Glas Gaibhnenn

Glas Gaibhnenn ( ga, Glas Gaibhnenn, Glas Ghaibhleann; Hiberno-English: Glas Gaivlen; Gloss Gavlen: pronunciation guide:/glas-gav-e-lan/;), in Irish folklore, is a prized fabulous cow of bounty (fertility) that yields profuse quantities of milk.

The cow is owned variously by a smith who may be named Gaivnin (hence reinforcing the notion that the cow's name is eponymous after him) or by the hero Cian mac Cáinte (sometimes called Mac Kineely), equivalent to Cian father of Lugh of mythology. The cow is stolen (or craftily regained) by Balar or Balor the strong-smiter. The hero, in order to fulfill the quest to recover the cow, is transported by a banshee to a tower where Balor's daughter is sequestered, to produce a child destined to kill Balor.

Name

The normalized ga, Glas Gaibhnenn is O'Donovan's correction to the raw transcription Glas Gaivlen given by the storyteller; A different phonetic transcription Gloss Gavlen is given by Larminie. O'Donovan spelled the cow's name as Glas Gaibhneach elsewhere. Additional spellings are: Glas Gamhain, Glas Gamhnach.

Descriptive etymology

The Glas is given as "the green (cow)" by John O'Donovan in his recension of the folktale concerning the cow. Whereas the full name means "Grey (cow) of the Smith" according to Larminie, and "Goibniu's Grey or Brindled (Cow)" according to Rhys. The "white heifer" Glassdhablecana′s name is glossed as "the grey-flanked-cow" in one variant tale. James Mackillop state the cow was "white with green spots".

So while commentators agree that '' glas'' "blue, green, gray, etc." is the colour of the cow's coat, they are at considerable variance in describing it.

Eponym

While O'Donovan's reconstructed ''gaibhnenn'' was construed as meaning "~of the smith" by Larminie,: "Gloss Gavlen" means simply the Grey (cow) of the Smith, gavlen being properly gavnen―(''gaibhnenn'') according to O'Donovan. Welsh scholar John Rhys went further and said its specified a cow possessed by Goibniu the Smith.

In the folktales, the name of the smith appears as Gavidjeen, Gavida, Gabshegonal, or Gaivnin, some which are close to the form of the owner's name for the cow.

Farrow cow

But the bovine creature's Irish name can also be broken down to ''glas'' (colour) and '' gamuin'' "calf, yearling", as have been indicated by the Rev. Patrick Power, church historian and writer on topographical names.

However, Jeremiah Curtin explains this differently: the form Glas Gainach which appears in one of his tales contain a corruption of ''gaunach'' which is a cow with a yearling calf, which hasn't calved in the current year (a farrow cow). And the form Glas Gavlen in his Donegal version references the cow-herder's term ''gavlen'' for a cow that has not calved in five years.

Mythological meaning

Power listed Glas Gamhain and Bó Bhán "white cow" (associated with Boann) as among names of mythological creatures after which landscape features or bodies of water were often named, while Patricia Monaghan wrote of Glas Ghaibhleann as a goddess often associated with rivers, and that rivers were often seen as embodiments of the goddess Boann. O'Donovan also observes that Glas Teamhrach was a "famous cow" associated with a mound on Tara.

Retellings

The folk-tale plot has been made familiar through retellings of Irish mythology, notably by Lady Gregory, but also others where we learn that Cian mounts on a quest to recover the magic cow, has a romantic encounter with Balor's daughter, fathering the child who is to become Lugh. The retelling was stitched together using additional bona fide medieval mythological writings to form a seamless retelling.

