[383] Folk-Lore, xii. 64, &c.; also cf. Eleanor Hull, The Cuchullin Saga in Irish Literature (London, 1898), Intro., p. 23, &c.
[384] What is probably the oldest form of a tale concerning Conchobhar’s birth makes Conchobhar ‘the son of a god who incarnated himself in the same way as did Lug and Etain’ (cf. Voy. of Bran, ii. 73).
[385] See Leabhar na h-Uidhre, 101b; and Book of Leinster, 123b:—‘Cúchulainn mc dea dechtiri.’
[386] We have already mentioned the belief that gods having their abode in the sun could leave it to assume bodies here on earth and become culture heroes and great teachers (see p. [309]).
[387] From Wooing of Emer in Leabhar na h-Uidhre; cf. Voy. of Bran, ii. 97.
[388] L’Épopée celt. en Irl., p. 11.
[389] Cf. Voy. of Bran, ii. p. 74 ff.
[390] In the Leabhar na h-Uidhre, 133a-134b; cf. Le Cycle Myth. Irl., pp. 336-43; cf. Voy. of Bran, i. 49-52; cf. O’Curry, Manners and Customs, iii. 175.
[391] Cf. Stokes’s ed. Annals of Tigernach, Third Frag. in Rev. Celt. xvii. 178. In the piece called Tucait baile Mongâin in the Leabhar na h-Uidhre, p. 134, col. 2, ‘Mongan is seen living with his wife the year of the death of Ciaran mac int Shair, and of Tuathal Mael-Garb, that is to say in 544,’ following the Chronicum Scotorum, Hennessy’s ed., pp. 48-9. As D’Arbois de Jubainville adds, the Irish chronicles of this epoch are only approximate in their dates. Thus, while the Four Masters (i. 243) makes the death of Mongan A. D. 620, the Annals of Ulster makes it A. D. 625, the Chronicum Scotorum A. D. 625, the Annals of Clonmacnoise, A. D. 624, and Egerton MS. 1782 A. D. 615 (cf. Voy. of Bran, i. 137-9).
[392] J. O’Donovan, Annals of Ireland by the Four Masters (Dublin, 1856), i. 121.