Now to this Eithne appeared a strange and wondrous vision. (She dreamed) that she was pregnant, and her delivery imminent, and that of this pregnancy a sturdy dog-whelp was born, which was washed in milk, so that therefrom every quarter and nook in Ireland was filled with milk and lactage.
And the queen started from her sleep at the strangeness of the vision, and roused the king promptly, and they made these stanzas:
- 'A vision I saw without guilt,
O Aengus of the sprightly horses;
O king of Cliu, whose valour is royal,
It caused great trouble in my mind.- I saw as a woman heavily pregnant,
O Aengus of the steady eyes,
O king of Munster, 'tis a great charter,
Without change for the space of nine months.- After this I was delivered,
O sturdy son of Nadfraech;
And this is what I bore, O white tooth,
A lusty dog-whelp.
- It is washed in milk in full measure,
The whelp with its little swimming;
So that it filled every region with its liquor
Of milk throughout all Ireland.'- Said Aengus of the fair skin:
'Thou shalt bear a son, this will be thy fortune,
He will fill Ireland without deceit
With his (ascetic) piety and fair learning.- Patrick conferred a lasting blessing
On thee and me in strong Cashel,
When we conveyed the sweet-voiced place
To great Patrick, son of Calpurn.- He said to thee that thou shouldest bear a son
To me, O lady of the fair hands,
That the mouths of all the men of Erin should be full
Of his piety and fair learning.- O daughter of Crimthann of the tall horses,
Be joyful, O white and fierce;
Here is for thee, though fair thy hue,
The ready interpretation of the vision.'A vision.