Tháinig éan gan chleite - Eilis Ní Chleircín

Thu, 10/11/2012 - 14:01 | by Eoghan

Recording: [Download audio file] [Download AIFF audio file (of processed ‘user’ version)] [Download AIFF audio file (of archive version)]

Transcript

Tháinig éan gan chleite agus shuigh sé ar bharr na creige. Tháinig éan gan bhéal agus d'ith sé an t-éan gan chleite.

Translation

There came a bird without a feather and it sat on top of the crag. There came a bird without a mouth and it ate the bird without a feather.

Commentary

This is an example of a riddle, the answer to which is 'snow'. Such riddles are a very common element in Irish folklore. See Seán Ó Súilleabháin, A handbook of Irish folklore (London, 1942), 659.

This item is transcribed also in Heinrich Wagner and Colm Ó Baoill, Linguistic atlas and survey of Irish dialects (4 vols, Dublin, 1958-69), vol. 4, 286, and in Róise Ní Bhaoill, Ulster Gaelic voices: bailiúchán Doegen 1931 (Belfast, 2010), 342-3.

Title in English: There came a bird without a feather
Digital version published by: Doegen Records Web Project, Royal Irish Academy

Description of the Recording:

Speaker: Eilis Ní Chleircín from Co. Derry
Person who made the recording: Karl Tempel
Organizer and administrator of the recording scheme: The Royal Irish Academy
In collaboration with: Lautabteilung, Preußische Staatsbibliothek (now Lautarchiv, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin)
Recorded on 24-09-1931 at 13:30:00 in Queen's University, Belfast. Recorded on 24-09-1931 at 13:30:00 in Queen's University, Belfast.
Archive recording (ID LA_1213d2, from a shellac disk stored at the Royal Irish Academy) is 00:17 minutes long. Archive recording (ID LA_1213d2, from a shellac disk stored at the Royal Irish Academy) is 00:17 minutes long.
Second archive recording (ID LA_1213b2, from a shellac disc stored in Belfast) is 00:17 minutes long. Second archive recording (ID LA_1213b2, from a shellac disc stored in Belfast) is 00:17 minutes long.
User recording (ID LA_1213d2, from a shellac disk stored at the Royal Irish Academy) is 00:16 minutes long. User recording (ID LA_1213d2, from a shellac disk stored at the Royal Irish Academy) is 00:16 minutes long.

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