#dindshenchas

Illustration in a ca. 16th c. Irish illuminated manuscript:

Dindshenchas, RIA MS D ii 2, f.34r.

i don't want twitter to die without preserving this specific tweet

I can't really seem to find such a document and to be fair idk if such a thing exists because it'd be a massive pain to make but if you know of anything similar I would be very grateful!

Well.

Not....at present. I can't say more because (1) I don't want to get doxxed and (2) What I know is both tentative and relatively (?) confidential. But...well. We'll see. I have my ears pricked, let's just go with that.

The wonderful thing about Lady Gregory is that there's very little she INVENTED. It isn't like many of the sources made in...the last 50-60 years or so where you have to actively ask whether there's a medieval source for what she's saying. She was a master at what she did, welding together folk sources that she collected, along with medieval and early modern material, utilizing basically the full corpus of what was available at the time. (Hence why, say, there's no Duanaire Finn material in Gods and Fighting Men -- it hadn't been edited/translated yet.)

...the not-so-wonderful thing is that, because of the way it's structured, and because of scholarly conventions at the time (and the fact that it was actually viewed as more of a children's book than a scholarly book)......well. You have to do some digging at times to figure out WHERE she got something from, and sometimes she merged different sources together to create what is, functionally, a Frankenmyth. (Diarmaid and Gráinne is the biggest offender here, possibly.)

So! To the chase!

Here is the relevant section from Gods and Fighting Men, in the Dagda's section:

And Corann was the best of the harpers of the household; he was harper to the Dagda's son, Diancecht. And one time he called with his harp to Cailcheir, one of the swine of Debrann. And it ran northward with all the strength of its legs, and the champions of Connacht were following after it with all their strength of running, and their hounds with them, till they got as far as Ceis Corain, and they gave it up there, all except Niall that went on the track of the swine till he found it in the oak-wood of Tarba, and then it made away over the plain of Ai, and through a lake. And Niall and his hound were drowned in following it through the lake. And the Dagda gave Corann a great tract of land for doing his harping so well.

Now, for the bigger question: Where the fuck did Lady G get this?

And it turns out that this is from the Dindshenchas collection (which...not to say that the Dindshenchas contains EVERYTHING, but if you're looking at obscure material having to do with land and land names that sounds totally weird from what you're used to, the Dindshenchas is always a good bet.)

It's known as the Dinnshenchas of Mag Corainn, it's found in two manuscripts, included in both the Edinburgh Dindshenchas list and the Metrical Dindshenchas.

Here is the Metrical Dindshenchas recension, in prose (ed. and trans. Edward Gwynn):

Magh Coraind, cidh diatá? Ní ansa. Corann cruitire do Dhían Cécht mac in Dagdha, rogairm-sidhe asa chruit Cáelchés do mucuib Dreibrinne, & roreith-sidhe fothúaidh íar nirt a cnámh, & roreth cúanart Olnécmacht & al-laechradh ina díaidh conice Céis Chorainn, & is desin atá Céis Chorainn & Magh Coraind.

Mag Corainn, whence the name? Not hard to say. Corann, harper to Dian Cecht the Dagda's son, called with his harp Caelcheis, one of Drebriu's swine. And Caelcheis ran northward as fast as his legs would carry him; and the hounds of Connaught and their soldiery pursued him as far as Ceis Chorainn. Hence come the names of Ceis Chorainn and Mag Corainn.

Now, for the Edinburgh Recension (ed. and trans. Whitley Stokes):

Irish

Mag Coraind, cid dia ta? Ni ansa. Corand cruitire sidhe do Dianche[ch]d, mac in Dag[hd]ai, go roghart sein asa croit Cælcheis do mhuccaibh Dreibrinde. Roraith

fothuaidh a niurt a chnamh, roraith a niurt retha læchradh Ollnegmacht & a chuanart ’na deghaidh, go rige Ceis Coraind. Unde Ceis [Coraind] & Mag Coraing. Vnde poeta cecinit:

Corand cruitire creachach, mac in Dagh[d]a dianbhreathach. ba guirt fri feis díanim sluind, triana chruit go ceis Coraind.

English

Magh Coraind, whence is it? Not hard (to say). Corann, he was harper to the Dagda’s son, Dianchécht, and out of his harp he summoned Caelcheis, one of the swine of Drebrenn. Northwards it ran with (all) the strength of its limbs. After it ran the champions of Connaught with (all) their strength of running, their hounds following them as far as Céis Coraind. Whence Céis Coraind and Magh Coraind. Whence (also) a poet sang:

Corand, a plundering harper, The swift-judging son of Diancecbt, . . . . . . . Through his harp to Céis Corann.

"—Q.—Do the two orders of Sidhe beings inhabit the same world?

A.—‘The shining beings belong to the mid-world; while the opalescent beings belong to the heaven-world. There are three great worlds which we can see while we are still in the body: the earth-world, mid-world, and heaven-world.’"