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The Problem of ‘ Silua Focluti ’

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2016

Ludwig Bieler
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Extract

St. Patrick, in his account of that famous vision by which he was called back to Ireland (Confessio 23), mentions people qui erant iuxta siluam Focluti quae est prope mare occidentale. By Tírechán and the author of the Tripartite Life this locality has been identified with the ‘ wood of Fochloth (Fochlad) ’ in Connacht, a place-name commonly believed to survive in modern Foghill (Fochoill) near Killala, Tirawley, co. Mayo. This view has been taken for an established tradition until recent times. Newport White and Bury were the first to find difficulties in reconciling the silua Focluti of St. Patrick's vision with the tradition placing his Irish captivity near Slemish in the northeast. Many attempts to solve the problem have since been made.

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Articles
Information
Irish Historical Studies , Volume 3 , Issue 12 , September 1943 , pp. 351 - 364
Copyright
Copyright © Irish Historical Studies Publications Ltd 1943

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References

page 351 note 1 In quoting from St. Patrick's writings, reference will always be made to either the paragraphs or the pages and lines of Newport White's Libri Sancti Patricii (1905).

page 351 note 2 So A ; uirgulti B, uirgulti uelutique P, uirgultique F3, uirgulti ueluti R, uirgulti uolutique CF4, but uolutique is deleted in F4 corr. (Throughout this study, the MSS. of the Confessio will be symbolized as in Newport White's Libri Sancti Patricii)

page 351 note 3 From a topographical interpretation of the respective passages, Prof. O'Rahilly (The two Patricks, pp. 60 f.) has drawn the conclusion that some other place in the same district would better correspond to the descriptions found in those tests and, therefore, the identification of Fochloth with Foghill can be due only to the ‘ deceptive resemblance ’ between the names.

page 351 note 4 Literature since 1905 : Newport J. D. White, ‘Libri Sancti Patricii’, in Proc. R.I.A., xxv, sect, c, pp. 224, 290 (1905). J. B. Bury, The life of St. Patrick and his place in history (1905), pp. 27-30, 334 f. J. Healy, The life and writings of St. Patrick (1905), pp. 54-7 J. Gwynn, Liber Ardmachanus (1913), p. xci, n. I, p. ccxc. Giolla Phádraig (pseud.), ‘ The identification of Fochluth ’, in Cath. Bull., vii. 159 f. (1917). Newport J. D. White, St. Patrick, his writings and life (1920), pp. 6-11. Eóin MacNeill, Celtic Ireland (1921), pp. 10 f. Eóin MacNeill, ‘ Silua Focluti’, in Proc. R.I.A., xxxvi, sect, c, pp. 249-55 (1923). P. Walsh, ‘ Silua Focluti’ (review of Prof. MacNeill's paper), in I.E.R., ser. 5, xxii. 444-7 (1923). R. Thurneysen, ‘ Silua Uocluti’, in Z.C.P., xix. 191 f. (1931). L. McKeown, ‘ The wood of Foclut’, in Down and Connor Hist. Soc. Journ., iv. 40-4 (1931). H. Concannon, St. Patrick : his life and mission (1931), pp. 41-4, 234-41. R. A. S. Macalister, ‘ Silua Focluti’, in Journ. R.S.A.I., lxii. 19-27 (1932). J. F. Kenney, ‘ St. Patrick and the Patrick legend ’ offprint from Thought, June 1933, pp. 18-21. P Ó Domhnaill, ‘ St. Patrick's captivity’, in Down and Connor Hist. Soc. Journ., vi. 23-40 (1934). H. Morris, ‘ The wood of Fochluth ’, in Down and Connor Hist. Soc. Journ., viii. 5-16 (1937). Rev. P. J. McGoldrick and Rev. J. F O'Doherty, ‘ The place of St. Patrick's captivity’ (correspondence) in I.E.R., li. 314-5, 430-1 (1938) ; liv. 420-30 (1939). Rev. J. Mac Erlean, ‘ Silua Focluti ’, in Anal. Boll., lvii. 334-63 (1939). Rev P. Murray, ‘ The wood of Foclut ’, in Journ. Louth Arch. Soc, ix. 166-8 (1940). H. Concannon, ‘ Silua Focluti, Silua Uluti, or Silua Uirgulti?', in Féil-Sgríbhinn Eóin Mhic Néill (1940), pp. 282-5. T F. O'Rahilly, The two Patricks (1942), pp. 34 f., 60 f.

