses of the

mountains, and under the deep water of our lakes."

But supplementing this pseudo-historical account of Manannan, we find numerous romanticreferences to him at all stages of Irish literature. Thus, the "Sick-bed of Cuchulainn," a tale which

goes back, substantially, to the fifth century of our era, although we only possess it in transcripts

of the i ith century, relates that Manannan became jealous of Cuchulainn, with whom his wifeFand had fallen in love. He shook a cloak of invisibility of forgetfulness between the two andcarried off Fand with himself to fairy-land, whereupon Cuchulainn returned to his own wife.

Professor Rhys remarks of him that "In Irish literature he appears mostly as King of the Fairies in

the Land of Promise, a mysterious country in the lochs or the sea. His character seems to have

 been a most contradictory one - many tricky actions are ascribed to him, while he was very strictabout other people's morality. At his court no one's food would get cooked if, while it was on the

fire, any one told an untrue story, and he is said to have banished three men from fairy-land to

the Irish court of Tara for lying or acting unjustly.

In the Welsh Mabinogi, bearing the name of Manan counterpart, Manawydan, the latter is notmuch associated with the sea, excepting, perhaps, his sojourn . . . in the lonely Isle of Gresholm.

It makes him, however, take to agriculture, especially the growing of wheat. . . . He is also called

one of the three Golden Cordwainers of Britain, owing to his having engaged successively in themaking of saddles, shields, and shoes. . . . The sinister aspect of Manannan is scarcely reflected

 by Manawydan, who is represented as gentle, scrupulously just, and always a peacemaker;

neither is he described as a magician; but he is made to baffle utterly one of the greatest wizardsknown to Welsh literature." It would appear also that he was connected with the other world, and

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he figures as one of the three landless monarchs of Britain. He had, however, a huge prison in the

shape of a bee-hive, the walls of which consisted of human bones. King Arthur was once

incarcerated there for three months.5

The Gaelic Manannan is represented in Brythonic (Welsh) literature by Manawydan, but it is

uncertain if there really was a Brythonic sea-god corresponding to the Gaelic one, or if the Welshtales are not simply literary adaptations of Irish ones. Professor Rhys favours the former view.

The connection of Manannan with the Isle of Man probably arose in this way. lt was the practiceof the earliest Irish to represent their divinities as living in Islands to which, under exceptional

circumstances, mortals might sail. It is uncertain if this conception of the Island home of 

divinities is really older or not than that which figures them as dwelling in the hollow hills. Allone can say is that we find it earlier in the Irish texts. It has been well studied by Professor 

Zimmer in his admirable essay on the Brendan voyage,6 in which he shows that a number of 

texts which have come down to us are still completely pagan in concep tion,, and reflect a belief 

which must still have been officially dominant in parts of Ireland as late as the sixth century.

Unofficially these beliefs linger in the traditions respecting Hy Breasil. But, as a rule, the Gaelic peasant figures "Faery" as inside a hill, or under the water, and probably this belief is the older of 

the two.

Manannan MacLir is an actor in so many of the ancient Irish heroic tales that it is impossible,with a due regard to space, to give more than outline of a few of them as we have done. The

magic powers of his sword are frequently mentioned, e.g., in the curious tale of Diarmait and

Grainne. Those interested in such matters will find in Vol. III.of the Ossianic Society'sPublications a marvellous romance of the adventures of Cormac MacArt in the fairy palace of 

Manannan in Man; but enough will have been given to exhibit Manannan in his various

attributes as King, warrior, trader, navigator, and magician; and to show that his connection with

the Isle of Man was supposed to have begun after he and his Tuatha dé Dananns were defeated by the Milesians, when he was chosen by the warriors as their leader, and that he and they were

supposed to have taken refuge in the Western Isles and Man, whose inhabitants acknowledgedhim as their ruler.

