Gelt (_gjalti_) is evidently a Celtic loanword, a form of the Irish _geilt_, meaning mad or madman. Cf. the _Adventures of Suibhne Geilt_, translated by J. G. O’Keefe. Suibhne was an Irish king who lost his reason in battle and for years afterwards led a wild life in the woods. O’Keefe thinks that the author of the _King’s Mirror_ must have heard the tale of Suibhne (pp. xxxiv-xxxv). See also _Ériu_, IV, 12.
There happened something once in the borough called Cloena,[198] which will also seem marvelous. In this town there is a church dedicated to the memory of a saint named Kiranus.[199] One Sunday while the populace was at church hearing mass, it befell that an anchor was dropped from the sky as if thrown from a ship; for a rope was attached to it, and one of the flukes of the anchor got caught in the arch above the church door. The people all rushed out of the church and marveled much as their eyes followed the rope upward. They saw a ship with men on board floating before the anchor cable; and soon they saw a man leap overboard and dive down to the anchor as if to release it. The movements of his hands and feet and all his actions appeared like those of a man swimming in the water. When he came down to the anchor, he tried to loosen it, but the people immediately rushed up and attempted to seize him. In this church where the anchor was caught, there is a bishop’s throne. The bishop was present when this occurred and forbade his people to hold the man; for, said he, it might prove fatal as when one is held under water. As soon as the man was released, he hurried back up to the ship; and when he was up the crew cut the rope and the ship sailed away out of sight. But the anchor has remained in the church since then as a testimony to this event.[200]
Kuno Meyer identifies Cloena with Clonmacnois. _Ériu_, IV, 12. Clonmacnois is in King’s county eight miles southwest of Athlone.
St. Ciaran (Kiranus) of Clonmacnois was the founder of a great monastery there. The year of his death is given as 547.
In the _Irish Nennius_ (211-213) the following version of this tale appears. “Congalach, son of Maelmithig, was at the fair of Teltown on a certain day, when he saw a ship (sailing) along in the air. One of the crew cast a dart at a salmon. The dart fell down in the presence of the gathering, and a man came out of the ship after it. When he seized its end from above, a man from below seized it from below. Upon which the man from above said: ‘I am being drowned,’ said he. ‘Let him go,’ said Congalach; and he is allowed to go up, and then he goes from them swimming.” The translation is by Kuno Meyer: _Ériu_, IV, 13. Congalach was an Irish king (944-956); Teltown is in county Meath. The legend is alluded to in _Reliquiae Antiquae_, II, 105, with some difference in details.