That the Irish had already made some approach to the construction of a great epic is evident from the way in which they attempted, from a very early date, to group a number of minor sagas, which were evidently independent in their origin, round their great saga the Táin Bo Chuailgne. There are twelve minor tales which the Irish called preface-stories to the Táin and which they worked into it by links, some of which, at least, were evidently forged long after the story which they were wanted to connect. Especially remarkable in this way is the story of the metempsychosis of the two swineherds, whose souls passed into the two bulls who occasioned the great war of the Táin,—a story which is of a distinctly independent origin, and which was forced to do duty as an outlying book, as it were, of the Táin Bo Chuailgne.
How very great the number of Irish sagas must have been can be conjectured from the fact that out of the list of one hundred and eighty-seven contained in the Book of Leinster, at least one hundred and twenty have completely disappeared, and of the majority of the remainder we have only brief digests, whilst very many of the ones still preserved, are not mentioned in the Book of Leinster at all, thus proving that the list given in that manuscript is an imperfect one. A perfect one would have contained at the very least two hundred and fifty prime stories and one hundred secondary ones, for this was the number which every ollamh or chief poet was obliged, by law, to know. The following are some of the best known and most accessible of the earlier sagas which we have not yet mentioned, and which do not belong to any of the greater cycles. This list is drawn up, not according to the age of the texts or the manuscripts which contain them, but according to the date of the events to which they refer, and round which they are constructed.
SIXTH CENTURY B.C—The destruction of Dinn Righ, otherwise called the exile of Labhraidh [Lowry] the Mariner. This appears to have been one of a group of lost romances which centred round the children of Ugony the Great,[16] of some of which Keating has given a résumé in his history.[17]
SECOND CENTURY B.C—The King of the Leprechanes' journey to Emania, and how the death of Fergus mac Léide, King of Ulster, was brought about.[18]
The triumphs of Congal Clàringneach, which deals with a revolution in the province of Ulster, the death of the King of Tara, and accession of Congal to the throne.[19]
The Courtship of Etain by Eochaidh Aireach, King of Ireland, who came to the throne 134 years B.C., according to the "Four Masters."[20]
FIRST CENTURY B.C.—The Courtship of Crunn's wife.[21] To this century belong the Red Branch tales.
FIRST CENTURY A.D.—The Battle of Ath Comair, fought by the three Finns, brothers of Mève, Queen of Connacht.[22]
The Destruction of the Bruidhean [Bree-an] Da Choga, in West Meath, where Cormac Conloingeas, the celebrated son of King Conor mac Nessa, was killed about the year 33.[23]
The Revolution of the Aitheach Tuatha, and the Death of Cairbré Cinn-cait by the free clans of Ireland.[24]
SECOND CENTURY A.D.—The Death of Eochaidh [Yohy], son of Mairid.[25]
The progress of the Deisi from Tara.[26]
The Courtship of Moméra, by Owen Mór.[27] (The Fenian tales and tales of Conn of the Hundred Battles, and Cormac mac Art, relate to this and the following century.)
THIRD CENTURY.—The Adventures of Teig, son of Cian [Kee-an], son of Oilioll Olum.[28]
The Siege of Drom Damhgaire, where Cormac mac Art attempted to lay a double tribute on the two provinces of Munster.[29]
FOURTH CENTURY.—The History of the Sons of Eochaidh Muighmheadhon [Mwee-va-on] father of Niall of the Nine Hostages.[30]
Death of King Criomhthann [Criv-ban or Criffan] and of Eochaidh Muighmheadhon's three sons.[31]
FIFTH CENTURY.—The Expedition or Hosting of Dáithi, the last pagan king of Ireland, who was killed by lightning at the foot of the Alps.[32]
SIXTH CENTURY.—Death of Aedh Baclamh.[33]
Death of King Diarmuid—he who was cursed by St. Ruadhan.[34]
The birth of Aedh [Ae] Sláine,[35] the son of Diarmuid, who came to the throne in 595, according to the "Four Masters."
The Wooing of Becfola, in the reign of Aedh Sláine's son.[36]
The Voyage of the Sons of Ua Corra.[37]
SEVENTH CENTURY.—The Proceedings of the Great Bardic Institution.[38]
The Battle of Moyrath.[39]
Suibhne's Madness, a sequel to the last.[40]
The Feast of Dún na ngedh,[41] a preface tale to the Battle of Moyrath.
The Voyage of Snedgus and Mac Riaghla.[42]
The Love of Dubhlacha for Mongan.[43]
The Death of Maelfathartaigh, son of Ronán,[44] who was King of Leinster about the year 610.
EIGHTH CENTURY.—The Voyage of Maelduin.[45]
There are very few sagas, indeed, which deal with events posterior to the eighth century, and among those which do (like the stories about Callaghan of Cashel and the Danes, or the Leeching of Cian's leg, which relates to the reign of Brian Boru, or O'Donnell's Kerne, which seems as late as the sixteenth century) there are not many whose literary merits stand high. It is evident from this, that, apart from the poets, almost all the genuine literary activity of Ireland centred around the days of her freedom, and embraced a vast range of time, from the mythical De Danann period down to the birth of Christ, and from that to the eighth century, and that after this period and the invasions of the Northmen and Normans, Irish national history produced few subjects stimulating to the national muse; so that the literary production which still continued, though in narrower channels and in feebler volume, looked for inspiration not to contemporaneous history, but to the glories of Tara, the exploits of Finn mac Cúmhail, and the past ages of Irish greatness.
The number of sagas still surviving, though many of them are mere skeletons, may be conjectured from the fact that O'Curry, in his manuscript lectures on Irish history, quotes from or alludes to ninety different tales, all of considerable antiquity, whilst M. d'Arbois de Jubainville, in his "Essai d'un Catalogue de la littérature épique de l'Irlande," gives the names of no less than about 540 different pieces.
[1] There is an almost complete copy of this saga in the Leabhar na h-Uidhre. Like the Táin Bo Chuailgne, it has never been published in a translation. The language is much harder and more archaic than that of the Táin. I have principally drawn upon O'Curry's description of it, for I can only guess at the meaning of a great part of the original. Were all Europe searched the scholars who could give an adequate translation of it might be counted on the fingers of both hands—if not of one.
[2] According to the "Four Masters" he was slain in AM. 5161 [i.e., 43 B.C.], after a reign of seventy years. "It was in the reign of Conairè," the "Four Masters" add, "that the Boyne annually cast its produce ashore at Inver Colpa. Great abundance of nuts were annually found upon the Boyne and the Buais. The cattle were without keeping in Ireland in his reign on account of the greatness of the peace and concord. His reign was not thunder-producing nor stormy. It was little but the trees bent under the greatness of their fruit." It is from Conairè the Ernaan tribes were descended. They were driven by the Rudricians, i.e., the Ultonians of the Red Branch, into Munster, and from thence they were driven by the race of Eber [the Mac Carthys, etc. of Munster], into the western islands.
[3] It appears to have been partly in order to check raids like this, that the High-kings maintained the Fenians a couple of centuries later, for their chief duty was "to watch the harbours."
[4] A constant rendezvous for pedestrians and bicyclists from Dublin, not one in ten thousand of whom knows the origin of the name or its history.