page 352 note 1 Not to speak of the intrinsic unlikeliness of this emendation, the process by which the reading silua Focluti should have originated is hard to imagine. Besides, Macedonian (without a distinctive complement such as alterant) could hardly be understood as ‘ a Macedonia ’ and even a poor Latinist like St. Patrick would never have spoken of people living ‘ by ’ (iuxta) a Macedonia.

page 353 note 1 Cf. Fr. MacErlean, p. 338.

page 353 note 2 St. Patrick, p. 6.

page 353 note 3 On Prof. MacNeill's reading iuxta siluam (uirgulti) Uluti—which has been adopted by Dr. Kenney, though, as I have learned from a recent interview, it is no longer maintained by Prof. MacNeill himself—compare the sound criticism of Fr. Walsh and Fr. Mac Erlean. Against the emendation proposed by the latter, iuxta siluam Uigulti Uluti, some caution has been recommended by Fr. Murray Mrs. Concannon's view (Féil-Sgríbhinn etc., pp. 282-5), against which objections have already been formulated by Dr. Kenney (p. 20, n. 53), Fr. P Grosjean (Anal. Boll. li. 167) and Fr. Mac Erlean (pp. 346-8), may here be dealt with in greater detail. Taking the text of the ‘ reliqui’ as her starting point, Mrs. Concannon supposes the genuine reading to be iuxta siluatn uirgulti. This, according to the author, is a literal translation of Caill Cleithe (‘ Wattle Wood ’), now Kilclief in co. Down, on the entrance to Strangford Lough. As to the origin of Focluti in A, Mrs. Concannon would accept Prof. MacNeill's solution, cf. p. 285. Caill Cleithe, so we are told, would yield a credible place of embarkment for St. Patrick's escape and, at the same time, would explain why the saint, on his return to Ireland, first landed in that district. This theory is open to serious doubt. First of all, Kilclief is Cell Cleithe ; there is no sufficient evidence of its having been named Caill Cleithe at an earlier time. With regard to the supposed place-name Caill Cleithe, it has been observed by Fr. Mac Erlean that silua uirgulti would be a rather inappropriate rendering; Caill Cleithe would be ‘ silua cratis ’, ‘ hurdle wood ’ Moreover, even silua uirgulti does not mean ‘ wattle wood ’. It seems doubtful whether it is Latin at all. The ‘ bush ’ may be called a uirgultum or, possibly, a silua uirgarum, but hardly a silua uirgulti. A further difficulty would be created by the fact that Patrick, when flying from Miliuc, would probably not have gone to a place where his master's daughter lived. To my mind however, the most serious objection is that neither the reading of A nor the second part of the reading of the ‘ reliqui ’, uoluti or ueluti(que), is satisfactorily accounted for. The reference to Prof. MacNeill's article in Féil-Sgríbhinn etc., p. 285, would merely imply that a form U(o)luti, instead of original Uirgulti, should have become Focluti in the Book of Armagh, but would leave the origin of the variant U(o)luti unexplained. In her book on St. Patrick, however, the author expresses her view in greater detail (p. 240 f.): ‘ The scribe who was first responsible for it (viz. the reading Focluti) meant to write uirgulti uoluti (i.e. “ twisted wattle ”, as in the Cottonian and Fell MSS.),. but left out uirgulti—the next copyist, finding uoluti where a place-name might be expected, wrote uocluti—which a later copyist, knowing of St. Patrick's connection with “ Fochloth ”, near Killala, made Focluti’ This, too, would only mean that all our MSS. descend from an exemplar with the corrupt reading uirgulti uoluti, without explaining its origin. Besides, uirgultum uolutum (the second word taken as a participle of uoluere), is a ‘ vox nihili ’

page 355 note 1 Mrs. Concannon's assertion (Féil-Sgríbhinn etc., p. 285) that ‘ the five (recte : six) copies of the Confession which have retained uirgulti are so different from each other that we cannot assume a common source’ is in flagrant contradiction to facts pointed out already by Haddan and Newport White. The more reserved statement in Mrs. Concannon's St. Patrick., p. 240, however, that ‘ we cannot assume an immediate common source’ does not prove what it is supposed to prove : that ‘ it would be curious, if five copyists made the same emendation ’

page 355 note 2 Vita Patricii (Colgan's Vita quinta).

page 355 note 3 Key to the symbols to be employed in the following list: Muirchú A and B : the Armagh and Burgundian texts of Muirchú respectively. LA : Liber Ardmachanus. V2, V3, V4 : Colgan's Vita secunda, tertia and quarta. Trip[artite Life]. E : Egerton MS. R : Rawlinson MS. Lis. : Book of Lismore. LB : Lebor Breacc. K : MS. King's Inns 10. Colgan : Colgan's Latin version, in Trias thaumaturga (‘ Vita septima ’). The lines of Trip, refer to Dr. Mulchrone's edition.

