Transcript

Chuir sé suas an balla mar a bhí aroimhe. Agus nuair a tháinig a bhean abhaile dúirt an Fear Beag Riabhach Rua, "Tá an páiste caillte." Agus theip air a fháilt. Thoisigh sí ag cuartú agus níor féidir daoith' é a fháil. Rinne siad dearmad ar an gasúr go dtí ceann cúpla bliain. Aon lá amháin bhí an sagart ar turas sa teach agus cruinniú mór istigh, agus é ag léigh' an Aifrinn ar an bord a bhí faoi an fuinneog. Go díreach i lár an Aifrinn thoisigh na braonta fola ag titim anuas ó barr na fuinneoga ar leabhar an Aifrinn. Bhí ionadh ar gach 'uine agus ar an sagart go háirid. Thoisigh sé ag guibhe agus rinne sé scread trí huaire. Leis an tríothú[1] scread tháinig spiorad an gasúr 'uige agus dh'insigh[2] sé dhon sagart cé dh'éirigh dó cúpla bliain roimhe sin. Rugadh ar an Fear Beag Riabhach Rua. Féachadh é. Cuireadh pionós an-chruaidh air. Hiarradh (air) droichead a chuir ar an gcladach agus teach an phobail a thógáilt in áit an-uaigneach le hais na farraige agus codladh (air) trí oíche. Rinní an Fear Beag Riabhach Rua é seo huilig. Tháinig an fháinleog agus rug sí (ubh air). Bhí sé ina sheanfhear críon liath an uair sin agus is gearr ó sin gur cailleadh é.

Translation

He built up the wall as it was before. And when his wife came home the Small Red-haired Grizzled Man said, "the child is dead." And he could not be found. She started looking and she couldn't find him. The forgot about the child for a few years. One day the priest was visiting the house while there was a great gathering inside, and he read the Mass on the table which was under the window. Right in the middle of the Mass the drops of blood started falling from the top of the windows onto the mass book. Everyone was surprised, especially the priest. He started praying and he screamed three times. With the third scream the child's spirit came to him and told the priest what had happened to him a couple of years previously. The Small Red-haired Grizzled Man was caught. He was tried. He was given a very harsh sentence. He was asked to put a bridge over the harbour and to build a church in a very lonely place beside the sea and to sleep there(?) three nights. The Small Red-haired Grizzled Man did all of that. The swallow came and she laid an egg on him. He was an old grey man at that stage and he died soon after that.

Footnotes

Commentary

Parts one and two of this story combine to form a narrative that appears to employ an international folklore motif, E231 Return from dead to reveal murder. This is a common motif throughout Europe, and forms a part of several supernatural legends. It may also employ another motif, E443.2.4 Ghost laid by priest. See Stith Thompson, Motif-index of folk literature (rev. and enlarged ed., 6 vols, Bloomington, Ind., 1955-8). The narrative may be loosely related to a series of international folktales ATU 780-799 The truth comes to light, which often involve a secret murder, and some extraordinary event eventually revealing the truth. See Hans Jorg Uther, The types of international folktales: a classification and bibliography (3 vols, Helsinki, 2004). The episode at the end of the story where a swallow lays an egg on the punished man is somewhat enigmatic, but it may be derived from another motif, Q541.5 Penance: staying for ten months rooted to one spot, with eyes closed, while birds build nests in one’s hair.

A version of this story appears in Heinrich Wagner, Linguistic atlas and survey of Irish dialects (4 vols, Dublin, 1958-69), vol. 3, 348. See also vol. 1, xviii.