Note 237 — Chapter VIII · LITERARY INFLUENCE: THE SAGAS OF ICELAND AND IRELAND.

The poem is preserved in the Book of the Dun Cow (twelfth century), but the form of the language in which it is written is considerably earlier than this date; indeed, the meaning of the verses would be quite obscure if we did not possess explanatory glosses.

Cf. D’Arbois de Jubainville: The Irish Mythological Cycle, p. 96 (Best’s translation): also D. Hyde: A Literary History of Ireland, p. 285.

There is a possible reference to an Irish story-teller in an inscription on a stone cross at Bridgend (Glamorganshire). The inscription, which is thought to date from the seventh century, runs:—(Co)nbellini possuit hanc crucem pro anima eius Scitliuissi … Rhys takes scitlivissi to be an Irish word, a compound of viss (Ir. fis, ‘knowledge’) and scitl (scetlon, scél, a ‘story,’ ‘news’) and surmises that scitliviss might mean a ‘messenger,’ a ‘bringer of news,’ a ‘scout.’ (Cf. Celtic Britain, pp. 313-315.) But scitliviss can also be explained as ‘one who knows stories.’ In that case we might infer that story-telling was a profession in Ireland as early as the seventh century; but the reading appears to be too uncertain to justify us in attaching any great importance to the inscription.