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Barbara Hi?lers
However,
none
of
these
works
are
'translations'
in our
sense
of word-for-word
correspondence; they are more or less free adaptations which have been altered
structurally, as well as stylistically to fit in with native narrative tradition.9 The
result is "not so much a translation from one language to another, but from one
culture
to another."10
These adaptations from Classical sources are clearly of the highest importance
for the understanding of how the Irish processed the Graeco-Latin culture they
adopted. One would expect them to be eagerly studied by scholars in the field,
especially since the old tendency to view Ireland as *aplace apart' from the rest
of medieval Europe has been replaced by the tendency to emphasize Ireland's
indebtedness to Latin-Christian culture. However, despite this change of outlook,
inteipretive studies of the major works are still lacking, and there are numerous
minor texts that remain unedited,11 badly edited, or badly understood.
One case of such neglect is the text under discussion here, Merugud Uilix
Meic Leirtis (henceforth called MU). A study of the relation between the text
BARBARA HILLERS
64
its ultimate origin shows not only the obvious presence of Classical
influence; a careful consideration of all the sources can offer us exciting insights
into its composition.
the Book of Ballymote,
MU is preserved in three latemedieval manuscripts,
It
has found two editors,
a
Dublin.
Stowe12, and MS in the King's Inn Library,
on
a
the
based
edition
Kuno Meyer, who attempted
critical
Ballymote and Stowe
text in 1886,13 and Robert T. Meyer, who edited the Ballymote MS in 1958.14
'
Robert Meyer dated the saga to 'the late twelfth or the early thirteenth century"
and does not hesitate to call it "Middle Irish."15 The only translation of the
text so far is Kuno Meyer's, which is badly in need of revision.16 Both editions
in a passage which is
are somewhat flawed; for example, Kuno Meyer,
has
Robert
travelling companions
Odysseus'
Meyer,17
uncritically adopted by
being swallowed by an earthquake. There is no earthquake; what the text really
says is that the companions are overtaken by a band of marauders.18
and
set "after the capture and destruction of the chief city of the
each of the Greek heroes "came to their own borders and to
called Uilix mac Leirtis ?
is lost
homeland." Only Ulysses ?
band of men. After escaping
time with his ever-diminishing
from the Cyclops, they come to a place ruled by the Judge of Right. He sells
them three pieces of advice, for thirty ounces of gold apiece. The counsels are:
1) Hold your breath three times and think before acting;
2) Follow the highway, not the by-way;
3) Don't set out before a certain time in the morning.
Before they leave, the Judge of Right gives Ulysses a box19 which he is to open
on his return home.
in reverse order.
Opportunity to observe these three precepts comes to Ulysses
On their journey home they stay at an inn. The next morning they are invited
by some other travellers to journey with them, but Ulysses insists on obeying the
story is
Trojans," when
their own sweet
at sea for some
The
third advice, and delays his departure. They watch while the entire company is
being destroyed by a raiding party, while they themselves journey on safely.
Two of Ulysses' men take a shortcut "and meet death instantly" ? we do not
know by what cause. Finally, they return home, and find a beautiful young man
sitting by Penelope's side. Ulysses determines to revenge himself on his wife
for her perceived infidelity.
Through an underground tunnel he enters the
at
chamber
night. Unseen by either Penelope or the young man?
queen's private
his
raises
sword
three
times to strike off the young man's head, but each
Ulysses
time holds off, remembering the advice to hold his breath three times. The third
time, he is about to strike when the queen, waking from a dream, addresses the
lad with a male, 'my son.' She tells him that she saw her husband in a dream
realizes his mistake and
standing above them and ready to kill them. Ulysses
65
leaves again, using the same secret route by which he came. The next day he
to Penelope, who is initially as reluctant as her Homeric
reveals himself
to
believe him. Only when Ulysses' old dog recognizes him is she
counterpart
convinced. When Ulysses gives her the Judge of Right's present, they find
inside the ninety ounces of gold Ulysses had to pay for his three advices.
