Transcript

Bhí lá deas samhraidh ann agus fuaigh Fiannú[1] na hÉireann amach a sheilg agus fuaigh na mná síos le iad féin a nighe, a ní. Agus nuair a fuaigh siad síos dúirt siad gurbh fhearr dófa a choil[2] go glasfharraige na hÉireann, an áit a rabh an t-uisce glan.

Ach nuair a fua-, fuaigh siad a fhad le glasfharraige na hÉireanna bhain siad daofa a gcuid éadaigh agus d'fhan bean Dhiarmaid Dhoinn... d'fhan sí... d'fhan sí ag coimheád a gcuid éadaigh, bhfuil a fhios a'd, cha dteachaigh sí amach ins an uisce. Charbh fhada dófa go dtáinig diúlach isteach agus bád leis agus é ag caitheamh in airde úll insa... ins an aer agus a (cheapadh) ar bharr a chlaidhmhe[3] é. Agus bhí an bád 'na rioth[4] agus bheirfeadh sí ar an ghaoth a bhí róithe[5] agus cha bheirfeadh an ghaoth a bhí ina déidh uirthi. Ach tháinig an diúlach isteach agus tháinig sé aníos agus d'amharc sé fríd na mná agus bhí bean Dhiarmaid Dhoinn (ar) an bhean a ba deise. Bheir sé (greim) barr méire agus caol coise uirthi agus chaith sé isteach insa bhád í. Agus d'imigh sé agus d'fhág sé iad. Fuaigh na mná uilig faoi bhrón agus cha rabh a fhios acu goidé a dhéanfadh siad. Agus tháinig siad 'na bhaile agus shuigh siad agus thoisigh siad a ghol.

Ach tháinig ansin na Fiannú. Nuair a tháinig siad 'na bhaile deir siadsan, "Tá rud inteacht ar na mná. Chan fhaca muid a'n fhear... a'n nduine[6] acu amuigh ar na hardáin mar ba ghnách leofa." Ach nuair a tháinig siad isteach bhí siad uilig faoi bhrón. Agus d'ins[7] siad dófa go dtugthas[8] ar shiúl bean Dhiarmaid Dhoinn.

"Bhuel," a deir Goll, deir sé, "(cibé ar bith) áit a bhfuil sí gheobhaidh mise í."

"Bhuel," a deir siadsan.

Ansin chogain Fionn a ordóg. Agus gheobhadh sé i dtólamh fios as an ordóg nuair a chognóchadh sé í. Agus deir sé, "Tá sí thoir anois insa Domhan Thoir in airde in teach bairr, ina shuí[9] san fhuinneog. Agus cha dtig linn a (fáilt) nuair atá a oiread... tá a oiread airm ansin agus cha dtig leat a choil isteach. Tá geafta iarainn ann agus cha dtig le a'n nduine a choil isteach ansin ach an té a throidfeas an warrior atá ansin roimhe."

Deir Goll, deir sé, "Troidfidh mise é."

Ghread siad leofa soir[10] agus nuair a fuaigh siad (ar amharc) ar an teach bairr rinn bean Dhiarmaid Dhoinn gáire agus thiúfá[11] an dúileagán beag a bhí thíos ar thóin a putóige.

"Ó," a deir an fear liath, "b'éigean duid go bhfaca tú rud inteacht galánta nuair a thaitin sé leat comh maith, cha dtear'[12] tú a'n gháire ó tháinig tú anseo aroimhe."

"Tím, leoga," a deir sí, "tím ag teacht (...).

Translation

It was a lovely summer's day and the Fianna of Ireland went out hunting and the women went down to wash themselves. And when they went down they said that they would be better off going to the green sea of Ireland, where the water was clean.

When they went as far as the green sea of Ireland they took off their clothes and Diarmuid Donn's wife stayed to watch over their clothing, you know, she didn't go out into the water. They weren't long until a lad came in with a boat and he was throwing an apple into the air and catching(?) it on the tip of his sword. And the boat was running, and it was catching the wind before it and the wind behind it couldn't catch it. But the lad came in and he came up and he looked through the women and Diarmuid Donn's wife was the most beautiful. He caught her by the fingertips and ankles and he threw her into the boat. And he went and left them. All the women became sad and they didn't know what to do. And they came home and they sat down and they started to cry.

But then the Fianna came. When they came home they said, "Something is wrong with the women. We didn't see any one of them out on the hills as they would normally be." When they came in they were all sad. And they told them that Diarmuid Donn's wife was abducted.

"Well," said Goll, he said, "wherever she is I will find her."

"Well," they said.

Then Fionn chewed his thumb. And he would always get knowledge from the thumb if he chewed it. And he said, "She is beyond in the Eastern World up in a high tower, sitting in the window. And we cannot get her as there is such an army there that you can't go in. There is an iron gate there and no one can enter except the one who will fight the warrior who is there before him."

Goll said, "I will fight him."

They headed off east and when they were within sight of the high tower Diarmuid Donn's wife laughed and you'd see a tiny speck down in the bottom of her gut.

"Oh," said the grey-haired man, "you must have seen something very beautiful seeing as it pleased you so much. You haven't laughed since you came here."

"Yes, indeed," she said, "I see coming (...).

Footnotes

Commentary

This story is a variant of a Fenian narrative that is commonly known as 'Tóraíocht Shaidhbhe'. See Cecile O'Rahilly, The pursuit of Gruaidh Ghriansholus (London, 1922), x. An eighteenth-century example survives in a manuscript held in British Library Egerton MS 150 (iv/b3). See Robin Flower, A catalogue of Irish manuscripts in the British Museum (London, 1926), 395. Tóraigheacht Shaidhbhe is possibly based on the roman d’aventure or adventure novel of post-medieval French and English literature. Stories such as 'Bevis of Hampton' or 'Huon of Bordeaux' have similar plots, and probably serve as the origin of this tale. See Dáithí Ó hÓgáin, Fionn mac Cumhaill (Dublin, 1988), 224. The story also bears a similarity to another post-medieval Irish narrative, namely 'Eachtra Chonaill Ghulban', which concerns the abduction of a man's wife and his great adventures in rescuing her. This was made popular in oral narrative after its initial compilation in a sixteenth-century manuscript, and many examples have been collected in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. See Alan Bruford, 'Eachtra Chonaill Ghulban: an Irish hero-tale in manuscript and oral tradition', Béaloideas 31 (1963), 1-50. In this particular version of the story, it is Diarmuid Donn's wife who is abducted, and similar examples have been recorded in other instances in Irish folklore. See J. H. Lloyd, 'Diarmuid and Gráinne as a folk-tale', Gadelica 1:2 (1912), 83-100: 85.

The motif of a man's wife being abducted and her subsequent rescue is one that is common in Irish tradition, although it is often told in relation to the fairies, and categorised under the international folk motif F322.2 Man rescues his wife from fairyland. See Stith Thompson, Motif-index of folk literature (rev. and enlarged ed., 6 vols, Bloomington, Ind., 1955-8). Also present is the incident where Fionn chews his thumb to discover the whereabouts of the abducted woman. This may be related to motif D1816.5.1 Druid by magic discovers whereabouts of abducted wife. Both motifs mentioned are of considerable antiquity in Ireland. See Tom Peete Cross, Motif-index of early Irish literature (Bloomington, Ind., 1952).

This story is transcribed also in Róise Ní Bhaoill, Ulster Gaelic voices: bailiúchán Doegen 1931 (Belfast, 2010), 124-7.