page 357 note 1 p. 336.

page 357 note 2 Cf. Fr. Mac Erlean, p. 337

page 357 note 3 Cf. Fr. Mac Erlean, p. 335.

page 357 note 4 Cf. Rev. P Walsh, p. 446 : ‘ Any scribe was capable of making the change before or at the time when the Book of Armagh was written ’

page 357 note 5 Cf. Prof. O'Rahilly, p. 34 : ‘ Without committing ourselves to the accuracy of the form, it will be convenient to refer to it as to the wood of Voclut’

page 358 note 1 Thurneyson's view, viz. that uirgulti has been inserted in the text in order to make the blunder (or tampering?) uoluti more intelligible, seems to have less support in the filiation of the MSS.

page 358 note 2 Prof. Macalister, p. 22.

page 359 note 1 St. Patrick, pp. 6-11

page 360 note 1 I uidi post innumerabilibus (2) A. / uisu : sinu A. / nocte (Ф), cf V3. / 2 cui nomen Uictoricus A: Uictoricius nomen PΔ. (Uictricius nomine Boll.). Uicoricum (Uictorem V4) nomine Ψ / 3 his A : illis (Φ). / 4 cum Δ Boll. Ψ: dum A. unc P / 5 ipso momento Boll. Δ (-te fort. R) Ψ ipso momente P : enim ipse in nente A. / ipsorum : illorum R. / 6 Uocluti] Focluti AΨ: uirgulti Ф, cf. supra pp. 357 f. / occidentale : occidentem PΔ. / 7 quasi—ore om. A. / 8-9 sancte mer A. Boll, (ex Usserio). sancte puer Patrici Ψ (excepta V2) : sanctum puerum 3 P Δ V2. / 8 ambulas A. / 10 expertus A: expergefactus (Ф)Ψ; but cf. Conf. 25, P. 243, 1. 12./ plurimos annos AΨ : annos plurimos (Ф).

page 360 note 2 248, 13 et ipsa Deo proximaret, if correct, is different.

page 360 note 3 Only 241, 17 in spiritum A (in spirttu Ф, Trip.-Colgan) is read in an uncertain passage.

page 360 note 4 pp. 357-9.

page 361 note 1 Geogr., ii. 2, 3 ; viii. 3, 2.

page 361 note 2 Ibid., ii. 2, 7

page 361 note 3 Agricola, 24;

page 361 note 4 Chorographia, iii. 6, 3.

page 361 note 5 Nat. hist., iv. 103.

page 361 note 6 Cf. the Thesaurus linguae Latinae, ii. 1045, 4-18. In a certain number of the instances there quoted, mare Atlanticum seems to denote the ‘sinus Atlanticus ’ i.e. the Mediterranean, cf. Philipp in Pauly-Wissowa, Real-Enzyklopädie, xiv. 1672 f. For mare Atlanticum meaning the Ocean, see e.g. Pliny, Nat. hist., iii. 74; et includitur Europae sinus primus ; in eo maria nuncupantur ; unde inrumpit, Atlanticum, b aliis Magnum; qua intrat, Porthmus a Graecis, a nobis Gaditanum freturn ; um intrauit, Hispanum, etc. The ancient nomenclature of the seas would deserve an exhaustive study

page 362 note 1 The ‘ Call of the Irish ’ has, at an early period, been transformed into a liturgical responsory, which, in its integral wording, is found at the end of St. Sechnall's hymn in the Liber Hymnorum : Hibernenses omnes clamant ad te pueri : Ueni sancte Patriot saluos nos facere. It would appear that from this liturgical version sancte intruded into Ω and that the reading of Ψ is a contamination of sancte Patrici with the original puer of Confessio 23.

page 363 note 1 Cf. R. Thurneysen, Z.C.P., xix. 191 : ‘so wird jeder, der unvoreingenommen an die Stelle herantritt, aus focluti und uoluti(que) ohne weiteres uocluti als die ursprüngliche Lesart herstellen ’

page 364 note 1 This, in substance, was the view taken by Prof. MacNeill in his earlier dealing with the subject, in Celtic Ireland (1921), pp. 10-11.

page 364 note 2 ‘The place of St. Patrick's captivity’, in Proc. R.I.J.,sect. c, xli. 131-40 (1928).