Ériu

Sraif, 'sulphur'

From a medical perspective, there is no good reason to emend sraif to ruib 'rue', particularly as the plant common rue was not typically prescribed for skin conditions. Various medical compendia prescribe it to provoke menses (and hence abortions), to cure eye afflictions, for intestinal ailments, or as antidote for poison or venomous bites. The first-century botanist Dioscorides, author of the hugely influential work Περὶ ὕλης ἰατρικῆς, translated into Latin as De materia medica perhaps as early as the second century (Kinney 2022, 87) but definitely by the sixth century (see Osbaldeston 2000, vol. 1, xxx), actually mentions that (common) rue is ulcerating (Osbaldeston 2000, entry 3-52, pp. 423–4). In other words, common rue can actually cause wounds.¹³ As such, it is doubtful that it would be applied to a king's face.

Sulphur, sraif, on the other hand, was used in medicine to remove skin irregularities and as a cure for skin disease. It was said to cure leprosy as well as other skin disorders including morphew, impetigo, vitiligines, leukoderma, and pityriasis (flaking of the skin, which in one form occurs as a rash), and was said to stop excessive blood flow when inhaled.¹⁴

The function of sulphur in medical compendia, it should be noted, differs in part from the function ascribed to it in the text and glosses to BDC. In the [End Page 77] main text of BDC, sulphur is used 'for healing' (fri slaine), explained in the gloss as cnesugud, wound closure. In contrast, the main function of sulphur in the medical texts, which is to ensure even-looking skin, conforms more readily to the function ascribed in BDC to airgetlam, 'orpiment'. In the main text of BDC, orpiment is used 'for skin' (fri cnes), explained in Binchy's gloss (4) as .i. dia comardugud naroib fan ann, 'to make it even, so that there may be no cavity in it.'

Argadluim (also airgetlam, arcetluim) 'orpiment'

According to classical and medieval medical tracts, orpiment was typically used in cautery and the formation of scabs. In medical applications,¹⁵ orpiment was first heated, then pulverized and put in jars. According to Dioscorides, as a medicine, it 'is antiseptic, astringent, and scab forming with a burning, strong, biting strength, and it is one of those medicines that repress abnormal growths and make the hair fall out' (Osbaldeston 2000, 805, entry 5-121).

Orpiment further occurs in the fourth-century Herbarium by Pseudo-Apuleius,¹⁶ where it is combined with the herb marrubium (white horehound) to treat bissolas, potentially 'fistulas' (Kinney 2022, 358), abnormal openings between organs or an organ and the surface of the skin, often caused by injury or surgery.

Orpiment can be found in later Irish medical tracts as well, in for example a poultice in a fifteenth-century tract on wounds, translated from Latin,¹⁷ edited by Winifred Wulff in 1934. This poultice aids broadly speaking in preventing a wound from festering:¹⁸ Item arin cedna gab comtrom don [End Page 78] litargium ₇ airgedluim ₇ ola ₇ berbtar com[b]a tiugh ₇ a cur na ceirin arin crecht. (Wulff 1934, 10, paragraph 19), 'Item for the same give equal quantities of lithar(a)ge, orpiment and oil and boil until it is thick and apply it as a poultice to the ulcer.'¹⁹

Another example occurs in the fifteenth-century medical manuscript TCD MS 1698, p. 9, ll, 16 and 18. This manuscript contains a variety of medical material, including an adaptation of Petrus de Argellata's Chirurgia, a discussion on wounds, particularly on how to close wounds, a recipe on oxymel, and a tract on diseases of the hair and head. The recipe in question occurs in the discussion on wounds, in a series of recipes to cure wounds and remove ainmfheóil, which is likely proud flesh (i.e., hypergranulation of tissue that protrudes from a wound's surface):

Do cnesugud na n-uile cned .i. mín airgitluime do cur orra ₇ is cumachtach in leigheas sin.

For the closing up/healing of all wounds: place powdered orpiment on them, and that remedy is powerful.

(my transcription and translation)

Finally, in IMM, orpiment combined with soap is prescribed for curing morphew (discolorations of the skin) and rash.²⁰

Lungait

This then leaves the substance lungait. Binchy speculated as to the meaning of lungait and suggested that it looked 'like an old fem. participle (like birit, binit, canait, etc.), but I cannot identify the verb; hardly longaid "consumes, eats"' (Binchy 1966, p. 55). Neither he nor Kelly went so far as to offer a translation.

eDIL tentatively links the word lungait/luingit with the dat. pl. lungetaib (eDIL s.v. ? lungetaib), which occurs in a description of Cú Chulainn's chariot in TBC 1, l. 2946: co lungetaib findruine, 'with lungait/lungeta (?) of electrum', but it is unlikely that this is the same word. In fact, in TBC 1, O'Rahilly notes that the word lungetaib '…may be a scribal error. There is a mark ("acute accent" Edd. TBC²) over the g. We might take this as a deleting [End Page 79] mark and read lunetaib, dp. of loinit (loinid), "a churn-dash", here with some such meaning as "pistons" or perhaps the front shafts (as opposed to feirtse, those at the back)' (TBC 1, 279).

