Colla dem inchaib!

Colla dem inchaib!

(go away * from my * face)

Get out of my sight!

In the tale “Aided Guill”, Cú Chulainn’s charioteer, Lóeg, berates the hero for failing miserably in his first encounter with Goll, flinging a string of tauting comparisons at him (see Rot·naisc…), ending with those words.

In the tale “Goire Conaill i Cruachain ocus Aided Ailella ocus Conaill Chernaig”, edited and translated by Meyer in ZCP i, Ailill uses a similar expression when he tells Conall Cernach:

“Not·beir éim as dem inchaib, resiu ba marb-sa.” = Take yourself out of my presence, before I die.” Conall had just mortally wounded Ailill, and the king’s command is actually a kindness, intended to allow Conall a chance to escape. In the end, Conall dies, too, as the title of the tale makes clear.

Topics: Exclamations