AN EXTRACT FROM THE HIBERNICA MINORA.
Trans. Kuno Meyer 1894
(Rawlinson B.512)
Kailleoracht inso sis
Guide us,O Christ, that rulest the sea
Around the mighty vast world,
that I may tell what signifies the voice
of the wind on the kalends of January.
Leite uns, O Christus, Herr des Ozeans,
Um die große weite Welt,
Sodass ich den Klang des Windes im Januar,
Am ersten Tag des Jahres, deuten kann.
(…)
If it is Fiaccina from the north (antuaid),
There will be noise of red-sworded battle,
Death of the sinnful, plague and heat,
Drought and heavy distress.
Wenn Fiaccina kommt aus dem Norden,
Wird es laut mit rotschwertigem Kampf,
Tod für die Sünder, die Pest und die Hitze,
Dürre und Drangsal so schwer!
(…)
Fiaccina sees both the upper wind, the Sun and the Moon,
and lower wind from the North. Fiaccina brings death, battle,
plague and drought. The North is the direction of the Winter when
many folk were reduced to raiding their neighbours for food if the
harvest was poor. More fortunate folk were fending off the raiders
and living indoors most of the time in damp and unsanitary
conditions that were conductive to the spread of plague. They were
entirely reliant upon preserved food and malnuitrition was rife.
(…)