But gay o’erhead the Lion streams.
Thou roaring, frowning Lion!” &c.
This is the kind of poetry on which the Highland national spirit has been fed. Retrospects have less weight and prospects more with the Highlander. On the other hand the Irish Gael dwells intensely on the past, and thus grievously sins against his future. As appendix to this chapter on prose romances, I give some Irish literary facts and a Hibernian picture of Ossian in verse, as—
IRISH VERSIONS.
The early literature of the Scottish Gael cannot be well understood apart from early Irish literature. The ballads of the two countries describe the same struggles; the characters engaging in the strife are the same, and bear the same names. So it ought to be interesting to compare some of the idealised characters of early Irish literature with those that we find in Scotland.
The early history of Ireland and its literature has not yet been written, and the name remark is applicable to the Highlands of Scotland. One able and scientific work has been recently produced in the latter country—the learned three volumes of Dr W. F. Skene—“Celtic Scotland.” The indefatigable labours of the late Professor Eugone O’Curry have prepared the way for an authentic history of Ireland; and it is to be hoped that such works as those of the Gradys, Stokeses, &c., will clear the ground of fables and reveal the genuine lines of early Irish annals. In his “Lectures on the Manuscript Materials of Ancient Irish History,” O’Curry remarks—“It will be found that all the writers who have published books on the subject up to the time of delivering these lectures—books some of them large and elaborate—not one ever wrote who had previously acquired the necessary qualifications, or even applied himself at all to the necessary study, without which, as I think I have established beyond a doubt, the history of Ireland could not possibly have been written. All were ignorant, almost totally ignorant, of the greater part of the records and remains of which I have here, for the first time, endeavoured to present a comprehensive, and, in some sort, a connected account.” Irish scholars have an immense mass of valuable [ancient manuscripts] in which they find rich remains of their early literature, as well as materials for their early history. Let us mention some of the most important. Here is a list of some of the old and middle Irish periods:—
A copy of the Four Gospels, stained with the blood of the Irish St. Killian, who was martyred in 678 A.D.; taken from his tomb in 743. In the library of Trinity College, Dublin, are found—A Latin copy of the Four Gospels, written previous to 700 A.D.; the Four Gospels of Dimma, Latin, with a few Gaelic words, 620 A.D.; the Book of Durrow, containing the Four Latin Gospels, about 700 A.D.; the Book of Kells, same contents as last, about 800 A.D.; the Gospel of St. Moling, about 800 A.D.; the Book of Armagh, containing the Latin New Testament, notes on St. Patrick’s life, and the life of St. Martin of Tours, 807 A.D.; the Book of Leinster, containing the Cattle Raid of Cuailgne, and the Destruction of Troy, 1150 A.D.; the Yellow Book of Lecain, 1391 A.D; and the Book of Brehon Laws—the last-named three books are in the Irish language. In the Royal Irish Academy are the Book of the Dun Cow, also containing the Cattle Raid, 1106 A.D.; the Book of Ballymote, 1391 A.D.; also a copy of the Book of Lecain, 1416 A.D. These are all in the Irish language. Earlier dates than those given have been assigned to some of these books. These and the Annals of Loch Cè, the Annals of the Four Masters, the Annals of Tighernac, &c., are all of great interest and value to Gaelic scholars in Scotland. The ancient Celtic literature extant in Scotland cannot be at all compared in extent with that preserved in Ireland.
As already remarked, the picture of Ossian that the Irish ballads and tales present resembles that of the ballads and tales of Scotland. In the fourth volume of the Transactions of the Ossianic Society of Dublin, we find a description of the journey and residence of Ossian in Tir-nan-Og, “The Land of Youth.” In Scotland this place is known as Eilein-na-h-Oige, “The Isle of Youth.” Ossian and the rest of the Fianna were “hunting on a misty morning nigh the bordering shores of Loch Léin,” when a fleet rider was seen advancing towards them—
“A young maiden of most beautiful appearance,
On a slender white steed of swiftest power.”