Already Kuno Meyer pointed out thatMerugud Uilix was not a translation as
such, as the text has "no close analogues either in the Latin or in themedieval
French versions of the Troy Tale." Kuno Meyer concluded therefore that "the
Irishman was himself the author of this work."20 Neither of the two editors
succeeds in offering concrete suggestions about the Classical sources forMIL
Robert Meyer seems to suggest21 that the author of MU used Aristotle's brief
summary in his Poetics; but apart from the question of how well known Aristotle
was in twelfth-century
Ireland, there is nothing in this summary that would
fit
the
MU;
particularly
The argument of the Odyssey is not a long one. A certain man
has been abroad many years; Poseidon is ever on the watch for
him, and he is all alone. Matters at home too have come to
this, that his substance is being wasted and his son's death
plotted by suitors to his wife. Then he arrives there himself
after his grievous sufferings; reveals himself, and falls on his
enemies; and the end is his salvation and their death.22
is made of Poseidon inMU, nor of the suitors and their plot to kill
son.
Aristotle's
focus on the events after Odysseus' return is not
Odysseus'
reflected in the Irish story, which ends with the recognition scene. On the other
hand MU has plenty of details which Aristotle does not have, such as personal
names, the Cyclops episode etc. Whatever the Irish author's source was, it could
No mention
66
BARBARA HILLERS
or with Scylla and Charybdis. The Irish tale ends with Penelope's
recognizing
her husband; there is no mention of Odysseus'
struggle with the suitors to
reclaim his regal authority. The author of MU is unaware of even the most basic
facts of the Odyssey; he does not know, for example, that Odysseus'
home,
Ithaca, is an island; his hero reaches home dry-shod. The Homeric content of
MU is so slim thatwe have to conclude that it could not have been based on any
complete version of the Odyssey; as Robert Meyer puts it, "one thing at least is
certain: we cannot expect the twelfth-century Irishman to have read the Odyssey
in the original."25 What, then, can we expect him to have read?
The form of the hero's name gives us a first clue; the Irish Uilix is clearly
derived from the Latin Ulysses, rather than the Greek Odysseus, and indicates
that the Irish got the Odyssey through Latin intermediaries.26 But the author of
MU gives us another, more direct, clue to his source. After Ulysses has blinded
the Cyclops, and flees with his companions, one of his men is left behind, gurub
? infear sin d?rala dAenias mac Ainchis dia mbaifor
loingis, 'and this was the
man Aeneas son of Anchises met when he was in exile.' This is not an example
of medieval name-dropping; the author is simply stating his source.
In his
to
his
Roman
imitator
refers
back
Homer's
model, by letting his
Aeneid,
Vergil
Trojan exile Aeneas encounter many of the marvels traditionally associated with
the Greek Odysseus.27 Vergil tells us that when Aeneas
reaches Sicily, the
home of the cyclopes, he ismet by a ship-wrecked Greek who identifies himself
as Achaemenides,
son of Adamastus, a follower of Ulysses, and tells him about
the encounter with Polyphemus.
Kuno Meyer was the first to point out that "our author's acquaintance with
is attested by his mentioning
the meeting
of Aeneas
with
Vergil
to
seem
he
does
draw
not
from
it
the
Archaemenides,"28
though
logical
conclusion that the Aeneid was the source for the Cyclops episode.
Robert
Meyer refers to Vergil, but does not think the Aeneid is the source for MU: "it
does not seem to be the source of the present version of the Polyphemus
episode."29 The Polyphemus episode inMU, he argues elsewhere, is "greatly
distorted and could hardly be from Vergil's Aeneid."m
if we
However,
we
in
the
that
and
find
the
Irish
Homer,
MU,
compare
Cyclops episode
Vergil,
story contains almost all the details of the Aeneid, and has no Homeric details
In the Aeneid, the Greeks witness the death of
beyond those found in Vergil,
two of their comrades at the hands of Poliphemus, who dashes them against the
walls of his cave, and then devours them. However, the Greeks avenge the death
of their comrades when the Cyclops is "replete with eating and sunk in a drunk
sleep;" "with a pointed instrument" they blind the Cyclops'
single eye and
make good their escape.31
67
dismembers
of
them
between
his
two
arms....32
Ulysses frees his captive friends from the giant's cave, and avenges their dead
comrades by blinding the Cyclops:
T?inic da indsaigid, 7 in cen-s?il mor ro bai a tulphortaib a
?dain, ro chuir fograinni na slegi etir in d? abra 7 tucustar
s?thad arin sieg isin sail gurbo monur do a imdttin ar in loch
lethan-m?r lind-usci ro mebaid esti. (1,67-70)
He went up to him, and into the one big eye that was in the
front part of his forehead he put the point of his spear,
between the two brows, and gave a thrust to the spear in his
ey. And he had a difficult task to save himself from the broad
and large loch of water that burst from it.33
Vergil does not tell the whole story; he could, and did, assume a knowledge of
Homer in his audience. For example, he leaves out Ulysses* ruse of offering
wine to the ogre; we are merely told of Polyphemus' "drunken sleep," and his
Vergil also makes no mention of Polyphemus
vomiting up "thick wine."
