[tirrigh-heralds] Consultation and Progression Advice

[Kevin Garvey]

Dia duit,

A dear friend of mine, and scholar far beyond my wisdom and years has submitted the following information to me for advice. 
>From my very limited Book knowledge it would seem a submission sheet with this attached would be a fine, over-killed, document to send in to the College. 
What, if anything, shall I tell my Gael brother?


Caemgen mac Garbith,
Ex-Sable Loat



"Cú Collchaille Echduine
James Acken (member no. 78206)
 
The following paragraphs are in support of my application to register the name Cú Collchaille Echduine as my society name.
Cú Collchaille is a Classical Gaelic (Pre-Early Modern Irish) form of an nominal construction popular throughout most of the Irish Middle Ages. There is one instance of its use in this particular form (i.e. Cú Collchaille); the Annals of Ulster, The Annals of the Four Masters and the Annals of Loch Cé all cite the same individual under the same circumstances. In 1119, Cú Collchaille Úa Baighelláin was killed among the Fear Luircc alongside his wife, two sons and a large number of his countrymen. The annals call him the high poet of Ireland (ard ollam Erenn) for poems and sagacity, though he appears nowhere else in the extant corpus. In the same year, Aodh Úa Con Chenainn (Aodh grandson of Cú Cenainn) died, while four years previously Cú Slebe Ui Fearghal's son, Domhnall, died; The name Cú thus possessed a great deal of popularity. This popularity extended down into the sixteenth century with several examples being Cú Chonnacht Maguire in the sixteenth century to whom Tadhg Dall Ó hUiginn wrote several bardic poems, several individuals of the late fifteenth and sixteenth centuries named Cú Mhaighe, and (the most famous being) Cú Choigcríche (i.e. Hound of Five Borders) who was the scribe of Royal Irish Academy MS 1220 (olim C iii 3) along with Míchél Ó Cléirigh (ca. 1590-1643), his cousin.

The most usual construction is Cú (hound) + a noun in the genitive, as in Cú Chulainn: 'the hound of Cualann'. Neither are these specifically placenames in the genitive, as Cú Cuallachta, 'Hound of the wolf-litters' (d. 1181), exemplifies. The earliest historical form of this construction can be found in entries of the Annals for the seventh century; Cú Gamna or 'hound of the Calf' and Cú Cen Mathair or 'Hound without a Mother' can be found at this time and the latter as late as the ninth century. These show that while the basic construction generally holds true, the name relies primarily on the idea of a hound associated with a place or quality. Hence Cú Collchaille denotes a 'Hound of a Hazelwood' and Cú Cuimne, a 'Hound of Memory' (d. 742), both are appropriate appelations for a sage or poet since hazelnuts were associated with inspiration and memory was a necessary quality for the scholar. 

Echduine as a final element of this name is merely an extension of the genetival phrase collchaille. In nearly all instances of the name Cú, the second element is considered of one part with the first, as is shown in the instances such as Cú Slebe Úa Fearghal and Cú Chonnacht Maguire. Edmond Hogan sites Trinity College Manuscript H.1.18 as the source for one Eguin Echdúine ó Maolsheachloinn Mide (Eginn of the Horse-fort, grandson of Maolsheachlainn of Meath). Hogan interprets Echdúine as Ech-dún: horse-fort, although there is a distinct possibility that Echduine, interpreted as horse-man on the analogy of Echbél (horse-mouth) in Scéla Muicce Meic Dá Thó, is an approximation of the name Hector. The name Alexander was very popular in Gaelic Scotland through translations of classical Greek tales and Hector, tamer of horses from the Iliad, was often rendered echduine. Whichever is the case, Echduine is fitting for Cú Collchaille as it either works as 'Hound of the horse-fort's hazelwood' (interpreting Echdúine as a genitive singular of ech-dún) or as 'Hound of the Horsemen's Hazelwood (interpreting it as a genitive plural of Echduine). The difference lies in whether or not an accent is placed over the 'u'.
 
Works Cited:
Edmund Hogan, SJ, Onomasticon Goedelicum locorum et tribuum Hiberniae et Scotiae: An index, with identifications, to the Gaelic names of places and tribes(Hodges Figgis: Dublin, 1910) [online]. Available athttp://publish.ucc.ie/doi/locus
Eleanor Knott ed. and trans., The Bardic Poems of Tadhg Dall Ó hUiginn, Irish Texts Society (London: Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent & co, 1922).
Kathleen M. O'Brien (2009) Index of Names in Irish Annals: Cú Chonnacht [online]. Available at <http://medievalscotland.org/kmo/AnnalsIndex/Masculine/CuChonnacht.shtml> 14 June 2010. She records some twenty other forms of names based on the formula Cú + a modifying noun in the gentive (e.g. Cú Catha, Hound of Battles; Cú Mara, Hound of the Sea; and Cú Muman, Hound of Munster.)
Rudolf Thurneysen ed., Scéla Muicce Meic Dá Thó, (Dublin: DIAS, 1935) 
Annals of the Four Masters, Annals of Loch Cé, Annals of Ulster; all available at the Corpus of Electronic Texts (http://www.ucc.ie/celt)"