The Expulsion of the Dessi

The Expulsion of the Déssi

Our knowledge of Irish history during the early centuries of our era is fortunately not confined to the meagre accounts of the Annals. In addition to them, and as independent sources, we possess a large mass of materials in the histories of individual tribes, genealogical tables, chronological poems, sagas, and saints' Lives, all bearing upon the early history of Ireland. These materials are, of course, of the most varied origin and age, and will have to be carefully tested and sifted. Not until this has been done will the historian of Ireland have before him all the materials which Irish literature affords.

Much inedited matter of this kind is found in the Bodleian codices Rawlinson B. 502 and 512, and in Laud 610. Among other important texts I may mention the piece called Baile in Scáil, or The Vision of the Phantom, which enumerates more than fifty Irish kings from Conn Cétchachach (A.D. 123–157) downward to the eleventh century, together with the duration of their reigns, long lists of battles fought by them, the circumstances of their deaths, and other details.There is a fragment of the same piece in Harleian 5280, of which I am preparing an edition for publication in the third number of the Zeitschrift für Celt. Philologie, vol. 3. But it is the tribal histories that are perhaps of the greatest historical value, as they certainly are of the widest interest. One of these, dealing with what in a term borrowed from contemporary history may be called the trekkings of the tribe of the DéssiThe name of this tribe is preserved by those of the barony of Deece, co. Meath, their original home, and of the two baronies of Decies, co. Waterford. and originally written, as has been shown,See Y Cymmrodor, vol. 12, p. 20. in the latter half of the eighth century, is here edited and translated for the first time. Its special interest for Welsh students lies in the fact that it contains an account of an Irish settlement in Wales during the third century (section 11).

Two different versions of the story have come down to us. The older, the one printed, which I will call A, has been preserved in Laud 610, fo. 99b 2–102a 2, and in Rawl. B. 502, fo. 72a 2–73a 2. In Laud the title is De causis torche na nDéssi .i. acuis toirge na nDésse, while Rawl. has the heading Tairirid na nDéssi. As is so often the case in dealing with Irish texts, it was difficult to decide which of the two copies to make the staple of the edition, as neither is in every way superior to the other, and both correct and supplement each other. The best thing undoubtedly would be to do, as Stokes has done with Félire Oengusso, and Windisch with several pieces in the Irische Texte, to print both copies in extenso, but this would have taken up too much space. I have, therefore, selected the Rawlinson text as needing, on the whole, less correction than that of Laud, though the latter excels it in retaining a more archaic spelling. As regards the text itself, the two copies are in the main almost identical, though the single paragraphs are differently arranged. The most important variants of Laud are given in the footnotes. Where Laud deviates from Rawlinson I have sometimes indicated this in the translation by putting the reading of Laud in parenthesis; in a few cases these translations have been put at the foot of the page. Towards the end of both copies the scribes have become careless, and each has blundered in his own way.

The second and later version of our story, which I will call B, deserves a separate publication. So far as I know, it has come down to us in three copies, the oldest of which is a fragment contained in the Book of the Dun, pp. 53a–54b. It has the heading Tucait innarba na nDési im Mumain &ersir; aided Cormaic. Its gaps can easily be supplied from two later copies, one in H. 3. 17, col. 720b–723a (entitled Cóechad Cormaic i Temraig), the other in H. 2. 15, pp. 67a–68b (Tucaid cháechta Cormaic do Aengus Gaibuaibtheach &ersir; aigead Ceallaig &ersir; fotha indarbtha na nDeissi do Muig Breag). The latter MS preserves a number of poems not contained in the other copies. Whether one of the two versions, or ehich of them, is identical with the Tochomlad na nDési a Temraig quoted in the list of tales in D'Arbois de Jubainville's Catalogue, p. 263, and with the Longes Eithne Uathaige (ib., p. 171), I cannot say.

K. M.