Purely by coincidence, I'm reading this 1910 collection called Epic and Saga from the Harvard Classics Library - the translation of "Beowulf" was great - and I've gotten to this bizarre Irish thing called "Da Derga's Hostel."
Now, I've read the Cattle Raid of Cooley before, and stories of the Fianna and a few other folk tales from various compilations & anthologies. But this thing is curious.
I'm having trouble turning it into a logical narrative (heck, the translator seems to be injecting "Irishness" by shifting tenses every other paragraph). It seems to be a story of the first king of Ireland. The king has all these "tabus" that are being broken one by one, but I'm not seeing any payoff for the broken rules yet. There's a bit here where his actions are supposed to be the beginnings of a Samhain ritual, but there's no explanation for what the ritual actually is. It's really impenetrable to someone outside the tradition.
The "reavers" here seem to be the men following the king - I think as folks waiting to make their move against him.
The reavers make a start from the Strand of Fuirbthe, and bring a stone for each man to make a cairn; for this was the distinction which at first the Fians made between a "Destruction" and a "Rout." A pillar-stone they used to plant when there would be a Rout. A cairn, however, they used to make when there would be a Destruction. At this time, then, they made a cairn, for it was a Destruction. Far from the house was this, that they might not be heard or seen therefrom.
For two causes they built their cairn, namely, first, since this was a custom in marauding, and secondly, that they might find out their losses at the Hostel. Every one that would come safe from it would take his stone from the cairn: thus the stones of those that were slain would be left ....
Skip ahead a bit... "Conaire" is the king.
A "boar of fire" is kindled by the sons of Donn Desa to give warning to Conaire. Sot that is the first warning-beacon that has been made in Erin, and from it to this day every warning-beacon is kindled.
This is what others recount: that it was on the eve of samain (All-Saints-day) the destruction of the Hostel was wrought, and that from yonder beacon the beacon of samain is followed from that to this, and stones (are placed) in the samain-fire.
Then the reavers framed a counsel at the place where they had put the cairn.
Can anybody tell me more about what this story is and what these rituals are? |
