{"collection":"myth-cosmogony","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_34081/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_34081","id":"gutenberg_34081","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/34081","summary":null,"tags":["Category: History - British","Category: History - European","Category: Mythology, Legends & Folklore","Celts -- Religion","Mythology, Celtic"],"text":"[Queen Maev]\n\n                                Queen Maev\n\n\n\n\n\n                            *T. W. ROLLESTON*\n\n                   *MYTHS & LEGENDS OF THE CELTIC RACE*\n\n                                 [[Logo]]\n\n                            CONSTABLE - LONDON\n\n\n\n\n\nBritish edition published by Constable and Company Limited, London\n\nFirst published 1911 by George G. Harrap & Co., London\n\n\n\n\n\n\nPREFACE\n\n\nThe Past may be forgotten, but it never dies. The elements which in the\nmost remote times have entered into a nation\u2019s composition endure through\nall its history, and help to mould that history, and to stamp the\ncharacter and genius of the people.\n\nThe examination, therefore, of these elements, and the recognition, as far\nas possible, of the part they have actually contributed to the warp and\nweft of a nation\u2019s life, must be a matter of no small interest and\nimportance to those who realise that the present is the child of the past,\nand the future of the present; who will not regard themselves, their\nkinsfolk, and their fellow-citizens as mere transitory phantoms, hurrying\nfrom darkness into darkness, but who know that, in them, a vast historic\nstream of national life is passing from its distant and mysterious origin\ntowards a future which is largely conditioned by all the past wanderings\nof that human stream, but which is also, in no small degree, what they, by\ntheir courage, their patriotism, their knowledge, and their understanding,\nchoose to make it.\n\nThe part played by the Celtic race as a formative influence in the\nhistory, the literature, and the art of the people inhabiting the British\nIslands\u2014a people which from that centre has spread its dominions over so\nvast an area of the earth\u2019s surface\u2014has been unduly obscured in popular\nthought. For this the current use of the term \u201cAnglo-Saxon\u201d applied to the\nBritish people as a designation of race is largely responsible.\nHistorically the term is quite misleading. There is nothing to justify\nthis singling out of two Low-German tribes when we wish to indicate the\nrace-character of the British people. The use of it leads to such\nabsurdities as that which the writer noticed not long ago, when the\nproposed elevation by the Pope of an Irish bishop to a cardinalate was\ndescribed in an English newspaper as being prompted by the desire of the\nhead of the Catholic Church to pay a compliment to \u201cthe Anglo-Saxon race.\u201d\n\nThe true term for the population of these islands, and for the typical and\ndominant part of the population of North America, is not Anglo-Saxon, but\nAnglo-Celtic. It is precisely in this blend of Germanic and Celtic\nelements that the British people are unique\u2014it is precisely this blend\nwhich gives to this people the fire, the _\u00e9lan_, and in literature and art\nthe sense of style, colour, drama, which are not common growths of German\nsoil, while at the same time it gives the deliberateness and depth, the\nreverence for ancient law and custom, and the passion for personal\nfreedom, which are more or less strange to the Romance nations of the\nSouth of Europe. May they never become strange to the British Islands! Nor\nis the Celtic element in these islands to be regarded as contributed\nwholly, or even very predominantly, by the populations of the so-called\n\u201cCeltic Fringe.\u201d It is now well known to ethnologists that the Saxons did\nnot by any means exterminate the Celtic or Celticised populations whom\nthey found in possession of Great Britain. Mr. E.W.B. Nicholson, librarian\nof the Bodleian, writes in his important work \u201cKeltic Researches\u201d (1904):\n\n\u201cNames which have not been purposely invented to describe race must never\nbe taken as proof of race, but only as proof of community of language, or\ncommunity of political organisation. We call a man who speaks English,\nlives in England, and bears an obviously English name (such as Freeman or\nNewton), an Englishman. Yet from the statistics of \u2018relative nigrescence\u2019\nthere is good reason to believe that Lancashire, West Yorkshire,\nStaffordshire, Worcestershire, Warwickshire, Leicestershire, Rutland,\nCambridgeshire, Wiltshire, Somerset, and part of Sussex are as Keltic as\nPerthshire and North Munster; that Cheshire, Shropshire, Herefordshire,\nMonmouthshire, Gloucestershire, Devon, Dorset, Northamptonshire,\nHuntingdonshire, and Bedfordshire are more so\u2014and equal to North Wales and\nLeinster; while Buckinghamshire and Hertfordshire exceed even this degree,\nand are on a level with South Wales and Ulster.\u201d(1)\n\nIt is, then, for an Anglo-Celtic, not an \u201cAnglo-Saxon,\u201d people that this\naccount of the early history, the religion, and the mythical and romantic\nliterature of the Celtic race is written. It is hoped that that people\nwill find in it things worthy to be remembered as contributions to the\ngeneral stock of European culture, but worthy above all to be borne in\nmind by those who have inherited more than have any other living people of\nthe blood, the instincts and the genius of the Celt.\n\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS\n\n\nPREFACE\nCHAPTER I: THE CELTS IN ANCIENT HISTORY\nCHAPTER II: THE RELIGION OF THE CELTS\nCHAPTER III: THE IRISH INVASION MYTHS\nCHAPTER IV: THE EARLY MILESIAN KINGS\nCHAPTER V: TALES OF THE ULTONIAN CYCLE\nCHAPTER VI: TALES OF THE OSSIANIC CYCLE\nCHAPTER VII: THE VOYAGE OF MAELDUN\nCHAPTER VIII: MYTHS AND TALES OF THE CYMRY\n\n\n\n\n\nILLUSTRATIONS\n\n\nQueen Maev\nPrehistoric Tumulus at New Grange\nStone Alignments at Kermaris, Carnac\nStone-worship at Locronan, Brittany\n\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER I: THE CELTS IN ANCIENT HISTORY\n\n\n*Earliest References*\n\nIn the chronicles of the classical nations for about five hundred years\nprevious to the Christian era there are frequent references to a people\nassociated with these nations, sometimes in peace, sometimes in war, and\nevidently occupying a position of great strength and influence in the\nTerra Incognita of Mid-Europe. This people is called by the Greeks the\nHyperboreans or Celts, the latter term being first found in the geographer\nHecat\u00e6sus, about 500 B.C.(2)\n\nHerodotus, about half a century later, speaks of the Celts as dwelling\n\u201cbeyond the pillars of Hercules\u201d\u2014_i.e._, in Spain\u2014and also of the Danube\nas rising in their country.\n\nAristotle knew that they dwelt \u201cbeyond Spain,\u201d that they had captured\nRome, and that they set great store by warlike power. References other\nthan geographical are occasionally met with even in early writers.\nHellanicus of Lesbos, an historian of the fifth century B.C., describes\nthe Celts as practising justice and righteousness. Ephorus, about 350\nB.C., has three lines of verse about the Celts in which they are described\nas using \u201cthe same customs as the Greeks\u201d\u2014whatever that may mean\u2014and being\non the friendliest terms with that people, who established guest\nfriendships among them. Plato, however, in the \u201cLaws,\u201d classes the Celts\namong the races who are drunken and combative, and much barbarity is\nattributed to them on the occasion of their irruption into Greece and the\nsacking of Delphi in the year 273 B.C. Their attack on Rome and the\nsacking of that city by them about a century earlier is one of the\nlandmarks of ancient history.\n\nThe history of this people during the time when they were the dominant\npower in Mid-Europe has to be divined or reconstructed from scattered\nreferences, and from accounts of episodes in their dealings with Greece\nand Rome, very much as the figure of a prim\u00e6val monster is reconstructed\nby the zoologist from a few fossilised bones. No chronicles of their own\nhave come down to us, no architectural remains have survived; a few coins,\nand a few ornaments and weapons in bronze decorated with enamel or with\nsubtle and beautiful designs in chased or repouss\u00e9 work\u2014these, and the\nnames which often cling in strangely altered forms to the places where\nthey dwelt, from the Euxine to the British Islands, are well-nigh all the\nvisible traces which this once mighty power has left us of its\ncivilisation and dominion. Yet from these, and from the accounts of\nclassical writers, much can be deduced with certainty, and much more can\nbe conjectured with a very fair measure of probability. The great Celtic\nscholar whose loss we have recently had to deplore, M. d\u2019Arbois de\nJubainville, has, on the available data, drawn a convincing outline of\nCeltic history for the period prior to their emergence into full\nhistorical light with the conquests of C\u00e6sar,(3) and it is this outline of\nwhich the main features are reproduced here.\n\n*The True Celtic Race*\n\nTo begin with, we must dismiss the idea that Celtica was ever inhabited by\na single pure and homogeneous race. The true Celts, if we accept on this\npoint the carefully studied and elaborately argued conclusion of Dr. T.\nRice Holmes,(4) supported by the unanimous voice of antiquity, were a\ntall, fair race, warlike and masterful,(5) whose place of origin (as far\nas we can trace them) was somewhere about the sources of the Danube, and\nwho spread their dominion both by conquest and by peaceful infiltration\nover Mid-Europe, Gaul, Spain, and the British Islands. They did not\nexterminate the original prehistoric inhabitants of these\nregions\u2014pal\u00e6olithic and neolithic races, dolmen-builders and workers in\nbronze\u2014but they imposed on them their language, their arts, and their\ntraditions, taking, no doubt, a good deal from them in return, especially,\nas we shall see, in the important matter of religion. Among these races\nthe true Celts formed an aristocratic and ruling caste. In that capacity\nthey stood, alike in Gaul, in Spain, in Britain, and in Ireland, in the\nforefront or armed opposition to foreign invasion. They bore the worst\nbrunt of war, of confiscations, and of banishment. They never lacked\nvalour, but they were not strong enough or united enough to prevail, and\nthey perished in far greater proportion than the earlier populations whom\nthey had themselves subjugated. But they disappeared also by mingling\ntheir blood with these inhabitants, whom they impregnated with many of\ntheir own noble and virile qualities. Hence it comes that the\ncharacteristics of the peoples called Celtic in the present day, and who\ncarry on the Celtic tradition and language, are in some respects so\ndifferent from those of the Celts of classical history and the Celts who\nproduced the literature and art of ancient Ireland, and in others so\nstrikingly similar. To take a physical characteristic alone, the more\nCeltic districts of the British Islands are at present marked by darkness\nof complexion, hair, &c. They are not very dark, but they are darker than\nthe rest of the kingdom.(6) But the true Celts were certainly fair. Even\nthe Irish Celts of the twelfth century are described by Giraldus\nCambrensis as a fair race.\n\n*Golden Age of the Celts*\n\nBut we are anticipating, and must return to the period of the origins of\nCeltic history. As astronomers have discerned the existence of an unknown\nplanet by the perturbations which it has caused in the courses of those\nalready under direct observation, so we can discern in the fifth and\nfourth centuries before Christ the presence of a great power and of mighty\nmovements going on behind a veil which will never be lifted now. This was\nthe Golden Age of Celtdom in Continental Europe. During this period the\nCelts waged three great and successful wars, which had no little influence\non the course of South European history. About 500 B.C. they conquered\nSpain from the Carthaginians. A century later we find them engaged in the\nconquest of Northern Italy from the Etruscans. They settled in large\nnumbers in the territory afterwards known as Cisalpine Gaul, where many\nnames, such as _Mediolanum_ (Milan), _Addua_ (Adda), _Viro-dunum_\n(Verduno), and perhaps _Cremona_ (_creamh_, garlic),(7) testify still to\ntheir occupation. They left a greater memorial in the chief of Latin\npoets, whose name, Vergil, appears to bear evidence of his Celtic\nancestry.(8) Towards the end of the fourth century they overran Pannonia,\nconquering the Illyrians.\n\n*Alliances with the Greeks*\n\nAll these wars were undertaken in alliance with the Greeks, with whom the\nCelts were at this period on the friendliest terms. By the war with the\nCarthaginians the monopoly held by that people of the trade in tin with\nBritain and in silver with the miners of Spain was broken down, and the\noverland route across France to Britain, for the sake of which the\nPhoc\u00e6ans had in 600 B.C. created the port of Marseilles, was definitely\nsecured to Greek trade. Greeks and Celts were at this period allied\nagainst Ph\u0153nicians and Persians. The defeat of Hamilcar by Gelon at\nHimera, in Sicily, took place in the same year as that of Xerxes at\nSalamis. The Carthaginian army in that expedition was made up of\nmercenaries from half a dozen different nations, but not a Celt is found\nin the Carthaginian ranks, and Celtic hostility must have counted for much\nin preventing the Carthaginians from lending help to the Persians for the\noverthrow of their common enemy. These facts show that Celtica played no\nsmall part in preserving the Greek type of civilisation from being\noverwhelmed by the despotisms of the East, and thus in keeping alive in\nEurope the priceless seed of freedom and humane culture.\n\n*Alexander the Great*\n\nWhen the counter-movement of Hellas against the East began under Alexander\nthe Great we find the Celts again appearing as a factor of importance.\n\nIn the fourth century Macedon was attacked and almost obliterated by\nThracian and Illyrian hordes. King Amyntas II. was defeated and driven\ninto exile. His son Perdiccas II. was killed in battle. When Philip, a\nyounger brother of Perdiccas, came to the obscure and tottering throne\nwhich he and his successors were to make the seat of a great empire he was\npowerfully aided in making head against the Illyrians by the conquests of\nthe Celts in the valleys of the Danube and the Po. The alliance was\ncontinued, and rendered, perhaps, more formal in the days of Alexander.\nWhen about to undertake his conquest of Asia (334 B.C.) Alexander first\nmade a compact with the Celts \u201cwho dwelt by the Ionian Gulf\u201d in order to\nsecure his Greek dominions from attack during his absence. The episode is\nrelated by Ptolemy Soter in his history of the wars of Alexander.(9) It\nhas a vividness which stamps it as a bit of authentic history, and another\nsingular testimony to the truth of the narrative has been brought to light\nby de Jubainville. As the Celtic envoys, who are described as men of\nhaughty bearing and great stature, their mission concluded, were drinking\nwith the king, he asked them, it is said, what was the thing they, the\nCelts, most feared. The envoys replied: \u201cWe fear no man: there is but one\nthing that we fear, namely, that the sky should fall on us; but we regard\nnothing so much as the friendship of a man such as thou.\u201d Alexander bade\nthem farewell, and, turning to his nobles, whispered: \u201cWhat a vainglorious\npeople are these Celts!\u201d Yet the answer, for all its Celtic bravura and\nflourish, was not without both dignity and courtesy. The reference to the\nfalling of the sky seems to give a glimpse of some primitive belief or\nmyth of which it is no longer possible to discover the meaning.(10) The\nnational oath by which the Celts bound themselves to the observance of\ntheir covenant with Alexander is remarkable. \u201cIf we observe not this\nengagement,\u201d they said, \u201cmay the sky fall on us and crush us, may the\nearth gape and swallow us up, may the sea burst out and overwhelm us.\u201d De\nJubainville draws attention most appositely to a passage from the \u201cT\u00e1in Bo\nCuailgne,\u201d in the Book of Leinster(11), where the Ulster heroes declare to\ntheir king, who wished to leave them in battle in order to meet an attack\nin another part of the field: \u201cHeaven is above us, and earth beneath us,\nand the sea is round about us. Unless the sky shall fall with its showers\nof stars on the ground where we are camped, or unless the earth shall be\nrent by an earthquake, or unless the waves of the blue sea come over the\nforests of the living world, we shall not give ground.\u201d(12) This survival\nof a peculiar oath-formula for more than a thousand years, and its\nreappearance, after being first heard of among the Celts of Mid-Europe, in\na mythical romance of Ireland, is certainly most curious, and, with other\nfacts which we shall note hereafter, speaks strongly for the community and\npersistence of Celtic culture.(13)\n\n*The Sack of Rome*\n\nWe have mentioned two of the great wars of the Continental Celts; we come\nnow to the third, that with the Etruscans, which ultimately brought them\ninto conflict with the greatest power of pagan Europe, and led to their\nproudest feat of arms, the sack of Rome. About the year 400 B.C. the\nCeltic Empire seems to have reached the height of its power. Under a king\nnamed by Livy Ambicatus, who was probably the head of a dominant tribe in\na military confederacy, like the German Emperor in the present day, the\nCelts seem to have been welded into a considerable degree of political\nunity, and to have followed a consistent policy. Attracted by the rich\nland of Northern Italy, they poured down through the passes of the Alps,\nand after hard fighting with the Etruscan inhabitants they maintained\ntheir ground there. At this time the Romans were pressing on the Etruscans\nfrom below, and Roman and Celt were acting in definite concert and\nalliance. But the Romans, despising perhaps the Northern barbarian\nwarriors, had the rashness to play them false at the siege of Clusium, 391\nB.C., a place which the Romans regarded as one of the bulwarks of Latium\nagainst the North. The Celts recognised Romans who had come to them in the\nsacred character of ambassadors fighting in the ranks of the enemy. The\nevents which followed are, as they have come down to us, much mingled with\nlegend, but there are certain touches of dramatic vividness in which the\ntrue character of the Celts appears distinctly recognisable. They applied,\nwe are told, to Rome for satisfaction for the treachery of the envoys, who\nwere three sons of Fabius Ambustus, the chief pontiff. The Romans refused\nto listen to the claim, and elected the Fabii military tribunes for the\nensuing year. Then the Celts abandoned the siege of Clusium and marched\nstraight on Rome. The army showed perfect discipline. There was no\nindiscriminate plundering and devastation, no city or fortress was\nassailed. \u201cWe are bound for Rome\u201d was their cry to the guards upon the\nwalls of the provincial towns, who watched the host in wonder and fear as\nit rolled steadily to the south. At last they reached the river Allia, a\nfew miles from Rome, where the whole available force of the city was\nranged to meet them. The battle took place on July 18, 390, that\nill-omened _dies Alliensis_ which long perpetuated in the Roman calendar\nthe memory of the deepest shame the republic had ever known. The Celts\nturned the flank of the Roman army, and annihilated it in one tremendous\ncharge. Three days later they were in Rome, and for nearly a year they\nremained masters of the city, or of its ruins, till a great fine had been\nexacted and full vengeance taken for the perfidy at Clusium. For nearly a\ncentury after the treaty thus concluded there was peace between the Celts\nand the Romans, and the breaking of that peace when certain Celtic tribes\nallied themselves with their old enemy, the Etruscans, in the third\nSamnite war was coincident with the breaking up of the Celtic Empire.(14)\n\nTwo questions must now be considered before we can leave the historical\npart of this Introduction. First of all, what are the evidences for the\nwidespread diffusion of Celtic power in Mid-Europe during this period?\nSecondly, where were the Germanic peoples, and what was their position in\nregard to the Celts?\n\n*Celtic Place-names in Europe*\n\nTo answer these questions fully would take us (for the purposes of this\nvolume) too deeply into philological discussions, which only the Celtic\nscholar can fully appreciate. The evidence will be found fully set forth\nin de Jubainville\u2019s work, already frequently referred to. The study of\nEuropean place-names forms the basis of the argument. Take the Celtic name\n_Noviomagus_ composed of two Celtic words, the adjective meaning new, and\n_magos_ (Irish _magh_) a field or plain.(15) There were nine places of\nthis name known in antiquity. Six were in France, among them the places\nnow called Noyon, in Oise, Nijon, in Vosges, Nyons, in Dr\u00f4me. Three\noutside of France were Nim\u00e8gue, in Belgium, Neumagen, in the Rhineland,\nand one at Speyer, in the Palatinate.\n\nThe word _dunum_, so often traceable in Gaelic place-names in the present\nday (Dundalk, Dunrobin, &c.), and meaning fortress or castle, is another\ntypically Celtic element in European place-names. It occurred very\nfrequently in France\u2014_e.g., Lug-dunum_ (Lyons), _Viro-dunum_ (Verdun). It\nis also found in Switzerland\u2014_e.g., Minno-dunum_ (Moudon), _Eburo-dunum_\n(Yverdon)\u2014and in the Netherlands, where the famous city of Leyden goes\nback to a Celtic _Lug-dunum._ In Great Britain the Celtic term was often\nchanged by simple translation into _castra_; thus _Camulo-dunum_ became\nColchester, _Brano-dunum_ Brancaster. In Spain and Portugal eight names\nterminating in _dunum_ are mentioned by classical writers. In Germany the\nmodern names Kempton, Karnberg, Liegnitz, go back respectively to the\nCeltic forms _Cambo-dunum, Carro-aunum,_ _Lugi-dunum_, and we find a\n_Singi-dunum,_ now Belgrade, in Servia, a _Novi-dunum_, now Isaktscha, in\nRoumania, a _Carro-dunum_ in South Russia, near the Dniester, and another\nin Croatia, now Pitsmeza. _Sego-dunum_, now Rodez, in France, turns up\nalso in Bavaria (Wurzburg), and in England (_Sege-dunum,_ now Wallsend, in\nNorthumberland), and the first term, _sego_, is traceable in Segorbe\n(_Sego-briga_) in Spain. _Briga_ is a Celtic word, the origin of the\nGerman _burg_, and equivalent in meaning to _dunum_.\n\nOne more example: the word _magos_, a plain, which is very frequent as an\nelement of Irish place-names, is found abundantly in France, and outside\nof France, in countries no longer Celtic, it appears in Switzerland\n(_Uro-magus_ now Promasens), in the Rhineland (_Broco-magus_, Brumath), in\nthe Netherlands, as already noted (Nim\u00e8gue), in Lombardy several times,\nand in Austria.\n\nThe examples given are by no means exhaustive, but they serve to indicate\nthe wide diffusion of the Celts in Europe and their identity of language\nover their vast territory.(16)\n\n*Early Celtic Art*\n\nThe relics of ancient Celtic art-work tell the same story. In the year\n1846 a great pre-Roman necropolis was discovered at Hallstatt, near\nSalzburg, in Austria. It contains relics believed by Dr. Arthur Evans to\ndate from about 750 to 400 B.C. These relics betoken in some cases a high\nstandard of civilisation and considerable commerce. Amber from the Baltic\nis there, Phoenician glass, and gold-leaf of Oriental workmanship. Iron\nswords are found whose hilts and sheaths are richly decorated with gold,\nivory, and amber.\n\nThe Celtic culture illustrated by the remains at Hallstatt developed later\ninto what is called the La T\u00e8ne culture. La T\u00e8ne was a settlement at the\nnorth-eastern end of the Lake of Neuch\u00e2tel, and many objects of great\ninterest have been found there since the site was first explored in 1858.\nThese antiquities represent, according to Dr. Evans, the culminating\nperiod of Gaulish civilisation, and date from round about the third\ncentury B.C. The type of art here found must be judged in the light of an\nobservation recently made by Mr. Romilly Allen in his \u201cCeltic Art\u201d (p.\n13):\n\n\u201cThe great difficulty in understanding the evolution of Celtic art lies in\nthe fact that although the Celts never seem to have invented any new\nideas, they possessed an extraordinary aptitude for picking up ideas from\nthe different peoples with whom war or commerce brought them into contact.\nAnd once the Celt had borrowed an idea from his neighbours he was able to\ngive it such a strong Celtic tinge that it soon became something so\ndifferent from what it was originally as to be almost unrecognisable.\u201d\n\nNow what the Celt borrowed in the art-culture which on the Continent\nculminated in the La T\u00e8ne relics were certain originally naturalistic\nmotives for Greek ornaments, notably the palmette and the meander motives.\nBut it was characteristic of the Celt that he avoided in his art all\nimitation of, or even approximation to, the natural forms of the plant and\nanimal world. He reduced everything to pure decoration. What he enjoyed in\ndecoration was the alternation of long sweeping curves and undulations\nwith the concentrated energy of close-set spirals or bosses, and with\nthese simple elements and with the suggestion of a few motives derived\nfrom Greek art he elaborated a most beautiful, subtle, and varied system\nof decoration, applied to weapons, ornaments, and to toilet and household\nappliances of all kinds, in gold, bronze, wood, and stone, and possibly,\nif we had the means of judging, to textile fabrics also. One beautiful\nfeature in the decoration of metal-work seems to have entirely originated\nin Celtica. Enamelling was unknown to the classical nations till they\nlearned from the Celts. So late as the third century A.D. it was still\nstrange to the classical world, as we learn from the reference of\nPhilostratus:\n\n\n    \u201cThey say that the barbarians who live in the ocean [Britons] pour\n    these colours upon heated brass, and that they adhere, become hard\n    as stone, and preserve the designs that are made upon them.\u201d\n\n\nDr. J. Anderson writes in the \u201cProceedings of the Society of Antiquaries\nof Scotland\u201d:\n\n\n    \u201cThe Gauls as well as the Britons\u2014of the same Celtic\n    stock\u2014practised enamel-working before the Roman conquest. The\n    enamel workshops of Bibracte, with their furnaces, crucibles,\n    moulds, polishing-stones, and with the crude enamels in their\n    various stages of preparation, have been recently excavated from\n    the ruins of the city destroyed by Caesar and his legions. But the\n    Bibracte enamels are the work of mere dabblers in the art,\n    compared with the British examples. The home of the art was\n    Britain, and the style of the pattern, as well as the association\n    in which the objects decorated with it were found, demonstrated\n    with certainty that it had reached its highest stage of indigenous\n    development before it came in contact with the Roman culture.\u201d(17)\n\n\nThe National Museum in Dublin contains many superb examples of Irish\ndecorative art in gold, bronze, and enamels, and the \u201cstrong Celtic tinge\u201d\nof which Mr. Romilly Allen speaks is as clearly observable there as in the\nrelics of Hallstatt or La T\u00e8ne.\n\nEverything, then, speaks of a community of culture, an identity of\nrace-character, existing over the vast territory known to the ancient\nworld as \u201cCeltica.\u201d\n\n*Celts and Germans*\n\nBut, as we have said before, this territory was by no means inhabited by\nthe Celt alone. In particular we have to ask, who and where were the\nGermans, the Teuto-Gothic tribes, who eventually took the place of the\nCelts as the great Northern menace to classical civilisation?\n\nThey are mentioned by Pytheas, the eminent Greek traveller and geographer,\nabout 300 B.C., but they play no part in history till, under the name of\nCimbri and Teutones, they descended on Italy to be vanquished by Marius at\nthe close of the second century. The ancient Greek geographers prior to\nPytheas know nothing of them, and assign all the territories now known as\nGermanic to various Celtic tribes.\n\nThe explanation given by de Jubainville, and based by him on various\nphilological considerations, is that the Germans were a subject people,\ncomparable to those \u201cun-free tribes\u201d who existed in Gaul and in ancient\nIreland. They lived under the Celtic dominion, and had no independent\npolitical existence. De Jubainville finds that all the words connected\nwith law and government and war which are common both to the Celtic and\nTeutonic languages were borrowed by the latter from the former. Chief\namong them are the words represented by the modern German _Reich_, empire,\n_Amt_, office, and the Gothic _reiks_, a king, all of which are of\nunquestioned Celtic origin. De Jubainville also numbers among loan words\nfrom Celtic the words _Bann_, an order; _Frei_, free; _Geisel_, a hostage;\n_Erbe_, an inheritance; _Werth_, value; _Weih_, sacred; _Magus_, a slave\n(Gothic); _Wini_, a wife (Old High German); _Skalks, Schalk_, a slave\n(Gothic); _Hathu_, battle (Old German); _Helith, Held_, a hero, from the\nsame root as the word Celt; _Heer_, an army (Celtic _choris_); _Sieg_,\nvictory; _Beute_, booty; _Burg_, a castle; and many others.\n\nThe etymological history of some of these words is interesting. _Amt_, for\ninstance, that word of so much significance in modern German\nadministration, goes back to an ancient Celtic _ambhactos_, which is\ncompounded of the words _ambi_, about, and _actos_, a past participle\nderived from the Celtic root _AG_, meaning to act. Now _ambi_ descends\nfrom the primitive Indo-European _mbhi_, where the initial _m_ is a kind\nof vowel, afterwards represented in Sanscrit by _a_. This _m_ vowel became\n_n_ in those Germanic words which derive directly from the primitive\nIndo-European tongue. But the word which is now represented by _amt_\nappears in its earliest Germanic form as _ambaht_, thus making plain its\ndescent from the Celtic _ambhactos_.\n\nAgain, the word _frei_ is found in its earliest Germanic form as\n_frijo-s,_ which comes from the primitive Indo-European _prijo-s_. The\nword here does not, however, mean free; it means beloved (Sanscrit\n_priya-s_). In the Celtic language, however, we find _prijos_ dropping its\ninitial _p_\u2014a difficulty in pronouncing this letter was a marked feature\nin ancient Celtic; it changed _j_, according to a regular rule, into _dd_,\nand appears in modern Welsh as _rhydd_=free. The Indo-European meaning\npersists in the Germanic languages in the name of the love-goddess,\n_Freia_, and in the word _Freund_, friend, _Friede_, peace. The sense\nborne by the word in the sphere of civil right is traceable to a Celtic\norigin, and in that sense appears to have been a loan from Celtic.\n\nThe German _Beute_, booty, plunder, has had an instructive history. There\nwas a Gaulish word _bodi_ found in compounds such as the place-name\nSegobodium (Seveux), and various personal and tribal names, including\nBoudicca, better known to us as the \u201cBritish warrior queen,\u201d Boadicea.\nThis word meant anciently \u201cvictory.\u201d But the fruits of victory are spoil,\nand in this material sense the word was adopted in German, in French\n(_butin_) in Norse (_byte_), and the Welsh (_budd_). On the other hand,\nthe word preserved its elevated significance in Irish. In the Irish\ntranslation of Chronicles xxix. 11, where the Vulgate original has \u201cTua\nest, Domine, magnificentia et potentia et gloria et victoria,\u201d the word\n_victoria_ is rendered by the Irish _b\u00faaidh_, and, as de Jubainville\nremarks, \u201cce n\u2019est pas de butin qu\u2019il s\u2019agit.\u201d He goes on to say:\n\u201c_B\u00faaidh_ has preserved in Irish, thanks to a vigorous and persistent\nliterary culture, the high meaning which it bore in the tongue of the\nGaulish aristocracy. The material sense of the word was alone perceived by\nthe lower classes of the population, and it is the tradition of this lower\nclass which has been preserved in the German, the French, and the Cymric\nlanguages.\u201d(18)\n\nTwo things, however, the Celts either could not or would not impose on the\nsubjugated German tribes\u2014their language and their religion. In these two\ngreat factors of race-unity and pride lay the seeds of the ultimate German\nuprising and overthrow of the Celtic supremacy. The names of the German\nare different from those of the Celtic deities, their funeral customs,\nwith which are associated the deepest religious conceptions of primitive\nraces, are different. The Celts, or at least the dominant section of them,\nburied their dead, regarding the use of fire as a humiliation, to be\ninflicted on criminals, or upon slaves or prisoners in those terrible\nhuman sacrifices which are the greatest stain on their native culture. The\nGermans, on the other hand, burned their illustrious dead on pyres, like\nthe early Greeks\u2014if a pyre could not be afforded for the whole body, the\nnoblest parts, such as the head and arms, were burned and the rest buried.\n\n*Downfall of the Celtic Empire*\n\nWhat exactly took place at the time of the German revolt we shall never\nknow; certain it is, however, that from about the year 300 B.C. onward the\nCelts appear to have lost whatever political cohesion and common purpose\nthey had possessed. Rent asunder, as it were, by the upthrust of some\nmighty subterranean force, their tribes rolled down like lava-streams to\nthe south, east, and west of their original home. Some found their way\ninto Northern Greece, where they committed the outrage which so\nscandalised their former friends and allies in the sack of the shrine of\nDelphi (273 B.C.). Others renewed, with worse fortune, the old struggle\nwith Rome, and perished in vast numbers at Sentinum (295 B.C.) and Lake\nVadimo (283 B.C.). One detachment penetrated into Asia Minor, and founded\nthe Celtic State of Galatia, where, as St. Jerome attests, a Celtic\ndialect was still spoken in the fourth century A.D. Others enlisted as\nmercenary troops with Carthage. A tumultuous war of Celts against\nscattered German tribes, or against other Celts who represented earlier\nwaves of emigration and conquest, went on all over Mid-Europe, Gaul, and\nBritain. When this settled down Gaul and the British Islands remained\npractically the sole relics of the Celtic empire, the only countries still\nunder Celtic law and leadership. By the commencement of the Christian era\nGaul and Britain had fallen under the yoke of Rome, and their complete\nRomanisation was only a question of time.\n\n*Unique Historical Position of Ireland*\n\nIreland alone was never even visited, much less subjugated, by the Roman\nlegionaries, and maintained its independence against all comers nominally\nuntil the close of the twelfth century, but for all practical purposes a\ngood three hundred years longer.\n\nIreland has therefore this unique feature of interest, that it carried an\nindigenous Celtic civilisation, Celtic institutions, art, and literature,\nand the oldest surviving form of the Celtic language,(19) right across the\nchasm which separates the antique from the modern world, the pagan from\nthe Christian world, and on into the full light of modern history and\nobservation.\n\n*The Celtic Character*\n\nThe moral no less than the physical characteristics attributed by\nclassical writers to the Celtic peoples show a remarkable distinctness and\nconsistency. Much of what is said about them might, as we should expect,\nbe said of any primitive and unlettered people, but there remains so much\nto differentiate them among the races of mankind that if these ancient\nreferences to the Celts could be read aloud, without mentioning the name\nof the race to whom they referred, to any person acquainted with it\nthrough modern history alone, he would, I think, without hesitation, name\nthe Celtic peoples as the subject of the description which he had heard.\n\nSome of these references have already been quoted, and we need not repeat\nthe evidence derived from Plato, Ephorus, or Arrian. But an observation of\nM. Porcius Cato on the Gauls may be adduced. \u201cThere are two things,\u201d he\nsays, \u201cto which the Gauls are devoted\u2014the art of war and subtlety of\nspeech\u201d (\u201crem militarem et argute loqui\u201d).\n\n*C\u00e6sar\u2019s Account*\n\nC\u00e6sar has given us a careful and critical account of them as he knew them\nin Gaul. They were, he says, eager for battle, but easily dashed by\nreverses. They were extremely superstitious, submitting to their Druids in\nall public and private affairs, and regarding it as the worst of\npunishments to be excommunicated and forbidden to approach thu ceremonies\nof religion:\n\n\n    \u201cThey who are thus interdicted [for refusing to obey a Druidical\n    sentence] are reckoned in the number of the vile and wicked; all\n    persons avoid and fly their company and discourse, lest they\n    should receive any infection by contagion; they are not permitted\n    to commence a suit; neither is any post entrusted to them.... The\n    Druids are generally freed from military service, nor do they pay\n    taxes with the rest.... Encouraged by such rewards, many of their\n    own accord come to their schools, and are sent by their friends\n    and relations. They are said there to get by heart a great number\n    of verses; some continue twenty years in their education; neither\n    is it held lawful to commit these things [the Druidic doctrines]\n    to writing, though in almost all public transactions and private\n    accounts they use the Greek characters.\u201d\n\n\nThe Gauls were eager for news, besieging merchants and travellers for\ngossip,(20) easily influenced, sanguine, credulous, fond of change, and\nwavering in their counsels. They were at the same time remarkably acute\nand intelligent, very quick to seize upon and to imitate any contrivance\nthey found useful. Their ingenuity in baffling the novel siege apparatus\nof the Roman armies is specially noticed by C\u00e6sar. Of their courage he\nspeaks with great respect, attributing their scorn of death, in some\ndegree at least, to their firm faith in the immortality of the soul.(21) A\npeople who in earlier days had again and again annihilated Roman armies,\nhad sacked Rome, and who had more than once placed C\u00e6sar himself in\npositions of the utmost anxiety and peril, were evidently no weaklings,\nwhatever their religious beliefs or practices. C\u00e6sar is not given to\nsentimental admiration of his foes, but one episode at the siege of\nAvaricum moves him to immortalise the valour of the defence. A wooden\nstructure or _agger_ had been raised by the Romans to overtop the walls,\nwhich had proved impregnable to the assaults of the battering-ram. The\nGauls contrived to set this on fire. It was of the utmost moment to\nprevent the besiegers from extinguishing the flames, and a Gaul mounted a\nportion of the wall above the _agger_, throwing down upon it balls of\ntallow and pitch, which were handed up to him from within. He was soon\nstruck down by a missile from a Roman catapult. Immediately another\nstepped over him as he lay, and continued his comrade\u2019s task. He too fell,\nbut a third instantly took his place, and a fourth; nor was this post ever\ndeserted until the legionaries at last extinguished the flames and forced\nthe defenders back into the town, which was finally captured on the\nfollowing day.\n\n*Strabo on the Celts*\n\nThe geographer and traveller Strabo, who died 24 A.D., and was therefore a\nlittle later than C\u00e6sar, has much to tell us about the Celts. He notices\nthat their country (in this case Gaul) is thickly inhabited and well\ntilled\u2014there is no waste of natural resources. The women are prolific, and\nnotably good mothers. He describes the men as warlike, passionate,\ndisputatious, easily provoked, but generous and unsuspicious, and easily\nvanquished by stratagem. They showed themselves eager for culture, and\nGreek letters and science had spread rapidly among them from Massilia;\npublic education was established in their towns. They fought better on\nhorseback than on foot, and in Strabo\u2019s time formed the flower of the\nRoman cavalry. They dwelt in great houses made of arched timbers with\nwalls of wickerwork\u2014no doubt plastered with clay and lime, as in\nIreland\u2014and thickly thatched. Towns of much importance were found in Gaul,\nand C\u00e6sar notes the strength of their walls, built of stone and timber.\nBoth C\u00e6sar and Strabo agree that there was a very sharp division between\nthe nobles and priestly or educated class on the one hand and the common\npeople on the other, the latter being kept in strict subjection. The\nsocial division corresponds roughly, no doubt, to the race distinction\nbetween the true Celts and the aboriginal populations subdued by them.\nWhile C\u00e6sar tells us that the Druids taught the immortality of the soul,\nStrabo adds that they believed in the indestructibility, which implies in\nsome sense the divinity, of the material universe.\n\nThe Celtic warrior loved display. Everything that gave brilliance and the\nsense of drama to life appealed to him. His weapons were richly\nornamented, his horse-trappings were wrought in bronze and enamel, of\ndesign as exquisite as any relic of Mycenean or Cretan art, his raiment\nwas embroidered with gold. The scene of the surrender of Vercingetorix,\nwhen his heroic struggle with Rome had come to an end on the fall of\nAlesia, is worth recording as a typically Celtic blend of chivalry and of\nwhat appeared to the sober-minded Romans childish ostentation.(22) When he\nsaw that the cause was lost he summoned a tribal council, and told the\nassembled chiefs, whom he had led through a glorious though unsuccessful\nwar, that he was ready to sacrifice himself for his still faithful\nfollowers\u2014they might send his head to C\u00e6sar if they liked, or he would\nvoluntarily surrender himself for the sake of getting easier terms for his\ncountrymen. The latter alternative was chosen. Vercingetorix then armed\nhimself with his most splendid weapons, decked his horse with its richest\ntrappings, and, after riding thrice round the Roman camp, went before\nC\u00e6sar and laid at his feet the sword which was the sole remaining defence\nof Gallic independence. C\u00e6sar sent him to Rome, where he lay in prison for\nsix years, and was finally put to death when C\u00e6sar celebrated his triumph.\n\nBut the Celtic love of splendour and of art were mixed with much\nbarbarism. Strabo tells us how the warriors rode home from victory with\nthe heads of fallen foemen dangling from their horses\u2019 necks, just as in\nthe Irish saga the Ulster hero, Cuchulain, is represented as driving back\nto Emania from a foray into Connacht with the heads of his enemies hanging\nfrom his chariot-rim. Their domestic arrangements were rude; they lay on\nthe ground to sleep, sat on couches of straw, and their women worked in\nthe fields.\n\n*Polybius*\n\nA characteristic scene from the battle of Clastidium (222 B.C.) is\nrecorded by Polybius. The G\u00e6sati,(23) he tells us, who were in the\nforefront of the Celtic army, stripped naked for the fight, and the sight\nof these warriors, with their great stature and their fair skins, on which\nglittered the collars and bracelets of gold so loved as an adornment by\nall the Celts, filled the Roman legionaries with awe. Yet when the day was\nover those golden ornaments went in cartloads to deck the Capitol of Rome;\nand the final comment of Polybius on the character of the Celts is that\nthey, \u201cI say not usually, but always, in everything they attempt, are\ndriven headlong by their passions, and never submit to the laws of\nreason.\u201d As might be expected, the chastity for which the Germans were\nnoted was never, until recent times, a Celtic characteristic.\n\n*Diodorus*\n\nDiodorus Siculus, a contemporary of Julius C\u00e6sar and Augustus, who had\ntravelled in Gaul, confirms in the main the accounts of C\u00e6sar and Strabo,\nbut adds some interesting details. He notes in particular the Gallic love\nof gold. Even cuirasses were made of it. This is also a very notable trait\nin Celtic Ireland, where an astonishing number of prehistoric gold relics\nhave been found, while many more, now lost, are known to have existed. The\ntemples and sacred places, say Posidonius and Diodorus, were full of\nunguarded offerings of gold, which no one ever touched. He mentions the\ngreat reverence paid to the bards, and, like Cato, notices something\npeculiar about the kind of speech which the educated Gauls cultivated:\n\u201cthey are not a talkative people, and are fond of expressing themselves in\nenigmas, so that the hearer has to divine the most part of what they would\nsay.\u201d This exactly answers to the literary language of ancient Ireland,\nwhich is curt and allusive to a degree. The Druid was regarded as the\nprescribed intermediary between God and man\u2014no one could perform a\nreligious act without his assistance.\n\n*Ammianus Marcellinus*\n\nAmmianus Marcellinus, who wrote much later, in the latter half of the\nfourth century A.D., had also visited Gaul, which was then, of course,\nmuch Romanised. He tells us, however, like former writers, of the great\nstature, fairness, and arrogant bearing of the Gallic warrior. He adds\nthat the people, especially in Aquitaine, were singularly clean and proper\nin their persons\u2014no one was to be seen in rags. The Gallic woman he\ndescribes as very tall, blue-eyed, and singularly beautiful; but a certain\namount of awe is mingled with his evident admiration, for he tells us that\nwhile it was dangerous enough to get into a fight with a Gallic man, your\ncase was indeed desperate if his wife with her \u201chuge snowy arms,\u201d which\ncould strike like catapults, came to his assistance. One is irresistibly\nreminded of the gallery of vigorous, independent, fiery-hearted women,\nlike Maeve, Grania, Findabair, Deirdre, and the historic Boadicea, who\nfigure in the myths and in the history of the British Islands.\n\n*Rice Holmes on the Gauls*\n\nThe following passage from Dr. Rice Holmes\u2019 \u201cC\u00e6sar\u2019s Conquest of Gaul\u201d may\nbe taken as an admirable summary of the social physiognomy of that part of\nCeltica a little before the time of the Christian era, and it corresponds\nclosely to all that is known of the native Irish civilisation:\n\n\n    \u201cThe Gallic peoples had risen far above the condition of savages;\n    and the Celticans of the interior, many of whom had already fallen\n    under Roman influence, had attained a certain degree of\n    civilisation, and even of luxury. Their trousers, from which the\n    province took its name of Gallia Bracata, and their many-coloured\n    tartan skirts and cloaks excited the astonishment of their\n    conquerors. The chiefs wore rings and bracelets and necklaces of\n    gold; and when these tall, fair-haired warriors rode forth to\n    battle, with their helmets wrought in the shape of some fierce\n    beast\u2019s head, and surmounted by nodding plumes, their chain\n    armour, their long bucklers and their huge clanking swords, they\n    made a splendid show. Walled towns or large villages, the\n    strongholds of the various tribes, were conspicuous on numerous\n    hills. The plains were dotted by scores of oper hamlets. The\n    houses, built of timber and wickerwork, were large and well\n    thatched. The fields in summer were yellow with corn. Roads ran\n    from town to town. Rude bridges spanned the rivers; and barges\n    laden with merchandise floated along them. Ships clumsy indeed but\n    larger than any that were seen on the Mediterranean, braved the\n    storms of the Bay of Biscay and carried cargoes between the ports\n    of Brittany and the coast of Britain. Tolls were exacted on the\n    goods which were transported on the great waterways; and it was\n    from the farming of these dues that the nobles derived a large\n    part of their wealth. Every tribe had its coinage; and the\n    knowledge of writing in Greek and Roman characters was not\n    confined to the priests. The \u00c6duans were familiar with the plating\n    of copper and of tin. The miners of Aquitaine, of Auvergne, and of\n    the Berri were celebrated for their skill. Indeed, in all that\n    belonged to outward prosperity the peoples of Gaul had made great\n    strides since their kinsmen first came into contact with\n    Rome.\u201d(24)\n\n\n*Weakness of the Celtic Policy*\n\nYet this native Celtic civilisation, in many respects so attractive and so\npromising, had evidently some defect or disability which prevented the\nCeltic peoples from holding their own either against the ancient\ncivilisation of the Gr\u00e6co-Roman world, or against the rude young vigour of\nthe Teutonic races. Let us consider what this was.\n\n*The Classical State*\n\nAt the root of the success of classical nations lay the conception of the\ncivic community, the _\u03c0\u03cc\u03bb\u03b9\u03c2_, the _res publica_, as a kind of divine\nentity, the foundation of blessing to men, venerable for its age, yet\nrenewed in youth with every generation; a power which a man might joyfully\nserve, knowing that even if not remembered in its records his faithful\nservice would outlive his own petty life and go to exalt the life of his\nmotherland or city for all future time. In this spirit Socrates, when\nurged to evade his death sentence by taking the means of escape from\nprison which his friends offered him, rebuked them for inciting him to an\nimpious violation of his country\u2019s laws. For a man\u2019s country, he says, is\nmore holy and venerable than father or mother, and he must quietly obey\nthe laws, to which he has assented by living under them all his life, or\nincur the just wrath of their great Brethren, the Laws of the Underworld,\nbefore whom, in the end, he must answer for his conduct on earth. In a\ngreater or less degree this exalted conception of the State formed the\npractical religion of every man among the classical nations of antiquity,\nand gave to the State its cohesive power, its capability of endurance and\nof progress.\n\n*Teutonic Loyalty*\n\nWith the Teuton the cohesive force was supplied by another motive, one\nwhich was destined to mingle with the civic motive and to form, in union\nwith it\u2014and often in predominance over it\u2014the main political factor in the\ndevelopment of the European nations. This was the sentiment of what the\nGermans called _Treue_, the personal fidelity to a chief, which in very\nearly times extended itself to a royal dynasty, a sentiment rooted\nprofoundly in the Teutonic nature, and one which has never been surpassed\nby any other human impulse as the source of heroic self-sacrifice.\n\n*Celtic Religion*\n\nNo human influences are ever found pure and unmixed. The sentiment of\npersonal fidelity was not unknown to the classical nations. The sentiment\nof civic patriotism, though of slow growth among the Teutonic races, did\neventually establish itself there. Neither sentiment was unknown to the\nCelt, but there was another force which, in his case, overshadowed and\ndwarfed them, and supplied what it could of the political inspiration and\nunifying power which the classical nations got from patriotism and the\nTeutons from loyalty. This was Religion; or perhaps it would be more\naccurate to say Sacerdotalism\u2014religion codified in dogma and administered\nby a priestly caste. The Druids, as we have seen from C\u00e6sar, whose\nobservations are entirely confirmed by Strabo and by references in Irish\nlegends,(25) were the really sovran power in Celtica. All affairs, public\nand private, were subject to their authority, and the penalties which they\ncould inflict for any assertion of lay independence, though resting for\ntheir efficacy, like the medi\u00e6val interdicts of the Catholic Church, on\npopular superstition alone, were enough to quell the proudest spirit. Here\nlay the real weakness of the Celtic polity. There is perhaps no law\nwritten more conspicuously in the teachings of history than that nations\nwho are ruled by priests drawing their authority from supernatural\nsanctions are, just in the measure that they are so ruled, incapable of\ntrue national progress. The free, healthy current of secular life and\nthought is, in the very nature of things, incompatible with priestly rule.\nBe the creed what it may, Druidism, Islam, Judaism, Christianity, or\nfetichism, a priestly caste claiming authority in temporal affairs by\nvirtue of extra-temporal sanctions is inevitably the enemy of that spirit\nof criticism, of that influx of new ideas, of that growth of secular\nthought, of human and rational authority, which are the elementary\nconditions of national development.\n\n*The Cursing of Tara*\n\nA singular and very cogent illustration of this truth can be drawn from\nthe history of the early Celtic world. In the sixth century A.D., a little\nover a hundred years after the preaching of Christianity by St. Patrick, a\nking named Dermot MacKerval(26) ruled in Ireland. He was the Ard Righ, or\nHigh King, of that country, whose seat of government was at Tara, in\nMeath, and whose office, with its nominal and legal superiority to the\nfive provincial kings, represented the impulse which was moving the Irish\npeople towards a true national unity. The first condition of such a unity\nwas evidently the establishment of an effective central authority. Such an\nauthority, as we have said, the High King, in theory, represented. Now it\nhappened that one of his officers was murdered in the discharge of his\nduty by a chief named Hugh Guairy. Guairy was the brother of a bishop who\nwas related by fosterage to St. Ruadan of Lorrha, and when King Dermot\nsent to arrest the murderer these clergy found him a hiding-place. Dermot,\nhowever, caused a search to be made, haled him forth from under the roof\nof St. Ruadan, and brought him to Tara for trial. Immediately the\necclesiastics of Ireland made common cause against the lay ruler who had\ndared to execute justice on a criminal under clerical protection. They\nassembled at Tara, fasted against the king,(27) and laid their solemn\nmalediction upon him and the seat of his government. Then the chronicler\ntells us that Dermot\u2019s wife had a prophetic dream:\n\n\n    \u201cUpon Tara\u2019s green was a vast and wide-foliaged tree, and eleven\n    slaves hewing at it; but every chip that they knocked from it\n    would return into its place again and there adhere instantly, till\n    at last there came one man that dealt the tree but a stroke, and\n    with that single cut laid it low.\u201d(28)\n\n\nThe fair tree was the Irish monarchy, the twelve hewers were the twelve\nSaints or Apostles of Ireland, and the one who laid it low was St. Ruadan.\nThe plea of the king for his country, whose fate he saw to be hanging in\nthe balance, is recorded with moving force and insight by the Irish\nchronicler:(29)\n\n\n    \u201c \u2018Alas,\u2019 he said, \u2018for the iniquitous contest that ye have waged\n    against me; seeing that it is Ireland\u2019s good that I pursue, and to\n    preserve her discipline and royal right; but \u2019tis Ireland\u2019s\n    unpeace and murderousness that ye endeavour after.\u2019 \u201d\n\n\nBut Ruadan said, \u201cDesolate be Tara for ever and ever\u201d; and the popular awe\nof the ecclesiastical malediction prevailed. The criminal was surrendered,\nTara was abandoned, and, except for a brief space when a strong usurper,\nBrian Boru, fought his way to power, Ireland knew no effective secular\ngovernment till it was imposed upon her by a conqueror. The last words of\nthe historical tract from which we quote are Dermot\u2019s cry of despair:\n\n\n    \u201cWoe to him that with the clergy of the churches battle joins.\u201d\n\n\nThis remarkable incident has been described at some length because it is\ntypical of a factor whose profound influence in moulding the history of\nthe Celtic peoples we can trace through a succession of critical events\nfrom the time of Julius Caesar to the present day. How and whence it arose\nwe shall consider later; here it is enough to call attention to it. It is\na factor which forbade the national development of the Celts, in the sense\nin which we can speak of that of the classical or the Teutonic peoples.\n\n*What Europe Owes to the Celt*\n\nYet to suppose that on this account the Celt was not a force of any real\nconsequence in Europe would be altogether a mistake. His contribution to\nthe culture of the Western world was a very notable one. For some four\ncenturies\u2014about A.D. 500 to 900\u2014Ireland was the refuge of learning and the\nsource of literary and philosophic culture for half Europe. The\nverse-forms of Celtic poetry have probably played the main part in\ndetermining the structure of all modern verse. The myths and legends of\nthe Gaelic and Cymric peoples kindled the imagination of a host of\nContinental poets. True, the Celt did not himself create any great\narchitectural work of literature, just as he did not create a stable or\nimposing national polity. His thinking and feeling were essentially\nlyrical and concrete. Each object or aspect of life impressed him vividly\nand stirred him profoundly; he was sensitive, impressionable to the last\ndegree, but did not see things in their larger and more far-reaching\nrelations. He had little gift for the establishment or institutions, for\nthe service of principles; but he was, and is, an indispensable and\nnever-failing assertor of humanity as against the tyranny of principles,\nthe coldness and barrenness of institutions. The institutions of royalty\nand of civic patriotism are both very capable of being fossilised into\nbarren formulae, and thus of fettering instead of inspiring the soul. But\nthe Celt has always been a rebel against anything that has not in it the\nbreath of life, against any unspiritual and purely external form of\ndomination. It is too true that he has been over-eager to enjoy the fine\nfruits of life without the long and patient preparation for the harvest,\nbut he has done and will still do infinite service to the modern world in\ninsisting that the true fruit of life is a spiritual reality, never\nwithout pain and loss to be obscured or forgotten amid the vast mechanism\nof a material civilisation.\n\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER II: THE RELIGION OF THE CELTS\n\n\n*Ireland and the Celtic Religion*\n\nWe have said that the Irish among the Celtic peoples possess the unique\ninterest of having carried into the light of modern historical research\nmany of the features of a native Celtic civilisation. There is, however,\none thing which they did not carry across the gulf which divides us from\nthe ancient world\u2014and this was their religion.\n\nIt was not merely that they changed it; they left it behind them so\nentirely that all record of it is lost. St. Patrick, himself a Celt, who\napostolised Ireland during the fifth century, has left us an\nautobiographical narrative of his mission, a document of intense interest,\nand the earliest extant record of British Christianity; but in it he tells\nus nothing of the doctrines he came to supplant. We learn far more of\nCeltic religious beliefs from Julius C\u00e6sar, who approached them from quite\nanother side. The copious legendary literature which took its present form\nin Ireland between the seventh and the twelfth centuries, though often\nmanifestly going back to pre-Christian sources, shows us, beyond a belief\nin magic and a devotion to certain ceremonial or chivalric observances,\npractically nothing resembling a religious or even an ethical system. We\nknow that certain chiefs and bards offered a long resistance to the new\nfaith, and that this resistance came to the arbitrament of battle at\nMoyrath in the sixth century, but no echo of any intellectual controversy,\nno matching of one doctrine against another, such as we find, for\ninstance, in the records of the controversy of Celsus with Origen, has\nreached us from this period of change and strife. The literature of\nancient Ireland, as we shall see, embodied many ancient myths; and traces\nappear in it of beings who must, at one time, have been gods or elemental\npowers; but all has been emptied of religious significance and turned to\nromance and beauty. Yet not only was there, as C\u00e6sar tells us, a very\nwell-developed religious system among the Gauls, but we learn on the same\nauthority that the British Islands were the authoritative centre of this\nsystem; they were, so to speak, the Rome of the Celtic religion.\n\nWhat this religion was like we have now to consider, as an introduction to\nthe myths and tales which more or less remotely sprang from it.\n\n*The Popular Religion of the Celts*\n\nBut first we must point out that the Celtic religion was by no means a\nsimple affair, and cannot be summed up as what we call \u201cDruidism.\u201d Beside\nthe official religion there was a body of popular superstitions and\nobservances which came from a deeper and older source than Druidism, and\nwas destined long to outlive it\u2014indeed, it is far from dead even yet.\n\n*The Megalithic People*\n\nThe religions of primitive peoples mostly centre on, or take their rise\nfrom, rites and practices connected with the burial of the dead. The\nearliest people inhabiting Celtic territory in the West of Europe of whom\nwe have any distinct knowledge are a race without name or known history,\nbut by their sepulchral monuments, of which so many still exist, we can\nlearn a great deal about them. They were the so-called Megalithic\nPeople,(30) the builders of dolmens, cromlechs, and chambered tumuli, of\nwhich more than three thousand have been counted in France alone. Dolmens\nare found from Scandinavia southwards, all down the western lands of\nEurope to the Straits of Gibraltar, and round by the Mediterranean coast\nof Spain. They occur in some of the western islands of the Mediterranean,\nand are found in Greece, where, in Mycen\u00e6, an ancient dolmen yet stands\nbeside the magnificent burial-chamber of the Atreidae. Roughly, if we draw\na line from the mouth of the Rhone northward to Varanger Fiord, one may\nsay that, except for a few Mediterranean examples, all the dolmens in\nEurope lie to the west of that line. To the east none are found till we\ncome into Asia. But they cross the Straits of Gibraltar, and are found all\nalong the North African littoral, and thence eastwards through Arabia,\nIndia, and as far as Japan.\n\n*Dolmens, Cromlechs, and Tumuli*\n\n                       [Dolmen at Proleek, Ireland]\n\n                        Dolmen at Proleek, Ireland\n\n                            _(After Borlase)_\n\n\nA dolmen, it may be here explained, is a kind of chamber composed of\nupright unhewn stones, and roofed generally with a single huge stone. They\nare usually wedge-shaped in plan, and traces of a porch or vestibule can\noften be noticed. The primary intention of the dolmen was to represent a\nhouse or dwelling-place for the dead. A cromlech (often confused in\npopular language with the dolmen) is properly a circular arrangement of\nstanding stones, often with a dolmen in their midst. It is believed that\nmost if not all of the now exposed dolmens were originally covered with a\ngreat mound of earth or of smaller stones. Sometimes, as in the\nillustration we give from Carnac, in Brittany, great avenues or alignments\nare formed of single upright stones, and these, no doubt, had some purpose\nconnected with the ritual of worship carried on in the locality. The later\nmegalithic monuments, as at Stonehenge, may be of dressed stone, but in\nall cases their rudeness of construction, the absence of any sculpturing\n(except for patterns or symbols incised on the surface), the evident aim\nat creating a powerful impression by the brute strength of huge monolithic\nmasses, as well as certain subsidiary features in their design which shall\nbe described later on, give these megalithic monuments a curious family\nlikeness and mark them out from the chambered tombs of the early Greeks,\nof the Egyptians, and of other more advanced races. The dolmens proper\ngave place in the end to great chambered mounds or tumuli, as at New\nGrange, which we also reckon as belonging to the Megalithic People. They\nare a natural development of the dolmen. The early dolmen-builders were in\nthe neolithic stage of culture, their weapons were of polished stone. But\nin the tumuli not only stone, but also bronze, and even iron, instruments\nare found\u2014at first evidently importations, but afterwards of local\nmanufacture.\n\n*Origin of the Megalithic People*\n\n                   [Prehistoric Tumulus at New Grange]\n\n                    Prehistoric Tumulus at New Grange\n\n                     Photograph by R. Welch, Belfast\n\n\nThe language originally spoken by this people can only be conjectured by\nthe traces of it left in that of their conquerors, the Celts.(31) But a\nmap of the distribution or their monuments irresistibly suggests the idea\nthat their builders were of North African origin; that they were not at\nfirst accustomed to traverse the sea for any great distance; that they\nmigrated westwards along North Africa, crossed into Europe where the\nMediterranean at Gibraltar narrows to a strait of a few miles in width,\nand thence spread over the western regions of Europe, including the\nBritish Islands, while on the eastward they penetrated by Arabia into\nAsia. It must, however, be borne in mind that while originally, no doubt,\na distinct race, the Megalithic People came in the end to represent, not a\nrace, but a culture. The human remains found in these sepulchres, with\ntheir wide divergence in the shape of the skull, &c., clearly prove\nthis.(32) These and other relics testify to the dolmen-builders in general\nas representing a superior and well-developed type, acquainted with\nagriculture, pasturage, and to some extent with seafaring. The monuments\nthemselves, which are often of imposing size and imply much thought and\norganised effort in their construction, show unquestionably the existence,\nat this period, of a priesthood charged with the care of funeral rites and\ncapable of controlling large bodies of men. Their dead were, as a rule,\nnot burned, but buried whole\u2014the greater monuments marking, no doubt, the\nsepulchres of important personages, while the common people were buried in\ntombs of which no traces now exist.\n\n*The Celts of the Plains*\n\nDe Jubainville, in his account of the early history of the Celts, takes\naccount of two main groups only\u2014the Celts and the Megalithic People. But\nA. Bertrand, in his very valuable work \u201cLa Religion des Gaulois,\u201d\ndistinguishes two elements among the Celts themselves. There are, besides\nthe Megalithic People, the two groups of lowland Celts and mountain Celts.\nThe lowland Celts, according to his view, started from the Danube and\nentered Gaul probably about 1200 B.C. They were the founders of the\nlake-dwellings in Switzerland, in the Danube valley, and in Ireland. They\nknew the use of metals, and worked in gold, in tin, in bronze, and towards\nthe end of their period in iron. Unlike the Megalithic People, they spoke\na Celtic tongue,(33) though Bertrand seems to doubt their genuine racial\naffinity with the true Celts. They were perhaps Celticised rather than\nactually Celtic. They were not warlike; a quiet folk of herdsmen, tillers,\nand artificers. They did not bury, but burned their dead. At a great\nsettlement of theirs, Golasecca, in Cisalpine Gaul, 6000 interments were\nfound. In each case the body had been burned; there was not a single\nburial without previous burning.\n\nThis people entered Gaul not (according to Bertrand), for the most part,\nas conquerors, but by gradual infiltration, occupying vacant spaces\nwherever they found them along the valleys and plains. They came by the\npasses of the Alps, and their starting-point was the country of the Upper\nDanube, which Herodotus says \u201crises among the Celts.\u201d They blended\npeacefully with the Megalithic People among whom they settled, and did not\nevolve any of those advanced political institutions which are only nursed\nin war, but probably they contributed powerfully to the development of the\nDruidical system of religion and to the bardic poetry.\n\n*The Celts of the Mountains*\n\nFinally, we have a third group, the true Celtic group, which followed\nclosely on the track of the second. It was at the beginning of the sixth\ncentury that it first made its appearance on the left bank of the Rhine.\nWhile Bertrand calls the second group Celtic, these he styles Galatic, and\nidentifies them with the Galat\u00e6 of the Greeks and the Galli and Belg\u00e6 of\nthe Romans.\n\nThe second group, as we have said, were Celts of the plains. The third\nwere Celts of the mountains. The earliest home in which we know them was\nthe ranges of the Balkans and Carpathians. Their organisation was that of\na military aristocracy\u2014they lorded it over the subject populations on whom\nthey lived by tribute or pillage. They are the warlike Celts of ancient\nhistory\u2014the sackers of Rome and Delphi, the mercenary warriors who fought\nfor pay and for the love of warfare in the ranks of Carthage and\nafterwards of Rome. Agriculture and industry were despised by them, their\nwomen tilled the ground, and under their rule the common population became\nreduced almost to servitude; \u201cplebs p\u0153ne servorum habetur loco,\u201d as Caesar\ntells us. Ireland alone escaped in some degree from the oppression of this\nmilitary aristocracy, and from the sharp dividing line which it drew\nbetween the classes, yet even there a reflexion of the state of things in\nGaul is found, even there we find free and unfree tribes and oppressive\nand dishonouring exactions on the part of the ruling order.\n\nYet, if this ruling race had some of the vices of untamed strength, they\nhad also many noble and humane qualities. They were dauntlessly brave,\nfantastically chivalrous, keenly sensitive to the appeal of poetry, of\nmusic, and of speculative thought. Posidonius found the bardic institution\nflourishing among them about 100 B.C.,and about two hundred years earlier\nHecat\u00e6us of Abdera describes the elaborate musical services held by the\nCelts in a Western island\u2014probably Great Britain\u2014in honour of their god\nApollo (Lugh).(34) Aryan of the Aryans, they had in them the making of a\ngreat and progressive nation; but the Druidic system\u2014not on the side of\nits philosophy and science, but on that of its ecclesiastico-political\norganisation\u2014was their bane, and their submission to it was their fatal\nweakness.\n\nThe culture of these mountain Celts differed markedly from that of the\nlowlanders. Their age was the age of iron, not of bronze; their dead were\nnot burned (which they considered a disgrace), but buried.\n\nThe territories occupied by them in force were Switzerland, Burgundy, the\nPalatinate, and Northern France, parts of Britain to the west, and Illyria\nand Galatia to the east, but smaller groups of them must have penetrated\nfar and wide through all Celtic territory, and taken up a ruling position\nwherever they went.\n\n                  [Stone Alignments at Kermaris, Carnac]\n\n                   Stone Alignments at Kermaris, Carnac\n\n                              Arthur G. Bell\n\n\nThere were three peoples, said C\u00e6sar, inhabiting Gaul when his conquest\nbegan; \u201cthey differ from each other in language, in customs, and in laws.\u201d\nThese people he named respectively the Belg\u00e6, the Celt\u00e6, and the Aquitani.\nHe locates them roughly, the Belg\u00e6 in the north and east, the Celt\u00e6 in the\nmiddle, and the Aquitani in the west and south. The Belg\u00e6 are the Galat\u00e6\nof Bertrand, the Celt\u00e6 are the Celts, and the Aquitani are the Megalithic\nPeople. They had, of course, all been more or less brought under Celtic\ninfluences, and the differences of language which C\u00e6sar noticed need not\nhave been great; still it is noteworthy, and quite in accordance with\nBertrand\u2019s views, that Strabo speaks of the Aquitani as differing markedly\nfrom the rest of the inhabitants, and as resembling the Iberians. The\nlanguage of the other Gaulish peoples, he expressly adds, were merely\ndialects of the same tongue.\n\n*The Religion of Magic*\n\nThis triple division is reflected more or less in all the Celtic\ncountries, and must always be borne in mind when we speak of Celtic ideas\nand Celtic religion, and try to estimate the contribution of the Celtic\npeoples to European culture. The mythical literature and the art of the\nCelt have probably sprung mainly from the section represented by the\nLowland Celts of Bertrand. But this literature of song and saga was\nproduced by a bardic class for the pleasure and instruction of a proud,\nchivalrous, and warlike aristocracy, and would thus inevitably be moulded\nby the ideas of this aristocracy. But it would also have been coloured by\nthe profound influence of the religious beliefs and observances\nentertained by the Megalithic People\u2014beliefs which are only now fading\nslowly away in the spreading daylight of science. These beliefs may be\nsummed up in the one term Magic. The nature of this religion of magic must\nnow be briefly discussed, for it was a potent element in the formation of\nthe body of myths and legends with which we have afterwards to deal. And,\nas Professor Bury remarked in his Inaugural Lecture at Cambridge, in 1903:\n\n\n    \u201cFor the purpose of prosecuting that most difficult of all\n    inquiries, the ethnical problem, the part played by race in the\n    development of peoples and the effects of race-blendings, it must\n    be remembered that the Celtic world commands one of the chief\n    portals of ingress into that mysterious pre-Aryan foreworld, from\n    which it may well be that we modern Europeans have inherited far\n    more than we dream.