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Níor fhágas aon phioc dá neart gan féachaint

I didn't neglect to spy on any of their military forces.

My problem is that it is féachaint AR - is this sentence all right with no "air" in it?

Yes, because it is clear what is being observed.

"féachaint" without the preposition can mean "try", "test out".

"Níor fhágas aon phioc dá neart gan féachaint" = literally, I left not a bit of their strength without testing (it).

Think of the common expression: "Bhíodar á dh'fhéachaint le chéile" = vying with one another (in football match, etc)

Also "ag féachaint le rud a dhéanamh" = trying, attempting

Mh'anam bhíos féachta go maith théis an chluiche = exhausted, literally "tryed out", "put to the test".

Also "duine a chur chuin féachana/ar a fhéachaint/féachaint a chuir ar dhuine = to put someone to the test

I see, but I think Aonghus' explanation makes sense, as it is clearly "forces" and not "strength" here - it is usually used for forces (neart sló) in Niamh. The whole context is:

quote:

“Anonn go crích Lochlann a chuas ar dtúis,” ar seisean, “a ríthe. Duart liom féin go dtabharfainn fúthu pé rud a dh’imtheódh orm. Ní fheadar ceoca do haithníodh me nú nár aithníodh. Má aithin éinne me níor leog sé air gur aithin sé me.

“Níor fhágas aon phioc dá neart gan féachaint, agus do bhreithníos a neart chómh cruínn agus d’fhéadas é ’ bhreithniú. Táid na daoine go léir as a meabhair, ba dhó’ le duine, le dúil teacht go hÉirinn agus seilbh a ghlacadh in oileán na hÉireann agus cur fúthu ann.

Go dtabharfainn fúthu - this is also a little opaque for me. I know tabhairt fé means "tackle, attempt" OR "attack". And Caoilte was previously arrested in Scandinavia and held under blindfold and then told that if he ever came back to Scandinavia, he would be beheaded. So he could mean "I would fight back, attack them, if they tried anything on me", but I think it means "I decided to get to grips with them (and what they were doing), whateve happened to me" - but maybe someone more competent than I would reach a different conclusion?

>>>Also "duine a chur chuin féachana/ar a fhéachaint/féachaint a chuir ar dhuine = to put someone to the test

That's interesting. In PUL's gospels, where Christ tells Satan "thou shalt not put the Lord thy God to the test" - he uses fromhadh - from the English word "prove", but I was told that this was a very strange usage and not the most natural way of putting it in Cork Irish...

>>>>Also "duine a chur chuin féachana/ar a fhéachaint/féachaint a chuir ar dhuine = to put someone to the test
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This also sounds like a partial confusion with "cur d'fhiachaint ar dhuine rud a dhéanamh" - which PUL uses without d' (cur fhiachaint). And also cur d'fhiachaibh, which PUL has as cur fhiachaibh.

Ní haon iúnadh dithneas a bheith orthu chun na tíre ’ dh’fhágáilt agus teacht chun cónaithe i dtír a dhéanfaidh, dar leó, iad do chothú díomhaoin.
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díomhain can mean lazy or "uncultivated" or land.

Does díomhaoin refer to the people or land here?

The People; they think Ireland is Schlaraffenland.

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schlaraffenland

(Probably was a Land of Milk and Honey compared to Norway then)

Funny, Schlaraffenland is linked to Cockaigne in the English Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cockaigne

quote:

I see, but I think Aonghus' explanation makes sense, as it is clearly "forces" and not "strength" here

It's the same thing: their military forces, their military strength.

quote:

“Níor fhágas aon phioc dá neart gan féachaint, agus do bhreithníos a neart chómh cruínn agus d’fhéadas é ’ bhreithniú. Táid na daoine go léir as a meabhair, ba dhó’ le duine, le dúil teacht go hÉirinn agus seilbh a ghlacadh in oileán na hÉireann agus cur fúthu ann.

I take your point that "féachaint" could just mean "spied out", "checked out" their military strength, especially if he was actually acing alone as a spy.

quote:

So he could mean "I would fight back, attack them, if they tried anything on me", but I think it means "I decided to get to grips with them (and what they were doing), whateve happened to me" - but maybe someone more competent than I would reach a different conclusion?

Yes. That would be my reading of it.

quote:

That's interesting. In PUL's gospels, where Christ tells Satan "thou shalt not put the Lord thy God to the test" - he uses fromhadh - from the English word "prove", but I was told that this was a very strange usage and not the most natural way of putting it in Cork Irish...

fromhadh is clearly one and the same thing as promhadh. That p and f are frequently substituted one for the other is nothing unusual of course: fruiseam fraiseam, pruiseam praiseam - both occur in speech.

quote:

This also sounds like a partial confusion with "cur d'fhiachaint ar dhuine rud a dhéanamh" - which PUL uses without d' (cur fhiachaint). And also cur d'fhiachaibh, which PUL has as cur fhiachaibh.

On the contrary, I would say that "cur d'fhiachaint" is a confusion between "cur d'fhiachaibh" and "cur d'fhéachaint". "é chuir d'fhiachaibh ar dhuine rud a dhéanamh" is a common enough expression. Indeed, Ó Dónaill gives "fiachaint" as a variant spelling of "féachaint". The diphthong in "féachaint" is /ia/. PUL in "fiachaint" may just be providing a spelling which he feels is closer to speech.

quote:

Ní haon iúnadh dithneas a bheith orthu chun na tíre ’ dh’fhágáilt agus teacht chun cónaithe i dtír a dhéanfaidh, dar leó, iad do chothú díomhaoin.

Probably means "that would support them to such an extent that they would have no work to do themselves" .i. a land of milk and honey where manual labour is a distant memory!

PUL spells it cur fhéachaint - it was my typo above.

Thanks for your help, Carmanach and Aonghus. I have typed up chapters 40 and 41 (which take us to the end of book 2 of Niamh) and plan to go through those for the purpose of linguistic analysis etc over the weekend. I'm getting there gradually!

Níl a bhuíochas ort.

Interesting questions are what keeps me here.