From purely local sources we glean the following information about Manannan; but it must be

remembered that in its present form it is all of comparatively recent origin, as the "Supposed

True Chronicle of Man," and "The Traditionary Ballad," both probably date from the sixteenthcentury, though doubtless founded on older traditions. The former tells us that "he was the first

man that had Mann, or ever was ruler of Mann, and the land was named after him," and that "he

reigned many years, and was a Paynim, and kept, by necro mancy, the Land of Man under mists,

and if he dreaded any enemies, he would make of one man to seem an hundred by his art magick,and he never had any form of the comons; but each one to bring a certain quantity of green

rushes on Midsummer Eve - some to a place called Warfield (now South Barrule), and some to a

 place called Man,7 and yet is so called. And long after St. Patrick disturbed him, the saidManannan, and put Christian folks into the said land."8 The ballad gives practically the same

account. More recent tradition has endowed him with the stature of a giant, who by his strength

and ferocity became the terror of the whole Island. It is said that he used to transport himself with great ease across the gorge between Peel Castle and Contrary Head. On one occasion, either 

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for amusement or in a fit of rage, he lifted a large block of granite from the Castle rock, and

though it was several tons in weight, he hurled it with the greatest ease against the slope of the

opposite hill, about three miles distant, where it is seen to this day, having, as an evidence of thetruth of the story, the print of his hand on it. His grave is said to be the green mound, thirty yards

long, outside the walls of Peel Castle.

The connection of Lug (an Irish divinity, corresponding partly to Hermes, partly to Apollo) with

Manannan and Man, is said to have been a close one, as will be seen from the following accountof him; and, as will be shown later, his cult had spread to Man as well as to other Celtic lands

(see "August I." chap. vi). Lug is thus described: "Like to the setting sun was the splendour of his

countenance and his forehead; and they were not able to look in his face from the greatness of itssplendour. And he was Lugh Lanch-fada,9 and (his army was) the Fairy Cavalcade from the land

of Promise, and his own foster brothers, the sons of Manannan.10" He is said to have been

 brought up at the Court of Manannan, here called the Land of Promise, which in many of theancient tales is identified with Man. Lug was famous for his mighty blows, and his spear became

one of the treasures of the Tutha Dé Danaun. When he fought against the sons of Turenn and

imposed upon them the impossible eric-fine of procuring certain fabulous weapons, he rodeEnbarr of the flowing mane, Manannan's steed, who was "as swift as the clear, cold wind of 

spring," and travelled with equal ease on land and sea. He wore Manannan's coat of mail,

through, or above and below which no one could be wounded; also his breast-plate, which no

weapon could pierce. His helmet had two glittering precious stones set in front, and one behind,and Manannan's sword, called "The Answerer," hung at his side. From the wound of this sword

no one ever recovered, and those who were opposed to it in the battle-field were so terrified by

looking at it, that their strength left them. He was accompanied by his foster brothers, and by theFairy Host, as already mentioned. The sons of Turenn were told that they could not obtain the

eric-fine without the help either of Lug or Manannan, and they were advised to ask Lug for the

loan of Manannan's steed, and if he refused, for his canoe, the "Wave Sweeper."

Lug, the great warrior of the Tuatha Dé Danann, has his counterpart among the Ultonians inCi'ichulainn, who is said to have been the son ot Lug, or Lug re-born. It is only in the story of 

"The Isle of Falga," given below, that he is mentioned in connection with the Isle of Man, though

there were formerly songs sung about him, and there is a tradition to the effect that he was called"King of the Mists," like Manannan. His adver sary, Céroi Mac Daire, was a great magician. The

following tale gives an account of their rivalry for the fair daughter of the king of Man.

*Note* The rest of this article deals with other Deities, and not Manannan, excepting

the very last paragraph.

THE STORY OF THE ISLE OF FALGA.

The Isle of Falga is variously supposed to have been the Isle of Man, or  Insi Gall, i.e., the

Western Isles. Cuchulainn and the heroes of Ulster once on a time resolved to go on a plundering

expedition to the Isle of the Men of Falga, a fairy land ruled by Mider as its King. Culroi, who

was a great magician, insinuated himself among the raiders in disguise, and by means of his artshe succeeded in leading the Ultonians into Mider's stronghold, after they had repeatedly failed in

their attempts. He did this on the condition that he was to have of the plunder the jewel that

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 pleased him best. They brought away from Mider's castle Mider's daughter, Bláthnat, as she was

a damsel of exceeding beauty; also Mider's three cows and his cauldron, which were objects of 

special value and virtues. When they came to the division of the spoils, the mean-looking man ingrey, who had led the victorious assault, said that the jewel he chose was Bláthnat, whom he took 

to himself.

