A host without ordinary speech
Máel Dúin's hungry company enters a magnificent but apparently empty palace. The only visible inhabitant is a little cat leaping between pillars. Food, beds, and valuable ornaments surround it. When Máel Dúin asks whether the meal is intended for them, the cat merely looks up before returning to its play. He interprets that response as permission, and the travelers eat and sleep.
Source: The Voyage of Maildun — Joyce adaptation · The Voyage of Maildun, chapter XII: palace, pillars, question and meal
A boundary the leader recognizes
Before departure, a foster-brother proposes taking a valuable neck ornament. Máel Dúin forbids it, reasoning that the place must have a guardian even if none looks formidable. The young man disregards him. The cat then passes through his body like a fiery projectile and leaves only ashes. Its apparent smallness has concealed an authority entirely disproportionate to its size.
Source: The Voyage of Maildun — Joyce adaptation · Chapter XII: request for a torque, warning, theft and fiery attack
Restitution without reversal
Máel Dúin returns the ornament, addresses the cat soothingly, and gathers his foster-brother's remains. The company leaves grieving while expressing thanks for its own survival. Restoring the object ends the immediate offense but does not restore the dead man. In Joyce's selected voyage, the scene gives hospitality a precise limit and makes the leader's capacity to recognize that limit consequential.
Source: The Voyage of Maildun — Joyce adaptation · Chapter XII: return of the torque, collection of ashes and departure
- Period / witness
- Irish literary romance in Joyce’s historical adaptation; the consulted printed edition is dated 1920.
- Recording context
- Read through P. W. Joyce’s Old Celtic Romances, a literary translation and adaptation whose preface acknowledges freely recast wording, comparison of manuscript copies, and added chapter divisions. The 1920 print witness is distinct from the age of its underlying tale.
A recording location is not necessarily a story’s origin. Dates of texts, copies, and translations answer different questions.
Explore time & place →Read the sources
These references support the explanation above. Rights and edition notes are recorded individually.
The Voyage of Maildun — Joyce adaptation ↗
Irish literary narrative; translated and adapted by Patrick Weston Joyce (1827–1914) · Consulted print edition dated 1920; preface to the third edition dated 1907; Project Gutenberg release 17 November 2011
Edition & rights note