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Traditionary Ballad - Mannanan Beg Mac y Leirr

The following is a translation of the lines as they stand in the Manx song, without regard to any poetry in English

If you would listen to my story,
I will pronounce my chant
As best I can; I will, with my mouth,
Give you notice of the enchanted Island.

Who he was that had it first,
And then what happened to him;
And how St. Patrick brought in Christianity,
And how it came to Stanley.

Little Mannanan was son of Leirr,
He was the first that ever had it;
But as I can best conceive,
He himself was a heathen.

It was not with his sword he kept it,
Neither with arrows or bow,
But when he would see ships saving,
He would cover it round with a fog.

He would set a man, standing on a hill,
Appear as if he were a hundred ;
And thus did wild Mannanan protect
That Island with all its booty.

The rent each landholder paid to him was,
A bung e of coarse meadow grass yearly,
And that, as their yearly tax,
They paid to him each midsummer eve.

Some would carry the grass up,
To the great mountain up at Barrool;
Others would leave the grass below,
With Mannanan's self, above Keamool.

Thus then did they live;
O l think their tribute very small,
Without care and without anxiety,
Or hard labour to cause weariness.

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