Notes on the Sources
The Story of the Children of Lir and The Quest of the Sons of Turenn are two of the three famous and popular tales entitled "The Three Sorrows of Storytelling." The third is the Tragedy of the Sons of Usna, rendered by Miss Eleanor Hull in her volume CUCHULAIN. I have taken the two stories which are given here from the versions in modern Irish published by the Society for the Preservation of the Irish Language, with notes and translation. Neither of them is found in any very early MS., but their subject-matter certainly goes back to very primitive times.
The Secret of Labra is taken from Keating's FORUS FEASA AR EIRINN, edited with translation by the Rev. P.S. Dineen for the Irish Texts Society, vol. i. p. 172.
The Carving of mac Datho's Boar. This is a clean, fierce, fighting story, notable both for its intensely dramatic dénouement, and for the complete absence from it of the magical or supernatural element which is so common a feature in Gaelic tales. It has been edited and translated from one MS. by Dr Kuno Meyer, in Hibernica Minora (ANECDOTA OXONIENSIA), 1894, and translated from THE BOOK OF LEINSTER (twelfth century) in Leahy's HEROIC ROMANCES.
The Vengeance of Mesgedra. This story, as I have given it, is a combination of two tales, The Siege of Howth and The Death of King Conor. The second really completes the first, though they are not found united in Irish literature. Both pieces are given in O'Curry's MS. MATERIALS OF IRISH HISTORY, and Miss Hull has printed translations of them in her CUCHULLIN SAGA, the translation of the Siege being by Dr Whitly Stokes and that of the Death of Conor by O'Curry. These are very ancient tales and contain a strong barbaric element. Versions of both of them are found in the great MS. collection known as the BOOK OF LEINSTER (twelfth century).
King Iubdan and King Fergus is a brilliant piece of fairy literature. The imaginative grace, the humour, and, at the close, the tragic dignity of this tale make it worthy of being much more widely known than it has yet become. The original, taken from one of the Egerton MSS. in the British Museum, will be found with a translation in O'Grady's SILVA GADELICA. For the conclusion, I have in the main followed another version (containing the death of Fergus only), given in the SEANCUS MOR and finely versified by Sir Samuel Ferguson in his POEMS, 1880.
The Story of Etain and Midir. This beautiful and very ancient romance is extant in two distinct versions, both of which are translated by Mr A.H. Leahy in his HEROIC ROMANCES. The tale is found in several MSS., among others, in the twelfth century BOOK OF THE DUN COW (LEABHAR NA H-UIDHRE). It has been recently made the subject of a dramatic poem by "Fiona Macleod."
How Ethne quitted Fairyland is taken from D'Arbois de Jubainville's CYCLE MYTHOLOGIQUE IRLANDAIS, ch. xii. 4. The original is to be found in the fifteenth century MS., entitled THE BOOK OF FERMOY.
The Boyhood of Finn is based chiefly on the MACGNIOMHARTHA FHINN, published in 1856, with a translation, in the TRANSACTIONS OF THE OSSIANIC SOCIETY, vol. iv. I am also indebted, particularly for the translation of the difficult Song of Finn in Praise of May, to Dr Kuno Meyer's translation published in Ériu (the Journal of the School of Irish Learning), vol. i. pt. 2.
The Coming of Finn, Finns Chief Men, the Tale of Vivionn and The Chase of the Gilla Dacar, are all handfuls from that rich mine of Gaelic literature, Mr Standish Hayes O'Grady's SILVA GADELICA. In the Gilla Dacar I have modified the second half of the story rather freely. It appears to have been originally an example of a well-known class of folk-tales dealing with the subject of the Rescue of Fairyland. The same motive occurs in the famous tale called The Sickbed of Cuchulain. The idea is that some fairy potentate, whose realm is invaded and oppressed, entices a mortal champion to come to his aid and rewards him with magical gifts. But the eighteenth century narrator whose MS. was edited by Mr S.H. O'Grady, apparently had not the clue to the real meaning of his material, and after going on brilliantly up to the point where Dermot plunges into the magic well, he becomes incoherent, and the rest of the tale is merely a string of episodes having no particular connexion with each other or with the central theme. The latter I have here endeavoured to restore to view. The Gilla Dacar is given from another Gaelic version by Dr P.W. Joyce in his invaluable book, OLD CELTIC ROMANCES.
The Birth of Oisín I have found in Patrick Kennedy's LEGENDARY FICTIONS OF THE IRISH CELTS. I do not know the Gaelic original.
Oisín in the Land of Youth is based, as regards the outlines of this remarkable story, on the LAOI OISÍN AR TIR NA N-ÓG, written by Michael Comyn about 1750, and edited with a translation by Thomas Flannery in 1896 (Gill & Son, Dublin). Comyn's poem was almost certainly based on earlier traditional sources, either oral or written or both, but these have not hitherto been discovered.
The History of King Cormac. The story of the birth of Cormac and his coming into his kingdom is to be found in SILVA GADELICA, where it is edited from THE BOOK OF BALLYMOTE, an MS. dating from about the year 1400.
