Bríocht Síothlaithe Cheannmhara (Kenmara’s ‘Pacification Spell’).

The only translation of this I've seen interprets it as a sinister spell of

'pacification', involving the magical disempowerment of a king. Many Old Irish
poems (earlier than 12th Century) can, with a bit of imagination and a not too
inconvenient amount of veracity, be translated as sinister, mad, enraged, evil or
otherwise culpable, especially when making inappropriate use of inaccurate
dictionaries and glosses, or those appropriate to texts written in completely
different languages or dialects from the one in which the poem is written. Using
for the most part a modern dictionary and making intelligent guesses at the
grammar where it isn’t clear from the basis of a sensitive study of the prevailing
linguistic climate in which the text originated, those that actually are in Irish
(and many that aren't) tend to depict a well-regulated, religious, industrious
people, fond of children and animals, rational in war-time and grateful for
peaceful years and fruitful harvests. Here's the poem followed by my gloss and
after that, my translation of it.

Síothal lán, síothal slán.

Luigsim féin féin ra cach mál.
Síothal shuain, síothal sámh.
Bear úr uaibh

do cheann slúaigh d'fhiachaigh mál.

Síothal glan, síothal gart

um rígh mborb.
Síothal slán, síothal suain.
Bear úr.
Do Mhogh Chorb.

Síothal airgid agus óir agus cruain,

Síothal shíog agus rígh agus rúain.
lúthar libh agus uaibh do Mhogh Ruith
is d'fhir Coirb
is do Bhuan.

Lúthsat féin
feacht fo thrí
ra feacht fáth
beact for rígh.

Báidhfe tart!
Beofaidh brígh!
Fóirfidh cach!
Sóefidh síath,Síothal!

GLOSS: Note, this gloss is my own and not necessarily in agreement with those
of other translators. I have made the entries as detailed as seemed necessary,
with enough etymological detail to let you see the logic of them, so that where
this translation differs from others, you will understand why I have made the
choices I’ve made.

• agus = modern Irish agus meaning and.

• airgid = modern Irish airgead meaning silver
• at = to you
• beact = accurate,exact,precise
• Bear = beir give birth to, but the verb noun is breith, which may be
related to bruith, so perhaps it’s brew.
• Bhuan = Buan
• borb = modern Irish borb, which means fierce when it denotes a fire, an
attack or a person; or coarse or rugged or, when it denotes a sound,
harsh.
• cach = modern Irish gach meaning every.
• cheann = ceann = head, one, and it used to mean chief.
• Coirb genitive of Corb.
• cruain is a genitive of cruan = modern cruan, meaning enamel
• d’ see do
• d'fhiachaigh = modern d’fhiachfaí which means ‘one would owe’
• do = modern Irish do meaning to
• fáth = the cause
• feacht = look,see,observe(ing)
• féin = self, as in modern Irish.
• fhir see fir
• fir = modern Irish fir meaning men
• fo = under
• for = truly
• gart: gar- is a form of the cor- or kor- of the Cornish kortes, Spanish
cortez, and occurs in Modern Irish with a different suffix – ach instead of
–t - as ‘gar-ach’ instead of ‘gar-t’. Garach means helpful, obliging, or
forthcoming, and that’s how I’ve translated gart.
• glan = modern glan meaning clean
• is = modern Irish is meaning and
• lúthar: the lúth- is same as the lúth of the modern Irish lúthcheas
meaning athletic excercise, and the –ar is an adjectival suffix as in uafar,
awful, horrid, and found within some forms as air - scholaireacht,
bleachtaireacht, et al.
• lán = full, as in modern Irish,
• libh = modern Irish libh, meaning with you (pl)
• luigsim = first person singular of the present indicative active of modern
Irish ‘lóigh’, meaning to land, lie down, incline oneself lean over.
• lúths = athleticness
• mál = mol = modern Irish ‘moladh’ a verbal noun meaning ‘praise’ or
‘recommendation’.
• mborb = modern borb [of fire, attack, person, etc] fierce, [of a sound]
harsh, also coarse (see borb).
• Mhogh Chorb. I don’t see a sufficient reason for differentiating between
Mac and Mogh in modern translations. Mogh = plain is only true when
the plain in question is named for a clan which once held it. So Mogh
Chorb is either Clan Corb or their lands. Here it is the clan.
• óir = modern Irish óir meaning golden
• rígh is a form of the modern ríghin meaning tough, tenacious, dogged, or
still. Perhaps it’s related to the English ‘right’, as in ‘a right fine time we
had of it’.
• ra = says, as in modern Irish.
• ra saying
• rígh, an adjective related to modern righin meaning stiff, tough, dogged,
tenacious and to righneas meaning tenacity
• rúain: not modern Irish ruainne, meaning bit, morsel etc but a borrowing
from the English: round.
• síog means cancel, strike out, streak, in modern Irish. Re a coalmine it
is a seam. if it is related to english dig, it could mean scored or carved,
and refer to a pattern on the outside of the cauldron.
• sámh = suimh(neach) easy, serene, restful related to english soft.
• shíog see síog
• shuain = suain, which means here gentleness, pleasantness, sweetness,
rather than sleep. It is related to suaimhneas meaning serenity as well as
the English ‘swoon’.
• síothal = modern Ir, soitheach, a vessel or bowl. Its first syllable, síoth, is
related to seethe, and means a seething vessel, or cauldron. In the
dialect of this poem the s is slender whereas in modern Irish it is broad
and the suffix, (e)ach, equivalent to the English -like, which is equivalent
to the Latin -like.
• slán = sound, safe, whole, healthy, as in modern Irish.
• slúaigh = of hosts.
• thrí = through
• uaibh This is the 2nd person plural prepositional pronoun form of /o
meaning from or since.
• uaibh = Irish from you (pl - or formal?).
• um = modern Irish um which means about, around, in, at or on.
• úr = modern úr meaning fresh, new, novel

