The Book of Leinster is a manuscript of the twelfth century. The version of the “Táin” given in it probably dates from the eighth. See de Jubainville, “Premiers Habitants,” ii. 316.
Dr. Douglas Hyde in his “Literary History of Ireland” (p. 7) gives a slightly different translation.
It is also a testimony to the close accuracy of the narrative of Ptolemy.
Roman history tells of various conflicts with the Celts during this period, but de Jubainville has shown that these narratives are almost entirely mythical. See “Premiers Habitants,” ii. 318-323.
E.g., Moymell (magh-meala), the Plain of Honey, a Gaelic name for Fairyland, and many place-names.
For these and many other examples see de Jubainville's “Premiers Habitants,” ii. 255 sqq.
Quoted by Mr. Romilly Allen in “Celtic Art,” p. 136.
“Premiers Habitants,” ii. 355, 356.
Irish is probably an older form of Celtic speech than Welsh. This is shown by many philological peculiarities of the Irish language, of which one of the most interesting may here be briefly referred to. The Goidelic or Gaelic Celts, who, according to the usual theory, first colonised the British Islands, and who were forced by successive waves of invasion by their Continental kindred to the extreme west, had a peculiar dislike to the pronunciation of the letter p. Thus the Indo-European particle pare, represented by Greek παρά, beside or close to, becomes in early Celtic are, as in the name Are-morici (the Armoricans, those who dwell ar muir, by the sea); Are-dunum (Ardin, in France); Are-cluta, the place beside the Clota (Clyde), now Dumbarton; Are-taunon, in Germany (near the Taunus Mountains), &c. When this letter was not simply dropped it was usually changed into c (k, g). But about the sixth century B.C. a remarkable change passed over the language of the Continental Celts. They gained in some unexplained way the faculty for pronouncing p, and even substituted it for existing c sounds; thus the original Cretanis became Pretanis, Britain, the numeral qetuares (four) became petuares, and so forth. Celtic place-names in Spain show that this change must have taken place before the Celtic conquest of that country, 500 B.C. Now a comparison of many Irish and Welsh words shows distinctly this avoidance of p on the Irish side and lack of any objection to it on the Welsh. The following are a few illustrations:
| Irish | Welsh | English |
| crann | prenn | tree |
| mac | map | ton |
| cenn | pen | head |
| clumh (cluv) | pluv | feather |
| cúig | pimp | five |