The charming tale, of his marriage with Ethne ni Dunlaing is taken from Keating's FORUS FEASA. From this source also I have taken the tales of the Brehon Flahari, of Kiernit and the mill, and of Cormac's death and burial. The Instructions of Cormac have been edited and translated by Dr Kuno Meyer in the Todd Lecture Series of the Royal Irish Academy, xiv., April 1909. They are found in numerous MSS., and their date is fixed by Dr Meyer about the ninth century. With some other Irish matter of the same description they constitute, says Mr Alfred Nutt, "the oldest body of gnomic wisdom" extant in any European vernacular. (FOLK-LORE, Sept. 30, 1909.)
The story of Cormac's adventures in Fairyland has been published with a translation by Standish Hayes O'Grady in the TRANSACTIONS OF THE OSSIANIC SOCIETY, vol. iii., and is also given very fully by d'Arbois de Jubainvilie in his CYCLE MYTHOLOGIQUE IRLANDAIS. The tale is found, among other MSS., in the BOOK OF BALLYMOTE, but is known to have been extant at least as early as the tenth century, since in that year it figures in a list of Gaelic tales drawn up by the historian Tierna.
The ingenious story of the Judgment concerning Cormac's Sword is found in the BOOK OF BALLYMOTE, and is printed with a translation by Dr Whitly Stokes in IRISCHE TEXTE, iii. Serie, 7 Heft, 1891.
Pronouncing Index
The correct pronunciation of Gaelic proper names can only be learned from the living voice. It cannot be accurately represented by any combination of letters from the English alphabet. I have spared the reader as much trouble as possible on this score by simplifying, as far as I could, the forms of the names occurring in the text, and if the reader will note the following general rules, he will get quite as near to the pronunciation intended as there is any necessity for him to do. A few names which might present some unusual difficulty are given with their approximate English pronunciations in the Index.
The chief rule to observe is that vowels are pronounced as in the Continental languages, not according to the custom peculiar to England. Thus a is like a in father, never like a in fate, I(when long) is like ee, u like oo, or like u in put (never like u in tune). An accent implies length, thus Dún, a fortress or mansion, is pronounced Doon. The letters ch are never to be pronounced with a t sound, as in the word chip, but like a rough h or a softened k, rather as in German. Gh is silent as in English, and g is always hard, as in give. C is always as k, never as s.
In the following Index an accent placed after a syllable indicates that the stress is to be laid on that syllable. Only those words are given, the pronunciation of which is not easily ascertainable by attention to the foregoing rules.
| INDEX | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Æda | is to be pronounced | Ee'-da. | |
| Ailill | " | Al'-yill. | |
| Anluan | " | An'-looan. | |
| Aoife | " | Ee'-fa. | |
| Bacarach | " | Bac'-arah. | |
| Belachgowran | " | Bel'-ah-gow'-ran. | |
| Cearnach | " | Kar'-nah. | |
| Cuchulain | " | Coo-hoo'-lin. | |
| Cumhal | " | Coo'wal, Cool. | |
| Dacar | " | Dak'-ker. | |
| Derryvaragh | " | Derry-var'-a. | |
| Eisirt | " | Eye'sert. | |
| Eochy | " | Yeo'hee. | |
| Fiachra | " | Fee'-akra | |
| Fianna | " | Fee'-anna. | |
| Finegas | " | Fin'-egas. | |
| Fionnuala | " | Fee-on-oo'-ala, shortened in modern Irish into Fino'-la | |
| Flahari | " | Fla'-haree. | |
| Iorroway | " | Yor'-oway. | |
| Iubdan | " | Youb'-dan. | |
| Iuchar | " | You'-har. | |
| Iucharba | " | You-har'-ba . | |
| Liagan | " | Lee'-agan. | |
| Lir | " | Leer | |
| Logary | " | Lo'-garee | |
| Maev | " | rhyming to wave. | |
| Mananan | " | Man'-anan. | |
| Mesgedra | " | Mes-ged'-ra. | |
| Midir | " | Mid'-eer. | |
| Mochaen | " | Mo-hain'. | |
| Mochaovóg | " | Mo-hwee'-vogue. | |
| Moonremur | " | Moon'-ray-mur. | |
| Oisín | " | Ush'-een (Ossian) | |
| Peisear | " | Pye'-sar. | |
| Sceolaun | " | Ske-o'-lawn (the e very short). | |
| Slievenamuck | " | Sleeve-na-muck' | |
| Slievenamon | " | Sleeve-na-mon' | |
| Tuish | " | Too'-ish. |
FOOTNOTES
CUCHULAIN, THE HOUND OF ULSTER. By Eleanor Hull.
There is one important tale of the Finn cycle, the Pursuit of Dermot and Grania, which I have not included. I have omitted it, partly because it presents the character of Finn in a light inconsistent with what is said of him elsewhere, and partly because it has in it a certain sinister and depressing element which renders it unsuitable for a collection intended largely for the young.
