Prev | Next | Contents | Main Page
[FN#135] A conjecture by Windisch. Text gives sluaig the genitive singular, which does not rhyme.
[FN#136]no is brece is dath sion and cech gruad:
or is many-coloured is hue of foxglove there each cheek:
[FN#136] The three glosses are interesting. It may be noted that the
last two certainly follow the word (above the line in which it occurs)
that they seem to gloss: it is therefore probable that the first does
so too; the two lines of a couplet are on the same line in the
manuscript. It {footnote p. 156} seems then possible that the gloss
"it is many-coloured" refers, not to the foxglove, but to the preceding
line, "the colour of eyes is number of our hosts," and that the writer
of this gloss gave the same meaning to the rather hard description of
the colour of the eyes as is given in the verse translation (vol. i. p.
26), i.e. that the eyes had changing lights and shapes. We must hope,
for the credit of his taste, that he did not think of the cheeks as
many-coloured or freckled, but his gloss of lossa does not seem happy.
The meaning "growth" is taken from O'Reilly's Dictionary.
no lossa
Is corcair maige cach muin,[FN#137]
or growth?
is purple of a plain each neck,
