Thoughts on the uotum mali

Abstract

In Old Irish, the word díberg designated not only the activity of brigandage, and by extension an individual who performed such activity; but also a vow to kill undertaken by a brigand, and symbolic headgear representing this vow. It is proposed that the word mind, attested in the senses ‘diadem’ and ‘relic’, was originally also used of headgear of this kind. The discussion concludes with further observations on practices associated with oaths in pre-Christian Ireland, and on the changes undergone by these practices in the early Christian period.