I gave this book—The History of Ireland (HEROIC PERIOD)—to Burne-Jones in order to interest him in Irish myth and legend. "I'll try and read it," he said. A week afterwards he came and said—It is a new world of thought and pleasure you have opened to me. I knew nothing of this, and life is quite enlarged. But now, I want to see all the originals. Where can I get them?"
I have only spoken of prose writing above. But in poetry (and in Poetry well fitted to the tales), this work had already been done nobly, and with a fine Celtic splendour of feeling and expression, by Sir Samuel Ferguson.
I speak here of the better known of the two versions of this encounter of the pagan with the Christian spirit. There are others in which the reconciliation is carried still further. One example is to be found in the Colloquy of the Ancients (SILVA GADELICA). Here Finn and his companions are explicitly pronounced to be saved by their natural virtues, and the relations of the Church and the Fenian warriors are most friendly.
Everything, on the contrary, in the Mythological Cycle is gifted with life, all the doings and things of nature are represented as the work of living creatures; but it is quite possible that those in Ireland who made these myths were not Celts at all.
I give one example of the way colour was laid on to animals just for the pleasure of it. "And the eagle and cranes were red with green heads, and their eggs were pure crimson and blue"; and deep in the wood the travellers found "strange birds with white bodies and purple heads and golden beaks," and afterwards three great birds, "one blue and his head crimson, and another crimson and his head green, and another speckled and his head gold."
This word is pronounced Shee, and means "the folk of the fairy mounds."
This is quoted with a few omissions, from Lady Gregory's delightful version, in her Book of Saints and Wonders, of an episode in The Colloquy of the Ancients (Silva Gadelica).
Pronounced Eefa.
Scotland. Inishglory is an island in the Bay of Erris, on the Mayo coast.
A magic banquet which had the effect of preserving for ever the youth of the People of Dana.
Pronounced Mo-chweev-ogue.
See p. 133, note.
Ballysodare = the Town of the Falls of Dara, in Co. Sligo.
Dundalk.
Blood-fine.
The Hill of Howth.
Cluan Tarbh, Clontarf; so called from the roaring of the waves on the strand.
The ancient royal residence of Ulster, near to the present town of Armagh.
I am much indebted to the beautiful prose translation of this song, published by Dr Kuno Meyer in Ériu (the Journal of the School of Irish Learning), Vol. I. Part II. In my poetic version an attempt has been made to render the riming and metrical effect of the original, which is believed to date from about the ninth century.
The hill still bears the name, Knockanar.
I have in the main borrowed Standish Hayes O'Grady's vivid and racy translation of these adages of the Fianna. (SILVA GADELICA, Engl. transl., p. 115.)
Ogham-craobh = "branching Ogham," so called because the letters resembled the branching of twigs from a stem. The Ogham alphabet was in use in Ireland in pre-Christian times, and many sepulchral inscriptions in it still remain.
Glanismole, near Dublin.
Talkenn or "Adze-head" was a name given to St Patrick by the Irish. Probably it referred to the shape of his tonsure.
Woad is a cruciferous plant, Isatis tinctoria, used for dyeing.
Pronounced Bweé-cad. His name is said to be preserved in the townland of Dunboyke, near Blessington, Co. Wicklow.
The Instructions of Cormac (Tecosa Cormaic) have been edited with a translation by Dr. Kuno Meyer in the Todd Lecture Series of the Royal Irish Academy, vol. xv., April 1909.
Scotland.
Pronounced Fla'-haree—accent on the first syllable.
The institution of fosterage, by which the children of kings and lords were given to trusted persons among their friends or followers to bring up and educate, was a marked feature of social life in ancient Ireland, and the bonds of affection and loyalty between such foster-parents and their children were held peculiarly sacred.
See Miss Hull's CUCHULAIN, THE HOUND OF ULSTER, p. 175. The pair were Mananan, god of the sea, and Fand his wife, of whom a tale of great interest is told in the Cuchulain Cycle of legends. The sea-cloak of Mananan is the subject of a magnificent piece of descriptive poetry in Ferguson's CONGAL.
The original from the BOOK OF BALLYMOTE (14th century) is given in O'Curry's MS. MATERIALS OF IRISH HISTORY, Appendix xxvi. I have in the main followed O'Curry's translation.
Angus Óg was really a deity or fairy king. He appears also in the story of Midir and Etain. q.v.
See the conclusion of the Vengeance of Mesgedra.
The image was doubtless of wood overlaid with gold.
There are still Wishing Stones, which are used in connexion with petitions for good or ill, on the ancient altars of Inishmurray and of Caher Island, and possibly other places on the west coast of Ireland.
This famous cemetery of the kings of pagan Ireland lies on the north bank of the Boyne and consists of a number of sepulchral mounds, sometimes of great extent, containing, in their interior, stone walled chambers decorated with symbolic and ornamental carvings. The chief of these mounds, now known as Newgrange, has been explored and described by Mr George Coffey in his valuable work NEWGRANGE, published by the Royal Irish Academy. Brugh=mansion.
These lines are taken from Sir S. Ferguson's noble poem, The Burial of King Cormac, from which I have also borrowed some of the details of the foregoing narrative.