The "Seige of the Ridge of the Stag‚s Call" is a tale with a very
interesting history, but its most facinating aspect is that it contains
what
some have speculated is a long lost native Irish invocation of Lord
Cerununnos, the Irish Pan
The only manuscript of the tale is contained in the Book of Lismore
which
dates from about the 15th century. The Book of Lismore was discovered
hidden
in a secret recess in Lismore Castle in Co. Waterford, Ireland in 1814.
But the Seige is much older than the 15th century since it is mentioned
in
the Book of Leinster (end of 12th century).
The actual text is a hodgepodge of Old, MiIddle, and Early Modern Irish
with
very obscure roscanna (magic poems) scattered throughout it.
A few lines were translated by Eugene O‚Curry in his Manners and Customs of the Ancient Irish and a fuller
edtion was done in French by Maire Louise
Sjoestedt in Revue Celtique in 1927. But she refused to tackle the
obscurity
of the roscanna, leaving most untranslated.
Then in the 1980‚s a friend and 'teacher' ( I usually recognized his
'supemacy') of mine Seán Ó Tuathail (Too-hawl) aka John
Kellnhauser
identified the Seige as a major text containing deposits of lost
druidic
lore.
He proceeded to attack the obscurity of the roscanna in the Seige and
and
one of them yielded the lost 'Invocation to the Stag God'.
His work on the text has never been surpassed. The few lines I
quoted from
in a previous post is mostly his work with some addtions by myself to
the
translation where I think he is being unnecessarily obscure in English.
We
did have our disagreements--I usually being the one who was right when
they
occured--ha!
After his translation of many of the roscanna, he planned a major new
edition ot the Seige done from a specifically pagan viewpoint with the
entire story in restored Irish with English translation and including
the
'decoding' of roscanna which do not even appear in the appendix of
untranslated materials in Sjoestedt‚s edition in 1927. (He had adquired
a
facimile of the Book of LIsmore at some expense). A series of
musical
pieces for harp to accompany the recitation of the roscanna were also
planned for this pagan edtion of the tale.
But out of the blue a new edtion of the Seige appeared in 1992 by
Mercier
Press in Ireland--an an edition by a Christian priest--Father
Seán Ó Duinn
of Glenstal Abbey.
The new edtion was a disaster--the Irish text is modernized to Modern
Irish
and the translation refuses to tackle most of the magic roscanna. The
lost
Invocation to the Stag God was completely omitted from the text--still
lost.
The market for the Seige was saturated--no buyers for the new edtition
could
be found--the project was abandoned since it was far too complex for
chapbook treatment.
Sean had suspicions of creeping Patrician magical wards to stifle pagan
renewal. Many Irish saints quite openly did magic and placed curses all
over
the place. I don‚t know, but talk about bad timing!
Besides the lost invocation to Cerunn, why is this tale
important? Well, to
quote The ÓTuathail from ages past: 'it is a very
extremely, probably
almost most, important vital ect. seanchas (ancient tale), with more
druids,
male and female, per line than any other. More magic than any seanchas
not
rolling the entire Tuatha De Danann. Much of it is taken up with a
Œdruid
war', although there are hymns of praise and gentle softness as well.
There
is shape shifting, tree magic, fiadhradh magic (divination with the
'tree
alphabet'), wands, fires, fogs, landscape and weather magic, briochtai
(general verbal magic spells), rocanna (another type of verbal magic
spell),
actual ancient Irish spell formulae, druidic dress and regalia
described'.
What is it about? The High KIng of Ireland invades Munster (the
southern
province of Ireland) in a dispute over taxes--he wants Œem from Munster
to
make up for a nasty case of hoof and mouth that has decimated the
cows of
Tara. The KIng of Munster begins to lose the battle against the High
King‚s
army, druids, and Shee allies. so he calls on the mysterious Mogh Ruith
(let‚s say Magroo!)--A lone wild druid (unattached to any court of any
king)
who lives with his apprentices and famliy on Valentia Island off the
southern coast of ireland.
He is one-eyed (though at times he seens completely blind) and drives a
rowan wood chariot drawn by stags! His main teachers are Banbhuanna
(Woman
of Power) of the Shee and Simon Magus! in the East. He is known as one
the
few druids who have actually learned magic from the Shee by dwelling
among
them. Ol‚ Simon Magus gave him a stone that can be transformed into a
water
serpent when it hits living water. His powerful regalia include a
winged
bird mask with which he can fly.