Lady Gregory's version

Lady Gregory's reworked version can be summarized as follows: Balor of the Strong Blows (or the Evil Eye) learns from his druids that he is fated to be slain by his own grandson. Consequently, he sequesters his only daughter Ethlinn. Around this time, at a place called ''Druim na Teine'' ("the Ridge of the Fire") lived three brothers, Goibniu the smith, Samthainn, and Cian together with the wonderful cow Glas Gaibhnenn. But one day when Cian comes to Goibniu's forge to have his sword wrought, leaving the other brother Samthain in charge of the cow, Balor comes along to trick Samthain into abandoning his guard, and steals away the cow back to his own island across the strait. Cian, seeks help from a druidess (and member of the Tuatha De Danann) named "Birog of the Mountain" who informs him that the cow could never be recovered while Balor was alive. With a blast of wind she conveys Cian to Balor's tower, and penetrating the prison, allows Cian opportunity for a tryst with Balor's daughter. In the retelling, the focus switches now to the fate of the child Lugh who is born between them, so the eventual fate of the cow remains untold.

Lady Gregory makes Balor's abode to be a Glass Tower, and it was written that a glass tower stood on Tory Island (in Nennius's ''Historia Brittonum'').

Larminie's collected folktale

William Larminie's collected version of the folk-tale, entitled "The Gloss Gavlen" was published later than the other example, but is discussed first since it retains the name Kian for the protagonist (The uncorrupted Irish form of this protagonist's name is thought to be Cian mac Cáinte).

Larminie's version has two parts, and begins with a carpenter named Gobaun Seer (Gobán Saor, "Goban the Builder") hired to build a fine castle for Balar Beimann ("Balor of the Mighty Blows") to boast. To prevent other lords from hiring the carpenter to build another castle to outdo his, Balar plots the carpenter's death. Gobaun survives, thanks to the warnings from Balar's daughter, and now proclaims he cannot perfect his work without his three specially named tools, which he makes Balor's son fetch from his home. Upon receiving this errand-bearer, the carpenter's wife deduces the situation, and slams shut Balor's son inside the tool-chest, and with the boy as hostage demands from Balor due wages and her husband's safe return.

The second part begins with the carpenter recommends the smith Gavidjeen Go (cf. Gaivnin Gow in another version; ga, gobha, gabha 'smith') to do the ironworks for the castle, and advises the blacksmith to refuse all rewards except "the Gloss", the cow which can fill twenty barrels. Balar obliged, but played the wily trick of not giving him the special "byre rope," without which the cow would stray off. The smith therefore now owned the cow but was at constant risk it may stray off, compelling him to hire champions on a daily basis to escort the cow safely back and forth from pasture, offering the forging of a sword in payment for any takers who would accept the task.

In this latter half of the tale, "Kian son of Contje" ( ga, Cian mac Cáinte) takes the offer to obtain his sword, but by carelessness allows the cow to wander off. He must now submit his head on the anvil block to have it chopped off, but requests three days of amnesty, and goes off to recover the cow. At the shore, he finds waiting "Mananaun son of Lir" in a coracle, ready to ferry him off to the whereabouts of the cow, in exchange for half of whatever Kian profits from the quest. In the land of cold, where meat is eaten raw, Kian is hired as cook, storyteller, and fireman (fire-stoker?). Thanks to Mananaun's lockpicking magic, Kian is able to frequent the chambers of Balor's daughter. When the girl bears him a son, Kian begs leave from Balor's service, and taking the infant and the byre rope, boards Mananaun's coracle. Balar discovers the situation and raises great waves and flames at sea, but Mananaun counteracts these with his greater magical prowess. Mananaun for his help obtains the child with Kian's blessing, and fosters him under the name of Dal Dauna. (This is explained as a corruption of Ildanach "master of all knowledge", the usual nickname for Lugh. This child one day happens upon the sight of Balar sailing past in his fleet, and tosses a dart in his pocket at Balar, thus killing him.

This first part has been recognized as a stock tale of the same type as the legends surrounding the Strasburg Clock and the " Prentice Pillar".

O'Donovan's collected folktale

In an independently collected cognate tale, Gavida, Mac Samhthiann or Mac Samthainn, and Mac Kineely ( ga, Mac Cinnḟaelaiḋ (Mac Cinnfhaelaidh)) are three brothers living on the coast of County Donegal, and across the strait on Tory Island