\u201d\n\n\nThe ultimate root of the word Magic is unknown, but proximately it is\nderived from the Magi, or priests of Chaldea and Media in pre-Aryan and\npre-Semitic times, who were the great exponents of this system of thought,\nso strangely mingled of superstition, philosophy, and scientific\nobservation. The fundamental conception of magic is that of the spiritual\nvitality of all nature. This spiritual vitality was not, as in polytheism,\nconceived as separated from nature in distinct divine personalities. It\nwas implicit and immanent in nature; obscure, undefined, invested with all\nthe awfulness of a power whose limits and nature are enveloped in\nimpenetrable mystery. In its remote origin it was doubtless, as many facts\nappear to show, associated with the cult of the dead, for death was looked\nupon as the resumption into nature, and as the investment with vague and\nuncontrollable powers, of a spiritual force formerly embodied in the\nconcrete, limited, manageable, and therefore less awful form of a living\nhuman personality. Yet these powers were not altogether uncontrollable.\nThe desire for control, as well as the suggestion of the means for\nachieving it, probably arose from the first rude practices of the art of\nhealing. Medicine of some sort was one of the earliest necessities of man.\nAnd the power of certain natural substances, mineral or vegetable, to\nproduce bodily and mental effects often of a most startling character\nwould naturally be taken as signal evidence of what we may call the\n\u201cmagical\u201d conception of the universe.(35) The first magicians were those\nwho attained a special knowledge of healing or poisonous herbs; but\n\u201cvirtue\u201d of some sort being attributed to every natural object and\nphenomenon, a kind of magical science, partly the child of true research,\npartly of poetic imagination, partly of priestcraft, would in time spring\nup, would be codified into rites and formulas, attached to special places\nand objects, and represented by symbols. The whole subject has been\ntreated by Pliny in a remarkable passage which deserves quotation at\nlength:\n\n*Pliny on the Religion of Magic*\n\n\n    \u201cMagic is one of the few things which it is important to discuss\n    at some length, were it only because, being the most delusive of\n    all the arts, it has everywhere and at all times been most\n    powerfully credited. Nor need it surprise us that it has obtained\n    so vast an influence, for it has united in itself the three arts\n    which have wielded the most powerful sway over the spirit of man.\n    Springing in the first instance from Medicine\u2014a fact which no one\n    can doubt\u2014and under cover of a solicitude for our health, it has\n    glided into the mind, and taken the form of another medicine, more\n    holy and more profound. In the second place, bearing the most\n    seductive and flattering promises, it has enlisted the motive of\n    Religion, the subject on which, even at this day, mankind is most\n    in the dark. To crown all it has had recourse to the art of\n    Astrology; and every man is eager to know the future and convinced\n    that this knowledge is most certainly to be obtained from the\n    heavens. Thus, holding the minds of men enchained in this triple\n    bond, it has extended its sway over many nations, and the Kings of\n    Kings obey it in the East.\n\n\n\u201cIn the East, doubtless, it was invented\u2014in Persia and by Zoroaster.(36)\nAll the authorities agree in this. But has there not been more than one\nZoroaster?... I have noticed that in ancient times, and indeed almost\nalways, one finds men seeking in this science the climax of literary\nglory\u2014at least Pythagoras, Empedocles, Democritus, and Plato crossed the\nseas, exiles, in truth, rather than travellers, to instruct themselves in\nthis. Returning to their native land, they vaunted the claims of magic and\nmaintained its secret doctrine.... In the Latin nations there are early\ntraces of it, as, for instance, in our Laws of the Twelve Tables(37) and\nother monuments, as I have said in a former book. In fact, it was not\nuntil the year 657 after the foundation of Rome, under the consulate of\nCornelius Lentulus Crassus, that it was forbidden by a _senatus consultum_\nto sacrifice human beings; a fact which proves that up to this date these\nhorrible sacrifices were made. The Gauls have been captivated by it, and\nthat even down to our own times, for it was the Emperor Tiberius who\nsuppressed the Druids and all the herd of prophets and medicine-men. But\nwhat is the use of launching prohibitions against an art which has thus\ntraversed the ocean and penetrated even to the confines of Nature?\u201d\n(_Hist. Nat._ xxx.)\n\nPliny adds that the first person whom he can ascertain to have written on\nthis subject was Osthanes, who accompanied Xerxes in his war against the\nGreeks, and who propagated the \u201cgerms of his monstrous art\u201d wherever he\nwent in Europe.\n\nMagic was not\u2014so Pliny believed\u2014indigenous either in Greece or in Italy,\nbut was so much at home in Britain and conducted with such elaborate\nritual that Pliny says it would almost seem as if it was they who had\ntaught it to the Persians, not the Persians to them.\n\n*Traces of Magic in Megalithic Monuments*\n\nThe imposing relics of their cult which the Megalithic People have left us\nare full of indications of their religion. Take, for instance, the\nremarkable tumulus of Man\u00e9-er-H\u2019oeck, in Brittany. This monument was\nexplored in 1864 by M. Ren\u00e9 Galles, who describes it as absolutely\nintact\u2014the surface of the earth unbroken, and everything as the builders\nleft it.(38) At the entrance to the rectangular chamber was a sculptured\nslab, on which was graven a mysterious sign, perhaps the totem of a chief.\nImmediately on entering the chamber was found a beautiful pendant in green\njasper about the size of an egg. On the floor in the centre of the chamber\nwas a most singular arrangement, consisting of a large ring of jadite,\nslightly oval in shape, with a magnificent axe-head, also of jadite, its\npoint resting on the ring. The axe was a well-known symbol of power or\ngodhead, and is frequently found in rock-carvings of the Bronze Age, as\nwell as in Egyptian hieroglyphs, Minoan carvings, &c. At a little distance\nfrom these there lay two large pendants of jasper, then an axe-head in\nwhite jade,(39) then another jasper pendant. All these objects were ranged\nwith evident intention _en suite_, forming a straight line which coincided\nexactly with one of the diagonals of the chamber, running from north-west\nto south-east. In one of the corners of the chamber were found 101\naxe-heads in jade, jadite, and fibrolite. There were no traces of bones or\ncinders, no funerary urn; the structure was a cenotaph. \u201cAre we not here,\u201d\nasks Bertrand, \u201cin presence of some ceremony relating to the practices of\nmagic?\u201d\n\n*Chiromancy at Gavr\u2019inis*\n\nIn connexion with the great sepulchral monument of Gavr\u2019inis a very\ncurious observation was made by M. Albert Maitre, an inspector of the\nMus\u00e9e des Antiquit\u00e9s Nationales. There were found here\u2014as commonly in\nother megalithic monuments in Ireland and Scotland\u2014a number of stones\nsculptured with a singular and characteristic design in waving and\nconcentric lines. Now if the curious lines traced upon the human hand at\nthe roots and tips of the fingers be examined under a lens, it will be\nfound that they bear an exact resemblance to these designs of megalithic\nsculpture. One seems almost like a cast of the other. These lines on the\nhuman hand are so distinct and peculiar that, as is well known, they have\nbeen adopted as a method of identification of criminals. Can this\nresemblance be the result of chance? Nothing like these peculiar\nassemblages of sculptured lines has ever been found except in connexion\nwith these monuments. Have we not here a reference to chiromancy\u2014a magical\nart much practised in ancient and even in modern times? The hand as a\nsymbol of power was a well-known magical emblem, and has entered largely\neven into Christian symbolism\u2014note, for instance, the great hand\nsculptured on the under side of one of the arms of the Cross of Muiredach\nat Monasterboice.\n\n[Stones from Brittany sculptured with Footprints, Axes, \u201cFinger-markings,\u201d\n                                   &c.]\n\nStones from Brittany sculptured with Footprints, Axes, \u201cFinger-markings,\u201d\n                                   &c.\n\n                                _(Sergi)_\n\n\n*Holed Stones*\n\n                         [Dolmen at Trie, France]\n\n                          Dolmen at Trie, France\n\n                           _(After Gailhabaud)_\n\n\nAnother singular and as yet unexplained feature which appears in many of\nthese monuments, from Western Europe to India, is the presence of a small\nhole bored through one of the stones composing the chamber. Was it an\naperture intended for the spirit of the dead? or for offerings to them? or\nthe channel through which revelations from the spirit-world were supposed\nto come to a priest or magician? or did it partake of all these\ncharacters? Holed stones, not forming part of a dolmen, are, of course,\namong the commonest relics of the ancient cult, and are still venerated\nand used in practices connected with child-bearing, &c.  Here we are\ndoubtless to interpret the emblem as a symbol of sex.\n\n                      [Dolmens in the Deccan, India]\n\n                       Dolmens in the Deccan, India\n\n                         _(After Meadows-Taylor)_\n\n\n*Stone-Worship*\n\nBesides the heavenly bodies, we find that rivers, trees, mountains, and\nstones were all objects of veneration among this primitive people.\nStone-worship was particularly common, and is not so easily explained as\nthe worship directed toward objects possessing movement and vitality.\nPossibly an explanation of the veneration attaching to great and isolated\nmasses of unhewn stone may be found in their resemblance to the artificial\ndolmens and cromlechs.(40) No superstition has proved more enduring. In\nA.D. 452 we find the Synod of Arles denouncing those who \u201cvenerate trees\nand wells and stones,\u201d and the denunciation was repeated by Charlemagne,\nand by numerous Synods and Councils down to recent times. Yet a drawing,\nhere reproduced, which was lately made on the spot by Mr. Arthur Bell(41)\nshows this very act of worship still in full force in Brittany, and shows\nthe symbols and the sacerdotal organisation of Christianity actually\npressed into the service of this immemorial paganism. According to Mr.\nBell, the clergy take part in these performances with much reluctance, but\nare compelled to do so by the force of local opinion. Holy wells, the\nwater of which is supposed to cure diseases, are still very common in\nIreland, and the cult of the waters of Lourdes may, in spite of its\nadoption by the Church, be mentioned as a notable case in point on the\nContinent.\n\n                  [Stone-worship at Locronan, Brittany]\n\n                   Stone-worship at Locronan, Brittany\n\n\n*Cup-and-Ring Markings*\n\n                  [Cup-and-ring Markings from Scotland]\n\n                   Cup-and-ring Markings from Scotland\n\n                         (_After Sir J. Simpson_)\n\n\nAnother singular emblem, upon the meaning of which no light has yet been\nthrown, occurs frequently in connexion with megalithic monuments. The\naccompanying illustrations show examples of it. Cup-shaped hollows are\nmade in the surface of the stone, these are often surrounded with\nconcentric rings, and from the cup one or more radial lines are drawn to a\npoint outside the circumference of the rings. Occasionally a system of\ncups are joined by these lines, but more frequently they end a little way\noutside the widest of the rings. These strange markings are found in Great\nBritain and Ireland, in Brittany, and at various places in India, where\nthey are called _mahad\u00e9os_.(42) I have also found a curious example\u2014for\nsuch it appears to be\u2014in Dupaix\u2019 \u201cMonuments of New Spain.\u201d It is\nreproduced in Lord Kingsborough\u2019s \u201cAntiquities of Mexico,\u201d vol. iv. On the\ncircular top of a cylindrical stone, known as the \u201cTriumphal Stone,\u201d is\ncarved a central cup, with nine concentric circles round it, and a duct or\nchannel cut straight from the cup through all the circles to the rim.\nExcept that the design here is richly decorated and accurately drawn, it\nclosely resembles a typical European cup-and-ring marking. That these\nmarkings mean something, and that, wherever they are found, they mean the\nsame thing, can hardly be doubted, but what that meaning is remains yet a\npuzzle to antiquarians. The guess may perhaps be hazarded that they are\ndiagrams or plans of a megalithic sepulchre. The central hollow represents\nthe actual burial-place. The circles are the standing stones, fosses, and\nramparts which often surrounded it; and the line or duct drawn from the\ncentre outwards represents the subterranean approach to the sepulchre. The\napparent \u201cavenue\u201d intention of the duct is clearly brought out in the\nvarieties given below, which I take from Simpson. As the sepulchre was\nalso a holy place or shrine, the occurrence of a representation of it\namong other carvings of a sacred character is natural enough; it would\nseem symbolically to indicate that the place was holy ground. How far this\nsuggestion might apply to the Mexican example I am unable to say.\n\n                   [Varieties of Cup-and-ring Markings]\n\n                    Varieties of Cup-and-ring Markings\n\n\n*The Tumulus at New Grange*\n\nOne of the most important and richly sculptured of European megalithic\nmonuments is the great chambered tumulus of New Grange, on the northern\nbank of the Boyne, in Ireland. This tumulus, and the others which occur in\nits neighbourhood, appear in ancient Irish mythical literature in two\ndifferent characters, the union of which is significant. They are regarded\non the one hand as the dwelling-places of the _Sidhe_ (pronounced Shee),\nor Fairy Folk, who represent, probably, the deities of the ancient Irish,\nand they are also, traditionally, the burial-places of the Celtic High\nKings of pagan Ireland. The story of the burial of King Cormac, who was\nsupposed to have heard of the Christian faith long before it was actually\npreached in Ireland by St. Patrick and who ordered that he should not be\nburied at the royal cemetery by the Boyne, on account of its pagan\nassociations, points to the view that this place was the centre of a pagan\ncult involving more than merely the interment of royal personages in its\nprecincts. Unfortunately these monuments are not intact; they were opened\nand plundered by the Danes in the ninth century,(43) but enough evidence\nremains to show that they were sepulchral in their origin, and were also\nassociated with the cult of a primitive religion. The most important of\nthem, the tumulus of New Grange, has been thoroughly explored and\ndescribed by Mr. George Coffey, keeper of the collection of Celtic\nantiquities in the National Museum, Dublin.(44) It appears from the\noutside like a large mound, or knoll, now overgrown with bushes. It\nmeasures about 280 feet across, at its greatest diameter, and is about 44\nfeet in height. Outside it there runs a wide circle of standing stones\noriginally, it would seem, thirty-five in number. Inside this circle is a\nditch and rampart, and on top of this rampart was laid a circular curb of\ngreat stones 8 to 10 feet long, laid on edge, and confining what has\nproved to be a huge mound of loose stones, now overgrown, as we have said,\nwith grass and bushes. It is in the interior of this mound that the\ninterest of the monument lies. Towards the end of the seventeenth century\nsome workmen who were getting road-material from the mound came across the\nentrance to a passage which led into the interior, and was marked by the\nfact that the boundary stone below it is richly carved with spirals and\nlozenges. This entrance faces exactly south-east. The passage is formed of\nupright slabs of unhewn stone roofed with similar slabs, and varies from\nnearly 5 feet to 7 feet 10 inches in height; it is about 3 feet wide, and\nruns for 62 feet straight into the heart of the mound. Here it ends in a\ncruciform chamber, 20 feet high, the roof, a kind of dome, being formed of\nlarge flat stones, overlapping inwards till they almost meet at the top,\nwhere a large flat stone covers all. In each of the three recesses of the\ncruciform chamber there stands a large stone basin, or rude sarcophagus,\nbut not traces of any burial now remains.\n\n*Symbolic Carvings at New Grange*\n\nThe stones are all raw and undressed, and were selected for their purpose\nfrom the river-bed and elsewhere close by. On their flat surfaces,\nobtained by splitting slabs from the original quarries, are found the\ncarvings which form the unique interest of this strange monument. Except\nfor the large stone with spiral carvings and one other at the entrance to\nthe mound, the intention of these sculptures does not appear to have been\ndecorative, except in a very rude and primitive sense. There is no attempt\nto cover a given surface with a system of ornament appropriate to its size\nand shape. The designs are, as it were, scribbled upon the walls anyhow\nand anywhere.(45) Among them everywhere the spiral is prominent. The\nresemblance of some of these carvings to the supposed finger-markings of\nthe stones at Gavr\u2019inis is very remarkable. Triple and double spiral are\nalso found, as well as lozenges and zigzags. A singular carving\nrepresenting what looks like a palm-branch or fern-leaf is found in the\nwest recess. The drawing of this object is naturalistic, and it is hard to\ninterpret it, as Mr. Coffey is inclined to do, as merely a piece of\nso-called \u201cherring-bone\u201d pattern.(46) A similar palm-leaf design, but with\nthe ribs arranged at right angles to the central axis, is found in the\nneighbouring tumulus of Dowth, at Loughcrew, and in combination with a\nsolar emblem, the swastika, on a small altar in the Pyrenees, figured by\nBertrand.\n\n                   [Entrance to Tumulus at New Grange]\n\n                    Entrance to Tumulus at New Grange\n\n                     Photograph by R. Welch, Belfast\n\n\n*The Ship Symbol at New Grange*\n\nAnother remarkable and, as far as Ireland goes, unusual figure is found\nsculptured in the west recess at New Grange. It has been interpreted by\nvarious critics as a mason\u2019s mark, a piece of Phoenician writing, a group\nof numerals, and finally (and no doubt correctly) by Mr. George Coffey as\na rude representation of a ship with men on board and uplifted sail. It is\nnoticeable that just above it is a small circle, forming, apparently, part\nof the design. Another example occurs at Dowth.\n\n            [Solar Ship (with Sail?) from New Grange, Ireland]\n\n             Solar Ship (with Sail?) from New Grange, Ireland\n\n\nThe significance of this marking, as we shall see, is possibly very great.\nIt has been discovered that on certain stones in the tumulus of\nLocmariaker, in Brittany,(47) there occur a number of very similar\nfigures, one of them showing the circle in much the same relative position\nas at New Grange. The axe, an Egyptian hieroglyph for godhead and a\nwell-known magical emblem, is also represented on this stone. Again, in a\nbrochure by Dr. Oscar Montelius on the rock-sculptures of Sweden(48) we\nfind a reproduction (also given in Du Chaillu\u2019s \u201cViking Age\u201d) of a rude\nrock-carving showing a number of ships with men on board, and the circle\nquartered by a cross\u2014unmistakably a solar emblem\u2014just above one of them.\nThat these ships (which, like the Irish example, are often so summarily\nrepresented as to be mere symbols which no one could identifiy as a ship\nwere the clue not given by other and more elaborate representations) were\ndrawn so frequently in conjunction with the solar disk merely for\namusement or for a purely decorative object seems to me most improbable.\nIn the days of the megalithic folk a sepulchral monument, the very focus\nof religious ideas, would hardly have been covered with idle and\nmeaningless scrawls. \u201cMan,\u201d as Sir J. Simpson has well said, \u201chas ever\nconjoined together things sacred and things sepulchral.\u201d Nor do these\nscrawls, in the majority of instances, show any glimmering of a decorative\nintention. But if they had a symbolic intention, what is it that they\nsymbolise?\n\n                 [Solar Ship from Loc mariaker, Brittany]\n\n                  Solar Ship from Loc mariaker, Brittany\n\n                            (_After Ferguson_)\n\n\n                    [Solar Ship from Hallande, Sweden]\n\n                     Solar Ship from Hallande, Sweden\n\n                           (_After Montelius_)\n\n\n*The Ship Symbol in Egypt*\n\nNow this symbol of the ship, with or without the actual portrayal of the\nsolar emblem, is of very ancient and very common occurrence in the\nsepulchral art of Egypt. It is connected with the worship of R\u0101, which\ncame in fully 4000 years B.C. Its meaning as an Egyptian symbol is well\nknown. The ship was called the Boat of the Sun. It was the vessel in which\nthe Sun-god performed his journeys; in particular, the journey which he\nmade nightly to the shores of the Other-world, bearing with him in his\nbark the souls of the beatified dead. The Sun-god, R\u0101, is sometimes\nrepresented by a disk, sometimes by other emblems, hovering above the\nvessel or contained within it. Any one who will look over the painted or\nsculptured sarcophagi in the British Museum will find a host of examples.\nSometimes he will find representations of the life-giving rays of R\u0101\npouring down upon the boat and its occupants. Now, in one of the Swedish\nrock-carvings of ships at Backa, Bohusl\u00e4n, given by Montelius, a ship\ncrowded with figures is shown beneath a disk with three descending rays,\nand again another ship with a two-rayed sun above it. It may be added that\nin the tumulus of Dowth, which is close to that of New Grange and is\nentirely of the same character and period, rayed figures and quartered\ncircles, obviously solar emblems, occur abundantly, as also at Loughcrew\nand other places in Ireland, and one other ship figure has been identified\nat Dowth\n\n                   [Egyptian Solar Bark, XXII Dynasty]\n\n                    Egyptian Solar Bark, XXII Dynasty\n\n                            (_British Museum_)\n\n\n       [Egyptian Solar Bark, with god Khnemu and attendant deities]\n\n        Egyptian Solar Bark, with god Khnemu and attendant deities\n\n                            (_British Museum_)\n\n\nIn Egypt the solar boat is sometimes represented as containing the solar\nemblem alone, sometimes it contains the figure of a god with attendant\ndeities, sometimes it contains a crowd of passengers representing human\nsouls, and sometimes the figure of a single corpse on a bier. The\nmegalithic carvings also sometimes show the solar emblem and sometimes\nnot; the boats are sometimes filled with figures and are sometimes empty.\nWhen a symbol has once been accepted and understood, any conventional or\nsummary representation of it is sufficient. I take it that the complete\nform of the megalithic symbol is that of a boat with figures in it and\nwith the solar emblem overhead. These figures, assuming the foregoing\ninterpretation of the design to be correct, must clearly be taken for\nrepresentations of the dead on their way to the Other-world. They cannot\nbe deities, for representations of the divine powers under human aspect\nwere quite unknown to the Megalithic People, even after the coming of the\nCelts\u2014they first occur in Gaul under Roman influence. But if these figures\nrepresent the dead, then we have clearly before us the origin of the\nso-called \u201cCeltic\u201d doctrine of immortality. The carvings in question are\npre-Celtic. They are found where no Celts ever penetrated. Yet they point\nto the existence of just that Other-world doctrine which, from the time of\nC\u00e6sar downwards, has been associated with Celtic Druidism, and this\ndoctrine was distinctively Egyptian.\n\n[Egyptian Bark, with figure of R\u0101 holding an Ankh, enclosed in Solar Disk.\n                               XIX Dynasty]\n\n  Egyptian Bark, with figure of R\u0101 holding an _Ankh_, enclosed in Solar\n                            Disk. XIX Dynasty\n\n                            (_British Museum_)\n\n\n*The **\u201c**Navetas**\u201d*\n\nIn connexion with this subject I may draw attention to the theory of Mr.\nW.C. Borlase that the typical design of an Irish dolmen was intended to\nrepresent a ship. In Minorca there are analogous structures, there\npopularly called _navetas_ (ships), so distinct is the resemblance. But,\nhe adds, \u201clong before the caves and _navetas_ of Minorca were known to me\nI had formed the opinion that what I have so frequently spoken of as the\n\u2018wedge-shape\u2019 observable so universally in the ground-plans of dolmens was\ndue to an original conception of a ship. From sepulchral tumuli in\nScandinavia we know actual vessels have on several occasions been\ndisinterred. In cemeteries of the Iron Age, in the same country, as well\nas on the more southern Baltic coasts, the ship was a recognised form of\nsepulchral enclosure.\u201d(49) If Mr. Borlase\u2019s view is correct, we have here\na very strong corroboration of the symbolic intention which I attribute to\nthe solar ship-carvings of the Megalithic People.\n\n*The Ship Symbol in Babylonia*\n\nThe ship symbol, it may be remarked, can be traced to about 4000 B.C. in\nBabylonia, where every deity had his own special ship (that of the god Sin\nwas called the Ship of Light), his image being carried in procession on a\nlitter formed like a ship. This is thought by Jastrow(50) to have\noriginated at a time when the sacred cities of Babylonia were situated on\nthe Persian Gulf, and when religious processions were often carried out by\nwater.\n\n*The Symbol of the Feet*\n\nYet there is reason to think that some of these symbols were earlier than\nany known mythology, and were, so to say, mythologised differently by\ndifferent peoples, who got hold of them from this now unknown source. A\nremarkable instance is that of the symbol of the Two Feet. In Egypt the\nFeet of Osiris formed one of the portions into which his body was cut up,\nin the well-known myth. They were a symbol of possession or of visitation.\n\u201cI have come upon earth,\u201d says the \u201cBook of the Dead\u201d (ch. xvii.), \u201cand\nwith my two feet have taken possession, I am Tmu.\u201d Now this symbol of the\nfeet or footprint is very widespread. It is found in India, as the print\nof the foot of Buddha,(51) it is found sculptured on dolmens in\nBrittany,(52) and it occurs in rock-carvings in Scandinavia.(53) In\nIreland it passes for the footprints of St. Patrick or St. Columba.\nStrangest of all, it is found unmistakably in Mexico.(54) Tyler, in his\n\u201cPrimitive Culture\u201d (ii. p. 197) refers to \u201cthe Aztec ceremony at the\nSecond Festival of the Sun God, Tezcatlipoca, when they sprinkled maize\nflour before his sanctuary, and his high priest watched till he beheld the\ndivine footprints, and then shouted to announce, \u2018Our Great God is\ncome.\u2019 \u201d\n\n                          [The Two Feet Symbol]\n\n                           The Two Feet Symbol\n\n\n*The *_Ankh_* on Megalithic Carvings*\n\nThere is very strong evidence of the connexion of the Megalithic People\nwith North Africa. Thus, as Sergi points out, many signs (probably\nnumerical) found on ivory tablets in the cemetery at Naqada discovered by\nFlinders Petrie are to be met with on European dolmens. Several later\nEgyptian hieroglyphic signs, including the famous _Ankh_, or _crux\nansata_, the symbol of vitality or resurrection, are also found in\nmegalithic carvings.(55) From these correspondences Letourneau drew the\nconclusion \u201cthat the builders of our megalithic monuments came from the\nSouth, and were related to the races of North Africa.\u201d(56)\n\n                                [The Ankh]\n\n                                The _Ankh_\n\n\n*Evidence from Language*\n\nApproaching the subject from the linguistic side, Rhys and Brynmor Jones\nfind that the African origin\u2014at least proximately\u2014of the primitive\npopulation of Great Britain and Ireland is strongly suggested. It is here\nshown that the Celtic languages preserve in their syntax the Hamitic, and\nespecially the Egyptian type.(57)\n\n*Egyptian and **\u201c**Celtic**\u201d** Ideas of Immortality*\n\nThe facts at present known do not, I think, justify us in framing any\ntheory as to the actual historical relation of the dolmen-builders of\nWestern Europe with the people who created the wonderful religion and\ncivilisation of ancient Egypt. But when we consider all the lines of\nevidence that converge in this direction it seems clear that there was\nsuch a relation. Egypt was the classic land of religious symbolism. It\ngave to Europe the most beautiful and most popular of all its religious\nsymbols, that of the divine mother and child(58). I believe that it also\ngave to the primitive inhabitants of Western Europe the profound symbol of\nthe voyaging spirits guided to the world of the dead by the God of Light.\n\nThe religion of Egypt, above that of any people whose ideas we know to\nhave been developed in times so ancient, centred on the doctrine of a\nfuture life. The palatial and stupendous tombs, the elaborate ritual, the\nimposing mythology, the immense exaltation of the priestly caste, all\nthese features of Egyptian culture were intimately connected with their\ndoctrine of the immortality of the soul.\n\nTo the Egyptian the disembodied soul was no shadowy simulacrum, as the\nclassical nations believed\u2014the future life was a mere prolongation of the\npresent; the just man, when he had won his place in it, found himself\namong his relatives, his friends, his workpeople, with tasks and\nenjoyments very much like those of earth. The doom of the wicked was\nannihilation; he fell a victim to the invisible monster called the Eater\nof the Dead.\n\nNow when the classical nations first began to take an interest in the\nideas of the Celts the thing that principally struck them was the Celtic\nbelief in immortality, which the Gauls said was \u201chanded down by the\nDruids.\u201d The classical nations believed in immortality; but what a picture\ndoes Homer, the Bible of the Greeks, give of the lost, degraded,\ndehumanised creatures which represented the departed souls of men! Take,\nas one example, the description of the spirits of the suitors slain by\nOdysseus as Hermes conducts them to the Underworld:\n\n\u201cNow were summoned the souls of the dead by Cyllenian Hermes....\nTouched by the wand they awoke, and obeyed him and followed him,\n            squealing,\nEven as bats in the dark, mysterious depths of a cavern\nSqueal as they flutter around, should one from the cluster be fallen\nWhere from the rock suspended they hung, all clinging together;\nSo did the souls flock squealing behind him, as Hermes the Helper\nGuided them down to the gloom through dank and mouldering pathways.\u201d(59)\n\nThe classical writers felt rightly that the Celtic idea of immortality was\nsomething altogether different from this. It was both loftier and more\nrealistic; it implied a true persistence of the living man, as he was at\npresent, in all his human relations. They noted with surprise that the\nCelt would lend money on a promissory note for repayment in the next\nworld.(60) That is an absolutely Egyptian conception. And this very\nanalogy occurred to Diodorus in writing of the Celtic idea of\nimmortality\u2014it was like nothing that he knew of out of Egypt.(61)\n\n*The Doctrine of Transmigration*\n\nMany ancient writers assert that the Celtic idea of immortality embodied\nthe Oriental conception of the transmigration of souls, and to account for\nthis the hypothesis was invented that they had learned the doctrine from\nPythagoras, who represented it in classical antiquity. Thus C\u00e6sar: \u201cThe\nprincipal point of their [the Druids\u2019] teaching is that the soul does not\nperish, and that after death it passes from one body into another.\u201d And\nDiodorus: \u201cAmong them the doctrine of Pythagoras prevails, according to\nwhich the souls of men are immortal, and after a fixed term recommence to\nlive, taking upon themselves a new body.\u201d Now traces of this doctrine\ncertainly do appear in Irish legend. Thus the Irish chieftain, Mongan, who\nis an historical personage, and whose death is recorded about A.D. 625, is\nsaid to have made a wager as to the place of death of a king named Fothad,\nslain in a battle with the mythical hero Finn mac Cumhal in the third\ncentury. He proves his case by summoning to his aid a _revenant_ from the\nOther-world, Keelta, who was the actual slayer of Fothad, and who\ndescribes correctly where the tomb is to be found and what were its\ncontents. He begins his tale by saying to Mongan, \u201cWe were with thee,\u201d and\nthen, turning to the assembly, he continues: \u201cWe were with Finn, coming\nfrom Alba....\u201d \u201cHush,\u201d says Mongan, \u201cit is wrong of thee to reveal a\nsecret.\u201d The secret is, of course, that Mongan was a reincarnation of\nFinn.(62) But the evidence on the whole shows that the Celts did not hold\nthis doctrine at all in the same way as Pythagoras and the Orientals did.\nTransmigration was not, with them, part of the order of things. It _might_\nhappen, but in general it did not; the new body assumed by the dead\nclothed them in another, not in this world, and so far as we can learn\nfrom any ancient authority, there does not appear to have been any idea of\nmoral retribution connected with this form of the future life. It was not\nso much an article of faith as an idea which haunted the imagination, and\nwhich, as Mongan\u2019s caution indicates, ought not to be brought into clear\nlight.\n\nHowever it may have been conceived, it is certain that the belief in\nimmortality was the basis of Celtic Druidism.(63) Caesar affirms this\ndistinctly, and declares the doctrine to have been fostered by the Druids\nrather for the promotion of courage than for purely religious reasons. An\nintense Other-world faith, such as that held by the Celts, is certainly\none of the mightiest of agencies in the hands of a priesthood who hold the\nkeys of that world. Now Druidism existed in the British Islands, in Gaul,\nand, in fact, so far as we know, wherever there was a Celtic race amid a\npopulation of dolmen-builders. There were Celts in Cisalpine Gaul, but\nthere were no dolmens there, and there were no Druids.(64) What is quite\nclear is that when the Celts got to Western Europe they found there a\npeople with a powerful priesthood, a ritual, and imposing religious\nmonuments; a people steeped in magic and mysticism and the cult of the\nUnderworld. The inferences, as I read the facts, seem to be that Druidism\nin its essential features was imposed upon the imaginative and sensitive\nnature of the Celt\u2014the Celt with his \u201cextraordinary aptitude\u201d for picking\nup ideas\u2014by the earlier population of Western Europe, the Megalithic\nPeople, while, as held by these, it stands in some historical relation,\nwhich I am not able to pursue in further detail, with the religious\nculture of ancient Egypt. Much obscurity still broods over the question,\nand perhaps will always do so, but if these suggestions have anything in\nthem, then the Megalithic People have been brought a step or two out of\nthe atmosphere of uncanny mystery which has surrounded them, and they are\nshown to have played a very important part in the religious development of\nWestern Europe, and in preparing that part of the world for the rapid\nextension of the special type of Christianity which took place in it.\nBertrand, in his most interesting chapter on \u201cL\u2019Irlande Celtique,\u201d(65)\npoints out that very soon after the conversion of Ireland to Christianity,\nwe find the country covered with monasteries, whose complete organisation\nseems to indicate that they were really Druidic colleges transformed _en\nmasse_. C\u00e6sar has told us what these colleges were like in Gaul. They were\nvery numerous. In spite of the severe study and discipline involved,\ncrowds flocked into them for the sake of the power wielded by the Druidic\norder, and the civil immunities which its members of all grades enjoyed.\nArts and sciences were studied there, and thousands of verses enshrining\nthe teachings of Druidism were committed to memory. All this is very like\nwhat we know of Irish Druidism. Such an organisation would pass into\nChristianity of the type established in Ireland with very little\ndifficulty. The belief in magical rites would survive\u2014early Irish\nChristianity, as its copious hagiography plainly shows, was as steeped in\nmagical ideas as ever was Druidic paganism. The belief in immortality\nwould remain, as before, the cardinal doctrine of religion. Above all the\nsupremacy of the sacerdotal order over the temporal power would remain\nunimpaired; it would still be true, as Dion Chrysostom said of the Druids,\nthat \u201cit is they who command, and kings on thrones of gold, dwelling in\nsplendid palaces, are but their ministers, and the servants of their\nthought.\u201d(66)\n\n*C\u00e6sar on the Druidic Culture*\n\nThe religious, philosophic, and scientific culture superintended by the\nDruids is spoken of by C\u00e6sar with much respect. \u201cThey discuss and impart\nto the youth,\u201d he writes, \u201cmany things respecting the stars and their\nmotions, respecting the extent of the universe and of our earth,\nrespecting the nature of things, respecting the power and the majesty of\nthe immortal gods\u201d (bk. vi. 14). We would give much to know some\nparticulars of the teaching here described. But the Druids, though well\nacquainted with letters, strictly forbade the committal of their doctrines\nto writing; an extremely sagacious provision, for not only did they thus\nsurround their teaching with that atmosphere of mystery which exercises so\npotent a spell over the human mind, but they ensured that it could never\nbe effectively controverted.\n\n*Human Sacrifices in Gaul*\n\nIn strange discord, however, with the lofty words of C\u00e6sar stands the\nabominable practice of human sacrifice whose prevalence he noted among the\nCelts. Prisoners and criminals, or if these failed even innocent victims,\nprobably children, were encased, numbers at a time, in huge frames of\nwickerwork, and there burned alive to win the favour of the gods. The\npractice of human sacrifice is, of course, not specially Druidic\u2014it is\nfound in all parts both of the Old and of the New World at a certain stage\nof culture, and was doubtless a survival from the time of the Megalithic\nPeople. The fact that it should have continued in Celtic lands after an\notherwise fairly high state of civilisation and religious culture had been\nattained can be paralleled from Mexico and Carthage, and in both cases is\ndue, no doubt, to the uncontrolled dominance of a priestly caste.\n\n*Human Sacrifices in Ireland*\n\nBertrand endeavours to dissociate the Druids from these practices, of\nwhich he says strangely there is \u201cno trace\u201d in Ireland, although there, as\nelsewhere in Celtica, Druidism was all-powerful. There is little doubt,\nhowever, that in Ireland also human sacrifices at one time prevailed. In a\nvery ancient tract, the \u201cDinnsenchus,\u201d preserved in the \u201cBook of\nLeinster,\u201d it is stated that on Moyslaught, \u201cthe Plain of Adoration,\u201d\nthere stood a great gold idol, Crom Cruach (the Bloody Crescent). To it\nthe Gaels used to sacrifice children when praying for fair weather and\nfertility\u2014\u201cit was milk and corn they asked from it in exchange for their\nchildren\u2014how great was their horror and their moaning!\u201d(67)\n\n*And in Egypt*\n\nIn Egypt, where the national character was markedly easy-going,\npleasure-loving, and little capable of fanatical exaltation, we find no\nrecord of any such cruel rites in the monumental inscriptions and\npaintings, copious as is the information which they give us on all\nfeatures of the national life and religion.(68) Manetho, indeed, the\nEgyptian historian who wrote in the third century B.C., tells us that\nhuman sacrifices were abolished by Amasis I. so late as the beginning of\nthe XVIII Dynasty\u2014about 1600 B.C. But the complete silence of the other\nrecords shows us that even if we are to believe Manetho, the practice must\nin historic times have been very rare, and must have been looked on with\nrepugnance.\n\n*The Names of Celtic Deities*\n\nWhat were the names and the attributes of the Celtic deities? Here we are\nvery much in the dark. The Megalithic People did not imagine their deities\nunder concrete personal form. Stones, rivers, wells, trees, and other\nnatural objects were to them the adequate symbols, or were half symbols,\nhalf actual embodiments, of the supernatural forces which they venerated.\nBut the imaginative mind of the Aryan Celt was not content with this. The\nexistence of personal gods with distinct titles and attributes is reported\nto us by Caesar, who equates them with various figures in the Roman\npantheon\u2014Mercury, Apollo, Mars, and so forth. Lucan mentions a triad of\ndeities, \u00c6sus, Teutates, and Taranus(69); and it is noteworthy that in\nthese names we seem to be in presence of a true Celtic, _i.e._, Aryan,\ntradition. Thus \u00c6sus is derived by Belloguet from the Aryan root _as_,\nmeaning \u201cto be\u201d, which furnished the name of Asura-masda (_l\u2019Esprit Sage_)\nto the Persians, \u00c6sun to the Umbrians, Asa (Divine Being) to the\nScandinavians. Teutates comes from a Celtic root meaning \u201cvaliant\u201d,\n\u201cwarlike\u201d, and indicates a deity equivalent to Mars. Taranus (? Thor),\naccording to de Jubainville, is a god of the Lightning (_taran_ in Welsh,\nCornish, and Breton is the word for \u201cthunderbolt\u201d). Votive inscriptions to\nthese gods have been found in Gaul and Britain. Other inscriptions and\nsculptures bear testimony to the existence in Gaul of a host of minor and\nlocal deities who are mostly mere names, or not even names, to us now. In\nthe form in which we have them these conceptions bear clear traces of\nRoman influence. The sculptures are rude copies of the Roman style of\nreligious art. But we meet among them figures of much wilder and stranger\naspect\u2014gods with triple faces, gods with branching antlers on their brows,\nram-headed serpents, and other now unintelligible symbols of the older\nfaith. Very notable is the frequent occurrence of the cross-legged\n\u201cBuddha\u201d attitude so prevalent in the religious art of the East and of\nMexico, and also the tendency, so well known in Egypt, to group the gods\nin triads.\n\n*Caesar on the Celtic Deities*\n\nCaesar, who tries to fit the Gallic religion into the framework of Roman\nmythology\u2014which was exactly what the Gauls themselves did after the\nconquest\u2014says they held Mercury to be the chief of the gods, and looked\nupon him as the inventor of all the arts, as the presiding deity of\ncommerce, and as the guardian of roads and guide of travellers. One may\nconjecture that he was particularly, to the Gauls as to the Romans, the\nguide of the dead, of travellers to the Other-world, Many bronze statues\nto Mercury, of Gaulish origin, still remain, the name being adopted by the\nGauls, as many place-names still testify(70). Apollo was regarded as the\ndeity of medicine and healing, Minerva was the initiator of arts and\ncrafts, Jupiter governed the sky, and Mars presided over war. C\u00e6sar is\nhere, no doubt, classifying under five types and by Roman names a large\nnumber of Gallic divinities.\n\n*The God of the Underworld*\n\nAccording to C\u00e6sar, a most notable deity of the Gauls was (in Roman\nnomenclature) Dis, or Pluto, the god of the Underworld inhabited by the\ndead. From him all the Gauls claimed to be descended, and on this account,\nsays C\u00e6sar, they began their reckoning of the twenty-four hours of the day\nwith the oncoming of night.(71) The name of this deity is not given.\nD\u2019Arbois de Jubainville considers that, together with \u00c6sus, Teutates,\nTaranus, and, in Irish mythology, Balor and the Fomorians, he represents\nthe powers of darkness, death, and evil, and Celtic mythology is thus\ninterpreted as a variant of the universal solar myth, embodying the\nconception of the eternal conflict between Day and Night.\n\n*The God of Light*\n\nThe God of Light appears in Gaul and in Ireland as Lugh, or Lugus, who has\nleft his traces in many place-names such as _Lug-dunum_ (Leyden), Lyons,\n&c. Lugh appears in Irish legend with distinctly solar attributes. When he\nmeets his army before the great conflict with the Fomorians, they feel,\nsays the saga, as if they beheld the rising of the sun. Yet he is also, as\nwe shall see, a god of the Underworld, belonging on the side of his mother\nEthlinn, daughter of Balor, to the Powers of Darkness.\n\n*The Celtic Conception of Death*\n\nThe fact is that the Celtic conception of the realm of death differed\naltogether from that of the Greeks and Romans, and, as I have already\npointed out, resembled that of Egyptian religion. The Other-world was not\na place of gloom and suffering, but of light and liberation. The Sun was\nas much the god of that world as he was or this. Evil, pain, and gloom\nthere were, no doubt, and no doubt these principles were embodied by the\nIrish Celts in their myths of Balor and the Fomorians, of which we shall\nhear anon; but that they were particularly associated with the idea of\ndeath is, I think, a false supposition founded on misleading analogies\ndrawn from the ideas of the classical nations. Here the Celts followed\nNorth African or Asiatic conceptions rather than those of the Aryans of\nEurope. It is only by realising that the Celts as we know them in history,\nfrom the break-up of the Mid-European Celtic empire onwards, formed a\nsingular blend of Aryan with non-Aryan characteristics, that we shall\narrive at a true understanding of their contribution to European history\nand their influence in European culture.\n\n*The Five Factors in Ancient Celtic Culture*\n\nTo sum up the conclusions indicated: we can, I think, distinguish five\ndistinct factors in the religious and intellectual culture of Celtic lands\nas we find them prior to the influx of classical or of Christian\ninfluences. First, we have before us a mass of popular superstitions and\nof magical observances, including human sacrifice. These varied more or\nless from place to place, centring as they did largely on local features\nwhich were regarded as embodiments or vehicles of divine or of diabolic\npower. Secondly, there was certainly in existence a thoughtful and\nphilosophic creed, having as its central object of worship the Sun, as an\nemblem of divine power and constancy, and as its central doctrine the\nimmortality of the soul. Thirdly, there was a worship of personified\ndeities, \u00c6sus, Teutates, Lugh, and others, conceived as representing\nnatural forces, or as guardians of social laws. Fourthly, the Romans were\ndeeply impressed with the existence among the Druids of a body of teaching\nof a quasi-scientific nature about natural phenomena and the constitution\nof the universe, of the details of which we unfortunately know practically\nnothing. Lastly, we have to note the prevalence of a sacerdotal\norganisation, which administered the whole system of religious and of\nsecular learning and literature,(72) which carefully confined this\nlearning to a privileged caste, and which, by virtue of its intellectual\nsupremacy and of the atmosphere of religious awe with which it was\nsurrounded, became the sovran power, social, political, and religious, in\nevery Celtic country. I have spoken of these elements as distinct, and we\ncan, indeed, distinguish them in thought, but in practice they were\ninextricably intertwined, and the Druidic organisation pervaded and\nordered all. Can we now, it may be asked, distinguish among them what is\nof Celtic and what of pre-Celtic and probably non-Aryan origin? This is a\nmore difficult task; yet, looking at all the analogies and probabilities,\nI think we shall not be far wrong in assigning to the Megalithic People\nthe special doctrines, the ritual, and the sacerdotal organisation of\nDruidism, and to the Celtic element the personified deities, with the zest\nfor learning and for speculation; while the popular superstitions were\nmerely the local form assumed by conceptions as widespread as the human\nrace.\n\n*The Celts of To-day*\n\nIn view of the undeniably mixed character of the populations called\n\u201cCeltic\u201d at the present day, it is often urged that this designation has\nno real relation to any ethnological fact. The Celts who fought with\nCaesar in Gaul and with the English in Ireland are, it is said, no\nmore\u2014they have perished on a thousand battlefields from Alesia to the\nBoyne, and an older racial stratum has come to the surface in their place.\nThe true Celts, according to this view, are only to be found in the tall,\nruddy Highlanders of Perthshire and North-west Scotland, and in a few\nfamilies of the old ruling race still surviving in Ireland and in Wales.\nIn all this I think it must be admitted that there is a large measure of\ntruth. Yet it must not be forgotten that the descendants of the Megalithic\nPeople at the present day are, on the physical side, deeply impregnated\nwith Celtic blood, and on the spiritual with Celtic traditions and ideals.\nNor, again, in discussing these questions of race-character and its\norigin, must it ever be assumed that the character of a people can be\nanalysed as one analyses a chemical compound, fixing once for all its\nconstituent parts and determining its future behaviour and destiny.\nRace-character, potent and enduring though it be, is not a dead thing,\ncast in an iron mould, and thereafter incapable of change and growth. It\nis part of the living forces of the world; it is plastic and vital; it has\nhidden potencies which a variety of causes, such as a felicitous cross\nwith a different, but not too different, stock, or\u2014in another sphere\u2014the\nadoption of a new religious or social ideal, may at any time unlock and\nbring into action.\n\nOf one thing I personally feel convinced\u2014that the problem of the ethical,\nsocial, and intellectual development of the people constituting what is\ncalled the \u201cCeltic Fringe\u201d in Europe ought to be worked for on Celtic\nlines; by the maintenance of the Celtic tradition, Celtic literature,\nCeltic speech\u2014the encouragement, in short, of all those Celtic affinities\nof which this mixed race is now the sole conscious inheritor and guardian.\nTo these it will respond, by these it can be deeply moved; nor has the\nharvest ever failed those who with courage and faith have driven their\nplough into this rich field. On the other hand, if this work is to be done\nwith success it must be done in no pedantic, narrow, intolerant spirit;\nthere must be no clinging to the outward forms of the past simply because\nthe Celtic spirit once found utterance in them. Let it be remembered that\nin the early Middle Ages Celts from Ireland were the most notable\nexplorers, the most notable pioneers of religion, science, and speculative\nthought in Europe.(73) Modern investigators have traced their footprints\nof light over half the heathen continent, and the schools of Ireland were\nthronged with foreign pupils who could get learning nowhere else. The\nCeltic spirit was then playing its true part in the world-drama, and a\ngreater it has never played. The legacy of these men should be cherished\nindeed, but not as a museum curiosity; nothing could be more opposed to\ntheir free, bold, adventurous spirit than to let that legacy petrify in\nthe hands of those who claim the heirship or their name and fame.\n\n*The Mythical Literature*\n\nAfter the sketch contained in this and the foregoing chapter of the early\nhistory of the Celts, and of the forces which have moulded it, we shall\nnow turn to give an account of the mythical and legendary literature in\nwhich their spirit most truly lives and shines. We shall not here concern\nourselves with any literature which is not Celtic. With all that other\npeoples have made\u2014as in the Arthurian legends\u2014of myths and tales\noriginally Celtic, we have here nothing to do. No one can now tell how\nmuch is Celtic in them and how much is not. And in matters of this kind it\nis generally the final recasting that is of real importance and value.\nWhatever we give, then, we give without addition or reshaping. Stories, of\ncourse, have often to be summarised, but there shall be nothing in them\nthat did not come direct from the Celtic mind, and that does not exist\nto-day in some variety, Gaelic or Cymric, of the Celtic tongue.\n\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER III: THE IRISH INVASION MYTHS\n\n\n*The Celtic Cosmogony*\n\nAmong those secret doctrines about the \u201cnature of things\u201d which, as C\u00e6sar\ntells us, the Druids never would commit to writing, was there anything in\nthe nature of a cosmogony, any account of the origin of the world and of\nman? There surely was. It would be strange indeed if, alone among the\nraces of the world, the Celts had no world-myth. The spectacle of the\nuniverse with all its vast and mysterious phenomena in heaven and on earth\nhas aroused, first the imagination, afterwards the speculative reason, in\nevery people which is capable of either. The Celts had both in abundance,\nyet, except for that one phrase about the \u201cindestructibility\u201d of the world\nhanded down to us by Strabo, we know nothing of their early imaginings or\ntheir reasonings on this subject. Ireland possesses a copious legendary\nliterature. All of this, no doubt, assumed its present form in Christian\ntimes; yet so much essential paganism has been allowed to remain in it\nthat it would be strange if Christian influences had led to the excision\nof everything in these ancient texts that pointed to a non-Christian\nconception of the origin of things\u2014if Christian editors and transmitters\nhad never given us even the least glimmer of the existence of such a\nconception. Yet the fact is that they do not give it; there is nothing in\nthe most ancient legendary literature of the Irish Gaels, which is the\noldest Celtic literature in existence, corresponding to the Babylonian\nconquest of Chaos, or the wild Norse myth of the making of Midgard out of\nthe corpse of Ymir, or the Egyptian creation of the universe out of the\nprimeval Water by Thoth, the Word of God, or even to the primitive\nfolklore conceptions found in almost every savage tribe. That the Druids\nhad some doctrine on this subject it is impossible to doubt. But, by\nresolutely confining it to the initiated and forbidding all lay\nspeculation on the subject, they seem to have completely stifled the\nmythmaking instinct in regard to questions of cosmogony among the people\nat large, and ensured that when their own order perished, their teaching,\nwhatever it was, should die with them.\n\nIn the early Irish accounts, therefore, of the beginnings of things, we\nfind that it is not with the World that the narrators make their start\u2014it\nis simply with their own country, with Ireland. It was the practice,\nindeed, to prefix to these narratives of early invasions and colonisations\nthe Scriptural account of the making of the world and man, and this shows\nthat something of the kind was felt to be required; but what took the\nplace of the Biblical narrative in pre-Christian days we do not know, and,\nunfortunately, are now never likely to know.\n\n*The Cycles of Irish Legend*\n\nIrish mythical and legendary literature, as we have it in the most ancient\nform, may be said to fall into four main divisions, and to these we shall\nadhere in our presentation of it in this volume. They are, in\nchronological order, the Mythological Cycle, or Cycle of the Invasions,\nthe Ultonian or Conorian Cycle, the Ossianic or Fenian Cycle, and a\nmultitude of miscellaneous tales and legends which it is hard to fit into\nany historical framework.\n\n*The Mythological Cycle*\n\nThe Mythological Cycle comprises the following sections:\n\n1. The coming of Partholan into Ireland.\n2. The coming of Nemed into Ireland.\n3. The coming of the Firbolgs into Ireland.\n4. The invasion of the _Tuatha De Danann_, or People of the god Dana.\n5. The invasion of the Milesians (Sons of Miled) from Spain, and their\n            conquest of the People of Dana.\n\nWith the Milesians we begin to come into something resembling history\u2014they\nrepresent, in Irish legend, the Celtic race; and from them the ruling\nfamilies of Ireland are supposed to be descended. The People of Dana are\nevidently gods. The pre-Danaan settlers or invaders are huge phantom-like\nfigures, which loom vaguely through the mists of tradition, and have\nlittle definite characterisation. The accounts which are given of them are\nmany and conflicting, and out of these we can only give here the more\nancient narratives.\n\n*The Coming of Partholan*\n\nThe Celts, as we have learned from Caesar, believed themselves to be\ndescended from the God of the Underworld, the God of the Dead. Partholan\nis said to have come into Ireland from the West, where beyond the vast,\nunsailed Atlantic Ocean the Irish Fairyland, the Land of the\nLiving\u2014_i.e._, the land of the Happy Dead\u2014 was placed. His father\u2019s name\nwas Sera (? the West). He came with his queen Dalny(74) and a number of\ncompanions of both sexes. Ireland\u2014and this is an imaginative touch\nintended to suggest extreme antiquity\u2014was then a different country,\nphysically, from what it is now. There were then but three lakes in\nIreland, nine rivers, and only one plain. Others were added gradually\nduring the reign of the Partholanians. One, Lake Rury, was said to have\nburst out as a grave was being dug for Rury, son of Partholan.\n\n*The Fomorians*\n\nThe Partholanians, it is said, had to do battle with a strange race,\ncalled the Fomorians, of whom we shall hear much in later sections of this\nbook. They were a huge, misshapen, violent and cruel people, representing,\nwe may believe, the powers of evil. One of these was surnamed _Cenchos_,\nwhich means The Footless, and thus appears to be related to Vitra, the God\nof Evil in Vedantic mythology, who had neither feet nor hands. With a host\nof these demons Partholan fought for the lordship of Ireland, and drove\nthem out to the northern seas, whence they occasionally harried the\ncountry under its later rulers.\n\nThe end of the race of Partholan was that they were afflicted by\npestilence, and having gathered together on the Old Plain (Senmag) for\nconvenience of burying their dead, they all perished there; and Ireland\nonce more lay empty for reoccupation.\n\n*The Legend of Tuan mac Carell*\n\nWho, then, told the tale? This brings us to the mention of a very curious\nand interesting legend\u2014one of the numerous legendary narratives in which\nthese tales of the Mythical Period have come down to us. It is found in\nthe so-called \u201cBook of the Dun Cow,\u201d a manuscript of about the year A.D.\n1100, and is entitled \u201cThe Legend of Tuan mac Carell.\u201d\n\nSt. Finnen, an Irish abbot of the sixth century, is said to have gone to\nseek hospitality from a chief named Tuan mac Carell, who dwelt not far\nfrom Finnen\u2019s monastery at Moville, Co. Donegal. Tuan refused him\nadmittance. The saint sat down on the doorstep of the chief and fasted for\na whole Sunday,(75) upon which the surly pagan warrior opened the door to\nhim. Good relations were established between them, and the saint returned\nto his monks.\n\n\u201cTuan is an excellent man,\u201d said he to them; \u201che will come to you and\ncomfort you, and tell you the old stories of Ireland.\u201d(76)\n\nThis humane interest in the old myths and legends of the country is, it\nmay here be observed, a feature as constant as it is pleasant in the\nliterature of early Irish Christianity.\n\nTuan came shortly afterwards to return the visit of the saint, and invited\nhim and his disciples to his fortress. They asked him of his name and\nlineage, and he gave an astounding reply. \u201cI am a man of Ulster,\u201d he said.\n\u201cMy name is Tuan son of Carell. But once I was called Tuan son of Starn,\nson of Sera, and my father, Starn, was the brother of Partholan.\u201d\n\n\u201cTell us the history of Ireland,\u201d then said Finnen, and Tuan began.\nPartholan, he said, was the first of men to settle in Ireland. After the\ngreat pestilence already narrated he alone survived, \u201cfor there is never a\nslaughter that one man does not come out of it to tell the tale.\u201d Tuan was\nalone in the land, and he wandered about from one vacant fortress to\nanother, from rock to rock, seeking shelter from the wolves. For\ntwenty-two years he lived thus alone, dwelling in waste places, till at\nlast he fell into extreme decrepitude and old age.\n\n\n    \u201cThen Nemed son of Agnoman took possession of Ireland. He\n    [Agnoman] was my father\u2019s brother. I saw him from the cliffs, and\n    kept avoiding him. I was long-haired, clawed, decrepit, grey,\n    naked, wretched, miserable. Then one evening I fell asleep, and\n    when I woke again on the morrow I was changed into a stag. I was\n    young again and glad of heart. Then I sang of the coming of Nemed\n    and of his race, and of my own transformation.... \u2018I have put on a\n    new form, a skin rough and grey. Victory and joy are easy to me; a\n    little while ago I was weak and defenceless.\u2019 \u201d\n\n\nTuan is then king of all the deer of Ireland, and so remained all the days\nof Nemed and his race.\n\nHe tells how the Nemedians sailed for Ireland in a fleet of thirty-two\nbarks, in each bark thirty persons. They went astray on the seas for a\nyear and a half, and most of them perished of hunger and thirst or of\nshipwreck. Nine only escaped\u2014Nemed himself, with four men and four women.\nThese landed in Ireland, and increased their numbers in the course of time\ntill they were 8060 men and women. Then all of them mysteriously died.\n\nAgain old age and decrepitude fell upon Tuan, but another transformation\nawaited him. \u201cOnce I was standing at the mouth of my cave\u2014I still remember\nit \u2014and I knew that my body changed into another form. I was a wild boar.\nAnd I sang this song about it:\n\n\n    \u201c \u2018To-day I am a boar.... Time was when I sat in the assembly that\n    gave the judgments of Partholan. It was sung, and all praised the\n    melody. How pleasant was the strain of my brilliant judgment! How\n    pleasant to the comely young women! My chariot went along in\n    majesty and beauty. My voice was grave and sweet. My step was\n    swift and firm in battle. My face was full of charm. To-day, lo! I\n    am changed into a black boar.\u2019\n\n\n\u201cThat is what I said. Yea, of a surety I was a wild boar. Then I became\nyoung again, and I was glad. I was king of the boar-herds in Ireland; and,\nfaithful to any custom, I went the rounds of my abode when I returned into\nthe lands of Ulster, at the times old age and wretchedness came upon me.\nFor it was always there that my transformations took place, and that is\nwhy I went back thither to await the renewal of my body.\u201d\n\nTuan then goes on to tell how Semion son of Stariat settled in Ireland,\nfrom whom descended the Firbolgs and two other tribes who persisted into\nhistoric times. Again old age comes on, his strength fails him, and he\nundergoes another transformation; he becomes \u201ca great eagle of the sea,\u201d\nand once more rejoices in renewed youth and vigour. He then tells how the\nPeople of Dana came in, \u201cgods and false gods from whom every one knows the\nIrish men of learning are sprung.\u201d After these came the Sons of Miled, who\nconquered the People of Dana. All this time Tuan kept the shape of the\nsea-eagle, till one day, finding himself about to undergo another\ntransformation, he fasted nine days; \u201cthen sleep fell upon me, and I was\nchanged into a salmon.\u201d He rejoices in his new life, escaping for many\nyears the snares of the fishermen, till at last he is captured by one of\nthem and brought to the wife of Carell, chief of the country. \u201cThe woman\ndesired me and ate me by herself, whole, so that I passed into her womb.\u201d\nHe is born again, and passes for Tuan son of Carell; but the memory of his\npre-existence and all his transformations and all the history of Ireland\nthat he witnessed since the days of Partholan still abides with him, and\nhe teaches all these things to the Christian monks, who carefully preserve\nthem.\n\nThis wild tale, with its atmosphere of grey antiquity and of childlike\nwonder, reminds us of the transformations of the Welsh Taliessin, who also\nbecame an eagle, and points to that doctrine of the transmigration of the\nsoul which, as we have seen, haunted the imagination of the Celt.\n\nWe have now to add some details to the sketch of the successive\ncolonisations of Ireland outlined by Tuan mac Carell.\n\n*The Nemedians*\n\nThe Nemedians, as we have seen, were akin to the Partholanians. Both of\nthem came from the mysterious regions of the dead, though later Irish\naccounts, which endeavoured to reconcile this mythical matter with\nChristianity, invented for them a descent from Scriptural patriarchs and\nan origin in earthly lands such as Spain or Scythia. Both of them had to\ndo constant battle with the Fomorians, whom the later legends make out to\nbe pirates from oversea, but who are doubtless divinities representing the\npowers of darkness and evil. There is no legend of the Fomorians coming\ninto Ireland, nor were they regarded as at any time a regular portion of\nthe population. They were coeval with the world itself. Nemed fought\nvictoriously against them in four great battles, but shortly afterwards\ndied of a plague which carried off 2000 of his people with him. The\nFomorians were then enabled to establish their tyranny over Ireland. They\nhad at this period two kings, Morc and Conann. The stronghold of the\nFormorian power was on Tory Island, which uplifts its wild cliffs and\nprecipices in the Atlantic off the coast of Donegal\u2014a fit home for this\nrace of mystery and horror. They extracted a crushing tribute from the\npeople of Ireland, two-thirds of all the milk and two-thirds of the\nchildren of the land. At last the Nemedians rise in revolt. Led by three\nchiefs, they land on Tory Island, capture Conann\u2019s Tower, and Conann\nhimself falls by the hand of the Nemedian chief, Fergus. But Morc at this\nmoment comes into the battle with a fresh host, and utterly routs the\nNemedians, who are all slain but thirty:\n\n\u201cThe men of Erin were all at the battle,\nAfter the Fomorians came;\nAll of them the sea engulphed,\nSave only three times ten.\u201d\n                                  _Poem by Eochy O\u2019Flann, circ_. A.D. 960.\n\nThe thirty survivors leave Ireland in despair. According to the most\nancient belief they perished utterly, leaving no descendants, but later\naccounts, which endeavour to make sober history out of all these myths,\nrepresent one family, that of the chief Britan, as settling in Great\nBritain and giving their name to that country, while two others returned\nto Ireland, after many wanderings, as the Firbolgs and People of Dana.\n\n*The Coming of the Firbolgs*\n\nWho were the Firbolgs, and what did they represent in Irish legend? The\nname appears to mean \u201cMen of the Bags,\u201d and a legend was in later times\ninvented to account for it. It was said that after settling in Greece they\nwere oppressed by the people of that country, who set them to carry earth\nfrom the fertile valleys up to the rocky hills, so as to make arable\nground of the latter. They did their task by means of leathern bags; but\nat last, growing weary of the oppression, they made boats or coracles out\nof their bags, and set sail in them for Ireland. Nennius, however, says\nthey came from Spain, for according to him all the various races that\ninhabited Ireland came originally from Spain; and \u201cSpain\u201d with him is a\nrationalistic rendering of the Celtic words designating the Land of the\nDead.(77) They came in three groups, the Fir-Bolg, the Fir-Domnan, and the\nGalioin, who are all generally designated as Firbolgs. They play no great\npart in Irish mythical history, and a certain character of servility and\ninferiority appears to attach to them throughout.\n\nOne of their kings, Eochy(78) mac Erc, took in marriage Taltiu, or Telta,\ndaughter of the King of the \u201cGreat Plain\u201d (the Land of the Dead). Telta\nhad a palace at the place now called after her, Telltown (properly\nTeltin). There she died, and there, even in medi\u00e6val Ireland, a great\nannual assembly or fair was held in her honour.\n\n*The Coming of the People of Dana*\n\nWe now come to by far the most interesting and important of the mythical\ninvaders and colonisers of Ireland, the People of Dana. The name, _Tuatha\nDe Danann_, means literally \u201cthe folk of the god whose mother is Dana.\u201d\nDana also sometimes bears another name, that of Brigit, a goddess held in\nmuch honour by pagan Ireland, whose attributes are in a great measure\ntransferred in legend to the Christian St. Brigit of the sixth century.\nHer name is also found in Gaulish inscriptions as \u201cBrigindo,\u201d and occurs\nin several British inscriptions as \u201cBrigantia.\u201d She was the daughter of\nthe supreme head of the People of Dana, the god Dagda, \u201cThe Good.\u201d She had\nthree sons, who are said to have had in common one only son, named\nEcne\u2014that is to say, \u201cKnowledge,\u201d or \u201cPoetry.\u201d(79) Ecne, then, may be said\nto be the god whose mother was Dana, and the race to whom she gave her\nname are the clearest representatives we have in Irish myths of the powers\nof Light and Knowledge. It will be remembered that alone among all these\nmythical races Tuan mac Carell gave to the People of Dana the name of\n\u201cgods.\u201d Yet it is not as gods that they appear in the form in which Irish\nlegends about them have now come down to us. Christian influences reduced\nthem to the rank of fairies or identified them with the fallen angels.\nThey were conquered by the Milesians, who are conceived as an entirely\nhuman race, and who had all sorts of relations of love and war with them\nuntil quite recent times. Yet even in the later legends a certain\nsplendour and exaltation appears to invest the People of Dana, recalling\nthe high estate from which they had been dethroned.\n\n*The Popular and the Bardic Conceptions*\n\nNor must it be overlooked that the popular conception of the Danaan\ndeities was probably at all times something different from the bardic and\nDruidic, or in other words the scholarly, conception. The latter, as we\nshall see, represents them as the presiding deities of science and poetry.\nThis is not a popular idea; it is the product of the Celtic, the Aryan\nimagination, inspired by a strictly intellectual conception. The common\npeople, who represented mainly the Megalithic element in the population,\nappear to have conceived their deities as earth-powers\u2014_dei terreni_, as\nthey are explicitly called in the eighth-century \u201cBook of\nArmagh\u201d(80)\u2014presiding, not over science and poetry, but rather\nagriculture, controlling the fecundity of the earth and water, and\ndwelling in hills, rivers, and lakes. In the bardic literature the Aryan\nidea is prominent; the other is to be found in innumerable folk-tales and\npopular observances; but of course in each case a considerable amount of\ninterpenetration of the two conceptions is to be met with\u2014no sharp\ndividing line was drawn between them in ancient times, and none can be\ndrawn now.\n\n*The Treasures of the Danaans*\n\nTuan mac Carell says they came to Ireland \u201cout of heaven.\u201d This is\nembroidered in later tradition into a narrative telling how they sprang\nfrom four great cities, whose very names breathe of fairydom and\nromance\u2014Falias, Gorias, Finias, and Murias. Here they learned science and\ncraftsmanship from great sages one of whom was enthroned in each city, and\nfrom each they brought with them a magical treasure. From Falias came the\nstone called the _Lia Fail_, or Stone of Destiny, on which the High-Kings\nof Ireland stood when they were crowned, and which was supposed to confirm\nthe election of a rightful monarch by roaring under him as he took his\nplace on it. The actual stone which was so used at the inauguration of a\nreign did from immemorial times exist at Tara, and was sent thence to\nScotland early in the sixth century for the crowning of Fergus the Great,\nson of Erc, who begged his brother Murtagh mac Erc, King of Ireland, for\nthe loan of it. An ancient prophecy told that wherever this stone was, a\nking of the Scotic (_i.e._, Irish-Milesian) race should reign. This is the\nfamous Stone of Scone, which never came back to Ireland, but was removed\nto England by Edward I. in 1297, and is now the Coronation Stone in\nWestminster Abbey. Nor has the old prophecy been falsified, since through\nthe Stuarts and Fergus mac Erc the descent of the British royal family can\nbe traced from the historic kings of Milesian Ireland.\n\nThe second treasure of the Danaans was the invincible sword of Lugh of the\nLong Arm, of whom we shall hear later, and this sword came from the city\nof Gorias. From Finias came a magic spear, and from Murias the Cauldron of\nthe Dagda, a vessel which had the property that it could feed a host of\nmen without ever being emptied.\n\nWith these possessions, according to the version given in the \u201cBook of\nInvasions,\u201d the People of Dana came into Ireland.\n\n*The Danaans and the Firbolgs*\n\nThey were wafted into the land in a magic cloud, making their first\nappearance in Western Connacht. When the cloud cleared away, the Firbolgs\ndiscovered them in a camp which they had already fortified at Moyrein.