Since airgetlam and sraif are mineral in nature, it would stand to reason that lungait might refer to a mineral as well, or perhaps a metal. Some potential candidates for lungait from a purely medical perspective include lead in various forms. See for example the entries in Dioscorides's work on washed lead, burnt lead, lead slag (scoria), and lead stone (Osbaldeston 2000, 790–2, entries 5-95 through 5-98). All these substances can be used to close pores, fill up wounds, and prevent abnormal growths. Other substances like silver salt, plumbago, dross, silver slag, or litharge (Osbaldeston 2000, 793–4, entries 5-100, 5-101, and 5-102 respectively) could be viable candidates as well, as they function in similar ways.²¹

The problem is that none of the extant Irish words for these substances even vaguely resemble the word lungait. The more regular Irish term for lead is lúaide (eDIL s.v.). Slag is cáer (eDIL s.v.); silver dross may be what was meant by the potentially Irish phrase arcat sal, present in the ninth- or tenth-century Leiden Leechbook (Falileyev and Owen 2005, 49);²² the common term for ore is méin or mían (eDIL s.v.v. 1 méin, 2 mían); and litharge is found later on as the loanword litargium in the recipe on wounds given above.²³

It is possible that lungait is a medical loanword as well, borrowed from Latin (or from Greek via Latin), like litargium above. However, none of the medical compendia that I examined contains an obvious term for lead, slag, ore, litharge, dross, or plumbago that could have become Irish lungait.²⁴

Binchy may have been correct in taking lungait as a participial form –but rather than from the verb longaid 'eats, consumes', it might stem from the verb loingid/longaid 'banishes (over sea), drives out', i.e., 'something that has been driven out/cast away',²⁵ hence by extension a general term for waste material that separates during the refining or smelting process, that [End Page 80] one might cast away. Lungait might then refer to a byproduct like dross or slag in general.

Of course, just because sulphur and orpiment are mineral in nature, this does not mean that the word lungait could not refer to an herb or plant. In that case, the Irish word lungait might be a loanword connected with the Greek plant name λογχῖτις, found in Dioscorides' De materia medica, that appears to refer to a type of fern (for the text, see Manuzio and Torresanus 1518, f. 116r; for translation see Osbaldeston 2000, 3-161 and 3-162; Osbaldeston suggests either the translation 'shield fern' or 'holly fern'). This term was borrowed into Latin as lonchitis. It occurs as such in Pliny the Elder's Naturalis historia,²⁶ dated to the first century CE, which, as stated above in footnote 13, was a major influence on medieval herbals and medical texts.

The most fitting candidate for our purposes in Dioscorides's work is the plant referred to as λογχῖτις ἑτέρα (lit. 'a different/another lonchitis'; for the text, see Manuzio and Torresanus 1518, 116r), since a decoction of this plant, when drunk with vinegar, 'is able to cure wounds and remove inflammation, and…reduces the spleen' (Osbaldeston 2000, 533, entry 3-162). In other words, a poultice made with this plant would help prevent infection, and hence combat the redness of the inflamed skin around a king's facial wound. This means that its function as described in the works of Dioscorides in particular corresponds to the function assigned to lungait in the text and glosses of BDC.

If this interpretation is correct, it is noteworthy that BDC employs a technical term borrowed from classical medical literature, as opposed to using the more general Irish word for fern, i.e., raith (eDIL s.v. 1 raith).

A note on gall

The use of the term gall in the phrase tri lubai gall also merits discussion. It is traditionally taken as 'foreign' (see for example Binchy 1966, 27; Kelly 1998, 257). This is slightly problematic, however, since the adjectival use of Gall 'foreigner' in the sense 'foreign' is typically placed before the noun that it qualifies, e.g., gallbérla, 'foreign speech', gallíath, 'foreign territory' (eDIL s.v. 1 Gall). The meaning of 'foreign', in the sense 'medical compounds that did not exist in Ireland', is not without issues either. Assuming for a moment that the term lungait does in fact refer to a type of fern, many types of fern, including the holly fern and shield fern, are native to Ireland.²⁷ If instead, the term lungait refers to various types of slag and dross, these were common byproducts of metalwork and smelting, which would have been relatively [End Page 81] easy to obtain. From references in Early Irish legal tracts on the ownership of, for example, silver mines, and to the illegal digging of ores including iron, copper, tin, and gold (Kelly 1997, 435), we know that these materials were around in Ireland at the time of composition of BDC.

Although it is probable that orpiment was largely obtained through trade, as sources were more abundant in, for example, the Iberian peninsula, as well as France and Italy,²⁸ there were at least two locations in Ireland where orpiment was present. In other words, there is a possibility that not all orpiment was imported (Rachel Moss, personal correspondence).