Cuchulainn complained that he had deceived them, as he had only specified a jewel, which he

insisted on interpreting in no metaphorical sense; but, by means of his magic, the man in greymanaged to carry the girl away unobserved. Cuchulainn pursued, and the dispute came to be

settled by a duel on the spot, in which Cuchulainn was so thoroughly vanquished that Curoi left

him on the field bound hand and foot, after having cut off his long hair, which forced Cuchulainnto hide himself for a whole year in the wilds of Ulster, while Curoi carried away to his

stronghold of Caher Conree both Bláthnat and her father's cows and cauldron. Later it would

appear that Cuchulainn got the better of Curoi, and took Bláthnat away from him, for Bláthnat proved a faithless wife to Curoi and plotted with Cuchulainn to kill him. At the time fixed upon

 by her, namely, November eve, Ctichulainn and his followers stationed them selves at the bottom

of the hill, watching the stream that came down past Ct'iroi's fort; nor had they to wait long before they observed its waters turning white: it was the signal given by Bhlthnat, for she had

agreed to empty the milk of Mider's three cows from Mider's cauldron into the stream, which has

ever since been called the Finnghlais, or White Brook. The sequel was that Cdchuhsinn entered

Cdroi's fort unopposed, and slew its owner, who happened to be asleep with his head onBldthnat's lap. . Ctichulainn took away Bldthnat, with the famous cows and cauldron ; but he was

not long to have possession of his new wife, for Ciiroi's poet and harper, called Ferceirtne,

resolved to avenge his master; so he paid a visit to Ciichulainn and Bl~thnat in Ulster, where hewas gladly received by them; but one day, when the Ultonian nobles happened to be at a spot

 bordering on a high clifi Ferceirtne suddenly clasped his arms round Bhlthnat, and flinging

himself over the cliff they died together.11 This old story has been embodied in a poem, called

"Blanid,"

12

by Robert D. Joyce, of which the following, lines describing the combat betweenCuroi and Cuchullin are perhaps the best

"I come to win back thy misgotten prize,

Mine own beloved, the bloom-bright Maid of Man !"

"Thou com'st to dye this grass with ruddy dyes

Of thy best blood,' cried Curoi, "and to ban

All knighthood with thy word forsworn!

Her eyes Shall see the fight, so let him take who can !

La! there she stands, with her fear-whitened face;

Look thy last on her now, and take thy place!" 

Meanwhile, as one who on a wreck doth stand,That the wide wallowing waves toss to and fro,

And sees the saving boat put from the land,

 Now high, now in the sea-trough sunken low,

Trembling tween fear and hope, each lily hand

Pressed on her heart, as if to hide her woe,

And pale as one who had forsaken life,

Young Blanid stood to watch the coming strife.

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* * * *

Then sprang they to their feet, and warily

Looked in each other's eyes with look of hate,And crossed their jarring swords, and with bent knee

Fought a long time, their burning ire to sate,

Till like a storm-uprooted stately treeCuhullin fell, and Curoi stood elate,

Eyeing him as the hunter eyes the hoar,

That fighting falls, but yet may rise once more.

Another mythic Irish figure connected with the Isle of Man is Culann, the smith, who in this

capacity may be compared with Hephoestus, or Vulcan. Culann was, however, also a Divine andProphet. He was the possessor of a terrible hound, which was slain by the youthful Setanta; who

was in consequence called Cu-Chulainn, i.e., Culann's hound. Culann is said to have lived for a

time in the Isle of Man, where he manufactured sword, spear, and shield of such transcendentexcellence for Conchobar, that he was invited by him to dwell in his realm. The story about this

may perhaps be found of sufficicnt interest to be related at length :- Conchobar, who had not yet

 become King of Ulster, but was an ambitious young man seeking to gain a kingdom, consultedthe famous oracle at Clogher as to how he might best attain his end. The oracle advised him to

 proceed to the Isle of Man and get Culann to make these weapons for him. Conchobar did so,

and prevailed on Culann to begin his task; but, while awaiting its completion, he sauntered one

morning along the shore, and in the course of his walk met with a mermaid fast asleep on the beach. He promptly bound the syren, but she, on waking and perceiving what had happened,

 besought him to liberate her; and to induce him to yield to her petition, she informed him that she

was Teeval, the Princess of the Ocean; and promised that if he caused Culann to form her representation on the shield surrounded with this inscription, 'Teeval, Princess·of the Ocean,' it

would possess such extraordinary powers that when ever he was about engaging his enemy in

 battle, and looked upon her figure on the shield, read the legend, and invoked her name, his

enemies would diminish in strength, while he and his people would acquire a proportionateincrease in theirs. Conchobar had the shield made according to the advice of Teeval, and, on his

return to Ireland, such extraordinary success attended his arms, that he won the kingdom of 

Ulster. Culann accepted Conchobar's offer, referred to above, and settled on the plain of Murthemne, which was fabled to have been formerly situated beneath the sea. It was here that he

was visited by Conchobar, accompanied by his Court and Cuchulainn.

