"Song of the Fairies." From A. H. Leahy's Heroic Romances of Ireland (D. Nutt, 1905), p. 29, taken from the same tale. Etain was wife of Eochad (pron. Yochee), King of Ireland, but Mider, King of Fairy-land, fell in love with her. He won an entry into the palace by playing chess with her husband, who demanded from Mider as the stake for which they played that the fairy hosts should clear away the rocks and stones from the plains of Meath, remove the rushes which made the land barren, build a causeway across the bog of Lamrach, and perform other services useful to his realm. The song is sung by the fairies while they are performing this heavy task. The final stake is won by Mider, who asks Etain as his prize.
"The Lamentation of Deirdre," when her husband and two sons had been slain by King Conchobhar. She recalls the happy days spent with her husband in Alba or Scotland, on Lough Etive, and compares it to her present misery in the house of the King. Original, Irische Texte, i. pp. 77-81. In all the above poems there are many difficult and obscure passages.
"Take my Tidings." A ninth century poem, edited and translated by Dr. Kuno Meyer in his Four Songs of Summer and Winter (D. Nutt, 1903), and by Dr. Whitley Stokes in Rev. Celt. xx. p. 258. It is ascribed to Fionn in the commentary on the "Amra Coluim Cille." Mr. Graves' poem will be found in his Irish Poems, i. p. 1 (Maunsel & Co., Dublin).
"Second Winter Song." Text and translation in Dr. Kuno Meyer's Four Songs of Summer and Winter. A longer poem on similar lines is to be found in the tale called the "Hiding of the Hill of Howth," Rev. Celt. xi. p. 125, reprinted in his Ancient Irish Poetry (Constable), p. 57; but in the former version the complaint of the lazy servant-lad is answered by a fine song in which Fionn praises the signs of coming spring in earth and air.
"In Praise of May." Original and translation published by Dr. K. Meyer from the tale called "The Boyish Exploits of Finn" in Rev. Celt. v. p. 195. It is said to have been composed by Fionn after he received inspiration by eating the "Salmon of Knowledge" at the River Boyne. Mr. Rolleston's poem is to be found in his Sea-Spray (Maunsel, 1909).
"The Isle of Arran." The Arran here spoken of is the Scottish island of that name. The Fianna were accustomed to spend part of the autumn and winter hunting in that island. The poem occurs in the long Ossianic tract called "The Colloquy of the Ancients," published by Standish Hayes O'Grady in Silva Gadelica (Williams and Norgate, 1892). Text, p. 102; translation, p. 109.
"The Parting of Goll with his Wife." From Duanaire Finn, edited by Prof. John MacNeill (Irish Texts Soc, vii., 1908), pp. 23 and 121. Goll was leader of the Connaught Fians and was opposed to Fionn, the chief of the Leinster warriors. He is described as a man of lofty disposition and great valour. In this poem he is standing, driven to bay by his enemies, on a bare rocky promontory, his wife only beside him, cut off from all hope of escape. Few poems relating to Goll remain in Ireland, but a good many survive in the Western Highlands of Scotland.
"Youth and Age." Ibid., pp. 80 and 194. It is Oisín (Ossian) who here laments his departed youth.
"Chill Winter." From the "Colloquy of the Ancients," Silva Gadelica, text, p. 172; translation, p. 192.
"The Sleep-song of Grainne." From Duanaire Finn, pp. 85 and 198. Dermot, who has carried off Grainne, the wife of Fionn, is lying down to rest in the forest, when Grainne hears the approach of their pursuers. She sings over him this passionate lullaby, in which the restless activities and foreboding terrors of the animal world are aptly used to heighten the sense of their own danger.