\n\nThe Firbolgs now sent out one of their warriors, named Sreng, to interview\nthe mysterious new-comers; and the People of Dana, on their side, sent a\nwarrior named Bres to represent them. The two ambassadors examined each\nother\u2019s weapons with great interest. The spears of the Danaans, we are\ntold, were light and sharp-pointed; those of the Firbolgs were heavy and\nblunt. To contrast the power of science with that of brute force is here\nthe evident intention of the legend, and we are reminded of the Greek myth\nof the struggle of the Olympian deities with the Titans.\n\nBres proposed to the Firbolg that the two races should divide Ireland\nequally between them, and join to defend it against all comers for the\nfuture. They then exchanged weapons and returned each to his own camp.\n\n*The First Battle of Moytura*\n\nThe Firbolgs, however, were not impressed with the superiority of the\nDanaans, and decided to refuse their offer. The battle was joined on the\nPlain of Moytura,(81) in the south of Co. Mayo, near the spot now called\nCong. The Firbolgs were led by their king, mac Erc, and the Danaans by\nNuada of the Silver Hand, who got his name from an incident in this\nbattle. His hand, it is said, was cut off in the fight, and one of the\nskilful artificers who abounded in the ranks of the Danaans made him a new\none of silver. By their magical and healing arts the Danaans gained the\nvictory, and the Firbolg king was slain. But a reasonable agreement\nfollowed: the Firbolgs were allotted the province of Connacht for their\nterritory, while the Danaans took the rest of Ireland. So late as the\nseventeenth century the annalist Mac Firbis discovered that many of the\ninhabitants of Connacht traced their descent to these same Firbolgs.\nProbably they were a veritable historic race, and the conflict between\nthem and the People of Dana may be a piece of actual history invested with\nsome of the features of a myth.\n\n*The Expulsion of King Bres*\n\nNuada of the Silver Hand should now have been ruler of the Danaans, but\nhis mutilation forbade it, for no blemished man might be a king in\nIreland. The Danaans therefore chose Bres, who was the son of a Danaan\nwoman named Eri, but whose father was unknown, to reign over them instead.\nThis was another Bres, not the envoy who had treated with the Firbolgs and\nwho was slain in the battle of Moytura. Now Bres, although strong and\nbeautiful to look on, had no gift of kingship, for he not only allowed the\nenemy of Ireland, the Fomorians, to renew their oppression and taxation in\nthe land, but he himself taxed his subjects heavily too; and was so\nniggardly that he gave no hospitality to chiefs and nobles and harpers.\nLack of generosity and hospitality was always reckoned the worst of vices\nin an Irish prince. One day it is said that there came to his court the\npoet Corpry, who found himself housed in a small, dark chamber without\nfire or furniture, where, after long delay, he was served with three dry\ncakes and no ale. In revenge he composed a satirical quatrain on his\nchurlish host:\n\n\u201cWithout food quickly served,\nWithout a cow\u2019s milk, whereon a calf can grow,\nWithout a dwelling fit for a man under the gloomy night,\nWithout means to entertain a bardic company,\u2014\nLet such be the condition of Bres.\u201d\n\nPoetic satire in Ireland was supposed to have a kind of magical power.\nKings dreaded it; even rats could be exterminated by it.(82) This quatrain\nof Corpry\u2019s was repeated with delight among the people, and Bres had to\nlay down his sovranty. This was said to be the first satire ever made in\nIreland. Meantime, because Nuada had got his silver hand through the art\nof his physician Diancecht, or because, as some versions of the legend\nsay, a still greater healer, the son of Diancecht, had made the veritable\nhand grow again to the stump, he was chosen to be king in place of Bres.\n\nThe latter now betook himself in wrath and resentment to his mother Eri,\nand begged her to give him counsel and to tell him of his lineage. Eri\nthen declared to him that his father was Elatha, a king of the Fomorians,\nwho had come to her secretly from over sea, and when he departed had given\nher a ring, bidding her never bestow it on any man save him whose finger\nit would fit. She now brought forth the ring, and it fitted the finger of\nBres, who went down with her to the strand where the Fomorian lover had\nlanded, and they sailed together for his father\u2019s home.\n\n*The Tyranny of the Fomorians*\n\nElatha recognised the ring, and gave his son an army wherewith to\nreconquer Ireland, and also sent him to seek further aid from the greatest\nof the Fomorian kings, Balor. Now Balor was surnamed \u201cof the Evil Eye,\u201d\nbecause the gaze of his one eye could slay like a thunderbolt those on\nwhom he looked in anger. He was now, however, so old and feeble that the\nvast eyelid drooped over the death-dealing eye, and had to be lifted up by\nhis men with ropes and pulleys when the time came to turn it on his foes.\nNuada could make no more head against him than Bres had done when king;\nand the country still groaned under the oppression of the Fomorians and\nlonged for a champion and redeemer.\n\n*The Coming of Lugh*\n\nA new figure now comes into the myth, no other than Lugh son of Kian, the\nSun-god _par excellence_ of all Celtica, whose name we can still identify\nin many historic sites on the Continent.(83) To explain his appearance we\nmust desert for a moment the ancient manuscript authorities, which are\nhere incomplete, and have to be supplemented by a folk-tale which was\nfortunately discovered and taken down orally so late as the nineteenth\ncentury by the great Irish antiquary, O\u2019Donovan.(84) In this folk-tale the\nnames of Balor and his daughter Ethlinn (the latter in the form \u201cEthnea\u201d)\nare preserved, as well as those of some other mythical personages, but\nthat of the father of Lugh is faintly echoed in MacKineely; Lugh\u2019s own\nname is forgotten, and the death of Balor is given in a manner\ninconsistent with the ancient myth. In the story as I give it here the\nantique names and mythical outline are preserved, but are supplemented\nwhere required from the folk-tale, omitting from the latter those modern\nfeatures which are not reconcilable with the myth.\n\nThe story, then, goes that Balor, the Fomorian king, heard in a Druidic\nprophecy that he would be slain by his grandson. His only child was an\ninfant daughter named Ethlinn. To avert the doom he, like Acrisios, father\nof Danae, in the Greek myth, had her imprisoned in a high tower which he\ncaused to be built on a precipitous headland, the Tor M\u014dr, in Tory Island.\nHe placed the girl in charge of twelve matrons, who were strictly charged\nto prevent her from ever seeing the face of man, or even learning that\nthere were any beings of a different sex from her own. In this seclusion\nEthlinn grew up\u2014as all sequestered princesses do\u2014into a maiden of\nsurpassing beauty.\n\nNow it happened that there were on the mainland three brothers, namely,\nKian, Sawan, and Goban the Smith, the great armourer and artificer of\nIrish myth, who corresponds to Wayland Smith in Germanic legend. Kian had\na magical cow, whose milk was so abundant that every one longed to possess\nher, and he had to keep her strictly under protection.\n\nBalor determined to possess himself of this cow. One day Kian and Sawan\nhad come to the forge to have some weapons made for them, bringing fine\nsteel for that purpose. Kian went into the forge, leaving Sawan in charge\nof the cow. Balor now appeared on the scene, taking on himself the form of\na little redheaded boy, and told Sawan that he had overheard the brothers\ninside the forge concocting a plan for using all the fine steel for their\nown swords, leaving but common metal for that of Sawan. The latter, in a\ngreat rage, gave the cow\u2019s halter to the boy and rushed into the forge to\nput a stop to this nefarious scheme. Balor immediately carried off the\ncow, and dragged her across the sea to Tory Island.\n\nKian now determined to avenge himself on Balor, and to this end sought the\nadvice of a Druidess named Bir\u014dg. Dressing himself in woman\u2019s garb, he was\nwafted by magical spells across the sea, where Bir\u014dg, who accompanied him,\nrepresented to Ethlinn\u2019s guardians that they were two noble ladies cast\nupon the shore in escaping from an abductor, and begged for shelter. They\nwere admitted; Kian found means to have access to the Princess Ethlinn\nwhile the matrons were laid by Bir\u014dg under the spell of an enchanted\nslumber, and when they awoke Kian and the Druidess had vanished as they\ncame. But Ethlinn had given Kian her love, and soon her guardians found\nthat she was with child. Fearing Balor\u2019s wrath, the matrons persuaded her\nthat the whole transaction was but a dream, and said nothing about it; but\nin due time Ethlinn was delivered of three sons at a birth.\n\nNews of this event came to Balor, and in anger and fear he commanded the\nthree infants to be drowned in a whirlpool off the Irish coast. The\nmessenger who was charged with this command rolled up the children in a\nsheet, but in carrying them to the appointed place the pin of the sheet\ncame loose, and one of the children dropped out and fell into a little\nbay, called to this day _Port na Delig_, or the Haven of the Pin. The\nother two were duly drowned, and the servant reported his mission\naccomplished.\n\nBut the child who had fallen into the bay was guarded by the Druidess, who\nwafted it to the home of its father, Kian, and Kian gave it in fosterage\nto his brother the smith, who taught the child his own trade and made it\nskilled in every manner of craft and handiwork. This child was Lugh. When\nhe was grown to a youth the Danaans placed him in charge of Duach, \u201cThe\nDark,\u201d king of the Great Plain (Fairyland, or the \u201cLand of the Living,\u201d\nwhich is also the Land of the Dead), and here he dwelt till he reached\nmanhood.\n\nLugh was, of course, the appointed redeemer of the Danaan people from\ntheir servitude. His coming is narrated in a story which brings out the\nsolar attributes of universal power, and shows him, like Apollo, as the\npresiding deity of all human knowledge and of all artistic and medicinal\nskill. He came, it is told, to take service with Nuada of the Silver Hand,\nand when the doorkeeper at the royal palace of Tara asked him what he\ncould do, he answered that he was a carpenter.\n\n\u201cWe are in no need of a carpenter,\u201d said the doorkeeper; \u201cwe have an\nexcellent one in Luchta son of Luchad.\u201d \u201cI am a smith too,\u201d said Lugh. \u201cWe\nhave a master-smith,\u201d said the doorkeeper, \u201calready.\u201d \u201cThen I am a\nwarrior,\u201d said Lugh. \u201cWe do not need one,\u201d said the doorkeeper, \u201cwhile we\nhave Ogma.\u201d Lugh goes on to name all the occupations and arts he can think\nof\u2014he is a poet, a harper, a man of science, a physician, a spencer, and\nso forth, always receiving the answer that a man of supreme accomplishment\nin that art is already installed at the court of Nuada. \u201cThen ask the\nKing,\u201d said Lugh, \u201cif he has in his service any one man who is\naccomplished in every one of these arts, and if he have, I shall stay here\nno longer, nor seek to enter his palace.\u201d Upon this Lugh is received, and\nthe surname Ild\u00e1nach is conferred upon him, meaning \u201cThe All-Craftsman,\u201d\nPrince of all the Sciences; while another name that he commonly bore was\nLugh Lamfada, or Lugh of the Long Arm. We are reminded here, as de\nJubainville points out, of the Gaulish god whom Caesar identifies with\nMercury, \u201cinventor of all the arts,\u201d and to whom the Gauls put up many\nstatues. The Irish myth supplements this information and tells us the\nCeltic name of this deity.\n\nWhen Lugh came from the Land of the Living he brought with him many\nmagical gifts. There was the Boat of Mananan, son of Lir the Sea God,\nwhich knew a man\u2019s thoughts and would travel whithersoever he would, and\nthe Horse of Mananan, that could go alike over land and sea, and a\nterrible sword named _Fragarach_ (\u201cThe Answerer\u201d), that could cut through\nany mail. So equipped, he appeared one day before an assembly of the\nDanaan chiefs who were met to pay their tribute to the envoys of the\nFomorian oppressors; and when the Danaans saw him, they felt, it is said,\nas if they beheld the rising of the sun on a dry summer\u2019s day. Instead of\npaying the tribute, they, under Lugh\u2019s leadership, attacked the Fomorians,\nall of whom were slain but nine men, and these were sent back to tell\nBalor that the Danaans defied him and would pay no tribute henceforward.\nBalor then made him ready for battle, and bade his captains, when they had\nsubdued the Danaans, make fast the island by cables to their ships and tow\nit far northward to the Fomorian regions of ice and gloom, where it would\ntrouble them no longer.\n\n*The Quest of the Sons of Turenn*\n\nLugh, on his side, also prepared for the final combat; but to ensure\nvictory certain magical instruments were still needed for him, and these\nhad now to be obtained. The story of the quest of these objects, which\nincidentally tells us also of the end of Lugh\u2019s father, Kian, is one of\nthe most valuable and curious in Irish legend, and formed one of a triad\nof mythical tales which were reckoned as the flower of Irish romance.(85)\n\nKian, the story goes, was sent northward by Lugh to summon the fighting\nmen of the Danaans in Ulster to the hosting against the Fomorians. On his\nway, as he crosses the Plain of Murthemney, near Dundalk, he meets with\nthree brothers, Brian, Iuchar, and Iucharba, sons of Turenn, between whose\nhouse and that of Kian there was a blood-feud. He seeks to avoid them by\nchanging into the form of a pig and joining a herd which is rooting in the\nplain, but the brothers detect him and Brian wounds him with a cast from a\nspear. Kian, knowing that his end is come, begs to be allowed to change\nback into human form before he is slain. \u201cI had liefer kill a man than a\npig,\u201d says Brian, who takes throughout the leading part in all the\nbrothers\u2019 adventures. Kian then stands before them as a man, with the\nblood from Brian\u2019s spear trickling from his breast. \u201cI have outwitted ye,\u201d\nhe cries, \u201cfor if ye had slain a pig ye would have paid but the eric\n[blood-fine] of a pig, but now ye shall pay the eric of a man; never was\ngreater eric than that which ye shall pay; and the weapons ye slay me with\nshall tell the tale to the avenger of blood.\u201d\n\n\u201cThen you shall be slain with no weapons at all,\u201d says Brian, and he and\nthe brothers stone him to death and bury him in the ground as deep as the\nheight of a man.\n\nBut when Lugh shortly afterwards passes that way the stones on the plain\ncry out and tell him of his father\u2019s murder at the hands of the sons of\nTurenn. He uncovers the body, and, vowing vengeance, returns to Tara. Here\nhe accuses the sons of Turenn before the High King, and is permitted to\nhave them executed, or to name the eric he will accept in remission of\nthat sentence. Lugh chooses to have the eric, and he names it as follows,\nconcealing things of vast price, and involving unheard-of toils, under the\nnames of common objects: Three apples, the skin of a pig, a spear, a\nchariot with two horses, seven swine, a hound, a cooking-spit, and,\nfinally, to give three shouts on a hill. The brothers bind themselves to\npay the fine, and Lugh then declares the meaning of it. The three apples\nare those which grow in the Garden of the Sun; the pig-skin is a magical\nskin which heals every wound and sickness if it can be laid on the\nsufferer, and it is a possession of the King of Greece; the spear is a\nmagical weapon owned by the King of Persia (these names, of course, are\nmere fanciful appellations for places in the mysterious world of Fa\u00ebry);\nthe seven swine belong to King Asal of the Golden Pillars, and may be\nkilled and eaten every night and yet be found whole next day; the spit\nbelongs to the sea-nymphs of the sunken Island of Finchory; and the three\nshouts are to be given on the hill of a fierce warrior, Mochaen, who, with\nhis sons, are under vows to prevent any man from raising his voice on that\nhill. To fulfil any one of these enterprises would be an all but\nimpossible task, and the brothers must accomplish them all before they can\nclear themselves of the guilt and penalty of Kian\u2019s death.\n\nThe story then goes on to tell how with infinite daring and resource the\nsons of Turenn accomplish one by one all their tasks, but when all are\ndone save the capture of the cooking-spit and the three shouts on the Hill\nof Mochaen, Lugh, by magical arts, causes forgetfulness to fall upon them,\nand they return to Ireland with their treasures. These, especially the\nspear and the pig-skin, are just what Lugh needs to help him against the\nFomorians; but his vengeance is not complete, and after receiving the\ntreasures he reminds the brothers of what is yet to be won. They, in deep\ndejection, now begin to understand how they are played with, and go forth\nsadly to win, if they can, the rest of the eric. After long wandering they\ndiscover that the Island of Finchory is not above, but under the sea.\nBrian in a magical \u201cwater-dress\u201d goes down to it, sees the thrice fifty\nnymphs in their palace, and seizes the golden spit from their hearth. The\nordeal of the Hill of Mochaen is the last to be attempted. After a\ndesperate combat which ends in the slaying of Mochaen and his sons, the\nbrothers, mortally wounded, uplift their voices in three faint cries, and\nso the eric is fulfilled. The life is still in them, however, when they\nreturn to Ireland, and their aged father, Turenn, implores Lugh for the\nloan of the magic pig-skin to heal them; but the implacable Lugh refuses,\nand the brothers and their father die together. So ends the tale.\n\n*The Second Battle of Moytura*\n\nThe Second Battle of Moytura took place on a plain in the north of Co.\nSligo, which is remarkable for the number of sepulchral monuments still\nscattered over it. The first battle, of course, was that which the Danaans\nhad waged with the Firbolgs, and the Moytura there referred to was much\nfurther south, in Co. Mayo. The battle with the Fomorians is related with\nan astounding wealth of marvellous incident. The craftsmen of the Danaans,\nGoban the smith, Credn\u00e9 the artificer (or goldsmith), and Luchta the\ncarpenter, keep repairing the broken weapons of the Danaans with magical\nspeed\u2014three blows of Goban\u2019s hammer make a spear or sword, Luchta flings a\nhandle at it and it sticks on at once, and Credn\u00e9 jerks the rivets at it\nwith his tongs as fast as he makes them and they fly into their places.\nThe wounded are healed by the magical pig-skin. The plain resounds with\nthe clamour of battle:\n\n\n    \u201cFearful indeed was the thunder which rolled over the battlefield;\n    the shouts of the warriors, the breaking of the shields, the\n    flashing and clashing of the swords, of the straight, ivory-hilted\n    swords, the music and harmony of the \u2018belly-darts\u2019 and the sighing\n    and winging of the spears and lances.\u201d(86)\n\n\n*The Death of Balor*\n\nThe Fomorians bring on their champion, Balor, before the glance of whose\nterrible eye Nuada of the Silver Hand and others of the Danaans go down.\nBut Lugh, seizing an opportunity when the eyelid drooped through\nweariness, approached close to Balor, and as it began to lift once more he\nhurled into the eye a great stone which sank into the brain, and Balor lay\ndead, as the prophecy had foretold, at the hand of his grandson. The\nFomorians were then totally routed, and it is not recorded that they ever\nagain gained any authority or committed any extensive depredations in\nIreland. Lugh, the Ild\u00e1nach, was then enthroned in place of Nuada, and the\nmyth of the victory of the solar hero over the powers of darkness and\nbrute force is complete.\n\n*The Harp of the Dagda*\n\nA curious little incident bearing on the power which the Danaans could\nexercise by the spell of music may here be inserted. The flying Fomorians,\nit is told, had made prisoner the harper of the Dagda and carried him off\nwith them. Lugh, the Dagda, and the warrior Ogma followed them, and came\nunknown into the banqueting-hall of the Fomorian camp. There they saw the\nharp hanging on the wall. The Dagda called to it, and immediately it flew\ninto his hands, killing nine men of the Fomorians on its way. The Dagda\u2019s\ninvocation of the harp is very singular, and not a little puzzling:\n\n\n    \u201cCome, apple-sweet murmurer,\u201d he cries, \u201ccome, four-angled frame\n    of harmony, come, Summer, come, Winter, from the mouths of harps\n    and bags and pipes.\u201d(87)\n\n\nThe allusion to summer and winter suggests the practice in Indian music of\nallotting certain musical modes to the different seasons of the year (and\neven to different times of day), and also an Egyptian legend referred to\nin Burney\u2019s \u201cHistory of Music,\u201d where the three strings of the lyre were\nsupposed to answer respectively to the three seasons, spring, summer, and\nwinter.(88)\n\nWhen the Dagda got possession of the harp, the tale goes on, he played on\nit the \u201cthree noble strains\u201d which every great master of the harp should\ncommand, namely, the Strain of Lament, which caused the hearers to weep,\nthe Strain of Laughter, which made them merry, and the Strain of Slumber,\nor Lullaby, which plunged them all in a profound sleep. And under cover of\nthat sleep the Danaan champion stole out and escaped. It may be observed\nthat throughout the whole of the legendary literature of Ireland skill in\nmusic, the art whose influence most resembles that of a mysterious spell\nor gift of Fa\u00ebry, is the prerogative of the People of Dana and their\ndescendants. Thus in the \u201cColloquy of the Ancients,\u201d a collection of tales\nmade about the thirteenth or fourteenth century, St. Patrick is introduced\nto a minstrel, Cascorach, \u201ca handsome, curly-headed, dark-browed youth,\u201d\nwho plays so sweet a strain that the saint and his retinue all fall\nasleep. Cascorach, we are told, was son of a minstrel of the Danaan folk.\nSt. Patrick\u2019s scribe, Brogan, remarks, \u201cA good cast of thine art is that\nthou gavest us.\u201d \u201cGood indeed it were,\u201d said Patrick, \u201cbut for a twang of\nthe fairy spell that infests it; barring which nothing could more nearly\nresemble heaven\u2019s harmony.\u201d(89) Some of the most beautiful of the antique\nIrish folk-melodies,\u2014_e.g._, the _Coulin_\u2014are traditionally supposed to\nhave been overheard by mortal harpers at the revels of the Fairy Folk.\n\n*Names and Characteristics of the Danaan Deities*\n\nI may conclude this narrative of the Danaan conquest with some account of\nthe principal Danaan gods and their attributes, which will be useful to\nreaders of the subsequent pages. The best with which I am acquainted is to\nbe found in Mr. Standish O\u2019Grady\u2019s \u201cCritical History of Ireland.\u201d(90) This\nwork is no less remarkable for its critical insight\u2014it was published in\n1881, when scientific study of the Celtic mythology was little heard\nof\u2014than for the true bardic imagination, kindred to that of the ancient\nmyth-makers themselves, which recreates the dead forms of the past and\ndilates them with the breath of life. The broad outlines in which Mr.\nO\u2019Grady has laid down the typical characteristics of the chief personages\nin the Danaan cycle hardly need any correction at this day, and have been\nof much use to me in the following summary of the subject.\n\n*The Dagda*\n\nThe Dagda M\u014dr was the father and chief of the People of Dana. A certain\nconception of vastness attaches to him and to his doings. In the Second\nBattle of Moytura his blows sweep down whole ranks of the enemy, and his\nspear, when he trails it on the march, draws a furrow in the ground like\nthe fosse which marks the mearing of a province. An element of grotesque\nhumour is present in some of the records about this deity. When the\nFomorians give him food on his visit to their camp, the porridge and milk\nare poured into a great pit in the ground, and he eats it with a spoon big\nenough, it was said, for a man and a woman to lie together in it. With\nthis spoon he scrapes the pit, when the porridge is done, and shovels\nearth and gravel unconcernedly down his throat. We have already seen that,\nlike all the Danaans, he is a master of music, as well as of other magical\nendowments, and owns a harp which comes flying through the air at his\ncall. \u201cThe tendency to attribute life to inanimate things is apparent in\nthe Homeric literature, but exercises a very great influence in the\nmythology of this country. The living, fiery spear of Lugh; the magic ship\nof Mananan; the sword of Conary M\u014dr, which sang; Cuchulain\u2019s sword, which\nspoke; the Lia Fail, Stone of Destiny, which roared for joy beneath the\nfeet of rightful kings; the waves of the ocean, roaring with rage and\nsorrow when such kings are in jeopardy; the waters of the Avon Dia,\nholding back for fear at the mighty duel between Cuchulain and Ferdia, are\nbut a few out of many examples.\u201d(91) A legend of later times tells how\nonce, at the death of a great scholar, all the books in Ireland fell from\ntheir shelves upon the floor.\n\n*Angus \u014cg*\n\nAngus \u014cg (Angus the Young), son of the Dagda, by Boanna (the river Boyne),\nwas the Irish god of love. His palace was supposed to be at New Grange, on\nthe Boyne. Four bright birds that ever hovered about his head were\nsupposed to be his kisses taking shape in this lovely form, and at their\nsinging love came springing up in the hearts of youths and maidens. Once\nhe fell sick of love for a maiden whom he had seen in a dream. He told the\ncause of his sickness to his mother Boanna, who searched all Ireland for\nthe girl, but could not find her. Then the Dagda was called in, but he too\nwas at a loss, till he called to his aid B\u014dv the Red, king of the Danaans\nof Munster\u2014the same whom we have met with in the tale of the Children of\nLir, and who was skilled in all mysteries and enchantments. B\u014dv undertook\nthe search, and after a year had gone by declared that he had found the\nvisionary maiden at a lake called the Lake of the Dragon\u2019s Mouth.\n\nAngus goes to B\u014dv, and, after being entertained by him three days, is\nbrought to the lake shore, where he sees thrice fifty maidens walking in\ncouples, each couple linked by a chain of gold, but one of them is taller\nthan the rest by a head and shoulders. \u201cThat is she!\u201d cries Angus. \u201cTell\nus by what name she is known.\u201d B\u014dv answers that her name is Caer, daughter\nof Ethal Anubal, a prince of the Danaans of Connacht. Angus laments that\nhe is not strong enough to carry her off from her companions, but, on\nB\u014dv\u2019s advice, betakes himself to Ailell and Maev, the mortal King and\nQueen of Connacht, for assistance. The Dagda and Angus then both repair to\nthe palace of Ailell, who feasts them for a week, and then asks the cause\nof their coming. When it is declared he answers, \u201cWe have no authority\nover Ethal Anubal.\u201d They send a message to him, however, asking for the\nhand of Caer for Angus, but Ethal refuses to give her up. In the end he is\nbesieged by the combined forces of Ailell and the Dagda, and taken\nprisoner. When Caer is again demanded of him he declares that he cannot\ncomply, \u201cfor she is more powerful than I.\u201d He explains that she lives\nalternately in the form of a maiden and of a swan year and year about,\n\u201cand on the first of November next,\u201d he says, \u201cyou will see her with a\nhundred and fifty other swans at the Lake of the Dragon\u2019s Mouth.\u201d\n\nAngus goes there at the appointed time, and cries to her, \u201cOh, come and\nspeak to me!\u201d \u201cWho calls me?\u201d asks Caer. Angus explains who he is, and\nthen finds himself transformed into a swan. This is an indication of\nconsent, and he plunges in to join his love in the lake. After that they\nfly together to the palace on the Boyne, uttering as they go a music so\ndivine that all hearers are lulled to sleep for three days and nights.\n\nAngus is the special deity and friend of beautiful youths and maidens.\nDermot of the Love-spot, a follower of Finn mac Cumhal, and lover of\nGrania, of whom we shall hear later, was bred up with Angus in the palace\non the Boyne. He was the typical lover of Irish legend. When he was slain\nby the wild boar of Ben Bulben, Angus revives him and carries him off to\nshare his immortality in his fairy palace.\n\n*Len of Killarney*\n\nOf B\u014dv the Red, brother of the Dagda, we have already heard. He had, it is\nsaid, a goldsmith named Len, who \u201cgave their ancient name to the Lakes of\nKillarney, once known as Locha Lein, the Lakes of Len of the Many Hammers.\nHere by the lake he wrought, surrounded by rainbows and showers of fiery\ndew.\u201d(92)\n\n*Lugh*\n\nLugh has already been described.(93) He has more distinctly solar\nattributes than any other Celtic deity; and, as we know, his worship was\nspread widely over Continental Celtica. In the tale of the Quest of the\nSons of Turenn we are told that Lugh approached the Fomorians from the\nwest. Then Bres, son of Balor, arose and said: \u201cI wonder that the sun is\nrising in the west to-day, and in the east every other day.\u201d \u201cWould it\nwere so,\u201d said his Druids. \u201cWhy, what else but the sun is it?\u201d said Bres.\n\u201cIt is the radiance of the face of Lugh of the Long Arm,\u201d they replied.\n\nLugh was the father, by the Milesian maiden Dectera, of Cuchulain, the\nmost heroic figure in Irish legend, in whose story there is evidently a\nstrong element of the solar myth.(94)\n\n*Midir the Proud*\n\nMidir the Proud is a son of the Dagda. His fairy palace is at _Bri Leith_,\nor Slieve Callary, in Co. Longford. He frequently appears in legends\ndealing partly with human, partly with Danaan personages, and is always\nrepresented as a type of splendour in his apparel and in personal beauty.\nWhen he appears to King Eochy on the Hill of Tara he is thus\ndescribed:(95)\n\n\n    \u201cIt chanced that Eochaid Airemm, the King of Tara, arose upon a\n    certain fair day in the time of summer; and he ascended the high\n    ground of Tara(96) to behold the plain of Breg; beautiful was the\n    colour of that plain, and there was upon it excellent blossom\n    glowing with all hues that are known. And as the aforesaid Eochy\n    looked about and around him, he saw a young strange warrior upon\n    the high ground at his side. The tunic that the warrior wore was\n    purple in colour, his hair was of a golden yellow, and of such\n    length that it reached to the edge of his shoulders. The eyes of\n    the young warrior were lustrous and grey; in the one hand he held\n    a fine pointed spear, in the other a shield with a white central\n    boss, and with gems of gold upon it. And Eochaid held his peace,\n    for he knew that none such had been in Tara on the night before,\n    and the gate that led into the _Liss_ had not at that time been\n    thrown open.\u201d(97)\n\n\n*Lir and Mananan*\n\nLir, as Mr. O\u2019Grady remarks, \u201cappears in two distinct forms. In the first\nhe is a vast, impersonal presence commensurate with the sea; in fact, the\nGreek Oceanus. In the second, he is a separate person dwelling invisibly\non Slieve Fuad,\u201d in Co. Armagh. We hear little of him in Irish legend,\nwhere the attributes of the sea-god are mostly conferred on his son,\nMananan.\n\nThis deity is one of the most popular in Irish mythology. He was lord of\nthe sea, beyond or under which the Land of Youth or Islands of the Dead\nwere supposed to lie; he therefore was the guide of man to this country.\nHe was master of tricks and illusions, and owned all kinds of magical\npossessions\u2014the boat named Ocean-sweeper, which obeyed the thought of\nthose who sailed in it and went without oar or sail, the steed Aonbarr,\nwhich could travel alike on sea or land, and the sword named The Answerer,\nwhich no armour could resist. White-crested waves were called the Horses\nof Mananan, and it was forbidden (_tabu_) for the solar hero, Cuchulain,\nto perceive them\u2014this indicated the daily death of the sun at his setting\nin the western waves. Mananan wore a great cloak which was capable of\ntaking on every kind of colour, like the widespread field of the sea as\nlooked on from a height; and as the protector of the island of Erin it was\nsaid that when any hostile force invaded it they heard his thunderous\ntramp and the flapping of his mighty cloak as he marched angrily round and\nround their camp at night. The Isle of Man, seen dimly from the Irish\ncoast, was supposed to be the throne of Mananan, and to take its name from\nthis deity.\n\n*The Goddess Dana*\n\nThe greatest of the Danaan goddesses was Dana, \u201cmother of the Irish gods,\u201d\nas she is called in an early text. She was daughter of the Dagda, and,\nlike him, associated with ideas of fertility and blessing. According to\nd\u2019Arbois de Jubainville, she was identical with the goddess Brigit, who\nwas so widely worshipped in Celtica. Brian, Iuchar, and Iucharba are said\nto have been her sons\u2014these really represent but one person, in the usual\nIrish fashion of conceiving the divine power in triads. The name of Brian,\nwho takes the lead in all the exploits of the brethren,(98) is a\nderivation from a more ancient form, Brenos, and under this form was the\ngod to whom the Celts attributed their victories at the Allia and at\nDelphi, mistaken by Roman and Greek chroniclers for an earthly leader.\n\n*The Morrigan*\n\nThere was also an extraordinary goddess named the Morrigan,(99) who\nappears to embody all that is perverse and horrible among supernatural\npowers. She delighted in setting men at war, and fought among them\nherself, changing into many frightful shapes and often hovering above\nfighting armies in the aspect of a crow. She met Cuchulain once and\nproffered him her love in the guise of a human maid. He refused it, and\nshe persecuted him thenceforward for the most of his life. Warring with\nhim once in the middle of the stream, she turned herself into a\nwater-serpent, and then into a mass of water-weeds, seeking to entangle\nand drown him. But he conquered and wounded her, and she afterwards became\nhis friend. Before his last battle she passed through Emain Macha at\nnight, and broke the pole of his chariot as a warning.\n\n*Cleena\u2019s Wave*\n\nOne of the most notable landmarks of Ireland was the _Tonn Cliodhna_, or\n\u201cWave of Cleena,\u201d on the seashore at Glandore Bay, in Co. Cork. The story\nabout Cleena exists in several versions, which do not agree with each\nother except in so far as she seems to have been a Danaan maiden once\nliving in Mananan\u2019s country, the Land of Youth beyond the sea. Escaping\nthence with a mortal lover, as one of the versions tells, she landed on\nthe southern coast of Ireland, and her lover, Keevan of the Curling Locks,\nwent off to hunt in the woods. Cleena, who remained on the beach, was\nlulled to sleep by fairy music played by a minstrel of Mananan, when a\ngreat wave of the sea swept up and carried her back to Fairyland, leaving\nher lover desolate. Hence the place was called the Strand of Cleena\u2019s\nWave.\n\n*The Goddess Ain\u00e9*\n\nAnother topical goddess was Ain\u00e9, the patroness of Munster, who is still\nvenerated by the people of that county. She was the daughter of the Danaan\nOwel, a foster-son of Mananan and a Druid. She is in some sort a\nlove-goddess, continually inspiring mortals with passion. She was\nravished, it was said, by Ailill Olum, King of Munster, who was slain in\nconsequence by her magic arts, and the story is repeated in far later\ntimes about another mortal lover, who was not, however, slain, a\nFitzgerald, to whom she bore the famous wizard Earl.(100) Many of the\naristocratic families of Munster claimed descent from this union. Her name\nstill clings to the \u201cHill of Ain\u00e9\u201d (Knockainey), near Loch Gur, in\nMunster. All the Danaan deities in the popular imagination were\nearth-gods, _dei terreni_, associated with ideas of fertility and\nincrease. Ain\u00e9 is not heard much of in the bardic literature, but she is\nvery prominent in the folk-lore of the neighbourhood. At the bidding of\nher son, Earl Gerald, she planted all Knockainey with pease in a single\nnight. She was, and perhaps still is, worshipped on Midsummer Eve by the\npeasantry, who carried torches of hay and straw, tied on poles and\nlighted, round her hill at night. Afterwards they dispersed themselves\namong their cultivated fields and pastures, waving the torches over the\ncrops and the cattle to bring luck and increase for the following year. On\none night, as told by Mr. D. Fitzgerald,(101) who has collected the local\ntraditions about her, the ceremony was omitted owing to the death of one\nof the neighbours. Yet the peasantry at night saw the torches in greater\nnumber than ever circling the hill, and Ain\u00e9 herself in front, directing\nand ordering the procession.\n\n\u201cOn another St. John\u2019s Night a number of girls had stayed late on the Hill\nwatching the _cliars_ (torches) and joining in the games. Suddenly Ain\u00e9\nappeared among them, thanked them for the honour they had done her, but\nsaid she now wished them to go home, as _they wanted the hill to\nthemselves_. She let them understand whom she meant by _they_, for calling\nsome of the girls she made them look through a ring, when behold, the hill\nappeared crowded with people before invisible.\u201d\n\n\u201cHere,\u201d observed Mr. Alfred Nutt, \u201cwe have the antique ritual carried out\non a spot hallowed to one of the antique powers, watched over and shared\nin by those powers themselves. Nowhere save in Gaeldom could be found such\na pregnant illustration of the identity of the fairy class with the\nvenerable powers to ensure whose goodwill rites and sacrifices, originally\nfierce and bloody, now a mere simulacrum of their pristine form, have been\nperformed for countless ages.\u201d(102)\n\n*Sinend and the Well of Knowledge*\n\nThere is a singular myth which, while intended to account for the name of\nthe river Shannon, expresses the Celtic veneration for poetry and science,\ncombined with the warning that they may not be approached without danger.\nThe goddess Sinend, it was said, daughter of Lodan son of Lir, went to a\ncertain well named Connla\u2019s Well, which is under the sea\u2014_i.e._, in the\nLand of Youth in Fairyland. \u201cThat is a well,\u201d says the bardic narrative,\n\u201cat which are the hazels of wisdom and inspirations, that is, the hazels\nof the science of poetry, and in the same hour their fruit and their\nblossom and their foliage break forth, and then fall upon the well in the\nsame shower, which raises upon the water a royal surge of purple.\u201d When\nSinend came to the well we are not told what rites or preparation she had\nomitted, but the angry waters broke forth and overwhelmed her, and washed\nher up on the Shannon shore, where she died, giving to the river its\nname.(103) This myth of the hazels of inspiration and knowledge and their\nassociation with springing water runs through all Irish legend, and has\nbeen finely treated by a living Irish poet, Mr. G.W. Russell, in the\nfollowing verses:\n\n\u201c>A cabin on the mountain-side hid in a grassy nook,\nWith door and window open wide, where friendly stars may look;\nThe rabbit shy may patter in, the winds may enter free\nWho roam around the mountain throne in living ecstasy.\n\n\u201cAnd when the sun sets dimmed in eve, and purple fills the air,\nI think the sacred hazel-tree is dropping berries there,\nFrom starry fruitage, waved aloft where Connla\u2019s Well o\u2019erflows;\nFor sure, the immortal waters run through every wind that blows.\n\n\u201cI think when Night towers up aloft and shakes the trembling dew,\nHow every high and lonely thought that thrills my spirit through\nIs but a shining berry dropped down through the purple air,\nAnd from the magic tree of life the fruit falls everywhere.\u201d\n\n*The Coming of the Milesians*\n\nAfter the Second Battle of Moytura the Danaans held rule in Ireland until\nthe coming of the Milesians, the sons of Miled. These are conceived in\nIrish legend as an entirely human race, yet in their origin they, like the\nother invaders of Ireland, go back to a divine and mythical ancestry.\nMiled, whose name occurs as a god in a Celtic inscription from Hungary, is\nrepresented as a son of Bil\u00e9. Bil\u00e9, like Balor, is one of the names of the\ngod of Death, _i.e._, of the Underworld. They come from \u201cSpain\u201d\u2014the usual\nterm employed by the later rationalising historians for the Land of the\nDead.\n\nThe manner of their coming into Ireland was as follows: Ith, the\ngrandfather of Miled, dwelt in a great tower which his father, Bregon, had\nbuilt in \u201cSpain.\u201d One clear winter\u2019s day, when looking out westwards from\nthis lofty tower, he saw the coast of Ireland in the distance, and\nresolved to sail to the unknown land.\n\nHe embarked with ninety warriors, and took land at Corcadyna, in the\nsouth-west. In connexion with this episode I may quote a passage of great\nbeauty and interest from de Jubainville\u2019s \u201cIrish Mythological Cycle\u201d:(104)\n\n\u201cAccording to an unknown writer cited by Plutarch, who died about the year\n120 of the present era, and also by Procopius, who wrote in the sixth\ncentury A.D., \u2018the Land of the Dead\u2019 is the western extremity of Great\nBritain, separated from the eastern by an impassable wall. On the northern\ncoast of Gaul, says the legend, is a populace of mariners whose business\nis to carry the dead across from the continent to their last abode in the\nisland of Britain. The mariners, awakened in the night by the whisperings\nof some mysterious voice, arise and go down to the shore, where they find\nships awaiting them which are not their own,(105) and, in these, invisible\nbeings, under whose weight the vessels sink almost to the gunwales. They\ngo on board, and with a single stroke of the oar, says one text, in one\nhour, says another, they arrive at their destination, though with their\nown vessels, aided by sails, it would have taken them at least a day and a\nnight to reach the coast of Britain. When they come to the other shore the\ninvisible passengers land, and at the same time the unloaded ships are\nseen to rise above the waves, and a voice is heard announcing the names of\nthe new arrivals, who have just been added to the inhabitants of the Land\nof the Dead.\n\n\u201cOne stroke of the oar, one hour\u2019s voyage at most, suffices for the\nmidnight journey which transfers the Dead from the Gaulish continent to\ntheir final abode. Some mysterious law, indeed, brings together in the\nnight the great spaces which divide the domain of the living from that of\nthe dead in daytime. It was the same law which enabled Ith one fine winter\nevening to perceive from the Tower of Bregon, in the Land of the Dead, the\nshores of Ireland, or the land of the living. The phenomenon took place in\nwinter; for winter is a sort of night; winter, like night, lowers the\nbarriers between the regions of Death and those of Life; like night,\nwinter gives to life the semblance of death, and suppresses, as it were,\nthe dread abyss that lies between the two.\u201d\n\nAt this time, it is said, Ireland was ruled by three Danaan kings,\ngrandsons of the Dagda. Their names were MacCuill, MacCecht, and MacGren\u00e9,\nand their wives were named respectively Banba, Fohla, and Eriu. The Celtic\nhabit of conceiving divine persons in triads is here illustrated. These\ntriads represent one person each, and the mythical character of that\npersonage is evident from the name of one of them, MacGren\u00e9, Son of the\nSun. The names of the three goddesses have each at different times been\napplied to Ireland, but that of the third, Eriu, has alone persisted, and\nin the dative form, Erinn, is a poetic name for the country to this day.\nThat Eriu is the wife of MacGren\u00e9 means, as de Jubainville observes, that\nthe Sun-god, the god of Day, Life, and Science, has wedded the land and is\nreigning over it.\n\nIth, on landing, finds that the Danaan king, Neit, has just been slain in\na battle with the Fomorians, and the three sons, MacCuill and the others,\nare at the fortress of Aileach, in Co. Donegal, arranging for a division\nof the land among themselves. At first they welcome Ith, and ask him to\nsettle their inheritance. Ith gives his judgment, but, in concluding, his\nadmiration for the newly discovered country breaks out: \u201cAct,\u201d he says,\n\u201caccording to the laws of justice, for the country you dwell in is a good\none, it is rich in fruit and honey, in wheat and in fish; and in heat and\ncold it is temperate.\u201d From this panegyric the Danaans conclude that 1th\nhas designs upon their land, and they seize him and put him to death. His\ncompanions, however, recover his body and bear it back with them in their\nships to \u201cSpain\u201d; when the children of Miled resolve to take vengeance for\nthe outrage and prepare to invade Ireland.\n\nThey were commanded by thirty-six chiefs, each having his own ship with\nhis family and his followers. Two of the company are said to have perished\non the way. One of the sons of Miled, having climbed to the masthead of\nhis vessel to look out for the coast of Ireland, fell into the sea and was\ndrowned. The other was Skena, wife of the poet Amergin, son of Miled, who\ndied on the way. The Milesians buried her when they landed, and called the\nplace \u201cInverskena\u201d after her; this was the ancient name of the Kenmare\nRiver in Co. Kerry.\n\n\u201cIt was on a Thursday, the first of May, and the seventeenth day of the\nmoon, that the sons of Miled arrived in Ireland. Partholan also landed in\nIreland on the first of May, but on a different day of the week and of the\nmoon; and it was on the first day of May, too, that the pestilence came\nwhich in the space of one week destroyed utterly his race. The first of\nMay was sacred to Belten\u00e9, one of the names of the god of Death, the god\nwho gives life to men and takes it away from them again. Thus it was on\nthe feast day of this god that the sons of Miled began their conquest of\nIreland.\u201d(106)\n\n*The Poet Amergin*\n\nWhen the poet Amergin set foot upon the soil of Ireland it is said that he\nchanted a strange and mystical lay:\n\n\u201cI am the Wind that blows over the sea,\nI am the Wave of the Ocean;\nI am the Murmur of the billows;\nI am the Ox of the Seven Combats;\nI am the Vulture upon the rock;\nI am a Ray of the Sun;\nI am the fairest of Plants;\nI am a Wild Boar in valour;\nI am a Salmon in the Water;\nI am a Lake in the plain;\nI am the Craft of the artificer;\nI am a Word of Science;\nI am the Spear-point that gives battle;\nI am the god that creates in the head of man the fire of thought.\nWho is it that enlightens the assembly upon the mountain,if not I?\nWho telleth the ages of the moon, if not I?\n\u201cWho showeth the place where the sun goes to rest, if not I?\n\nDe Jubainville, whose translation I have in the main followed, observes\nupon this strange utterance:\n\n\u201cThere is a lack of order in this composition, the ideas, fundamental and\nsubordinate, are jumbled together without method; but there is no doubt as\nto the meaning: the _fil\u00e9_ [poet] is the Word of Science, he is the god\nwho gives to man the fire of thought; and as science is not distinct from\nits object, as God and Nature are but one, the being of the _fil\u00e9_ is\nmingled with the winds and the waves, with the wild animals and the\nwarrior\u2019s arms.\u201d(107)\n\nTwo other poems are attributed to Amergin, in which he invokes the land\nand physical features of Ireland to aid him:\n\n\u201cI invoke the land of Ireland,\nShining, shining sea;\nFertile, fertile Mountain;\nGladed, gladed wood!\nAbundant river, abundant in water!\nFish-abounding lake!\u201d(108)\n\n*The Judgment of Amergin*\n\nThe Milesian host, after landing, advance to Tara, where they find the\nthree kings of the Danaans awaiting them, and summon them to deliver up\nthe island. The Danaans ask for three days\u2019 time to consider whether they\nshall quit Ireland, or submit, or give battle; and they propose to leave\nthe decision, upon their request, to Amergin. Amergin pronounces\njudgment\u2014\u201cthe first judgment which was delivered in Ireland.\u201d He agrees\nthat the Milesians must not take their foes by surprise\u2014they are to\nwithdraw the length of nine waves from the shore, and then return; if they\nthen conquer the Danaans the land is to be fairly theirs by right of\nbattle.\n\nThe Milesians submit to this decision and embark on their ships. But no\nsooner have they drawn _off_ for this mystical distance of the nine waves\nthan a mist and storm are raised by the sorceries of the Danaans\u2014the coast\nof Ireland is hidden from their sight, and they wander dispersed upon the\nocean. To ascertain if it is a natural or a Druidic tempest which afflicts\nthem, a man named Aranan is sent up to the masthead to see if the wind is\nblowing there also or not. He is flung from the swaying mast, but as he\nfalls to his death he cries his message to his shipmates: \u201cThere is no\nstorm aloft.\u201d Amergin, who as poet\u2014that is to say, Druid\u2014takes the lead in\nall critical situations, thereupon chants his incantation to the land of\nErin. The wind falls, and they turn their prows, rejoicing, towards the\nshore. But one of the Milesian lords, Eber Donn, exults in brutal rage at\nthe prospect of putting all the dwellers in Ireland to the sword; the\ntempest immediately springs up again, and many of the Milesian ships\nfounder, Eber Donn\u2019s being among them. At last a remnant of the Milesians\nfind their way to shore, and land in the estuary of the Boyne.\n\n*The Defeat of the Danaans*\n\nA great battle with the Danaans at Telltown(109) then follows. The three\nkings and three queens of the Danaans, with many of their people, are\nslain, and the children of Miled\u2014the last of the mythical invaders of\nIreland\u2014enter upon the sovranty of Ireland. But the People of Dana do not\nwithdraw. By their magic art they cast over themselves a veil of\ninvisibility, which they can put on or off as they choose. There are two\nIrelands henceforward, the spiritual and the earthly. The Danaans dwell in\nthe spiritual Ireland, which is portioned out among them by their great\noverlord, the Dagda. Where the human eye can see but green mounds and\nramparts, the relics of ruined fortresses or sepulchres, there rise the\nfairy palaces of the defeated divinities; there they hold their revels in\neternal sunshine, nourished by the magic meat and ale that give them\nundying youth and beauty; and thence they come forth at times to mingle\nwith mortal men in love or in war. The ancient mythical literature\nconceives them as heroic and splendid in strength and beauty. In later\ntimes, and as Christian influences grew stronger, they dwindle into\nfairies, the People of the Sidhe;(110) but they have never wholly\nperished; to this day the Land of Youth and its inhabitants live in the\nimagination of the Irish peasant.\n\n*The Meaning of the Danaan Myth*\n\nAll myths constructed by a primitive people are symbols, and if we can\ndiscover what it is that they symbolise we have a valuable clue to the\nspiritual character, and sometimes even to the history, of the people from\nwhom they sprang. Now the meaning of the Danaan myth as it appears in the\nbardic literature, though it has undergone much distortion before it\nreached us, is perfectly clear. The Danaans represent the Celtic reverence\nfor science, poetry, and artistic skill, blended, of course, with the\nearlier conception of the divinity of the powers of Light. In their combat\nwith the Firbolgs the victory of the intellect over dulness and ignorance\nis plainly portrayed\u2014the comparison of the heavy, blunt weapon of the\nFirbolgs with the light and penetrating spears of the People of Dana is an\nindication which it is impossible to mistake. Again, in their struggle\nwith a far more powerful and dangerous enemy, the Fomorians, we are\nevidently to see the combat of the powers of Light with evil of a more\npositive kind than that represented by the Firbolgs. The Fomorians stand\nnot for mere dulness or stupidity, but for the forces of tyranny, cruelty,\nand greed\u2014for moral rather than for intellectual darkness.\n\n*The Meaning of the Milesian Myth*\n\nBut the myth of the struggle of the Danaans with the sons of Miled is more\ndifficult to interpret. How does it come that the lords of light and\nbeauty, wielding all the powers of thought (represented by magic and\nsorcery), succumbed to a human race, and were dispossessed by them of\ntheir hard-won inheritance? What is the meaning of this shrinking of their\npowers which at once took place when the Milesians came on the scene? The\nMilesians were not on the side of the powers of darkness. They were guided\nby Amergin, a clear embodiment of the idea of poetry and thought. They\nwere regarded with the utmost veneration, and the dominant families of\nIreland all traced their descent to them. Was the Kingdom of Light, then,\ndivided against itself? Or, if not, to what conception in the Irish mind\nare we to trace the myth of the Milesian invasion and victory?\n\nThe only answer I can see to this puzzling question is to suppose that the\nMilesian myth originated at a much later time than the others, and was, in\nits main features, the product of Christian influences. The People of Dana\nwere in possession of the country, but they were pagan divinities\u2014they\ncould not stand for the progenitors of a Christian Ireland. They had\nsomehow or other to be got rid of, and a race of less embarrassing\nantecedents substituted for them. So the Milesians were fetched from\n\u201cSpain\u201d and endowed with the main characteristics, only more humanised, of\nthe People of Dana. But the latter, in contradistinction to the usual\nattitude of early Christianity, are treated very tenderly in the story of\ntheir overthrow. One of them has the honour of giving her name to the\nisland, the brutality of one of the conquerors towards them is punished\nwith death, and while dispossessed of the lordship of the soil they still\nenjoy life in the fair world which by their magic art they have made\ninvisible to mortals. They are no longer gods, but they are more than\nhuman, and frequent instances occur in which they are shown as coming\nforth from their fairy world, being embraced in the Christian fold, and\nentering into heavenly bliss. With two cases of this redemption of the\nDanaans we shall close this chapter on the Invasion Myths of Ireland.\n\nThe first is the strange and beautiful tale of the Transformation of the\nChildren of Lir.\n\n*The Children of Lir*\n\nLir was a Danaan divinity, the father of the sea-god Mananan who\ncontinually occurs in magical tales of the Milesian cycle. He had married\nin succession two sisters, the second of whom was named Aoife.(111) She\nwas childless, but the former wife of Lir had left him four children, a\ngirl named Fionuala(112) and three boys. The intense love of Lir for the\nchildren made the stepmother jealous, and she ultimately resolved on their\ndestruction. It will be observed, by the way, that the People of Dana,\nthough conceived as unaffected by time, and naturally immortal, are\nnevertheless subject to violent death either at the hands of each other or\neven of mortals.\n\nWith her guilty object in view, Aoife goes on a journey to a neighbouring\nDanaan king, B\u014dv the Red, taking the four children with her. Arriving at a\nlonely place by Lake Derryvaragh, in Westmeath, she orders her attendants\nto slay the children. They refuse, and rebuke her. Then she resolves to do\nit herself; but, says the legend, \u201cher womanhood overcame her,\u201d and\ninstead of killing the Children she transforms them by spells of sorcery\ninto four white swans, and lays on them the following doom: three hundred\nyears they are to spend on the waters of Lake Derryvaragh, three hundred\non the Straits of Moyle (between Ireland and Scotland), and three hundred\non the Atlantic by Erris and Inishglory. After that, \u201cwhen the woman of\nthe South is mated with the man of the North,\u201d the enchantment is to have\nan end.\n\nWhen the children fail to arrive with Aoife at the palace of B\u014dv her guilt\nis discovered, and B\u014dv changes her into \u201ca demon of the air.\u201d She flies\nforth shrieking, and is heard of no more in the tale. But Lir and B\u014dv seek\nout the swan-children, and find that they have not only human speech, but\nhave preserved the characteristic Danaan gift of making wonderful music.\nFrom all parts of the island companies of the Danaan folk resort to Lake\nDerryvaragh to hear this wondrous music and to converse with the swans,\nand during that time a great peace and gentleness seemed to pervade the\nland.\n\nBut at last the day came for them to leave the fellowship of their kind\nand take up their life by the wild cliffs and ever angry sea of the\nnorthern coast. Here they knew the worst of loneliness, cold, and storm.\nForbidden to land, their feathers froze to the rocks in the winter nights,\nand they were often buffeted and driven apart by storms. As Fionuala\nsings:\n\n\u201cCruel to us was Aoife\nWho played her magic upon us,\nAnd drove us out on the water\u2014\nFour wonderful snow-white swans.\n\n\u201cOur bath is the frothing brine,\nIn bays by red rocks guarded;\nFor mead at our father\u2019s table\nWe drink of the salt, blue sea.\n\n\u201cThree sons and a single daughter,\nIn clefts of the cold rocks dwelling,\nThe hard rocks, cruel to mortals\u2014\nWe are full of keening to-night.\u201d\n\nFionuala, the eldest of the four, takes the lead in all their doings, and\nmothers the younger children most tenderly, wrapping her plumage round\nthem on nights of frost. At last the time comes to enter on the third and\nlast period of their doom, and they take flight for the western shores of\nMayo. Here too they suffer much hardship; but the Milesians have now come\ninto the land, and a young farmer named Evric, dwelling on the shores of\nErris Bay, finds out who and what the swans are, and befriends them. To\nhim they tell their story, and through him it is supposed to have been\npreserved and handed down. When the final period of their suffering is\nclose at hand they resolve to fly towards the palace of their father Lir,\nwho dwells, we are told, at the Hill of the White Field, in Armagh, to see\nhow things have fared with him. They do so; but not knowing what has\nhappened on the coming of the Milesians, they are shocked and bewildered\nto find nothing but green mounds and whin-bushes and nettles where once\nstood\u2014and still stands, only that they cannot see it\u2014the palace of their\nfather. Their eyes are holden, we are to understand, because a higher\ndestiny was in store for them than to return to the Land of Youth.\n\nOn Erris Bay they hear for the first time the sound of a Christian bell.\nIt comes from the chapel of a hermit who has established himself there.\nThe swans are at first startled and terrified by the \u201cthin, dreadful\nsound,\u201d but afterwards approach and make themselves known to the hermit,\nwho instructs them in the faith, and they join him in singing the offices\nof the Church.\n\nNow it happens that a princess of Munster, Deoca, (the \u201cwoman of the\nSouth\u201d) became betrothed to a Connacht chief named Lairgnen, and begged\nhim as a wedding gift to procure for her the four wonderful singing swans\nwhose fame had come to her. He asks them of the hermit, who refuses to\ngive them up, whereupon the \u201cman of the North\u201d seizes them violently by\nthe silver chains with which the hermit had coupled them, and drags them\noff to Deoca. This is their last trial. Arrived in her presence, an awful\ntransformation befalls them. The swan plumage falls off, and reveals, not,\nindeed, the radiant forms of the Danaan divinities, but four withered,\nsnowy-haired, and miserable human beings, shrunken in the decrepitude of\ntheir vast old age. Lairgnen flies from the place in horror, but the\nhermit prepares to administer baptism at once, as death is rapidly\napproaching them. \u201cLay us in one grave,\u201d says Fionuala, \u201cand place Conn at\nmy right hand and Fiachra at my left, and Hugh before my face, for there\nthey were wont to be when I sheltered them many a winter night upon the\nseas of Moyle.\u201d And so it was done, and they went to heaven; but the\nhermit, it is said, sorrowed for them to the end of his earthly days.(113)\n\nIn all Celtic legend there is no more tender and beautiful tale than this\nof the Children of Lir.\n\n*The Tale of Ethn\u00e9*\n\nBut the imagination of the Celtic bard always played with delight on the\nsubjects of these transition tales, where the reconciling of the pagan\norder with the Christian was the theme. The same conception is embodied in\nthe tale of Ethn\u00e9, which we have now to tell.\n\nIt is said that Mananan mac Lir had a daughter who was given in fosterage\nto the Danaan prince Angus, whose fairy palace was at Brugh na Boyna. This\nis the great sepulchral tumulus now called New Grange, on the Boyne. At\nthe same time the steward of Angus had a daughter born to him whose name\nwas Ethn\u00e9, and who was allotted to the young princess as her handmaiden.\n\nEthn\u00e9 grew up into a lovely and gentle maiden, but it was discovered one\nday that she took no nourishment of any kind, although the rest of the\nhousehold fed as usual on the magic swine of Mananan, which might be eaten\nto-day and were alive again for the feast to-morrow. Mananan was called in\nto penetrate the mystery, and the following curious story came to light.\nOne of the chieftains of the Danaans who had been on a visit with Angus,\nsmitten by the girl\u2019s beauty, had endeavoured to possess her by force.\nThis woke in Ethn\u00e9\u2019s pure spirit the moral nature which is proper to man,\nand which the Danaan divinities know not. As the tale says, her \u201cguardian\ndemon\u201d left her, and an angel of the true God took its place. After that\nevent she abstained altogether from the food of Fa\u00ebry, and was\nmiraculously nourished by the will of God. After a time, however, Mananan\nand Angus, who had been on a voyage to the East, brought back thence two\ncows whose milk never ran dry, and as they were supposed to have come from\na sacred land Ethn\u00e9 lived on their milk thenceforward.\n\nAll this is supposed to have happened during the reign of Eremon, the\nfirst Milesian king of all Ireland, who was contemporary with King David.\nAt the time of the coming of St. Patrick, therefore, Ethn\u00e9 would have been\nabout fifteen hundred years of age. The Danaan folk grow up from childhood\nto maturity, but then they abide unaffected by the lapse of time.\n\nNow it happened one summer day that the Danaan princess whose handmaid\nEthn\u00e9 was went down with all her maidens to bathe in the river Boyne. When\narraying themselves afterwards Ethn\u00e9 discovered, to her dismay\u2014and this\nincident was, of course, an instance of divine interest in her\ndestiny\u2014that she had lost the Veil of Invisibility, conceived here as a\nmagic charm worn on the person, which gave her the entrance to the Danaan\nfairyland and hid her from mortal eyes. She could not find her way back to\nthe palace of Angus, and wandered up and down the banks of the river\nseeking in vain for her companions and her home. At last she came to a\nwalled garden, and, looking through the gate, saw inside a stone house of\nstrange appearance and a man in a long brown robe. The man was a Christian\nmonk, and the house was a little church or oratory. He beckoned her in,\nand when she had told her story to him he brought her to St. Patrick, who\ncompleted her adoption into the human family by giving her the rite of\nbaptism.\n\nNow comes in a strangely pathetic episode which reveals the tenderness,\nalmost the regret, with which early Irish Christianity looked back on the\nlost world of paganism. As Ethn\u00e9 was one day praying in the little church\nby the Boyne she heard suddenly a rushing sound in the air, and\ninnumerable voices, as it seemed from a great distance, lamenting and\ncalling her name. It was her Danaan kindred, who were still seeking for\nher in vain. She sprang up to reply, but was so overcome with emotion that\nshe fell in a swoon on the floor. She recovered her senses after a while,\nbut from that day she was struck with a mortal sickness, and in no long\ntime she died, with her head upon the breast of St. Patrick, who\nadministered to her the last rites, and ordained that the church should be\nnamed after her, Kill Ethn\u00e9\u2014a name doubtless borne, at the time the story\nwas composed, by some real church on the banks of Boyne.(114)\n\n*Christianity and Paganism in Ireland*\n\nThese, taken together with numerous other legendary incidents which might\nbe quoted, illustrate well the attitude of the early Celtic Christians, in\nIreland at least, towards the divinities of the older faith. They seem to\npreclude the idea that at the time of the conversion of Ireland the pagan\nreligion was associated with cruel and barbarous practices, on which the\nnational memory would look back with horror and detestation.\n\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IV: THE EARLY MILESIAN KINGS\n\n\n*The Danaans after the Milesian Conquest*\n\nThe kings and heroes of the Milesian race now fill the foreground of the\nstage in Irish legendary history. But, as we have indicated, the Danaan\ndivinities are by no means forgotten. The fairyland in which they dwell is\nordinarily inaccessible to mortals, yet it is ever near at hand; the\ninvisible barriers may be, and often are, crossed by mortal men, and the\nDanaans themselves frequently come forth from them; mortals may win brides\nof Fa\u00ebry who mysteriously leave them after a while, and women bear\nglorious children of supernatural fatherhood. Yet whatever the Danaans may\nhave been in the original pre-Christian conceptions of the Celtic Irish,\nit would be a mistake to suppose that they figure in the legends, as these\nhave now come down to us, in the light of gods as we understand this term.\nThey are for the most part radiantly beautiful, they are immortal (with\nlimitations), and they wield mysterious powers of sorcery and enchantment.\nBut no sort of moral governance of the world is ever for a moment ascribed\nto them, nor (in the bardic literature) is any act of worship paid to\nthem. They do not die naturally, but they can be slain both by each other\nand by mortals, and on the whole the mortal race is the stronger. Their\nstrength when they come into conflict (as frequently happens) with men\nlies in stratagem and illusion; when the issue can be fairly knit between\nthe rival powers it is the human that conquers. The early kings and heroes\nof the Milesian race are, indeed, often represented as so mightily endowed\nwith supernatural power that it is impossible to draw a clear distinction\nbetween them and the People of Dana in this respect. The Danaans are much\nnobler and more exalted beings, as they figure in the bardic literature,\nthan the fairies into which they ultimately degenerated in the popular\nimagination; they may be said to hold a position intermediate between\nthese and the Greek deities as portrayed in Homer. But the true worship of\nthe Celts, in Ireland as elsewhere, seems to have been paid, not to these\npoetical personifications of their ideals of power and beauty, but rather\nto elemental forces represented by actual natural phenomena\u2014rocks, rivers,\nthe sun, the wind, the sea. The most binding of oaths was to swear by the\nWind and Sun, or to invoke some other power of nature; no name of any\nDanaan divinity occurs in an Irish oath formula. When, however, in the\nlater stages of the bardic literature, and still more in the popular\nconceptions, the Danaan deities had begun to sink into fairies, we find\nrising into prominence a character probably older than that ascribed to\nthem in the literature, and, in a way, more august. In the literature it\nis evident that they were originally representatives of science and\npoetry\u2014the intellectual powers of man. But in the popular mind they\nrepresented, probably at all times and certainly in later Christian times,\nnot intellectual powers, but those associated with the fecundity of earth.\nThey were, as a passage in the Book of Armagh names them, _dei terreni_,\nearth-gods, and were, and are still, invoked by the peasantry to yield\nincrease and fertility. The literary conception of them is plainly Druidic\nin origin, the other popular; and the popular and doubtless older\nconception has proved the more enduring.\n\nBut these features of Irish mythology will appear better in the actual\ntales than in any critical discussion of them; and to the tales let us now\nreturn.\n\n*The Milesian Settlement of Ireland*\n\nThe Milesians had three leaders when they set out for the conquest of\nIreland\u2014Eber Donn (Brown Eber), Eber Finn (Fair Eber), and Eremon. Of\nthese the first-named, as we have seen, was not allowed to enter the\nland\u2014he perished as a punishment for his brutality. When the victory over\nthe Danaans was secure the two remaining brothers turned to the Druid\nAmergin for a judgment as to their respective titles to the sovranty.\nEremon was the elder of the two, but Eber refused to submit to him. Thus\nIrish history begins, alas! with dissension and jealousy. Amergin decided\nthat the land should belong to Eremon for his life, and pass to Eber after\nhis death. But Eber refused to submit to the award, and demanded an\nimmediate partition of the new-won territory. This was agreed to, and Eber\ntook the southern half of Ireland, \u201cfrom the Boyne to the Wave of\nCleena,\u201d(115) while Eremon occupied the north. But even so the brethren\ncould not be at peace, and after a short while war broke out between them.\nEber was slain, and Eremon became sole King of Ireland, which he ruled\nfrom Tara, the traditional seat of that central authority which was always\na dream of the Irish mind, but never a reality of Irish history.\n\n*Tiernmas and Crom Cruach*\n\nOf the kings who succeeded Eremon, and the battles they fought and the\nforests they cleared away and the rivers and lakes that broke out in their\nreign, there is little of note to record till we come to the reign of\nTiernmas, fifth in succession from Eremon. He is said to have introduced\ninto Ireland the worship of Crom Cruach, on Moyslaught (The Plain of\nAdoration(116)), and to have perished himself with three-fourths of his\npeople while worshipping this idol on November Eve, the period when the\nreign of winter was inaugurated. Crom Cruach was no doubt a solar deity,\nbut no figure at all resembling him can be identified among the Danaan\ndivinities. Tiernmas also, it is said, found the first gold-mine in\nIreland, and introduced variegated colours into the clothing of the\npeople. A slave might wear but one colour, a peasant two, a soldier three,\na wealthy landowner four, a provincial chief five, and an Ollav, or royal\nperson, six. Ollav was a term applied to a certain Druidic rank; it meant\nmuch the same as \u201cdoctor,\u201d in the sense of a learned man\u2014a master of\nscience. It is a characteristic trait that the Ollav is endowed with a\ndistinction equal to that of a king.\n\n*Ollav F\u014dla*\n\nThe most distinguished Ollav of Ireland was also a king, the celebrated\nOllav F\u014dla, who is supposed to have been eighteenth from Eremon and to\nhave reigned about 1000 B.C. He was the Lycurgus or Solon of Ireland,\ngiving to the country a code of legislature, and also subdividing it,\nunder the High King at Tara, among the provincial chiefs, to each of whom\nhis proper rights and obligations were allotted. To Ollav F\u014dla is also\nattributed the foundation of an institution which, whatever its origin,\nbecame of great importance in Ireland\u2014the great triennial Fair or Festival\nat Tara, where the sub-kings and chiefs, bards, historians, and musicians\nfrom all parts of Ireland assembled to make up the genealogical records of\nthe clan chieftainships, to enact laws, hear disputed cases, settle\nsuccession, and so forth; all these political and legislative labours\nbeing lightened by song and feast. It was a stringent law that at this\nseason all enmities must be laid aside; no man might lift his hand against\nanother, or even institute a legal process, while the Assembly at Tara was\nin progress. Of all political and national institutions of this kind Ollav\nF\u014dla was regarded as the traditional founder, just as Goban the Smith was\nthe founder of artistry and handicraft, and Amergin of poetry. But whether\nthe Milesian king had any more objective reality than the other more\nobviously mythical figures it is hard to say. He is supposed to have been\nburied in the great tumulus at Loughcrew, in Westmeath.\n\n*Kimbay and the Founding of Emain Macha*\n\nWith Kimbay (_Cimbaoth_), about 300 B.C., we come to a landmark in\nhistory. \u201cAll the historical records of the Irish, prior to Kimbay, were\ndubious\u201d\u2014so, with remarkable critical acumen for his age, wrote the\neleventh-century historian Tierna of Clonmacnois.(117) There is much that\nis dubious in those that follow, but we are certainly on firmer historical\nground. With the reign of Kimbay one great fact emerges into light: we\nhave the foundation of the kingdom of Ulster at its centre, Emain Macha, a\nname redolent to the Irish student of legendary splendour and heroism.\nEmain Macha is now represented by the grassy ramparts of a great\nhill-fortress close to Ard Macha (Armagh). According to one of the\nderivations offered in Keating\u2019s \u201cHistory of Ireland,\u201d _Emain_ is derived\nfrom _eo_, a bodkin, and _muin_, the neck, the word being thus equivalent\nto \u201cbrooch,\u201d and Emain Macha means the Brooch of Macha. An Irish brooch\nwas a large circular wheel of gold or bronze, crossed by a long pin, and\nthe great circular rampart surrounding a Celtic fortress might well be\nimaginatively likened to the brooch or a giantess guarding her cloak, or\nterritory.