Of the later legends, which form a cycle entirely distinct from that of the heroic age, Finn, theson of Cumall (Finn MacCumaill), is the chief hero. He is said to have been the chief of a band

of mercenaries, or robbers, called Fianns, and to have flourished in the second part of the third

century. If this were so, he lived on the very threshold of the historical period in Ireland. Ossin,

his son, was a famous warrior and a great poet. in both of which roles he only reproduced thecharacter of his father, who was not merely celebrated as a warrior and huntsman, but especially

as a poet and diviner, as already stated. Finn is connected with the Scandinavian Orree in a Manx

heroic poem, and if, as has recently been conjectured,13 Finn is identical with Kettle Finn, a Norseman who yielded great influence in Ireland and Man about the middle of the ninth century,

the connection is a very natural one. The poem referred to above is undoubtedly the oldest

known poetical composition in the Manx language. We append it, together with some interesting

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notes by Deemster Peter John Heywood, who died in 1790. It is not known by whom the spirited

English translation was made. With the exception of lines 9 and 10, which rendered literally are-

"Full threescore whelps, and not one less,

With three old dames to look after them,"

it is fairly close to the original.

FIN AS OSHIN.

HIE Fin as Oshin magh dy helg,+Fal, lal, lo, as fal, lal, la,

Lesh sheshaght trean as moddee elg,

Cha row un dooinney sloo ny keead,

Coshee cha bieau cha row ny lheid,

Lesh feedyn coo eisht hie ad magh,

Trooid slieau as coan dy yannoo cragh,

Quoi daag ad ec y thie agh Orree beg+

Cadley dy kiune fo seadoo'n creg !Slane three feed quallian aeg gyn unnane sloo,

****

Lesh three feed cailleeyn dy yeeaghyn moo,

-Dooyrt inneen Fin ayns craid as corree,

" Kys yiow mayd nish cooilleen er Orree ?

Dooyrt inneen Oshin: Ikiangle mayd eh,Lesh folt y ching chionn gys y clea,

As chur mayd aile gys y cass cha beau."

Clysht tappee cisht hug Orree ass,

Tra dennee'n smuir roie ass e chiass,Loo 'Mollaght Mynizey ad dy stroic,

Va er n'yannoo craid er mac y ree,

Dy farbagh breearrey ry ghrian as eayst,

Dy losht ad hene as thieyn neesht,

-Hie Orree beg rnagh dys ny sleityn,

As speih mooar connee er e geayltyn,

Hoght bart mooar trome hug eh lesh cart,

Hoght kionnanyn currit ayns dagh bart ;

Hoght deincy lheid's sy theihll nish t'ayn,

Cha droggagh bart jeh shoh ny v'ayn

Ayns dagh uinnag hug eh bart as ayns dagh

dorrys,Agh mean y thie mooar hene yn bart mooar 

sollys.

-Va Fin as Oshin nish shelg dy chionn,

Lesh ooilley nyn treanee ayns ollish as joan,

Yaagh wooar ren sheeyney ass y glion, necar,

Troggal ayns bodjallyn agglagh myr rere;

Roic Fin as roie Oshin derrey d'aase Oshin skee,

Agh she Fin mooar hene chum sodjey nish roie;Eisht dyllee Fin huggey lesh coraa trome,

FIN and Oshin went out to hunt,

+Fal, lai, loo, as fal, lal, la.

With a noble train of men and dogs,

 Not less in number than one hundred men,

So swift of foot and keen, none were their like;

With scores of Baudogs fierce they sallied forth,

O'er Hill and Dale, much Havock for to make.-Whom left they then at home, but youthfull Orree!

Who slept secure beneath the shadowy rock;

Full three score Greyhounds, with their whelps they left,

(With three score lovely maidens, young and fair,)+

As many old dames to attend the young.

Says Fin's fair Daughter, in Disdain and Scorn,

How on young Orree shall we be revenged ?

