Bad nenaid co bráth a lucht!

(let be * nettles * to * doomsday * his * household)

May his household be nettles forever!

In other words, “May his house be deserted forever!” This malediction is included in “Mairg thochras ri clerchib cell”, a poem attributed to Diarmait mac Cerbaill and found in LL 149b36. Nettles (“nenaid”) are one of the three signs of a ruin or a cursed place, the other two being the elder bush (“tromm”) and the corncrake or landrail (“tragna”, modern “traonach”). “Trecheng Breth Féne” includes the triad “Trí comartha láthraig mallachtan: tromm, tradna, nenaid”, and “Cáin Adomnáin” (§23) talks of “three shouts of malediction on every man who should kill a woman… so that his heirs would be elder and nettle and corncrake (… comad he a comarbpa trom ⁊ nenaid ⁊ traghnae)”.

Topics: Curses & Insults