NOTES
ANCIENT IRISH AND SCOTTISH
THE MYSTERY OF AMERGIN.
[PAGE 3]
Of this strange pantheistical fragment, Dr Douglas Hyde writes:—“The first poem written in Ireland is said to have been the work of Amergin, who was brother of Evir, Ir, and Eremon, the first Milesian princes who colonised Ireland many hundred of years before Christ. The three short pieces of verse ascribed to Amergin are certainly very ancient and very strange. But, as the whole story of the Milesian invasion is wrapped in mystery and is quite possibly only a rationalised account of early Irish mythology (in which the Tuatha De Danann, Firbolgs, and possibly Milesians, are nothing but the gods of the early Irish euhemerised into men), no faith can be placed in the alleged date or genuineness of Amergin’s verses. They are, however, of interest, because as Irish tradition has always represented them as being the first verses made in Ireland, so it may very well be that they actually do present the oldest surviving lines in any vernacular tongue in Europe except Greek.”
THE SONG OF FIONN.
[PAGE 4]
“The Song of Finn MacCool, composed after his eating of the Salmon of Knowledge.” This, if not the earliest, is almost the earliest authentic fragment of Erse poetry. The translation is after O’Donovan and Dr Douglas Hyde.
CREDHE’S LAMENT.
[PAGE 5]
From The Colloquy of the Ancients (called also “The Dialogue of the Sages,” and by other analogues), translated by Standish Hayes O’Grady (vide The Book of Lismore; Silva Gadelica; etc.). See specific mention in Introduction.
CUCHULLIN IN HIS CHARIOT.
[PAGE 6]
(Source: Hector MacLean’s Ultonian Hero Ballads. See Introduction.)