-Says Oshin's Daughter 

Fast to the Harrows we will tie his Hair,

And to his nimble feet, we'll set a train of Fire.Then up starts Orree, with a nimble Spring;

Feeling his Feet a broiling with the heat.

With Curses direful, vowing to destroy,Those who presum'd t' affront a King, his Son!

Swearing most bitterly by Sun and Moon.

To burn themselves and all their habitations;

-Then to the Mountain hies he fast away,

His heavy Gorse-hack poized upon his shoulder,Eight pond'rous Burthens thence he carried off,

And eight large Faggots cram'd in ilka Burthen.

 Not eight such Men as in the world are now

Could from the Ground one of these Burthen's raise.

Into each Window, he a Burthen thrust.

Into each Door, a Burthen of the same,

But, the grand blazing Burthen, on the Floor,

Of the great Hall he laid, and set on Fire.-Meanwhile, our Heroes, Fin and Oshin hight,

They and their hardy men pursued the chase,

Eager, in sweat and dust, all cover'd o'er.

-Vast clouds full floating from the west

Were seen like Billows dreadful, as I ween.

-Then Fin he ran, and Oshin also ran,

Till faint, and out of breath, he sat him down:

But Fin, the hardy chief, still held it out,

Then lift he up his lamentable Voice,

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"Cha vel faagit ain nish agh tholtanyn lhome,

Quoi ren yn assee shoh nagh re Orree beg ?

" Va'r chosney voue chelleerid gys oig fo yn

creg,

Raad plooghit lesh yaagh hayrn ad magh ery

cass.

Calling to Oshin, who was far behind,

We've nothing left but rueful, ruin'd walls!

-"This mischief who has done ?

" Who but young Orree,

Who fled, and in a rocky Cavern bid himself,

-Then choak'd with Smoke, they drag him by the heels,+(And tore him Limb from Limb (they say) with Horses

wild.)

+Chorus after every line. + Not in the Manx

Caetera desunt.- But the Catastrophe is said to be that they tore him Limb from Limb with wild

horses. The tearing criminals asunder with Horses fastened to each limb is the punishment in the

old Statutes of the Isle of Mann to be inflicted on those who should presume to draw a weapon,or strike, or violate the peace within the verge of the Court of Tynwald, or any Court held by the

King of Mann, or his Governor.

We have a tradition, that Mann for about a century was governed by a Norwegian race of kings

called Orrys. According to the Supposed True Chronicle: "Then there came a Son of the King of Denmark; he conquered the Land, and was the first that was called King Orrye, &c, After him

remained Twelve of the Stock, that were called King Orryees inso much that the last (named

Reginald) had no Son but one Daughter, named Mary, to whom the right descended, which Marywas Queen of Mann & Countess of Straherne, who, taking with her all her Charters, fled to the

King of England, Edward the 1st in the 20th year of his reign, being in St. John's Tower in

Scotland, otherwise catted Perthe in Anno Dom., in 1292, for Alexander King of Scots arrived atRanoldsway, near Castletown, and took possession of the Land of Mann." (See the Manx Statute

Book, p. 1st.) See also the Ancient Chronicle of the Kings of Man in Camden's Brittannia

Edition, 1637, which says "1270, the 7th day of October, a Navy set out by Alexander King of 

Scots arrived at Rogatwath; and the next morning before Sun rising a Battaile was fought between the People of Man, and the Scots in which were slaine of the Manx men 537,

whereupon a certain Versifier playd upon the number-

'L. decies Xter, et pente duo cecidere,Mannica gens de te, damna futura cave.'

'L. ten times told, X thrice, with five beside and twaine,

Ware future harmes; Tread (sic) of thy Folke Mann were slaine.' "~

A verse from an old song and a proverbial saying contain the only other references to Finn in

Manx tradition

In the following verse, Finn Mac Coole is associated with. Fairies and Demons

Finn Mac Coole, as onittey e heshaght,Ferrish ny glionney, as y Buggane,

· Dy jymsagh ad cooidjagh mysh dty thiabbee,

"Finn Mac Coole, and all his company,The Fairy of the Glen and the Buggane,

If they would gather together about thy bed,

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As eisbt roie lesh oo ayns suggane. And run off with thee in a straw-rope"

The following quaint saying also relates to him

Ny three geayghyn s'feayrey dennee Fion Mac Cooit,

Geay henneu, as geay built, as geay fo ny shiauilt.

