VARIA I* 1.Notes on the Milan Glosses: 21bl0 Breatnach (1980,1-9) has collected examples from Early Irish that show that the relative particle in the early language was not limited to express ing nominative, accusative and genitive relations, as in the later language, but could also function prepositionally (i.e. as an independent dative). He notes, however, that by the time of the glosses, the prepositional use of the relative had disappeared, except poetically (Breatnach 1980, 4). The pur pose of thisnote is to argue that there is (at least) one example in theMilan Glosses which still shows a prepositional use of the relative particle. Ml. 21bl0 appears as part of a heavily glossed section of commentary to Psalm 5:2 (verse 3 in theVulgate). The text and gloss run as follows: REX MEUS ET DEUS MEUS uult ostendere populum captiuitatis babiloni castigationibus erudi timi.,relict?s idolis ad deum esse conuersum.. et quasi quiprius errauerit ingaudium cognitione ueritatis erumpere ac dicere rexmeus etdeus hoc est4 tu mihi audenti5'6 pr be tususcipe qu alligare1'* compellor9'10 qui es uerus rexmeus etDeus. Idola enim dei non erant. 4My God and King! He wants to show that, having been taught by the castigations of the Babylonian Captivity and having left the idols, the people turned to God and they,as one who firsthas erred, erupt in joy with the under standing of truth and say "My God and King!" That is: "provide to me, being daring, and accept those things which I am compelled to mention! You, who are trulymy God and King. They are idols, not gods".' 21bl0 .i.ith?side cotammeicnigthersa (= ith?-side cotamm-?icnigther-sa) 'it is this towhich I am compelled.' The important part of the commentary is suscipe qu alligare compellor 'accept those things which I am compelled to mention!' Middle Latin alligare (Classical allegare) means 'to relate, recount, mention' and is clearly intended in the commentary. There is another alligare, however, meaning 'to bind, hinder, hold fast', and the scribe has glossed this sec ond meaning in gloss 7-8, the first part of which reads: conda-rias 'that * I would like to thank Jay Jasanoff, David Stifter and Stefan Schumacher, as well as the editors of ?riu, for comments on the notes presented here. Notes 1 and 2 are the result of research on the Milan Glosses Project, funded by FWF (Austrian Science Fund) grant #P19137-G03; Note 3 was a brief part of my doctoral dissertation. DOI: 10.3318/ERIU.2009.59.153 ?riu (2009) 153-158 ? Royal IrishAcademy 154 AARON GRIFFITH I bind them' (pres. subj. lsg. of con-rig 'bind' + infixed pronoun Class C 3p!.).1 Realising that the literalmeaning is incorrect, the scribe proceeds in the second half of gloss 7-8 to give an interpretation of what conda rias should mean: noch is nonda ges on con derlaig[e] dam son innahi no guidim dait-siu 'i.e., that I pray for them, that is to say, thatThou forgive me those things that I pray for toThee' (the translation here is slightly modified from Thes to reflect the fact that innahi is acc. pi.).2 Gloss 21b9 on compellor reads is ecen dam s?n nonda ges dait-siu 'it is necessary for me that I pray for them toThee', which shows the scribe further reinforc ing the interpretation of alligare expounded upon in the second part of gloss 7-8. Finally, we may turn to themain point of this note. As mentioned above, Gloss 21bl0, .i. ith?side cotammeicnigthersa (= ith?-side cotamm-?icnigther -sa), is translated by Stokes and Strachan: 'i.e. it is this to which I am compelled'.3 To indicate the plural ith?, we might emend the translation slightly to 'i.e. it is these things towhich I am compelled', but Iwould sug gest that a still better translation would be: 'i.e. it is these things by which I am compelled'. That is,h?-side stands in an agent relation to the verb cotamm-eicnigther. This translation has two advantages. First, the sense suggests that the speaker is not compelled to some thing or things, but rather is compelled by those things...