[101]. It has been contended that the Fenians were originally the gods or heroes of an aboriginal people in Ireland, the myths about them representing the pre-Celtic and pre-Aryan ideal, as the sagas of the Red Branch of Ulster embodied that of the Celtic Aryans. The question, however, is as yet far from being satisfactorily solved.
[102]. The Coronation Stone, by William Forbes Skene.
[103]. See History and Antiquities of Tara Hill.
[104]. Our authorities for the details of this war between the Tuatha Dé Danann and the Fir Bolgs are the opening verses of the Harleian MS. 5280, as translated by Stokes and De Jubainville, and Eugene O’Curry’s translations, in his MS. Materials of Ancient Irish History and his Manners and Customs of the Ancient Irish, from a manuscript preserved at Trinity College, Dublin.
[105]. Now called Benlevi.
[106]. See Dr. James Fergusson: Rude Stone Monuments, pp. 177-180.
[107]. Lough Corrib, Its Shores and Islands, by Sir William R. Wilde, chap. VIII.
[108]. De Jubainville: Cycle Mythologique Irlandais, p. 156.
[109]. The principal sources of information for this chapter are the Harleian MS. 5280 entitled The Second Battle of Moytura, of which translations have been made by Dr. Whitley Stokes in the Revue Celtique and M. de Jubainville in his L’Épopée Celtique en Irlande, and Eugene O’Curry’s translation in Vol. IV. of Atlantis of the Fate of the Children of Tuirenn.
[110]. Pronounced Kian.