"The three coldest winds that came to Fion Mac Cooit, wind from haw, wind from a hole, and

wind from under the sails."

There are only two Scandinavian tales remaining on record in Man. They are S:gurd Fafni's Bane and The Punishment of Loki. These tales have been preserved neither by tradition, nor by

written record, but by having been carved on stone. Both are found on a stone in Kirk Andreas

Church-yard, and the first only on a stone in Malew Church-yard. 17

We take the following abstract of the two tales, which are mythologico-historical lays in theElder Edda, from an account of the Andreas stone given by Mr. G. F. Black in the Proceedings

of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland.

 

THE STORY OF SIGURD FAFNI'S BANE.

"There was a king named Sigmund Vdlsungsson, who married Hiordis, a daughter of King

Eylimi, for his second wife. Some time after his marriage Sigmund was attacked in his kingdom

 by King Lingvi Hundingsson and his brothers, and was mortally wounded through beingopposed by a one- eyed man, with a broad-brimmed hat and blue cloak (Odin), who held his

spear against the sword of Sigmund, which was shivered into fragments. At night, Hiordis came

to the battle- stead and asked Sigmund whether he could be healed, but he did not wish to behealed, for his good fortune had forsaken him since Odin had broken his sword, of which he

requested Hiordis to .collect the fragments, and give them to the son she would bear, who should

 become the greatest of the Vdlsung race. Hiordis was carried off by Alf, son of King Hiatprek of Denmark, who had just landed at the battle-stead with a band of Vikings, and-who married her 

after she gave birth to Sigmund's child. This child was named Sigurd * and grew up in Hialprek's

court, under the care of the dwarf Regin, who taught him all the branches of knowledge known atthat time. He also urged him to demand his father's treasure of Elailprek, but Sigurd only asked a

horse of the king, who allowed him to choose one; and Odin, in the guise of an old man with along beard, aided him to find out Grana, that was of Sleipnir'st race. Regin then counselled

Sigurd to go in quest of Fafni's gold, of which he gave him the following account

"Hreidmar had three sons, Fafni the Dragon, Ottur, and Regin the dwarf-smith. Ottur could

transform himself into an otter, under which form he was in the habit of catching fish in

Andvari's waterfall, so called from a dwarf of that name.

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One day as Ottur was sitting with his eyes shut eating a salmon, Odin, Hcenir, and Loki passed

 by; and Loki cast a stone at Ottur and killed him. The £sir (gods) then skinned him, and came

well satisfied with their prize to Hreidmar's dwelling. Hreidmar caused them to be seized, andcompelled them to redeem themselves with as much gold as would both fill and cover the otter's

skin. To obtain the gold Loki borrowed R~in's* net, cast it into the waterfall, and caught in it the

dwarf Andvari, who was accustomed to fish there under the form of a pike. The dwarf wascompelled to give all his gold-hoard as the price of his liberty; but on Loki taking from him his

last ring, with which he hoped to redeem his fortune, he foretold that it should prove the bane of 

all its possessors. With this gold the £sir covered the otter's skin; but on Hreidmar perceiving ahair of the beard still uncovered, Odin threw on it the ring of Andvari. Fafni afterwards slew his

father Hreidmar, took possession of the gold, became one of the worst of serpents, and now

watched over his treasures at Gnitaheid."

Sigurd then asked Regin to forge him a sword, and Regin forged one that could cleave an anvil,and cut through floating wool. Armed with this weapon Sigurd farcd forth, first to his maternal

uncle Grip, who spaed his fortune. He then sailed with a large fleet collected for him by King

Hialprek to avenge his father's death. During a storm they were hailed by an old man (Odin)from a cliff, whom they took on board. He told them his name was Hnikar, together with many

other things. The storm abating, he stepped ashore and vanished. Hunding's son, with a large

army, encountered Sigurd, but were all slain, and Sigurd returned with great honour. Sigurd now

expressed a wish to slay the dragon Fafni, whose lair had been pointed out to him by Regin.After a hard fight Sigurd pierces the dragon through the body, but nevertheless it holds a long

conversation with its slayer, in which it answers Sigurd's questions relative to the Norns and ~

 but strives in vain to dissuade him from taking the gold.

