Transcript

Bhí ceannaí mór snáithe ann agus chuaigh sé a cheannach snáithe 'na[1] mhargaidh. Agus tháinig fear roimhe leis[2] agus mharbh sé é. Agus trí oíche ina dhéidh sin... Chuaigh sé 'na reilic achan oíche de thrí oíche, ag éisteacht goidé a chluinfeadh sé. Agus (bheadh)... (...) sé... d'éirigh sé aníos (agus bhí)... agus (bhí) (...) ins an uaigh.

"Íocfaidh! Íocfaidh!" arsa seisean.

"Cé íocfas?" arsa seisean (an tríú) oíche?"

"(Ó, dá bhfeicfinn) i do dhéidh," ar seisean, "bhí mise (beag) (...) (níl a fhios a'm an bhfeicfinn i mo dhéidh móráilte nár úirt seisean pósadh é)."

Bhuel, bhí sin maith go leor. Ghlac sé farm[3] talamh agus bhuildáil sé toigh sclátaí air agus pósadh a mhac agus chuir sé stoc ar an fharm. Agus tháinig sagart[4] a'n[5] oíche amháin thart. "An dtabharfaidh tú (ceathrú) don oíche anocht domh," ar seisean leis an tsean-nduine[6].

"Bhéarfaidh," arsa an sean-nduine, arsa seisean, "cé acu goidé rud é."

Thoisigh an sean-nduine is d'ins sé an comhrá uilig dó, goidé a rinn sé, gur mharbh sé an fear agus gur rann sé cuid mhaith airgid ar na bochtú[7] agus gur (bhuildeáil) sé toigh agus hachan seort. D'éirigh an sagart amach agus d'fhág sé. Is fuaigh sé isteach go toigh eile a bhí ann insa chomharsain. Agus d'fhan sé an oíche sin ann.

Ar maidin lá harna mhárach ar seisean le bean an toighe, "An rabh tú amuigh?"

"Cha rabh," arsa sise. "Tá mé ag goil amach."

Chuaigh sí amach.

"Bhfaca tú iontas ar bith (de shamhail) an oíche aréir?"

"Chonaic mé[8]," ar sise. "Tá (a leithéidí ansiod dhá shuí ar tine lá) (...) a bhí ann, is tá (gleam) ag reáchtáil anuas fríd an toigh. Agus tá an t-iomlán (sínithe ar a chúla)," arsa sise, "agus char chuir sé(?) a'n ndeor[9] an oíche sin."

Sin end (acu) anois.

Translation

There was a big thread merchant and he went to the market to buy thread. And a man came up to him and he killed him. And three nights after that... He went to the graveyard every night for three nights, listening for what he might hear. There would be (?) (...) he rose up and (...) in the grave.

"(...) will pay! (...) will pay!" he said.

"Who will pay?" he said the third(?) night.

"Oh, (...) after you," he said, "I was (...) I don't know (...)."

Well, that was good enough. He took a farm of land and he built a slated house on it and his son married and he put livestock on the farm. And a priest came around one night. "Will you give me lodgings(?) for tonight," he said to the old man.

"I will," said the old man, he said, "whatever it is."

The old man started and told him the whole conversation, what he had done, that he had killed the man and that he had shared a good amount of money with the poor, and that he built a house and everything. The priest got up and he left. And he went into a neighbouring house. And he spent that night there.

The following morning he said to the woman of the house, "Were you outside?"

"No," she said. "I am going out."

She went out.

"Did you see any wonder like (?) last night?"

"I did," she said. "There is such a thing (...) running down through the house. And the whole is lying on its back (?)," she said, "and it didn't shed any tears that night."

That's the end now.

Footnotes

Commentary

The narrative is somewhat unclear in this example, but it may be related to legends or folktales concerning ghosts returning from the dead to punish the living, a motif that is found in international folklore. For example, international folk motifs such as E230 Return from dead to inflict punishment, E231.5 Ghost returns to murderer: causes him to confess, or E234.3 Return from dead to avenge murder, may have influenced this story. See Stith Thompson, Motif-index of folk literature (rev. and enlarged ed., 6 vols, Bloomington, Ind., 1955-8). The idea of a ghost exacting revenge is not new in Irish tradition, appearing as it does in a medieval Life of St. Senan. See Charles Plummer, 'The miracles of St Senan', Zeitschrift für Celtische Philologie 10 (1915), 1-35: 11. It also appears in the story of Maelodrán mac Dimma Chróin. See Kuno Meyer (ed.), Hibernica minora (Oxford, 1894), 81.