cave
the
and
his
exit
of
blocking
keeping the Greeks captive; nor does he refer
to the sheep under whose bellies the comrades manage to escape from the cave.
MU shares the same omissions; but unlike Vergil's Latin readers, who would
have needed no reminder to fill in the details of the story> the Irish narrator of
MU is rather at a loss. Having only Vergil's brief summary to go on, he does
not know, for example, how the Greeks get into the dangerous cave in the first
this situation; the Greeks are
place. His narrative is constructed to motivate
attacked by the Cyclops who carries them off to his cave. The author even
invents a motive for the Cyclops' aggression: the Greeks are helping themselves
BARBARA HILLERS
68
evidence
sources:
the Cyclops
episode
is taken
MERUGUDU?UXMEIC LE1RTIS
69
full-length monograph,
BARBARAHILLERS
70
Vobservance
des conseils du ma?tre?1 which analyses as many as 369 versions,
no
means
has by
exhausted the subject. The tale continues to be told to this day
in areas where there is an active storytelling tradition, and it is particularly well
represented inGaelic tradition. A Scottish version was recorded in 1955, and the
story was still being told in Donegal in the seventies.
Here is a version of the story told by Joe Heaney from C?rna, County Gal way,
who is best known as a traditional musician, though this tale shows that he also
knew how to tell a story:42
The poor man ?
he was, he was only six months married and
his wife told him she was expecting a child, and that he'd have
to go and earn some money.
And he went to work for a
farmer. To make a long story short, he stayed with the farmer
for seven years. And of course after the first seven years he
had forgotten a bit about home, so he stayed on another seven
years, and finally he made it twenty-one years. He stayed
And after
working for the farmer for twenty-one years.
twenty-one years he said he'd have to go home to see his wife,
forgetting when he left she was expecting a child. But, ah, the
farmer asked him would he rather his wages than to give him
three good advices.
So the poor man said he'd take the
he said he'd give him an
advices. And the first advice ?
advice for each of the, of, of the seven years ?
and the first
advice
he
gave
him
was,
whatever
way
the
road
is, never
take
the
short-cut.
71
after
he
left..,.
The happiness of the reunited family is further increased when they cut the
"cake" or loaf of bread brought home by the hero, and find in it the wages
owed him by his master.
The fusion of the Ulysses story with the folktale of The Three Good Advices'
was presumably triggered by the common denominator shared by the two stories:
the hero has been away from home so long that he does not know his own son,
and he has doubts about his wife's fidelity. After twenty years of absence, such
doubts are perhaps not entirely unwarranted. At the very beginning of MU, a
despondent Uilix
remarks:
72
BARBARAHILLERS
even though it be us in truth.46
It is his suspiciousness which makes Uilix prone to believe that his wife is
indeed being unfaithful when he sees a young man by her side.
The loose, episodic structure of Ulysses' wanderings easily accommodates the
folktale, and the structure of the folktale is left largely intact. After the
encounter with the Cyclops and a couple of other adventures, Uilix comes to the
palace of the Judge of Right. The Judge of Right corresponds to the 'master' of
the folktale who gives the hero good advice and a loaf of bread. The upper-class
hero Ulysses cannot, of course, work for wages, so he buys the advice with the
treasures brought back from Troy; similarly, a loaf of bread might seem an odd
farewell present from one nobleman to another, and our hero is given a
mysterious box (citfing) instead. He is told by the Judge of Right not to open
it until he reaches home. When at the end of MU
Penelope, he reiterates the Judges's injunction:
Ulysses
presents
it to
73
follow the highway, not the by-way saves the hero from joining his comrades,
who are murdered by highwaymen.