After the death of Fafni, Regin cut out his heart, and told Sigurd to roast it for him while he took a sleep. Sigurd took the heart and roasted it on a spit, and when he thought it roasted entugh, and

as the blood frothed from it, he touched it with his finger to see if it were quite done. He burnedhis finger, and put it in his mouth, and when Fafni's heart's blood touched his tongue, heunderstood the language of birds. He heard a bird telling its companions that Sigurd should

himself eat the dragon's heart. A second bird said that Regin would deceive him; a third said that

he ought to kill Regin; another one counsels that he should take the dragon's treasure. All thesethings Sigurd performs, and rides off with the treasure on Grana's back."

In the upper left-hand corner of what, for convenience, we may call the front of the stone, is

carved the figure of Sigurd roasting the heart of Fafni. Only the upper part of Sigurd's body is

now visible on the stone, the remainder being broken off. In his left hand Sigurd is representedholding a spit containing the heart of Fafni, which is divided into three gobbets, while at the

same time he inserts the finger of his right hand into his mouth. The flames are represented by

three small isosceles tijangles, one for each gobbet. Immediately above Sigurd's shoulders isshown the head and neck of one of the talking birds which warned him of Regin's intended

treachery, and counselled him to forestall the deceiver by cutting off his head. The head of the

 bird is shown with the neck stretched forward, and the beak open as if addressing Sigurd.

The heaa and neck of Sigurd's horse Grana is also shown above that of the bird. The wholesubject is thus referred to in Fafnismdl 

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 The first bird* says: 

"There sits Sigurd sprinkled with blood

Fafni's heart at the fire he roasts.

Wise methinks were the ring-dispenser,

If he the glistening life-pulp ate."

Second bird.

"There lies Regin communing with himself;

He wilt beguile the youth who in him trusts:

In rage he brings evil words together,

he framer of evil will avenge his brother."

Third bird:

"By the head shorter, let him the hoary sage22

Send hence to Hell; all the gold then can he

Possess atone, the mass that under Fafni lay."

Fourth bird:

"He would, methinks, be prudent,

If he could have your friendly counsel, my sisters!

If he would bethink himself and Hugin gladden.

 There I expect the wolf where his ears I see

Fifth bird:

"Not so prudent is that tree of battle,

As I that warlike leader had supposed.

If he one brother lets depart,

Now he the other has of life bereft."

Sixth bird:

He is most simple, if he longer spares

 That people's pest. There lies Regin,

Who has betrayed him. He cannot guard against it"

Seventh bird:

"By the head shorter let him

Make the ice-cold Jotun,

And of his rings deprive him; then of that treasure thou,

Which Fafni owned, sole lord wilt be."

Sigurd replies:

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Fate shall not so resentless be,

 That Regin shall my death-word bear;

For the brothers both sh'sll speedily

Go hence to Hell."

In the lowest left-hand corner is shown the upper half of a human figure, holding a sword atarm's length. It no doubt represents Sigurd, but whether before or after slaying the dragon, it isimpossible to say.

An historical connection with this tale of Sigurd Fafni's Bane has been ~suggested by Professor 

Browne, which, though not strictly in place in a book of this kind, is so interesting and

suggestive that it may be brieflynarrated- Among the coins found when digging the foundationsof the tower at Andreas Church was one,g either of Aulaf Sihtric's son, surnamed the Red, who

was King of Northumbria 941-945, and King of Dublin till the battle of Tara in 980, or of Aulaf 

Godfrey's son, Sihtric's brother's son, who was King of Northumbria till 941. Now, the Sigurd of Sigurd Fafrii's Bane was the great-great-grandfather of these two Aulafs, and it is, therefore, a

reasonable surmise that the crosses both at Andreas and Malew are memorials to the memory of 

one -of them. This is particularly interesting to historians as showing the connection of theseAulafs, probably that of Aulaf Sihtric's son with Man, and of equal interest to arch~eologists as

demonstrating that these crosses are of much earlier date than has generally been supposed.

 

THE STORY OF THE PUNISHMENT OF LOKI.

After Loki had enraged the gods by his many treacheries, he was chased by them, and took 

refuge in the waterfall of Frarangr, where he was caught by the gods in a net under the form of a

salmon. After his capture he changed to his human form, and as a punishment the gods causedhim to be bound to a rock with the entrails of his own son Nan. After he was bound Skadi (a

goddess, daughter of Thiassi and the wife of Nj6rd) took a venomous serpent and fastened it upover Loki's head. The venom dropped down from it on to Loki's face. Sigyn, Loki's wife, sat

 beside him, and held a basin under the serpent's head to catch the venom, and when the basin was

full she took it away to empty it. Meanwhile the venom dropped on Loki, who shrank from it so

violently that the whole earth trembled.

