Notes
1.
This article is based on the Bethu Brigte. Paragraph numbers
are based on those in the edition and translation by Ó
hAodha.
2.
This connection would possibly be seen to give women control
over milk for processes such as butter and cheese making, as
well as in the more negative sense of milk going sour.
3.This
is not to suggest that men had no involvement with milk. Indeed,
Kelly suggests that the milkers may have been of either sex,
one of the few examples of male milkers is Brigit's milker, described
in the Book of Leinster [Hereafter LL] genealogies as a man named
Colmán (Kelly 1997, 450-51,
LL vi.1663.50985).
4.
This happens in § 42, which reads "After that she healed
the old peasant woman who was placed in the shadow of her chariot
at Cell Shurd in the south of Brega."
5.
A version of this miracle can be found in the Vita I (§11).
6.
Lucas lists various characters in the texts that have associations
with red eared white cattle (1989:
240-43).
7.
'In fil ni beth
mian duit?' ar Brigit.
'Fil', olsi, 'manam-thi lemlacht, at-bel nunc'.
'Tuc dam mo chuad feisin lán, asi n-ibim linn, de uisciu.
Du-n-uc fot choim'.
Do-breth diCon-gair Brigit cuci ingin, 7 dixit:
-si iarum, 7 sensi combó lemnacht inbrothach, 7 ba ógslan
statim filia ubi gustavit. Condat da firt sin simul, id est lactis
de aqua factis, sanitas filiae.
8.
Nihil est cibi, duodenis exceptis panibus 7 parco lacte quod
tu benedixeras unaque ovicula quae praeparata est tibi.
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