Trí fostadh:
foisdinecht,
gairde,
athchumairecht.
Three glories of speech: steadiness, wisdom, brevity.
Botanical name: Rubus fruticosus
Family: Rosaceae
Ogham: Muin
Scots Gaelic: Dris
Irish Gaelic: Sméar dubh
Welsh: Mwyar
French: La mûre
Message: Words have great power. You must use them wisely, but you must not fail to speak.
If you have been brambling or blackberrying in your life, you will soon understand the insight of linking this fid with the power of speech and the power of words. Brambles are not kind to the brash. In the Aidedh Ferghusa meic Léide, the king of the sidhe gives advice on species of trees, saying this about the bramble:
Bending wood the spiteful briar is,
burn he that is so keen and green;
He cuts, he flays the foot
the man that would rush forward he will hold back. (1)
But for those who are clever and careful, the blackberry yields its fruits.
Here we are given a perfect metaphor for the using of words.
Some have translated muin as ‘grape vine’, but archeological evidence calls that translation into question. According to Rowan Laurie, “Grapevines are not native to Ireland and barely grow in its climate. They were a much later import and even in the warmest historical periods were difficult to cultivate.” (2)
Although wine was imported from the Mediterranean as a high-status drink as early as 600 BCE, (3) the plant from which it came was not part of the lore of old Ireland. The blackberry, on the other hand, appears again and again in poetry and song as the symbol of love, beauty and plenty. In the tales of Finn, a good summer is described as being ‘of the beautiful blackberries’, and in one of the most famous Irish love poems of all, the blackberry is used to denote beauty:
‘s í bláth deas na sú craobh í,
‘s í planda b’fhearr méin mhaith
le hamharc do shúl;
‘s í mo chuisle, ‘s í mo rún í,
‘s í bláth na n-úll gcumhra í,
is samhradh ins an fhuacht í
idir Nollaig is Cáisc.
She’s the blackberry-flower,
the fine raspberry-flower,
she’s the plant of best breeding
your eyes could behold;
she’s my darling and dear,
my fresh apple-tree flower,
she is summer in the cold
between Christmas and Easter. (4)
In the Brehon laws, the blackberry is marked as one of the ‘sweet fruits’ and a Bush of the Wood. Clearing a stand of them earned the penalty fee of a heifer cow. (5) The price was so high because these plants were so valuable as a food source. Rich in folates, potassium, vitamin E and sugars, they were a welcome supplement to the diet of ancient peoples. Blackberry seeds have been found in the remains of Neolithic man’s stomach, blackberry shoots provided some of the first greens of spring, and ripe blackberries were an integral part of the Lughnasadh fairs, and the dishes served by lords to their client farmers and craftsmen at these times. (6) On the holy days, the usual system of clients paying their lords what they called ‘food rent’ was reversed, and lords held great fled or ‘hospitality feasts’ for their parishioners. The generosity of a lord was integral to his legitimacy: A lord who served bad fare could lose his holdings.
Why?
Because people talked. Unlike ancient England, which mainly focused on lineage as the deciding factor for one’s place in the world, ancient Ireland was a contractual country. A free man signed a contract to be, say, a herdsman or a warrior with a specific lord, and his contract stipulated what he was owed in return for his service. If he liked the work and the terms, he renewed his contract on a yearly basis at the festival of Samhain. (7) If he did not, he found a new lord.
This created a system that placed great importance in the way an individual was spoken of and prized truthful speech. Again and again in period texts, liars are shamed and abused. In the Brehon law defamation of character incurred the same debt to the wounded party as a physical injury requiring two days of bed rest (8), and we have numerous historical examples of the price actually being demanded of someone who spoke falsely by a brehon, ‘judge’. (9)
In this world, words truly had power. In this system, lords who were known to be stingy had fewer workers to tend their fields and beasts, fewer men to serve them under arms, and tended to suffer over time. A good master had good men. Thus, it paid to earn a reputation as a good lord and a good man. The man who did not remember this paid dearly for it.
One of the most famous stories in Ireland tells us just how high that price could be. It is the story of Caibre Mac Edaine the bard and Bres mac Eladain, who was high king.
In a world where words had power and the way others spoke of you decided your future, those who used words had enormous power. The Irish fillid went through intensive training to become walking libraries, able to advise on the past and record present events in ways that would make them easily remembered for the future. This recording included the great deeds of nobles, and the evil ones. Fillid were some of the first political satirists, and satire had a very practical purpose: To compose a satire against someone was to challenge their authority and call their honor into question. It was a potent weapon in an oral society.
The word fillid comes from the root word for ‘sight’, and Irish high bards were prized for their insight into situations and their clear articulation of history and present events. (10) By the time the Uraichech Becc law tract was written, the fili were of a higher social status than the druids and were classed with the lords, while the druids were classed as craftsmen. (11)
With this in mind, we can more easily understand the great crime Bres Mac Eladain did and why he paid for it.
Bres had proved himself an unpopular and thoughtless king when he took the throne after wounded Nuada was forced to abdicate. The boy was beautiful, but he had disdain for all under his rule. Forcing champions to carry firewood and lords to dig ditches, he humiliated them all from his high throne.
Now there came a cold night, and in it Caibre came knocking on the door of the king at Tara.
“Lord I come to tell tales for my food and for my keep,” he said when brought before Bres. The young king’s lip curled. “Well then, be about it,” he said.
And so Caibre sang and spoke the evening away for Bres and his folk. But when he had done his work he was taken, not to a good pallet in the castle, but to an outer shed.
It was narrow, dark, and dim. There was neither fire, nor bath, nor bed. Three small oat cakes were brought to him for dinner. Neither butter nor milk was offered. Caibre slept cold and hungry that night.
In the morning, he stood before the court and spoke. “Lord, I have a poem on your hospitality.”
“Well, be about it.” said Bres.
And Caibre spoke.
“Without food upon the platter, without a cow’s milk whereon calf thrives, without a house in the deep darkness, be that the luck of Bres Mac Eladain.”
The bard swept away in a flap of cloak. “Bres’s wealth will fail,” he said as he passed the threshold.
And as the bard said, it was so. By nightfall, Bres had broken out in hives, and by Samhain he had lost the contracts of his men. Soon he lost the throne.
The words we speak have great power for good and ill. We must remember to use our words in ways that help the folk and the world around us. Speak to raise another’s spirits. Speak to right a wrong. Speak to heal what’s harmed. Be thoughtful when you raise your voice, always. But never be afraid.
- “Aidedh Ferghusa meic Léide: The violent death of Fergus mac Léti”, Aodh Ó Dálaigh, transcribed, London, British Library, MS Egerton, 1782
- Ogam: Weaving Word Wisdom, Laurie, Erynn Rowan, Megalithica Books, 2007
- A Druid’s Herbal of Sacred Tree Medicine, Hopman, Ellen, Destiny Books, 1994
- Ireland’s Wild Plants – Myths, Legends & Folklore, Mac Coitir, Niall, the Collins Press, 2010
- The Brehon Laws: A Legal Handbook, Ginnell, Laurence, 1894
- A Druid’s Herbal of Sacred Tree Medicine, Hopman, Ellen, Destiny Books, 1994
- The Brehon Laws: A Legal Handbook, Ginnell, Laurence, 1894
- (10) (11) Williams, J. F. Caerwyn. Irish Literary History, Trans. Ford, Patrick K., University of Wales Press, English translation, 1992