(118) The legend of Macha tells that she was the daughter of Red\nHugh, an Ulster prince who had two brothers, Dithorba and Kimbay. They\nagreed to enjoy, each in turn, the sovranty of Ireland. Red Hugh came\nfirst, but on his death Macha refused to give up the realm and fought\nDithorba for it, whom she conquered and slew. She then, in equally\nmasterful manner, compelled Kimbay to wed her, and ruled all Ireland as\nqueen. I give the rest of the tale in the words of Standish O\u2019Grady:\n\n\u201cThe five sons of Dithorba, having been expelled out of Ulster, fled\nacross the Shannon, and in the west of the kingdom plotted against Macha.\nThen the Queen went down alone into Connacht and found the brothers in the\nforest, where, wearied with the chase, they were cooking a wild boar which\nthey had slain, and were carousing before a fire which they had kindled.\nShe appeared in her grimmest aspect, as the war-goddess, red all over,\nterrible and hideous as war itself but with bright and flashing eyes. One\nby one the brothers were inflamed by her sinister beauty, and one by one\nshe overpowered and bound them. Then she lifted her burthen of champions\nupon her back and returned with them into the north. With the spear of her\nbrooch she marked out on the plain the circuit of the city of Emain Macha,\nwhose ramparts and trenches were constructed by the captive princes,\nlabouring like slaves under her command.\u201d\n\n\u201cThe underlying idea of all this class of legend,\u201d remarks Mr. O\u2019Grady,\n\u201cis that if men cannot master war, war will master them; and that those\nwho aspired to the Ard-Rieship [High-Kingship] of all Erin must have the\nwar-gods on their side.\u201d(119)\n\nMacha is an instance of the intermingling of the attributes of the Danaan\nwith the human race of which I have already spoken.\n\n*Laery and Covac*\n\nThe next king who comes into legendary prominence is Ugainy the Great, who\nis said to have ruled not only all Ireland, but a great part of Western\nEurope, and to have wedded a Gaulish princess named Kesair. He had two\nsons, Laery and Covac. The former inherited the kingdom, but Covac,\nconsumed and sick with envy, sought to slay him, and asked the advice of a\nDruid as to how this could be managed, since Laery, justly suspicious,\nnever would visit him without an armed escort. The Druid bade him feign\ndeath, and have word sent to his brother that he was on his bier ready for\nburial. This Covac did, and when Laery arrived and bent over the supposed\ncorpse Covac stabbed him to the heart, and slew also one of his sons,\nAilill,(120) who attended him. Then Covac ascended the throne, and\nstraightway his illness left him.\n\n*Legends of Maon, Son of Ailill*\n\nHe did a brutal deed, however, upon a son of Ailill\u2019s named Maon, about\nwhom a number of legends cluster. Maon, as a child, was brought into\nCovac\u2019s presence, and was there compelled, says Keating, to swallow a\nportion of his father\u2019s and grandfather\u2019s hearts, and also a mouse with\nher young. From the disgust he felt, the child lost his speech, and seeing\nhim dumb, and therefore innocuous, Covac let him go. The boy was then\ntaken into Munster, to the kingdom of Feramorc, of which Scoriath was\nking, and remained with him some time, but afterwards went to Gaul, his\ngreat-grandmother Kesair\u2019s country, where his guards told the king that he\nwas heir to the throne of Ireland, and he was treated with great honour\nand grew up into a noble youth. But he left behind him in the heart of\nMoriath, daughter of the King of Feramorc, a passion that could not be\nstilled, and she resolved to bring him back to Ireland. She accordingly\nequipped her father\u2019s harper, Craftiny, with many rich gifts, and wrote\nfor him a love-lay, in which her passion for Maon was set forth, and to\nwhich Craftiny composed an enchanting melody. Arrived in France, Craftiny\nmade his way to the king\u2019s court, and found occasion to pour out his lay\nto Maon. So deeply stirred was he by the beauty and passion of the song\nthat his speech returned to him and he broke out into praises of it, and\nwas thenceforth dumb no more. The King of Gaul then equipped him with an\narmed force and sent him to Ireland to regain his kingdom. Learning that\nCovac was at a place near at hand named Dinrigh, Maon and his body of\nGauls made a sudden attack upon him and slew him there and then, with all\nhis nobles and guards. After the slaughter a Druid of Covac\u2019s company\nasked one of the Gauls who their leader was. \u201cThe Mariner\u201d (_Loingseach_),\nreplied the Gaul, meaning the captain of the fleet\u2014_i.e._, Maon. \u201cCan he\nspeak?\u201d inquired the Druid, who had begun to suspect the truth. \u201cHe does\nspeak\u201d (_Labraidh_), said the man; and henceforth the name \u201cLabra the\nMariner\u201d clung to Maon son of Ailill, nor was he known by any other. He\nthen sought out Moriath, wedded her, and reigned over Ireland ten years.\n\nFrom this invasion of the Gauls the name of the province of Leinster is\ntraditionally derived. They were armed with spears having broad blue-green\niron heads called _laighne_ (pronounced \u201clyna\u201d), and as they were allotted\nlands in Leinster and settled there, the province was called in Irish\n_Laighin_ (\u201cLy-in\u201d) after them\u2014the Province of the Spearmen.(121)\n\nOf Labra the Mariner, after his accession, a curious tale is told. He was\naccustomed, it is said, to have his hair cropped but once a year, and the\nman to do this was chosen by lot, and was immediately afterwards put to\ndeath. The reason of this was that, like King Midas in the similar Greek\nmyth, he had long ears like those of a horse, and he would not have this\ndeformity known. Once it fell, however, that the person chosen to crop his\nhair was the only son of a poor widow, by whose tears and entreaties the\nking was prevailed upon to let him live, on condition that he swore by the\nWind and Sun to tell no man what he might see. The oath was taken, and the\nyoung man returned to his mother. But by-and-by the secret so preyed on\nhis mind that he fell into a sore sickness, and was near to death, when a\nwise Druid was called in to heal him. \u201cIt is the secret that is killing\nhim,\u201d said the Druid, \u201cand he will never be well till he reveals it. Let\nhim therefore go along the high-road till he come to a place where four\nroads meet. Let him there turn to the right, and the first tree he shall\nmeet on the road, let him tell his secret to that, and he shall be rid of\nit, and recover.\u201d So the youth did; and the first tree was a willow. He\nlaid his lips close to the bark, whispered his secret to it, and went\nhome, light-hearted as of old. But it chanced that shortly after this the\nharper Craftiny broke his harp and needed a new one, and as luck would\nhave it the first suitable tree he came to was the willow that had the\nking\u2019s secret. He cut it down, made his harp from it, and performed that\nnight as usual in the king\u2019s hall; when, to the amazement of all, as soon\nas the harper touched the strings the assembled guests heard them chime\nthe words, \u201cTwo horse\u2019s ears hath Labra the Mariner.\u201d The king then,\nseeing that the secret was out, plucked off his hood and showed himself\nplainly; nor was any man put to death again on account of this mystery. We\nhave seen that the compelling power of Craftiny\u2019s music had formerly cured\nLabra\u2019s dumbness. The sense of something magical in music, as though\nsupernatural powers spoke through it, is of constant recurrence in Irish\nlegend.\n\n*Legend-Cycle of Conary M\u014dr*\n\nWe now come to a cycle of legends centering on, or rather closing with,\nthe wonderful figure of the High King Conary M\u014dr\u2014a cycle so charged with\nsplendour, mystery, and romance that to do it justice would require far\nmore space than can be given to it within the limits of this work.(122)\n\n*Etain in Fairyland*\n\nThe preliminary events of the cycle are transacted in the \u201cLand of Youth,\u201d\nthe mystic country of the People of Dana after their dispossession by the\nChildren of Miled. Midir the Proud son of the Dagda, a Danaan prince\ndwelling on Slieve Callary, had a wife named Fuamnach. After a while he\ntook to himself another bride, Etain, whose beauty and grace were beyond\ncompare, so that \u201cas fair as Etain\u201d became a proverbial comparison for any\nbeauty that exceeded all other standards. Fuamnach therefore became\njealous of her rival, and having by magic art changed her into a\nbutterfly, she raised a tempest that drove her forth from the palace, and\nkept her for seven years buffeted hither and thither throughout the length\nand breadth of Erin. At last, however, a chance gust of wind blew her\nthrough a window of the fairy palace of Angus on the Boyne. The immortals\ncannot be hidden from each other, and Angus knew what she was. Unable to\nrelease her altogether from the spell of Fuamnach, he made a sunny bower\nfor her, and planted round it all manner of choice and honey-laden\nflowers, on which she lived as long as she was with him, while in the\nsecrecy of the night he restored her to her own form and enjoyed her love.\nIn time, however, her refuge was discovered by Fuamnach; again the magic\ntempest descended upon her and drove her forth; and this time a singular\nfate was hers. Blown into the palace of an Ulster chieftain named Etar,\nshe fell into the drinking-cup of Etar\u2019s wife just as the latter was about\nto drink. She was swallowed in the draught, and in due time, having passed\ninto the womb of Etar\u2019s wife, she was born as an apparently mortal child,\nand grew up to maidenhood knowing nothing of her real nature and ancestry.\n\n*Eochy and Etain*\n\nAbout this time it happened that the High King of Ireland, Eochy,(123)\nbeing wifeless and urged by the nobles of his land to take a queen\u2014\u201cfor\nwithout thou do so,\u201d they said, \u201cwe will not bring our wives to the\nAssembly at Tara\u201d\u2014sent forth to inquire for a fair and noble maiden to\nshare his throne. The messengers report that Etain, daughter of Etar, is\nthe fairest maiden in Ireland, and the king journeys forth to visit her. A\npiece of description here follows which is one of the most highly wrought\nand splendid in Celtic or perhaps in any literature. Eochy finds Etain\nwith her maidens by a spring of water, whither she had gone forth to wash\nher hair:\n\n\u201cA clear comb of silver was held in her hand, the comb was adorned with\ngold; and near her, as for washing, was a bason of silver whereon four\nbirds had been chased, and there were little bright gems of carbuncles on\nthe rims of the bason. A bright purple mantle waved round her; and beneath\nit was another mantle ornamented with silver fringes: the outer mantle was\nclasped over her bosom with a golden brooch. A tunic she wore with a long\nhood that might cover her head attached to it; it was stiff and glossy\nwith green silk beneath red embroidery of gold, and was clasped over her\nbreasts with marvellously wrought clasps of silver and gold; so that men\nsaw the bright gold and the green silk flashing against the sun. On her\nhead were two tresses of golden hair, and each tress had been plaited into\nfour strands; at the end of each strand was a little ball of gold. And\nthere was that maiden undoing her hair that she might wash it, her two\narms out through the armholes of her smock. Each of her two arms was as\nwhite as the snow of a single night, and each of her cheeks was as rosy as\nthe foxglove. Even and small were the teeth in her head, and they shone\nlike pearls. Her eyes were as blue as a hyacinth, her lips delicate and\ncrimson; very high, soft and white were her shoulders. Tender, polished\nand white were her wrists; her fingers long and of great whiteness; her\nnails were beautiful and pink. White as snow, or the foam of a wave, was\nher neck; long was it, slender, and as soft as silk. Smooth and white were\nher thighs; her knees were round and firm and white; her ankles were as\nstraight as the rule of a carpenter. Her feet were slim and as white as\nthe ocean\u2019s foam; evenly set were her eyes; her eyebrows were of a bluish\nblack, such as you see upon the shell of a beetle. Never a maid fairer\nthan she, or more worthy of love, was till then seen by the eyes of men;\nand it seemed to them that she must be one of those that have come from\nthe fairy mounds.\u201d(124)\n\nThe king wooed her and made her his wife, and brought her back to Tara.\n\n*The Love-Story of Ailill*\n\nIt happened that the king had a brother named Ailill, who, on seeing\nEtain, was so smitten with her beauty that he fell sick of the intensity\nof his passion and wasted almost to death. While he was in this condition\nEochy had to make a royal progress through Ireland. He left his\nbrother\u2014the cause of whose malady none suspected\u2014in Etain\u2019s care, bidding\nher do what she could for him, and, if he died, to bury him with due\nceremonies and erect an Ogham stone above his grave.(125) Etain goes to\nvisit the brother; she inquires the cause of his illness; he speaks to her\nin enigmas, but at last, moved beyond control by her tenderness, he breaks\nout in an avowal of his passion. His description of the yearning of\nhopeless love is a lyric of extraordinary intensity. \u201cIt is closer than\nthe skin,\u201d he cries, \u201cit is like a battle with a spectre, it overwhelms\nlike a flood, it is a weapon under the sea, it is a passion for an echo.\u201d\nBy \u201ca weapon under the sea\u201d the poet means that love is like one of the\nsecret treasures of the fairy-folk in the kingdom of Mananan\u2014as wonderful\nand as unattainable.\n\nEtain is now in some perplexity; but she decides, with a kind of na\u00efve\ngood-nature, that although she is not in the least in love with Ailill,\nshe cannot see a man die of longing for her, and she promises to be his.\nPossibly we are to understand here that she was prompted by the fairy\nnature, ignorant of good and evil, and alive only to pleasure and to\nsuffering. It must be said, however, that in the Irish myths in general\nthis, as we may call it, \u201cfairy\u201d view of morality is the one generally\nprevalent both among Danaans and mortals\u2014both alike strike one as morally\nirresponsible.\n\nEtain now arranges a tryst with Ailill in a house outside of Tara\u2014for she\nwill not do what she calls her \u201cglorious crime\u201d in the king\u2019s palace. But\nAilill on the eve of the appointed day falls into a profound slumber and\nmisses his appointment. A being in his shape does, however, come to Etain,\nbut merely to speak coldly and sorrowfully of his malady, and departs\nagain. When the two meet once more the situation is altogether changed. In\nAilill\u2019s enchanted sleep his unholy passion for the queen has passed\nentirely away. Etain, on the other hand, becomes aware that behind the\nvisible events there are mysteries which she does not understand.\n\n*Midir the Proud*\n\nThe explanation soon follows. The being who came to her in the shape of\nAilill was her Danaan husband, Midir the Proud. He now comes to woo her in\nhis true shape, beautiful and nobly apparelled, and entreats her to fly\nwith him to the Land of Youth, where she can be safe henceforward, since\nher persecutor, Fuamnach, is dead. He it was who shed upon Ailill\u2019s eyes\nthe magic slumber. His description of the fairyland to which he invites\nher is given in verses of great beauty:\n\n*The Land of Youth*\n\n\u201cO fair-haired woman, will you come with me to the marvellous land, full\n            of music, where the hair is primrose-yellow and the body white\n            as snow?\nThere none speaks of \u2018mine\u2019 or \u2018thine\u2019\u2014white are the teeth and black the\n            brows; eyes flash with many-coloured lights, and the hue of\n            the foxglove is on every cheek.\nPleasant to the eye are the plains of Erin, but they are a desert to the\n            Great Plain.\nHeady is the ale of Erin, but the ale of the Great Plain is headier.\nIt is one of the wonders of that land that youth does not change into age.\nSmooth and sweet are the streams that flow through it; mead and wine\n            abound of every kind; there men are all fair, without blemish;\n            there women conceive without sin.\nWe see around us on every side, yet no man seeth us; the cloud of the sin\n            of Adam hides us from their observation.\n\u201cO lady, if thou wilt come to my strong people, the purest of gold shall\n            be on thy head\u2014thy meat shall be swine\u2019s flesh unsalted,(126)\n            new milk and mead shall thou drink with me there, O\n            fair-haired woman.\n\nI have given this remarkable lyric at length because, though Christian and\nascetic ideas are obviously discernible in it, it represents on the whole\nthe pagan and mythical conception of the Land of Youth, the country of the\nDead.\n\nEtain, however, is by no means ready to go away with a stranger and to\ndesert the High King for a man \u201cwithout name or lineage.\u201d Midir tells her\nwho he is, and all her own history of which, in her present incarnation,\nshe knows nothing; and he adds that it was one thousand and twelve years\nfrom Etain\u2019s birth in the Land of Youth till she was born a mortal child\nto the wife of Etar. Ultimately Etain agrees to return with Midir to her\nancient home, but only on condition that the king will agree to their\nseverance, and with this Midir has to be content for the time.\n\n*A Game of Chess*\n\nShortly afterwards he appears to King Eochy, as already related,(127) on\nthe Hill of Tara. He tells the king that he has come to play a game of\nchess with him, and produces a chessboard of silver with pieces of gold\nstudded with jewels. To be a skilful chess-player was a necessary\naccomplishment of kings and nobles in Ireland, and Eochy enters into the\ngame with zest. Midir allows him to win game after game, and in payment\nfor his losses he performs by magic all kinds of tasks for Eochy,\nreclaiming land, clearing forests, and building causeways across bogs\u2014here\nwe have a touch of the popular conception of the Danaans as earth deities\nassociated with agriculture and fertility. At last, having excited Eochy\u2019s\ncupidity and made him believe himself the better player, he proposes a\nfinal game, the stakes to be at the pleasure of the victor after the game\nis over. Eochy is now defeated.\n\n\u201cMy stake is forfeit to thee,\u201d said Eochy.\n\n\u201cHad I wished it, it had been forfeit long ago,\u201d said Midir.\n\n\u201cWhat is it that thou desirest me to grant?\u201d said Eochy.\n\n\u201cThat I may hold Etain in my arms and obtain a kiss from her,\u201d said Midir.\n\nThe king was silent for a while; then he said: \u201cOne month from to-day thou\nshalt come, and the thing thou desirest shall be granted thee.\u201d\n\n*Midir and Etain*\n\nEochy\u2019s mind foreboded evil, and when the appointed day came he caused the\npalace of Tara to be surrounded by a great host of armed men to keep Midir\nout. All was in vain, however; as the king sat at the feast, while Etain\nhanded round the wine, Midir, more glorious than ever, suddenly stood in\ntheir midst. Holding his spears in his left hand, he threw his right\naround Etain, and the couple rose lightly in the air and disappeared\nthrough a roof-window in the palace. Angry and bewildered, the king and\nhis warriors rushed out of doors, but all they could see was two white\nswans that circled in the air above the palace, and then departed in long,\nsteady flight towards the fairy mountain of Slievenamon. And thus Queen\nEtain rejoined her kindred.\n\n*War with Fairyland*\n\nEochy, however, would not accept defeat, and now ensues what I think is\nthe earliest recorded war with Fairyland since the first dispossession of\nthe Danaans. After searching Ireland for his wife in vain, he summoned to\nhis aid the Druid Dalan. Dalan tried for a year by every means in his\npower to find out where she was. At last he made what seems to have been\nan operation of wizardry of special strength\u2014\u201che made three wands of yew,\nand upon the wands he wrote an ogham; and by the keys of wisdom that he\nhad, and by the ogham, it was revealed to him that Etain was in the fairy\nmound of Bri-Leith, and that Midir had borne her thither.\u201d\n\nEochy then assembled his forces to storm and destroy the fairy mound in\nwhich was the palace of Midir. It is said that he was nine years digging\nup one mound after another, while Midir and his folk repaired the\ndevastation as fast as it was made. At last Midir, driven to the last\nstronghold, attempted a stratagem\u2014he offered to give up Etain, and sent\nher with fifty handmaids to the king, but made them all so much alike that\nEochy could not distinguish the true Etain from her images. She herself,\nit is said, gave him a sign by which to know her. The motive of the tale,\nincluding the choice of the mortal rather than the god, reminds one of the\nbeautiful Hindu legend of Damayanti and Nala. Eochy regained his queen,\nwho lived with him till his death, ten years afterwards, and bore him one\ndaughter, who was named Etain, like herself.\n\n*The Tale of Conary M\u014dr*\n\nFrom this Etain ultimately sprang the great king Conary M\u014dr, who shines in\nIrish legend as the supreme type of royal splendour, power, and\nbeneficence, and whose overthrow and death were compassed by the Danaans\nin vengeance for the devastation of their sacred dwellings by Eochy. The\ntale in which the death of Conary is related is one of the most antique\nand barbaric in conception of all Irish legends, but it has a magnificence\nof imagination which no other can rival. To this great story the tale of\nEtain and Midir may be regarded as what the Irish called a _priomscel_,\n\u201cintroductory tale,\u201d showing the more remote origin of the events related.\nThe genealogy of Conary M\u014dr will help the reader to understand the\nconnexion of events.\n\n\n                   Eochy=Etain.\n                        |\n        Cormac, King=Etain Oig (Etain the younger).\n        of Ulster.  |\n                    |\nEterskel, King=Messbuachalla (the cowherd\u2019s fosterling).\nof Erin.      |\n              |\n         Conary M\u014dr.\n\n*The Law of the Geis*\n\nThe tale of Conary introduces us for the first time to the law or\ninstitution of the _geis_, which plays henceforward a very important part\nin Irish legend, the violation or observance of a _geis_ being frequently\nthe turning-point in a tragic narrative. We must therefore delay a moment\nto explain to the reader exactly what this peculiar institution was.\n\nDineen\u2019s \u201cIrish Dictionary\u201d explains the word _geis_ (pronounced\n\u201cgaysh\u201d\u2014plural, \u201cgaysha\u201d) as meaning \u201ca bond, a spell, a prohibition, a\ntaboo, a magical injunction, the violation of which led to misfortune and\ndeath.\u201d(128) Every Irish chieftain or personage of note had certain\n_geise_ peculiar to himself which he must not transgress. These _geise_\nhad sometimes reference to a code of chivalry\u2014thus Dermot of the\nLove-spot, when appealed to by Grania to take her away from Finn, is under\n_geise_ not to refuse protection to a woman. Or they may be merely\nsuperstitious or fantastic\u2014thus Conary, as one of his _geise_, is\nforbidden to follow three red horsemen on a road, nor must he kill birds\n(this is because, as we shall see, his totem was a bird). It is a _geis_\nto the Ulster champion, Fergus mac Roy, that he must not refuse an\ninvitation to a feast; on this turns the Tragedy of the Sons of Usnach. It\nis not at all clear who imposed these _geise_ or how any one found out\nwhat his personal _geise_ were\u2014all that was doubtless an affair of the\nDruids. But they were regarded as sacred obligations, and the worst\nmisfortunes were to be apprehended from breaking them. Originally, no\ndoubt, they were regarded as a means of keeping oneself in proper\nrelations with the other world\u2014the world of Fa\u00ebry\u2014and were akin to the\nwell-known Polynesian practice of the \u201ctabu.\u201d I prefer, however, to retain\nthe Irish word as the only fitting one for the Irish practice.\n\n*The Cowherd\u2019s Fosterling*\n\nWe now return to follow the fortunes of Etain\u2019s great-grandson, Conary.\nHer daughter, Etain Oig, as we have seen from the genealogical table,\nmarried Cormac, King of Ulster. She bore her husband no children save one\ndaughter only. Embittered by her barrenness and his want of an heir, the\nking put away Etain, and ordered her infant to be abandoned and thrown\ninto a pit. \u201cThen his two thralls take her to a pit, and she smiles a\nlaughing smile at them as they were putting her into it.\u201d(129) After that\nthey cannot leave her to die, and they carry her to a cowherd of Eterskel,\nKing of Tara, by whom she is fostered and taught \u201ctill she became a good\nembroidress and there was not in Ireland a king\u2019s daughter dearer than\nshe.\u201d Hence the name she bore, Messbuachalla (\u201cMessboo\u00b4hala\u201d), which means\n\u201cthe cowherd\u2019s foster-child.\u201d\n\nFor fear of her being discovered, the cowherds keep the maiden in a house\nof wickerwork having only a roof-opening. But one of King Eterskel\u2019s folk\nhas the curiosity to climb up and look in, and sees there the fairest\nmaiden in Ireland. He bears word to the king, who orders an opening to be\nmade in the wall and the maiden fetched forth, for the king was childless,\nand it had been prophesied to him by his Druid that a woman of unknown\nrace would bear him a son. Then said the king: \u201cThis is the woman that has\nbeen prophesied to me.\u201d\n\n*Parentage and Birth of Conary*\n\nBefore her release, however, she is visited by a denizen from the Land of\nYouth. A great bird comes down through her roof-window. On the floor of\nthe hut his bird-plumage falls from him and reveals a glorious youth. Like\nDana\u00eb, like Leda, like Ethlinn daughter of Balor, she gives her love to\nthe god. Ere they part he tells her that she will be taken to the king,\nbut that she will bear to her Danaan lover a son whose name shall be\nConary, and that it shall be forbidden to him to go a-hunting after birds.\n\nSo Conary was born, and grew up into a wise and noble youth, and he was\nfostered with a lord named Desa, whose three great-grandsons grew up with\nhim from childhood. Their names were Ferlee and Fergar and Ferrogan; and\nConary, it is said, loved them well and taught them his wisdom.\n\n*Conary the High King*\n\nThen King Eterskel died, and a successor had to be appointed. In Ireland\nthe eldest son did not succeed to the throne or chieftaincy as a matter of\nright, but the ablest and best of the family at the time was supposed to\nbe selected by the clan. In this tale we have a curious account of this\nselection by means of divination. A \u201cbull-feast\u201d was held\u2014_i.e._, a bull\nwas slain, and the diviner would \u201ceat his fill and drink its broth\u201d; then\nhe went to bed, where a truth-compelling spell was chanted over him.\nWhoever he saw in his dream would be king. So at \u00c6gira, in Ach\u00e6a, as\nWhitley Stokes points out, the priestess of Earth drank the fresh blood of\na bull before descending into the cave to prophesy. The dreamer cried in\nhis sleep that he saw a naked man going towards Tara with a stone in his\nsling.\n\nThe bull-feast was held at Tara, but Conary was then with his three\nfoster-brothers playing a game on the Plains of Liffey. They separated,\nConary going towards Dublin, where he saw before him a flock of great\nbirds, wonderful in colour and beauty. He drove after them in his chariot,\nbut the birds would go a spear-cast in front and light, and fly on again,\nnever letting him come up with them till they reached the sea-shore. Then\nhe lighted down from his chariot and took out his sling to cast at them,\nwhereupon they changed into armed men and turned on him with spears and\nswords. One of them, however, protected him, and said: \u201cI am Nemglan, king\nof thy father\u2019s birds; and thou hast been forbidden to cast at birds, for\nhere there is no one but is thy kin.\u201d \u201cTill to-day,\u201d said Conary, \u201cI knew\nnot this.\u201d\n\n\u201cGo to Tara to-night,\u201d said Nemglan; \u201cthe bull-feast is there, and through\nit thou shalt be made king. A man stark naked, who shall go at the end of\nthe night along one of the roads to Tara, having a stone and a sling\u2014\u2019tis\nhe that shall be king.\u201d\n\nSo Conary stripped off his raiment and went naked through the night to\nTara, where all the roads were being watched by chiefs having changes of\nroyal raiment with them to clothe the man who should come according to the\nprophecy. When Conary meets them they clothe him and bring him in, and he\nis proclaimed King of Erin.\n\n*Conary\u2019s Geise*\n\nA long list of his _geise_ is here given, which are said to have been\ndeclared to him by Nemglan. \u201cThe bird-reign shall be noble,\u201d said he, \u201cand\nthese shall be thy _geise_:\n\n\u201cThou shalt not go right-handwise round Tara, nor left-handwise round\n            Bregia,(130)\n Thou shalt not hunt the evil-beasts of Cerna,\n Thou shalt not go out every ninth night beyond Tara.\n Thou shalt not sleep in a house from which firelight shows after sunset,\n             or in which light can be seen from without.\n No three Reds shall go before thee to the house of Red.\n No rapine shall be wrought in thy reign.\n After sunset, no one woman alone or man alone shall enter the house in\n             which thou art.\n Thou shalt not interfere in a quarrel between two of thy thralls.\u201d\n\nConary then entered upon his reign, which was marked by the fair seasons\nand bounteous harvests always associated in the Irish mind with the reign\nof a good king. Foreign ships came to the ports. Oak-mast for the swine\nwas up to the knees every autumn; the rivers swarmed with fish. \u201cNo one\nslew another in Erin during his reign, and to every one in Erin his\nfellow\u2019s voice seemed as sweet as the strings of lutes. From mid-spring to\nmid-autumn no wind disturbed a cow\u2019s tail.\u201d\n\n*Beginning of the Vengeance*\n\nDisturbance, however, came from another source. Conary had put down all\nraiding and rapine, and his three foster-brothers, who were born reavers,\ntook it ill. They pursued their evil ways in pride and wilfulness, and\nwere at last captured red-handed. Conary would not condemn them to death,\nas the people begged him to do, but spared them for the sake of his\nkinship in fosterage. They were, however, banished from Erin and bidden to\ngo raiding overseas, if raid they must. On the seas they met another\nexiled chief, Ingcel the One-Eyed, son of the King of Britain, and joining\nforces with him they attacked the fortress in which Ingcel\u2019s father,\nmother, and brothers were guests at the time, and all were destroyed in a\nsingle night. It was then the turn of Ingcel to ask their help in raiding\nthe land of Erin, and gathering a host of other outlawed men, including\nthe seven Man\u00e9s, sons of Ailell and Maev of Connacht, besides Ferlee,\nFergar, and Ferrogan, they made a descent upon Ireland, taking land on the\nDublin coast near Howth.\n\nMeantime Conary had been lured by the machinations of the Danaans into\nbreaking one after another of his _geise_. He settles a quarrel between\ntwo of his serfs in Munster, and travelling back to Tara they see the\ncountry around it lit with the glare of fires and wrapped in clouds of\nsmoke. A host from the North, they think, must be raiding the country, and\nto escape it Conary\u2019s company have to turn right-handwise round Tara and\nthen left-handwise round the Plain of Bregia. But the smoke and flames\nwere an illusion made by the Fairy Folk, who are now drawing the toils\ncloser round the doomed king. On his way past Bregia he chases \u201cthe evil\nbeasts of Cerna\u201d\u2014whatever they were\u2014\u201cbut he saw it not till the chase was\nended.\u201d\n\n*Da Derga\u2019s Hostel and the Three Reds*\n\nConary had now to find a resting-place for the night, and he recollects\nthat he is not far from the Hostel of the Leinster lord, Da Derga, which\ngives its name to this bardic tale.(131) Conary had been generous to him\nwhen Da Derga came visiting to Tara, and he determined to seek his\nhospitality for the night. Da Derga dwelt in a vast hall with seven doors\nnear to the present town of Dublin, probably at Donnybrook, on the\nhigh-road to the south. As the cavalcade are journeying thither an ominous\nincident occurs\u2014Conary marks in front of them on the road three horsemen\nclad all in red and riding on red horses. He remembers his _geis_ about\nthe \u201cthree Reds,\u201d and sends a messenger forward to bid them fall behind.\nBut however the messenger lashes his horse he fails to get nearer than the\nlength of a spear-cast to the three Red Riders. He shouts to them to turn\nback and follow the king, but one of them, looking over his shoulder, bids\nhim ironically look out for \u201cgreat news from a Hostel.\u201d Again and again\nthe messenger is sent to them with promises of great reward if they will\nfall behind instead of preceding Conary. At last one of them chants a\nmystic and terrible strain. \u201cLo, my son, great the news. Weary are the\nsteeds we ride \u2014the steeds from the fairy mounds. Though we are living, we\nare dead. Great are the signs: destruction of life; sating of ravens;\nfeeding of crows; strife of slaughter; wetting of sword-edge; shields with\nbroken bosses after sundown. Lo, my son!\u201d Then they ride forward, and,\nalighting from their red steeds, fasten them at the portal of Da Derga\u2019s\nHostel and sit down inside. \u201cDerga,\u201d it may be explained, means \u201cred.\u201d\nConary had therefore been preceded by three red horsemen to the House of\nRed. \u201cAll my _geise_,\u201d he remarks forebodingly, \u201chave seized me to-night.\u201d\n\n*Gathering of the Hosts*\n\nFrom this point the story of Conary M\u014dr takes on a character of\nsupernatural vastness and mystery, the imagination of the bardic narrator\ndilating, as it were, with the approach of the crisis. Night has fallen,\nand the pirate host of Ingcel is encamped on the shores of Dublin Bay.\nThey hear the noise of the royal cavalcade, and a long-sighted messenger\nis sent out to discover what it is. He brings back word of the glittering\nand multitudinous host which has followed Conary to the Hostel. A crashing\nnoise is heard\u2014Ingcel asks of Ferrogan what it may be\u2014it is the giant\nwarrior mac Cecht striking flint on steel to kindle fire for the king\u2019s\nfeast. \u201cGod send that Conary be not there to-night,\u201d cry the sons of Desa;\n\u201cwoe that he should be under the hurt of his foes.\u201d But Ingcel reminds\nthem of their compact\u2014he had given them the plundering of his own father\nand brethren; they cannot refuse to stand by him in the attack he\nmeditates on Conary in the Hostel. A glare of the fire lit by mac Cecht is\nnow perceived by the pirate host, shining through the wheels of the\nchariots which are drawn up around the open doors of the Hostel. Another\nof the _geise_ of Conary has been broken.\n\nIngcel and his host now proceed to build a great cairn of stones, each man\ncontributing one stone, so that there may be a memorial of the fight, and\nalso a record of the number slain when each survivor removes his stone\nagain.\n\n*The Morrigan*\n\nThe scene now shifts to the Hostel, where the king\u2019s party has arrived and\nis preparing for the night. A solitary woman comes to the door and seeks\nadmission. \u201cAs long as a weaver\u2019s beam were each of her two shins, and\nthey were as dark as the back of a stag-beetle. A greyish, woolly mantle\nshe wore. Her hair reached to her knee. Her mouth was twisted to one side\nof her head.\u201d It was the Morrigan, the Danaan goddess of Death and\nDestruction. She leant against the doorpost of the house and looked evilly\non the king and his company. \u201cWell, O woman,\u201d said Conary, \u201cif thou art a\nwitch, what seest thou for us?\u201d \u201cTruly I see for thee,\u201d she answered,\n\u201cthat neither fell nor flesh of thine shall escape from the place into\nwhich thou hast come, save what birds will bear away in their claws.\u201d She\nasks admission. Conary declares that his _geis_ forbids him to receive a\nsolitary man or woman after sunset. \u201cIf in sooth,\u201d she says, \u201cit has\nbefallen the king not to have room in his house for the meal and bed of a\nsolitary woman, they will be gotten apart from him from some one\npossessing generosity.\u201d \u201cLet her in, then,\u201d says Conary, \u201cthough it is a\n_geis_ of mine.\u201d\n\n*Conary and his Retinue*\n\nA lengthy and brilliant passage now follows describing how Ingcel goes to\nspy out the state of affairs in the Hostel. Peeping through the\nchariot-wheels, he takes note of all he sees, and describes to the sons of\nDesa the appearance and equipment of each prince and mighty man in\nConary\u2019s retinue, while Ferrogan and his brother declare who he is and\nwhat destruction he will work in the coming fight. There is Cormac, son of\nConor, King of Ulster, the fair and good; there are three huge, black and\nblack-robed warriors of the Picts; there is Conary\u2019s steward, with\nbristling hair, who settles every dispute\u2014a needle would be heard falling\nwhen he raises his voice to speak, and he bears a staff of office the size\nof a mill-shaft; there is the warrior mac Cecht, who lies supine with his\nknees drawn up\u2014they resemble two bare hills, his eyes are like lakes, his\nnose a mountain-peak, his sword shines like a river in the sun. Conary\u2019s\nthree sons are there, golden-haired, silk-robed, beloved of all the\nhousehold, with \u201cmanners of ripe maidens, and hearts of brothers, and\nvalour of bears.\u201d When Ferrogan hears of them he weeps and cannot proceed\ntill hours of the night have passed. Three Fomorian hostages of horrible\naspect are there also; and Conall of the Victories with his blood-red\nshield; and Duftach of Ulster with his magic spear, which, when there is a\npremonition of battle, must be kept in a brew of soporific herbs, or it\nwill flame on its haft and fly forth raging for massacre; and three giants\nfrom the Isle of Man with horses\u2019 manes reaching to their heels. A strange\nand unearthly touch is introduced by a description of three naked and\nbleeding forms hanging by ropes from the roof\u2014they are the daughters of\nthe Bav, another name for the Morrigan, or war-goddess, \u201cthree of awful\nboding,\u201d says the tale enigmatically, \u201cthose are the three that are\nslaughtered at every time.\u201d We are probably to regard them as visionary\nbeings, portending war and death, visible only to Ingcel. The hall with\nits separate chambers is full of warriors, cup-bearers, musicians playing,\nand jugglers doing wonderful feats; and Da Derga with his attendants\ndispensing food and drink. Conary himself is described as a youth; \u201cthe\nardour and energy of a king has he and the counsel of a sage; the mantle I\nsaw round him is even as the mist of May-day\u2014lovelier in each hue of it\nthan the other.\u201d His golden-hilted sword lies beside him\u2014a forearm\u2019s\nlength of it has escaped from the scabbard, shining like a beam of light.\n\u201cHe is the mildest and gentlest and most perfect king that has come into\nthe world, even Conary son of Eterskel ... great is the tenderness of the\nsleepy, simple man till he has chanced on a deed of valour. But if his\nfury and his courage are awakened when the champions of Erin and Alba are\nat him in the house, the Destruction will not be wrought so long as he is\ntherein ... sad were the quenching of that reign.\u201d\n\n*Champions at the House*\n\nIngcel and the sons of Desa then march to the attack and surround the\nHostel:\n\n\u201cSilence a while!\u201d says Conary, \u201cwhat is this?\u201d\n\n\u201cChampions at the house,\u201d says Conall of the Victories.\n\n\u201cThere are warriors for them here,\u201d answers Conary.\n\n\u201cThey will be needed to-night,\u201d Conall rejoins.\n\nOne of Desa\u2019s sons rushes first into the Hostel. His head is struck off\nand cast out of it again. Then the great struggle begins. The Hostel is\nset on fire, but the fire is quenched with wine or any liquids that are in\nit. Conary and his people sally forth\u2014hundreds are slain, and the reavers,\nfor the moment, are routed. But Conary, who has done prodigies of\nfighting, is athirst and can do no more till he gets water. The reavers by\nadvice of their wizards have cut off the river Dodder, which flowed\nthrough the Hostel, and all the liquids in the house had been spilt on the\nfires.\n\n*Death of Conary*\n\nThe king, who is perishing of thirst, asks mac Cecht to procure him a\ndrink, and mac Cecht turns to Conall and asks him whether he will get the\ndrink for the king or stay to protect him while mac Cecht does it. \u201cLeave\nthe defence of the king to us,\u201d says Conall, \u201cand go thou to seek the\ndrink, for of thee it is demanded.\u201d Mac Cecht then, taking Conary\u2019s golden\ncup, rushes forth, bursting through the surrounding host, and goes to seek\nfor water. Then Conall, and Cormac of Ulster, and the other champions,\nissue forth in turn, slaying multitudes of the enemy; some return wounded\nand weary to the little band in the Hostel, while others cut their way\nthrough the ring of foes. Conall, Sencha, and Duftach stand by Conary till\nthe end; but mac Cecht is long in returning, Conary perishes of thirst,\nand the three heroes then fight their way out and escape, \u201cwounded,\nbroken, and maimed.\u201d\n\nMeantime mac Cecht has rushed over Ireland in frantic search for the\nwater. But the Fairy Folk, who are here manifestly elemental powers\ncontrolling the forces of nature, have sealed all the sources against him.\nHe tries the Well of Kesair in Wicklow in vain; he goes to the great\nrivers, Shannon and Slayney, Bann and Barrow\u2014they all hide away at his\napproach; the lakes deny him also; at last he finds a lake, Loch Gara in\nRoscommon, which failed to hide itself in time, and thereat he fills his\ncup. In the morning he returned to the Hostel with the precious and\nhard-won draught, but found the defenders all dead or fled, and two of the\nreavers in the act of striking off the head of Conary. Mac Cecht struck\noff the head of one of them, and hurled a huge pillar stone after the\nother, who was escaping with Conary\u2019s head. The reaver fell dead on the\nspot, and mac Cecht, taking up his master\u2019s head, poured the water into\nits mouth. Thereupon the head spoke, and praised and thanked him for the\ndeed.\n\n*Mac Cecht\u2019s Wound*\n\nA woman then came by and saw mac Cecht lying exhausted and wounded on the\nfield.\n\n\u201cCome hither, O woman,\u201d says mac Cecht.\n\n\u201cI dare not go there,\u201d says the woman, \u201cfor horror and fear of thee.\u201d\n\nBut he persuades her to come, and says: \u201cI know not whether it is a fly or\ngnat or an ant that nips me in the wound.\u201d\n\nThe woman looked and saw a hairy wolf buried as far as the two shoulders\nin the wound. She seized it by the tail and dragged it forth, and it took\n\u201cthe full of its jaws out of him.\u201d\n\n\u201cTruly,\u201d says the woman, \u201cthis is an ant of the Ancient Land.\u201d\n\nAnd mac Cecht took it by the throat and smote it on the forehead, so that\nit died.\n\n*\u201c**Is thy Lord Alive?**\u201d*\n\nThe tale ends in a truly heroic strain. Conall of the Victories, as we\nhave seen, had cut his way out after the king\u2019s death, and made his way to\nTeltin, where he found his father, Amorgin, in the garth before his d\u016bn.\nConall\u2019s shield-arm had been wounded by thrice fifty spears, and he\nreached Teltin now with half a shield, and his sword, and the fragments of\nhis two spears.\n\n\u201cSwift are the wolves that have hunted thee, my son,\u201d said his father.\n\n\u201c\u2019Tis this that has wounded us, old hero, an evil conflict with warriors,\u201d\nConall replied.\n\n\u201cIs thy lord alive?\u201d asked Amorgin.\n\n\u201cHe is _not_ alive,\u201d says Conall.\n\n\u201cI swear to God what the great tribes of Ulster swear: he is a coward who\ngoes out of a fight alive having left his lord with his foes in death.\u201d\n\n\u201cMy wounds are not white, old hero,\u201d says Conall. He showed him his\nshield-arm, whereon were thrice fifty spear-wounds. The sword-arm, which\nthe shield had not guarded, was mangled and maimed and wounded and\npierced, save that the sinews kept it to the body without separation.\n\n\u201cThat arm fought to-night, my son,\u201d says Amorgin.\n\n\u201cTrue is that, old hero,\u201d says Conall of the Victories. \u201cMany are they to\nwhom it gave drinks of death to-night in front of the Hostel.\u201d\n\n\nSo ends the story of Etain, and of the overthrow of Fairyland and the\nfairy vengeance wrought on the great-grandson of Eochy the High King.\n\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER V: TALES OF THE ULTONIAN CYCLE\n\n\n*The Curse of Macha*\n\nThe centre of interest in Irish legend now shifts from Tara to Ulster, and\na multitude of heroic tales gather round the Ulster king Conor mac Nessa,\nround Cuchulain,(132) his great vassal, and the Red Branch Order of\nchivalry, which had its seat in Emain Macha.\n\nThe legend of the foundation of Emain Macha has already been told.(133)\nBut Macha, who was no mere woman, but a supernatural being, appears again\nin connexion with the history of Ulster in a very curious tale which was\nsupposed to account for the strange debility or helplessness that at\ncritical moments sometimes fell, it was believed, upon the warriors of the\nprovince.\n\nThe legend tells that a wealthy Ulster farmer named Crundchu, son of\nAgnoman, dwelling in a solitary place among the hills, found one day in\nhis d\u016bn a young woman of great beauty and in splendid array, whom he had\nnever seen before. Crundchu, we are told, was a widower, his wife having\ndied after bearing him four sons. The strange woman, without a word, set\nherself to do the houshold tasks, prepared dinner, milked the cow, and\ntook on herself all the duties of the mistress of the household. At night\nshe lay down at Crundchu\u2019s side, and thereafter dwelt with him as his\nwife; and they loved each other dearly. Her name was Macha.\n\nOne day Crundchu prepared himself to go to a great fair or assembly of the\nUltonians, where there would be feasting and horse-racing, tournaments and\nmusic, and merrymaking of all kinds. Macha begged her husband not to go.\nHe persisted. \u201cThen,\u201d she said, \u201cat least do not speak of me in the\nassembly, for I may dwell with you only so long as I am not spoken of.\u201d\n\nIt has been observed that we have here the earliest appearance in\npost-classical European literature of the well-known motive of the fairy\nbride who can stay with her mortal lover only so long as certain\nconditions are observed, such as that he shall not spy upon her, ill-treat\nher, or ask of her origin.\n\nCrundchu promised to obey the injunction, and went to the festival. Here\nthe two horses of the king carried off prize after prize in the racing,\nand the people cried: \u201cThere is not in Ireland a swifter than the King\u2019s\npair of horses.\u201d\n\n\u201cI have a wife at home,\u201d said Crundchu, in a moment of forgetfulness, \u201cwho\ncan run quicker than these horses.\u201d\n\n\u201cSeize that man,\u201d said the angry king, \u201cand hold him till his wife be\nbrought to the contest.\u201d\n\nSo messengers went for Macha, and she was brought before the assembly; and\nshe was with child. The king bade her prepare for the race. She pleaded\nher condition. \u201cI am close upon my hour,\u201d she said. \u201cThen hew her man in\npieces,\u201d said the king to his guards. Macha turned to the bystanders.\n\u201cHelp me,\u201d she cried, \u201cfor a mother hath borne each of you! Give me but a\nshort delay till I am delivered.\u201d But the king and all the crowd in their\nsavage lust for sport would hear of no delay. \u201cThen bring up the horses,\u201d\nsaid Macha, \u201cand because you have no pity a heavier infamy shall fall upon\nyou.\u201d So she raced against the horses, and outran them, but as she came to\nthe goal she gave a great cry, and her travail seized her, and she gave\nbirth to twin children. As she uttered that cry, however, all the\nspectators felt themselves seized with pangs like her own and had no more\nstrength than a woman in her travail. And Macha prophesied: \u201cFrom this\nhour the shame you have wrought on me will fall upon each man of Ulster.\nIn the hours of your greatest need ye shall be weak and helpless as women\nin childbirth, and this shall endure for five days and four nights\u2014to the\nninth generation the curse shall be upon you.\u201d And so it came to pass; and\nthis is the cause of the Debility of the Ultonians that was wont to\nafflict the warriors of the province.\n\n*Conor mac Nessa*\n\nThe chief occasion on which this Debility was manifested was when Maev,\nQueen of Connacht, made the famous Cattle-raid of Quelgny (_Tain Bo\nCuailgn\u00e9_), which forms the subject of the greatest tale in Irish\nliterature. We have now to relate the preliminary history leading up to\nthis epic tale and introducing its chief characters.\n\nFachtna the Giant, King of Ulster, had to wife Nessa, daughter of Echid\nYellow-heel, and she bore him a son named Conor. But when Fachtna died\nFergus son of Roy, his half-brother, succeeded him, Conor being then but a\nyouth. Now Fergus loved Nessa, and would have wedded her, but she made\nconditions. \u201cLet my son Conor reign one year,\u201d she said, \u201cso that his\nposterity may be the descendants of a king, and I consent.\u201d Fergus agreed,\nand young Conor took the throne. But so wise and prosperous was his rule\nand so sagacious his judgments that, at the year\u2019s end, the people,as\nNessa foresaw, would have him remain king; and Fergus, who loved the feast\nand the chase better than the toils of kingship, was content to have it\nso, and remained at Conor\u2019s court for a time, great, honoured, and happy,\nbut king no longer.\n\n*The Red Branch*\n\nIn his time was the glory of the \u201cRed Branch\u201d in Ulster, who were the\noffspring of Ross the Red, King of Ulster, with collateral relatives and\nallies, forming ultimately a kind of warlike Order. Most of the Red Branch\nheroes appear in the Ultonian Cycle of legend, so that a statement of\ntheir names and relationships may be usefully placed here before we\nproceed to speak of their doings. It is noticeable that they have a partly\nsupernatural ancestry. Ross the Red, it is said, wedded a Danaan woman,\nMaga, daughter of Angus \u014cg.(134) As a second wife he wedded a maiden named\nRoy. His descendants are as follows:\n\n\nMaga === Ross the Red === Roy\n      |                |\n      |                +-----+\n      |                      |\n   Fachtna === Nessa    Fergus mac Roy\n  the Giant |\n            |\n            |\n         Conor mac\n           Nessa\n\nBut Maga was also wedded to the Druid Cathbad, and by him had three\ndaughters, whose descendants played a notable part in the Ultonian\nlegendary cycle.\n\n\n                      Cathbad === Maga\n                               |\n    +--------------------+-----+-------------+\n    |                    |                   |\nDectera[*] === Lugh    Elva === Usna    Finchoom === Amorgin\n            |                |                    |\n            |          +-----+-----+              |\n            |          |     |     |              |\n         Cuchulain   Naisi Ainl\u00e9 Ardan       Conall of the\n                                              Victories\n\n  [*]Dectera also had a mortal husband, Sualtam, who passed as\n     Cuchulain\u2019s father.\n\n*Birth of Cuchulain*\n\nIt was during the reign of Conor mac Nessa that the birth of the mightiest\nhero of the Celtic race, Cuchulain, came about, and this was the manner of\nit. The maiden Dectera, daughter of Cathbad, with fifty young girls, her\ncompanions at the court of Conor, one day disappeared, and for three years\nno searching availed to discover their dwelling-place or their fate. At\nlast one summer day a flock of birds descended on the fields about Emain\nMacha and began to destroy the crops and fruit. The king, with Fergus and\nothers of his nobles, went out against them with slings, but the birds\nflew only a little way off, luring the party on and on till at last they\nfound themselves near the Fairy Mound of Angus on the river Boyne. Night\nfell, and the king sent Fergus with a party to discover some habitation\nwhere they might sleep. A hut was found, where they betook themselves to\nrest, but one of them, exploring further, came to a noble mansion by the\nriver, and on entering it was met by a young man of splendid appearance.\nWith the stranger was a lovely woman, his wife, and fifty maidens, who\nsaluted the Ulster warrior with joy. And he recognised in them Dectera and\nher maidens, whom they had missed for three years, and in the glorious\nyouth Lugh of the Long Arm, son of Ethlinn. He went back with his tale to\nthe king, who immediately sent for Dectera to come to him. She, alleging\nthat she was ill, requested a delay; and so the night passed; but in the\nmorning there was found in the hut among the Ulster warriors a new-born\nmale infant. It was Dectera\u2019s gift to Ulster, and for this purpose she had\nlured them to the fairy palace by the Boyne. The child was taken home by\nthe warriors and was given to Dectera\u2019s sister, Finchoom, who was then\nnursing her own child, Conall, and the boy\u2019s name was called Setanta. And\nthe part of Ulster from Dundalk southward to Usna in Meath, which is\ncalled the Plain of Murthemney, was allotted for his inheritance, and in\nlater days his fortress and dwelling-place was in Dundalk.\n\nIt is said that the Druid Morann prophesied over the infant: \u201cHis praise\nwill be in the mouths of all men; charioteers and warriors, kings and\nsages will recount his deeds; he will win the love of many. This child\nwill avenge all your wrongs; he will give combat at your fords, he will\ndecide all your quarrels.\u201d\n\n*The Hound of Cullan*\n\nWhen he was old enough the boy Setanta went to the court of Conor to be\nbrought up and instructed along with the other sons of princes and\nchieftains. It was now that the event occurred from which he got the name\nof Cuchulain, by which he was hereafter to be known.\n\nOne afternoon King Conor and his nobles were going to a feast to which\nthey were bidden at the d\u016bn of a wealthy smith named Cullan, in Quelgny,\nwhere they also meant to spend the night. Setanta was to accompany them,\nbut as the cavalcade set off he was in the midst of a game of hurley with\nhis companions and bade the king go forward, saying he would follow later\nwhen his play was done. The royal company arrived at their destination as\nnight began to fall. Cullan received them hospitably, and in the great\nhall they made merry over meat and wine while the lord of the house barred\nthe gates of his fortress and let loose outside a huge and ferocious dog\nwhich every night guarded the lonely mansion, and under whose protection,\nit was said, Cullan feared nothing less than the onset of an army.\n\nBut they had forgotten Setanta! In the middle of the laughter and music of\nthe feast a terrible sound was heard which brought every man to his feet\nin an instant. It was the tremendous baying of the hound of Cullan, giving\ntongue as it saw a stranger approach. Soon the noise changed to the howls\nof a fierce combat, but, on rushing to the gates, they saw in the glare of\nthe lanterns a young boy and the hound lying dead at his feet. When it\nflew at him he had seized it by the throat and dashed its life out against\nthe side-posts of the gate. The warriors bore in the lad with rejoicing\nand wonder, but soon the triumph ceased, for there stood their host,\nsilent and sorrowful over the body of his faithful friend, who had died\nfor the safety of his house and would never guard it more.\n\n\u201cGive me,\u201d then said the lad Setanta, \u201ca whelp of that hound, O Cullan,\nand I will train him to be all to you that his sire was. And until then\ngive me shield and spear and I will myself guard your house; never hound\nguarded it better than I will.\u201d\n\nAnd all the company shouted applause at the generous pledge, and on the\nspot, as a commemoration of his first deed of valour, they named the lad\nCuchulain,(135) the Hound of Cullan, and by that name he was known until\nhe died.\n\n*Cuchulain Assumes Arms*\n\nWhen he was older, and near the time when he might assume the weapons of\nmanhood, it chanced one day that he passed close by where Cathbad the\nDruid was teaching to certain of his pupils the art of divination and\naugury. One of them asked of Cathbad for what kind of enterprise that same\nday might be favourable; and Cathbad, having worked a spell of divination,\nsaid: \u201cThe youth who should take up arms on this day would become of all\nmen in Erin most famous for great deeds, yet will his life be short and\nfleeting.\u201d Cuchulain passed on as though he marked it not, and he came\nbefore the king. \u201cWhat wilt thou?\u201d asked Conor. \u201cTo take the arms of\nmanhood,\u201d said Cuchulain. \u201cSo be it,\u201d said the king, and he gave the lad\ntwo great spears. But Cuchulain shook them in his hand, and the staves\nsplintered and broke. And so he did with many others; and the chariots in\nwhich they set him to drive he broke to pieces with stamping of his foot,\nuntil at last the king\u2019s own chariot of war and his two spears and sword\nwere brought to the lad, and these he could not break, do what he would;\nso this equipment he retained.\n\n*His Courtship of Emer*\n\nThe young Cuchulain was by this grown so fair and noble a youth that every\nmaid or matron on whom he looked was bewitched by him, and the men of\nUlster bade him take a wife of his own. But none were pleasing to him,\ntill at last he saw the lovely maiden Emer, daughter of Forgall, the lord\nof Lusca,(136) and he resolved to woo her for his bride. So he bade\nharness his chariot, and with Laeg, his friend and charioteer, he\njourneyed to D\u016bn Forgall.\n\nAs he drew near, the maiden was with her companions, daughters of the\nvassals of Forgall, and she was teaching them embroidery, for in that art\nshe excelled all women. She had \u201cthe six gifts of womanhood\u2014the gift of\nbeauty, the gift of voice, the gift of sweet speech, the gift of\nneedlework, the gift of wisdom, and the gift of chastity.\u201d\n\nHearing the thunder of horse-hoofs and the clangour of the chariot from\nafar, she bade one of the maidens go to the rampart of the D\u016bn and tell\nher what she saw. \u201cA chariot is coming on,\u201d said the maiden, \u201cdrawn by two\nsteeds with tossing heads, fierce and powerful; one is grey, the other\nblack. They breathe fire from their jaws, and the clods of turf they throw\nup behind them as they race are like a flock of birds that follow in their\ntrack. In the chariot is a dark, sad man, comeliest of the men of Erin. He\nis clad in a crimson cloak, with a brooch of gold, and on his back is a\ncrimson shield with a silver rim wrought with figures of beasts. With him\nas his charioteer is a tall, slender, freckled man with curling red hair\nheld by a fillet of bronze, with plates of gold at either side of his\nface. With a goad of red gold he urges the horses.\u201d\n\nWhen the chariot drew up Emer went to meet Cuchulain and saluted him. But\nwhen he urged his love upon her she told him of the might and the wiliness\nof her father Forgall, and of the strength of the champions that guarded\nher lest she should wed against his will. And when he pressed her more she\nsaid: \u201cI may not marry before my sister Fial, who is older than I. She is\nwith me here\u2014she is excellent in handiwork.\u201d \u201cIt is not Fial whom I love,\u201d\nsaid Cuchulain. Then as they were conversing he saw the breast of the\nmaiden over the bosom of her smock, and said to her: \u201cFair is this plain,\nthe plain of the noble yoke.\u201d \u201cNone comes to this plain,\u201d said she, \u201cwho\nhas not slain his hundreds, and thy deeds are still to do.\u201d\n\nSo Cuchulain then left her, and drove back to Emain Macha.\n\n*Cuchulain in the Land of Skatha*\n\nNext day Cuchulain bethought himself how he could prepare himself for war\nand for the deeds of heroism which Emer had demanded of him. Now he had\nheard of a mighty woman-warrior named Skatha, who dwelt in the Land of\nShadows,(137) and who could teach to young heroes who came to her\nwonderful feats of arms. So Cuchulain went overseas to find her, and many\ndangers he had to meet, black forests and desert plains to traverse,\nbefore he could get tidings of Skatha and her land. At last he came to the\nPlain of Ill-luck, where he could not cross without being mired in its\nbottomless bogs or sticky clay, and while he was debating what he should\ndo he saw coming towards him a young man with a face that shone like the\nsun,(138) and whose very look put cheerfulness and hope into his heart.\nThe young man gave him a wheel and told him to roll it before him on the\nplain, and to follow it whithersoever it went. So Cuchulain set the wheel\nrolling, and as it went it blazed with light that shot like rays from its\nrim, and the heat of it made a firm path across the quagmire, where\nCuchulain followed safely.\n\nWhen he had passed the Plain of Ill-luck, and escaped the beasts of the\nPerilous Glen, he came to the Bridge of the Leaps, beyond which was the\ncountry of Skatha. Here he found on the hither side many sons of the\nprinces of Ireland who were come to learn feats of war from Skatha, and\nthey were playing at hurley on the green. And among them was his friend\nFerdia, son of the Firbolg, Daman; and they all asked him of the news from\nIreland. When he had told them all he asked Ferdia how he should pass to\nthe d\u016bn of Skatha. Now the Bridge of Leaps was very narrow and very high,\nand it crossed a gorge where far below swung the tides of a boiling sea,\nin which ravenous monsters could be seen swimming.\n\n\u201cNot one of us has crossed that bridge,\u201d said Ferdia, \u201cfor there are two\nfeats that Skatha teaches last, and one is the leap across the bridge, and\nthe other the thrust of the Gae Bolg.(139) For if a man step upon one end\nof that bridge, the middle straightway rises up and flings him back, and\nif he leap upon it he may chance to miss his footing and fall into the\ngulf, where the sea-monsters are waiting for him.\u201d\n\nBut Cuchulain waited till evening, when he had recovered his strength from\nhis long journey, and then essayed the crossing of the bridge. Three times\nhe ran towards it from a distance, gathering all his powers together, and\nstrove to leap upon the middle, but three times it rose against him and\nflung him back, while his companions jeered at him because he would not\nwait for the help of Skatha. But at the fourth leap he lit fairly on the\ncentre of the bridge, and with one leap more he was across it, and stood\nbefore the strong fortress of Skatha; and she wondered at his courage and\nvigour, and admitted him to be her pupil.\n\nFor a year and a day Cuchulain abode with Skatha, and all the feats she\nhad to teach he learned easily, and last of all she taught him the use of\nthe Gae Bolg, and gave him that dreadful weapon, which she had deemed no\nchampion before him good enough to have. And the manner of using the Gae\nBolg was that it was thrown with the foot, and if it entered an enemy\u2019s\nbody it filled every limb and crevice of him with its barbs. While\nCuchulain dwelt with Skatha his friend above all friends and his rival in\nskill and valour was Ferdia, and ere they parted they vowed to love and\nhelp one another as long as they should live.\n\n*Cuchulain and Aifa*\n\nNow whilst Cuchulain was in the Land of the Shadows it chanced that Skatha\nmade war on the people of the Princess Aifa, who was the fiercest and\nstrongest of the woman-warriors of the world, so that even Skatha feared\nto meet her in arms. On going forth to the war, therefore, Skatha mixed\nwith Cuchulain\u2019s drink a sleepy herb so that he should not wake for\nfour-and-twenty hours, by which time the host would be far on its way, for\nshe feared lest evil should come to him ere he had got his full strength.\nBut the potion that would have served another man for a day and a night\nonly held Cuchulain for one hour; and when he waked up he seized his arms\nand followed the host by its chariot-tracks till he came up with them.\nThen it is said that Skatha uttered a sigh, for she knew that he would not\nbe restrained from the war.\n\nWhen the armies met, Cuchulain and the two sons of Skatha wrought great\ndeeds on the foe, and slew six of the mightiest of Aifa\u2019s warriors. Then\nAifa sent word to Skatha and challenged her to single combat. But\nCuchulain declared that he would meet the fair Fury in place of Skatha,\nand he asked first of all what were the things she most valued. \u201cWhat Aifa\nloves most,\u201d said Skatha, \u201care her two horses, her chariot and her\ncharioteer.\u201d Then the pair met in single combat, and every champion\u2019s feat\nwhich they knew they tried on each other in vain, till at last a blow of\nAifa\u2019s shattered the sword of Cuchulain to the hilt. At this Cuchulain\ncried out: \u201cAh me! behold the chariot and horses of Aifa, fallen into the\nglen!\u201d Aifa glanced round, and Cuchulain, rushing in, seized her round the\nwaist and slung her over his shoulder and bore her back to the camp of\nSkatha. There he flung her on the ground and put his knife to her throat.\nShe begged for her life, and Cuchulain granted it on condition that she\nmade a lasting peace with Skatha, and gave hostages for her fulfilment of\nthe pledge. To this she agreed, and Cuchulain and she became not only\nfriends but lovers.\n\n*The Tragedy of Cuchulain and Connla*\n\nBefore Cuchulain left the Land of Shadows he gave Aifa a golden ring,\nsaying that if she should bear him a son he was to be sent to seek his\nfather in Erin so soon as he should have grown so that his finger would\nfit the ring. And Cuchulain said, \u201cCharge him under _geise_ that he shall\nnot make himself known, that he never turn out of the way for any man, nor\never refuse a combat. And be his name called Connla.\u201d\n\nIn later years it is narrated that one day when King Conor of Ulster and\nthe lords of Ulster were at a festal gathering on the Strand of the\nFootprints they saw coming towards them across the sea a little boat of\nbronze, and in it a young lad with gilded oars in his hands. In the boat\nwas a heap of stones, and ever and anon the lad would put one of these\nstones into a sling and cast it at a flying sea-bird in such fashion that\nit would bring down the bird alive to his feet. And many other wonderful\nfeats of skill he did. Then Conor said, as the boat drew nearer: \u201cIf the\ngrown men of that lad\u2019s country came here they would surely grind us to\npowder. Woe to the land into which that boy shall come!\u201d\n\nWhen the boy came to land, a messenger, Condery, was sent to bid him be\noff. \u201cI will not turn back for thee,\u201d said the lad, and Condery repeated\nwhat he had said to the king. Then Conall of the Victories was sent\nagainst him, but the lad slung a great stone at him, and the whizz and\nwind of it knocked him down, and the lad sprang upon him, and bound his\narms with the strap of his shield. And so man after man was served; some\nwere bound, and some were slain, but the lad defied the whole power of\nUlster to turn him back, nor would he tell his name or lineage.\n\n\u201cSend for Cuchulain,\u201d then said King Conor. And they sent a messenger to\nDundalk, where Cuchulain was with Emer his wife, and bade him come to do\nbattle against a stranger boy whom Conall of the Victories could not\novercome. Emer threw her arm round Cuchulain\u2019s neck. \u201cDo not go,\u201d she\nentreated. \u201cSurely this is the son of Aifa. Slay not thine only son.\u201d But\nCuchulain said: \u201cForbear, woman! Were it Connla himself I would slay him\nfor the honour of Ulster,\u201d and he bade yoke his chariot and went to the\nStrand. Here he found the boy tossing up his weapons and doing marvellous\nfeats with them. \u201cDelightful is thy play, boy,\u201d said Cuchulain; \u201cwho art\nthou and whence dost thou come?\u201d \u201cI may not reveal that,\u201d said the lad.\n\u201cThen thou shalt die,\u201d said Cuchulain. \u201cSo be it,\u201d said the lad, and then\nthey fought with swords for a while, till the lad delicately shore off a\nlock of Cuchulain\u2019s hair. \u201cEnough of trifling,\u201d said Cuchulain, and they\nclosed with each other, but the lad planted himself on a rock and stood so\nfirm that Cuchulain could not move him, and in the stubborn wrestling they\nhad the lad\u2019s two feet sank deep into the stone and made the footprints\nwhence the Strand of the Footprints has its name. At last they both fell\ninto the sea, and Cuchulain was near being drowned, till he bethought\nhimself of the Gae Bolg, and he drove that weapon against the lad and it\nripped up his belly. \u201cThat is what Skatha never taught me,\u201d cried the lad.\n\u201cWoe is me, for I am hurt.\u201d Cuchulain looked at him and saw the ring on\nhis finger. \u201cIt is true,\u201d he said; and he took up the boy and bore him on\nshore and laid him down before Conor and the lords of Ulster. \u201cHere is my\nson for you, men of Ulster,\u201d he said. And the boy said: \u201cIt is true. And\nif I had five years to grow among you, you would conquer the world on\nevery side of you and rule as far as Rome. But since it is as it is, point\nout to me the famous warriors that are here, that I may know them and take\nleave of them before I die.\u201d Then one after another they were brought to\nhim, and he kissed them and took leave of his father, and he died; and the\nmen of Ulster made his grave and set up his pillar-stone with great\nmourning. This was the only son Cuchulain ever had, and this son he slew.\n\nThis tale, as I have given it here, dates from the ninth century, and is\nfound in the \u201cYellow Book of Lecan.\u201d There are many other Gaelic versions\nof it in poetry and prose. It is one of the earliest extant appearances in\nliterature of the since well-known theme of the slaying of a heroic son by\nhis father. The Persian rendering of it in the tale of Sohrab and Rustum\nhas been made familiar by Matthew Arnold\u2019s fine poem. In the Irish version\nit will be noted that the father is not without a suspicion of the\nidentity of his antagonist, but he does battle with him under the stimulus\nof that passionate sense of loyalty to his prince and province which was\nCuchulain\u2019s most signal characteristic.\n\nTo complete the story of Aifa and her son we have anticipated events, and\nnow turn back to take up the thread again.\n\n*Cuchulain\u2019s First Foray*\n\nAfter a year and a day of training in warfare under Skatha, Cuchulain\nreturned to Erin, eager to test his prowess and to win Emer for his wife.\nSo he bade harness his chariot and drove out to make a foray upon the\nfords and marches of Connacht, for between Connacht and Ulster there was\nalways an angry surf of fighting along the borders.\n\nAnd first he drove to the White Cairn, which is on the highest of the\nMountains of Mourne, and surveyed the land of Ulster spread out smiling in\nthe sunshine far below and bade his charioteer tell him the name of every\nhill and plain and d\u016bn that he saw. Then turning southwards he looked over\nthe plains of Bregia, and the charioteer pointed out to him Tara and\nTeltin, and Brugh na Boyna and the great d\u016bn of the sons of Nechtan. \u201cAre\nthey,\u201d asked Cuchulain, \u201cthose sons of Nechtan of whom it is said that\nmore of the men of Ulster have fallen by their hands than are yet living\non the earth?\u201d \u201cThe same,\u201d said the charioteer. \u201cThen let us drive\nthither,\u201d said Cuchulain. So, much unwilling, the charioteer drove to the\nfortress of the sons of Nechtan, and there on the green before it they\nfound a pillar-stone, and round it a collar of bronze having on it writing\nin Ogham. This Cuchulain read, and it declared that any man of age to bear\narms who should come to that green should hold it _geis_ for him to depart\nwithout having challenged one of the dwellers in the d\u016bn to single combat.\nThen Cuchulain flung his arms round the stone, and, swaying it backwards\nand forwards, heaved it at last out of the earth and flung it, collar and\nall, into the river that ran hard by. \u201cSurely,\u201d said the charioteer, \u201cthou\nart seeking for a violent death, and now thou wilt find it without delay.\u201d\n\nThen Foill son of Nechtan came forth from the d\u016bn, and seeing Cuchulain,\nwhom he deemed but a lad, he was annoyed. But Cuchulain bade him fetch his\narms, \u201cfor I slay not drivers nor messengers nor unarmed men,\u201d and Foill\nwent back into the d\u016bn. \u201cThou canst not slay him,\u201d then said the\ncharioteer, \u201cfor he is invulnerable by magic power to the point or edge of\nany blade.\u201d But Cuchulain put in his sling a ball of tempered iron, and\nwhen Foill appeared he slung at him so that it struck his forehead, and\nwent clean through brain and skull; and Cuchulain took his head and bound\nit to his chariot-rim. And other sons of Nechtan, issuing forth, he fought\nwith and slew by sword or spear; and then he fired the d\u016bn and left it in\na blaze and drove on exultant. And on the way he saw a flock of wild\nswans, and sixteen of them he brought down alive with his sling, and tied\nthem to the chariot; and seeing a herd of wild deer which his horses could\nnot overtake he lighted down and chased them on foot till he caught two\ngreat stags, and with thongs and ropes he made them fast to the chariot.\n\nBut at Emain Macha a scout of King Conor came running in to give him news.\n\u201cBehold, a solitary chariot is approaching swiftly over the plain; wild\nwhite birds flutter round it and wild stags are tethered to it; it is\ndecked all round with the bleeding heads of enemies.