InMU, two of Ulysses' comrades, who take
the by-way, "meet death instantly" ? we are not told how. The
highwaymen
seem to have been transferred to the non-traditional advice don't set out
before
a certain time in the morning: Ulysses'
travelling companions who leave early
in the morning are overtaken and killed by a band of marauders.
It is not surprising that Kuno Meyer, who was not aware of the folktale, was
mystified by the latter part of the story; no wonder he attempted to equate the
It is more surprising that Robert Meyer, too,
Judge of Right with Aeolus.
the tale, since he knew a number of modern versions, and was
misunderstood
indeed the first to point out the oral story as a source of MU.m
In all of his
three brief discussions
of MU%) Meyer maintains that, as he puts it in one
article, "the tunnel episode represents the Visit to Hades in the eleventh book of
He continues:
the Odyssey."
Here Penelope is confused with Persephone; nothing surprising
that the thirteenth century Irishman should be hazy about the
details of classical Greek mythology.51
It is not likely that either Hades or its queen were on the narrator's mind;52 the
tunnel episode is best interpreted as the result of adapting the folk story to an
In the folktale, the hero is usually a landless labourer, and
upper-class milieu.
his house is usually described as a both?n, a one-room cabin. He returns home
at night and lets himself in, not wanting to wake anybody up. Ulysses, on the
other hand, can hardly barge into the queen's chamber at night; as a stranger, h
would not have been allowed near her. The tunnel is simply an expedient plOv
device to bring the hero into Penelope's bedroom.53
Robert Meyer calls MU "simply one of the international tales of the Three
Wise Pieces of Advice,"54 without commenting on the considerable differences
between the medieval
text and the modern folk stories. "Over 300 versions of
the Three Wise Counsels have been recorded and await further classification and
study in the archives of the Commission,"55 Meyer writes; but despite his
eloquent eulogy of the oral storytelling tradition,56 he does not undertake this
if we want to understand the medieval narrative, we
work himself. However,
must first strive to understand its component parts, and it is therefore essential
to study not only the Classical sources, but also the folktale of the 'Three Good
'
Advices,
MU is an example of how crucial folklore can be for the appreciation o\
medieval
74
BARBARAHILLERS
of the Odyssey that went terribly wrong.57 MU is a creative and original fusion
of two very different stories, coming from two very different worlds, the world
of letters and the world of the non-literate storytellers. What Iwould suggest is
that these two worlds may in fact have been less hermetically divided than we
have hitherto assumed. One and the same narrator could draw both on written
texts, such as the Irish Aeneid, and on the oral storytelling tradition, and weave
them together into a unique and yet traditional fabric.
Barbara Hillers
Harvard
75
NOTES
1 in Kuno
Meyer's edition the saga title appears as Merugud Uilix make Uirtis; Roben
Meyer's edition is entitled Merugud Uilix M aie Leirtis. However, m Gcaroid Um
Nioeaiil has pointed out (?igse 9, 1958, I!, 134} theMaie of the title should he Mtit\
"the MS
2
Vide
can be
expanded
form
W.
B.
Stanford,
either way,
"Towards
and
a History
the former
of
was
at this period
Classical
in
Influences
obsolete/1
Ireland,"
Stanford,
37.
5G.
Calder, ed? Togail na Tehe. The Thehaid of Statins (Cambodge, 1922).
6
Whitley
Stokes,
In Cath
An Irish Version
Catharda.
Irticiie
Pharsatkt*
ofLucan's
Texte
De
excidio
Troiae
"a Latin
historia
Troy
romance
of
the
later Empire
period"
For
example
rather
in res
into Aeneas"
adventures
as Vergil
does,
the Irish adaptor of the Imtheachta Aeniasa tells the story in its proper chronological
order.
between
In Cath
Caesar
Catharda
stops
and Pompey?
after book
clearly
a more
seven
of Lucan's
satisfactory
Pharsalia,
ending
than Lucan's
17, 437.