Of all the mythical personages mentioned in this chapter, the only one remaining in the Folk-

Lore of the present day is Manannan, and even about him comparatively little is known. He is

usually called Maninagk "the Manxman," and is supposed tz have been the first man in Man,

which he protected ty a mist. If, however, his enemies succeeded in approaching in spite of this,he threw chips into the water, which became ships. His stronghold was Peel Castle, and he was

able to make one man on its battlements appear as a thousand. Thus he routed his enemies.

These, together with the notion that he went about on three legs at a great pace, are all the popular ideas about Manannan which still survive.

Footnotes

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1 Cormac's Glossary. (O'Donovan's edition), p. 114.

2 Rhys, Hibbert Lectures, 1886, pp. 663-4.

3 Ogygia, p. 26, Dublin, 1793.

4 West Connaught, Irish Arch. Soc., Dublin, 1849, p. 54,

5 Rhys, Hibbert Lectures, 1886, pp. 665-7.

6 Zeitscbrift fur deut. Alt., 1889, Mr Alfred Nutt's Summary Folk-Lore June, 1890

7 This can scarcely mean the Island.

8 Manx Soc., Vol. XII., p. 6.

9. Long hands.

10 The Fate of the Sons of Turren, published by O'Curry. in the Atlantis. Vol iv. p. 160-3.

11 This tale is taken from Rhys, Hibbert Lectures, pp. 473-6, who quotes, .s his authorities, Book of Leinster,

Keating and O'Cvrry.

12 Published by Roberts Brothers, Boston, U.S.A.

13 * See Mr Alfred Nutt's abstract of Professor Zimmer's theory of the Ossianic Saga in 'The Academy," of Feb. 14,

1891.

14 Orree beg-Young Orree-not from his size, but age ;-where there are two of the same family, Father and Son, of 

the same name, the younger is styled beg-i.e., the lesser. This Orree beg is supposed to have been a Scandinavian

 prince, prisoner on parole, with Fingat and like some modern gallants, to make love to both young ladies at the sametime,-and thus they shew their resentment. He declines the bunting party, for an opportunity of intrigucing ~sic) with

one or other of the ladies. Meantime he falls asleep in a grotto in the heat of the day; but when he awoke and found

the indignity done to him, he resotves, in revenge, to burn Fingat's palace- takes his huge bill, an instrument like ahoe, with which they hack and grub up gorze and heath, or ting, &c., for firing- hies him to the forest, and made up

eight large burthens, such as eight modern men could not heave from the ground, and with these he fired the house

as above described.

15 Mollaght Mynney, is the bitterest curse in our language, that leaves neither root nor branch, like the Skeabthoan,

the besom of destruction.

16 ["Ten L, thrice X, with five and two did fall, ye Manx beware of future evil's call," is the translation given byMunch in his edition of the Chronicle, Manx Society, Vol. xxii.. p. 3.- ED.1

17 Mr P. M. C. Kermode has the credit of being the discoverer of the former, and Canon G. F. Browne of the latter.

Canon Browne, indeed, was the first to indicate the existence of this tale on any sculptured stone in the United

Kingdom, he having identified it on a cross in Leeds Parish Church-yard and having pointed out its historical and

archaeological significance.

18 The Sigurd here mentioned is the same person as the Siegfried of the Old High German Nibelungenlierl. Thenorthern version, however, is the older, more mythical, and more simple of the two. A bold attempt has lately been

made by Dr. G. Vigfusson to identify Sigurd with the noble Cheruscan youth Arminius.-Sigfried Arminius, pp. 1-21.

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19 Sles~nir. "the slipper," was the eight-footed steed of Odin. Grana .(commonly Grani) means the "grey steed."

20 Rán was the goddess of the sea, and caught in her net all those who were drowned.

21 The original word is eg ða, which has been variously interpreted eagle. hawk, nuthatch, woodpecker, or magpie;

 Eg ðir is the poetical word for eagle.

22 The original word is þulr, the technical meaning of which is obscur In the Cleasby-Vigfusson Icelandic

 Dictione,y it is rendered "a sayer of saws, a wise man, a sage (a bard?)."