\u201d And Conor looked to\nsee who was approaching, and he saw that Cuchulain was in his battle-fury,\nand would deal death around him whomsoever he met; so he hastily gave\norder that a troop of the women of Emania should go forth to meet him,\nand, having stripped off their clothing, should stand naked in the way.\nThis they did, and when the lad saw them, smitten with shame, he bowed his\nhead upon the chariot-rim. Then Conor\u2019s men instantly seized him and\nplunged him into a vat of cold water which had been made ready, but the\nwater boiled around him and the staves and hoops of the vat were burst\nasunder. This they did again and yet again, and at last his fury left him,\nand his natural form and aspect were restored. Then they clad him in fresh\nraiment and bade him in to the feast in the king\u2019s banqueting-hall.\n\n*The Winning of Emer*\n\nNext day he went to the d\u016bn of Forgall the Wily, father of Emer, and he\nleaped \u201cthe hero\u2019s salmon leap,\u201d that he had learned of Skatha, over the\nhigh ramparts of the d\u016bn. Then the mighty men of Forgall set on him, and\nhe dealt but three blows, and each blow slew eight men, and Forgall\nhimself fell lifeless in leaping from the rampart of the d\u016bn to escape\nCuchulain. So he carried off Emer and her foster-sister and two loads of\ngold and silver. But outside the d\u016bn the sister of Forgall raised a host\nagainst him, and his battle-fury came on him, and furious were the blows\nhe dealt, so that the ford of Glondath ran blood and the turf on Crofot\nwas trampled into bloody mire. A hundred he slew at every ford from Olbiny\nto the Boyne; and so was Emer won as she desired, and he brought her to\nEmain Macha and made her his wife, and they were not parted again until he\ndied.\n\n*Cuchulain Champion of Erin*\n\nA lord of Ulster named Briccriu of the Poisoned Tongue once made a feast\nto which he bade King Conor and all the heroes of the Red Branch, and\nbecause it was always his delight to stir up strife among men or women he\nset the heroes contending among themselves as to who was the champion of\nthe land of Erin. At last it was agreed that the championship must lie\namong three of them, namely, Cuchulain, and Conall of the Victories and\nLaery the Triumphant. To decide between these three a demon named The\nTerrible was summoned from a lake in the depth of which he dwelt. He\nproposed to the heroes a test of courage. Any one of them, he said, might\ncut off his head to-day provided that he, the claimant of the\nchampionship, would lay down his own head for the axe to-morrow. Conall\nand Laery shrank from the test, but Cuchulain accepted it, and after\nreciting a charm over his sword, he cut off the head of the demon, who\nimmediately rose, and taking the bleeding head in one hand and his axe in\nthe other, plunged into the lake.\n\nNext day he reappeared, whole and sound, to claim the fulfilment of the\nbargain. Cuchulain, quailing but resolute, laid his head on the block.\n\u201cStretch out your neck, wretch,\u201d cried the demon; \u201c\u2019tis too short for me\nto strike at.\u201d Cuchulain does as he is bidden. The demon swings his axe\nthrice over his victim, brings down the butt with a crash on the block,\nand then bids Cuchulain rise unhurt, Champion of Ireland and her boldest\nman.\n\n*Deirdre and the Sons of Usna*\n\nWe have now to turn to a story in which Cuchulain takes no part. It is the\nchief of the preliminary tales to the Cattle-spoil of Quelgny.\n\nThere was among the lords of Ulster, it is said, one named Felim son of\nDall, who on a certain day made a great feast for the king. And the king\ncame with his Druid Cathbad, and Fergus mac Roy, and many heroes of the\nRed Branch, and while they were making merry over the roasted flesh and\nwheaten cakes and Greek wine a messenger from the women\u2019s apartments came\nto tell Felim that his wife had just borne him a daughter. So all the\nlords and warriors drank health to the new-born infant, and the king bade\nCathbade perform divination in the manner of the Druids and foretell what\nthe future would have in store for Felim\u2019s babe. Cathbad gazed upon the\nstars and drew the horoscope of the child, and he was much troubled; and\nat length he said: \u201cThe infant shall be fairest among the women of Erin,\nand shall wed a king, but because of her shall death and ruin come upon\nthe Province of Ulster.\u201d Then the warriors would have put her to death\nupon the spot, but Conor forbade them. \u201cI will avert the doom,\u201d he said,\n\u201cfor she shall wed no foreign king, but she shall be my own mate when she\nis of age.\u201d So he took away the child, and committed it to his nurse\nLevarcam, and the name they gave it was Deirdre. And Conor charged\nLevarcam that the child should be brought up in a strong d\u016bn in the\nsolitude of a great wood, and that no young man should see her or she him\nuntil she was of marriageable age for the king to wed. And there she\ndwelt, seeing none but her nurse and Cathbad, and sometimes the king, now\ngrowing an aged man, who would visit the d\u016bn from time to time to see that\nall was well with the folk there, and that his commands were observed.\n\nOne day, when the time for the marriage of Deirdre and Conor was drawing\nnear, Deirdre and Levarcam looked over the rampart of their d\u016bn. It was\nwinter, a heavy snow had fallen in the night, and in the still, frosty air\nthe trees stood up as if wrought in silver, and the green before the d\u016bn\nwas a sheet of unbroken white, save that in one place a scullion had\nkilled a calf for their dinner, and the blood of the calf lay on the snow.\nAnd as Deirdre looked, a raven lit down from a tree hard by and began to\nsip the blood. \u201cO nurse,\u201d cried Deirdre suddenly, \u201csuch, and not like\nConor, would be the man that I would love\u2014his hair like the raven\u2019s wing,\nand in his cheek the hue of blood, and his skin as white as snow.\u201d \u201cThou\nhast pictured a man of Conor\u2019s household,\u201d said the nurse. \u201cWho is he?\u201d\nasked Deirdre. \u201cHe is Naisi, son of Usna,(140) a champion of the Red\nBranch,\u201d said the nurse. Thereupon Deirdre entreated Levarcam to bring her\nto speak with Naisi; and because the old woman loved the girl and would\nnot have her wedded to the aged king, she at last agreed. Deirdre implored\nNaisi to save her from Conor, but he would not, till at last her\nentreaties and her beauty won him, and he vowed to be hers. Then secretly\none night he came with his two brethren, Ardan and Ainl\u00e9, and bore away\nDeirdre with Levarcam, and they escaped the king\u2019s pursuit and took ship\nfor Scotland, where Naisi took service with the King of the Picts. Yet\nhere they could not rest, for the king got sight of Deirdre, and would\nhave taken her from Naisi, but Naisi with his brothers escaped, and in the\nsolitude of Glen Etive they made their dwelling by the lake, and there\nlived in the wild wood by hunting and fishing, seeing no man but\nthemselves and their servants.\n\nAnd the years went by and Conor made no sign, but he did not forget, and\nhis spies told him of all that befell Naisi and Deirdre. At last, judging\nthat Naisi and his brothers would have tired of solitude, he sent the\nbosom friend of Naisi, Fergus son of Roy, to bid them return, and to\npromise them that all would be forgiven. Fergus went joyfully, and\njoyfully did Naisi and his brothers hear the message, but Deirdre foresaw\nevil, and would fain have sent Fergus home alone. But Naisi blamed her for\nher doubt and suspicion, and bade her mark that they were under the\nprotection of Fergus, whose safeguard no king in Ireland would dare to\nviolate; and they at last made ready to go.\n\nOn landing in Ireland they were met by Baruch, a lord of the Red Branch,\nwho had his d\u016bn close by, and he bade Fergus to a feast he had prepared\nfor him that night. \u201cI may not stay,\u201d said Fergus, \u201cfor I must first\nconvey Deirdre and the sons of Usna safely to Emain Macha.\u201d\n\u201cNevertheless,\u201d said Baruch, \u201cthou must stay with me to-night, for it is a\n_geis_ for thee to refuse a feast.\u201d Deirdre implored him not to leave\nthem, but Fergus was tempted by the feast, and feared to break his _geis_,\nand he bade his two sons Illan the Fair and Buino the Red take charge of\nthe party in his place, and he himself abode with Baruch.\n\nAnd so the party came to Emain Macha, and they were lodged in the House of\nthe Red Branch, but Conor did not receive them. After the evening meal, as\nhe sat, drinking heavily and silently, he sent a messenger to bid Levarcam\ncome before him. \u201cHow is it with the sons of Usna?\u201d he said to her. \u201cIt is\nwell,\u201d she said. \u201cThou hast got the three most valorous champions in\nUlster in thy court. Truly the king who has those three need fear no\nenemy.\u201d \u201cIs it well with Deirdre?\u201d he asked. \u201cShe is well,\u201d said the\nnurse, \u201cbut she has lived many years in the wildwood, and toil and care\nhave changed her\u2014little of her beauty of old now remains to her, O King.\u201d\nThen the king dismissed her, and sat drinking again. But after a while he\ncalled to him a servant named Trendorn, and bade him go to the Red Branch\nHouse and mark who was there and what they did. But when Trendorn came the\nplace was bolted and barred for the night, and he could not get an\nentrance, and at last he mounted on a ladder and looked in at a high\nwindow. And there he saw the brothers of Naisi and the sons of Fergus, as\nthey talked or cleaned their arms, or made them ready for slumber, and\nthere sat Naisi with a chess-board before him, and playing chess with him\nwas the fairest of women that he had ever seen. But as he looked in wonder\nat the noble pair, suddenly one caught sight of him and rose with a cry,\npointing to the face at the window. And Naisi looked up and saw it, and\nseizing a chessman from the board he hurled it at the face of the spy, and\nit struck out his eye. Then Trendorn hastily descended, and went back with\nhis bloody face to the king. \u201cI have seen them,\u201d he cried, \u201cI have seen\nthe fairest woman of the world, and but that Naisi had struck my eye out I\nhad been looking on her still.\u201d\n\nThen Conor arose and called for his guards and bade them bring the sons of\nUsna before him for maiming his messenger. And the guards went; but first\nBuino, son of Fergus, with his retinue, met them, and at the sword\u2019s point\ndrove them back; but Naisi and Deirdre continued quietly to play chess,\n\u201cFor,\u201d said Naisi, \u201cit is not seemly that we should seek to defend\nourselves while we are under the protection of the sons of Fergus.\u201d But\nConor went to Buino, and with a great gift of lands he bought him over to\ndesert his charge. Then Illan took up the defence of the Red Branch\nHostel, but the two sons of Conor slew him. And then at last Naisi and his\nbrothers seized their weapons and rushed amid the foe, and many were they\nwho fell before the onset. Then Conor entreated Cathbad the Druid to cast\nspells upon them lest they should get away and become the enemies of the\nprovince, and he vowed to do them no hurt if they were taken alive. So\nCathbad conjured up, as it were, a lake of slime that seemed to be about\nthe feet of the sons of Usna, and they could not tear their feet from it,\nand Naisi caught up Deirdre and put her on his shoulder, for they seemed\nto be sinking in the slime. Then the guards and servants of Conor seized\nand bound them and brought them before the king. And the king called upon\nman after man to come forward and slay the sons of Usna, but none would\nobey him, till at last Owen son of Duracht and Prince of Ferney came and\ntook the sword of Naisi, and with one sweep he shore off the heads of all\nthree, and so they died.\n\nThen Conor took Deirdre perforce, and for a year she abode with him in the\npalace in Emain Macha, but during all that time she never smiled. At\nlength Conor said: \u201cWhat is it that you hate most of all on earth,\nDeirdre?\u201d And she said: \u201cThou thyself and Owen son of Duracht,\u201d and Owen\nwas standing by. \u201cThen thou shalt go to Owen for a year,\u201d said Conor. But\nwhen Deirdre mounted the chariot behind Owen she kept her eyes on the\nground, for she would not look on those who thus tormented her; and Conor\nsaid, taunting her: \u201cDeirdre, the glance of thee between me and Owen is\nthe glance of a ewe between two rams.\u201d Then Deirdre started up, and,\nflinging herself head foremost from the chariot, she dashed her head\nagainst a rock and fell dead.\n\nAnd when they buried her it is said there grew from her grave and from\nNaisi\u2019s two yew-trees, whose tops, when they were full-grown, met each\nother over the roof of the great church of Armagh, and intertwined\ntogether, and none could part them.\n\n*The Rebellion of Fergus*\n\nWhen Fergus mac Roy came home to Emain Macha after the feast to which\nBaruch bade him and found the sons of Usna slain and one of his own sons\ndead and the other a traitor, he broke out against Conor in a storm of\nwrath and cursing, and vowed to be avenged on him with fire and sword. And\nhe went off straightway to Connacht to take service of arms with Ailell\nand Maev, who were king and queen of that country.\n\n*Queen Maev*\n\nBut though Ailell was king, Maev was the ruler in truth, and ordered all\nthings as she wished, and took what husbands she wished, and dismissed\nthem at pleasure; for she was as fierce and strong as a goddess of war,\nand knew no law but her own wild will. She was tall, it is said, with a\nlong, pale face and masses of hair yellow as ripe corn. When Fergus came\nto her in her palace at Rathcroghan in Roscommon she gave him her love, as\nshe had given it to many before, and they plotted together how to attack\nand devastate the Province of Ulster.\n\n*The Brown Bull of Quelgny*\n\nNow it happened that Maev possessed a famous red bull with white front and\nhorns named Finnbenach, and one day when she and Ailell were counting up\ntheir respective possessions and matching them against each other he\ntaunted her because the Finnbenach would not stay in the hands of a woman,\nbut had attached himself to Ailell\u2019s herd. So Maev in vexation went to her\nsteward, mac Roth, and asked of him if there were anywhere in Erin a bull\nas fine as the Finnbenach. \u201cTruly,\u201d said the steward, \u201cthere is\u2014for the\nBrown Bull of Quelgny, that belongs to Dara son of Fachtna, is the\nmightiest beast that is in Ireland.\u201d And after that Maev felt as if she\nhad no flocks and herds that were worth anything at all unless she\npossessed the Brown Bull of Quelgny. But this was in Ulster, and the\nUlstermen knew the treasure they possessed, and Maev knew that they would\nnot give up the bull without fighting for it. So she and Fergus and Ailell\nagreed to make a foray against Ulster for the Brown Bull, and thus to\nenter into war with the province, for Fergus longed for vengeance, and\nMaev for fighting, for glory, and for the bull, and Ailell to satisfy\nMaev.\n\nHere let us note that this contest for the bull, which is the ostensible\ntheme of the greatest of Celtic legendary tales, the \u201cTain Bo Cuailgn\u00e9,\u201d\nhas a deeper meaning than appears on the surface. An ancient piece of\nAryan mythology is embedded in it. The Brown Bull is the Celtic\ncounterpart of the Hindu sky-deity, Indra, represented in Hindu myth as a\nmighty bull, whose roaring is the thunder and who lets loose the rains\n\u201clike cows streaming forth to pasture.\u201d The advance of the Western\n(Connacht) host for the capture of this bull is emblematic of the onset of\nNight. The bull is defended by the solar hero Cuchulain, who, however, is\nultimately overthrown and the bull is captured for a season. The two\nanimals in the Celtic legend probably typify the sky in different aspects.\nThey are described with a pomp and circumstance which shows that they are\nno common beasts. Once, we are told, they were swineherds of the people of\nDana. \u201cThey had been successively transformed into two ravens, two\nsea-monsters, two warriors, two demons, two worms or animalculae, and\nfinally into two kine.\u201d(141) The Brown Bull is described as having a back\nbroad enough for fifty children to play on; when he is angry with his\nkeeper he stamps the man thirty feet into the ground; he is likened to a\nsea wave, to a bear, to a dragon, a lion, the writer heaping up images of\nstrength and savagery. We are therefore concerned with no ordinary\ncattle-raid, but with a myth, the features of which are discernible under\nthe dressing given it by the fervid imagination of the unknown Celtic bard\nwho composed the \u201cTain,\u201d although the exact meaning of every detail may be\ndifficult to ascertain.\n\nThe first attempt of Maev to get possession of the bull was to send an\nembassy to Dara to ask for the loan of him for a year, the recompense\noffered being fifty heifers, besides the bull himself back, and if Dara\nchose to settle in Connacht he should have as much land there as he now\npossessed in Ulster, and a chariot worth thrice seven _cumals_,(142) with\nthe patronage and friendship of Maev.\n\nDara was at first delighted with the prospect, but tales were borne to him\nof the chatter of Maev\u2019s messengers, and how they said that if the bull\nwas not yielded willingly it would be taken by force; and he sent back a\nmessage of refusal and defiance. \u201c\u2019Twas known,\u201d said Maev, \u201cthe bull will\nnot be yielded by fair means; he shall now be won by foul.\u201d And so she\nsent messengers around on every side to summon her hosts for the Raid.\n\n*The Hosting of Queen Maev*\n\nAnd there came all the mighty men of Connacht\u2014first the seven Main\u00e9s, sons\nof Ailell and Maev, each with his retinue; and Ket and Anluan, sons of\nMaga, with thirty hundreds of armed men; and yellow-haired Ferdia, with\nhis company of Firbolgs, boisterous giants who delighted in war and in\nstrong ale. And there came also the allies of Maev\u2014a host of the men of\nLeinster, who so excelled the rest in warlike skill that they were broken\nup and distributed among the companies of Connacht, lest they should prove\na danger to the host; and Cormac son of Conor, with Fergus mac Roy and\nother exiles from Ulster, who had revolted against Conor for his treachery\nto the sons of Usna.\n\n*Ulster under the Curse*\n\nBut before the host set forth towards Ulster Maev sent her spies into the\nland to tell her of the preparations there being made. And the spies\nbrought back a wondrous tale, and one that rejoiced the heart of Maev, for\nthey said that the Debility of the Ultonians(143) had descended on the\nprovince. Conor the king lay in pangs at Emain Macha, and his son Cuscrid\nin his island-fortress, and Owen Prince of Ferney was helpless as a child;\nCeltchar, the huge grey warrior, son of Uthecar Hornskin, and even Conall\nof the Victories, lay moaning and writhing on their beds, and there was no\nhand in Ulster that could lift a spear.\n\n*Prophetic Voices*\n\nNevertheless Maev went to her chief Druid, and demanded of him what her\nown lot in the war should be. And the Druid said only: \u201cWhoever comes hack\nin safety, or comes not, thou thyself shalt come.\u201d But on her journey back\nshe saw suddenly standing before her chariot-pole a young maiden with\ntresses of yellow hair that fell below her knees, and clad in a mantle of\ngreen; and with a shuttle of gold she wove a fabric upon a loom. \u201cWho art\nthou, girl?\u201d said Maev, \u201cand what dost thou?\u201d \u201cI am the prophetess,\nFedelma, from the Fairy Mound of Croghan,\u201d said the maid, \u201cand I weave the\nfour provinces of Ireland together for the foray into Ulster.\u201d \u201cHow seest\nthou our host?\u201d asked Maev. \u201cI see them all be-crimsoned, red,\u201d replied\nthe prophetess. \u201cYet the Ulster heroes are all in their pangs\u2014there is\nnone that can lift a spear against us,\u201d said Maev. \u201cI see the host all\nbecrimsoned,\u201d said Fedelma. \u201cI see a man of small stature, but the hero\u2019s\nlight is on his brow\u2014a stripling young and modest, but in battle a dragon;\nhe is like unto Cuchulain of Murthemney; he doth wondrous feats with his\nweapons; by him your slain shall lie thickly.\u201d(144)\n\nAt this the vision of the weaving maiden vanished, and Maev drove\nhomewards to Rathcroghan wondering at what she had seen and heard.\n\n*Cuchulain Puts the Host under Geise*\n\nOn the morrow the host set forth, Fergus mac Roy leading them, and as they\nneared the confines of Ulster he bade them keep sharp watch lest Cuchulain\nof Murthemney, who guarded the passes of Ulster to the south, should fall\nupon them unawares. Now Cuchulain and his father Sualtam(145) were on the\nborders of the province, and Cuchulain, from a warning Fergus had sent\nhim, suspected the approach of a great host, and bade Sualtam go\nnorthwards to Emania and warn the men of Ulster. But Cuchulain himself\nwould not stay there, for he said he had a tryst to keep with a handmaid\nof the wife of Laery the _bodach_ (farmer), so he went into the forest,\nand there, standing on one leg, and using only one hand and one eye, he\ncut an oak sapling and twisted it into a circular withe. On this he cut in\nOgham characters how the withe was made, and he put the host of Maev under\n_geise_ not to pass by that place till one of them had, under similar\nconditions, made a similar withe; \u201cand I except my friend Fergus mac Roy,\u201d\nhe added, and wrote his name at the end. Then he placed the withe round\nthe pillar-stone of Ardcullin, and went his way to keep his tryst with the\nhandmaid.(146)\n\nWhen the host of Maev came to Ardcullin, the withe upon the pillar-stone\nwas found and brought to Fergus to decipher it. There was none amongst the\nhost who could emulate the feat of Cuchulain, and so they went into the\nwood and encamped for the night. A heavy snowfall took place, and they\nwere all in much distress, but next day the sun rose gloriously, and over\nthe white plain they marched away into Ulster, counting the prohibition as\nextending only for one night.\n\n*The Ford of the Forked Pole*\n\nCuchulain now followed hard on their track, and as he went he estimated by\nthe tracks they had left the number of the host at eighteen _triucha c\u00e9t_\n(54,000 men). Circling round the host, he now met them in front, and soon\ncame upon two chariots containing scouts sent ahead by Maev. These he\nslew, each man with his driver, and having with one sweep of his sword cut\na forked pole of four prongs from the wood, he drove the pole deep into a\nriver-ford at the place called Athgowla,(147) and impaled on each prong a\nbloody head. When the host came up they wondered and feared at the sight,\nand Fergus declared that they were under _geise_ not to pass that ford\ntill one of them had plucked out the pole even as it was driven in, with\nthe fingertips of one hand. So Fergus drove into the water to essay the\nfeat, and seventeen chariots were broken under him as he tugged at the\npole, but at last he tore it out; and as it was now late the host encamped\nupon the spot. These devices of Cuchulain were intended to delay the\ninvaders until the Ulster men had recovered from their debility.\n\nIn the epic, as given in the Book of Leinster, and other ancient sources,\na long interlude now takes place in which Fergus explains to Maev who it\nis\u2014viz., \u201cmy little pupil Setanta\u201d\u2014who is thus harrying the host, and his\nboyish deeds, some of which have been already told in this narrative, are\nrecounted.\n\n*The Charioteer of Orlam*\n\nThe host proceeded on its way next day, and the next encounter with\nCuchulain shows the hero in a kindlier mood. He hears a noise of timber\nbeing cut, and going into a wood he finds there a charioteer belonging to\na son of Ailell and Maev cutting down chariot-poles of holly, \u201cFor,\u201d says\nhe, \u201cwe have damaged our chariots sadly in chasing that famous deer,\nCuchulain.\u201d Cuchulain\u2014who, it must be remembered, was at ordinary times a\nslight and unimposing figure, though in battle he dilated in size and\nunderwent a fearful distortion, symbolic of Berserker fury\u2014helps the\ndriver in his work. \u201cShall I,\u201d he asks, \u201ccut the poles or trim them for\nthee?\u201d \u201cDo thou the trimming,\u201d says the driver. Cuchulain takes the poles\nby the tops and draws them against the set of the branches through his\ntoes, and then runs his fingers down them the same way, and gives them\nover as smooth and polished as if they were planed by a carpenter. The\ndriver stares at him. \u201cI doubt this work I set thee to is not thy proper\nwork,\u201d he says. \u201cWho art thou then at all?\u201d \u201cI am that Cuchulain of whom\nthou spakest but now.\u201d \u201cSurely I am but a dead man,\u201d says the driver.\n\u201cNay,\u201d replies Cuchulain, \u201cI slay not drivers nor messengers nor men\nunarmed. But run, tell thy master Orlam that Cuchulain is about to visit\nhim.\u201d The driver runs off, but Cuchulain outstrips him, meets Orlam first,\nand strikes off his head. For a moment the host of Maev see him as he\nshakes this bloody trophy before them; then he disappears from sight\u2014it is\nthe first glimpse they have caught of their persecutor.\n\n*The Battle-Frenzy of Cuchulain*\n\nA number of scattered episodes now follow. The host of Maev spreads out\nand devastates the territories of Bregia and of Murthemney, but they\ncannot advance further into Ulster. Cuchulain hovers about them\ncontinually, slaying them by twos and threes, and no man knows where he\nwill swoop next. Maev herself is awed when, by the bullets of an unseen\nslinger, a squirrel and a pet bird are killed as they sit upon her\nshoulders. Afterwards, as Cuchulain\u2019s wrath grows fiercer, he descends\nwith supernatural might upon whole companies of the Connacht host, and\nhundreds fall at his onset. The characteristic distortion or _riastradh_\nwhich seized him in his battle-frenzy is then described. He became a\nfearsome and multiform creature such as never was known before. Every\nparticle of him quivered like a bulrush in a running stream. His calves\nand heels and hams shifted to the front, and his feet and knees to the\nback, and the muscles of his neck stood out like the head of a young\nchild. One eye was engulfed deep in his head, the other protruded, his\nmouth met his ears, foam poured from his jaws like the fleece of a\nthree-year-old wether. The beats of his heart sounded like the roars of a\nlion as he rushes on his prey. A light blazed above his head, and \u201chis\nhair became tangled about as it had been the branches of a red thorn-bush\nstuffed into the gap of a fence.... Taller, thicker, more rigid, longer\nthan the mast of a great ship was the perpendicular jet of dusky blood\nwhich out of his scalp\u2019s very central point shot upwards and was there\nscattered to the four cardinal points, whereby was formed a magic mist of\ngloom resembling the smoky pall that drapes a regal dwelling, what time a\nking at nightfall of a winter\u2019s day draws near to it.\u201d(148)\n\nSuch was the imagery by which Gaelic writers conveyed the idea of\nsuperhuman frenzy. At the sight of Cuchulain in his paroxysm it is said\nthat once a hundred of Maev\u2019s warriors fell dead from horror.\n\n*The Compact of the Ford*\n\nMaev now tried to tempt him by great largesse to desert the cause of\nUlster, and had a colloquy with him, the two standing on opposite sides of\na glen across which they talked. She scanned him closely, and was struck\nby his slight and boyish appearance. She failed to move him from his\nloyalty to Ulster, and death descends more thickly than ever upon the\nConnacht host; the men are afraid to move out for plunder save in twenties\nand thirties, and at night the stones from Cuchulain\u2019s sling whistle\ncontinually through the camp, braining or maiming. At last, through the\nmediation of Fergus, an agreement was come to. Cuchulain undertook not to\nharry the host provided they would only send against him one champion at a\ntime, whom Cuchulain would meet in battle at the ford of the River Dee,\nwhich is now called the Ford of Ferdia.(149) While each fight was in\nprogress the host might move on, but when it was ended they must encamp\ntill the morrow morning. \u201cBetter to lose one man a day than a hundred,\u201d\nsaid Maev, and the pact was made.\n\n*Fergus and Cuchulain*\n\nSeveral single combats are then narrated, in which Cuchulain is always a\nvictor. Maev even persuades Fergus to go against him, but Fergus and\nCuchulain will on no account fight each other, and Cuchulain, by agreement\nwith Fergus, pretends to fly before him, on Fergus\u2019s promise that he will\ndo the same for Cuchulain when required. How this pledge was kept we shall\nsee later.\n\n*Capture of the Brown Bull*\n\nDuring one of Cuchulain\u2019s duels with a famous champion, Natchrantal, Maev,\nwith a third of her army, makes a sudden foray into Ulster and penetrates\nas far as Dunseverick, on the northern coast, plundering and ravaging as\nthey go. The Brown Bull, who was originally at Quelgny (Co. Down), has\nbeen warned at an earlier stage by the Morrigan(150) to withdraw himself,\nand he has taken refuge, with his herd of cows, in a glen of\nSlievegallion, Co. Armagh. The raiders of Maev find him there, and drive\nhim off with the herd in triumph, passing Cuchulain as they return.\nCuchulain slays the leader of the escort\u2014Buic son of Banblai\u2014but cannot\nrescue the Bull, and \u201cthis,\u201d it is said, \u201cwas the greatest affront put on\nCuchulain during the course of the raid.\u201d\n\n*The Morrigan*\n\nThe raid ought now to have ceased, for its object has been attained, but\nby this time the hostings of the four southern provinces(151) had gathered\ntogether under Maev for the plunder of Ulster, and Cuchulain remained\nstill the solitary warder of the marches. Nor did Maev keep her agreement,\nfor bands of twenty warriors at a time were loosed against him and he had\nmuch ado to defend himself. The curious episode of the fight with the\nMorrigan now occurs. A young woman clad in a mantle of many colours\nappears to Cuchulain, telling him that she is a king\u2019s daughter, attracted\nby the tales of his great exploits, and she has come to offer him her\nlove. Cuchulain tells her rudely that he is worn and harassed with war and\nhas no mind to concern himself with women. \u201cIt shall go hard with thee,\u201d\nthen said the maid, \u201cwhen thou hast to do with men, and I shall be about\nthy feet as an eel in the bottom of the Ford.\u201d Then she and her chariot\nvanished from his sight and he saw but a crow sitting on a branch of a\ntree, and he knew that he had spoken with the Morrigan.\n\n*The Fight with Loch*\n\nThe next champion sent against him by Maev was Loch son of Mofebis. To\nmeet this hero it is said that Cuchulain had to stain his chin with\nblackberry juice so as to simulate a beard, lest Loch should disdain to do\ncombat with a boy. So they fought in the Ford, and the Morrigan came\nagainst him in the guise of a white heifer with red ears, but Cuchulain\nfractured her eye with a cast of his spear. Then she came swimming up the\nriver like a black eel and twisted herself about his legs, and ere he\ncould rid himself of her Loch wounded him. Then she attacked him as a grey\nwolf, and again, before he could subdue her, he was wounded by Loch. At\nthis his battle-fury took hold of him and he drove the Gae Bolg against\nLoch, splitting his heart in two. \u201cSuffer me to rise,\u201d said Loch, \u201cthat I\nmay fall on my face on thy side of the ford, and not backward toward the\nmen of Erin.\u201d \u201cIt is a warrior\u2019s boon thou askest,\u201d said Cuchulain, \u201cand\nit is granted.\u201d So Loch died; and a great despondency, it is said, now\nfell upon Cuchulain, for he was outwearied with continued fighting, and\nsorely wounded, and he had never slept since the beginning of the raid,\nsave leaning upon his spear; and he sent his charioteer, Laeg, to see if\nhe could rouse the men of Ulster to come to his aid at last.\n\n*Lugh the Protector*\n\nBut as he lay at evening by the grave mound of Lerga in gloom and\ndejection, watching the camp-fires of the vast army encamped over against\nhim and the glitter of their innumerable spears, he saw coming through the\nhost a tall and comely warrior who strode impetuously forward, and none of\nthe companies through which he passed turned his head to look at him or\nseemed to see him. He wore a tunic of silk embroidered with gold, and a\ngreen mantle fastened with a silver brooch; in one hand was a black shield\nbordered with silver and two spears in the other. The stranger came to\nCuchulain and spoke gently and sweetly to him of his long toil and waking,\nand his sore wounds, and said in the end: \u201cSleep now, Cuchulain, by the\ngrave in Lerga; sleep and slumber deeply for three days, and for that time\nI will take thy place and defend the Ford against the host of Maev.\u201d Then\nCuchulain sank into a profound slumber and trance, and the stranger laid\nhealing balms of magical power to his wounds so that he awoke whole and\nrefreshed, and for the time that Cuchulain slept the stranger held the\nFord against the host. And Cuchulain knew that this was Lugh his father,\nwho had come from among the People of Dana to help his son through his\nhour of gloom and despair.\n\n*The Sacrifice of the Boy Corps*\n\nBut still the men of Ulster lay helpless. Now there was at Emain Macha a\nband of thrice fifty boys, the sons of all the chieftains of the\nprovinces, who were there being bred up in arms and in noble ways, and\nthese suffered not from the curse of Macha, for it fell only on grown men.\nBut when they heard of the sore straits in which Cuchulain, their playmate\nnot long ago, was lying they put on their light armour and took their\nweapons and went forth for the honour of Ulster, under Conor\u2019s young son,\nFollaman, to aid him. And Follaman vowed that he would never return to\nEmania without the diadem of Ailell as a trophy. Three times they drove\nagainst the host of Maev, and thrice their own number fell before them,\nbut in the end they were overwhelmed and slain, not one escaping alive.\n\n*The Carnage of Murthemney*\n\nThis was done as Cuchulain lay in his trance, and when he awoke, refreshed\nand well, and heard what had been done, his frenzy came upon him and he\nleaped into his war-chariot and drove furiously round and round the host\nof Maev. And the chariot ploughed the earth till the ruts were like the\nramparts of a fortress, and the scythes upon its wheels caught and mangled\nthe bodies of the crowded host till they were piled like a wall around the\ncamp, and as Cuchulain shouted in his wrath the demons and goblins and\nwild things in Erin yelled in answer, so that with the terror and the\nuproar the host of men heaved and surged hither and thither, and many\nperished from each other\u2019s weapons, and many from horror and fear. And\nthis was the great carnage, called the Carnage of Murthemney, that\nCuchulain did to avenge the boy-corps of Emania; six score and ten princes\nwere then slain of the host of Maev, besides horses and women and\nwolf-dogs and common folk without number. It is said that Lugh mac Ethlinn\nfought there by his son.\n\n*The Clan Calatin*\n\nNext the men of Erin resolved to send against Cuchulain, in single combat,\nthe Clan Calatin.(152) Now Calatin was a wizard, and he and his\nseven-and-twenty sons formed, as it were, but one being, the sons being\norgans of their father, and what any one of them did they all did alike.\nThey were all poisonous, so that any weapon which one of them used would\nkill in nine days the man who was but grazed by it. When this multiform\ncreature met Cuchulain each hand of it hurled a spear at once, but\nCuchulain caught the twenty-eight spears on his shield and not one of them\ndrew blood. Then he drew his sword to lop off the spears that bristled\nfrom his shield, but as he did so the Clan Calatin rushed upon him and\nflung him down, thrusting his face into the gravel. At this Cuchulain gave\na great cry of distress at the unequal combat, and one of the Ulster\nexiles, Fiacha son of Firaba, who was with the host of Maev, and was\nlooking on at the fight, could not endure to see the plight of the\nchampion, and he drew his sword and with one stroke he lopped off the\neight-and-twenty hands that were grinding the face of Cuchulain into the\ngravel of the Ford. Then Cuchulain arose and hacked the Clan Calatin into\nfragments, so that none survived to tell Maev what Fiacha had done, else\nhad he and his thirty hundred followers of Clan Rury been given by Maev to\nthe edge of the sword.\n\n*Ferdia to the Fray*\n\nCuchulain had now overcome all the mightiest of Maev\u2019s men, save only the\nmightiest of them all after Fergus, Ferdia son of Daman. And because\nFerdia was the old friend and fellow pupil of Cuchulain he had never gone\nout against him; but now Maev begged him to go, and he would not. Then she\noffered him her daughter, Findabair of the Fair Eyebrows, to wife, if he\nwould face Cuchulain at the Ford, but he would not. At last she bade him\ngo, lest the poets and satirists of Erin should make verses on him and put\nhim to open shame, and then in wrath and sorrow he consented to go, and\nbade his charioteer make ready for to-morrow\u2019s fray. Then was gloom among\nall his people when they heard of that, for they knew that if Cuchulain\nand their master met, one of them would return alive no more.\n\nVery early in the morning Ferdia drove to the Ford, and lay down there on\nthe cushions and skins of the chariot and slept till Cuchulain should\ncome. Not till it was full daylight did Ferdia\u2019s charioteer hear the\nthunder of Cuchulain\u2019s war-car approaching, and then he woke his master,\nand the two friends faced each other across the Ford. And when they had\ngreeted each other Cuchulain said: \u201cIt is not thou, O Ferdia, who shouldst\nhave come to do battle with me. When we were with Skatha did we not go\nside by side in every battle, through every wood and wilderness? were we\nnot heart-companions, comrades, in the feast and the assembly? did we not\nshare one bed and one deep slumber?\u201d But Ferdia replied: \u201cO Cuchulain,\nthou of the wondrous feats, though we have studied poetry and science\ntogether, and though I have heard thee recite our deeds of friendship, yet\nit is my hand that shall wound thee. I bid thee remember not our\ncomradeship, O Hound of Ulster; it shall not avail thee, it shall not\navail thee.\u201d\n\nThey then debated with what weapons they should begin the fight, and\nFerdia reminded Cuchulain of the art of casting small javelins that they\nhad learned from Skatha, and they agreed to begin with these. Backwards\nand forwards, then, across the Ford, hummed the light javelins like bees\non a summer\u2019s day, but when noonday had come not one weapon had pierced\nthe defence of either champion. Then they took to the heavy missile\nspears, and now at last blood began to flow, for each champion wounded the\nother time and again. At last the day came to its close. \u201cLet us cease\nnow,\u201d said Ferdia, and Cuchulain agreed. Each then threw his arms to his\ncharioteer, and the friends embraced and kissed each other three times,\nand went to their rest. Their horses were in the same paddock, their\ndrivers warmed themselves over the same fire, and the heroes sent each\nother food and drink and healing herbs for their wounds.\n\nNext day they betook themselves again to the Ford, and this time, because\nFerdia had the choice of weapons the day before, he bade Cuchulain take it\nnow.(153) Cuchulain chose then the heavy, broad-bladed spears for close\nfighting, and with them they fought from the chariots till the sun went\ndown, and drivers and horses were weary, and the body of each hero was\ntorn with wounds. Then at last they gave over, and threw away their\nweapons. And they kissed each other as before, and as before they shared\nall things at night, and slept peacefully till the morning.\n\nWhen the third day of the combat came Ferdia wore an evil and lowering\nlook, and Cuchulain reproached him for coming out in battle against his\ncomrade for the bribe of a fair maiden, even Findabair, whom Maev had\noffered to every champion and to Cuchulain himself if the Ford might be\nwon thereby; but Ferdia said: \u201cNoble Hound, had I not faced thee when\nsummoned, my troth would be broken, and there would be shame on me in\nRathcroghan.\u201d It is now the turn of Ferdia to choose the weapons, and they\nbetake themselves to their \u201cheavy, hard-smiting swords,\u201d and though they\nhew from each other\u2019s thighs and shoulders great cantles of flesh, neither\ncan prevail over the other, and at last night ends the combat. This time\nthey parted from each other in heaviness and gloom, and there was no\ninterchange of friendly acts, and their drivers and horses slept apart.\nThe passions of the warriors had now risen to a grim sternness.\n\n*Death of Ferdia*\n\nOn the fourth day Ferdia knew the contest would be decided, and he armed\nhimself with especial care. Next his skin was a tunic of striped silk\nbordered with golden spangles, and over that hung an apron of brown\nleather. Upon his belly he laid a flat stone, large as a millstone, and\nover that a strong, deep apron of iron, for he dreaded that Cuchulain\nwould use the Gae Bolg that day. And he put on his head his crested helmet\nstudded with carbuncle and inlaid with enamels, and girt on his\ngolden-hilted sword, and on his left arm hung his broad shield with its\nfifty bosses of bronze. Thus he stood by the Ford, and as he waited he\ntossed up his weapons and caught them again and did many wonderful feats,\nplaying with his mighty weapons as a juggler plays with apples; and\nCuchulain, watching him, said to Laeg, his driver: \u201cIf I give ground\nto-day, do thou reproach and mock me and spur me on to valour, and praise\nand hearten me if I do well, for I shall have need of all my courage.\u201d\n\n\u201cO Ferdia,\u201d said Cuchulain when they met, \u201cwhat shall be our weapons\nto-day?\u201d \u201cIt is thy choice to-day,\u201d said Ferdia. \u201cThen let it be all or\nany,\u201d said Cuchulain, and Ferdia was cast down at hearing this, but he\nsaid, \u201cSo be it,\u201d and thereupon the fight began. Till midday they fought\nwith spears, and none could gain any advantage over the other. Then\nCuchulain drew his sword and sought to smite Ferdia over the rim of his\nshield; but the giant Firbolg flung him off. Thrice Cuchulain leaped high\ninto the air, seeking to strike Ferdia over his shield, but each time as\nhe descended Ferdia caught him upon the shield and flung him off like a\nlittle child into the Ford. And Laeg mocked him, crying: \u201cHe casts thee\noff as a river flings its foam, he grinds thee as a millstone grinds a\ncorn of wheat; thou elf, never call thyself a warrior.\u201d\n\nThen at last Cuchulain\u2019s frenzy came upon him, and he dilated giant-like,\ntill he overtopped Ferdia, and the hero-light blazed about his head. In\nclose contact the two were interlocked, whirling and trampling, while the\ndemons and goblins and unearthly things of the glens screamed from the\nedges of their swords, and the waters of the Ford recoiled in terror from\nthem, so that for a while they fought on dry land in the midst of the\nriverbed. And now Ferdia found Cuchulain a moment off his guard, and smote\nhim with the edge of the sword, and it sank deep into his flesh, and all\nthe river ran red with his blood. And he pressed Cuchulain sorely after\nthat, hewing and thrusting so that Cuchulain could endure it no longer,\nand he shouted to Laeg to fling him the Gae Bolg. When Ferdia heard that\nhe lowered his shield to guard himself from below, and Cuchulain drove his\nspear over the rim of the shield and through his breastplate into his\nchest. And Ferdia raised his shield again, but in that moment Cuchulain\nseized the Gae Bolg in his toes and drove it upward against Ferdia, and it\npierced through the iron apron and burst in three the millstone that\nguarded him, and deep into his body it passed, so that every crevice and\ncranny of him was filled with its barbs. \u201c\u2019Tis enough,\u201d cried Ferdia; \u201cI\nhave my death of that. It is an ill deed that I fall by thy hand, O\nCuchulain.\u201d Cuchulain seized him as he fell, and carried him northward\nacross the Ford, that he might die on the further side of it, and not on\nthe side of the men of Erin. Then he laid him down, and a faintness seized\nCuchulain, and he was falling, when Laeg cried: \u201cRise up, Cuchulain, for\nthe host of Erin will be upon us. No single combat will they give after\nFerdia has fallen.\u201d But Cuchulain said: \u201cWhy should I rise again, O my\nservant, now he that lieth here has fallen by my hand?\u201d and he fell in a\nswoon like death. And the host of Maev with tumult and rejoicing, with\ntossing of spears and shouting of war-songs, poured across the border into\nUlster.\n\nBut before they left the Ford they took the body of Ferdia and laid it in\na grave, and built a mound over him and set up a pillar-stone with his\nname and lineage in Ogham. And from Ulster came certain of the friends of\nCuchulain, and they bore him away into Murthemney, where they washed him\nand bathed his wounds in the streams, and his kin among the Danaan folk\ncast magical herbs into the rivers for his healing. But he lay there in\nweakness and in stupor for many days.\n\n*The Rousing of Ulster*\n\nNow Sualtam, the father of Cuchulain, had taken his son\u2019s horse, the Grey\nof Macha, and ridden off again to see if by any means he might rouse the\nmen of Ulster to defend the province. And he went crying abroad: \u201cThe men\nof Ulster are being slain, the women carried captive, the kine driven!\u201d\nYet they stared on him stupidly, as though they knew not of what he spake.\nAt last he came to Emania, and there were Cathbad the Druid and Conor the\nKing, and all their nobles and lords, and Sualtam cried aloud to them:\n\u201cThe men of Ulster are being slain, the women carried captive, the kine\ndriven; and Cuchulain alone holds the gap of Ulster against the four\nprovinces of Erin. Arise and defend yourselves!\u201d But Cathbad only said:\n\u201cDeath were the due of him who thus disturbs the King\u201d; and Conor said:\n\u201cYet it is true what the man says\u201d; and the lords of Ulster wagged their\nheads and murmured: \u201cTrue indeed it is.\u201d\n\nThen Sualtam wheeled round his horse in anger and was about to depart\nwhen, with a start which the Grey made, his neck fell against the sharp\nrim of the shield upon his back, and it shore off his head, and the head\nfell on the ground. Yet still it cried its message as it lay, and at last\nConor bade put it on a pillar that it might be at rest. But it still went\non crying and exhorting, and at length into the clouded mind of the king\nthe truth began to penetrate, and the glazed eyes of the warriors began to\nglow, and slowly the spell of Macha\u2019s curse was lifted from their minds\nand bodies. Then Conor arose and swore a mighty oath, saying: \u201cThe heavens\nare above us and the earth beneath us, and the sea is round about us; and\nsurely, unless the heavens fall on us and the earth gape to swallow us up,\nand the sea overwhelm the earth, I will restore every woman to her hearth,\nand every cow to its byre.\u201d(154) His Druid proclaimed that the hour was\npropitious, and the king bade his messengers go forth on every side and\nsummon Ulster to arms, and he named to them warriors long dead as well as\nthe living, for the cloud of the curse still lingered in his brain.\n\nWith the curse now departed from them the men of Ulster flocked joyfully\nto the summons, and on every hand there was grinding of spears and swords,\nand buckling on of armour and harnessing of war-chariots for the\nrising-out of the province.(155) One host came under Conor the King and\nKeltchar, son of Uthecar Hornskin, from Emania southwards, and another\nfrom the west along the very track of the host of Maev. And Conor\u2019s host\nfell upon eight score of the men of Erin in Meath, who were carrying away\na great booty of women-captives, and they slew every man of the eight\nscore and rescued the women. Maev and her host then fell back toward\nConnacht, but when they reached Slemon Midi, the Hill of Slane, in Meath,\nthe Ulster bands joined each other there and prepared to give battle. Maev\nsent her messenger mac Roth to view the Ulster host on the Plain of Garach\nand report upon it. Mac Roth came back with an awe-striking description of\nwhat he beheld. When he first looked he saw the plain covered with deer\nand other wild beasts. These, explains Fergus, had been driven out of the\nforests by the advancing host of the Ulster men. The second time mac Roth\nlooked he saw a mist that filled the valleys, the hill-tops standing above\nit like islands. Out of the mist there came thunder and flashes of light,\nand a wind that nearly threw him off his feet. \u201cWhat is this?\u201d asks Maev,\nand Fergus tells her that the mist is the deep breathing of the warriors\nas they march, and the light is the flashing of their eyes, and the\nthunder is the clangour of their war-cars and the clash of their weapons\nas they go to the fight: \u201cThey think they will never reach it,\u201d says\nFergus. \u201cWe have warriors to meet them,\u201d says Maev. \u201cYou will need that,\u201d\nsays Fergus, \u201cfor in all Ireland, nay, in all the Western world, to Greece\nand Scythia and the Tower of Bregon(156) and the Island of Gades, there\nlive not who can face the men of Ulster in their wrath.\u201d\n\nA long passage then follows describing the appearance and equipment of\neach of the Ulster chiefs.\n\n*The Battle of Garach*\n\nThe battle was joined on the Plain of Garach, in Meath. Fergus, wielding a\ntwo-handed sword, the sword which, it was said, when swung in battle made\ncircles like the arch of a rainbow, swept down whole ranks of the Ulster\nmen at each blow,(157) and the fierce Maev charged thrice into the heart\nof the enemy.\n\nFergus met Conor the King, and smote him on his golden-bordered shield,\nbut Cormac, the king\u2019s son, begged for his father\u2019s life. Fergus then\nturned on Conall of the Victories.\n\n\u201cToo hot art thou,\u201d said Conall, \u201cagainst thy people and thy race for a\nwanton.\u201d(158) Fergus then turned from slaying the Ulstermen, but in his\nbattle-fury he smote among the hills with his rainbow-sword, and struck\noff the tops of the three _Maela_ of Meath, so that they are flat-topped\n(_mael_) to this day.\n\nCuchulain in his stupor heard the crash of Fergus\u2019s blows, and coming\nslowly to himself he asked of Laeg what it meant. \u201cIt is the sword-play of\nFergus,\u201d said Laeg. Then he sprang up, and his body dilated so that the\nwrappings and swathings that had been bound on him flew off, and he armed\nhimself and rushed into the battle. Here he met Fergus. \u201cTurn hither,\nFergus,\u201d he shouted; \u201cI will wash thee as foam in a pool, I will go over\nthee as the tail goes over a cat, I will smite thee as a mother smites her\ninfant.\u201d \u201cWho speaks thus to me?\u201d cried Fergus. \u201cCuchulain mac Sualtam;\nand now do thou avoid me as thou art pledged.\u201d(159)\n\n\u201cI have promised even that,\u201d said Fergus, and then went out of the battle,\nand with him the men of Leinster and the men of Munster, leaving Maev with\nher seven sons and the hosting of Connacht alone.\n\nIt was midday when Cuchulain came into the fight; when the evening sun was\nshining through the leaves of the trees his war-chariot was but two wheels\nand a handful of shattered ribs, and the host of Connacht was in full\nflight towards the border. Cuchulain overtook Maev, who crouched under her\nchariot and entreated grace. \u201cI am not wont to slay women,\u201d said\nCuchulain, and he protected her till she had crossed the Shannon at\nAthlone.\n\n*The Fight of the Bulls*\n\nBut the Brown Bull of Quelgny, that Maev had sent into Connacht by a\ncircuitous way, met the white-horned Bull of Ailell on the Plain of Aei,\nand the two beasts fought; but the Brown Bull quickly slew the other, and\ntossed his fragments about the land so that pieces of him were strewn from\nRathcroghan to Tara; and then careered madly about till he fell dead,\nbellowing and vomiting black gore, at the Ridge of the Bull, between\nUlster and Iveagh. Ailell and Maev made peace with Ulster for seven years,\nand the Ulster men returned home to Emain Macha with great glory.\n\nThus ends the \u201cTain Bo Cuailgn\u00e8,\u201d or Cattle Raid of Quelgny; and it was\nwritten out in the \u201cBook of Leinster\u201d in the year 1150 by the hand of Finn\nmac Gorman, Bishop of Kildare, and at the end is written: \u201cA blessing on\nall such as faithfully shall recite the \u2018Tain\u2019 as it stands here, and\nshall not give it in any other form.\u201d\n\n*Cuchulain in Fairyland*\n\nOne of the strangest tales in Celtic legend tells how Cuchulain, as he lay\nasleep after hunting, against a pillar-stone, had a vision of two Danaan\nwomen who came to him armed with rods and alternately beat him till he was\nall but dead, and he could not lift a hand to defend himself. Next day,\nand for a year thereafter, he lay in sore sickness, and none could heal\nhim.\n\nThen a man whom none knew came and told him to go to the pillar-stone\nwhere he had seen the vision, and he would learn what was to be done for\nhis recovery. There he found a Danaan woman in a green mantle, one of\nthose who had chastised him, and she told him that Fand, the Pearl of\nBeauty, wife of Mananan the Sea-god, had set her love on him; and she was\nat enmity with her husband Mananan; and her realm was besieged by three\ndemon kings, against whom Cuchulain\u2019s help was sought, and the price of\nhis help would be the love of Fand. Laeg, the charioteer, was then sent by\nCuchulain to report upon Fand and her message. He entered Fairyland, which\nlies beyond a lake across which he passed in a magic boat of bronze, and\ncame home with a report of Fand\u2019s surpassing beauty and the wonders of the\nkingdom; and Cuchulain then betook himself thither. Here he had a battle\nin a dense mist with the demons, who are described as resembling\nsea-waves\u2014no doubt we are to understand that they are the folk of the\nangry husband, Mananan. Then he abode with Fand, enjoying all the delights\nof Fairyland for a month, after which he bade her farewell, and appointed\na trysting-place on earth, the Strand of the Yew Tree, where she was to\nmeet him.\n\n*Fand, Emer, and Cuchulain*\n\nBut Emer heard of the tryst; and though not commonly disturbed at\nCuchulain\u2019s numerous infidelities, she came on this occasion with fifty of\nher maidens armed with sharp knives to slay Fand. Cuchulain and Fand\nperceive their chariots from afar, and the armed angry women with golden\nclasps shining on their breasts, and he prepares to protect his mistress.\nHe addresses Emer in a curious poem, describing the beauty and skill and\nmagical powers of Fand\u2014\u201cThere is nothing the spirit can wish for that she\nhas not got.\u201d Emer replies: \u201cIn good sooth, the lady to whom thou dost\ncling seems in no way better than I am, but the new is ever sweet and the\nwell-known is sour; thou hast all the wisdom of the time, Cuchulain! Once\nwe dwelled in honour together, and still might dwell if I could find\nfavour in thy sight.\u201d \u201cBy my word thou dost,\u201d said Cuchulain, \u201cand shalt\nfind it so long as I live.\u201d\n\n\u201cGive me up,\u201d then said Fand. But Emer said: \u201cNay, it is more fitting that\nI be the deserted one.\u201d \u201cNot so,\u201d said Fand; \u201cit is I who must go.\u201d \u201cAnd\nan eagerness for lamentation seized upon Fand, and her soul was great\nwithin her, for it was shame for her to be deserted and straightway to\nreturn to her home; moreover, the mighty love that she bore to Cuchulain\nwas tumultuous in her.\u201d(160)\n\nBut Mananan, the Son of the Sea, knew of her sorrow and her shame, and he\ncame to her aid, none seeing him but she alone, and she welcomed him in a\nmystic song. \u201cWilt thou return to me?\u201d said Mananan, \u201cor abide with\nCuchulain?\u201d \u201cIn truth,\u201d said Fand, \u201cneither of ye is better or nobler than\nthe other, but I will go with thee, Mananan, for thou hast no other mate\nworthy of thee, but that Cuchulain has in Emer.\u201d\n\nSo she went to Mananan, and Cuchulain, who did not see the god, asked Laeg\nwhat was happening. \u201cFand,\u201d he replied, \u201cis going away with the Son of the\nSea, since she hath not been pleasing in thy sight.\u201d\n\nThen Cuchulain bounded into the air and fled from the place, and lay a\nlong time refusing meat and drink, until at last the Druids gave him a\ndraught of forgetfulness; and Mananan, it is said, shook his cloak between\nCuchulain and Fand, so that they might meet no more throughout\neternity.(161)\n\n*The Vengeance of Maev*\n\nThough Maev made peace with Ulster after the battle of Garech she vowed\nthe death of Cuchulain for all the shame and loss he had brought upon her\nand on her province, and she sought how she might take her vengeance upon\nhim.\n\nNow the wife of the wizard Calatin, whom Cuchulain slew at the Ford,\nbrought forth, after her husband\u2019s death, six children at a birth, namely,\nthree sons and three daughters. Misshapen, hideous, poisonous, born for\nevil were they; and Maev, hearing of these, sent them to learn the arts of\nmagic, not in Ireland only, but in Alba; and even as far as Babylon they\nwent to seek for hidden knowledge, and they came back mighty in their\ncraft, and she loosed them against Cuchulain.\n\n*Cuchulain and Blanid*\n\nBesides the Clan Calatin, Cuchulain had also other foes, namely Ere, the\nKing of Ireland, son to Cairpre, whom Cuchulain had slain in battle, and\nLewy son of Curoi, King of Munster.(162) For Curoi\u2019s wife, Blanid, had set\nher love on Cuchulain, and she bade him come and take her from Curoi\u2019s\nd\u016bn, and watch his time to attack the d\u016bn, when he would see the stream\nthat flowed from it turn white. So Cuchulain and his men waited in a wood\nhard by till Blanid judged that the time was fit, and she then poured into\nthe stream the milk of three cows. Then Cuchulain attacked the d\u016bn, and\ntook it by surprise, and slew Curoi, and bore away the woman. But\nFercartna, the bard of Curoi, went with them and showed no sign, till,\nfinding himself near Blanid as she stood near the cliff-edge of Beara, he\nflung his arms round her, and leaped with her over the cliff, and so they\nperished, and Curoi was avenged upon his wife.\n\nAll these now did Maev by secret messages and by taunts and exhortations\narouse against Cuchulain, and they waited till they heard that the curse\nof Macha was again heavy on the men of Ulster, and then they assembled a\nhost and marched to the Plain of Murthemney.\n\n*The Madness of Cuchulain*\n\nAnd first the Children of Calatin caused a horror and a despondency to\nfall upon the mind of Cuchulain, and out of the hooded thistles and\npuff-balls and fluttering leaves of the forest they made the semblance of\narmed battalions marching against Murthemney, and Cuchulain seemed to see\non every side the smoke of burning dwellings going up. And for two days he\ndid battle with the phantoms till he was sick and wearied out. Then\nCathbad and the men of Ulster persuaded him to retire to a solitary glen,\nwhere fifty of the princesses of Ulster, and among them Niam, wife of his\nfaithful friend Conall of the Victories, tended him, and Niam made him vow\nthat he would not leave the d\u016bn where he was until she gave him leave.\n\nBut still the Children of Calatin filled the land with apparitions of war,\nand smoke and flames went up, and wild cries and wailings with chattering,\ngoblin laughter and the braying of trumpets and horns were borne upon the\nwinds. And Bave, Calatin\u2019s daughter, went into the glen, and, taking the\nform of a handmaid of Niam, she beckoned her away and led her to a\ndistance among the woods and put a spell of straying on her so that she\nwas lost and could find her way home no more. Bave then went in the form\nof Niam to Cuchulain and bade him up and rescue Ulster from the hosts that\nwere harrying it, and the Morrigan came in the form of a great crow where\nCuchulain sat with the women, and croaked of war and slaughter. Then\nCuchulain sprang up and called Laeg to harness his chariot. But when Laeg\nsought for the Grey of Macha to harness him, the horse fled from him, and\nresisted, and only with great difficulty could Laeg yoke him in the\nchariot, while large tears of dark blood trickled down his face.\n\nThen Cuchulain, having armed himself, drove forth; and on every side\nshapes and sounds of dread assailed him and clouded his mind, and then it\nappeared to him that he saw a great smoke, lit with bursts of red flame,\nover the ramparts of Emain Macha, and he thought he saw the corpse of Emer\ntossed out over the ramparts. But when he came to his d\u016bn at Murthemney,\nthere was Emer living, and she entreated him to leave the phantoms alone,\nbut he would not listen to her, and he bade her farewell. Then he bade\nfarewell to his mother Dectera, and she gave him a goblet of wine to\ndrink, but ere he could drink it the wine turned to blood, and he flung it\naway, saying, \u201cMy life\u2019s end is near; this time I shall not return alive\nfrom the battle.\u201d And Dectera and Cathbad besought him to await the coming\nof Conall of the Victories, who was away on a journey, but he would not.\n\n*The Washer at the Ford*\n\nWhen he came to the ford upon the plain of Emania he saw there kneeling by\nthe stream as it were a young maiden, weeping and wailing, and she washed\na heap of bloody raiment and warlike arms in the stream, and when she\nraised a dripping vest or corselet from the water Cuchulain saw that they\nwere his own. And as they crossed the ford she vanished from their\nsight.(163)\n\n*Clan Calatin Again*\n\nThen, having taken his leave of Conor and of the womenfolk in Emania, he\nturned again towards Murthemney and the foe. But on his way he saw by the\nroadside three old crones, each blind of one eye, hideous and wretched,\nand they had made a little fire of sticks, and over it they were roasting\na dead dog on spits of rowan wood. As Cuchulain passed they called to him\nto alight and stay with them and share their food. \u201cThat will I not, in\nsooth,\u201d said he. \u201cHad we a great feast,\u201d they said, \u201cthou wouldst soon\nhave stayed; it doth not become the great to despise the small.\u201d Then\nCuchulain, because he would not be thought discourteous to the wretched,\nlighted down, and he took a piece of the roast and ate it, and the hand\nwith which he took it was stricken up to the shoulder so that its former\nstrength was gone. For it was _geis_ to Cuchulain to approach a cooking\nhearth and take food from it, and it was _geis_ to him to eat of his\nnamesake.(164)\n\n*Death of Cuchulain*\n\nNear to Slieve Fuad, south of Armagh, Cuchulain found the host of his\nenemies, and drove furiously against them, plying the champion\u2019s\n\u201cthunder-feat\u201d upon them until the plain was strewn with their dead. Then\na satirist, urged on by Lewy, came near him and demanded his spear.(165)\n\u201cHave it, then,\u201d said Cuchulain, and flung it at him with such force that\nit went clean through him and killed nine men beyond. \u201cA king will fall by\nthat spear,\u201d said the Children of Calatin to Lewy, and Lewy seized it and\nflung it at Cuchulain, but it smote Laeg, the king of charioteers, so that\nhis bowels fell out on the cushions of the chariot, and he bade farewell\nto his master and he died.\n\nThen another satirist demanded the spear, and Cuchulain said: \u201cI am not\nbound to grant more than one request on one day.\u201d But the satirist said:\n\u201cThen I will revile Ulster for thy default,\u201d and Cuchulain flung him the\nspear as before, and Ere now got it, and this time in flying back it\nstruck the Grey of Macha with a mortal wound. Cuchulain drew out the spear\nfrom the horse\u2019s side, and they bade each other farewell, and the Grey\ngalloped away with half the yoke hanging to its neck.\n\nAnd a third time Cuchulain flung the spear to a satirist, and Lewy took it\nagain and flung it back, and it struck Cuchulain, and his bowels fell out\nin the chariot, and the remaining horse, Black Sainglend, broke away and\nleft him.\n\n\u201cI would fain go as far as to that loch-side to drink,\u201d said Cuchulain,\nknowing the end was come, and they suffered him to go when he had promised\nto return to them again. So he gathered up his bowels into his breast and\nwent to the loch-side, and drank, and bathed himself, and came forth again\nto die. Now there was close by a tall pillar-stone that stood westwards of\nthe loch, and he went up to it and slung his girdle over it and round his\nbreast, so that he might die in his standing and not in his lying down;\nand his blood ran down in a little stream into the loch, and an otter came\nout of the loch and lapped it. And the host gathered round, but feared to\napproach him while the life was still in him, and the hero-light shone\nabove his brow. Then came the Grey of Macha to protect him, scattering his\nfoes with biting and kicking.\n\nAnd then came a crow and settled on his shoulder.\n\nLewy, when he saw this, drew near and pulled the hair of Cuchulain to one\nside over his shoulder, and with his sword he smote off his head; and the\nsword fell from Cuchulain\u2019s hand, and smote off the hand of Lewy as it\nfell. They took the hand of Cuchulain in revenge for this, and bore the\nhead and hand south to Tara, and there buried them, and over them they\nraised a mound. But Conall of the Victories, hastening to Cuchulain\u2019s side\non the news of the war, met the Grey of Macha streaming with blood, and\ntogether they went to the loch-side and saw him headless and bound to the\npillar-stone, and the horse came and laid its head on his breast. Conall\ndrove southwards to avenge Cuchulain, and he came on Lewy by the river\nLiffey, and because Lewy had but one hand Conall tied one of his behind\nhis back, and for half the day they fought, but neither could prevail.\nThen came Conall\u2019s horse, the Dewy-Red, and tore a piece out of Lewy\u2019s\nside, and Conall slew him, and took his head, and returned to Emain Macha.\nBut they made no show of triumph in entering the city, for Cuchulain the\nHound of Ulster was no more.\n\n*The Recovery of the Tain*\n\nThe history of the \u201cTain,\u201d or Cattle Raid, of Quelgny was traditionally\nsupposed to have been written by no other than Fergus mac Roy, but for a\nlong time the great lay or saga was lost. It was believed to have been\nwritten out in Ogham characters on staves of wood, which a bard who\npossessed them had taken with him into Italy, whence they never returned.\n\nThe recovery of the \u201cTain\u201d was the subject of a number of legends which\nSir S. Ferguson, in his \u201cLays of the Western Gael,\u201d has combined in a poem\nof so much power, so much insight into the spirit of Gaelic myth, that I\nventure to reproduce much of it here in telling this singular and\nbeautiful story. It is said that after the loss of the \u201cTain\u201d Sanchan\nTorpest, chief bard of Ireland, was once taunted at a feast by the High\nKing Guary on his inability to recite the most famous and splendid of\nGaelic poems. This touched the bard to the quick, and he resolved to\nrecover the lost treasure. Far and wide through Erin and through Alba he\nsearched for traces of the lay, but could only recover scattered\nfragments. He would have conjured up by magic arts the spirit of Fergus to\nteach it to him, even at the cost of his own life\u2014for such, it seems,\nwould have been the price demanded for the intervention and help of the\ndead\u2014but the place of Fergus\u2019s grave, where the spells must be said, could\nnot be discovered. At last Sanchan sent his son Murgen with his younger\nbrother Eimena to journey to Italy and endeavour to discover there the\nfate of the staff-book. The brothers set off on their journey.\n\n\u201cEastward, breadthwise, over Erin straightway travell\u2019d forth the twain,\n Till with many days\u2019 wayfaring Murgen fainted by Loch Ein:\n\n \u2018Dear my brother, thou art weary: I for present aid am flown:\n Thou for my returning tarry here beside this Standing Stone.\u2019\n\n\u201cShone the sunset red and solemn: Murgen,where he leant,observed\n Down the corners of the column letter-strokes of Ogham carved.\n \u2018\u2019Tis, belike, a burial pillar,\u2019 said he, \u2018and these shallow lines\n Hold some warrior\u2019s name of valour, could I rightly spell the signs.\u2019\n\n\u201cLetter then by letter tracing, soft he breathed the sound of each;\n Sound and sound then interlacing, lo, the signs took form of speech;\n And with joy and wonder mainly thrilling, part a-thrill with fear,\n Murgen read the legend plainly, \u2018FERGUS SON OF ROY IS HERE.\u2019 \u201d\n\nMurgen then, though he knew the penalty, appealed to Fergus to pity a\nson\u2019s distress, and vowed, for the sake of the recovery of the \u201cTain,\u201d to\ngive his life, and abandon his kin and friends and the maiden he loves, so\nthat his father might no more be shamed. But Fergus gave no sign, and\nMurgen tried another plea:\n\n\u201cStill he stirs not. Love of women thou regard\u2019st not, Fergus, now:\n Love of children, instincts human, care for these no more hast thou:\n Wider comprehension, deeper insights to the dead belong:\u2014\n Since for Love thou wak\u2019st not, Sleeper, yet awake for sake of Song.\n\n\u201c \u2018Thou, the first in rhythmic cadence dressing life\u2019s discordant tale,\n Wars of chiefs and loves of maidens, gavest the Poem to the Gael;\n Now they\u2019ve lost their noblest measure, and in dark days hard at hand,\n Song shall be the only treasure left them in their native land.\u2019\n\n\u201cFergus rose. A mist ascended with him, and a flash was seen\n As of brazen sandals blended with a mantle\u2019s wafture green;\n But so thick the cloud closed o\u2019er him, Eimena, return\u2019d at last,\n Found not on the field before him but a mist-heap grey and vast.\n\n\u201cThrice to pierce the hoar recesses faithful Eimena essay\u2019d;\n Thrice through foggy wildernesses back to open air he stray\u2019d;\n Till a deep voice through the vapours fill\u2019d the twilight far and near\n And the Night her starry tapers kindling, stoop\u2019d from heaven to hear.\n\n\u201cSeem\u2019d as though the skiey Shepherd back to earth had cast the fleece\n Envying gods of old caught upward from the darkening shrines of Greece;\n So the white mists curl\u2019d and glisten\u2019d, to from heaven\u2019s expanses bare,\n Stars enlarging lean\u2019d and listen\u2019d down the emptied depths of air.\n\n\u201cAll night long by mists surrounded Murgen lay in vapoury bars;\n All night long the deep voice sounded \u2019neath the keen, enlarging stars:\n But when, on the orient verges, stars grew dim and mists retired,\n Rising by the stone of Fergus, Murgen stood a man inspired.\n\n\u201c \u2018Back to Sanchan!\u2014Father, hasten, ere the hour of power be past,\n Ask not how obtain\u2019d but listen to the lost lay found at last!\u2019\n \u2018Yea, these words have tramp of heroes in them; and the marching rhyme\n Rolls the voices of the eras down the echoing steeps of Time.\u2019\n\n\u201cNot till all was thrice related, thrice recital full essay\u2019d,\n Sad and shamefaced, worn and faded, Murgen sought the faithful maid.\n \u2018Ah, so haggard; ah, so altered; thou in life and love so strong!\u2019\n \u2018Dearly purchased,\u2019 Murgen falter\u2019d, \u2018life and love I\u2019ve sold for song!\u2019\n\n\u201c \u2018Woe is me, the losing bargain! what can song the dead avail?\u2019\n \u2018Fame immortal,\u2019 murmur\u2019d Murgen, \u2018long as lay delights the Gael.\u2019\n \u2018Fame, alas! the price thou chargest not repays one virgin tear.\u2019\n \u2018Yet the proud revenge I\u2019ve purchased for my sire, I deem not dear.\u2019\n\n\u201c \u2018So,again to Gort the splendid, when the drinking boards were spread,\n Sanchan, as of old attended, came and sat at table-head.\n \u2018Bear the cup to Sanchan Torpest: twin gold goblets, Bard, are thine,\n If with voice and string thou harpest, _Tain-Bo-Cuailgne_, line for\n             line.\u2019\n\n\u201c \u2018Yea, with voice and string I\u2019ll chant it. Murgen to his father\u2019s knee\n Set the harp: no prelude wanted, Sanchan struck the master key,\n And, as bursts the brimful river all at once from caves of Cong,\n Forth at once, and once for ever, leap\u2019d the torrent of the song.\n\n\u201cFloating on a brimful torrent, men go down and banks go by:\nCaught adown the lyric current, Guary, captured, ear and eye,\nHeard no more the courtiers jeering, saw no more the walls of Gort,\nCreeve Roe\u2019s(166) meads instead appearing, and Emania\u2019s royal fort.\n\n\u201cVision chasing splendid vision, Sanchan roll\u2019d the rhythmic scene;\nThey that mock\u2019d in lewd derision now, at gaze, with wondering mien\nSate, and, as the glorying master sway\u2019d the tightening reins of song,\nFelt emotion\u2019s pulses faster\u2014fancies faster bound along.\n\n\u201cPity dawn\u2019d on savage faces, when for love of captive Crunn,\nMacha, in the ransom-races, girt her gravid loins, to run\n\u2019Gainst the fleet Ultonian horses; and, when Deirdra on the road\nHeadlong dash\u2019d her \u2019mid the corses, brimming eyelids overflow\u2019d.\n\n\u201cLight of manhood\u2019s generous ardour, under brows relaxing shone,\nWhen, mid-ford, on Uladh\u2019s border, young Cuchullin stood alone,\nMaev and all her hosts withstanding:\u2014 \u2018Now, for love of knightly play,\nYield the youth his soul\u2019s demanding; let the hosts their marchings stay,\n\n\u201c\u2019Till the death he craves be given; and, upon his burial stone\nChampion-praises duly graven, make his name and glory known;\nFor, in speech-containing token, age to ages never gave\nSalutation better spoken, than, \u201cBehold a hero\u2019s grave.\u201d\u2019\n\n\u201cWhat, another and another, and he still or combat calls?