11
.
and Remus Story"
Philip Freeman's "Middle Irish Version of. the Romulus
an
of suchminor
is
Celtic
1991,1)
the
Harvard
XI
example
Colloquium
(Proceedings of
texts.
76 BARBARAHILLERS
12
Ms
at the Royal
D.IV.2
13
Kuno Meyer,
ed, and
Irish Academy.
The
Leirtis.
Uilix Make
trans., Merugud
Irish Odyssey
(London,
1886).
?4
Robert
T. Meyer,
Uilix Maic
ed., Merugud
Leirtis,
and Modem
Medieval
Irish
Series
cit.,
op.
to Dr M?irin
? am grateful
of Kuno
Meyer's
vagaries
17
Robert
plot
edition
Meyer's
text
in guiri amuig
chuitechta
ag sceinmfon
Iy
is indeed
If this
does
little room
leaves
a timceall
Robert
Ni
not
what
translates
Meyer
who
for doubt:
in sirid
tat co n?rf?csat
pointed
out
with
acquaintance
a translation
to the
is confirmed
dating
first
in my
include
refer
? ni dib
This
Dhonnchadha,
translation
both of which
summaries,
18
The
of Sciences...,
135.
Academy
Michigan
by
Gear?id
to me
Mac
some
of
the
the story.
he gives
two
'earthquake'.
"Dar lium-sa
'
tr?,
sa dun
leith eli.
duine
a mhethaid
'
ar Uilix,
Ocus
in buidin
4n?dib
ro condeadarfo
(R, Meyer,
sa
ch?t?ir
11. 187-190),
MU,
as
this rare word
Kuno Meyer
glosses
cilfing means.
in his glossary,
but nevertheless
it as 'sack, bag'
speaks
'box;'
of a
lbox' inboth of his paraphrases of the story, no doubt following Kuno Meyer. On cilfing
v. DIL,
and Mac
bolg,
"cilfing,
20
Op.
cit.,
21
than
Saga,"
22
op.cit.,
who
draws
attention
to the gloss
in Stowe
.L
cilfing
ix.
Irish material
"The
more
Niocaill,
i.e. bag',
the brief
the genuine
itself...
concerning
Odyssey
account
in the Poetics"
given
by Aristotle
is curiously
("Folktale,
enough
little
Fiction,
or
74).
Poetics,
23
R.Meyer
ch. xvii.
("Celtic
folktale,"
556),
paraphrasing
Kuno Meyer's
"faintechoes"
(op.cit,
ix).
24
In the Irish episode the sea-bound comrades come to an island where they kill and eat
sheep and which they are reluctant to leave. Aside from the fact that inHomer the two
incidents occur in quite different places (books ix and xii respectively), the following
MERUGUD UJLIXMEICLEIRTIS 77
differences make it unlikely that the episode could be derived from the Odyssey: the food
consumed
the Irish
by
travellers
is not cattle,
but sheep;
nor
is it under
the protection
of
any particular deity, and if their killing represents the breaking of a tabu this is not made
The reluctance
the story.
to leave the island seems perfectly
of the comrades
and can hardly
be equated with
the magic
of consciousness
that
change
who join the lotus eaters in Homer.
the comrades
in
explicit
understandable
affects
time.
this
op.
(Stanford,
to see how
it is hard
Indeed,
Not
only
cit.,
22-7;
a complete
version
could
does
reading
knowledge
L. Bieler,
Ireland, Harbinger
have been
seem
of Greek
of the Middle
in Ireland
available
been
scarce
London
1963,
to have
Ages,
14), but Homer himself, unlike his Latin imitatorsVergil and Statius, was not generally
part of the classical liberal arts curriculum inEurope during the early or high middle ages
(v. Curtius,
26
to
refers
Curtius
hexameters
48ff
cit.,
op.
composed
the
on
the "curriculum
so-called
?lias
authors").
Latine,
AD,
which
condensation
he calls
of
"a wretched
the ?Had
piece
in
1070
of work"
than a hint of
is more
thus Aeneas
model;
has
hero out-doing
island, rather
his
than
tempt fate; and instead of attempting to go through Scylla and Charybdis, Aeneas simply
the malicious
circumnavigates
28
Op.
