I had a fruitful meeting with my professor today. We went over much of what I found. One of the things we discussed was the VITOLOS inscription in Northern Italy. He pointed out a mistake I had made in my discussion earlier. That is for the í to develop there would have to be an O or an E in the word. Thus it would be VOITOLOS or VEITOLOS for it to be come Fíthal (we also discovered that it must be Feethal rather than Fehthal). Otherwise, VITOLOS is a Celticization of Vitolus, a common Roman name. What he would be more interested in is if it was in all capitals on a pedestal. That would give us a way of making Fíthal a converted God figure (it seems everyone in Celtic Studies gets excited when they can do that). So poor Vitolus could have been some random Roman who died in the area and the Celts are scratching their heads going "Who is this guy? Well, we know he is Roman. Do you know any good Roman names? Oh, we have heard VITOLOS a bunch. Yeah, that is his name. Now where is that beer again?"

Anyway, we are going to concentrate right now on a poetic conversation between Fíthal and Cormac mac Art. Fortunately, they have a high resolution scan of the manuscript (it is very large so beware). The poem begins with a prolog in the second column in the middle where the capital "F" is. I am going to have a crack at translating it and so is he. We will then compare notes. I am also going to join in an early Irish poetic metrics class. They wrote in meter all the time so I might as well know how to identify it.

Before my meeting, I went out to take more pictures. Well, at the National Museum of Scotland, my batteries finally died. I had some extras. Well, my camera takes an extra special type of battery. So I wandered all over Edinburgh until I find myself at a specialist camera shop. They tell me that they do not sell the batteries that I need in the UK. I would have to import them from the US. Well, after some gnashing of teeth, we figured out that some of their ultra high end researchable batteries will work in it. I had to pay out the nose to get them and I have to wait for them to change before I can use them. So I uploaded the pictures that I had taken.

Otherwise, it was exhausting to walk all over then go up the stairs so I am going to go to bed early tonight. I have to get ready for my friend who is arriving on Saturday so I am going to get the place cleaned up. Not that it is a pit or anything. I just want to make sure I have everything that I need.

posted by Chris  #6:29 PM | 0 comments |