[142] Imrum Snedghusa agus Mic Ríagla, ed. and trans, by Mr. Whitley Stokes, Rev. Celt., ix. 12 sqq., from the Yellow Book of Lecan, before mentioned; and see O’Curry, MS. Materials of Irish History, pp. 333 sqq. Mr. Stokes ascribes the tale to the middle of the seventh century; Mr. Nutt, to the middle or latter part of the ninth century.—Voyage of Bran, i. 231.
[143] The anticipation of a general battle immediately prior to the Judgment, though an article of many religions (e.g. the Persian, the Norse, etc.), is unusual in Irish writings of the present class; it is probably suggested by the prophecies contained in the Revelations, and in the prophetical books of the Old Testament, more especially the mention of the Battle of Armageddon in Rev. xvi. The mention of Enoch in connection with this battle is singular, and suggests the legend of Enoch in the Talmud. The disappearance of a national hero, and his seclusion until he shall appear to take part in some great conflict, though common to the traditions of most races (some of the most familiar being Arthur, Dietrich of Berne, Holger Danske, Frederick II.—not Frederick I., Barbarossa), has always appealed to the Irish imagination, and recurs in the modern folk-tales of Gearoid Iarla, O’Sullivan, the MacMahon, etc. It will be remembered that on Mr. Parnell’s death many believed that the Chief was not really dead, but had only disappeared for a time.
[144] There is no intention to suggest that the Echtra, the Imram, and the Fis, or the tales in each group, succeeded one another in the order in which they are referred to in the text, either in their present form or in their original composition, least of all as regards the very ancient materials which are embodied in all of them. It has been attempted to present them in such order as may best illustrate the development of the eschatological idea, and the increasing fusion of native traditions with the Church legends. A later writer, on account of his subject, or for other reasons, might sometimes employ a more archaic form of narrative than some of his predecessors.
[145] Sanctorum quoque angelorum dulces et suavissimas frequentationes luminosas habere meruit. Quorumdam justorum animas crebro ab angelis ad summa coelorum vehi, Sancto revelante Spiritu, videbat. Sed et reproborum alias ad inferna a demonibus ferri saepenumero aspiciebat.—Vita S. Columbæ, I. i. Part III. of the Life is largely devoted to these visions, which, however, do not throw light upon our subject.
[146] Bede, Hist. Eccl., III. xix., where the author relates St. Fursa’s arrival in England from Ireland, and gives an account of his visions. See, too, the Very Rev. Canon O’Hanlon, Lives of the Irish Saints, under 16th January, where an account is given of several Acts, Visions, etc., of St. Fursa, mostly of the usual mediæval type.
[147] Probably suggested by Ephesians vi. 16.
[148] This episode suggests the manner in which Virgil protected Dante from the onset of Filippo Argenti (Inf. viii. 40 sqq.), though the latter passage does not contain any moral, in connection with Dante’s own previous conduct, as is the case in Fursa’s vision, and in similar moral legends of the Middle Ages.
[149] The Vision of Laisrén, in Stories and Songs from Irish MSS., by Professor Kuno Meyer, Otia Merseiana, i. 1899; ed. and trans. with notes from Rawlinson B. 512, a fifteenth-century MS. in the Bodleian. Professor Meyer considers that the original was an O. I. work of the late ninth or early tenth century (p. 112).
[150] Edited by Mr. Whitley Stokes, in A Middle Irish Homily, Rev. Celt., iv. 245 sq.
[151] Cited by Mr. Nutt, Voyage of Bran, i. 225, where it is suggested that this circumstance may have arisen in the distinction between the Pagan Elysium and Heaven, a provisional Hell being added for the sake of symmetry. But it appears quite as probable that this classification may be another instance of the acquaintance of the Irish Church with Eastern writers, for the fourfold division already exists in the Book of Enoch, c. 22, the several categories being: (1) The martyrs, as in the Fis Adamnáin; (2) The rest of the righteous; (3) Sinners who have been punished in this life; (4) Sinners who have not made expiation.