Now Athlone (Atha Luain).
How significant is this naïve indication that the making of forays on his neighbours was regarded in Celtic Ireland as the natural and laudable occupation of a country gentleman! Compare Spenser's account of the ideals fostered by the Irish bards of his time, “View of the Present State of Ireland,” p. 641 (Globe edition).
Dr. John Todhunter, in his “Three Irish Bardic Tales,” has alone, I think, kept the antique ending of the tale of Deirdre.
“Waifs and Strays of Celtic Tradition,” Argyllshire Series. The tale was taken down in verse, word for word, from the dictation of Roderick mac Fadyen in Tiree, 1868.
Here we have evidently a reminiscence of Briccriu of the Poisoned Tongue, the mischief-maker of the Ultonians.
The Arans are three islands at the entrance of Galway Bay. They are a perfect museum of mysterious ruins.
Pronounced “Ghermawn”—the “G” hard.
Horse-racing was a particular delight to the ancient Irish, and is mentioned in a ninth-century poem in praise of May as one of the attractions of that month. The name of the month of May given in an ancient Gaulish calendar means “the month of horse-racing.”
The same phenomenon is recorded as being witnessed by Peredur in the Welsh tale of that name in the “Mabinogion.”
Like the bridge to Skatha't dūn, [p. 188].