• Báidhfe Quenched will be

• tart! thirst!
• Beofaidh Life will be lived
• brígh! radiantly!
• Fóirfidh strengthened!
• cach! Everyone
• Sóefidh Seethed will be
• síath, the brew,
• Síothal! Cauldron!
Cauldron Song , vyvyan ogma wyverne’s translation of Síothal lán .

Full cauldron, healthful cauldron

I bow, I say each praise,
Sweet cauldron, serene cauldron,
A new brew from you!

To a chief of hosts one would owe praise.

Clean cauldron, courteous cauldron

Boiling hard,
Healthful cauldron, cauldron sweet.
a new brew for Mag Corb.

Cauldron of silver and gold and enamel,

Cauldron carved and rigid and round.
Let there be sprightliness about you and from you to Mog Ruith
and to the men of Corb
and to the retainers.

Be quick-running itself
look under through
telling the reason for fetching
exactly and full vehemently.

Quenched be thirst!
Life lived radiantly!
Everyone strengthened!
Seethed be the brew,
Cauldron!

not perfect, subject to change as new possibilities arise and are evaluated. but i
thinks it’s a more likely translation than can be obtained in the traditional
academic way: see below.

15. Bríocht Síothlaithe Cheannmhara 15. Kenmare's Pacification Spell

from: The Excellence of Ancient Word: Druid Rhetorics from Ancient Irish
Tales

by Seán Ó Tuathail

Copyright © 1993 John Kellnhauser

May be reposted as long as the above attribution and copyright notice are
retained
Melt away (expire, soften) fully, melt away completely

I swear this myself to every prince.

Melt into sleep, melt in tranquillity.

Be borne a bright newness

to (the) head of the hosts of Fiacha of princes.

Melt clean(ly), melt (with) generosity

(all those) around an ignorant (unjust) king.

Melt away completely, melt away into sleep.

Be borne a fresh newness.

(But) of Mogh Corb

melt away his silver and gold and enamel (jewelry),

melt away fairy (allies of the king) and king and great ones,

empowered with you and from you to Mogh Ruith

and from (the) men of Corb

and to Buan

empowered himself

a sight (seen to be done) three times

with that a sight of wisdom

the (high) king made humble

The draught will be drowned

(Magical) energy will enliven,

each will be healed,

will transform into peace. Melt away.