Sulphur occurs as a component of orpiment. Although sulphur was far more abundant in other locations in medieval Europe (particularly places with volcanic activity, e.g., in Iceland; see for example Mehler 2015), sulphur was present in mines in Ireland as well, for example in Wicklow and at Silvermines in Tipperary (Kane 1844, 212 ff.). A 2012 discussion on the mining history in the Avoca District in Wicklow states that there are 'references to mining…as far back as the second century and again in the fifteenth century when small iron oxide deposits were exploited' (Wright et al. 2012, 553).²⁹ It is therefore possible that people could have obtained sulphur from Irish sources.

Based on this, it is more likely that, rather than 'foreign' ( = imported), we are to take the term gall in the phrase tri lubai gall in the sense that the materials mentioned were used by foreign physicians, in foreign medicine.

Alternatively, if the term lungait refers to dross or slag rather than a type of fern, the word gall might be a different word altogether. If we are dealing with three mineral or metal components, perhaps we are to take gall not as 'foreigner', but rather as 'stone' (eDIL s.v. 2 gall),³⁰ hence by extension 'mineral' or things extracted from stone. Although the base meaning for gall provided in eDIL is 'pillar stone' or 'standing stone', note the instance cited there where the acc. pl. gulla is glossed .i. clocha, 'gulla, that is, stones'. This would then give us the meaning 'three mineral remedies' (as opposed to botanical remedies).

The perceived value of the lubai gall

The final gloss in paragraph 9 of BDC stresses the importance of the lubai gall, as failure to produce them incurs a penalty of three half ounces of silver (Binchy 1966, 28–9):³¹ [End Page 82]

mani tairset .i. na .iii. luibe-so, ₇ nir cuinnig in liaigh, is a ic uadh .i. na tri lethuingi. ₇ mad docuingid in liaig ₇ nis tabair in fechem, is e icus na tri lethuinge.

if they be not forthcoming, viz. these three herbs; and [if] the leech has not asked for them, he must pay the three half-ounces. And if the leech asks for them and the defendant does not supply them, it is the latter who pays the three half-ounces.

From the relatively high fine, it seems clear that the physician should know to immediately request these specific items – failing to do so might demonstrate a serious lack of knowledge, or might constitute neglect with dire consequences in the form of a lasting blemish or facial deformity. If the defendant incurred a significant fine for failing to provide them, it stands to reason that these items might not have been particularly rare or difficult to obtain.

The question is how did people know these items were effective, and where did they obtain this knowledge? Leaving aside the problematic lungait, the fact that at least sulphur (sraif) and orpiment (argetlam) occur in much earlier medical sources from continental Europe and are used to treat similar conditions suggests that knowledge about the efficacy of these substances in Ireland may ultimately come from there.

The lubai gall in Uraicecht Becc

There is one other occurrence of the phrase lubai gall, namely in Uraicecht Becc, 'The small primer', CIH 1610.6–10, dated by Breatnach (2005, 316) to the ninth or early tenth century. The text in CIH comes from the Book of Ballymote 343b–344b, in the current foliation 185vb29–30, and involves a fine for a chicken's egg (my translation of the passage is given below):

diri uighi circi a lan do luibib gall ₇ sraiff ₇ luingit ₇ airgetlaím do rer na narsata sin.

In this citation, the substances sraiff, luingit, and airgetlaim are separated from the phrase tri lubai gall by the Tironian symbol ₇, which could be taken to mean that they are not actually part of the luibib gall (dat. pl.) mentioned there. Binchy suggested that the insertion of ₇ between gall and sraiff may have been a potential later scribal insertion (CIH 1610, fn. d), although this was contested by McManus based on the facsimile (1988, 160). From the images of the manuscript on Irish Script on Screen, it certainly does not appear to be a later insertion. This problem, however, is not as insurmountable as it may appear. The phrase is actually an explanation of the first couplet in a quatrain of poetry which precedes it (CIH 1610.8): [End Page 83]

Diri uighi circia lan doo luibib gall,ceitri cerca ₇ miacha[r]³² circ, clotach bann

A fine for a chicken's eggits fill of medicines of foreigners'/mineral remediesfour chickens and a bushelfor a chicken, a famed amount.

The text following the poem first explains the second part of the quatrain: Cetri cerca diri inti ₇ miach ar son aitgena, 'four chickens as payment for it and a bushel as restitution'. Then, it repeats the first two verse-lines, and qualifies what exactly is meant by luibib gall. It is this explanation of what these luibib gall are that begins with ₇. The ampersand may here be an error for an earlier .i. introducing an incorporated gloss. In that case, the text should be taken as: diri uigi circi, a lan do luibib gall .i. sraiff ₇ luingit ₇ airgetlaim, do rer na narsata sin, 'the payment for a hen's egg, its fill of foreigners' medicine [or 'mineral remedies']; that is, sulphur and lungait and orpiment, according to those antiquaries'.³³

The passage in BDC offers us a tantalizing glimpse at medicinal remedies used in seventh-century Ireland to treat wounds and prevent scarring. At least two of these remedies are mineral in nature. The efficacy and function of the identifiable materials in BDC corresponds to the functions of these materials as described in classical sources such as Dioscorides's De materia medica or Pliny the Elder's Naturalis historia. This would fit into the broader picture that is emerging from later saga texts, namely that Irish scholars were familiar with continental medical thought.