[168] These annals state that on one occasion (_A.D._ 869) Cennedigh of Leix, a brave Irish chieftain, was pursued by the Norsemen, who “blew their trumpets and raised angry barbarous shouts, many of them crying ‘_nui, nui_.’”
[169] Marstrander (_op. cit._, p. 156) suggests, however, that _roth_ may be an archaic form of the Irish _ruadh_, ‘red.’
[170] Cf. W. A. Craigie: _Gaelic Words and Names in the Sagas and Landnámabók_. (_Zeitschrift für Celtische Philologie_, Band I., pp. 439-454).
A. Bugge: _Vesterlandenes Indflydelse paa Nordboernes i Vikingetiden_, ch. 9. See especially pp. 358-359.
[171] There is an interesting account of the _gelt_ in the Old Norse _Konungs Skuggsjá_ (_Speculum Regale_):
“It happens that when two hosts meet and are arranged in battle-array, and when the battle-cry is raised loudly on both sides, cowardly men run wild and lose their wits from the dread and fear which seize them. And they run into a wood away from other men, and live there like beasts and shun the meeting of men like wild beasts. And it is said of these men then when they have lived in the woods in that condition for twenty years, that feathers grew on their bodies like birds, whereby their bodies are protected against frost and cold…”
Cf. Kuno Meyer: _On the Irish Mirabilia in the Old Norse “Speculum Regale”_ (_Eríu_, Vol. IV., pp. 11-12).
This bears a striking resemblance to a certain passage in the mediæval romance _Cath Muighe Rath_ (Battle of Moy Rath, p. 232. Ed. by O’Donovan). It may also be compared with another romance, which probably dates from the same period, viz., _Buile Suibhne_, (_The Madness of Suibhne_, ed. by J. G. O’Keefe for the Irish Texts Society). Cf. also _Hávamál_ (ed. Gering), str. 129, etc.
[172] Vilbald, a descendant of Kjarval, King of Ossory, had a ship called _Kuthi_, cf. _Landnámabók_, IV., ch. II. Todd (_War of the Gaedhil with the Gaill_, p. 299, n.) suggests Ir. _Cuthach_.
[173] According to _Jáns Saga hins Helga_, ch. 14 (_Biskupa Sögur_ I., Kaupmannahófn, 1858) King Magnus Barelegs sent an Icelander with other hostages to King Myrkjartan of Connacht. When they arrived there, one of the Norsemen addressed the King in these words: “Male diarik,” to which the King replied “Olgeira ragall,” _i.e._, Ir., _olc aer adh ra gall_, (it is a bad thing to be cursed by a Norseman.)