\nAh, the lot on thee, his brother sworn in arms, Ferdia, falls;\nAnd the hall with wild applauses sobb\u2019d like woman ere they wist,\nWhen the champions in the pauses of the deadly combat kiss\u2019d.\n\n\u201cNow, for love of land and cattle, while Cuchullin in the fords\nStays the march of Connaught\u2019s battle, ride and rouse the Northern Lords;\nSwift as angry eagles wing them toward the plunder\u2019d eyrie\u2019s call,\nThronging from Dun Dealga bring them, bring them from the Red Branch hall!\n\n\u201cHeard ye not the tramp of armies? Hark! amid the sudden gloom,\n\u2019Twas the stroke of Conall\u2019s war-mace sounded through the startled room;\nAnd, while still the hall grew darker, king and courtier chill\u2019d with\n            dread,\nHeard the rattling of the war-car of Cuchullin overhead.\n\n\u201cHalf in wonder, half in terror, loth to stay and loth to fly,\nSeem\u2019d to each beglamour\u2019d hearer shades of kings went thronging by:\nBut the troubled joy of wonder merged at last in mastering fear,\nAs they heard through pealing thunder, \u2018FERGUS SON OF ROY IS HERE!\u2019\n\n\u201cBrazen-sandall\u2019d, vapour-shrouded, moving in an icy blast,\nThrough the doorway terror-crowded, up the tables Fergus pass\u2019d:\u2014\n\u2018Stay thy hand, oh harper, pardon! cease the wild unearthly lay!\nMurgen, bear thy sire his guerdon.\u2019 Murgen sat, a shape of clay.\n\n\u201c \u2018Bear him on his bier beside me: never more in halls of Gort\nShall a niggard king deride me: slaves, of Sanchan make their sport!\nBut because the maiden\u2019s yearnings needs must also be condoled,\nHers shall be the dear-bought earnings, hers the twin-bright cups of\n            gold.\u2019\n\n\u201c \u2018Cups,\u2019 she cried, \u2018of bitter drinking, fling them far as arm can\n            throw!\u2019\nLet them in the ocean sinking, out of sight and memory go!\nLet the joinings of the rhythm, let the links of sense and sound\nOf the _Tain-Bo_ perish with them, lost as though they\u2019d ne\u2019er been\n            found!\u2019\n\n\u201cSo it comes, the lay, recover\u2019d once at such a deadly cost,\nEre one full recital suffer\u2019d, once again is all but lost:\nFor, the maiden\u2019s malediction still with many a blemish-stain\nClings in coarser garb of fiction round the fragments that remain.\u201d\n\n*The Phantom Chariot of Cuchulain*\n\nCuchulain, however, makes an impressive reappearance in a much later\nlegend of Christian origin, found in the twelfth-century \u201cBook of the Dun\nCow.\u201d He was summoned from Hell, we are told, by St. Patrick to prove the\ntruths of Christianity and the horrors of damnation to the pagan monarch,\nLaery mac Neill, King of Ireland. Laery, with St. Benen, a companion of\nPatrick, are standing on the Plain of mac Indoc when a blast of icy wind\nnearly takes them off their feet. It is the wind of Hell, Benen explains,\nafter its opening before Cuchulain. Then a dense mist covers the plain,\nand anon a huge phantom chariot with galloping horses, a grey and a black,\nloom up through the mist. Within it are the famous two, Cuchulain and his\ncharioteer, giant figures, armed with all the splendour of the Gaelic\nwarrior.\n\nCuchulain then talks to Laery, and urges him to \u201cbelieve in God and in\nholy Patrick, for it is not a demon that has come to thee, but Cuchulain\nson of Sualtam.\u201d To prove his identity he recounts his famous deeds of\narms, and ends by a piteous description of his present state:\n\n\u201cWhat I suffered of trouble,\n O Laery, by sea and land\u2014\n Yet more severe was a single night\n When the demon was wrathful!\n Great as was my heroism,\n Hard as was my sword,\n The devil crushed me with one finger\n Into the red charcoal!\u201d\n\nHe ends by beseeching Patrick that heaven may be granted to him, and the\nlegend tells that the prayer was granted and that Laery believed.\n\n*Death of Conor mac Nessa*\n\nChristian ideas have also gathered round the end of Cuchulain\u2019s lord, King\nConor of Ulster. The manner of his death was as follows: An unjust and\ncruel attack had been made by him on Mesgedra, King of Leinster, in which\nthat monarch met his death at the hand of Conall of the Victories.(167)\nConall took out the brains of the dead king and mingled them with lime to\nmake a sling-stone\u2014such \u201cbrain balls,\u201d as they were called, being\naccounted the most deadly of missiles. This ball was laid up in the king\u2019s\ntreasure-house at Emain Macha, where the Connacht champion, Ket son of\nMaga, found it one day when prowling in disguise through Ulster. Ket took\nit away and kept it always by him. Not long thereafter the Connacht men\ntook a spoil of cattle from Ulster, and the Ulster men, under Conor,\novertook them at a river-ford still called Athnurchar (The Ford of the\nSling-cast), in Westmeath. A battle was imminent, and many of the ladies\nof Connacht came to their side of the river to view the famous Ultonian\nwarriors, and especially Conor, the stateliest man of his time. Conor was\nwilling to show himself, and seeing none but women on the other bank he\ndrew near them; but Ket, who was lurking in ambush, now rose and slung the\nbrain-ball at Conor, striking him full in the forehead. Conor fell, and\nwas carried off by his routed followers. When they got him home, still\nliving, to Emain Macha, his physician, Fingen, pronounced that if the ball\nwere extracted from his head he must die; it was accordingly sewn up with\ngolden thread, and the king was bidden to keep himself from horse-riding\nand from all vehement passion and exertion, and he would do well.\n\nSeven years afterwards Conor saw the sun darken at noonday, and he\nsummoned his Druid to tell him the cause of the portent. The Druid, in a\nmagic trance, tells him of a hill in a distant land on which stand three\ncrosses with a human form nailed to each of them, and one of them is like\nthe Immortals. \u201cIs he a malefactor?\u201d then asks Conor. \u201cNay,\u201d says the\nDruid, \u201cbut the Son of the living God,\u201d and he relates to the king the\nstory of the death of Christ. Conor breaks out in fury, and drawing his\nsword he hacks at the oak-trees in the sacred grove, crying, \u201cThus would I\ndeal with his enemies,\u201d when with the excitement and exertion the\nbrain-ball bursts from his head, and he falls dead. And thus was the\nvengeance of Mesgedra fulfilled. With Conor and with Cuchulain the glory\nof the Red Branch and the dominance of Ulster passed away. The next, or\nOssianic, cycle of Irish legend brings upon the scene different\ncharacters, different physical surroundings, and altogether different\nideals of life.\n\n*Ket and the Boar of mac Datho*\n\nThe Connacht champion Ket, whose main exploit was the wounding of King\nConor at Ardnurchar, figures also in a very dramatic tale entitled \u201cThe\nCarving of mac Datho\u2019s Boar.\u201d The story runs as follows:\n\nOnce upon a time there dwelt in the province of Leinster a wealthy\nhospitable lord named Mesroda, son of Datho. Two possessions had he;\nnamely, a hound which could outrun every other hound and every wild beast\nin Erin, and a boar which was the finest and greatest in size that man had\never beheld.\n\nNow the fame of this hound was noised all about the land, and many were\nthe princes and lords who longed to possess it. And it came to pass that\nConor King of Ulster and Maev Queen of Connacht sent messengers to mac\nDatho to ask him to sell them the hound for a price, and both the\nmessengers arrived at the d\u016bn of mac Datho on the same day. Said the\nConnacht messenger: \u201cWe will give thee in exchange for the hound six\nhundred milch cows, and a chariot with two horses, the best that are to be\nfound in Connacht, and at the end of a year thou shalt have as much\nagain.\u201d And the messenger of King Conor said: \u201cWe will give no less than\nConnacht, and the friendship and alliance of Ulster, and that will be\nbetter for thee than the friendship of Connacht.\u201d\n\nThen Mesroda mac Datho fell silent, and for three days he would not eat or\ndrink, nor could he sleep o\u2019 nights, but tossed restlessly on his bed. His\nwife observed his condition, and said to him: \u201cThy fast hath been long,\nMesroda, though good food is by thee in plenty; and at night thou turnest\nthy face to the wall, and well I know thou dost not sleep. What is the\ncause of thy trouble?\u201d\n\n\u201cThere is a saying,\u201d replied Mac Datho, \u201c\u2019Trust not a thrall with money,\nnor a woman with a secret.\u2019\u201d\n\n\u201cWhen should a man talk to a woman,\u201d said his wife, \u201cbut when something\nwere amiss? What thy mind cannot solve perchance another\u2019s may.\u201d\n\nThen mac Datho told his wife of the request for his hound both from Ulster\nand from Connacht at one and the same time. \u201cAnd whichever of them I\ndeny,\u201d he said, \u201cthey will harry my cattle and slay my people.\u201d\n\n\u201cThen hear my counsel,\u201d said the woman. \u201cGive it to both of them, and bid\nthem come and fetch it; and if there be any harrying to be done, let them\neven harry each other; but in no way mayest thou keep the hound.\u201d\n\nMac Datho followed this wise counsel, and bade both Ulster and Connacht to\na great feast on the same day, saying to each of them that they could have\nthe hound afterwards.\n\nSo on the appointed day Conor of Ulster, and Maev, and their retinues of\nprinces and mighty men assembled at the d\u016bn of mac Datho. There they found\na great feast set forth, and to provide the chief dish mac Datho had\nkilled his famous boar, a beast of enormous size. The question now arose\nas to who should have the honourable task of carving it, and Bricriu of\nthe Poisoned Tongue characteristically, for the sake of the strife which\nhe loved, suggested that the warriors of Ulster and Connacht should\ncompare their principal deeds of arms, and give the carving of the boar to\nhim who seemed to have done best in the border-fighting which was always\ngoing on between the provinces. After much bandying of words and of taunts\nKet son of Maga arises and stands over the boar, knife in hand,\nchallenging each of the Ulster lords to match his deeds of valour. One\nafter another they arise, Cuscrid son of Conor, Keltchar, Moonremur, Laery\nthe Triumphant, and others\u2014Cuchulain is not introduced in this story\u2014and\nin each case Ket has some biting tale to tell of an encounter in which he\nhas come off better than they, and one by one they sit down shamed and\nsilenced. At last a shout of welcome is heard at the door of the hall and\nthe Ulstermen grow jubilant: Conall of the Victories has appeared on the\nscene. He strides up to the boar, and Ket and he greet each other with\nchivalrous courtesy:\n\n\u201cAnd now welcome to thee, O Conall, thou of the iron heart and fiery\nblood; keen as the glitter of ice, ever-victorious chieftain; hail, mighty\nson of Finnchoom!\u201d said Ket.\n\nAnd Conall said: \u201cHail to thee, Ket, flower of heroes, lord of chariots, a\nraging sea in battle; a strong, majestic bull; hail, son of Maga!\u201d\n\n\u201cAnd now,\u201d went on Conall, \u201crise up from the boar and give me place.\u201d\n\n\u201cWhy so?\u201d replied Ket.\n\n\u201cDost thou seek a contest from me?\u201d said Conall. \u201cVerily thou shalt have\nit. By the gods of my nation I swear that since I first took weapons in my\nhand I have never passed one day that I did not slay a Connacht man, nor\none night that I did not make a foray on them, nor have I ever slept but I\nhad the head of a Connacht man under my knee.\u201d\n\n\u201cI confess,\u201d then said Ket, \u201cthat thou art a better man than I, and I\nyield thee the boar. But if Anluan my brother were here, he would match\nthee deed for deed, and sorrow and shame it is that he is not.\u201d\n\n\u201cAnluan is here,\u201d shouted Conall, and with that he drew from his girdle\nthe head of Anluan and dashed it in the face of Ket.\n\nThen all sprang to their feet and a wild shouting and tumult arose, and\nthe swords flew out of themselves, and battle raged in the hall of mac\nDatho. Soon the hosts burst out through the doors of the d\u016bn and smote and\nslew each other in the open field, until the Connacht host were put to\nflight. The hound of mac Datho pursued the chariot of King Ailell of\nConnacht till the charioteer smote off its head, and so the cause of\ncontention was won by neither party, and mac Datho lost his hound, but\nsaved his lands and life.\n\n*The Death of Ket*\n\nThe death of Ket is told in Keating\u2019s \u201cHistory of Ireland.\u201d Returning from\na foray in Ulster, he was overtaken by Conall at the place called the Ford\nof Ket, and they fought long and desperately. At last Ket was slain, but\nConall of the Victories was in little better case, and lay bleeding to\ndeath when another Connacht champion named Be\u00e4lcu(168) found him. \u201cKill\nme,\u201d said Conall to him, \u201cthat it be not said I fell at the hand of _one_\nConnacht man.\u201d But Be\u00e4lcu said: \u201cI will not slay a man at the point of\ndeath, but I will bring thee home and heal thee, and when thy strength is\ncome again thou shalt fight with me in single combat.\u201d Then Be\u00e4lcu put\nConall on a litter and brought him home, and had him tended till his\nwounds were healed.\n\nThe three sons of Be\u00e4lcu, however, when they saw what the Ulster champion\nwas like in all his might, resolved to assassinate him before the combat\nshould take place. By a stratagem Conall contrived that they slew their\nown father instead; and then, taking the heads of the three sons, he went\nback, victoriously as he was wont, to Ulster.\n\n*The Death of Maev*\n\nThe tale of the death of Queen Maev is also preserved by Keating. Fergus\nmac Roy having been slain by Ailell with a cast of a spear as he bathed in\na lake with Maev, and Ailell having been slain by Conall, Maev retired to\nan island(169) on Loch Ryve, where she was wont to bathe early every\nmorning in a pool near to the landing-place. Forbay son of Conor mac\nNessa, having discovered this habit of the queen\u2019s, found means one day to\ngo unperceived to the pool and to measure the distance from it to the\nshore of the mainland. Then he went back to Emania, where he measured out\nthe distance thus obtained, and placing an apple on a pole at one end he\nshot at it continually with a sling until he grew so good a marksman at\nthat distance that he never missed his aim. Then one day, watching his\nopportunity by the shores of Loch Ryve, he saw Maev enter the water, and\nputting a bullet in his sling he shot at her with so good an aim that he\nsmote her in the centre of the forehead and she fell dead.\n\nThe great warrior-queen had reigned in Connacht, it was said, for\neighty-eight years. She is a signal example of the kind of women whom the\nGaelic bards delighted to portray. Gentleness and modesty were by no means\ntheir usual characteristics, but rather a fierce overflowing life.\nWomen-warriors like Skatha and Aifa are frequently met with, and one is\nreminded of the Gaulish women, with their mighty snow-white arms, so\ndangerous to provoke, of whom classical writers tell us. The Gaelic bards,\nwho in so many ways anticipated the ideas of chivalric romance, did not do\nso in setting women in a place apart from men. Women were judged and\ntreated like men, neither as drudges nor as goddesses, and we know that\nwell into historic times they went with men into battle, a practice only\nended in the sixth century.\n\n*Fergus mac Leda and the Wee Folk*\n\nOf the stories of the Ultonian Cycle which do not centre on the figure of\nCuchulain, one of the most interesting is that of Fergus mac Leda and the\nKing of the Wee Folk. In this tale Fergus appears as King of Ulster, but\nas he was contemporary with Conor mac Nessa, and in the Cattle Raid of\nQuelgny is represented as following him to war, we must conclude that he\nwas really a sub-king, like Cuchulain or Owen of Ferney.\n\nThe tale opens in Faylinn, or the Land of the Wee Folk, a race of elves\npresenting an amusing parody of human institutions on a reduced scale, but\nendowed (like dwarfish people generally in the literature of primitive\nraces) with magical powers. Iubdan,(170) the King of Faylinn, when flushed\nwith wine at a feast, is bragging of the greatness of his power and the\ninvincibility of his armed forces\u2014have they not the strong man Glower, who\nwith his axe has been known to hew down a thistle at a stroke? But the\nking\u2019s bard, Eisirt, has heard something of a giant race oversea in a land\ncalled Ulster, one man of whom would annihilate a whole battalion of the\nWee Folk, and he incautiously allows himself to hint as much to the\nboastful monarch. He is immediately clapped into prison for his audacity,\nand only gets free by promising to go immediately to the land of the\nmighty men, and bring back evidence of the truth of his incredible story.\n\nSo off he goes; and one fine day King Fergus and his lords find at the\ngate of their D\u016bn a tiny little fellow magnificently clad in the robes of\na royal bard, who demands entrance. He is borne in upon the hand of \u00c6da,\nthe king\u2019s dwarf and bard, and after charming the court by his wise and\nwitty sayings, and receiving a noble largesse, which he at once\ndistributes among the poets and other court attendants of Ulster, he goes\noff home, taking with him as a guest the dwarf \u00c6da, before whom the Wee\nFolk fly as a \u201cFomorian giant,\u201d although, as Eisirt explains, the average\nman of Ulster can carry him like a child. Iubdan is now convinced, but\nEisirt puts him under _geise_, the bond of chivalry which no Irish\nchieftain can repudiate without being shamed, to go himself, as Eisirt has\ndone, to the palace of Fergus and taste the king\u2019s porridge. Iubdan, after\nhe has seen \u00c6da, is much dismayed, but he prepares to go, and bids Bebo,\nhis wife, accompany him. \u201cYou did an ill deed,\u201d she says, \u201cwhen you\ncondemned Eisirt to prison; but surely there is no man under the sun that\ncan make thee hear reason.\u201d\n\nSo off they go, and Iubdan\u2019s fairy steed bears them over the sea till they\nreach Ulster, and by midnight they stand before the king\u2019s palace. \u201cLet us\ntaste the porridge as we were bound,\u201d says Bebo, \u201cand make off before\ndaybreak.\u201d They steal in and find the porridge-pot, to the rim of which\nIubdan can only reach by standing on his horse\u2019s back. In straining\ndownwards to get at the porridge he overbalances himself and falls in.\nThere in the thick porridge he sticks fast, and there Fergus\u2019s scullions\nfind him at the break of day, with the faithful Bebo lamenting. They bear\nhim off to Fergus, who is amazed at finding another wee man, with a woman\ntoo, in his palace. He treats them hospitably, but refuses all appeals to\nlet them go. The story now recounts in a spirit of broad humour several\nRabelaisian adventures in which Bebo is concerned, and gives a charming\npoem supposed to have been uttered by Iubdan in the form of advice to\nFergus\u2019s fire-gillie as to the merits for burning of different kinds of\ntimber. The following are extracts:\n\n\n    \u201cBurn not the sweet apple-tree of drooping branches, of the white\n    blossoms, to whose gracious head each man puts forth his hand.\u201d\n\n\n    \u201cBurn not the noble willow, the unfailing ornament of poems; bees\n    drink from its blossoms, all delight in the graceful tent.\u201d\n\n\n    \u201cThe delicate, airy tree of the Druids, the rowan with its\n    berries, this burn; but avoid the weak tree, burn not the slender\n    hazel.\u201d\n\n\n    \u201cThe ash-tree of the black buds burn not\u2014timber that speeds the\n    wheel, that yields the rider his switch; the ashen spear is the\n    scale-beam of battle.\u201d\n\n\nAt last the Wee Folk come in a great multitude to beg the release of\nIubdan. On the king\u2019s refusal they visit the country with various plagues,\nsnipping off the ears of corn, letting the calves suck all the cows dry,\ndefiling the wells, and so forth; but Fergus is obdurate. In their quality\nas earth-gods, _dei terreni_, they promise to make the plains before the\npalace of Fergus stand thick with corn every year without ploughing or\nsowing, but all is vain. At last, however, Fergus agrees to ransom Iubdan\nagainst the best of his fairy treasures, so Iubdan recounts them\u2014the\ncauldron that can never be emptied, the harp that plays of itself; and\nfinally he mentions a pair of water-shoes, wearing which a man can go over\nor under water as freely as on dry land. Fergus accepts the shoes, and\nIubdan is released.\n\n*The Blemish of Fergus*\n\nBut it is hard for a mortal to get the better of Fairyland\u2014a touch of\nhidden malice lurks in magical gifts, and so it proved now. Fergus was\nnever tired of exploring the depths of the lakes and rivers of Ireland;\nbut one day, in Loch Rury, he met with a hideous monster, the _Muirdris_,\nor river-horse, which inhabited that lake, and from which he barely saved\nhimself by flying to the shore. With the terror of this encounter his face\nwas twisted awry; but since a blemished man could not hold rule in\nIreland, his queen and nobles took pains, on some pretext, to banish all\nmirrors from the palace, and kept the knowledge of his condition from him.\nOne day, however, he smote a bondmaid with a switch, for some negligence,\nand the maid, indignant, cried out: \u201cIt were better for thee, Fergus, to\navenge thyself on the river-horse that hath twisted thy face than to do\nbrave deeds on women!\u201d Fergus bade fetch him a mirror, and looked in it.\n\u201cIt is true,\u201d he said; \u201cthe river-horse of Loch Rury has done this thing.\u201d\n\n*Death of Fergus*\n\nThe conclusion may be given in the words of Sir Samuel Ferguson\u2019s fine\npoem on this theme. Fergus donned the magic shoes, took sword in hand, and\nwent to Loch Rury:\n\n                 \u201cFor a day and night\nBeneath the waves he rested out of sight,\nBut all the Ultonians on the bank who stood\nSaw the loch boil and redden with his blood.\nWhen next at sunrise skies grew also red\nHe rose\u2014and in his hand the _Muirdris_\u2019 head.\nGone was the blemish! On his goodly face\nEach trait symmetric had resumed its place:\nAnd they who saw him marked in all his mien\nA king\u2019s composure, ample and serene.\nHe smiled; he cast his trophy to the bank,\nSaid, \u2019I, survivor, Ulstermen!\u2019 and sank.\"\n\nThis fine tale has been published in full from an Egerton MS., by Mr.\nStandish Hayes O\u2019Grady, in his \u201cSilva Gadelica.\u201d The humorous treatment of\nthe fairy element in the story would mark it as belonging to a late period\nof Irish legend, but the tragic and noble conclusion unmistakably signs it\nas belonging to the Ulster bardic literature, and it falls within the same\norder of ideas, if it were not composed within the same period, as the\ntales of Cuchulain.\n\n*Significance of Irish Place-Names*\n\nBefore leaving this great cycle of legendary literature let us notice what\nhas already, perhaps, attracted the attention of some readers\u2014the extent\nto which its chief characters and episodes have been commemorated in the\nstill surviving place-names of the country.(171) This is true of Irish\nlegend in general\u2014it is especially so of the Ultonian Cycle. Faithfully\nindeed, through many a century of darkness and forgetting, have these\nnames pointed to the hidden treasures of heroic romance which the labours\nof our own day are now restoring to light. The name of the little town of\nArdee, as we have seen,(172) commemorates the tragic death of Ferdia at\nthe hand of his \u201cheart companion,\u201d the noblest hero of the Gael. The ruins\nof D\u016bn Baruch, where Fergus was bidden to the treacherous feast, still\nlook over the waters of Moyle, across which Naisi and Deirdre sailed to\ntheir doom. Ardnurchar, the Hill of the Sling-cast, in Westmeath,(173)\nbrings to mind the story of the stately monarch, the crowd of gazing\nwomen, and the crouching enemy with the deadly missile which bore the\nvengeance of Mesgedra. The name of Armagh, or Ard Macha, the Hill of\nMacha, enshrines the memory of the Fairy Bride and her heroic sacrifice,\nwhile the grassy rampart can still be traced where the war-goddess in the\nearlier legend drew its outline with the pin of her brooch when she\nfounded the royal fortress of Ulster. Many pages might be filled with\nthese instances. Perhaps no modern country has place-names so charged with\nlegendary associations as are those of Ireland. Poetry and myth are there\nstill closely wedded to the very soil of the land\u2014a fact in which there\nlies ready to hand an agency for education, for inspiration, of the\nnoblest kind, if we only had the insight to see it and the art to make use\nof it.\n\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VI: TALES OF THE OSSIANIC CYCLE\n\n\n*The Fianna of Erin*\n\nAs the tales of the Ultonian Cycle cluster round the heroic figure of the\nHound of Cullan, so do those of the Ossianic Cycle round that of Finn mac\nCumhal,(174) whose son Ois\u012bn(175) (or Ossian, as Macpherson called him in\nthe pretended translations from the Gaelic which first introduced him to\nthe English-speaking world) was a poet as well as a warrior, and is the\ntraditional author of most of them. The events of the Ultonian Cycle are\nsupposed to have taken place about the time of the birth of Christ. Those\nof the Ossianic Cycle fell mostly in the reign of Cormac mac Art, who\nlived in the third century A.D. During his reign the Fianna of Erin, who\nare represented as a kind of military Order composed mainly of the members\nof two clans, Clan Bascna and Clan Morna, and who were supposed to be\ndevoted to the service of the High King and to the repelling of foreign\ninvaders, reached the height of their renown under the captaincy of Finn.\n\nThe annalists of ancient Ireland treated the story of Finn and the Fianna,\nin its main outlines, as sober history. This it can hardly be. Ireland had\nno foreign invaders during the period when the Fianna are supposed to have\nflourished, and the tales do not throw a ray of light on the real history\nof the country; they are far more concerned with a Fairyland populated by\nsupernatural beings, beautiful or terrible, than with any tract of real\nearth inhabited by real men and women. The modern critical reader of these\ntales will soon feel that it would be idle to seek for any basis of fact\nin this glittering mirage. But the mirage was created by poets and\nstorytellers of such rare gifts for this kind of literature that it took\nat once an extraordinary hold on the imagination of the Irish and Scottish\nGael.\n\n*The Ossianic Cycle*\n\nThe earliest tales of this cycle now extant are found in manuscripts of\nthe eleventh and twelfth centuries, and were composed probably a couple of\ncenturies earlier. But the cycle lasted in a condition of vital growth for\na thousand years, right down to Michael Comyn\u2019s \u201cLay of Oisin in the Land\nof Youth,\u201d which was composed about 1750, and which ended the long history\nof Gaelic literature.(176) It has been estimated(177) that if all the\ntales and poems of the Ossianic Cycle which still remain could be printed\nthey would fill some twenty-five volumes the size of this. Moreover, a\nvery great proportion of this literature, even if there were no\nmanuscripts at all, could during the last and the preceding centuries have\nbeen recovered from the lips of what has been absurdly called an\n\u201cilliterate\u201d peasantry in the Highlands and in the Gaelic-speaking parts\nor Ireland. It cannot but interest us to study the character of the\nliterature which was capable of exercising such a spell.\n\n*Contrasted with the Ultonian Cycle*\n\nLet us begin by saying that the reader will find himself in an altogether\ndifferent atmosphere from that in which the heroes of the Ultonian Cycle\nlive and move. Everything speaks of a later epoch, when life was gentler\nand softer, when men lived more in settlements and towns, when the Danaan\nFolk were more distinctly fairies and less deities, when in literature the\nelements of wonder and romance predominated, and the iron string of\nheroism and self-sacrifice was more rarely sounded. There is in the\nOssianic literature a conscious delight in wild nature, in scenery, in the\nsong of birds, the music of the chase through the woods, in mysterious and\nromantic adventure, which speaks unmistakably of a time when the free,\nopen-air life \u201cunder the greenwood tree\u201d is looked back on and idealised,\nbut no longer habitually lived, by those who celebrate it. There is also a\nsignificant change of _locale_. The Conorian tales were the product of a\nliterary movement having its sources among the bleak hills or on the stern\nrock-bound coasts of Ulster. In the Ossianic Cycle we find ourselves in\nthe Midlands or South of Ireland. Much of the action takes place amid the\nsoft witchery of the Killarney landscape, and the difference between the\ntwo regions is reflected in the ethical temper of the tales.\n\nIn the Ultonian Cycle it will have been noticed that however extravagantly\nthe supernatural element may be employed, the final significance of almost\nevery tale, the end to which all the supernatural machinery is worked, is\nsomething real and human, something that has to do with the virtues or\nvices, the passions or the duties or men and women. In the Ossianic Cycle,\nbroadly speaking, this is not so. The nobler vein of literature seems to\nhave been exhausted, and we have now beauty for the sake of beauty,\nromance for the sake of romance, horror or mystery for the sake of the\nexcitement they arouse. The Ossianic tales are, at their best,\n\n\n    \u201cLovely apparitions, sent To be a moment\u2019s ornament.\u201d\n\n\nThey lack that something, found in the noblest art as in the noblest\npersonalities, which has power \u201cto warn, to comfort, and command.\u201d\n\n*The Coming of Finn*\n\nKing Cormac mac Art was certainly a historical character, which is more,\nperhaps, than we can say of Conor mac Nessa. Whether there is any real\npersonage behind the glorious figure of his great captain, Finn, it is\nmore difficult to say. But for our purpose it is not necessary to go into\nthis question. He was a creation of the Celtic mind in one land and in one\nstage of its development, and our part here is to show what kind of\ncharacter the Irish mind liked to idealise and make stories about.\n\nFinn, like most of the Irish heroes, had a partly Danaan ancestry. His\nmother, Murna of the White Neck, was grand-daughter of Nuada of the Silver\nHand, who had wedded that Ethlinn, daughter of Balor the Fomorian, who\nbore the Sun-god Lugh to Kian. Cumhal son of Trenm\u014dr was Finn\u2019s father. He\nwas chief of the Clan Bascna, who were contending with the Clan Morna for\nthe leadership of the Fianna, and was overthrown and slain by these at the\nbattle of Knock.(178)\n\nAmong the Clan Morna was a man named Lia, the lord of Luachar in Connacht,\nwho was Treasurer of the Fianna, and who kept the Treasure Bag, a bag made\nof crane\u2019s skin and having in it magic weapons and jewels of great price\nthat had come down from the days of the Danaans. And he became Treasurer\nto the Clan Morna and still kept the bag at Rath Luachar.\n\nMurna, after the defeat and death of Cumhal, took refuge in the forests of\nSlieve Bloom,(179) and there she bore a man-child whom she named Demna.\nFor fear that the Clan Morna would find him out and slay him, she gave him\nto be nurtured in the wildwood by two aged women, and she herself became\nwife to the King of Kerry. But Demna, when he grew up to be a lad, was\ncalled \u201cFinn,\u201d or the Fair One, on account of the whiteness of his skin\nand his golden hair, and by this name he was always known thereafter. His\nfirst deed was to slay Lia, who had the Treasure Bag of the Fianna, which\nhe took from him. He then sought out his uncle Crimmal, who, with a few\nother old men, survivors of the chiefs of Clan Bascna, had escaped the\nsword at Castleknock, and were living in much penury and affliction in the\nrecesses of the forests of Connacht. These he furnished with a retinue and\nguard from among a body of youths who followed his fortunes, and gave them\nthe Treasure Bag. He himself went to learn the accomplishments of poetry\nand science from an ancient sage and Druid named Finegas, who dwelt on the\nriver Boyne. Here, in a pool of this river, under boughs of hazel from\nwhich dropped the Nuts of Knowledge on the stream, lived Fintan the Salmon\nof Knowledge, which whoso ate of him would enjoy all the wisdom of the\nages. Finegas had sought many a time to catch this salmon, but failed\nuntil Finn had come to be his pupil. Then one day he caught it, and gave\nit to Finn to cook, bidding him eat none of it himself, but to tell him\nwhen it was ready. When the lad brought the salmon, Finegas saw that his\ncountenance was changed. \u201cHast thou eaten of the salmon?\u201d he asked. \u201cNay,\u201d\nsaid Finn, \u201cbut when I turned it on the spit my thumb was burnt, and I put\nit to my mouth.\u201d \u201cTake the Salmon of Knowledge and eat it,\u201d then said\nFinegas, \u201cfor in thee the prophecy is come true. And now go hence, for I\ncan teach thee no more.\u201d\n\nAfter that Finn became as wise as he was strong and bold, and it is said\nthat whenever he wished to divine what would befall, or what was happening\nat a distance, he had but to put his thumb in his mouth and bite it, and\nthe knowledge he wished for would be his.\n\n*Finn and the Goblin*\n\nAt this time Goll son of Morna was the captain of the Fianna of Erin, but\nFinn, being come to man\u2019s estate, wished to take the place of his father\nCumhal. So he went to Tara, and during the Great Assembly, when no man\nmight raise his hand against any other in the precincts of Tara, he sat\ndown among the king\u2019s warriors and the Fianna. At last the king marked him\nas a stranger among them, and bade him declare his name and lineage. \u201cI am\nFinn son of Cumhal,\u201d said he, \u201cand I am come to take service with thee, O\nKing, as my father did.\u201d The king accepted him gladly, and Finn swore\nloyal service to him. No long time after that came the period of the year\nwhen Tara was troubled by a goblin or demon that came at nightfall and\nblew fire-balls against the royal city, setting it in flames, and none\ncould do battle with him, for as he came he played on a harp a music so\nsweet that each man who heard it was lapped in dreams, and forgot all else\non earth for the sake of listening to that music. When this was told to\nFinn he went to the king and said: \u201cShall I, if I slay the goblin, have my\nfather\u2019s place as captain of the Fianna?\u201d \u201cYea, surely,\u201d said the king,\nand he bound himself to this by an oath.\n\nNow there were among the men-at-arms an old follower of Finn\u2019s father,\nCumhal, who possessed a magic spear with a head of bronze and rivets of\nArabian gold. The head was kept laced up in a leathern case; and it had\nthe property that when the naked blade was laid against the forehead of a\nman it would fill him with a strength and a battle-fury that would make\nhim invincible in every combat. This spear the man Fiacha gave to Finn,\nand taught him how to use it, and with it he awaited the coming of the\ngoblin on the ramparts of Tara. As night fell and mists began to gather in\nthe wide plain around the Hill he saw a shadowy form coming swiftly\ntowards him, and heard the notes of the magic harp. But laying the spear\nto his brow he shook off the spell, and the phantom fled before him to the\nFairy Mound of Slieve Fuad, and there Finn overtook and slew him, and bore\nback his head to Tara.\n\nThen Cormac the King set Finn before the Fianna, and bade them all either\nswear obedience to him as their captain or seek service elsewhere. And\nfirst of all Goll mac Morna swore service, and then all the rest followed,\nand Finn became Captain of the Fianna of Erin, and ruled them till he\ndied.\n\n*Finn\u2019s Chief Men: Conan mac Lia*\n\nWith the coming of Finn the Fianna of Erin came to their glory, and with\nhis life their glory passed away. For he ruled them as no other captain\never did, both strongly and wisely, and never bore a grudge against any,\nbut freely forgave a man all offences save disloyalty to his lord. Thus it\nis told that Conan, son of the lord of Luachar, him who had the Treasure\nBag and whom Finn slew at Rath Luachar, was for seven years an outlaw and\nmarauder, harrying the Fians and killing here a man and there a hound, and\nfiring dwellings, and raiding their cattle. At last they ran him to a\ncorner at Carn Lewy, in Munster, and when he saw that he could escape no\nmore he stole upon Finn as he sat down after a chase, and flung his arms\nround him from behind, holding him fast and motionless. Finn knew who held\nhim thus, and said: \u201cWhat wilt thou, Conan?\u201d Conan said: \u201cTo make a\ncovenant of service and fealty with thee, for I may no longer evade thy\nwrath.\u201d So Finn laughed and said: \u201cBe it so, Conan, and if thou prove\nfaithful and valiant I also will keep faith.\u201d Conan served him for thirty\nyears, and no man of all the Fianna was keener and hardier in fight.\n\n*Conan mac Morna*\n\nThere was also another Conan, namely, mac Morna, who was big and bald, and\nunwieldy in manly exercises, but whose tongue was bitter and scurrilous;\nno high or brave thing was done that Conan the Bald did not mock and\nbelittle. It is said that when he was stripped he showed down his back and\nbuttocks a black sheep\u2019s fleece instead of a man\u2019s skin, and this is the\nway it came about. One day when Conan and certain others of the Fianna\nwere hunting in the forest they came to a stately d\u016bn, white-walled, with\ncoloured thatching on the roof, and they entered it to seek hospitality.\nBut when they were within they found no man, but a great empty hall with\npillars of cedar-wood and silken hangings about it, like the hall of a\nwealthy lord. In the midst there was a table set forth with a sumptuous\nfeast of boar\u2019s flesh and venison, and a great vat of yew-wood full of red\nwine, and cups of gold and silver. So they set themselves gaily to eat and\ndrink, for they were hungry from the chase, and talk and laughter were\nloud around the board. But one of them ere long started to his feet with a\ncry of fear and wonder, and they all looked round, and saw before their\neyes the tapestried walls changing to rough wooden beams, and the ceiling\nto foul sooty thatch like that of a herdsman\u2019s hut. So they knew they were\nbeing entrapped by some enchantment of the Fairy Folk, and all sprang to\ntheir feet and made for the doorway, that was no longer high and stately,\nbut was shrinking to the size of a fox earth\u2014all but Conan the Bald, who\nwas gluttonously devouring the good things on the table, and heeded\nnothing else. Then they shouted to him, and as the last of them went out\nhe strove to rise and follow, but found himself limed to the chair so that\nhe could not stir. So two of the Fianna, seeing his plight, rushed back\nand seized his arms and tugged with all their might, and as they dragged\nhim away they left the most part of his raiment and his skin sticking to\nthe chair. Then, not knowing what else to do with him in his sore plight,\nthey clapped upon his back the nearest thing they could find, which was\nthe skin of a black sheep that they took from a peasant\u2019s flock hard by,\nand it grew there, and Conan wore it till his death.\n\nThough Conan was a coward and rarely adventured himself in battle with the\nFianna, it is told that once a good man fell by his hand. This was on the\nday of the great battle with the pirate horde on the Hill of Slaughter in\nKerry.(180) For Liagan, one of the invaders, stood out before the hosts\nand challenged the bravest of the Fians to single combat, and the Fians in\nmockery thrust Conan forth to the fight. When he appeared Liagan laughed,\nfor he had more strength than wit, and he said: \u201cSilly is thy visit, thou\nbald old man.\u201d And as Conan still approached Liagan lifted his hand\nfiercely, and Conan said: \u201cTruly thou art in more peril from the man\nbehind than from the man in front.\u201d Liagan looked round; and in that\ninstant Conan swept off his head, and then threw his sword and ran for\nshelter to the ranks of the laughing Fians. But Finn was very wroth\nbecause he had won the victory by a trick.\n\n*Dermot O\u2019Dyna*\n\nAnd one of the chiefest of the friends of Finn was Dermot of the Love\nSpot. He was so fair and noble to look on that no woman could refuse him\nlove, and it was said that he never knew weariness, but his step was as\nlight at the end of the longest day of battle or the chase as it was at\nthe beginning. Between him and Finn there was great love, until the day\nwhen Finn, then an old man, was to wed Grania, daughter of Cormac the High\nKing; but Grania bound Dermot by the sacred ordinances of the Fian\nchivalry to fly with her on her wedding night, which thing, sorely against\nhis will, he did, and thereby got his death. But Grania went back to Finn,\nand when the Fianna saw her they laughed through all the camp in bitter\nmockery, for they would not have given one of the dead man\u2019s fingers for\ntwenty such as Grania.\n\n*Keelta mac Ronan and Ois\u012bn*\n\nAnother of the chief men that Finn had was Keelta mac Ronan, who was one\nof his house-stewards, and a strong warrior as well as a golden-tongued\nreciter of tales and poems. And there was Ois\u012bn, the son of Finn, the\ngreatest poet of the Gael, of whom more shall be told hereafter.\n\n*Oscar*\n\nOis\u012bn had a son, Oscar, who was the fiercest fighter in battle among all\nthe Fians. He slew in his maiden battle three kings, and in his fury he\nalso slew by mischance his own friend and condisciple Linn\u00e9. His wife was\nthe fair Aideen, who died of grief after Oscar\u2019s death in the battle of\nGowra, and Ois\u012bn buried her on Ben Edar (Howth), and raised over her the\ngreat dolmen which is there to this day. Oscar appears in this literature\nas a type of hard strength, with a heart \u201clike twisted horn sheathed in\nsteel,\u201d a character made as purely for war as a sword or spear.\n\n*Geena mac Luga*\n\nAnother good man that Finn had was Geena, the son of Luga; his mother was\nthe warrior-daughter of Finn, and his father was a near kinsman of hers.\nHe was nurtured by a woman that bore the name of Fair Mane, who had\nbrought up many of the Fianna to manhood. When his time to take arms was\ncome he stood before Finn and made his covenant of fealty, and Finn gave\nhim the captaincy of a band. But mac Luga proved slothful and selfish, for\never vaunting himself and his weapon-skill, and never training his men to\nthe chase of deer or boar, and he used to beat his hounds and his\nserving-men. At last the Fians under him came with their whole company to\nFinn at Loch Lena, in Killarney, and there they laid their complaint\nagainst mac Luga, and said: \u201cChoose now, O Finn, whether you will have us\nor the son of Luga by himself.\u201d\n\nThen Finn sent to mac Luga and questioned him, but mac Luga could say\nnothing to the point as to why the Fianna would none of him. Then Finn\ntaught him the things befitting a youth of noble birth and a captain of\nmen, and they were these:\n\n*Maxims of the Fianna*\n\n\u201cSon of Luga, if armed service be thy design, in a great man\u2019s household\nbe quiet, be surly in the narrow pass.\n\n\u201cWithout a fault of his beat not thy hound; until thou ascertain her\nguilt, bring not a charge against thy wife.\n\n\u201cIn battle meddle not with a buffoon, for, O mac Luga, he is but a fool.\n\n\u201cCensure not any if he be of grave repute; stand not up to take part in a\nbrawl; have naught to do with a madman or a wicked one.\n\n\u201cTwo-thirds of thy gentleness be shown to women and to those that creep on\nthe floor (little children) and to poets, and be not violent to the common\npeople.\n\n\u201cUtter not swaggering speech, nor say thou wilt not yield what is right;\nit is a shameful thing to speak too stiffly unless that it be feasible to\ncarry out thy words.\n\n\u201cSo long as thou shalt live, thy lord forsake not; neither for gold nor\nfor other reward in the world abandon one whom thou art pledged to\nprotect.\n\n\u201cTo a chief do not abuse his people, for that is no work for a man of\ngentle blood.\n\n\u201cBe no tale-bearer, nor utterer of falsehoods; be not talkative nor rashly\ncensorious. Stir not up strife against thee, however good a man thou be.\n\n\u201cBe no frequenter of the drinking-house, nor given to carping at the old;\nmeddle not with a man of mean estate.\n\n\u201cDispense thy meat freely; have no niggard for thy familiar.\n\n\u201cForce not thyself upon a chief, nor give him cause to speak ill of thee.\n\n\u201cStick to thy gear; hold fast to thy arms till the stern fight with its\nweapon-glitter be ended.\n\n\u201cBe more apt to give than to deny, and follow after gentleness, O son of\nLuga.\u201d\n\nAnd the son of Luga, it is written, heeded these counsels, and gave up his\nbad ways, and he became one of the best of Finn\u2019s men.\n\n*Character of Finn*\n\nSuchlike things also Finn taught to all his followers, and the best of\nthem became like himself in valour and gentleness and generosity. Each of\nthem loved the repute of his comrades more than his own, and each would\nsay that for all noble qualities there was no man in the breadth of the\nworld worthy to be thought of beside Finn.\n\nIt was said of him that \u201che gave away gold as if it were the leaves of the\nwoodland, and silver as if it were the foam of the sea\u201d; and that whatever\nhe had bestowed upon any man, if he fell out with him afterwards, he was\nnever known to bring it against him.\n\nThe poet Ois\u012bn once sang of him to St. Patrick:\n\n\u201cThese are the things that were dear to Finn\u2014\n   The din of battle, the banquet\u2019s glee,\n The bay of his hounds through the rough glen ringing,\n   And the blackbird singing in Letter Lee,\n\n\u201cThe shingle grinding along the shore\n   When they dragged his war-boats down to sea,\n The dawn wind whistling his spears among,\n   And the magic song of his minstrels three.\u201d\n\n*Tests of the Fianna*\n\nIn the time of Finn no one was ever permitted to be one of the Fianna of\nErin unless he could pass through many severe tests of his worthiness. He\nmust be versed in the Twelve Books of Poetry, and must himself be skilled\nto make verse in the rime and metre of the masters of Gaelic poesy. Then\nhe was buried to his middle in the earth, and must, with a shield and a\nhazel stick, there defend himself against nine warriors casting spears at\nhim, and if he were wounded he was not accepted. Then his hair was woven\ninto braids, and he was chased through the forest by the Fians. If he were\novertaken, or if a braid of his hair were disturbed, or if a dry stick\ncracked under his foot, he was not accepted. He must be able to leap over\na lath level with his brow, and to run at full speed under one level with\nhis knee, and he must be able while running to draw out a thorn from his\nfoot and never slacken speed. He must take no dowry with a wife.\n\n*Keelta and St. Patrick*\n\nIt was said that one of the Fians, namely, Keelta, lived on to a great\nage, and saw St. Patrick, by whom he was baptized into the faith of the\nChrist, and to whom he told many tales of Finn and his men, which\nPatrick\u2019s scribe wrote down. And once Patrick asked him how it was that\nthe Fianna became so mighty and so glorious that all Ireland sang of their\ndeeds, as Ireland has done ever since. Keelta answered: \u201cTruth was in our\nhearts and strength in our arms, and what we said, that we fulfilled.\u201d\n\nThis was also told of Keelta after he had seen St. Patrick and received\nthe Faith. He chanced to be one day by Leyney, in Connacht, where the\nFairy Folk of the Mound of Duma were wont to be sorely harassed and\nspoiled every year by pirates from oversea. They called Keelta to their\naid, and by his counsel and valour the invaders were overcome and driven\nhome; but Keelta was sorely wounded. Then Keelta asked that Owen, the seer\nof the Fairy Folk, might foretell him how long he had to live, for he was\nalready a very aged man. Owen said: \u201cIt will be seventeen years, O Keelta\nof fair fame, till thou fall by the pool of Tara, and grievous that will\nbe to all the king\u2019s household.\u201d \u201cEven so did my chief and lord, my\nguardian and loving protector, Finn, foretell to me,\u201d said Keelta. \u201cAnd\nnow what fee will ye give me for my rescue of you from the worst\naffliction that ever befell you?\u201d \u201cA great reward,\u201d said the Fairy Folk,\n\u201ceven youth; for by our art we shall change you into a young man again\nwith all the strength and activity of your prime.\u201d \u201cNay, God forbid,\u201d said\nKeelta, \u201cthat I should take upon me a shape of sorcery, or any other than\nthat which my Maker, the true and glorious God, hath bestowed upon me.\u201d\nAnd the Fairy Folk said: \u201cIt is the word of a true warrior and hero, and\nthe thing that thou sayest is good.\u201d So they healed his wounds, and every\nbodily evil that he had, and he wished them blessing and victory, and went\nhis way.\n\n*The Birth of Ois\u012bn*\n\nOne day, as Finn and his companions and dogs were returning from the chase\nto their d\u016bn on the Hill of Allen, a beautiful fawn started up on their\npath, and the chase swept after her, she taking the way which led to their\nhome. Soon all the pursuers were left far behind save only Finn himself\nand his two hounds Bran and Skolawn. Now these hounds were of strange\nbreed; for Tyren, sister to Murna, the mother of Finn, had been changed\ninto a hound by the enchantment of a woman of the Fairy Folk, who loved\nTyren\u2019s husband Ullan; and the two hounds of Finn were the children of\nTyren, born to her in that shape. Of all hounds in Ireland they were the\nbest, and Finn loved them much, so that it was said he wept but twice in\nhis life, and once was for the death of Bran.\n\nAt last, as the chase went on down a valley-side, Finn saw the fawn stop\nand lie down, while the two hounds began to play round her, and to lick\nher face and limbs. So he gave commandment that none should hurt her, and\nshe followed them to the D\u016bn of Allen, playing with the hounds as she\nwent.\n\nThe same night Finn awoke and saw standing by his bed the fairest woman\nhis eyes had ever beheld.\n\n\u201cI am Saba, O Finn,\u201d she said, \u201cand I was the fawn ye chased to-day.\nBecause I would not give my love to the Druid of the Fairy Folk, who is\nnamed the Dark, he put that shape upon me by his sorceries, and I have\nborne it these three years. But a slave of his, pitying me, once revealed\nto me that if I could win to thy great D\u016bn of Allen, O Finn, I should be\nsafe from all enchantments, and my natural shape would come to me again.\nBut I feared to be torn in pieces by thy dogs, or wounded by thy hunters,\ntill at last I let myself be overtaken by thee alone and by Bran and\nSkolawn, who have the nature of man and would do me no hurt.\u201d \u201cHave no\nfear, maiden,\u201d said Finn; \u201cwe, the Fianna, are free, and our guest-friends\nare free; there is none who shall put compulsion on you here.\u201d\n\nSo Saba dwelt with Finn, and he made her his wife; and so deep was his\nlove for her that neither the battle nor the chase had any delight for\nhim, and for months he never left her side. She also loved him as deeply,\nand their joy in each other was like that of the Immortals in the Land of\nYouth. But at last word came to Finn that the warships of the Northmen\nwere in the Bay of Dublin, and he summoned his heroes to the fight; \u201cFor,\u201d\nsaid he to Saba, \u201cthe men of Erin give us tribute and hospitality to\ndefend them from the foreigner, and it were shame to take it from them and\nnot to give that to which we, on our side, are pledged.\u201d And he called to\nmind that great saying of Goll mac Morna when they were once sore bestead\nby a mighty host. \u201cA man,\u201d said Goll, \u201clives after his life, but not after\nhis honour.\u201d\n\nSeven days was Finn absent, and he drove the Northmen from the shores of\nErin. But on the eighth day he returned, and when he entered his d\u016bn he\nsaw trouble in the eyes of his men, and of their fair womenfolk, and Saba\nwas not on the rampart expecting his return. So he bade them tell him what\nhad chanced, and they said:\n\n\u201cWhilst thou, our father and lord, wert afar off smiting the foreigner,\nand Saba looking ever down the pass for thy return, we saw one day as it\nwere the likeness of thee approaching, and Bran and Skolawn at thy heels.\nAnd we seemed also to hear the notes of the Fian hunting-call blown on the\nwind. Then Saba hastened to the great gate, and we could not stay her, so\neager was she to rush to the phantom. But when she came near she halted\nand gave a loud and bitter cry, and the shape of thee smote her with a\nhazel wand, and lo, there was no woman there any more, but a deer. Then\nthose hounds chased it, and ever as it strove to reach again the gate of\nthe d\u016bn they turned back. We all now seized what arms we could and ran out\nto drive away the enchanter, but when we reached the place there was\nnothing to be seen, only still we heard the rushing of flying feet and the\nbaying of dogs, and one thought it came from here, and another from there,\ntill at last the uproar died away and all was still. What we could do, O\nFinn, we did; Saba is gone.\u201d\n\nFinn then struck his hand on his breast, but spoke no word, and he went to\nhis own chamber. No man saw him for the rest of that day, nor for the day\nafter. Then he came forth, and ordered the matters of the Fianna as of\nold, but for seven years thereafter he went searching for Saba through\nevery remote glen and dark forest and cavern of Ireland, and he would take\nno hounds with him save Bran and Skolawn. But at last he renounced all\nhope of finding her again, and went hunting as of old.\n\nOne day as he was following the chase on Ben Bulban, in Sligo, he heard\nthe musical bay of the dogs change of a sudden to a fierce growling and\nyelping, as though they were in combat with some beast, and running\nhastily up he and his men beheld, under a great tree, a naked boy with\nlong hair, and around him the hounds struggling to seize him, but Bran and\nSkolawn fighting with them and keeping them off. And the lad was tall and\nshapely, and as the heroes gathered round he gazed undauntedly on them,\nnever heeding the rout of dogs at his feet. The Fians beat off the dogs\nand brought the lad home with them, and Finn was very silent and\ncontinually searched the lad\u2019s countenance with his eyes. In time the use\nof speech came to him, and the story that he told was this:\n\nHe had known no father, and no mother save a gentle hind, with whom he\nlived in a most green and pleasant valley shut in on every side by\ntowering cliffs that could not be scaled or by deep chasms in the earth.\nIn the summer he lived on fruits and suchlike, and in the winter store of\nprovisions was laid for him in a cave. And there came to them sometimes a\ntall, dark-visaged man, who spoke to his mother, now tenderly, and now in\nloud menace, but she always shrank away in fear, and the man departed in\nanger. At last there came a day when the dark man spoke very long with his\nmother in all tones of entreaty and of tenderness and of rage, but she\nwould still keep aloof and give no sign save of fear and abhorrence. Then\nat length the dark man drew near and smote her with a hazel wand; and with\nthat he turned and went his way, but she this time followed him, still\nlooking back at her son and piteously complaining. And he, when he strove\nto follow, found himself unable to move a limb; and crying out with rage\nand desolation he fell to the earth, and his senses left him.\n\nWhen he came to himself he was on the mountain-side on Ben Bulban, where\nhe remained some days, searching for that green and hidden valley, which\nhe never found again. And after a while the dogs found him; but of the\nhind his mother and of the Dark Druid there is no man knows the end.\n\nFinn called his name Ois\u012bn (Little Fawn), and he became a warrior of fame,\nbut far more famous for the songs and tales that he made; so that of all\nthings to this day that are told of the Fianna of Erin men are wont to\nsay: \u201cThus sang the bard Ois\u012bn, son of Finn.\u201d\n\n*Ois\u012bn and Niam*\n\nIt happened that on a misty summer morning as Finn and Ois\u012bn with many\ncompanions were hunting on the shores of Loch Lena they saw coming towards\nthem a maiden, beautiful exceedingly, riding on a snow-white steed. She\nwore the garb of a queen; a crown of gold was on her head, and a\ndark-brown mantle of silk, set with stars of red gold, fell around her and\ntrailed on the ground. Silver shoes were on her horse\u2019s hoofs, and a crest\nof gold nodded on his head. When she came near she said to Finn: \u201cFrom\nvery far away I have come, and now at last I have found thee, Finn son of\nCumhal.\u201d\n\nThen Finn said: \u201cWhat is thy land and race, maiden, and what dost thou\nseek from me?\u201d\n\n\u201cMy name,\u201d she said, \u201cis Niam of the Golden Hair. I am the daughter of the\nKing of the Land of Youth, and that which has brought me here is the love\nof thy son Ois\u012bn.\u201d Then she turned to Ois\u012bn, and she spoke to him in the\nvoice of one who has never asked anything but it was granted to her.\n\n\u201cWilt thou go with me, Ois\u012bn, to my father\u2019s land?\u201d\n\nAnd Ois\u012bn said: \u201cThat will I, and to the world\u2019s end\u201d; for the fairy spell\nhad so wrought upon his heart that he cared no more for any earthly thing\nbut to have the love of Niam of the Head of Gold.\n\nThen the maiden spoke of the Land Oversea to which she had summoned her\nlover, and as she spoke a dreamy stillness fell on all things, nor did a\nhorse shake his bit, nor a hound bay, nor the least breath of wind stir in\nthe forest trees till she had made an end. And what she said seemed\nsweeter and more wonderful as she spoke it than anything they could\nafterwards remember to have heard, but so far as they could remember it it\nwas this:\n\n\u201cDelightful is the land beyond all dreams,\n Fairer than aught thine eyes have ever seen.\n There all the year the fruit is on the tree,\n And all the year the bloom is on the flower.\n\n\u201cThere with wild honey drip the forest trees;\n The stores of wine and mead shall never fail.\n Nor pain nor sickness knows the dweller there,\n Death and decay come near him never more.\n\n\u201cThe feast shall cloy not, nor the chase shall tire,\n Nor music cease for ever through the hall;\n The gold and jewels of the Land of Youth\n Outshine all splendours ever dreamed by man.\n\n\u201cThou shalt have horses of the fairy breed,\n Thou shalt have hounds that can outrun the wind;\n A hundred chiefs shall follow thee in war,\n A hundred maidens sing thee to thy sleep.\n\n\u201cA crown of sovranty thy brow shall wear,\n And by thy side a magic blade shall hang,\n And thou shalt be lord of all the Land of Youth,\n And lord of Niam of the Head of Gold.\u201d\n\nAs the magic song ended the Fians beheld Ois\u012bn mount the fairy steed and\nhold the maiden in his arms, and ere they could stir or speak she turned\nher horse\u2019s head and shook the ringing bridle, and down the forest glade\nthey fled, as a beam of light flies over the land when clouds drive across\nthe sun; and never did the Fianna behold Ois\u012bn son of Finn on earth again.\n\nYet what befell him afterwards is known. As his birth was strange, so was\nhis end, for he saw the wonders of the Land of Youth with mortal eyes and\nlived to tell them with mortal lips.\n\n*The Journey to Fairyland*\n\nWhen the white horse with its riders reached the sea it ran lightly over\nthe waves, and soon the green woods and headlands of Erin faded out of\nsight. And now the sun shone fiercely down, and the riders passed into a\ngolden haze in which Ois\u012bn lost all knowledge of where he was or if sea or\ndry land were beneath his horse\u2019s hoofs. But strange sights sometimes\nappeared to them in the mist, for towers and palace gateways loomed up and\ndisappeared, and once a hornless doe bounded by them chased by a white\nhound with one red ear; and again they saw a young maid ride by on a brown\nsteed, bearing a golden apple in her hand, and close behind her followed a\nyoung horseman on a white steed, a purple cloak floating at his back and a\ngold-hilted sword in his hand. And Ois\u012bn would have asked the princess who\nand what these apparitions were, but Niam bade him ask nothing nor seem to\nnotice any phantom they might see until they were come to the Land of\nYouth.\n\n*Ois\u012bn\u2019s Return*\n\nThe story goes on to tell how Ois\u012bn met with various adventures in the\nLand of Youth, including the rescue of an imprisoned princess from a\nFomorian giant. But at last, after what seemed to him a sojourn of three\nweeks in the Land of Youth, he was satiated with delights of every kind,\nand longed to visit his native land again and to see his old comrades. He\npromised to return when he had done so, and Niam gave him the white fairy\nsteed that had borne him across the sea to Fairyland, but charged him that\nwhen he had reached the Land of Erin again he must never alight from its\nback nor touch the soil of the earthly world with his foot, or the way of\nreturn to the Land of Youth would be barred to him for ever. Ois\u012bn then\nset forth, and once more crossed the mystic ocean, finding himself at last\non the western shores of Ireland. Here he made at once for the Hill of\nAllen, where the d\u016bn of Finn was wont to be, but marvelled, as he\ntraversed the woods, that he met no sign of the Fian hunters and at the\nsmall size of the folk whom he saw tilling the ground.\n\nAt length, coming from the forest path into the great clearing where the\nHill of Allen was wont to rise, broad and green, with its rampart\nenclosing many white-walled dwellings, and the great hall towering high in\nthe midst, he saw but grassy mounds overgrown with rank weeds and whin\nbushes, and among them pastured a peasant\u2019s kine. Then a strange horror\nfell upon him and he thought some enchantment from the land of Fa\u00ebry held\nhis eyes and mocked him with false visions. He threw his arms abroad and\nshouted the names of Finn and Oscar, but none replied, and he thought that\nperchance the hounds might hear him, so he cried upon Bran and Skolawn and\nstrained his ears if they might catch the faintest rustle or whisper of\nthe world from the sight of which his eyes were holden, but he heard only\nthe sighing of the wind in the whins. Then he rode in terror from that\nplace, setting his face towards the eastern sea, for he meant to traverse\nIreland from side to side and end to end in search of some escape from his\nenchantment.\n\n*The Broken Spell*\n\nBut when he came near to the eastern sea, and was now in the place which\nis called the Valley of the Thrushes,(181) he saw in a field upon the\nhillside a crowd of men striving to roll aside a great boulder from their\ntilled land, and an overseer directing them. Towards them he rode, meaning\nto ask them concerning Finn and the Fianna. As he came near they all\nstopped their work to gaze upon him, for to them he appeared like a\nmessenger of the Fairy Folk or an angel from heaven. Taller and mightier\nhe was than the men-folk they knew, with sword-blue eyes and brown, ruddy\ncheeks; in his mouth, as it were, a shower of pearls, and bright hair\nclustered beneath the rim of his helmet. And as Ois\u012bn looked upon their\npuny forms, marred by toil and care, and at the stone which they feebly\nstrove to heave from its bed, he was filled with pity, and thought to\nhimself, \u201cNot such were even the churls of Erin when I left them for the\nLand of Youth\u201d and he stooped from his saddle to help them. He set his\nhand to the boulder, and with a mighty heave he lifted it from where it\nlay and set it rolling down the hill. And the men raised a shout of wonder\nand applause; but their shouting changed in a moment into cries of terror\nand dismay, and they fled, jostling and overthrowing each other to escape\nfrom the place of fear, for a marvel horrible to see had taken place. For\nOis\u012bn\u2019s saddle-girth had burst as he heaved the stone and he fell headlong\nto the ground. In an instant the white steed had vanished from their eyes\nlike a wreath of mist, and that which rose, feeble and staggering, from\nthe ground was no youthful warrior, but a man stricken with extreme old\nage, white-bearded and withered, who stretched out groping hands and\nmoaned with feeble and bitter cries. And his crimson cloak and yellow\nsilken tunic were now but coarse homespun stuff tied with a hempen girdle,\nand the gold-hilted sword was a rough oaken staff such as a beggar carries\nwho wanders the roads from farmer\u2019s house to house.\n\nWhen the people saw that the doom that had been wrought was not for them\nthey returned, and found the old man prone on the ground with his face\nhidden in his arms. So they lifted him up, and asked who he was and what\nhad befallen him. Ois\u012bn gazed round on them with dim eyes, and at last he\nsaid: \u201cI was Ois\u012bn the son of Finn, and I pray ye tell me where he dwells,\nfor his d\u016bn on the Hill of Allen is now a desolation, and I have neither\nseen him nor heard his hunting-horn from the western to the eastern sea.\u201d\nThen the men gazed strangely on each other and on Ois\u012bn, and the overseer\nasked: \u201cOf what Finn dost thou speak, for there be many of that name in\nErin?\u201d Ois\u012bn said: \u201cSurely of Finn mac Cumhal mac Trenm\u014dr, captain of the\nFianna of Erin.\u201d Then the overseer said: \u201cThou art daft, old man, and thou\nhast made us daft to take thee for a youth as we did a while agone. But we\nat least have now our wits again, and we know that Finn son of Cumhal and\nall his generation have been dead these three hundred years. At the battle\nof Gowra fell Oscar, son of Ois\u012bn, and Finn at the battle of Brea, as the\nhistorians tell us; and the lays of Ois\u012bn, whose death no man knows the\nmanner of, are sung by our harpers at great men\u2019s feasts. But now the\nTalkenn,(182) Patrick, has come into Ireland, and has preached to us the\nOne God and Christ His Son, by whose might these old days and ways are\ndone away with; and Finn and his Fianna, with their feasting and hunting\nand songs of war and of love, have no such reverence among us as the monks\nand virgins of Holy Patrick, and the psalms and prayers that go up daily\nto cleanse us from sin and to save us from the fire of judgment.\u201d But\nOis\u012bn replied, only half hearing and still less comprehending what was\nsaid to him: \u201cIf thy God have slain Finn and Oscar, I would say that God\nis a strong man.\u201d Then they all cried out upon him, and some picked up\nstones, but the overseer bade them let him be until the Talkenn had spoken\nwith him, and till he should order what was to be done.\n\n*Ois\u012bn and Patrick*\n\nSo they brought him to Patrick, who treated him gently and hospitably, and\nto Patrick he told the story of all that had befallen him. But Patrick\nbade his scribes write all carefully down, that the memory of the heroes\nwhom Ois\u012bn had known, and of the joyous and free life they had led in the\nwoods and glens and wild places of Erin, should never be forgotten among\nmen.\n\nThis remarkable legend is known only in the modern Irish poem written by\nMichael Comyn about 1750, a poem which may be called the swan-song of\nIrish literature. Doubtless Comyn worked on earlier traditional material;\nbut though the ancient Ossianic poems tell us of the prolongation of\nOis\u012bn\u2019s life, so that he could meet St. Patrick and tell him stories of\nthe Fianna, the episodes of Niam\u2019s courtship and the sojourn in the Land\nof Youth are known to us at present only in the poem of Michael Comyn.\n\n*The Enchanted Cave*\n\nThis tale, which I take from S.H. O\u2019Grady\u2019s edition in \u201cSilva Gadelica,\u201d\nrelates that Finn once made a great hunting in the district of Corann, in\nNorthern Connacht, which was ruled over by one Conaran, a lord of the\nDanaan Folk. Angered at the intrusion of the Fianna in his\nhunting-grounds, he sent his three sorcerer-daughters to take vengeance on\nthe mortals.\n\nFinn, it is said, and Conan the Bald, with Finn\u2019s two favourite hounds,\nwere watching the hunt from the top of the Hill of Keshcorran and\nlistening to the cries of the beaters and the notes of the horn and the\nbaying of the dogs, when, in moving about on the hill, they came upon the\nmouth of a great cavern, before which sat three hags of evil and revolting\naspect. On three crooked sticks of holly they had twisted left-handwise\nhanks of yarn, and were spinning with these when Finn and his followers\narrived. To view them more closely the warriors drew near, when they found\nthemselves suddenly entangled in strands of the yarn which the hags had\nspun about the place like the web of a spider, and deadly faintness and\ntrembling came over them, so that they were easily bound fast by the hags\nand carried into the dark recesses of the cave. Others of the party then\narrived, looking for Finn. All suffered the same experience\u2014they lost all\ntheir pith and valour at the touch of the bewitched yarn, and were bound\nand carried into the cave, until the whole party were laid in bonds, with\nthe dogs baying and howling outside.\n\nThe witches now seized their sharp, wide-channelled, hard-tempered swords,\nand were about to fall on the captives and slay them, but first they\nlooked round at the mouth of the cave to see if there was any straggler\nwhom they had not yet laid hold of. At this moment Goll mac Morna, \u201cthe\nraging lion, the torch of onset, the great of soul,\u201d came up, and a\ndesperate combat ensued, which ended by Goll cleaving two of the hags in\ntwain, and then subduing and binding the third, whose name was Irnan. She,\nas he was about to slay her, begged for mercy\u2014\u201cSurely it were better for\nthee to have the Fianna whole\u201d\u2014and he gave her her life if she would\nrelease the prisoners.\n\nInto the cave they went, and one by one the captives were unbound,\nbeginning with the poet Fergus Truelips and the \u201cmen of science,\u201d and they\nall sat down on the hill to recover themselves, while Fergus sang a chant\nof praise in honour of the rescuer, Goll; and Irnan disappeared.\n\nEre long a monster was seen approaching them, a \u201cgnarled hag\u201d with\nblazing, bloodshot eyes, a yawning mouth full of ragged fangs, nails like\na wild beast\u2019s, and armed like a warrior. She laid Finn under _geise_ to\nprovide her with single combat from among his men until she should have\nher fill of it. It was no other than the third sister, Irnan, whom Goll\nhad spared. Finn in vain begged Ois\u012bn, Oscar, Keelta, and the other prime\nwarriors of the Fianna to meet her; they all pleaded inability after the\nill-treatment and contumely they had received. At last, as Finn himself\nwas about to do battle with her, Goll said: \u201cO Finn, combat with a crone\nbeseems thee not,\u201d and he drew sword for a second battle with this\nhorrible enemy. At last, after a desperate combat, he ran her through her\nshield and through her heart, so that the blade stuck out at the far side,\nand she fell dead. The Fianna then sacked the d\u016bn of Conaran, and took\npossession of all the treasure in it, while Finn bestowed on Goll mac\nMorna his own daughter, Keva of the White Skin, and, leaving the d\u016bn a\nheap of glowing embers, they returned to the Hill of Allen.\n\n*The Chase of Slievegallion*\n\nThis fine story, which is given in poetical form, as if narrated by Ois\u012bn,\nin the Ossianic Society\u2019s \u201cTransactions,\u201d tells how Cullan the Smith (here\nrepresented as a Danaan divinity), who dwelt on or near the mountains of\nSlievegallion, in Co. Armagh, had two daughters, Ain\u00e9 and Milucra, each of\nwhom loved Finn mac Cumhal. They were jealous of each other; and on Ain\u00e9\nonce happening to say that she would never have a man with grey hair,\nMilucra saw a means of securing Finn\u2019s love entirely for herself. So she\nassembled her friends among the Danaans round the little grey lake that\nlies on the top of Slievegallion, and they charged its waters with\nenchantments.\n\nThis introduction, it may be observed, bears strong signs of being a later\naddition to the original tale, made in a less understanding age or by a\nless thoughtful class into whose hands the legend had descended. The real\nmeaning of the transformation which it narrates is probably much deeper.\n\nThe story goes on to say that not long after this the hounds of Finn, Bran\nand Skolawn, started a fawn near the Hill of Allen, and ran it northwards\ntill the chase ended on the top of Slievegallion, a mountain which, like\nSlievenamon(183) in the south, was in ancient Ireland a veritable focus of\nDanaan magic and legendary lore. Finn followed the hounds alone till the\nfawn disappeared on the mountain-side. In searching for it Finn at last\ncame on the little lake which lies on the top of the mountain, and saw by\nits brink a lady of wonderful beauty, who sat there lamenting and weeping.\nFinn asked her the cause of her grief. She explained that a gold ring\nwhich she dearly prized had fallen from her finger into the lake, and she\ncharged Finn by the bonds of _geise_ that he should plunge in and find it\nfor her.\n\nFinn did so, and after diving into every recess of the lake he discovered\nthe ring, and before leaving the water gave it to the lady. She\nimmediately plunged into the lake and disappeared. Finn then surmised that\nsome enchantment was being wrought on him, and ere long he knew what it\nwas, for on stepping forth on dry land he fell down from sheer weakness,\nand arose again, a tottering and feeble old man, snowy-haired and\nwithered, so that even his faithful hounds did not know him, but ran round\nthe lake searching for their lost master.