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Areadbhar [weapon:spear] [Celtic:ulster cycle/mythological cycle(?)]

AreadbharXXXXX, AreadbharXXXX [unreformed Mod.Ir.], Areadbhar[reformed Mod. Ir.]
[etymology:: Ir. "Ar"]
Name of the spear of Pisearr, king of Persia, which was one of the quest items that Brion, Iuchair, and Iucharba, the three children of Tuireann were compelled to retrieve in order to satisfy the eric (compensation) demanded by Lug. *1

In the more primitive version of the tale, the spear is merely referred to as the Spear of Assal.

One may also see a connection between it and the "spear of Nuada" named as one of the "Four Jewels of Tuatha dé Danann".

§ Cormac's Glossary [Sanas Cormaic] (d. 908)

According to Cormac's Glossary, Góibniu 3 made a fiery spear at the Battle of Moytura.
3 Ed. O'Donovan (1868) , p. 123. "Góibniu made a pole that burned those that he touched with it."
—Brown, Arthur C.L., "The Bleeding Lance", p.21
*1 O'Donovan, John, ed. Sanas Chormaic. Cormac's glossary. (Calcutta, Printed by O. T. Cutter for the Irish Archeological and Celtic Society, 1868.)[Cormac, King of Cashel, 836-908.]
This is one of the projectrs listed as in progress at CELT Corpus. Early Irish Glossaries Database

§ The Four Jewels of the Tuatha De Danann (9th c.[?])

    The story of the Four Treasures in the Lebor gabála Érenn "Book of Invasions", brought out of the four cities by the Tuatha Dé Danann mention the sword of Nuada.
This was brought from either Findias or Gorias, and was an irresitible sword which no one could withstand, and some ms. mention its poisonous property.
In one of the redactions, the prose narrative is accompanied by verse (Macalister's R3 ¶356 M 278 = third redaction in YBL, δ 39 =>)

   

Macalister's transcription/translation

A Findias tugad cloidheam Nūadhat, & nī tērnadh neach ūadha ar a nemnide, & ō dabeirthea as a thindtig bodba nī geibthea fris.
"ar a nemnide" omitted in B.
—Macalister ed. Lebor gábala VII, ¶357
 From Findias was brought the sword of Nuadu, and no man would escape from it by reason of its venom, and when it was drawn from its battle-scabbard there was no resisting it.
—Macalister's tr.

Vernam Hull's text and trans.

.. A Gorias tucad in claidheb bai ic Nuadaid.
:
Claidheb Nuadad, ni·thernad neach ara n-dergad …. O da·berthea asa thindtig bodba, ni gebti fris inti a m-bid laim.
—Vernam Hull's transcription

 From Gorias was brought the sword which belonged to Nuada. …
… No-one escaped from the sword of Nuada after he had been wounded by it, and when it was drawn from its warlike scabbard, no-one could resist against him who had it in his hand.
—Vernam Hull tr.

    YYYY
*1 R.A.S. Macalister,Lebor Gabála Érenn: The Book of the Taking of Ireland, Part IV (Irish Texts Society vol.41) (1941) [LOC]

*2 Vernam Hull, "The four jewels of the Tuatha Dé Danann". in Zeitschrift für Celtische Philologie. vol 18, Halle/Saale, Max Niemeyer (1930) 73-89 [LOC]

Sources:

  • Stern, L. C., "Eine ossianische Ballade aus dem XII. Jahrhundert", in Festschrift Whitley Stokes zum Siebzigsten Geburtstage am 28. Februar 1900 gewidmet, p.15
    "In der mehr-erwähnten Erzälung (ed. Duffy p.42. GJ. 2, 44) wird der Ausdruck Eó budh háille d'fhiodhbhaidh 'die schönste Eibe des Waldes' dem Könige Lug beigelegt, so wie Aillill Olom von seinem Sohne Eogan sagt: Rop có nas ind fhi 'er war eine Eibe über dem Walde' (LL 147a 32). Bedies, eó sowohl wie ibar, bedeutet 'taxus' [* Latin name of 'yew'] (LL 295a 8), den sonst seines Alters wegen berühten Baum (RC 12, 220, SG. 245). Es ist aber wahrscheinlich, dass ibar áilie d'fidbaid ursprünglich Lugs Speer bezeichnete (in der Erzählung Aréadbhair genannt), den die Turenuiden von Assal oder Pirris oder Pisear, dem Könige von Persien, holten (p. 27); denn nach dem Buche von Lecan heisst er eibar álainnn fidhbhaidea 'the yew th finest of timber' (O'Curry 2, 325), und den Speer aus Eibenholz kennt man auch sonst 'Letum triste ferens auras secat Itala taxus', sagt Silius Italicus 13, 210. Früh scheint man die Bedeutung des gesuchten Wortes misverstanden zu haben.

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