29
cit.,
"Folktale,
30
Ml/,
rocks.
xi.
Fiction
or Saga,"
76,
xv.
31
Aeneid, iii, 588.
32
K. Meyer,
33
Ibid.,
op.
cit.,
18.
20.
34
no
Cicroipecda (1.32); the odd reading from the Book of Ballymote, olcpetta, is, doubt,
a misreading
of
the same
form
(v, Kuno
Meyer,
op,
cit.,
vi).
35
Ibid., 11.414-517.
Ibid..
11, 1458-64.
78 BARBARAHILLERS
37
This
would
provide
a rather earlier
suggests
a relative
date
for
as predating
Aeniasa
dating for Imtheachta
the former
than its editor posited,
MU,
which
3SIwould like to thankAlex Hollmann from theHarvard Department of the Classics for
3V
Op.
to me.
this analogy
suggesting
cit., 48ff.
40
In the international tale type index, Aarne and Thompson's The Types of the Folktale,
it has been assigned the type number 910 B. Aarne's original title for this type was 'Die
des
guten Ratschl?ge
translated
rather
the servant
among
4i
4:
and collectors
storytellers
Folklore
'the master's
Dienstherren,'
as
ambiguously
or giving
is receiving
Good
the counsels.
Inofficially,
'The Three
as
worldwide
Communications
Fellows
good
'The Servant's
counsels'
which
Thompson
Counsels,'
(Good)
Advices,'
1991.
250,
In fact Joe Heaney tells his version, which was first pointed out tome by Dr William
of
Manon
Peadair,'
the Harvard
Goodman'),
as an introduction
to a song, T?ig?n
is
Department,
is an adaptation
ballad
of a traditional
274
'Our
(Child
on a record,
to suit the folktale.
Both
story and song are collected
Celtic
song
Heaney's
changed
Joe Heaney: Irish Traditional Songs in Gaelic and English, recorded by Bill Leader for
Topic
43
Sic.
The
transcription
is my
be a slip on
might
conceivably
modem
the advice
while
versions,
This
In most
bread
Ltd.
Records
is given
by
the mistress,
14
Heaney
says
he shaw
15
Heaney
says
in the, the,
by
a, saw
K. Meyer's
the baking
own.
a....
in the,
the stable,
translation
which
is rather
too free
at this point.
the author.
IS
Usually an injunction not to break the loaf of bread.
w
Meyer was a student of the eminent folklorist Kenneth Jackson; in fact it was Jackson
who suggested the dissertation topic toMeyer, and pointed out to him the modern oral
versions
of
the
tale.
of the Michigan
Papers
"Celtic
Academy
of Sciences...
46,
1960
(1961),
258-60.
556.
Folktale,"
reason why
should be confused
with the queen of Hades;
aside
Penelope
between
their names,
the two have little if anything
in common.
similarity
a confusion
with
the Persephone
an awareness
of that
Positing
story also presupposes
raises
the
of its availability
and
to the author of MU.
question
myth
521 can
see no
a certain
from
53
The
narrator
no time on
describing
wastes
about
the tunnel,which he had designed himself many years ago. After this brief explanation,
the
54
55
is not mentioned
tunnel
"Celtic
56 *
or Saga,"
Fiction
"Folktale,
75.
561.
Folktale,"
ijQ reconj
again.
these
hero
and wonder
tales
today
is to participate
in the heroic
age
of
which we read in books. The finest tale of the twelfth century vellums is but a pale
a mere
ghost,
Folktale,"
57
The
outline,
with
compared
the
living
story
on
the
lips of man"
("Celtic
560).
reverse,
of course,
holds
also
true; as a version
of
the folktale
of
'The Three
Good
interest
is a very poor specimen,
it is of course of the greatest
However,
its
of the story's development
in Ireland, and it can even elucidate
for our understanding
medieval
and
An
of all Irish versions,
distribution.
discussion
international
in-depth
Advices,'
MU
modern,
is beyond
the
scope
of
the present
paper,
but will
be
the focus
study.
of a separate