\n\nMeantime Finn was missed from his palace on the Hill of Allen, and a party\nsoon set out on the track on which he had been seen to chase the deer.\nThey came to the lake-side on Slievegallion, and found there a wretched\nand palsied old man, whom they questioned, but who could do nothing but\nbeat his breast and moan. At last, beckoning Keelta to come near, the aged\nman whispered faintly some words into his ear, and lo, it was Finn\nhimself! When the Fianna had ceased from their cries of wonder and\nlamentation, Finn whispered to Keelta the tale of his enchantment, and\ntold them that the author of it must be the daughter of Cullan the Smith,\nwho dwelt in the Fairy Mound of Slievegallion. The Fianna, bearing Finn on\na litter, immediately went to the Mound and began to dig fiercely. For\nthree days and nights they dug at the Fairy Mound, and at last penetrated\nto its inmost recesses, when a maiden suddenly stood before them holding a\ndrinking-horn of red gold. It was given to Finn. He drank from it, and at\nonce his beauty and form were restored to him, but his hair still remained\nwhite as silver. This too would have been restored by another draught, but\nFinn let it stay as it was, and silver-white his hair remained to the day\nof his death.\n\nThe tale has been made the subject of a very striking allegorical drama,\n\u201cThe Masque of Finn,\u201d by Mr. Standish O\u2019Grady, who, rightly no doubt,\ninterprets the story as symbolising the acquisition of wisdom and\nunderstanding through suffering. A leader of men must descend into the\nlake of tears and know feebleness and despair before his spirit can sway\nthem to great ends.\n\nThere is an antique sepulchral monument on the mountain-top which the\npeasantry of the district still regard\u2014or did in the days before Board\nschools\u2014as the abode of the \u201cWitch of the Lake\u201d; and a mysterious beaten\npath, which was never worn by the passage of human feet, and which leads\nfrom the rock sepulchre to the lake-side, is ascribed to the going to and\nfro of this supernatural being.\n\n*The **\u201c**Colloquy of the Ancients**\u201d*\n\nOne of the most interesting and attractive of the relics of Ossianic\nliterature is the \u201cColloquy of the Ancients,\u201d _Agallamh na Senorach_, a\nlong narrative piece dating from about the thirteenth century. It has been\npublished with a translation in O\u2019Grady\u2019s \u201cSilva Gadelica.\u201d It is not so\nmuch a story as a collection of stories skilfully set in a mythical\nframework. The \u201cColloquy\u201d opens by presenting us with the figures of\nKeelta mac Ronan and Ois\u012bn son of Finn, each accompanied by eight\nwarriors, all that are left of the great fellowship of the Fianna after\nthe battle of Gowra and the subsequent dispersion of the Order. A vivid\npicture is given us of the grey old warriors, who had outlived their\nepoch, meeting for the last time at the d\u016bn of a once famous chieftainess\nnamed Camha, and of their melancholy talk over bygone days, till at last a\nlong silence settled on them.\n\n*Keelta Meets St. Patrick*\n\nFinally Keelta and Ois\u012bn resolve to part, Ois\u012bn, of whom we hear little\nmore, going to the Fairy Mound, where his Danaan mother (here called Blai)\nhas her dwelling, while Keelta takes his way over the plains of Meath till\nhe comes to Drumderg, where he lights on St. Patrick and his monks. How\nthis is chronologically possible the writer does not trouble himself to\nexplain, and he shows no knowledge of the legend of Ois\u012bn in the Land of\nYouth. \u201cThe clerics,\u201d says the story, \u201csaw Keelta and his band draw near\nthem, and fear fell on them before the tall men with the huge wolf-hounds\nthat accompanied them, for they were not people of one epoch or of one\ntime with the clergy.\u201d Patrick then sprinkles the heroes with holy water,\nwhereat legions of demons who had been hovering over them fly away into\nthe hills and glens, and \u201cthe enormous men sat down.\u201d Patrick, after\ninquiring the name of his guest, then says he has a boon to crave of\nhim\u2014he wishes to find a well of pure water with which to baptize the folk\nof Bregia and of Meath.\n\n*The Well of Tradaban*\n\nKeelta, who knows every brook and hill and rath and wood in the country,\nthereon takes Patrick by the hand and leads him away \u201ctill,\u201d as the writer\nsays, \u201cright in front of them they saw a loch-well, sparkling and\ntranslucid. The size and thickness of the cress and of the _fothlacht_, or\nbrooklime, that grew on it was a wonderment to them.\u201d Then Keelta began to\ntell of the fame and qualities of the place, and uttered an exquisite\nlittle lyric in praise of it:\n\n\u201cO Well of the Strand of the Two Women, beautiful are thy cresses,\nluxuriant, branching; since thy produce is neglected on thee thy brooklime\nis not suffered to grow. Forth from thy banks thy trout are to be seen,\nthy wild swine in the wilderness; the deer of thy fair hunting crag-land,\nthy dappled and red-chested fawns! Thy mast all hanging on the branches of\nthe trees; thy fish in estuaries of the rivers; lovely the colours of thy\npurling streams, O thou that art azure-hued, and again green with\nreflections of surrounding copse-wood.\u201d(184)\n\n*St. Patrick and Irish Legend*\n\nAfter the warriors have been entertained Patrick asks: \u201cWas he, Finn mac\nCumhal, a good lord with whom ye were?\u201d Keelta praises the generosity of\nFinn, and goes on to describe in detail the glories of his household,\nwhereon Patrick says:\n\n\u201cWere it not for us an impairing of the devout life, an occasion of\nneglecting prayer, and of deserting converse with God, we, as we talked\nwith thee, would feel the time pass quickly, warrior!\u201d\n\nKeelta goes on with another tale of the Fianna, and Patrick, now fairly\ncaught in the toils of the enchanter, cries: \u201cSuccess and benediction\nattend thee, Keelta! This is to me a lightening of spirit and mind. And\nnow tell us another tale.\u201d\n\nSo ends the exordium of the \u201cColloquy.\u201d As usual in the openings of Irish\ntales, nothing could be better contrived; the touch is so light, there is\nso happy a mingling of pathos, poetry, and humour, and so much dignity in\nthe sketching of the human characters introduced. The rest of the piece\nconsists in the exhibition of a vast amount of topographical and legendary\nlore by Keelta, attended by the invariable \u201cSuccess and benediction attend\nthee!\u201d of Patrick.\n\nThey move together, the warrior and the saint, on Patrick\u2019s journey to\nTara, and whenever Patrick or some one else in the company sees a hill or\na fort or a well he asks Keelta what it is, and Keelta tells its name and\na Fian legend to account for it, and so the story wanders on through a\nmaze of legendary lore until they are met by a company from Tara, with the\nking at its head, who then takes up the _r\u00f4le_ of questioner. The\n\u201cColloquy,\u201d as we have it now, breaks off abruptly as the story how the\n_Lia Fail_ was carried off from Ireland is about to be narrated.(185) The\ninterest of the \u201cColloquy\u201d lies in the tales of Keelta and the lyrics\nintroduced in the course of them. Of the tales there are about a hundred,\ntelling of Fian raids and battles, and love-makings and feastings, but the\ngreater number of them have to do with the intercourse between the Fairy\nFolk and the Fianna. With these folk the Fianna have constant relations,\nboth of love and of war. Some of the tales are of great elaboration,\nwrought out in the highest style of which the writer was capable. One of\nthe best is that of the fairy _Brugh_, or mansion of Slievenamon, which\nPatrick and Keelta chance to pass by, and of which Keelta tells the\nfollowing history:\n\n*The Brugh of Slievenamon*\n\nOne day as Finn and Keelta and five other champions of the Fianna were\nhunting at Torach, in the north, they roused a beautiful fawn which fled\nbefore them, they holding it in chase all day, till they reached the\nmountain of Slievenamon towards evening, when the fawn suddenly seemed to\nvanish underground. A chase like this, in the Ossianic literature, is the\ncommon prelude to an adventure in Fairyland. Night now fell rapidly, and\nwith it came heavy snow and storm, and, searching for shelter, the Fianna\ndiscovered in the wood a great illuminated _Brugh_, or mansion, where they\nsought admittance. On entering they found themselves in a spacious hall,\nfull of light, with eight-and-twenty warriors and as many fair and\nyellow-haired maidens, one of the latter seated on a chair of crystal, and\nmaking wonderful music on a harp. After the Fian warriors have been\nentertained with the finest of viands and liquors, it is explained to them\nthat their hosts are Donn, son of Midir the Proud, and his brother, and\nthat they are at war with the rest of the Danaan Folk, and have to do\nbattle with them thrice yearly on the green before the _Brugh_. At first\neach of the twenty-eight had a thousand warriors under him. Now all are\nslain except those present, and the survivors have sent out one of their\nmaidens in the shape of a fawn to entice the Fianna to their fairy palace\nand to gain their aid in the battle that must be delivered to-morrow. We\nhave, in fact, a variant of the well-known theme of the Rescue of\nFairyland. Finn and his companions are always ready for a fray, and a\ndesperate battle ensues which lasts from evening till morning, for the\nfairy host attack at night. The assailants are beaten off, losing over a\nthousand of their number; but Oscar, Dermot, and mac Luga are sorely\nwounded. They are healed by magical herbs; and more fighting and other\nadventures follow, until, after a year has passed, Finn compels the enemy\nto make peace and give hostages, when the Fianna return to earth and\nrejoin their fellows. No sooner has Keelta finished his tale, standing on\nthe very spot where they had found the fairy palace on the night of snow,\nthan a young warrior is seen approaching them. He is thus described: \u201cA\nshirt of royal satin was next his skin; over and outside it a tunic of the\nsame fabric; and a fringed crimson mantle, confined with a bodkin of gold,\nupon his breast; in his hand a gold-hilted sword, and a golden helmet on\nhis head.\u201d A delight in the colour and material splendour of life is a\nvery marked feature in all this literature. This splendid figure turns out\nto be Donn mac Midir, one of the eight-and-twenty whom Finn had succoured,\nand he comes to do homage for himself and his people to St. Patrick, who\naccepts entertainment from him for the night; for in the \u201cColloquy\u201d the\nrelations of the Church and of the Fairy World are very cordial.\n\n*The Three Young Warriors*\n\nNowhere in Celtic literature does the love of wonder and mystery find such\nremarkable expression as in the \u201cColloquy.\u201d The writer of this piece was a\nmaster of the touch that makes, as it were, the solid framework of things\ntranslucent; and shows us, through it, gleams of another world, mingled\nwith ours yet distinct, and having other laws and characteristics. We\nnever get a clue as to what these laws are. The Celt did not, in Ireland\nat least, systematise the unknown, but let it shine for a moment through\nthe opaqueness of this earth and then withdrew the gleam before we\nunderstood what we had seen. Take, for instance, this incident in Keelta\u2019s\naccount of the Fianna. Three young warriors come to take service with\nFinn, accompanied by a gigantic hound. They make their agreement with him,\nsaying what services they can render and what reward they expect, and they\nmake it a condition that they shall camp apart from the rest of the host,\nand that when night has fallen no man shall come near them or see them.\n\nFinn asks the reason for this prohibition, and it is this: of the three\nwarriors one has to die each night, and the other two must watch him;\ntherefore they would not be disturbed. There is no explanation of this;\nthe writer simply leaves us with the thrill of the mystery upon us.\n\n*The Fair Giantess*\n\nAgain, let us turn to the tale of the Fair Giantess. One day Finn and his\nwarriors, while resting from the chase for their midday meal, saw coming\ntowards them a towering shape. It proved to be a young giant maiden, who\ngave her name as Vivionn (Bebhionn) daughter of Treon, from the Land of\nMaidens. The gold rings on her fingers were as thick as an ox\u2019s yoke, and\nher beauty was dazzling. When she took off her gilded helmet, all\nbejewelled, her fair, curling golden hair broke out in seven score\ntresses, and Finn cried: \u201cGreat gods whom we adore, a huge marvel Cormac\nand Ethn\u00e9 and the women of the Fianna would esteem it to see Vivionn, the\nblooming daughter of Treon.\u201d The maiden explained that she had been\nbetrothed against her will to a suitor named \u00c6da, son of a neighbouring\nking; and that hearing from a fisherman, who had been blown to her shores,\nof the power and nobleness of Finn, she had come to seek his protection.\nWhile she was speaking, suddenly the Fianna were aware of another giant\nform close at hand. It was a young man, smooth-featured and of surpassing\nbeauty, who bore a red shield and a huge spear. Without a word he drew\nnear, and before the wondering Fianna could accost him he thrust his spear\nthrough the body of the maiden and passed away. Finn, enraged at this\nviolation of his protection, called on his chiefs to pursue and slay the\nmurderer. Keelta and others chased him to the sea-shore, and followed him\ninto the surf, but he strode out to sea, and was met by a great galley\nwhich bore him away to unknown regions. Returning, discomfited, to Finn,\nthey found the girl dying. She distributed her gold and jewels among them,\nand the Fianna buried her under a great mound, and raised a pillar stone\nover her with her name in Ogham letters, in the place since called the\nRidge of the Dead Woman.\n\nIn this tale we have, besides the element of mystery, that of beauty. It\nis an association of frequent occurrence in this period of Celtic\nliterature; and to this, perhaps, is due the fact that although these\ntales seem to come from nowhither and to lead nowhither, but move in a\ndream-world where there is no chase but seems to end in Fairyland and no\ncombat that has any relation to earthly needs or objects, where all\nrealities are apt to dissolve in a magic light and to change their shapes\nlike morning mist, yet they linger in the memory with that haunting charm\nwhich has for many centuries kept them alive by the fireside of the Gaelic\npeasant.\n\n*St. Patrick, Ois\u012bn, and Keelta*\n\nBefore we leave the \u201cColloquy\u201d another interesting point must be mentioned\nin connexion with it. To the general public probably the best-known things\nin Ossianic literature\u2014I refer, of course, to the true Gaelic poetry which\ngoes under that name, not to the pseudo-Ossian of Macpherson\u2014are those\ndialogues in which the pagan and the Christian ideals are contrasted,\noften in a spirit of humorous exaggeration or of satire. The earliest of\nthese pieces are found in the manuscript called \u201cThe Dean of Lismore\u2019s\nBook,\u201d in which James Macgregor, Dean of Lismore in Argyllshire,wrote\ndown, some time before the year 1518, all he could remember or discover of\ntraditional Gaelic poetry in his time. It may be observed that up to this\nperiod, and, indeed, long after it, Scottish and Irish Gaelic were one\nlanguage and one literature, the great written monuments of which were in\nIreland, though they belonged just as much to the Highland Celt, and the\ntwo branches of the Gael had an absolutely common stock of poetic\ntradition. These Ois\u012bn-and-Patrick dialogues are found in abundance both\nin Ireland and in the Highlands, though, as I have said, \u201cThe Dean of\nLismore\u2019s Book\u201d is their first written record now extant. What relation,\nthen, do these dialogues bear to the Keelta-and-Patrick dialogues with\nwhich we make acquaintance in the \u201cColloquy\u201d? The questions which really\ncame first, where they respectively originated, and what current of\nthought or sentiment each represented, constitute, as Mr. Alfred Nutt has\npointed out, a literary problem of the greatest interest; and one which no\ncritic has yet attempted to solve, or, indeed, until quite lately, even to\ncall attention to. For though these two attempts to represent, in\nimaginative and artistic form, the contact of paganism with Christianity\nare nearly identical in machinery and framework, save that one is in verse\nand the other in prose, yet they differ widely in their point of view.\n\nIn the Ois\u012bn dialogues(186) there is a great deal of rough humour and of\ncrude theology, resembling those of an English miracle-play rather than\nany Celtic product that I am acquainted with. St. Patrick in these\nballads, as Mr. Nutt remarks, \u201cis a sour and stupid fanatic, harping with\nwearisome monotony on the damnation of Finn and all his comrades; a hard\ntaskmaster to the poor old blind giant to whom he grudges food, and upon\nwhom he plays shabby tricks in order to terrify him into acceptance of\nChristianity.\u201d Now in the \u201cColloquy\u201d there is not one word of all this.\nKeelta embraces Christianity with a wholehearted reverence, and salvation\nis not denied to the friends and companions of his youth. Patrick, indeed,\nassures Keelta of the salvation of several of them, including Finn\nhimself. One of the Danaan Folk, who has been bard to the Fianna,\ndelighted Patrick with his minstrelsy. Brogan, the scribe whom St. Patrick\nis employing to write down the Fian legends, says: \u201cIf music there is in\nheaven, why should there not be on earth? Wherefore it is not right to\nbanish minstrelsy.\u201d Patrick made answer: \u201cNeither say I any such thing\u201d;\nand, in fact, the minstrel is promised heaven for his art.\n\nSuch are the pleasant relations that prevail in the \u201cColloquy\u201d between the\nrepresentatives of the two epochs. Keelta represents all that is\ncourteous, dignified, generous, and valorous in paganism, and Patrick all\nthat is benign and gracious in Christianity; and instead of the two epochs\nstanding over against each other in violent antagonism, and separated by\nan impassable gulf, all the finest traits in each are seen to harmonise\nwith and to supplement those of the other.\n\n*Tales of Dermot*\n\nA number of curious legends centre on Dermot O\u2019Dyna, who has been referred\nto as one of Finn mac Cumhal\u2019s most notable followers. He might be\ndescribed as a kind of Gaelic Adonis, a type of beauty and attraction, the\nhero of innumerable love tales; and, like Adonis, his death was caused by\na wild boar.\n\n*The Boar of Ben Bulben*\n\nThe boar was no common beast. The story of its origin was as follows:\nDermot\u2019s father, Donn, gave the child to be nurtured by Angus \u014cg in his\npalace on the Boyne. His mother, who was unfaithful to Donn, bore another\nchild to Roc, the steward of Angus. Donn, one day, when the steward\u2019s\nchild ran between his knees to escape from some hounds that were fighting\non the floor of the hall, gave him a squeeze with his two knees that\nkilled him on the spot, and he then flung the body among the hounds on the\nfloor. When the steward found his son dead, and discovered (with Finn\u2019s\naid) the cause of it, he brought a Druid rod and smote the body with it,\nwhereupon, in place of the dead child, there arose a huge boar, without\nears or tail; and to it he spake: \u201cI charge you to bring Dermot O\u2019Dyna to\nhis death\u201d; and the boar rushed out from the hall and roamed in the\nforests of Ben Bulben in Co. Sligo till the time when his destiny should\nbe fulfilled.\n\nBut Dermot grew up into a splendid youth, tireless in the chase, undaunted\nin war, beloved by all his comrades of the Fianna, whom he joined as soon\nas he was of age to do so.\n\n*How Dermot Got the Love Spot*\n\nHe was called Dermot of the Love Spot, and a curious and beautiful\nfolk-tale recorded by Dr. Douglas Hyde(187) tells how he got this\nappellation. With three comrades, Goll, Conan, and Oscar, he was hunting\none day, and late at night they sought a resting-place. They soon found a\nhut, in which were an old man, a young girl, a wether sheep, and a cat.\nHere they asked for hospitality, and it was granted to them. But, as usual\nin these tales, it was a house of mystery.\n\nWhen they sat down to dinner the wether got up and mounted on the table.\nOne after another the Fianna strove to throw it off, but it shook them\ndown on the floor. At last Goll succeeded in flinging it off the table,\nbut him too it vanquished in the end, and put them all under its feet.\nThen the old man bade the cat lead the wether back and fasten it up, and\nit did so easily. The four champions, overcome with shame, were for\nleaving the house at once; but the old man explained that they had\nsuffered no discredit\u2014the wether they had been fighting with was the\nWorld, and the cat was the power that would destroy the world itself,\nnamely, Death.\n\nAt night the four heroes went to rest in a large chamber, and the young\nmaid came to sleep in the same room; and it is said that her beauty made a\nlight on the walls of the room like a candle. One after another the Fianna\nwent over to her couch, but she repelled them all. \u201cI belonged to you\nonce,\u201d she said to each, \u201cand I never will again.\u201d Last of all Dermot\nwent. \u201cO Dermot,\u201d she said, \u201cyou, also, I belonged to once, and I never\ncan again, for I am Youth; but come here and I will put a mark on you so\nthat no woman can ever see you without loving you.\u201d Then she touched his\nforehead, and left the Love Spot there; and that drew the love of women to\nhim as long as he lived.\n\n*The Chase of the Hard Gilly*\n\nThe Chase of the Gilla Dacar is another Fian tale in which Dermot plays a\nleading part. The Fianna, the story goes, were hunting one day on the\nhills and through the woods of Munster, and as Finn and his captains stood\non a hillside listening to the baying of the hounds, and the notes of the\nFian hunting-horn from the dark wood below, they saw coming towards them a\nhuge, ugly, misshapen churl dragging along by a halter a great raw-boned\nmare. He announced himself as wishful to take service with Finn. The name\nhe was called by, he said, was the Gilla Dacar (the Hard Gilly), because\nhe was the hardest servant ever a lord had to get service or obedience\nfrom. In spite of this unpromising beginning, Finn, whose principle it was\nnever to refuse any suitor, took him into service; and the Fianna now\nbegan to make their uncouth comrade the butt of all sorts of rough jokes,\nwhich ended in thirteen of them, including Conan the Bald, all mounting up\non the Gilla Dacar\u2019s steed. On this the newcomer complained that he was\nbeing mocked, and he shambled away in great discontent till he was over\nthe ridge of the hill, when he tucked up his skirts and ran westwards,\nfaster than any March wind, toward the sea-shore in Co. Kerry. Thereupon\nat once the steed, which had stood still with drooping ears while the\nthirteen riders in vain belaboured it to make it move, suddenly threw up\nits head and started off in a furious gallop after its master. The Fianna\nran alongside, as well as they could for laughter, while Conan, in terror\nand rage, reviled them for not rescuing him and his comrades. At last the\nthing became serious. The Gilla Dacar plunged into the sea, and the mare\nfollowed him with her thirteen riders, and one more who managed to cling\nto her tail just as she left the shore; and all of them soon disappeared\ntowards the fabled region of the West.\n\n*Dermot at the Well*\n\nFinn and the remaining Fianna now took counsel together as to what should\nbe done, and finally decided to fit out a ship and go in search of their\ncomrades. After many days of voyaging they reached an island guarded by\nprecipitous cliffs. Dermot O\u2019Dyna, as the most agile of the party, was\nsent to climb them and to discover, if he could, some means of helping up\nthe rest of the party. When he arrived at the top he found himself in a\ndelightful land, full of the song of birds and the humming of bees and the\nmurmur of streams, but with no sign of habitation. Going into a dark\nforest, he soon came to a well, by which hung a curiously wrought\ndrinking-horn. As he filled it to drink, a low, threatening murmur came\nfrom the well, but his thirst was too keen to let him heed it and he drank\nhis fill. In no long time there came through the wood an armed warrior,\nwho violently upbraided him for drinking from his well. The Knight of the\nWell and Dermot then fought all the afternoon without either of them\nprevailing over the other, when, as evening drew on, the knight suddenly\nleaped into the well and disappeared. Next day the same thing happened; on\nthe third, however, Dermot, as the knight was about to take his leap,\nflung his arms round him, and both went down together.\n\n*The Rescue of Fairyland*\n\nDermot, after a moment of darkness and trance, now found himself in\nFairyland. A man of noble appearance roused him and led him away to the\ncastle of a great king, where he was hospitably entertained. It was\nexplained to him that the services of a champion like himself were needed\nto do combat against a rival monarch of Fa\u00ebry. It is the same motive which\nwe find in the adventures of Cuchulain with Fand, and which so frequently\nturns up in Celtic fairy lore. Finn and his companions, finding that\nDermot did not return to them, found their way up the cliffs, and, having\ntraversed the forest, entered a great cavern which ultimately led them out\nto the same land as that in which Dermot had arrived. There too, they are\ninformed, are the fourteen Fianna who had been carried off on the mare of\nthe Hard Gilly. He, of course, was the king who needed their services, and\nwho had taken this method of decoying some thirty of the flower of Irish\nfighting men to his side. Finn and his men go into the battle with the\nbest of goodwill, and scatter the enemy like chaff; Oscar slays the son of\nthe rival king (who is called the King of \u201cGreece\u201d). Finn wins the love of\nhis daughter, Tasha of the White Arms, and the story closes with a\ndelightful mixture of gaiety and mystery. \u201cWhat reward wilt thou have for\nthy good services?\u201d asks the fairy king of Finn. \u201cThou wert once in\nservice with me,\u201d replies Finn, \u201cand I mind not that I gave thee any\nrecompense. Let one service stand against the other.\u201d \u201cNever shall I agree\nto that,\u201d cries Conan the Bald. \u201cShall I have nought for being carried off\non thy wild mare and haled oversea?\u201d \u201cWhat wilt thou have?\u201d asks the fairy\nking. \u201cNone of thy gold or goods,\u201d replies Conan, \u201cbut mine honour hath\nsuffered, and let mine honour be appeased. Set thirteen of thy fairest\nwomenfolk on the wild mare, O King, and thine own wife clinging to her\ntail, and let them be transported to Erin in like manner as we were\ndragged here, and I shall deem the indignity we have suffered fitly atoned\nfor.\u201d On this the king smiled and, turning to Finn, said: \u201cO Finn, behold\nthy men.\u201d Finn turned to look at them, but when he looked round again the\nscene had changed\u2014the fairy king and his host and all the world of Fa\u00ebry\nhad disappeared, and he found himself with his companions and the\nfair-armed Tasha standing on the beach of the little bay in Kerry whence\nthe Hard Gilly and the mare had taken the water and carried off his men.\nAnd then all started with cheerful hearts for the great standing camp of\nthe Fianna on the Hill of Allen to celebrate the wedding feast of Finn and\nTasha.\n\n*Effect of Christianity on the Development of Irish Literature*\n\nThis tale with its fascinating mixture of humour, romance, magic, and love\nof wild nature, may be taken as a typical specimen of the Fian legends at\ntheir best. As compared with the Conorian legends they show, as I have\npointed out, a characteristic lack of any heroic or serious element. That\nnobler strain died out with the growing predominance of Christianity,\nwhich appropriated for definitely religious purposes the more serious and\nlofty side of the Celtic genius, leaving for secular literature only the\nelements of wonder and romance. So completely was this carried out that\nwhile the Finn legends have survived to this day among the Gaelic-speaking\npopulation, and were a subject of literary treatment as long as Gaelic was\nwritten at all, the earlier cycle perished almost completely out of the\npopular remembrance, or survived only in distorted forms; and but for the\nearly manuscripts in which the tales are fortunately enshrined such a work\nas the \u201cTain Bo Cuailgn\u00e9\u201d\u2014the greatest thing undoubtedly which the Celtic\ngenius ever produced in literature\u2014would now be irrecoverably lost.\n\n*The Tales of Deirdre and of Grania*\n\nNothing can better illustrate the difference between the two cycles than a\ncomparison of the tale of Deirdre with that with which we have now to\ndeal\u2014the tale of Dermot and Grania. The latter, from one point of view,\nreads like an echo of the former, so close is the resemblance between them\nin the outline of the plot. Take the following skeleton story: \u201cA fair\nmaiden is betrothed to a renowned and mighty suitor much older than\nherself. She turns from him to seek a younger lover, and fixes her\nattention on one of his followers, a gallant and beautiful youth, whom she\npersuades, in spite of his reluctance, to fly with her. After evading\npursuit they settle down for a while at a distance from the defrauded\nlover, who bides his time, till at last, under cover of a treacherous\nreconciliation, he procures the death of his younger rival and retakes\npossession of the lady.\u201d Were a student of Celtic legend asked to listen\nto the above synopsis, and to say to what Irish tale it referred, he would\ncertainly reply that it must be either the tale of the Pursuit of Dermot\nand Grania, or that of the Fate of the Sons of Usna; but which of them it\nwas it would be quite impossible for him to tell. Yet in tone and temper\nthe two stories are as wide apart as the poles.\n\n*Grania and Dermot*\n\nGrania, in the Fian story, is the daughter of Cormac mac Art, High King of\nIreland. She is betrothed to Finn mac Cumhal, whom we are to regard at\nthis period as an old and war-worn but still mighty warrior. The famous\ncaptains of the Fianna all assemble at Tara for the wedding feast, and as\nthey sit at meat Grania surveys them and asks their names of her father\u2019s\nDruid, Dara. \u201cIt is a wonder,\u201d she says, \u201cthat Finn did not ask me for\nOis\u012bn, rather than for himself.\u201d \u201cOis\u012bn would not dare to take thee,\u201d says\nDara. Grania, after going through all the company, asks: \u201cWho is that man\nwith the spot on his brow, with the sweet voice, with curling dusky hair\nand ruddy cheek?\u201d \u201cThat is Dermot O\u2019Dyna,\u201d replies the Druid, \u201cthe\nwhite-toothed, of the lightsome countenance, in all the world the best\nlover of women and maidens.\u201d Grania now prepares a sleepy draught, which\nshe places in a drinking-cup and passes round by her handmaid to the king,\nto Finn, and to all the company except the chiefs of the Fianna. When the\ndraught has done its work she goes to Ois\u012bn. \u201cWilt thou receive courtship\nfrom me, Ois\u012bn?\u201d she asks. \u201cThat will I not,\u201d says Ois\u012bn, \u201cnor from any\nwoman that is betrothed to Finn.\u201d Grania, who knew very well what Ois\u012bn\u2019s\nanswer would be, now turns to her real mark, Dermot. He at first refuses\nto have anything to do with her. \u201cI put thee under bonds [_geise_],  O\nDermot, that thou take me out of Tara to-night.\u201d \u201cEvil are these bonds,\nGrania,\u201d says Dermot; \u201cand wherefore hast thou put them on me before all\nthe kings\u2019 sons that feast at this table?\u201d Grania then explains that she\nhas loved Dermot ever since she saw him, years ago, from her sunny bower,\ntake part in and win a great hurling match on the green at Tara. Dermot,\nstill very reluctant, pleads the merits of Finn, and urges also that Finn\nhas the keys of the royal fortress, so that they cannot pass out at night.\n\u201cThere is a secret wicket-gate in my bower,\u201d says Grania. \u201cI am under\n_geise_ not to pass through any wicket-gate,\u201d replies Dermot, still\nstruggling against his destiny. Grania will have none of these\nsubterfuges\u2014any Fian warrior, she has been told, can leap over a palisade\nwith the aid of his spear as a jumping-pole; and she goes off to make\nready for the elopement. Dermot, in great perplexity, appeals to Ois\u012bn,\nOscar, Keelta, and the others as to what he should do. They all bid him\nkeep his _geise_\u2014the bonds that Grania had laid on him to succour her\u2014and\nhe takes leave of them with tears.\n\nOutside the wicket-gate he again begs Grania to return. \u201cIt is certain\nthat I will not go back,\u201d says Grania, \u201cnor part from thee till death part\nus.\u201d \u201cThen go forward, O Grania,\u201d says Dermot. After they had gone a mile,\n\u201cI am truly weary, O grandson of Dyna,\u201d says Grania. \u201cIt is a good time to\nbe weary,\u201d says Dermot, making a last effort to rid himself of the\nentanglement, \u201cand return now to thy household again, for I pledge the\nword of a true warrior that I will never carry thee nor any other woman to\nall eternity.\u201d \u201cThere is no need,\u201d replies Grania, and she directs him\nwhere to find horses and a chariot, and Dermot, now finally accepting the\ninevitable, yokes them, and they proceed on their way to the Ford of Luan\non the Shannon.(188)\n\n*The Pursuit*\n\nNext day Finn, burning with rage, sets out with his warriors on their\ntrack. He traces out each of their halting-places, and finds the hut of\nwattles which Dermot has made for their shelter, and the bed of soft\nrushes, and the remains of the meal they had eaten. And at each place he\nfinds a piece of unbroken bread or uncooked salmon\u2014Dermot\u2019s subtle message\nto Finn that he has respected the rights of his lord and treated Grania as\na sister. But this delicacy of Dermot\u2019s is not at all to Crania\u2019s mind,\nand she conveys her wishes to him in a manner which is curiously\nparalleled by an episode in the tale of Tristan and Iseult of Brittany, as\ntold by Heinrich von Freiberg. They are passing through a piece of wet\nground when a splash of water strikes Grania. She turns to her companion:\n\u201cThou art a mighty warrior, O Dermot, in battle and sieges and forays, yet\nmeseems that this drop of water is bolder than thou.\u201d This hint that he\nwas keeping at too respectful a distance was taken by Dermot. The die is\nnow cast, and he will never again meet Finn and his old comrades except at\nthe point of the spear.\n\nThe tale now loses much of the originality and charm of its opening scene,\nand recounts in a somewhat mechanical manner a number of episodes in which\nDermot is attacked or besieged by the Fianna, and rescues himself and his\nlady by miracles of boldness or dexterity, or by aid of the magical\ndevices of his foster-father, Angus \u014cg. They are chased all over Ireland,\nand the dolmens in that country are popularly associated with them, being\ncalled in the traditions of the peasantry \u201cBeds of Dermot and Grania.\u201d\n\nGrania\u2019s character is drawn throughout with great consistency. She is not\nan heroic woman\u2014hers are not the simple, ardent impulses and unwavering\ndevotion of a Deirdre. The latter is far more primitive. Grania is a\ncuriously modern and what would be called \u201cneurotic\u201d type\u2014wilful,\nrestless, passionate, but full of feminine fascination.\n\n*Dermot and Finn Make Peace*\n\nAfter sixteen years of outlawry peace is at last made for Dermot by the\nmediation or Angus with King Cormac and with Finn. Dermot receives his\nproper patrimony, the Cantred of O\u2019Dyna, and other lands far away in the\nWest, and Cormac gives another of his daughters to Finn. \u201cPeaceably they\nabode a long time with each other, and it was said that no man then living\nwas richer in gold and silver, in flocks and herds, than Dermot O\u2019Dyna,\nnor one that made more preys.\u201d(189) Grania bears to Dermot four sons and a\ndaughter.\n\nBut Grania is not satisfied until \u201cthe two best men that are in Erin,\nnamely, Cormac son of Art and Finn son of Cumhal,\u201d have been entertained\nin her house. \u201cAnd how do we know,\u201d she adds, \u201cbut our daughter might then\nget a fitting husband?\u201d Dermot agrees with some misgiving; the king and\nFinn accept the invitation, and they and their retinues are feasted for a\nyear at Rath Grania.\n\n*The Vengeance of Finn*\n\nThen one night, towards the end of the year of feasting, Dermot is\nawakened from sleep by the baying of a hound. He starts up, \u201cso that\nGrania caught him and threw her two arms about him and asked him what he\nhad seen.\u201d \u201cIt is the voice of a hound,\u201d says Dermot, \u201cand I marvel to\nhear it in the night.\u201d \u201cSave and protect thee,\u201d says Grania; \u201cit is the\nDanaan Folk that are at work on thee. Lay thee down again.\u201d But three\ntimes the hound\u2019s voice awakens him, and on the morrow he goes forth armed\nwith sword and sling, and followed by his own hound, to see what is afoot.\n\nOn the mountain of Ben Bulben in Sligo he comes across Finn with a\nhunting-party of the Fianna. They are not now hunting, however; they are\nbeing hunted; for they have roused up the enchanted boar without ears or\ntail, the Boar of Ben Bulben, which has slain thirty of them that morning.\n\u201cAnd do thou come away,\u201d says Finn, knowing well that Dermot will never\nretreat from a danger; \u201cfor thou art under _geise_ not to hunt pig.\u201d \u201cHow\nis that?\u201d says Dermot, and Finn then tells him the weird story of the\ndeath of the steward\u2019s son and his revivification in the form of this\nboar, with its mission of vengeance. \u201cBy my word,\u201d quoth Dermot, \u201cit is to\nslay me that thou hast made this hunt, O Finn; and if it be here that I am\nfated to die, I have no power now to shun it.\u201d\n\nThe beast then appears on the face of the mountain, and Dermot slips the\nhound at him, but the hound flies in terror. Dermot then slings a stone\nwhich strikes the boar fairly in the middle of his forehead but does not\neven scratch his skin. The beast is close on him now, and Dermot strikes\nhim with his sword, but the weapon flies in two and not a bristle of the\nboar is cut. In the charge of the boar Dermot falls over him, and is\ncarried for a space clinging to his back; but at last the boar shakes him\noff to the ground, and making \u201can eager, exceeding mighty spring\u201d upon\nhim, rips out his bowels, while at the same time, with the hilt of the\nsword still in his hand, Dermot dashes out the brains of the beast, and it\nfalls dead beside him.\n\n*Death of Dermot*\n\nThe implacable Finn then comes up, and stands over Dermot in his agony.\n\u201cIt likes me well to see thee in that plight, O Dermot,\u201d he says, \u201cand I\nwould that all the women in Ireland saw thee now; for thy excellent beauty\nis turned to ugliness and thy choice form to deformity.\u201d Dermot reminds\nFinn of how he once rescued him from deadly peril when attacked during a\nfeast at the house of Derc, and begs him to heal him with a draught of\nwater from his hands, for Finn had the magic gift of restoring any wounded\nman to health with a draught of well-water drawn in his two hands. \u201cHere\nis no well,\u201d says Finn. \u201cThat is not true,\u201d says Dermot, \u201cfor nine paces\nfrom you is the best well of pure water in the world.\u201d Finn, at last, on\nthe entreaty of Oscar and the Fianna, and after the recital of many deeds\ndone for his sake by Dermot in old days, goes to the well, but ere he\nbrings the water to Dermot\u2019s side he lets it fall through his fingers. A\nsecond time he goes, and a second time he lets the water fall, \u201chaving\nthought upon Grania,\u201d and Dermot gave a sigh of anguish on seeing it.\nOscar then declares that if Finn does not bring the water promptly either\nhe or Finn shall never leave the hill alive, and Finn goes once more to\nthe well, but it is now too late; Dermot is dead before the healing\ndraught can reach his lips. Then Finn takes the hound of Dermot, the\nchiefs of the Fianna lay their cloaks over the dead man, and they return\nto Rath Grania. Grania, seeing the hound led by Finn, conjectures what has\nhappened, and swoons upon the rampart of the Rath. Ois\u012bn, when she has\nrevived, gives her the hound, against Finn\u2019s will, and the Fianna troop\naway, leaving her to her sorrow. When the people of Grania\u2019s household go\nout to fetch in the body of Dermot they find there Angus \u014cg and his\ncompany of the People of Dana, who, after raising three bitter and\nterrible cries, bear away the body on a gilded bier, and Angus declares\nthat though he cannot restore the dead to life, \u201cI will send a soul into\nhim so that he may talk with me each day.\u201d\n\n*The End of Grania*\n\nTo a tale like this modern taste demands a romantic and sentimental\nending; and such has actually been given to it in the retelling by Dr. P.\nW. Joyce in his \u201cOld Celtic Romances,\u201d as it has to the tale of Deirdre by\nalmost every modern writer who has handled it.(190) But the Celtic\nstory-teller felt differently. The tale of the end of Deirdre is horribly\ncruel, that of Grania cynical and mocking; neither is in the least\nsentimental. Grania is at first enraged with Finn, and sends her sons\nabroad to learn feats of arms, so that they may take vengeance upon him\nwhen the time is ripe. But Finn, wily and far-seeing as he is portrayed in\nthis tale, knows how to forestall this danger. When the tragedy on Ben\nBulben has begun to grow a little faint in the shallow soul of Grania, he\nbetakes himself to her, and though met at first with scorn and indignation\nhe woos her so sweetly and with such tenderness that at last he brings her\nto his will, and he bears her back as a bride to the Hill of Allen. When\nthe Fianna see the pair coming towards them in this loving guise they\nburst into a shout of laughter and derision, \u201cso that Grania bowed her\nhead in shame.\u201d \u201cWe trow, O Finn,\u201d cries Ois\u012bn, \u201cthat thou wilt keep\nGrania well from henceforth.\u201d So Grania made peace between Finn and her\nsons, and dwelt with Finn as his wife until he died.\n\n*Two Streams of Fian Legends*\n\nIt will be noticed that in this legend Finn does not appear as a\nsympathetic character. Our interest is all on the side of Dermot. In this\naspect of it the tale is typical of a certain class of Fian stories. Just\nas there were two rival clans within the Fian organisation\u2014the Clan Bascna\nand the Clan Morna\u2014who sometimes came to blows for the supremacy, so there\nare two streams of legends seeming to flow respectively from one or other\nof these sources, in one of which Finn is glorified, while in the other he\nis belittled in favour of Goll mac Morna or any other hero with whom he\ncomes into conflict.\n\n*End of the Fianna*\n\nThe story of the end of the Fianna is told in a number of pieces, some\nprose, some poetry, all of them, however, agreeing in presenting this\nevent as a piece of sober history, without any of the supernatural and\nmystical atmosphere in which nearly all the Fian legends are steeped.\n\nAfter the death of Cormac mac Art his son Cairbry came to the\nHigh-Kingship of Ireland. He had a fair daughter named _Sgeimh Solais_\n(Light of Beauty), who was asked in marriage by a son of the King of the\nDecies. The marriage was arranged, and the Fianna claimed a ransom or\ntribute of twenty ingots of gold, which, it is said, was customarily paid\nto them on these occasions. It would seem that the Fianna had now grown to\nbe a distinct power within the State, and an oppressive one, exacting\nheavy tributes and burdensome privileges from kings and sub-kings all over\nIreland. Cairbry resolved to break them; and he thought he had now a good\nopportunity to do so. He therefore refused payment of the ransom, and\nsummoned all the provincial kings to help him against the Fianna, the main\nbody of whom immediately went into rebellion for what they deemed their\nrights. The old feud between Clan Bascna and Clan Morna now broke out\nafresh, the latter standing by the High King, while Clan Bascna, aided by\nthe King of Munster and his forces, who alone took their side, marched\nagainst Cairbry.\n\n*The Battle of Gowra*\n\nAll this sounds very matter-of-fact and probable, but how much real\nhistory there may be in it it is very hard to say. The decisive battle of\nthe war which ensued took place at Gowra (Gabhra), the name of which\nsurvives in Garristown, Co. Dublin. The rival forces, when drawn up in\nbattle array, knelt and kissed the sacred soil of Erin before they\ncharged. The story of the battle in the poetical versions, one of which is\npublished in the Ossianic Society\u2019s \u201cTransactions,\u201d and another and finer\none in Campbell\u2019s \u201cThe Fians,\u201d(191) is supposed to be related by Ois\u012bn to\nSt. Patrick. He lays great stress on the feats of his son Oscar:\n\n\u201cMy son urged his course\nThrough the battalions of Tara\nLike a hawk through a flock of birds,\nOr a rock descending a mountain-side.\u201d\n\n*The Death of Oscar*\n\nThe fight was _\u00e0 outrance_, and the slaughter on both sides tremendous.\nNone but old men and boys, it is said, were left in Erin after that fight.\nThe Fianna were in the end almost entirely exterminated, and Oscar slain.\nHe and the King of Ireland, Cairbry, met in single combat, and each of\nthem slew the other. While Oscar was still breathing, though there was not\na palm\u2019s breadth on his body without a wound, his father found him:\n\n\u201cI found my own son lying down\n On his left elbow, his shield by his side;\n His right hand clutched the sword,\n The blood poured through his mail\n\n\u201cOscar gazed up at me\u2014\n Woe to me was that sight!\n He stretched out his two arms to me,\n Endeavouring to rise to meet me.\n\n\u201cI grasped the hand of my son\n And sat down by his left side;\n And since I sat by him there,\n I have recked nought of the world.\u201d\n\nWhen Finn (in the Scottish version) comes to bewail his grandson, he\ncries:\n\n\u201cWoe, that it was not I who fell\n In the fight of bare sunny Gavra,\n And you were east and west\n Marching before the Fians, Oscar.\u201d\n\nBut Oscar replies:\n\n\u201cWere it you that fell\n In the fight of bare sunny Gavra,\n One sigh, east or west,\n Would not be heard for you from Oscar.\n\n\u201cNo man ever knew\n A heart of flesh was in my breast,\n But a heart of the twisted horn\n And a sheath of steel over it.\n\n\u201cBut the howling of dogs beside me,\n And the wail of the old heroes,\n And the weeping of the women by turns,\n \u2019Tis that vexes my heart.\u201d\n\nOscar dies, after thanking the gods for his father\u2019s safety, and Ois\u012bn and\nKeelta raise him on a bier of spears and carry him off under his banner,\n\u201cThe Terrible Sheaf,\u201d for burial on the field where he died, and where a\ngreat green burial mound is still associated with his name. Finn takes no\npart in the battle. He is said to have come \u201cin a ship\u201d to view the field\nafterwards, and he wept over Oscar, a thing he had never done save once\nbefore, for his hound, Bran, whom he himself killed by accident. Possibly\nthe reference to the ship is an indication that he had by this time passed\naway, and came to revisit the earth from the oversea kingdom of Death.\n\nThere is in this tale of the Battle of Gowra a melancholy grandeur which\ngives it a place apart in the Ossianic literature. It is a fitting dirge\nfor a great legendary epoch. Campbell tells us that the Scottish crofters\nand shepherds were wont to put off their bonnets when they recited it. He\nadds a strange and thrilling piece of modern folk-lore bearing on it. Two\nmen, it is said, were out at night, probably sheep-stealing or on some\nother predatory occupation, and telling Fian tales as they went, when they\nobserved two giant and shadowy figures talking to each other across the\nglen. One of the apparitions said to the other: \u201cDo you see that man down\nbelow? I was the second door-post of battle on the day of Gowra, and that\nman there knows all about it better than myself.\u201d\n\n*The End of Finn*\n\nAs to Finn himself, it is strange that in all the extant mass of the\nOssianic literature there should be no complete narrative of his death.\nThere are references to it in the poetic legends, and annalists even date\nit, but the references conflict with each other, and so do the dates.\nThere is no clear light to be obtained on the subject from either\nannalists or poets. Finn seems to have melted into the magic mist which\nenwraps so many of his deeds in life. Yet a popular tradition says that he\nand his great companions, Oscar and Keelta and Ois\u012bn and the rest, never\ndied, but lie, like Kaiser Barbarossa, spell-bound in an enchanted cave\nwhere they await the appointed time to reappear in glory and redeem their\nland from tyranny and wrong.\n\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VII: THE VOYAGE OF MAELD\u016aN\n\n\nBesides the legends which cluster round great heroic names, and have, or\nat least pretend to have, the character of history, there are many others,\ngreat and small, which tell of adventures lying purely in regions of\nromance, and out of earthly space and time. As a specimen of these I give\nhere a summary of the \u201cVoyage of Maeld\u016bn,\u201d a most curious and brilliant\npiece of invention, which is found in the manuscript entitled the \u201cBook of\nthe Dun Cow\u201d (about 1100) and other early sources, and edited, with a\ntranslation (to which I owe the following extracts), by Dr. Whitley Stokes\nin the \u201cRevue Celtique\u201d for 1888 and 1889. It is only one of a number of\nsuch wonder-voyages found in ancient Irish literature, but it is believed\nto have been the earliest of them all and model for the rest, and it has\nhad the distinction, in the abridged and modified form given by Joyce in\nhis \u201cOld Celtic Romances,\u201d of having furnished the theme for the \u201cVoyage\nof Maeldune\u201d to Tennyson, who made it into a wonderful creation of rhythm\nand colour, embodying a kind of allegory of Irish history. It will be\nnoticed at the end that we are in the unusual position of knowing the name\nof the author of this piece of primitive literature, though he does not\nclaim to have composed, but only to have \u201cput in order,\u201d the incidents of\nthe \u201cVoyage.\u201d Unfortunately we cannot tell when he lived, but the tale as\nwe have it probably dates from the ninth century. Its atmosphere is\nentirely Christian, and it has no mythological significance except in so\nfar as it teaches the lesson that the oracular injunctions of wizards\nshould be obeyed. No adventure, or even detail, of importance is omitted\nin the following summary of the story, which is given thus fully because\nthe reader may take it as representing a large and important section of\nIrish legendary romance. Apart from the source to which I am indebted, the\n\u201cRevue Celtique,\u201d I know no other faithful reproduction in English of this\nwonderful tale.\n\nThe \u201cVoyage of Maeld\u016bn\u201d begins, as Irish tales often do, by telling us of\nthe conception of its hero.\n\nThere was a famous man of the sept of the Owens of Aran, named Ailill\nEdge-of-Battle, who went with his king on a foray into another territory.\nThey encamped one night near a church and convent of nuns. At midnight\nAilill, who was near the church, saw a certain nun come out to strike the\nbell for nocturns, and caught her by the hand. In ancient Ireland\nreligious persons were not much respected in time of war, and Ailill did\nnot respect her. When they parted, she said to him: \u201cWhence is thy race,\nand what is thy name?\u201d Said the hero: \u201cAilill of the Edge-of-Battle is my\nname, and I am of the Owenacht of Aran, in Thomond.\u201d\n\nNot long afterwards Ailill was slain by reavers from Leix, who burned the\nchurch of Doocloone over his head.\n\nIn due time a son was born to the woman and she called his name Maeld\u016bn.\nHe was taken secretly to her friend, the queen of the territory, and by\nher Maeld\u016bn was reared. \u201cBeautiful indeed was his form, and it is doubtful\nif there hath been in flesh any one so beautiful as he. So he grew up till\nhe was a young warrior and fit to use weapons. Great, then, was his\nbrightness and his gaiety and his playfulness. In his play he outwent all\nhis comrades in throwing balls, and in running and leaping and putting\nstones and racing horses.\u201d\n\nOne day a proud young warrior who had been defeated by him taunted him\nwith his lack of knowledge of his kindred and descent. Maeld\u016bn went to his\nfoster-mother, the queen, and said: \u201cI will not eat nor drink till thou\ntell me who are my mother and my father.\u201d \u201cI am thy mother,\u201d said the\nqueen, \u201cfor none ever loved her son more than I love thee.\u201d But Maeld\u016bn\ninsisted on knowing all, and the queen at last took him to his own mother,\nthe nun, who told him: \u201cThy father was Ailill of the Owens of Aran.\u201d Then\nMaeld\u016bn went to his own kindred, and was well received by them; and with\nhim he took as guests his three beloved foster-brothers, sons of the king\nand queen who had brought him up.\n\nAfter a time Maeld\u016bn happened to be among a company of young warriors who\nwere contending at putting the stone in the graveyard of the ruined church\nof Doocloone. Maeld\u016bn\u2019s foot was planted, as he heaved the stone, on a\nscorched and blackened flagstone; and one who was by, a monk named\nBriccne,(192) said to him: \u201cIt were better for thee to avenge the man who\nwas burnt there than to cast stones over his burnt bones.\u201d\n\n\u201cWho was that?\u201d asked Maeld\u016bn.\n\n\u201cAilill, thy father,\u201d they told him.\n\n\u201cWho slew him?\u201d said he.\n\n\u201cReavers from Leix,\u201d they said, \u201cand they destroyed him on this spot.\u201d\n\nThen Maeld\u016bn threw down the stone he was about to cast, and put his mantle\nround him and went home; and he asked the way to Leix. They told him he\ncould only go there by sea.(193)\n\nAt the advice of a Druid he then built him a boat, or coracle, of skins\nlapped threefold one over the other; and the wizard also told him that\nseventeen men only must accompany him, and on what day he must begin the\nboat and on what day he must put out to sea.\n\nSo when his company was ready he put out and hoisted the sail, but had\ngone only a little way when his three foster-brothers came down to the\nbeach and entreated him to take them. \u201cGet you home,\u201d said Maeld\u016bn, \u201cfor\nnone but the number I have may go with me.\u201d But the three youths would not\nbe separated from Maeld\u016bn, and they flung themselves into the sea. He\nturned back, lest they should be drowned, and brought them into his boat.\nAll, as we shall see, were punished for this transgression, and Maeld\u016bn\ncondemned to wandering until expiation had been made.\n\nIrish bardic tales excel in their openings. In this case, as usual, the\n_mise-en-sc\u00e8ne_ is admirably contrived. The narrative which follows tells\nhow, after seeing his father\u2019s slayer on an island, but being unable to\nland there, Maeld\u016bn and his party are blown out to sea, where they visit a\ngreat number of islands and have many strange adventures on them. The tale\nbecomes, in fact, a _cento_ of stories and incidents, some not very\ninteresting, while in others, as in the adventure of the Island of the\nSilver Pillar, or the Island of the Flaming Rampart, or that where the\nepisode of the eagle takes place, the Celtic sense of beauty, romance, and\nmystery find an expression unsurpassed, perhaps, in literature.\n\nIn the following rendering I have omitted the verses given by Joyce at the\nend of each adventure. They merely recapitulate the prose narrative, and\nare not found in the earliest manuscript authorities.\n\n*The Island of the Slaves*\n\nMaeld\u016bn and his crew had rowed all day and half the night when they came\nto two small bare islands with two forts in them, and a noise was heard\nfrom them of armed men quarrelling. \u201cStand off from me,\u201d cried one of\nthem, \u201cfor I am a better man than thou. \u2019Twas I slew Ailill of the\nEdge-of-Battle and burned the church of Doocloone over him, and no kinsman\nhas avenged his death on me. And _thou_ hast never done the like of that.\u201d\n\nThen Maeld\u016bn was about to land, and Germ\u0101n(194) and Diuran the Rhymer\ncried that God had guided them to the spot where they would be. But a\ngreat wind arose suddenly and blew them off into the boundless ocean, and\nMaeld\u016bn said to his foster-brothers: \u201cYe have caused this to be, casting\nyourselves on board in spite of the words of the Druid.\u201d And they had no\nanswer, save only to be silent for a little space.\n\n*The Island of the Ants*\n\nThey drifted three days and three nights, not knowing whither to row, when\nat the dawn of the third day they heard the noise of breakers, and came to\nan island as soon as the sun was up. Here, ere they could land, they met a\nswarm of ferocious ants, each the size of a foal, that came down the\nstrand and into the sea to get at them; so they made off quickly, and saw\nno land for three days more.\n\n*The Island of the Great Birds*\n\nThis was a terraced island, with trees all round it, and great birds\nsitting on the trees. Maeld\u016bn landed first alone, and carefully searched\nthe island for any evil thing, but finding none, the rest followed him,\nand killed and ate many of the birds, bringing others on board their boat.\n\n*The Island of the Fierce Beast*\n\nA great sandy island was this, and on it a beast like a horse, but with\nclawed feet like a hound\u2019s. He flew at them to devour them, but they put\noff in time, and were pelted by the beast with pebbles from the shore as\nthey rowed away.\n\n*The Island of the Giant Horses*\n\nA great, flat island, which it fell by lot to Germ\u0101n and Diuran to explore\nfirst. They found a vast green racecourse, on which were the marks of\nhorses\u2019 hoofs, each as big as the sail of a ship, and the shells of nuts\nof monstrous size were lying about, and much plunder. So they were afraid,\nand took ship hastily again, and from the sea they saw a horse-race in\nprogress and heard the shouting of a great multitude cheering on the white\nhorse or the brown, and saw the giant horses running swifter than the\nwind.(195) So they rowed away with all their might, thinking they had come\nupon an assembly of demons.\n\n*The Island of the Stone Door*\n\nA full week passed, and then they found a great, high island with a house\nstanding on the shore. A door with a valve of stone opened into the sea,\nand through it the sea-waves kept hurling salmon into the house. Maeld\u016bn\nand his party entered, and found the house empty of folk, but a great bed\nlay ready for the chief to whom it belonged, and a bed for each three of\nhis company, and meat and drink beside each bed. Maeld\u016bn and his party ate\nand drank their fill, and then sailed off again.\n\n*The Island of the Apples*\n\nBy the time they had come here they had been a long time voyaging, and\nfood had failed them, and they were hungry. This island had precipitous\nsides from which a wood hung down, and as they passed along the cliffs\nMaeld\u016bn broke off a twig and held it in his hand. Three days and nights\nthey coasted the cliff and found no entrance to the island, but by that\ntime a cluster of three apples had grown on the end of Maeld\u016bn\u2019s rod, and\neach apple sufficed the crew for forty days.\n\n*The Island of the Wondrous Beast*\n\nThis island had a fence of stone round it, and within the fence a huge\nbeast that raced round and round the island. And anon it went to the top\nof the island, and then performed a marvellous feat, viz., it turned its\nbody round and round inside its skin, the skin remaining unmoved, while\nagain it would revolve its skin round and round the body. When it saw the\nparty it rushed at them, but they escaped, pelted with stones as they\nrowed away. One of the stones pierced through Maeld\u016bn\u2019s shield and lodged\nin the keel of the boat.\n\n*The Island of the Biting Horses*\n\nHere were many great beasts resembling horses, that tore continually\npieces of flesh from each other\u2019s sides, so that all the island ran with\nblood. They rowed hastily away, and were now disheartened and full of\ncomplaints, for they knew not where they were, nor how to find guidance or\naid in their quest.\n\n*The Island of the Fiery Swine*\n\nWith great weariness, hunger, and thirst they arrived at the tenth island,\nwhich was full of trees loaded with golden apples. Under the trees went\nred beasts, like fiery swine, that kicked the trees with their legs, when\nthe apples fell and the beasts consumed them. The beasts came out at\nmorning only, when a multitude of birds left the island, and swam out to\nsea till nones, when they turned and swam inward again till vespers, and\nate the apples all night.\n\nMaeld\u016bn and his comrades landed at night, and felt the soil hot under\ntheir feet from the fiery swine in their caverns underground. They\ncollected all the apples they could, which were good both against hunger\nand thirst, and loaded their boat with them and put to sea once more,\nrefreshed.\n\n*The Island of the Little Cat*\n\nThe apples had failed them when they came hungry and thirsting to the\neleventh island. This was, as it were, a tall white tower of chalk\nreaching up to the clouds, and on the rampart about it were great houses\nwhite as snow. They entered the largest of them, and found no man in it,\nbut a small cat playing on four stone pillars which were in the midst of\nthe house, leaping from one to the other. It looked a little on the Irish\nwarriors, but did not cease from its play. On the walls of the houses\nthere were three rows of objects hanging up, one row of brooches of gold\nand silver, and one of neck-torques of gold and silver, each as big as the\nhoop of a cask, and one of great swords with gold and silver hilts. Quilts\nand shining garments lay in the room, and there, also, were a roasted ox\nand a flitch of bacon and abundance of liquor. \u201cHath this been left for\nus?\u201d said Maeld\u016bn to the cat. It looked at him a moment, and then\ncontinued its play. So there they ate and drank and slept, and stored up\nwhat remained of the food. Next day, as they made to leave the house, the\nyoungest of Maeld\u016bn\u2019s foster-brothers took a necklace from the wall, and\nwas bearing it out when the cat suddenly \u201cleaped through him like a fiery\narrow,\u201d and he fell, a heap of ashes, on the floor. Thereupon Maeld\u016bn, who\nhad forbidden the theft of the jewel, soothed the cat and replaced the\nnecklace, and they strewed the ashes of the dead youth on the sea-shore,\nand put to sea again.\n\n*The Island of the Black and the White Sheep*\n\nThis had a brazen palisade dividing it in two, and a flock of black sheep\non one side and of white sheep on the other. Between them was a big man\nwho tended the flocks, and sometimes he put a white sheep among the black,\nwhen it became black at once, or a black sheep among the white, when it\nimmediately turned white.(196) By way of an experiment Maeld\u016bn flung a\npeeled white wand on the side of the black sheep. It at once turned black,\nwhereat they left the place in terror, and without landing.\n\n*The Island of the Giant Cattle*\n\nA great and wide island with a herd of huge swine on it. They killed a\nsmall pig and roasted it on the spot, as it was too great to carry on\nboard. The island rose up into a very high mountain, and Diuran and Germ\u0101n\nwent to view the country from the top of it. On their way they met a broad\nriver. To try the depth of the water Germ\u0101n dipped in the haft of his\nspear, which at once was consumed as with liquid fire. On the other bank\nwas a huge man guarding what seemed a herd of oxen. He called to them not\nto disturb the calves, so they went no further and speedily sailed away.\n\n*The Island of the Mill*\n\nHere they found a great and grim-looking mill, and a giant miller grinding\ncorn in it. \u201cHalf the corn of your country,\u201d he said, \u201cis ground here.\nHere comes to be ground all that men begrudge to each other.\u201d Heavy and\nmany were the loads they saw going to it, and all that was ground in it\nwas carried away westwards. So they crossed themselves and sailed away.\n\n*The Island of the Black Mourners*\n\nAn island full of black people continually weeping and lamenting. One of\nthe two remaining foster-brothers landed on it, and immediately turned\nblack and fell to weeping like the rest. Two others went to fetch him; the\nsame fate befell them. Four others then went with their heads wrapped in\ncloths, that they should not look on the land or breathe the air of the\nplace, and they seized two of the lost ones and brought them away\nperforce, but not the foster-brother. The two rescued ones could not\nexplain their conduct except by saying that they had to do as they saw\nothers doing about them.\n\n*The Island of the Four Fences*\n\nFour fences of gold, silver, brass, and crystal divided this island into\nfour parts, kings in one, queens in another, warriors in a third, maidens\nin the fourth.\n\nOn landing, a maiden gave them food like cheese, that tasted to each man\nas he wished it to be, and an intoxicating liquor that put them asleep for\nthree days. When they awoke they were at sea in their boat, and of the\nisland and its inhabitants nothing was to be seen.\n\nThe Island of the Glass Bridge\n\nHere we come to one of the most elaborately wrought and picturesque of all\nthe incidents of the voyage. The island they now reached had on it a\nfortress with a brazen door, and a bridge of glass leading to it. When\nthey sought to cross the bridge it threw them backward.(197) A woman came\nout of the fortress with a pail in her hand, and lifting from the bridge a\nslab of glass she let down her pail into the water beneath, and returned\nto the fortress. They struck on the brazen portcullis before them to gain\nadmittance, but the melody given forth by the smitten metal plunged them\nin slumber till the morrow morn. Thrice over this happened, the woman each\ntime making an ironical speech about Maeld\u016bn. On the fourth day, however,\nshe came out to them over the bridge, wearing a white mantle with a\ncirclet of gold on her hair, two silver sandals on her rosy feet, and a\nfilmy silken smock next her skin.\n\n\u201cMy welcome to thee, O Maeld\u016bn,\u201d she said, and she welcomed each man of\nthe crew by his own name. Then she took them into the great house and\nallotted a couch to the chief, and one for each three of his men. She gave\nthem abundance of food and drink, all out of her one pail, each man\nfinding in it what he most desired. When she had departed they asked\nMaeld\u016bn if they should woo the maiden for him. \u201cHow would it hurt you to\nspeak with her?\u201d says Maeld\u016bn. They do so, and she replies: \u201cI know not,\nnor have ever known, what sin is.\u201d Twice over this is repeated.\n\u201cTo-morrow,\u201d she says at last, \u201cyou shall have your answer.\u201d When the\nmorning breaks, however, they find themselves once more at sea, with no\nsign of the island or fortress or lady.\n\n*The Island of the Shouting Birds*\n\nThey hear from afar a great cry and chanting, as it were a singing of\npsalms, and rowing for a day and night they come at last to an island full\nof birds, black, brown, and speckled, all shouting and speaking. They sail\naway without landing.\n\n*The Island of the Anchorite*\n\nHere they found a wooded island full of birds, and on it a solitary man,\nwhose only clothing was his hair. They asked him of his country and kin.\nHe tells them that he was a man of Ireland who had put to sea(198) with a\nsod of his native country under his feet. God had turned the sod into an\nisland, adding a foot\u2019s breadth to it and one tree for every year. The\nbirds are his kith and kin, and they all wait there till Doomsday,\nmiraculously nourished by angels. He entertained them for three nights,\nand then they sailed away.\n\n*The Island of the Miraculous Fountain*\n\nThis island had a golden rampart, and a soft white soil like down. In it\nthey found another anchorite clothed only in his hair. There was a\nfountain in it which yields whey or water on Fridays and Wednesdays, milk\non Sundays and feasts of martyrs, and ale and wine on the feasts of\nApostles, of Mary, of John the Baptist, and on the high tides of the year.\n\n*The Island of the Smithy*\n\nAs they approached this they heard from afar as it were the clanging of a\ntremendous smithy, and heard men talking of themselves. \u201cLittle boys they\nseem,\u201d said one, \u201cin a little trough yonder.\u201d They rowed hastily away, but\ndid not turn their boat, so as not to seem to be flying; but after a while\na giant smith came out of the forge holding in his tongs a huge mass of\nglowing iron, which he cast after them, and all the sea boiled round it,\nas it fell astern of their boat.\n\n*The Sea of Clear Glass*\n\nAfter that they voyaged until they entered a sea that resembled green\nglass. Such was its purity that the gravel and the sand of the sea were\nclearly visible through it; and they saw no monsters or beasts therein\namong the crags, but only the pure gravel and the green sand. For a long\nspace of the day they were voyaging in that sea, and great was its\nsplendour and its beauty.(199)\n\n*The Undersea Island*\n\nThey next found themselves in a sea, thin like mist, that seemed as if it\nwould not support their boat. In the depths they saw roofed fortresses,\nand a fair land around them. A monstrous beast lodged in a tree there,\nwith droves of cattle about it, and beneath it an armed warrior. In spite\nof the warrior, the beast ever and anon stretched down a long neck and\nseized one of the cattle and devoured it. Much dreading lest they should\nsink through that mist-like sea, they sailed over it and away.\n\n*The Island of the Prophecy*\n\nWhen they arrived here they found the water rising in high cliffs round\nthe island, and, looking down, saw on it a crowd of people, who screamed\nat them, \u201cIt is they, it is they,\u201d till they were out of breath. Then came\na woman and pelted them from below with large nuts, which they gathered\nand took with them. As they went they heard the folk crying to each other:\n\u201cWhere are they now?\u201d \u201cThey are gone away.\u201d \u201cThey are not.\u201d \u201cIt is\nlikely,\u201d says the tale, \u201cthat there was some one concerning whom the\nislanders had a prophecy that he would ruin their country and expel them\nfrom their land.\u201d\n\n*The Island of the Spouting Water*\n\nHere a great stream spouted out of one side of the island and arched over\nit like a rainbow, falling on the strand at the further side. And when\nthey thrust their spears into the stream above them they brought out\nsalmon from it as much as they would, and the island was filled with the\nstench of those they could not carry away.\n\n*The Island of the Silvern Column*\n\nThe next wonder to which they came forms one of the most striking and\nimaginative episodes of the voyage. It was a great silvern column,\nfour-square, rising from the sea. Each of its four sides was as wide as\ntwo oar-strokes of the boat. Not a sod of earth was at its foot, but it\nrose from the boundless ocean and its summit was lost in the sky. From\nthat summit a huge silver net was flung far away into the sea, and through\na mesh of that net they sailed. As they did so Diuran hacked away a piece\nof the net. \u201cDestroy it not,\u201d said Maeld\u016bn, \u201cfor what we see is the work\nof mighty men.\u201d Diuran said: \u201cFor the praise of God\u2019s name I do this, that\nour tale may be believed, and if I reach Ireland again this piece of\nsilver shall be offered by me on the high altar of Armagh.\u201d Two ounces and\na half it weighed when it was measured afterwards in Armagh.\n\n\u201cAnd then they heard a voice from the summit of yonder pillar, mighty,\nclear, and distinct. But they knew not the tongue it spake, or the words\nit uttered.\u201d\n\n*The Island of the Pedestal*\n\nThe next island stood on a foot, or pedestal, which rose from the sea, and\nthey could find no way of access to it. In the base of the pedestal was a\ndoor, closed and locked, which they could not open, so they sailed away,\nhaving seen and spoken with no one.\n\n*The Island of the Women*\n\nHere they found the rampart of a mighty d\u016bn, enclosing a mansion. They\nlanded to look on it, and sat on a hillock near by. Within the d\u016bn they\nsaw seventeen maidens busy at preparing a great bath. In a little while a\nrider, richly clad, came up swiftly on a racehorse, and lighted down and\nwent inside, one of the girls taking the horse. The rider then went into\nthe bath, when they saw that it was a woman. Shortly after that one of the\nmaidens came out and invited them to enter, saying: \u201cThe Queen invites\nyou.\u201d They went into the fort and bathed, and then sat down to meat, each\nman with a maiden over against him, and Maeld\u016bn opposite to the queen. And\nMaeld\u016bn was wedded to the queen, and each of the maidens to one of his\nmen, and at nightfall canopied chambers were allotted to each of them. On\nthe morrow morn they made ready to depart, but the queen would not have\nthem go, and said: \u201cStay here, and old age will never fall on you, but ye\nshall remain as ye are now for ever and ever, and what ye had last night\nye shall have always. And be no longer a-wandering from island to island\non the ocean.\u201d\n\nShe then told Maeld\u016bn that she was the mother of the seventeen girls they\nhad seen, and her husband had been king of the island. He was now dead,\nand she reigned in his place. Each day she went into the great plain in\nthe interior of the island to judge the folk, and returned to the d\u016bn at\nnight.