Mannin. The Isle of Man or, in Manx, Ellan Vannin. Said to have
been named after Manannan Mac Lir, it is often referred to as the
"Island of the Ocean God." The island is mentioned several times
in the myths and sagas. Little is known about the island before the
fourth century A.D. It. was originally thought to have been Brythonic Celtic-speaking. Goidelic, or Gaelic-speaking, settlers began to arrive from Ireland at this time, effecting a language change. Several Ogham inscriptions have been found on the island.
The Kingdom of Man and the Isles included the Hebridean
Islands as well as Man. It was not until 1263 that the Manx lost the
Western Islands to Scotland following the battle of Largs. The last
independent king of the island, Magnus, died in 1266. He ceded
the kingship to Alexander III of Scotland. But the English also
coveted the island, and there began a series of conflicts and occupations through which the Manx still managed to govern their own domestic affairs through their ancient parliament, Tynwald (Thingvollr), which has the longest continuous history of any legislature
in the world. The elected house in the Tynwald is the House of
Keys (from Manx kiares-es-feed---twenty-four-the number of
elected members). In 1346 the English finally drove out the Scots
and set up permanent rule on the island. Edward III appointed
William de Montecute as "King of Mann" on the condition that de
Montecute acknowledge him as his suzerain.
In 1504 the title was changed to "Lord of Mann." In 1736 this
lordship was inherited by the duke of Atholl, who sold it to the
English government to pay his debts. In May 1866, after threatening to annex the island, the English government recognised the Tynwald as a popularly elected parliament and the island became a Crown dependency outside the territory of the United Kingdom.
Manx. The language of the Isle of Man, closely related to Irish and
Scottish Gaelic and descending from a Common Gaelic (Old Irish)
form. Manx emerged as a identifiable written language in 1610, the
date of the Manx translation of The Book of Common Prayer. Manx
shared a common Old Irish literature and, indeed, Aodh De Blacam
has observed: "Manxmen were among writers of scholastic verse
that survives in the corpus of Irish letters" [ Gaelic Literature Surveyed, Talbot Press, Dublin, 1929, p. 366]. It has become hard to discern what writing in Old and Middle Irish is of Manx provenance and what is Irish or Scottish. That the same literary heritage
was shared in this early period is illustrated by an account of a visit to the Isle of Man by the chief bard of Ireland, Seanchan Torpeist
(ca. A.D. 570-647). It is recorded that he arrived on the island with
50 of his followers and entered into a literary contest there.
That stories from mythology, cognate with the early Irish tales,
survived on the island in oral tradition is attested. However, the
first written evidence does not occur until the eighteenth century.
For example, the ballad Manannan Beg, Mac y Leirr, ny slane coontey
jeh Ellan Vannin (Little Manannan, son of Leirr, an account of the
Isle of Man) dates from 1770, when rwo versions were copied down
by John Kelly from oral tradition [Manx Museum mss. 519 and
5072]. From the wording it would appear that the oral composition
was composed, or added to, during the time of Thomas III of Man
(1504-1521), whose landing on the island in 1507 is described. It
is also clear from the wording that Thomas III was still alive when
it was composed. There are fourteen examples of obsolete Manx
grammatical forms in the poem, which places it to an early period.
Another example is the ballad Fin as Oshin (Fin and Oshin). This
was copied by the Manx scholar Reverend Philip Moore, one of the
supervisors of the translation of the Bible into Manx. The ballad
concerns the heroes Fin and his son Oshin, Fionn Mac Cumhail
and Oishn (Fingal and Ossian in Scots form). This Manx version
adds a unique contribution to the myths known in Irish literature
as the Fenian Cycle. It enrwines "King Orry" (Godred Crovan) into
the story. Moore copied the verses down from the recitation of an
old Manx woman and gave a copy to Deemster Peter Heywood. In
1789 Heywood presented the manuscript to Professor Thorkelin of
Copenhagen, who, in turn, presented it to the British Museum.
Maol. [I] The bald. A druid of Laoghaire who, with his brother
Calpait, taught Laoghaire's daughters Ethne and Fedelma.
Maponos. Gaulish, "The Divine Youth." See Mabon.
Marban. [I] A swineherd who became the chief poet of Ireland after
contesting with Dael Duiled, the ollamh of Leinster.
March ap Meirchion. Welsh version of Mark of Cornwall.
Mark of Cornwall. Mark features in the medieval tales of Tristan and
Iseult as the husband of Iseult and uncle of Tristan. He is generally
depicted as an unsympathetic person, becoming a base figure in
Malory's Morte d'Arthur (ca. 1469). There is enough evidence to
show that a historical King Mark existed in Cornwall in the
sixth century A.D. The name Mark comes not from the Roman
praenomen, "Marcus," but from the Celtic word for "horse" [Cornish-margh; Breton-marc'h; and Welsh-march]. Significantly, in Beroul's twelfth century rendering of Tristan and Iseult's "
story, the poet actually states that Mark has ears like a horse.
Reference to Mark of Cornwall comes into the medieval "Lives"
of several Celtic saints. In the "Life of St. Pol de Leon," written
about A.D. 880 by Urmonek, a monk of Landevennec in Brittany,
we are told that St. Pol (who gave his name to Paul, near Penzance)
was Mark's chaplain. Mark had a beautiful set of hand bells. When
Pol left Cornwall to take his mission to Brittany, he asked Mark for
one of the bells. Mark refused. When Pol was on the lIe de Baz, nearm Roscoff, a fisherman caught a large fish, and on cutting it open one of Mark's bells was found inside and it was given to the saint. A sixth century hand bell is preserved with St. Pol's relics in the ,
cathedral of St. Pol de Leon in Brittany.
In this same "Life" the author tells us that Mark had another name" quem alio nomine Quonomorium vocant" (whose other name was Quonomorius). This would be the Celtic name Cunomor or ",
"hound of the sea." Urmonek further says that he was a powerful monarch under whose rule lived peoples speaking four different languages. We hear of him as usurpIng the rule of King Judal of
Dumnonia and being defeated by the diplomacy of St. Samson (ca.
A.D. 490-ca. 565), whose "Life," written within fifty years of his
death, is by far the eatliest biography extant of a British Celtic saint.
Marcus Cunomorus also comes down in Breton tradition, as well as
Cornish, as the ruler of Carhaix in Cornouaille. There is also a
Carhays in Cornwall associated with Mark. In Breton tradition,
Mark is an unscrupulous tyrant.
See Tristan and Iseult for reference to the "Cunomorus Stone"
near Castle Dore.
...MANN--MAR..