He magically whoops the collective arses of the the High King, his
army, his
druids, and his Shee allies (no mean feat for they are magical
beings--shapeshifting 'dragons' on the hoof--or death dealing
ruminants,
more on that later). Actually he doesn‚t even get involved in most of
the
major "magic combats" in the tale that occur; he just says to one of
his
apprentices, 'Deal with that buffoon'.
His name could be translated as--The Devotee of Illumination.
Here is the home of 'Devotee of Illumination'--Valentia Island,
Co. Kerry:
His son Buan (Boo-uhn,The Enduring One) sings the Invocation to the
Stag God
while he and Magroo are confering with Banbhuanna (BanVOOana), Magroo‚s
teacher, in her Shee Mound. So here it is, from the secret recess
in
Lismore Castle, the lost hymn to HIgh Lord Cerunn:
1. Then Buan gave the excellence of ancient word.
2. Loud in its telling and said:
3. O Spectre of stags of great knowledge,
4. O Man whose sight is in vision
5. of Ireland of many byred calms.
6. God of requests beside me,
7. O Stag hooves sharp as swords
8. To antler-points white silver.
9. pig of the wilds fresh green terrible
10. fair cow of red-speckled ear points,
11. the trinity who do not scrutinize--
12. cow and great pig of keen sight,
13. fierce stag of divine-posessions,
14. glorius, free of the restraint of crowds,
15. who sing together, have advanced together
16. to our lair of lust unbridled (harbour of complete attentions).
17. O Father of mine,
18. they are pledged.
19. his people eternally
20. The veils are removed by the source of great wisdom.
21. keenly seen, upon song
22. from out of the magical mists of prophecy.
23.The generations of the Gael increase.
24. The triple-yeared wild boar grows,
25 subdued the wraths of supreme power,
26. sovereignty of battles pugnacious.
27. of a proper ale feast, of the sustainance of the harp.
28. in a wide faced stag.
from 'Rocanna ón bhForbuis Druim Damhghaire' by
Seán Ó Tuathail/John
Kellnhauser (1988).
There is more, but this section contains the lost invocation. I have
often
thought that Magroo and the Stag God seem very, very close. There is
also a
magical being/friend of Magroo who appears in the story who has
backward
legs, wears strings of talons, bones, and horns and is followed by
goats
(buck goats and rams)--and whose name is--The Goat (I am almost certain
of
this, but it would be nice to check the facimile). He can appear very
beautiful or very ugly as he desires. He helps his chum Magroo out by
scaring the bejabers out of the High Kings troops.
Of course, the real magic in the Irish--there are wordplay/puns in the
text
which are impossible to render in English. I disagree with the
Ó Tuathail
on line 16 and I translate it as 'lair of lust unending'. This
may be a
case of a double meaning hidden in the text which SOT neglected to
mention
to me. By his definition the 'harbour of complete attentions' is a
meditative state in which one is focused to compose magical spells. I
suppose the two translations may both be valid, but I can find no
support in
the learned tomes for his reading (that does not mean that it is not
there),
I shall keep on looking. There is lexical support for mine. I
have also
'punched up' The Ó Tuathail‚s translation a little--forgive me
Seán.
There are strange details in this tale like the most dreaded weapon of
the
High King: Three Shee women who can turn themselves into armoured sheep
with
iron beaks spewing poison and fire--talk about weapons of MAAASS
Destruction! For some reason, killer sheep remind me of
Python--Monty, not
Typhon. But hey, this is Ireland, and you have use the animals
loitering
about for your Killer Magic Beast Shapes.
My favorite prose line from Father Ó Duinn‚s English version
is: 'O Cormac,
have you distributed the cows?'
My second favorite being: 'We prefer our continous tax system and
compensation for our hero, Art Mac Coinn, to a single lump donation.'
Another: 'If Magroo can‚t help you...nobody can.'
There is something very Yamabushi-like about Magroo--though he is
certainly
not an ascetic--and he don‚t need no steeeking swords, though he is
'packing'.
But maybe that is a subjective impression on my part. The type of
Draiocht I
was introduced to could best be described as a cross between Taoism and
Shinto--though there are significant differences between those belief
systems and Draiocht. But I would still say they are the closest
to
catching the flavor of ancient pagan Ireland. I have always
thought that
the Seige would make a great humourous/serious "Irish samurai" film.
And by
coincidence part of my family is Japanese--the Irish part.
