Transcript

(An) am[1] a bhí Naomh Colm Cille i dToraigh tháinig meath ar a chailís agus chuir sé teachtaire léithe le í a fháil cóiriste[2] i mBaile Átha Cliath. Nuair a bhí an teachtaire leath bealaigh eadar Toraigh agus tír sheasaigh cosúlacht duine in airde ag taobh an churaigh. Chuir ceist air cá rabh sé ag goil. Dúirt sé... D'ins[3] sé an fhírinne dó, go rabh sé ag goil le cailís Cholm Cille le í a fháil cóiriste i mBaile Átha Cliath.

"Teispeáin[4] domh í," arsa an chosúlacht. Agus theispeáin sé dó í. Shéid sé a anáil uirthi agus chóirigh sé í agus d'iarr sé ar an teachtaire pilleadh go Toraigh, go rabh sí cóiriste agus ceist a chur ar Cholm Cille goidé an breithiúnas a bhéarfadh sé ar an té a chóirigh an chailís.

Phill an teachtaire go Toraigh agus d'ins do Cholm Cille goidé a casadh air, agus a bhí déanta, agus gur hiarradh air iarraidh ar Cholm Cille breithiúnas a thabhairt ar an té a chóirigh an chailís.

Dúirt Colm Cille, "Mo thrua agus mo nua[5], agus gan i ndán fuascailte dó anois ná go bráth."

Fuaigh sé amach go tóin an toighe agus d'ins sé don chosúlacht goidé dúirt Colm Cille. D'imigh an chosúlacht uadh[6] ag fáisceadh a dhá lámh is ag gol. Chuir an teachtaire ceist air cá rabh sé ag goil anois.

"Tá mé ag goil go dtí na Tonna Ceananna i dtaobh ó thuaidh de Albain go lá an bhreithiúnais mar i ndúil go dtabharfadh Dia deighbhreithiúnas orm an lá sin."

Translation

When Colm Cille was in Tory his chalice started to fall apart and he sent a messenger to get it repaired in Dublin. When the messenger was half way between Tory and the mainland the likeness of a person stood up on one side of the currach. He asked him where he was going. He said... He told him the truth, that he was taking Colm Cille's chalice to be repaired in Dublin.

"Show it to me," said the likeness. And he showed it to him. He blew on it with his breath and repaired it and he asked the messenger to return to Tory, that it was repaired and to ask Colm Cille what his judgement was on the person who repaired the chalice.

The messenger returned to Tory and told Colm Cille what he came across, and what was done, and that he was asked to ask Colm Cille to pronounce his judgement on the person who repaired the chalice.

Colm Cille said, "My sorrow and my woe, and he is not destined to be redeemed now or ever."

He went out to the lower end of the house and he told the likeness what Colm Cille had said. The likeness went away from him wringing his hands and crying. The messenger asked him where he was going now.

"I am going to Tonna Ceananna to the north of Scotland until Judgement Day in the hope that God will judge me favourably on that day."

Footnotes

Commentary

This story is related to a series of legends concerning fairies and their ultimate fate with regard to the Christian religion. A migratory legend, ML 5050 The fairies’ prospect of salvation, gives an account of fairies lamenting their fate upon finding out they will not receive salvation. See Reider Th. Christiansen, The migratory legends (Helsinki, 1958). There is a similar legend type, ML 5050ff, which encompasses a series of stories regarding the fairies and their ultimate fate, but examples are so varied that they have not concretised into a single form. This particular example has appeared in Irish oral tradition before, but instead of a fairy being the supernatural creature in question, it is the Celtic sea god Mannanán mac Lir who repairs the chalice and learns of his ultimate fate from St Colum Cille. An account is given of the legend in Charles Squire, Celtic myth and legend (London, 1905), 229. It can also be found in an article by David B. Spaan, entitled 'The place of Mannanán mac Lir in Irish mythology' in Folklore 76:3 (1965), 176-95: 193. A version of this story by the same speaker appears in An tUltach 11:3 (1934), 4.