Many of our heroic legends and ancient sagas have been retold in English verse. Though fiction in verse does not come within the scope of the present Guide, yet it may be of interest to mention here a few of these poetic renderings of ancient Gaelic tales. Sir Samuel Ferguson’s Congal, Conary, Lays of the Red Branch, and Lays of the Western Gael; Aubrey de Vere’s Foray of Queen Maeve; Robert Dwyer Joyce’s Blanid and Deirdre; John Todhunter’s Three Irish Bardic Tales; Douglas Hyde’s Three Sorrows of Story-telling; Herbert Trench’s The Quest; Katharine Tynan’s “Diarmuid and Gráinne” in her Shamrocks; Mrs. Hutton’s stately blank verse translation of The Táin; and, last year, Dr. Geo. Sigerson’s The Saga of King Lir; also The Red Branch Crests, a trilogy by Charles L. Moore; The Death of Oscar by Alice Sargant. Hector MacLean has collected in the Highlands and presented in English verse Ultonian Hero Ballads, which, as the title implies, are of Irish origin. For notes and bibliographical particulars of the above see A Guide to Books on Ireland, Part I. (Hodges & Figgis), 1912.
For an introduction to Gaelic Literature the reader may be referred to:—
Douglas Hyde. STORY OF EARLY GAELIC LITERATURE.
Miss Hull. PAGAN IRELAND.
⸺ TEXT-BOOK OF IRISH LITERATURE.
Matthew Arnold. INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF CELTIC LITERATURE.
It may be useful to subjoin here a list of publications (periodical and other) which contain, generally along with other matter, ancient Gaelic tales. I can give here only a bare list, but it will serve to give an idea of what has already been accomplished in this field.
(a) Publications of the following Societies:—
The Gaelic Society. 1808. One volume.
The Ossianic Society. Six big volumes concerned exclusively with the Fenian Cycle. 1854-1861.