Corpus of Electronic Texts Edition
The Metrical Dindshenchas (Author: [unknown])

poem 79

Mag Muireisce

  1. O man from Muiresc of the steeds
    that is visited by the strong-rushing wave,
    whence comes the applausive fame
    that the great and goodly plain has won?
  2. 5] I will tell thee without distaste of hard learning,
    in ready verse full of liberal lore,
    the cause, beyond contest or question,
    why Mag Muireisce is so named.
  3. A flood of sea-fish, slippery fry,
    10] the abounding sea brought to the rich land,
    till it filled its thriving homesteads,
    both woods and sloping glens.
  4. A full year it lay without rotting:
    that was a harvest of unfading lustre:
    15] the king received of every colour at his wish;
    it was the wealth fit for a righteous ruler.
  5. This it is that betrayed the name of the plain;
    hence comes its name high in honour:
    the far-stretching plain,
    20] numerous in exploits and indwellers.

    6. p.429

  6. Is it allowed to mention in the lay,
    according to the opinion of sages everwise,
    the monster, round whom the trouble arose
    at Fich in Mara by Muiresc?
  7. 25] It was a great sea-fish, huge a thousand fold,
    that brought no harvest to the lands;
    its name is Rosualt — clear saying —
    with many a conflict and many a portent.
  8. When the sated beast would cast up
    30] its stinking gorge in huge flood
    over the lands eastward, defiling them
    an affliction of sore disease beset them.
  9. When he cast it up to the clouds,
    it was war upon the constellations:
    35] when he cast it downward in turn
    it was a plague upon the creatures of the sea-shore.
  10. When it brought destruction on the men of the swarthy host
    in the steads of mighty Muiresc,
    there settled on the oaken people of the marsh-land
    40] the lordly name of the sea-monster.
  11. The name of that creature clave immovably
    to that land for ever:
    it designated the spot, above every marsh-ford,
    with the familiar title for its illustrious men.

    12. p.431

  12. 45] The daughter of mighty Ugaine,
    Muiresc, ruler over the mead-rich plain,
    took possession of the river-mouth, though it is a reproach;
    she was sovereign over the noble men.
  13. O Christ, after the close of my mortal life,
    50] choose thou my soul, in the ways of eternal wisdom,
    to dwell in that realm of peace and fame
    among thy kingly train, O kingly one!

    14. p.433