Marion Gunn
2010-10-03 15:01:40 UTC
At the recent bookfair in the Freemasons' Hall, I went on a bit of a
spending spree---as did eGteo!---where our purchases included Makenzie's
"Gaelic Incantations, Charms and Blessings of the Hebrides" (1895),
priced at a very reasonable fifty euro if one could put up with a fair
bit of pencilling in, which I found only mildly irritating, in the hand
of an owner who identified himself in large hand as one "Domhnall Ó
Fótharta, An Caladh, Cloc na Ron, Co na Gaillimhe" [sic].
With pencil eraser to hand, I commenced reading its introduction, which
stayed my hand against erasure, because in it Mackenzie thanks that very
same man for various notes from Ireland he included in his book by way
of comparison to the Gaelic incantations, etc., which form the subject
of it. In passing, I note that another previous owner of Mackenzie's
Incantations of the Hebrides signs himself "James Carney", but I give no
prizes for guessing, as I do, at his identity.
In any case, all that is by way of preamble to my question (below),
which has nothing to do with Irish and everything to do with Gaelic.
My question about an incantation Mackenzie described (1895) as
"ambiguous", of which he has this to say:
"Occasionally one meets not only with obscure phrases, but also with
whole Incantations, the meaning of which is far from clear. Here is one:-
Uisg' an Easain
Air mo dhosan.
Tog dhiom do rosad
'S aghaidh an cabhgaig orm!
Will any learned Gael explain its meaning and purpose?"
Posting this here because, athough GAELIC-L has been serving the
indigenous communities of Man, Scotland and Ireland, together with their
respective diasporae, since 1989, we currently see here mostly
contributions in/about Irish, so this is an appeal to teachers of our
sister languages to please make more of their presence felt on GAELIC-L,
as well as on SEANCHAS-L, which lists we - the seemingly more talkative
Irish - have no wish to monopolize (quite the contrary, as we quickly
get enough of communicating mostly with those whose
views/experiences/traditions are most familiar).
Since it is now well over a 100 years since Mackenzie first posed the
question above which prompted me to post this msg today, is there
anywhere on the net a "learned Gael" who can bring its meaning out if
obscurity for us in our own time?
Dùrachdan,
mg
--
Marion Gunn * eGteo (Estab.1991)
27 Páirc an Fhéithlinn, Baile an
Bhóthair, An Charraig Dhubh,
Co. Átha Cliath, Éire/Ireland
* ***@egt.ie * ***@egt.ie *
spending spree---as did eGteo!---where our purchases included Makenzie's
"Gaelic Incantations, Charms and Blessings of the Hebrides" (1895),
priced at a very reasonable fifty euro if one could put up with a fair
bit of pencilling in, which I found only mildly irritating, in the hand
of an owner who identified himself in large hand as one "Domhnall Ó
Fótharta, An Caladh, Cloc na Ron, Co na Gaillimhe" [sic].
With pencil eraser to hand, I commenced reading its introduction, which
stayed my hand against erasure, because in it Mackenzie thanks that very
same man for various notes from Ireland he included in his book by way
of comparison to the Gaelic incantations, etc., which form the subject
of it. In passing, I note that another previous owner of Mackenzie's
Incantations of the Hebrides signs himself "James Carney", but I give no
prizes for guessing, as I do, at his identity.
In any case, all that is by way of preamble to my question (below),
which has nothing to do with Irish and everything to do with Gaelic.
My question about an incantation Mackenzie described (1895) as
"ambiguous", of which he has this to say:
"Occasionally one meets not only with obscure phrases, but also with
whole Incantations, the meaning of which is far from clear. Here is one:-
Uisg' an Easain
Air mo dhosan.
Tog dhiom do rosad
'S aghaidh an cabhgaig orm!
Will any learned Gael explain its meaning and purpose?"
Posting this here because, athough GAELIC-L has been serving the
indigenous communities of Man, Scotland and Ireland, together with their
respective diasporae, since 1989, we currently see here mostly
contributions in/about Irish, so this is an appeal to teachers of our
sister languages to please make more of their presence felt on GAELIC-L,
as well as on SEANCHAS-L, which lists we - the seemingly more talkative
Irish - have no wish to monopolize (quite the contrary, as we quickly
get enough of communicating mostly with those whose
views/experiences/traditions are most familiar).
Since it is now well over a 100 years since Mackenzie first posed the
question above which prompted me to post this msg today, is there
anywhere on the net a "learned Gael" who can bring its meaning out if
obscurity for us in our own time?
Dùrachdan,
mg
--
Marion Gunn * eGteo (Estab.1991)
27 Páirc an Fhéithlinn, Baile an
Bhóthair, An Charraig Dhubh,
Co. Átha Cliath, Éire/Ireland
* ***@egt.ie * ***@egt.ie *