And Dub did glow that night

• "And God did so that night": Judges 6:40, in which God gives Gideon the requested signs

• Dub:
  • Dublin
  • (Russian): oak

• glow: i.e., light up in celebration of the wedding

Commentary

In the following sentences, Joyce alludes to several characters and places in Scottish poet James Macpherson's 1765 The Poems of Ossian, which Macpherson claimed to have "translated" from ancient Gaelic texts (the originals of which he never produced). Scholars generally believed, then and now, that Macpherson had written the verses himself, based on fragments of Celtic folktales. However, the work was extremely popular, heralded as among the greatest poetry ever written; it was a cornerstone of the Gaelic revival around the turn of the 20th century.

By situating the story of Kersse and his daughter's marriage to the Norwegian Captain alongside Macpherson, then, Joyce elevates it from a gossipy story told in a pub to a foundational element of Irish heritage and literature.