\n\nSo they remained there for three months of winter; but at the end of that\ntime it seemed they had been there three years, and the men wearied of it,\nand longed to set forth for their own country.\n\n\u201cWhat shall we find there,\u201d said Maeld\u016bn, \u201cthat is better than this?\u201d\n\nBut still the people murmured and complained, and at last they said:\n\u201cGreat is the love which Maeld\u016bn has for his woman. Let him stay with her\nalone if he will, but we will go to our own country.\u201d But Maeld\u016bn would\nnot be left after them, and at last one day, when the queen was away\njudging the folk, they went on board their bark and put out to sea. Before\nthey had gone far, however, the queen came riding up with a clew of twine\nin her hand, and she flung it after them. Maeld\u016bn caught it in his hand,\nand it clung to his hand so that he could not free himself, and the queen,\nholding the other end, drew them back to land. And they stayed on the\nisland another three months.\n\nTwice again the same thing happened, and at last the people averred that\nMaeld\u016bn held the clew on purpose, so great was his love for the woman. So\nthe next time another man caught the clew, but it clung to his hand as\nbefore; so Diuran smote off his hand, and it fell with the clew into the\nsea. \u201cWhen she saw that she at once began to wail and shriek, so that all\nthe land was one cry, wailing and shrieking.\u201d And thus they escaped from\nthe Island of the Women.\n\n*The Island of the Red Berries*\n\nOn this island were trees with great red berries which yielded an\nintoxicating and slumbrous juice. They mingled it with water to moderate\nits power, and filled their casks with it, and sailed away.\n\n*The Island of the Eagle*\n\nA large island, with woods of oak and yew on one side of it, and on the\nother a plain, whereon were herds of sheep, and a little lake in it; and\nthere also they found a small church and a fort, and an ancient grey\ncleric, clad only in his hair. Maeld\u016bn asked him who he was.\n\n\u201cI am the fifteenth man of the monks of St. Brennan of Birr,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\nwent on our pilgrimage into the ocean, and they have all died save me\nalone.\u201d He showed them the tablet (? calendar) of the Holy Brennan, and\nthey prostrated themselves before it, and Maeld\u016bn kissed it. They stayed\nthere for a season, feeding on the sheep of the island.\n\nOne day they saw what seemed to be a cloud coming up from the south-west.\nAs it drew near, however, they saw the waving of pinions, and perceived\nthat it was an enormous bird. It came into the island, and, alighting very\nwearily on a hill near the lake, it began eating the red berries, like\ngrapes, which grew on a huge tree-branch as big as a full-grown oak, that\nit had brought with it, and the juice and fragments of the berries fell\ninto the lake, reddening all the water. Fearful that it would seize them\nin its talons and bear them out to sea, they lay hid in the woods and\nwatched it. After a while, however, Maeld\u016bn went out to the foot of the\nhill, but the bird did him no harm, and then the rest followed cautiously\nbehind their shields, and one of them gathered the berries off the branch\nwhich the bird held in its talons, but it did them no evil, and regarded\nthem not at all. And they saw that it was very old, and its plumage dull\nand decayed.\n\nAt the hour of noon two eagles came up from the south-west and alit in\nfront of the great bird, and after resting awhile they set to work picking\noff the insects that infested its jaws and eyes and ears. This they\ncontinued till vespers, when all three ate of the berries again. At last,\non the following day, when the great bird had been completely cleansed, it\nplunged into the lake, and again the two eagles picked and cleansed it.\nTill the third day the great bird remained preening and shaking its\npinions, and its feathers became glossy and abundant, and then, soaring\nupwards, it flew thrice round the island, and away to the quarter whence\nit had come, and its flight was now swift and strong; whence it was\nmanifest to them that this had been its renewal from old age to youth,\naccording as the prophet said, _Thy youth is renewed like the\neagle\u2019s_.(200)\n\nThen Diuran said: \u201cLet us bathe in that lake and renew ourselves where the\nbird hath been renewed.\u201d \u201cNay,\u201d said another, \u201cfor the bird hath left his\nvenom in it.\u201d But Diuran plunged in and drank of the water. From that time\nso long as he lived his eyes were strong and keen, and not a tooth fell\nfrom his jaw nor a hair from his head, and he never knew illness or\ninfirmity.\n\nThereafter they bade farewell to the anchorite, and fared forth on the\nocean once more.\n\n*The Island of the Laughing Folk*\n\nHere they found a great company of men laughing and playing incessantly.\nThey drew lots as to who should enter and explore it, and it fell to\nMaeld\u016bn\u2019s foster-brother. But when he set foot on it he at once began to\nlaugh and play with the others, and could not leave off, nor would he come\nback to his comrades. So they left him and sailed away.(201)\n\n*The Island of the Flaming Rampart*\n\nThey now came in sight of an island which was not large, and it had about\nit a rampart of flame that circled round and round it continually. In one\npart of the rampart there was an opening, and when this opening came\nopposite to them they saw through it the whole island, and saw those who\ndwelt therein, even men and women, beautiful, many, and wearing adorned\ngarments, with vessels of gold in their hands. And the festal music which\nthey made came to the ears of the wanderers. For a long time they lingered\nthere, watching this marvel, \u201cand they deemed it delightful to behold.\u201d\n\n*The Island of the Monk of Tory*\n\nFar off among the waves they saw what they took to be a white bird on the\nwater. Drawing near to it they found it to be an aged man clad only in the\nwhite hair of his body, and he was throwing himself in prostrations on a\nbroad rock.\n\n\u201cFrom Torach(202) I have come hither,\u201d he said, \u201cand there I was reared. I\nwas cook in the monastery there, and the food of the Church I used to sell\nfor myself, so that I had at last much treasure of raiment and brazen\nvessels and gold-bound books and all that man desires. Great was my pride\nand arrogance.\n\n\u201cOne day as I dug a grave in which to bury a churl who had been brought on\nto the island, a voice came from below where a holy man lay buried, and he\nsaid: \u2018Put not the corpse of a sinner on me, a holy, pious person!\u2019 \u201d\n\nAfter a dispute the monk buried the corpse elsewhere, and was promised an\neternal reward for doing so. Not long thereafter he put to sea in a boat\nwith all his accumulated treasures, meaning apparently to escape from the\nisland with his plunder. A great wind blew him far out to sea, and when he\nwas out of sight of land the boat stood still in one place. He saw near\nhim a man (angel) sitting on the wave. \u201cWhither goest thou?\u201d said the man.\n\u201cOn a pleasant way, whither I am now looking,\u201d said the monk. \u201cIt would\nnot be pleasant to thee if thou knewest what is around thee,\u201d said the\nman. \u201cSo far as eye can see there is one crowd of demons all gathered\naround thee, because of thy covetousness and pride, and theft, and other\nevil deeds. Thy boat hath stopped, nor will it move until thou do my will,\nand the fires of hell shall get hold of thee.\u201d\n\nHe came near to the boat, and laid his hand on the arm of the fugitive,\nwho promised to do his will.\n\n\u201cFling into the sea,\u201d he said, \u201call the wealth that is in thy boat.\u201d\n\n\u201cIt is a pity,\u201d said the monk, \u201cthat it should go to loss.\u201d\n\n\u201cIt shall in nowise go to loss. There will be one man whom thou wilt\nprofit.\u201d\n\nThe monk thereupon flung everything into the sea save one little wooden\ncup, and he cast away oars and rudder. The man gave him a provision of\nwhey and seven cakes, and bade him abide wherever his boat should stop.\nThe wind and waves carried him hither and thither till at last the boat\ncame to rest upon the rock where the wanderers found him. There was\nnothing there but the bare rock, but remembering what he was bidden he\nstepped out upon a little ledge over which the waves washed, and the boat\nimmediately left him, and the rock was enlarged for him. There he remained\nseven years, nourished by otters which brought him salmon out of the sea,\nand even flaming firewood on which to cook them, and his cup was filled\nwith good liquor every day. \u201cAnd neither wet nor heat nor cold affects me\nin this place.\u201d\n\nAt the noon hour miraculous nourishment was brought for the whole crew,\nand thereafter the ancient man said to them:\n\n\u201cYe will all reach your country, and the man that slew thy father, O\nMaeld\u016bn, ye will find him in a fortress before you. And slay him not, but\nforgive him; because God hath saved you from manifold great perils, and ye\ntoo are men deserving of death.\u201d\n\nThen they bade him farewell and went on their accustomed way.\n\n*The Island of the Falcon*\n\nThis is uninhabited save for herds of sheep and oxen. They land on it and\neat their fill, and one of them sees there a large falcon. \u201cThis falcon,\u201d\nhe says, \u201cis like the falcons of Ireland.\u201d \u201cWatch it,\u201d says Maeld\u016bn, \u201cand\nsee how it will go from us.\u201d It flew off to the south-east, and they rowed\nafter it all day till vespers.\n\n*The Home-coming*\n\nAt nightfall they sighted a land like Ireland; and soon came to a small\nisland, where they ran their prow ashore. It was the island where dwelt\nthe man who had slain Ailill.\n\nThey went up to the d\u016bn that was on the island, and heard men talking\nwithin it as they sat at meat. One man said:\n\n\u201cIt would be ill for us if we saw Maeld\u016bn now.\u201d\n\n\u201cThat Maeld\u016bn has been drowned,\u201d said another.\n\n\u201cMaybe it is he who shall waken you from sleep to-night,\u201d said a third.\n\n\u201cIf he should come now,\u201d said a fourth, \u201cwhat should we do?\u201d\n\n\u201cNot hard to answer that,\u201d said the chief of them. \u201cGreat welcome should\nhe have if he were to come, for he hath been a long space in great\ntribulation.\u201d\n\nThen Maeld\u016bn smote with the wooden clapper against the door. \u201cWho is\nthere?\u201d asked the doorkeeper.\n\n\u201cMaeld\u016bn is here,\u201d said he.\n\nThey entered the house in peace, and great welcome was made for them, and\nthey were arrayed in new garments. And then they told the story of all the\nmarvels that God had shown them, according to the words of the \u201csacred\npoet,\u201d who said, _Haec olim meminisse juvabit._(203)\n\nThen Maeld\u016bn went to his own home and kindred, and Diuran the Rhymer took\nwith him the piece of silver that he had hewn from the net of the pillar,\nand laid it on the high altar of Armagh in triumph and exultation at the\nmiracles that God had wrought for them. And they told again the story of\nall that had befallen them, and all the marvels they had seen by sea and\nland, and the perils they had endured.\n\nThe story ends with the following words:\n\n\u201cNow Aed the Fair [Aed Finn(204)], chief sage of Ireland, arranged this\nstory as it standeth here; and he did so for a delight to the mind, and\nfor the folks of Ireland after him.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VIII: MYTHS AND TALES OF THE CYMRY\n\n\n*Bardic Philosophy*\n\nThe absence in early Celtic literature of any world-myth, or any\nphilosophic account of the origin and constitution of things, was noticed\nat the opening of our third chapter. In Gaelic literature there is, as far\nas I know, nothing which even pretends to represent early Celtic thought\non this subject. It is otherwise in Wales. Here there has existed for a\nconsiderable time a body of teaching purporting to contain a portion, at\nany rate, of that ancient Druidic thought which, as Caesar tells us, was\ncommunicated only to the initiated, and never written down. This teaching\nis principally to be found in two volumes entitled \u201cBarddas,\u201d a\ncompilation made from materials in his possession by a Welsh bard and\nscholar named Llewellyn Sion, of Glamorgan, towards the end of the\nsixteenth century, and edited, with a translation, by J.A. Williams ap\nIthel for the Welsh MS. Society. Modern Celtic scholars pour contempt on\nthe pretensions of works like this to enshrine any really antique thought.\nThus Mr. Ivor B. John: \u201cAll idea of a bardic esoteric doctrine involving\npre-Christian mythic philosophy must be utterly discarded.\u201d And again:\n\u201cThe nonsense talked upon the subject is largely due to the uncritical\ninvention of pseudo-antiquaries of the sixteenth to seventeenth and\neighteenth centuries.\u201d(205) Still the bardic Order was certainly at one\ntime in possession of such a doctrine. That Order had a fairly continuous\nexistence in Wales. And though no critical thinker would build with any\nconfidence a theory of pre-Christian doctrine on a document of the\nsixteenth century, it does not seem wise to scout altogether the\npossibility that some fragments of antique lore may have lingered even so\nlate as that in bardic tradition.\n\nAt any rate, \u201cBarddas\u201d is a work of considerable philosophic interest, and\neven if it represents nothing but a certain current of Cymric thought in\nthe sixteenth century it is not unworthy of attention by the student of\nthings Celtic. Purely Druidic it does not even profess to be, for\nChristian personages and episodes from Christian history figure largely in\nit. But we come occasionally upon a strain of thought which, whatever else\nit may be, is certainly not Christian, and speaks of an independent\nphilosophic system.\n\nIn this system two primary existences are contemplated, God and Cythrawl,\nwho stand respectively for the principle of energy tending towards life,\nand the principle of destruction tending towards nothingness. Cythrawl is\nrealised in Annwn,(206) which may be rendered, the Abyss, or Chaos. In the\nbeginning there was nothing but God and Annwn. Organised life began by the\nWord\u2014God pronounced His ineffable Name and the \u201cManred\u201d was formed. The\nManred was the primal substance of the universe. It was conceived as a\nmultitude of minute indivisible particles\u2014atoms, in fact\u2014each being a\nmicrocosm, for God is complete in each of them, while at the same time\neach is a part of God, the Whole. The totality of being as it now exists\nis represented by three concentric circles. The innermost of them, where\nlife sprang from Annwn, is called \u201cAbred,\u201d and is the stage of struggle\nand evolution\u2014the contest of life with Cythrawl. The next is the circle of\n\u201cGwynfyd,\u201d or Purity, in which life is manifested as a pure, rejoicing\nforce, having attained its triumph over evil. The last and outermost\ncircle is called \u201cCeugant,\u201d or Infinity. Here all predicates fail us, and\nthis circle, represented graphically not by a bounding line, but by\ndivergent rays, is inhabited by God alone. The following extract from\n\u201cBarddas,\u201d in which the alleged bardic teaching is conveyed in catechism\nform, will serve to show the order of ideas in which the writer\u2019s mind\nmoved:\n\n                          [The Circles of Being]\n\n                           The Circles of Being\n\n\n\u201cQ. Whence didst thou proceed?\n\n\u201cA. I came from the Great World, having my beginning in Annwn.\n\n\u201cQ. Where art thou now? and how camest thou to what thou art?\n\n\u201cA. I am in the Little World, whither I came having traversed the circle\nof Abred, and now I am a Man, at its termination and extreme limits.\n\n\u201cQ. What wert thou before thou didst become a man, in the circle of Abred?\n\n\u201cA. I was in Annwn the least possible that was capable of life and the\nnearest possible to absolute death; and I came in every form and through\nevery form capable of a body and life to the state of man along the circle\nof Abred, where my condition was severe and grievous during the age of\nages, ever since I was parted in Annwn from the dead, by the gift of God,\nand His great generosity, and His unlimited and endless love.\n\n\u201cQ. Through how many different forms didst thou come, and what happened\nunto thee?\u201d\n\n\u201cA. Through every form capable of life, in water, in earth, in air. And\nthere happened unto me every severity, every hardship, every evil, and\nevery suffering, and but little was the goodness or Gwynfyd before I\nbecame a man.... Gwynfyd cannot be obtained without seeing and knowing\neverything, but it is not possible to see or to know everything without\nsuffering everything.... And there can be no full and perfect love that\ndoes not produce those things which are necessary to lead to the knowledge\nthat causes Gwynfyd.\u201d\n\nEvery being, we are told, shall attain to the circle of Gwynfyd at\nlast.(207)\n\nThere is much here that reminds us of Gnostic or Oriental thought. It is\ncertainly very unlike Christian orthodoxy of the sixteenth century. As a\nproduct of the Cymric mind of that period the reader may take it for what\nit is worth, without troubling himself either with antiquarian theories or\nwith their refutations.\n\nLet us now turn to the really ancient work, which is not philosophic, but\ncreative and imaginative, produced by British bards and fabulists of the\nMiddle Ages. But before we go on to set forth what we shall find in this\nliterature we must delay a moment to discuss one thing which we shall not.\n\n*The Arthurian Saga*\n\nFor the majority of modern readers who have not made any special study of\nthe subject, the mention of early British legend will inevitably call up\nthe glories of the Arthurian Saga\u2014they will think of the fabled palace at\nCaerleon-on-Usk, the Knights of the Round Table riding forth on chivalrous\nadventure, the Quest of the Grail, the guilty love of Lancelot, flower of\nknighthood, for the queen, the last great battle by the northern sea, the\nvoyage of Arthur, sorely wounded, but immortal, to the mystic valley of\nAvalon. But as a matter of fact they will find in the native literature of\nmedi\u00e6val Wales little or nothing of all this\u2014no Round Table, no Lancelot,\nno Grail-Quest, no Isle of Avalon, until the Welsh learned about them from\nabroad; and though there was indeed an Arthur in this literature, he is a\nwholly different being from the Arthur of what we now call the Arthurian\nSaga.\n\n*Nennius*\n\nThe earliest extant mention of Arthur is to be found in the work of the\nBritish historian Nennius, who wrote his \u201cHistoria Britonum\u201d about the\nyear 800. He derives his authority from various sources\u2014ancient monuments\nand writings of Britain and of Ireland (in connexion with the latter\ncountry he records the legend of Partholan), Roman annals, and chronicles\nof saints, especially St. Germanus. He presents a fantastically Romanised\nand Christianised view of British history, deriving the Britons from a\nTrojan and Roman ancestry. His account of Arthur, however, is both sober\nand brief. Arthur, who, according to Nennius, lived in the sixth century,\nwas not a king; his ancestry was less noble than that of many other\nBritish chiefs, who, nevertheless, for his great talents as a military\n_Imperator_, or _dux bellorum_, chose him for their leader against the\nSaxons, whom he defeated in twelve battles, the last being at Mount Badon.\nArthur\u2019s office was doubtless a relic of Roman military organisation, and\nthere is no reason to doubt his historical existence, however impenetrable\nmay be the veil which now obscures his valiant and often triumphant\nbattlings for order and civilisation in that disastrous age.\n\n*Geoffrey of Monmouth*\n\nNext we have Geoffrey of Monmouth, Bishop of St. Asaph, who wrote his\n\u201cHistoria Regum Britani\u00e6\u201d in South Wales in the early part of the twelfth\ncentury. This work is an audacious attempt to make sober history out of a\nmass of mythical or legendary matter mainly derived, if we are to believe\nthe author, from an ancient book brought by his uncle Walter, Archdeacon\nof Oxford, from Brittany. The mention of Brittany in this connexion is, as\nwe shall see, very significant. Geoffrey wrote expressly to commemorate\nthe exploits of Arthur, who now appears as a king, son of Uther Pendragon\nand of Igerna, wife of Gorlois, Duke of Cornwall, to whom Uther gained\naccess in the shape of her husband through the magic arts of Merlin. He\nplaces the beginning of Arthur\u2019s reign in the year 505, recounts his wars\nagainst the Saxons, and says he ultimately conquered not only all Britain,\nbut Ireland, Norway, Gaul, and Dacia, and successfully resisted a demand\nfor tribute and homage from the Romans. He held his court at\nCaerleon-on-Usk. While he was away on the Continent carrying on his\nstruggle with Rome his nephew Modred usurped his crown and wedded his wife\nGuanhumara. Arthur, on this, returned, and after defeating the traitor at\nWinchester slew him in a last battle in Cornwall, where Arthur himself was\nsorely wounded (A.D. 542). The queen retired to a convent at Caerleon.\nBefore his death Arthur conferred his kingdom on his kinsman Constantine,\nand was then carried off mysteriously to \u201cthe isle of Avalon\u201d to be cured,\nand \u201cthe rest is silence.\u201d Arthur\u2019s magic sword \u201cCaliburn\u201d (Welsh\n_Caladvwlch_; see p. 224, note) is mentioned by Geoffrey and described as\nhaving been made in Avalon, a word which seems to imply some kind of\nfairyland, a Land of the Dead, and may be related to the Norse _Valhall_.\nIt was not until later times that Avalon came to be identified with an\nactual site in Britain (Glastonbury). In Geoffrey\u2019s narrative there is\nnothing about the Holy Grail, or Lancelot, or the Round Table, and except\nfor the allusion to Avalon the mystical element of the Arthurian saga is\nabsent. Like Nennius, Geoffrey finds a fantastic classical origin for the\nBritons. His so-called history is perfectly worthless as a record of fact,\nbut it has proved a veritable mine for poets and chroniclers, and has the\ndistinction of having furnished the subject for the earliest English\ntragic drama, \u201cGorboduc,\u201d as well as for Shakespeare\u2019s \u201cKing Lear\u201d; and\nits author may be described as the father\u2014at least on its quasi-historical\nside\u2014of the Arthurian saga, which he made up partly out of records of the\nhistorical _dux bellorum_ of Nennius and partly out of poetical\namplifications of these records made in Brittany by the descendants of\nexiles from Wales, many of whom fled there at the very time when Arthur\nwas waging his wars against the heathen Saxons. Geoffrey\u2019s book had a\nwonderful success. It was speedily translated into French by Wace, who\nwrote \u201cLi Romans de Brut\u201d about 1155, with added details from Breton\nsources, and translated from Wace\u2019s French into Anglo-Saxon by Layamon,\nwho thus anticipated Malory\u2019s adaptations of late French prose romances.\nExcept a few scholars who protested unavailingly, no one doubted its\nstrict historical truth, and it had the important effect of giving to\nearly British history a new dignity in the estimation of Continental and\nof English princes. To sit upon the throne of Arthur was regarded as in\nitself a glory by Plantagenet monarchs who had not a trace of Arthur\u2019s or\nof any British blood.\n\n*The Saga in Brittany: Marie de France*\n\nThe Breton sources must next be considered. Unfortunately, not a line of\nancient Breton literature has come down to us, and for our knowledge of it\nwe must rely on the appearances it makes in the work of French writers.\nOne of the earliest of these is the Anglo-Norman poetess who called\nherself Marie de France, and who wrote about 1150 and afterwards. She\nwrote, among other things, a number of \u201cLais,\u201d or tales, which she\nexplicitly and repeatedly tells us were translated or adapted from Breton\nsources. Sometimes she claims to have rendered a writer\u2019s original\nexactly:\n\n\u201cLes contes que jo sai verais\nDunt li Bretun unt fait les lais\nVos conterai assez briefment;\nEt cief [sauf] di cest coumencement\nSelunc la lettre \u00e8 l\u2019escriture.\u201d\n\nLittle is actually said about Arthur in these tales, but the events of\nthem are placed in his time\u2014_en cel tems tint Artus la terre_\u2014and the\nallusions, which include a mention of the Round Table, evidently imply a\ngeneral knowledge of the subject among those to whom these Breton \u201cLais\u201d\nwere addressed. Lancelot is not mentioned, but there is a \u201cLai\u201d about one\nLanval, who is beloved by Arthur\u2019s queen, but rejects her because he has a\nfairy mistress in the \u201cisle d\u2019Avalon.\u201d Gawain is mentioned, and an episode\nis told in the \u201cLai de Chevrefoil\u201d about Tristan and Iseult, whose maid,\n\u201cBrangien,\u201d is referred to in a way which assumes that the audience knew\nthe part she had played on Iseult\u2019s bridal night. In short, we have\nevidence here of the existence in Brittany of a well-diffused and\nwell-developed body of chivalric legend gathered about the personality of\nArthur. The legends are so well known that mere allusions to characters\nand episodes in them are as well understood as references to Tennyson\u2019s\n\u201cIdylls\u201d would be among us to-day. The \u201cLais\u201d of Marie de France therefore\npoint strongly to Brittany as the true cradle of the Arthurian saga, on\nits chivalrous and romantic side. They do not, however, mention the Grail.\n\n*Chrestien de Troyes*\n\nLastly, and chiefly, we have the work of the French poet Chrestien de\nTroyes, who began in 1165 to translate Breton \u201cLais,\u201d like Marie de\nFrance, and who practically brought the Arthurian saga into the poetic\nliterature of Europe, and gave it its main outline and character. He wrote\na \u201cTristan\u201d (now lost). He (if not Walter Map) introduced Lancelot of the\nLake into the story; he wrote a _Conte del Graal_, in which the Grail\nlegend and Perceval make their first appearance, though he left the story\nunfinished, and does not tell us what the \u201cGrail\u201d really was.(208) He also\nwrote a long _conte d\u2019aventure_ entitled \u201cErec,\u201d containing the story of\nGeraint and Enid. These are the earliest poems we possess in which the\nArthur of chivalric legend comes prominently forward. What were the\nsources of Chrestien? No doubt they were largely Breton. Troyes is in\nChampagne, which had been united to Blois in 1019 by Eudes, Count of\nBlois, and reunited again after a period of dispossession by Count\nTheobald de Blois in 1128. Marie, Countess of Champagne, was Chrestien\u2019s\npatroness. And there were close connexions between the ruling princes of\nBlois and of Brittany. Alain II., a Duke of Brittany, had in the tenth\ncentury married a sister of the Count de Blois, and in the first quarter\nof the thirteenth century Jean I. of Brittany married Blanche de\nChampagne, while their daughter Alix married Jean de Chastillon, Count of\nBlois, in 1254. It is highly probable, therefore, that through minstrels\nwho attended their Breton lords at the court of Blois, from the middle of\nthe tenth century onward, a great many Breton \u201cLais\u201d and legends found\ntheir way into French literature during the eleventh, twelfth, and\nthirteenth centuries. But it is also certain that the Breton legends\nthemselves had been strongly affected by French influences, and that to\nthe _Mati\u00e8re de France_, as it was called by medi\u00e6val writers(209)\u2014_i.e._,\nthe legends of Charlemagne and his Paladins\u2014we owe the Table Round and the\nchivalric institutions ascribed to Arthur\u2019s court at Caerleon-on-Usk.\n\n*Bleheris*\n\nIt must not be forgotten that (as Miss Jessie L. Weston has emphasised in\nher invaluable studies on the Arthurian saga) Gautier de Denain, the\nearliest of the continuators or re-workers of Chrestien de Troyes,\nmentions as his authority for stories of Gawain one Bleheris, a poet \u201cborn\nand bred in Wales.\u201d This forgotten bard is believed to be identical with\n_famosus ille fabulator, Bledhericus,_ mentioned by Giraldus Cambrensis,\nand with the Br\u00e9ris quoted by Thomas of Brittany as an authority for the\nTristan story.\n\n*Conclusion as to the Origin of the Arthurian Saga*\n\nIn the absence, however, of any information as to when, or exactly what,\nBleheris wrote, the opinion must, I think, hold the field that the\nArthurian saga, as we have it now, is not of Welsh, nor even of pure\nBreton origin. The Welsh exiles who colonised part of Brittany about the\nsixth century must have brought with them many stories of the historical\nArthur. They must also have brought legends of the Celtic deity Artaius, a\ngod to whom altars have been found in France. These personages ultimately\nblended into one, even as in Ireland the Christian St. Brigit blended with\nthe pagan goddess Brigindo.(210) We thus get a mythical figure combining\nsomething of the exaltation of a god with a definite habitation on earth\nand a place in history. An Arthur saga thus arose, which in its Breton\n(though not its Welsh) form was greatly enriched by material drawn in from\nthe legends of Charlemagne and his peers, while both in Brittany and in\nWales it became a centre round which clustered a mass of floating\nlegendary matter relating to various Celtic personages, human and divine.\nChrestien de Troyes, working on Breton material, ultimately gave it the\nform in which it conquered the world, and in which it became in the\ntwelfth and the thirteenth centuries what the Faust legend was in later\ntimes, the accepted vehicle for the ideals and aspirations of an epoch.\n\n*The Saga in Wales*\n\nFrom the Continent, and especially from Brittany, the story of Arthur came\nback into Wales transformed and glorified. The late Dr. Heinrich Zimmer,\nin one of his luminous studies of the subject, remarks that \u201cIn Welsh\nliterature we have definite evidence that the South-Welsh prince, Rhys ap\nTewdwr, who had been in Brittany, brought from thence in the year 1070 the\nknowledge of Arthur\u2019s Round Table to Wales, where of course it had been\nhitherto unknown.\u201d(211) And many Breton lords are known to have followed\nthe banner of William the Conqueror into England.(212) The introducers of\nthe saga into Wales found, however, a considerable body of Arthurian\nmatter of a very different character already in existence there. Besides\nthe traditions of the historical Arthur, the _dux bellorum_ of Nennius,\nthere was the Celtic deity, Artaius. It is probably a reminiscence of this\ndeity whom we meet with under the name of Arthur in the only genuine Welsh\nArthurian story we possess, the story of Kilhwch and Olwen in the\n\u201cMabinogion.\u201d Much of the Arthurian saga derived from Chrestien and other\nContinental writers was translated and adapted in Wales as in other\nEuropean countries, but as a matter of fact it made a later and a lesser\nimpression in Wales than almost anywhere else. It conflicted with existing\nWelsh traditions, both historical and mythological; it was full of matter\nentirely foreign to the Welsh spirit, and it remained always in Wales\nsomething alien and unassimilated. Into Ireland it never entered at all.\n\nThese few introductory remarks do not, of course, profess to contain a\ndiscussion of the Arthurian saga\u2014a vast subject with myriad ramifications,\nhistorical, mythological, mystical, and what not\u2014but are merely intended\nto indicate the relation of that saga to genuine Celtic literature and to\nexplain why we shall hear so little of it in the following accounts of\nCymric myths and legends. It was a great spiritual myth which, arising\nfrom the composite source above described, overran all the Continent, as\nits hero was supposed to have done in armed conquest, but it cannot be\nregarded as a special possession of the Celtic race, nor is it at present\nextant, except in the form of translation or adaptation, in any Celtic\ntongue.\n\n*Gaelic and Cymric Legend Compared*\n\nThe myths and legends of the Celtic race which have come down to us in the\nWelsh language are in some respects of a different character from those\nwhich we possess in Gaelic. The Welsh material is nothing like as full as\nthe Gaelic, nor so early. The tales of the \u201cMabinogion\u201d are mainly drawn\nfrom the fourteenth-century manuscript entitled \u201cThe Red Book of Hergest.\u201d\nOne of them, the romance of Taliesin, came from another source, a\nmanuscript of the seventeenth century. The four oldest tales in the\n\u201cMabinogion\u201d are supposed by scholars to have taken their present shape in\nthe tenth or eleventh century, while several Irish tales, like the story\nof Etain and Midir or the Death of Conary, go back to the seventh or\neighth. It will be remembered that the story of the invasion of Partholan\nwas known to Nennius, who wrote about the year 800. As one might therefore\nexpect, the mythological elements in the Welsh romances are usually much\nmore confused and harder to decipher than in the earlier of the Irish\ntales. The mythic interest has grown less, the story interest greater; the\nobject of the bard is less to hand down a sacred text than to entertain a\nprince\u2019s court. We must remember also that the influence of the\nContinental romances of chivalry is clearly perceptible in the Welsh\ntales; and, in fact, comes eventually to govern them completely.\n\n*Gaelic and Continental Romance*\n\nIn many respects the Irish Celt anticipated the ideas of these romances.\nThe lofty courtesy shown to each other by enemies,(213) the fantastic\npride which forbade a warrior to take advantage of a wounded\nadversary,(214) the extreme punctilio with which the duties or observances\nproper to each man\u2019s caste or station were observed(215)\u2014all this tone of\nthought and feeling which would seem so strange to us if we met an\ninstance of it in classical literature would seem quite familiar and\nnatural in Continental romances of the twelfth and later centuries.\nCenturies earlier than that it was a marked feature in Gaelic literature.\nYet in the Irish romances, whether Ultonian or Ossianic, the element which\nhas since been considered the most essential motive in a romantic tale is\nalmost entirely lacking. This is the element of love, or rather of\nwoman-worship. The Continental fabulist felt that he could do nothing\nwithout this motive of action. But the \u201clady-love\u201d of the English, French,\nor German knight, whose favour he wore, for whose grace he endured\ninfinite hardship and peril, does not meet us in Gaelic literature. It\nwould have seemed absurd to the Irish Celt to make the plot of a serious\nstory hinge on the kind of passion with which the mediaeval Dulcinea\ninspired her faithful knight. In the two most famous and popular of Gaelic\nlove-tales, the tale of Deirdre and \u201cThe Pursuit of Dermot and Grania,\u201d\nthe women are the wooers, and the men are most reluctant to commit what\nthey know to be the folly of yielding to them. Now this romantic,\nchivalric kind of love, which idealised woman into a goddess, and made the\nservice of his lady a sacred duty to the knight, though it never reached\nin Wales the height which it did in Continental and English romances, is\nyet clearly discernible there. We can trace it in \u201cKilhwch and Olwen,\u201d\nwhich is comparatively an ancient tale. It is well developed in later\nstories like \u201cPeredur\u201d and \u201cThe Lady of the Fountain.\u201d It is a symptom of\nthe extent to which, in comparison with the Irish, Welsh literature had\nlost its pure Celtic strain and become affected\u2014I do not, of course, say\nto its loss\u2014by foreign influences.\n\n*Gaelic and Cymric Mythology: Nudd*\n\nThe oldest of the Welsh tales, those called \u201cThe Four Branches of the\nMabinogi,\u201d(216) are the richest in mythological elements, but these occur\nin more or less recognisable form throughout nearly all the mediaeval\ntales, and even, after many transmutations, in Malory. We can clearly\ndiscern certain mythological figures common to all Celtica. We meet, for\ninstance, a personage called Nudd or Lludd, evidently a solar deity. A\ntemple dating from Roman times, and dedicated to him under the name of\nNodens, has been discovered at Lydney, by the Severn. On a bronze plaque\nfound near the spot is a representation of the god. He is encircled by a\nhalo and accompanied by flying spirits and by Tritons. We are reminded of\nthe Danaan deities and their close connexion with the sea; and when we\nfind that in Welsh legend an epithet is attached to Nudd, meaning \u201cof the\nSilver Hand\u201d (though no extant Welsh legend tells the meaning of the\nepithet), we have no difficulty in identifying this Nudd with Nuada of the\nSilver Hand, who led the Danaans in the battle of Moytura.(217) Under his\nname Lludd he is said to have had a temple on the site of St. Paul\u2019s in\nLondon, the entrance to which, according to Geoffrey of Monmouth, was\ncalled in the British tongue _Parth Lludd_, which the Saxons translated\n_Ludes Geat_, our present Ludgate.\n\n                         GODS OF THE HOUSE OF D\u014cN\n\n\n\n                Manogan                   M\u0101thonwy\n                   |                           |\n                   |                           |\n                   |                 +---------+------+\n                   |                 |                 |\n                  Beli-------+------D\u014dn               M\u0101th\n                 (Death,     | (Mother-goddess,    (wealth,\n               Irish Bil\u00e9)   |   Irish Dana)       increase)\n                             |\n                             |\n                             |\n     +----------------+------+--+--------+-------+--------+--------+------+\n     |                |         |        |       |        |        |      |\n     |                |         |        |       |        |        |      |\n  Gwydion-----+----Arianrod     |     Amaethon   |       Nudd      |  Nynniaw\n(Science and  |   (\"Silver-     |  (agriculture) |     or Ludd     | and Peibaw\nlight; slayer | circle,\" Dawn-  |                |     (Sky-god)   |\nof Pryderi)   |    goddess)     |                |         |       |\n              |                 |                |         |       |\n              |             Gilvaethwy       Govannan      |  Penardun\n              |                            (smith-craft,   |  (_m_. Llyr)\n              |                             Irish Goban)   |\n     +--------+---+---------+                              |\n     |            |         |                            Gwyn\n  Nwyvre        Llew      Dylan                       (Warder of\n(atmosphere,    Llaw    (Sea-god)                    Hades, called\n   space)      Gyffes                                 \"Avalon\" in\n              (Sun-god,                                Somerset)\n              the Irish\n                Lugh)\n\n                        GODS OF THE HOUSE OF LLYR\n\n\n         Iweriad     --+-- Llyr --+-- Penardun --+-- Euroswydd\n   (=Ireland--_i.e.,_  | (Irish   |  (dau. of    |\n       western land    |  Lir)    |    D\u014dn)      |\n        of Hades)      |          |              |\n                       |          |              |\n   +---------+---------+          |              +--------+----------+\n   |         |                    |                       |          |\n   |         |                    |                       |          |\n   |         |                    |                       |          |\n   |      Branwen--+--Matholwch   |                   Nissyen     Evnissyen\n   |      (Love-   |   (King of   |\n   |      goddess) |    Ireland)  |\n   |               |              |\n  Bran             |           Manawyddan---Rhiannon\n(giant god         |          (Irish Mana-\n of Hades          |           nan, god of             Pwyll--+--Rhiannon\na minstrel;        |            the Sea,             (Head of |\nafterwards         |           enchanter)              Hades) |\n  Urien)           |                                          |\n                 Gwern                                    Pryderi---Kicva\n                                                         (Lord of\n                                                          Hades)\n\n                            ARTHUR AND HIS KIN\n\n\n                           Anlawdd\n                              |\n    +--------------------+----+----------------------------------+\n    |                    |                                       |\nYspaddaden           Custennin                    Kilwydd -+- Goleuddydd\n    |                    |                                 |\n  Olwen        +---------+-----------+                  Kilhwch --- Olwen\n               |         |           |\n             Goreu     Erbin      Igerna -+- Uther Ben\n                         |                |  (= Bran)\n                      Geraint             |\n                                  +-------+-----------------------+\n                                  |                               |\n                                Arthur           Lot -----+---- Gwyar\n                              (=Gwydion)       (=Llud)    |    (Gore, a\n                                                          |    war-goddess)\n                                                          |\n                 +--------------------------+-------------+-------+\n                 |                          |                     |\n             Gwalchmai                   Medrawt              Gwalchaved\n           (Falcon of May,              (=Dylan,           (Falcon of Summer,\n             = LLew Llaw                 later Sir         later Sir Galahad;\n            Gyffes, later                Mordred)           orig. identical\n             Sir Gawain)                                     with Gwalchmai)\n\n\n*Llyr and Manawyddan*\n\nAgain, when we find a mythological personage named Llyr, with a son named\nManawyddan, playing a prominent part in Welsh legend, we may safely\nconnect them with the Irish Lir and his son Mananan, gods of the sea.\nLlyr-cester, now Leicester, was a centre of the worship of Llyr.\n\n*Llew Llaw Gyffes*\n\nFinally, we may point to a character in the \u201cMabinogi,\u201d or tale, entitled\n\u201cM\u0101th Son of M\u0101thonwy.\u201d The name of this character is given as Llew Llaw\nGyffes, which the Welsh fabulist interprets as \u201cThe Lion of the Sure\nHand,\u201d and a tale, which we shall recount later on, is told to account for\nthe name. But when we find that this hero exhibits characteristics which\npoint to his being a solar deity, such as an amazingly rapid growth from\nchildhood into manhood, and when we are told, moreover, by Professor Rhys\nthat Gyffes originally meant, not \u201csteady\u201d or \u201csure,\u201d but \u201clong,\u201d(218) it\nbecomes evident that we have here a dim and broken reminiscence of the\ndeity whom the Gaels called Lugh of the Long Arm,(219) _Lugh Lamh Fada_.\nThe misunderstood name survived, and round the misunderstanding legendary\nmatter floating in the popular mind crystallised itself in a new story.\n\nThese correspondences might be pursued in much further detail. It is\nenough here to point to their existence as evidence of the original\ncommunity of Gaelic and Cymric mythology.(220) We are, in each literature,\nin the same circle of mythological ideas. In Wales, however, these ideas\nare harder to discern; the figures and their relationships in the Welsh\nOlympus are less accurately defined and more fluctuating. It would seem as\nif a number of different tribes embodied what were fundamentally the same\nconceptions under different names and wove different legends about them.\nThe bardic literature, as we have it now, bears evidence sometimes of the\nprominence of one of these tribal cults, sometimes of another. To reduce\nthese varying accounts to unity is altogether impossible. Still, we can do\nsomething to afford the reader a clue to the maze.\n\n*The Houses of D\u014dn and of Llyr*\n\nTwo great divine houses or families are discernible\u2014that of D\u014dn, a\nmother-goddess (representing the Gaelic Dana), whose husband is Beli, the\nIrish Bil\u00e9, god of Death, and whose descendants are the Children of Light;\nand the House of Llyr, the Gaelic Lir, who here represents, not a Danaan\ndeity, but something more like the Irish Fomorians. As in the case of the\nIrish myth, the two families are allied by intermarriage\u2014Penardun, a\ndaughter of D\u014dn, is wedded to Llyr. D\u014dn herself has a brother, M\u0101th, whose\nname signifies wealth or treasure (_cf._ Greek Pluton, _ploutos_), and\nthey descend from a figure indistinctly characterised, called M\u0101thonwy.\n\n*The House of Arthur*\n\nInto the pantheon of deities represented in the four ancient Mabinogi\nthere came, at a later time, from some other tribal source, another group\nheaded by Arthur, the god Artaius. He takes the place of Gwydion son of\nD\u014dn, and the other deities of his circle fall more or less accurately into\nthe places of others of the earlier circle. The accompanying genealogical\nplans are intended to help the reader to a general view of the\nrelationships and attributes of these personages. It must be borne in\nmind, however, that these tabular arrangements necessarily involve an\nappearance of precision and consistency which is not reflected in the\nfluctuating character of the actual myths taken as a whole. Still, as a\nsketch-map of a very intricate and obscure region, they may help the\nreader who enters it for the first time to find his bearings in it, and\nthat is the only purpose they propose to serve.\n\n*Gwyn ap Nudd*\n\nThe deity named Gwyn ap Nudd is said, like Finn in Gaelic legend,(221) to\nhave impressed himself more deeply and lastingly on the Welsh popular\nimagination than any of the other divinities. A mighty warrior and\nhuntsman, he glories in the crash of breaking spears, and, like Odin,\nassembles the souls of dead heroes in his shadowy kingdom, for although he\nbelongs to the kindred of the Light-gods, Hades is his special domain. The\ncombat between him and Gwythur ap Greidawl (Victor, son of Scorcher) for\nCreudylad, daughter of Lludd, which is to be renewed every May-day till\ntime shall end, represents evidently the contest between winter and summer\nfor the flowery and fertile earth. \u201cLater,\u201d writes Mr. Charles Squire, \u201che\ncame to be considered as King of the _Tylwyth Teg_, the Welsh fairies, and\nhis name as such has hardly yet died out of his last haunt, the romantic\nvale of Neath.... He is the Wild Huntsman of Wales and the West of\nEngland, and it is his pack which is sometimes heard at chase in waste\nplaces by night.\u201d(222) He figures as a god of war and death in a wonderful\npoem from the \u201cBlack Book of Caermarthen,\u201d where he is represented as\ndiscoursing with a prince named Gwyddneu Garanhir, who had come to ask his\nprotection. I quote a few stanzas: the poem will be found in full in Mr.\nSquire\u2019s excellent volume:\n\n\u201cI come from battle and conflict\n With a shield in my hand;\n Broken is my helmet by the thrusting of spears.\n\n\u201cRound-hoofed is my horse, the torment of battle,\n Fairy am I called,(223) Gwyn the son of Nudd,\n The lover of Crewrdilad, the daughter of Lludd\n\n\u201cI have been in the place where Gwendolen was slain,\n The son of Ceidaw, the pillar of song,\n Where the ravens screamed over blood.\n\n\u201cI have been in the place where Bran was killed,\n The son of Iweridd, of far-extending fame,\n Where the ravens of the battlefield screamed.\n\n\u201cI have been where Llacheu was slain,\n The son of Arthur, extolled in songs,\n When the ravens screamed over blood.\n\n\u201cI have been where Mewrig was killed,\n The son of Carreian, of honourable fame,\n When the ravens screamed over flesh.\n\n\u201cI have been where Gwallawg was killed,\n The son of Goholeth, the accomplished,\n The resister of Lloegyr,(224) the son of Lleynawg.\n\n\u201cI have been where the soldiers of Britain were slain,\n From the east to the north:\n I am the escort of the grave.\n\n\u201cI have been where the soldiers of Britain were slain,\n From the east to the south:\n I am alive, they in death.\u201d\n\n*Myrddin, or Merlin*\n\nA deity named Myrddin holds in Arthur\u2019s mythological cycle the place of\nthe Sky- and Sun-god, Nudd. One of the Welsh Triads tells us that Britain,\nbefore it was inhabited, was called _Clas Myrddin_, Myrddin\u2019s Enclosure.\nOne is reminded of the Irish fashion of calling any favoured spot a\n\u201ccattle-fold of the sun\u201d\u2014the name is applied by Deirdre to her beloved\nScottish home in Glen Etive. Professor Rhys suggests that Myrddin was the\ndeity specially worshipped at Stonehenge, which, according to British\ntradition as reported by Geoffrey of Monmouth, was erected by \u201cMerlin,\u201d\nthe enchanter who represents the form into which Myrddin had dwindled\nunder Christian influences. We are told that the abode of Merlin was a\nhouse of glass, or a bush of whitethorn laden with bloom, or a sort of\nsmoke or mist in the air, or \u201ca close neither of iron nor steel nor timber\nnor of stone, but of the air without any other thing, by enchantment so\nstrong that it may never be undone while the world endureth.\u201d(225) Finally\nhe descended upon Bardsey Island, \u201coff the extreme westernmost point of\nCarnarvonshire ... into it he went with nine attendant bards, taking with\nhim the \u2019Thirteen Treasures of Britain,\u2019 thenceforth lost to men.\u201d\nProfessor Rhys points out that a Greek traveller named Demetrius, who is\ndescribed as having visited Britain in the first century A.D., mentions an\nisland in the west where \u201cKronos\u201d was supposed to be imprisoned with his\nattendant deities, and Briareus keeping watch over him as he slept, \u201cfor\nsleep was the bond forged for him.\u201d Doubtless we have here a version,\nHellenised as was the wont of classical writers on barbaric myths, of a\nBritish story of the descent of the Sun-god into the western sea, and his\nimprisonment there by the powers of darkness, with the possessions and\nmagical potencies belonging to Light and Life.(226)\n\n*Nynniaw and Peibaw*\n\nThe two personages called Nynniaw and Peibaw who figure in the\ngenealogical table play a very slight part in Cymric mythology, but one\nstory in which they appear is interesting in itself and has an excellent\nmoral. They are represented(227) as two brothers, Kings of Britain, who\nwere walking together one starlight night. \u201cSee what a fine far-spreading\nfield I have,\u201d said Nynniaw. \u201cWhere is it?\u201d asked Peibaw. \u201cThere aloft and\nas far as you can see,\u201d said Nynniaw, pointing to the sky. \u201cBut look at\nall my cattle grazing in your field,\u201d said Peibaw. \u201cWhere are they?\u201d said\nNynniaw. \u201cAll the golden stars,\u201d said Peibaw, \u201cwith the moon for their\nshepherd.\u201d \u201cThey shall not graze on my field,\u201d cried Nynniaw. \u201cI say they\nshall,\u201d returned Peibaw. \u201cThey shall not.\u201d \u201cThey shall.\u201d And so they went\non: first they quarrelled with each other, and then went to war, and\narmies were destroyed and lands laid waste, till at last the two brothers\nwere turned into oxen as a punishment for their stupidity and\nquarrelsomeness.\n\n*The **\u201c**Mabinogion**\u201d*\n\nWe now come to the work in which the chief treasures of Cymric myth and\nlegend were collected by Lady Charlotte Guest sixty years ago, and given\nto the world in a translation which is one of the masterpieces of English\nliterature. The title of this work, the \u201cMabinogion,\u201d is the plural form\nof the word _Mabinogi_, which means a story belonging to the equipment of\nan apprentice-bard, such a story as every bard had necessarily to learn as\npart of his training, whatever more he might afterwards add to his\n_r\u00e9pertoire_. Strictly speaking, the _Mabinogi_ in the volume are only the\nfour tales given first in Mr. Alfred Nutt\u2019s edition, which were entitled\nthe \u201cFour Branches of the Mabinogi,\u201d and which form a connected whole.\nThey are among the oldest relics of Welsh mythological saga.\n\n*Pwyll, Head of Hades*\n\nThe first of them is the story of Pwyll, Prince of Dyfed, and relates how\nthat prince got his title of _Pen Annwn_, or \u201cHead of Hades\u201d\u2014Annwn being\nthe term under which we identify in Welsh literature the Celtic Land of\nthe Dead, or Fairyland. It is a story with a mythological basis, but\nbreathing the purest spirit of chivalric honour and nobility.\n\nPwyll, it is said, was hunting one day in the woods of Glyn Cuch when he\nsaw a pack of hounds, not his own, running down a stag. These hounds were\nsnow-white in colour, with red ears. If Pwyll had had any experience in\nthese matters he would have known at once what kind of hunt was up, for\nthese are the colours of Fa\u00ebry\u2014the red-haired man, the red-eared hound are\nalways associated with magic.(228) Pwyll, however, drove off the strange\nhounds, and was setting his own on the quarry when a horseman of noble\nappearance came up and reproached him for his discourtesy. Pwyll offered\nto make amends, and the story now develops into the familiar theme of the\nRescue of Fairyland. The stranger\u2019s name is Arawn, a king in Annwn. He is\nbeing harried and dispossessed by a rival, Havgan, and he seeks the aid of\nPwyll, whom he begs to meet Havgan in single combat a year hence.\nMeanwhile he will put his own shape on Pwyll, who is to rule in his\nkingdom till the eventful day, while Arawn will go in Pwyll\u2019s shape to\ngovern Dyfed. He instructs Pwyll how to deal with the foe. Havgan must be\nlaid low with a single stroke\u2014if another is given to him he immediately\nrevives again as strong as ever.\n\nPwyll agreed to follow up the adventure, and accordingly went in Arawn\u2019s\nshape to the kingdom of Annwn. Here he was placed in an unforeseen\ndifficulty. The beautiful wife of Arawn greeted him as her husband. But\nwhen the time came for them to retire to rest he set his face to the wall\nand said no word to her, nor touched her at all until the morning broke.\nThen they rose up, and Pwyll went to the hunt, and ruled his kingdom, and\ndid all things as if he were monarch of the land. And whatever affection\nhe showed to the queen in public during the day, he passed every night\neven as this first.\n\nAt last the day of battle came, and, like the chieftains in Gaelic story,\nPwyll and Havgan met each other in the midst of a river-ford. They fought,\nand at the first clash Havgan was hurled a spear\u2019s length over the crupper\nof his horse and fell mortally wounded.(229) \u201cFor the love of heaven,\u201d\nsaid he, \u201cslay me and complete thy work.\u201d \u201cI may yet repent that,\u201d said\nPwyll. \u201cSlay thee who may, I will not.\u201d Then Havgan knew that his end was\ncome, and bade his nobles bear him off; and Pwyll with all his army\noverran the two kingdoms of Annwn, and made himself master of all the\nland, and took homage from its princes and lords.\n\nThen he rode off alone to keep his tryst in Glyn Cuch with Arawn as they\nhad appointed. Arawn thanked him for all he had done, and added: \u201cWhen\nthou comest thyself to thine own dominions thou wilt see what I have done\nfor thee.\u201d They exchanged shapes once more, and each rode in his own\nlikeness to take possession of his own land.\n\nAt the court of Annwn the day was spent in joy and feasting, though none\nbut Arawn himself knew that anything unusual had taken place. When night\ncame Arawn kissed and caressed his wife as of old, and she pondered much\nas to what might be the cause of his change towards her, and of his\nprevious change a year and a day before. And as she was thinking over\nthese things Arawn spoke to her twice or thrice, but got no answer. He\nthen asked her why she was silent. \u201cI tell thee,\u201d she said, \u201cthat for a\nyear I have not spoken so much in this place.\u201d \u201cDid not we speak\ncontinually?\u201d he said. \u201cNay,\u201d said she, \u201cbut for a year back there has\nbeen neither converse nor tenderness between us.\u201d \u201cGood heaven!\u201d thought\nArawn, \u201ca man as faithful and firm in his friendship as any have I found\nfor a friend.\u201d Then he told his queen what had passed. \u201cThou hast indeed\nlaid hold of a faithful friend,\u201d she said.\n\nAnd Pwyll when he came back to his own land called his lords together and\nasked them how they thought he had sped in his kingship during the past\nyear. \u201cLord,\u201d said they, \u201cthy wisdom was never so great, and thou wast\nnever so kind and free in bestowing thy gifts, and thy justice was never\nmore worthily seen than in this year.\u201d Pwyll then told them the story of\nhis adventure. \u201cVerily, lord,\u201d said they, \u201crender thanks unto heaven that\nthou hast such a fellowship, and withhold not from us the rule which we\nhave enjoyed for this year past.\u201d \u201cI take heaven to witness that I will\nnot withhold it,\u201d said Pwyll.\n\nSo the two kings made strong the friendship that was between them, and\nsent each other rich gifts of horses and hounds and jewels; and in memory\nof the adventure Pwyll bore thenceforward the title of \u201cLord of Annwn.\u201d\n\n*The Wedding of Pwyll and Rhiannon*\n\nNear to the castle of Narberth, where Pwyll had his court, there was a\nmound called the Mound of Arberth, of which it was believed that whoever\nsat upon it would have a strange adventure: either he would receive blows\nand wounds or he would see a wonder. One day when all his lords were\nassembled at Narberth for a feast Pwyll declared that he would sit on the\nmound and see what would befall.\n\nHe did so, and after a little while saw approaching him along the road\nthat led to the mound a lady clad in garments that shone like gold, and\nsitting on a pure white horse. \u201cIs there any among you,\u201d said Pwyll to his\nmen, \u201cwho knows that lady?\u201d \u201cThere is not,\u201d said they. \u201cThen go to meet\nher and learn who she is.\u201d But as they rode towards the lady she moved\naway from them, and however fast they rode she still kept an even distance\nbetween her and them, yet never seemed to exceed the quiet pace with which\nshe had first approached.\n\nSeveral times did Pwyll seek to have the lady overtaken and questioned,\nbut all was in vain\u2014none could draw near to her.\n\nNext day Pwyll ascended the mound again, and once more the fair lady on\nher white steed drew near. This time Pwyll himself pursued her, but she\nflitted away before him as she had done before his servants, till at last\nhe cried : \u201cO maiden, for the sake of him thou best lovest, stay for me.\u201d\n\u201cI will stay gladly,\u201d said she, \u201cand it were better for thy horse had thou\nasked it long since.\u201d\n\nPwyll then questioned her as to the cause of her coming, and she said: \u201cI\nam Rhiannon, the daughter of Hevydd H\u0113n,(230) and they sought to give me\nto a husband against my will. But no husband would I have, and that\nbecause of my love for thee; neither will I yet have one if thou reject\nme.\u201d \u201cBy heaven!\u201d said Pwyll, \u201cif I might choose among all the ladies and\ndamsels of the world, thee would I choose.\u201d\n\nThey then agree that in a twelvemonth from that day Pwyll is to come and\nclaim her at the palace of Hevydd H\u0113n.\n\nPwyll kept his tryst, with a following of a hundred knights, and found a\nsplendid feast prepared for him, and he sat by his lady, with her father\non the other side. As they feasted and talked there entered a tall,\nauburn-haired youth of royal bearing, clad in satin, who saluted Pwyll and\nhis knights. Pwyll invited him to sit down. \u201cNay, I am a suitor to thee,\u201d\nsaid the youth; \u201cto crave a boon am I come.\u201d \u201cWhatever thou wilt thou\nshalt have,\u201d said Pwyll unsuspiciously, \u201cif it be in my power.\u201d \u201cAh,\u201d\ncried Rhiannon, \u201cwherefore didst thou give that answer?\u201d \u201cHath he not\ngiven it before all these nobles?\u201d said the youth; \u201cand now the boon I\ncrave is to have thy bride Rhiannon, and the feast and the banquet that\nare in this place.\u201d Pwyll was silent. \u201cBe silent as long as thou wilt,\u201d\nsaid Rhiannon. \u201cNever did man make worse use of his wits than thou hast\ndone.\u201d She tells him that the auburn-haired young man is Gwawl, son of\nClud, and is the suitor to escape from whom she had fled to Pwyll.\n\nPwyll is bound in honour by his word, and Rhiannon explains that the\nbanquet cannot be given to Gwawl, for it is not in Pwyll\u2019s power, but that\nshe herself will be his bride in a twelvemonth; Gwawl is to come and claim\nher then, and a new bridal feast will be prepared for him. Meantime she\nconcerts a plan with Pwyll, and gives him a certain magical bag, which he\nis to make use of when the time shall come.\n\nA year passed away, Gwawl appeared according to the compact, and a great\nfeast was again set forth, in which he, and not Pwyll, had the place of\nhonour. As the company were making merry, however, a beggar clad in rags\nand shod with clumsy old shoes came into the hall, carrying a bag, as\nbeggars are wont to do. He humbly craved a boon of Gwawl. It was merely\nthat the full of his bag of food might be given him from the banquet.\nGwawl cheerfully consented, and an attendant went to fill the bag. But\nhowever much they put into it it never got fuller\u2014by degrees all the good\nthings on the tables had gone in; and at last Gwawl cried: \u201cMy soul, will\nthy bag never be full?\u201d \u201cIt will not, I declare to heaven,\u201d answered\nPwyll\u2014for he, of course, was the disguised beggar man\u2014\u201cunless some man\nwealthy in lands and treasure shall get into the bag and stamp it down\nwith his feet, and declare, \u2018Enough has been put herein.\u2019 \u201d Rhiannon urged\nGwawl to check the voracity of the bag. He put his two feet into it; Pwyll\nimmediately drew up the sides of the bag over Gwawl\u2019s head and tied it up.\nThen he blew his horn, and the knights he had with him, who were concealed\noutside, rushed in, and captured and bound the followers of Gwawl. \u201cWhat\nis in the bag?\u201d they cried, and others answered, \u201cA badger,\u201d and so they\nplayed the game of \u201cBadger in the Bag,\u201d striking it and kicking it about\nthe hall.\n\nAt last a voice was heard from it. \u201cLord,\u201d cried Gwawl, \u201cif thou wouldst\nbut hear me, I merit not to be slain in a bag.\u201d \u201cHe speaks truth,\u201d said\nHevydd H\u0113n.\n\nSo an agreement was come to that Gwawl should provide means for Pwyll to\nsatisfy all the suitors and minstrels who should come to the wedding, and\nabandon Rhiannon, and never seek to have revenge for what had been done to\nhim. This was confirmed by sureties, and Gwawl and his men were released\nand went to their own territory. And Pwyll wedded Rhiannon, and dispensed\ngifts royally to all and sundry; and at last the pair, when the feasting\nwas done, journeyed down to the palace of Narberth in Dyfed, where\nRhiannon gave rich gifts, a bracelet and a ring or a precious stone to all\nthe lords and ladies of her new country, and they ruled the land in peace\nboth that year and the next. But the reader will find that we have not yet\ndone with Gwawl.\n\n*The Penance of Rhiannon*\n\nNow Pwyll was still without an heir to the throne, and his nobles urged\nhim to take another wife. \u201cGrant us a year longer,\u201d said he, \u201cand if there\nbe no heir after that it shall be as you wish.\u201d Before the year\u2019s end a\nson was born to them in Narberth. But although six women sat up to watch\nthe mother and the infant, it happened towards the morning that they all\nfell asleep, and Rhiannon also slept, and when the women awoke, behold,\nthe boy was gone! \u201cWe shall be burnt for this,\u201d said the women, and in\ntheir terror they concocted a horrible plot: they killed a cub of a\nstaghound that had just been littered, and laid the bones by Rhiannon, and\nsmeared her face and hands with blood as she slept, and when she woke and\nasked for her child they said she had devoured it in the night, and had\novercome them with furious strength when they would have prevented her\u2014and\nfor all she could say or do the six women persisted in this story.\n\nWhen the story was told to Pwyll he would not put away Rhiannon, as his\nnobles now again begged him to do, but a penance was imposed on\nher\u2014namely, that she was to sit every day by the horse-block at the gate\nof the castle and tell the tale to every stranger who came, and offer to\ncarry them on her back into the castle. And this she did for part of a\nyear.\n\n*The Finding of Pryderi*(231)\n\nNow at this time there lived a man named Teirnyon of Gwent Is Coed, who\nhad the most beautiful mare in the world, but there was this misfortune\nattending her, that although she foaled on the night of every first of\nMay, none ever knew what became of the colts. At last Teirnyon resolved to\nget at the truth of the matter, and the next night on which the mare\nshould foal he armed himself and watched in the stable. So the mare\nfoaled, and the colt stood up, and Teirnyon was admiring its size and\nbeauty when a great noise was heard outside, and a long, clawed arm came\nthrough the window of the stable and laid hold of the colt. Teirnyon\nimmediately smote at the arm with his sword, and severed it at the elbow,\nso that it fell inside with the colt, and a great wailing and tumult was\nheard outside. He rushed out, leaving the door open behind him, but could\nsee nothing because of the darkness of the night, and he followed the\nnoise a little way. Then he came back, and behold, at the door he found an\ninfant in swaddling-clothes and wrapped in a mantle of satin. He took up\nthe child and brought it to where his wife lay sleeping. She had no\nchildren, and she loved the child when she saw it, and next day pretended\nto her women that she had borne it as her own. And they called its name\nGwri of the Golden Hair, for its hair was yellow as gold; and it grew so\nmightily that in two years it was as big and strong as a child of six; and\nere long the colt that had been foaled on the same night was broken in and\ngiven him to ride.\n\nWhile these things were going on Teirnyon heard the tale of Rhiannon and\nher punishment. And as the lad grew up he scanned his face closely and saw\nthat he had the features of Pwyll Prince of Dyfed. This he told to his\nwife, and they agreed that the child should be taken to Narberth, and\nRhiannon released from her penance.\n\nAs they drew near to the castle, Teirnyon and two knights and the child\nriding on his colt, there was Rhiannon sitting by the horse-block.\n\u201cChieftains,\u201d said she, \u201cgo not further thus; I will bear every one of you\ninto the palace, and this is my penance for slaying my own son and\ndevouring him.\u201d But they would not be carried, and went in. Pwyll rejoiced\nto see Teirnyon, and made a feast for him. Afterwards Teirnyon declared to\nPwyll and Rhiannon the adventure of the man and the colt, and how they had\nfound the boy. \u201cAnd behold, here is thy son, lady,\u201d said Teirnyon, \u201cand\nwhoever told that lie concerning thee has done wrong.\u201d All who sat at\ntable recognised the lad at once as the child of Pwyll, and Rhiannon\ncried: \u201cI declare to heaven that if this be true there is an end to my\ntrouble.\u201d And a chief named Pendaran said: \u201cWell hast thou named thy son\nPryderi [trouble], and well becomes him the name of Pryderi son of Pwyll,\nLord of Annwn.\u201d It was agreed that his name should be Pryderi, and so he\nwas called thenceforth.\n\nTeirnyon rode home, overwhelmed with thanks and love and gladness; and\nPwyll offered him rich gifts of horses and jewels and dogs, but he would\ntake none of them. And Pryderi was trained up, as befitted a king\u2019s son,\nin all noble ways and accomplishments, and when his father Pwyll died he\nreigned in his stead over the Seven Cantrevs of Dyfed. And he added to\nthem many other fair dominions, and at last he took to wife Kicva,\ndaughter of Gwynn Gohoyw, who came of the lineage of Prince Casnar of\nBritain.\n\n*The Tale of Bran and Branwen*\n\nBendigeid Vran, or \u201cBran the Blessed,\u201d by which latter name we shall\ndesignate him here, when he had been made King of the Isle of the Mighty\n(Britain), was one time in his court at Harlech. And he had with him his\nbrother Manawyddan son of Llyr, and his sister Branwen, and the two sons,\nNissyen and Evnissyen, that Penardun his mother bore to Eurosswyd. Now\nNissyen was a youth of gentle nature, and would make peace among his\nkindred and cause them to be friends when their wrath was at its highest;\nbut Evnissyen loved nothing so much as to turn peace into contention and\nstrife.\n\nOne afternoon, as Bran son of Llyr sat on the rock of Harlech looking out\nto sea, he beheld thirteen ships coming rapidly from Ireland before a fair\nwind. They were gaily furnished, bright flags flying from the masts, and\non the foremost ship, when they came near, a man could be seen holding up\na shield with the point upwards in sign of peace.(232)\n\nWhen the strangers landed they saluted Bran and explained their business.\nMatholwch,(233) King of Ireland, was with them; his were the ships, and he\nhad come to ask for the hand in marriage of Bran\u2019s sister, Branwen, so\nthat Ireland and Britain might be leagued together and both become more\npowerful. \u201cNow Branwen was one of the three chief ladies of the island,\nand she was the fairest damsel in the world.\u201d\n\nThe Irish were hospitably entertained, and after taking counsel with his\nlords Bran agreed to give his sister to Matholwch. The place of the\nwedding was fixed at Aberffraw, and the company assembled for the feast in\ntents because no house could hold the giant form of Bran. They caroused\nand made merry in peace and amity, and Branwen became the bride or the\nIrish king.\n\nNext day Evnissyen came by chance to where the horses of Matholwch were\nranged, and he asked whose they were. \u201cThey are the horses of Matholwch,\nwho is married to thy sister.\u201d \u201cAnd is it thus,\u201d said he, \u201cthey have done\nwith a maiden such as she, and, moreover, my sister, bestowing her without\nmy consent? They could offer me no greater insult.\u201d Thereupon he rushed\namong the horses and cut off their lips at the teeth, and their ears to\ntheir heads, and their tails close to the body, and where he could seize\nthe eyelids he cut them off to the bone.\n\nWhen Matholwch heard what had been done he was both angered and\nbewildered, and bade his people put to sea. Bran sent messengers to learn\nwhat had happened, and when he had been informed he sent Manawyddan and\ntwo others to make atonement. Matholwch should have sound horses for every\none that was injured, and in addition a staff of silver as large and as\ntall as himself, and a plate of gold the size of his face. \u201cAnd let him\ncome and meet me,\u201d he added, \u201cand we will make peace in any way he may\ndesire.\u201d But as for Evnissyen, he was the son of Bran\u2019s mother, and\ntherefore Bran could not put him to death as he deserved.\n\n*The Magic Cauldron*\n\nMatholwch accepted these terms, but not very cheerfully, and Bran now\noffered another treasure, namely, a magic cauldron which had the property\nthat if a slain man were cast into it he would come forth well and sound,\nonly he would not be able to speak. Matholwch and Bran then talked about\nthe cauldron, which originally, it seems, came from Ireland. There was a\nlake in that country near to a mound (doubtless a fairy mound) which was\ncalled the Lake of the Cauldron. Here Matholwch had once met a tall and\nill-looking fellow with a wife bigger than himself, and the cauldron\nstrapped on his back. They took service with Matholwch. At the end of a\nperiod of six weeks the wife gave birth to a son, who was a warrior fully\narmed. We are apparently to understand that this happened every six weeks,\nfor by the end of the year the strange pair, who seem to be a war-god and\ngoddess, had several children, whose continual bickering and the outrages\nthey committed throughout the land made them hated. At last, to get rid of\nthem, Matholwch had a house of iron made, and enticed them into it. He\nthen barred the door and heaped coals about the chamber, and blew them\ninto a white heat, hoping to roast the whole family to death. As soon,\nhowever, as the iron walls had grown white-hot and soft the man and his\nwife burst through them and got away, but the children remained behind and\nwere destroyed. Bran then took up the story. The man, who was called\nLlassar Llaesgyvnewid, and his wife Kymideu Kymeinvoll, come across to\nBritain, where Bran took them in, and in return for his kindness they gave\nhim the cauldron. And since then they had filled the land with their\ndescendants, who prospered everywhere and dwelt in strong fortified burgs\nand had the best weapons that ever were seen.\n\nSo Matholwch received the cauldron along with his bride, and sailed back\nto Ireland, where Branwen entertained the lords and ladies of the land,\nand gave to each, as he or she took leave, \u201ceither a clasp or a ring or a\nroyal jewel to keep, such as it was honourable to be seen departing with.\u201d\nAnd when the year was out Branwen bore a son to Matholwch, whose name was\ncalled Gwern.\n\n*The Punishment of Branwen*\n\nThere occurs now an unintelligible place in the story. In the second year,\nit appears, and not till then, the men of Ireland grew indignant over the\ninsult to their king committed by Evnissyen, and took revenge for it by\nhaving Branwen degraded to the position of a cook, and they caused the\nbutcher every day to give her a blow on the ears. They also forbade all\nships and ferry-boats to cross to Cambria, and any who came thence into\nIreland were imprisoned so that news of Branwen\u2019s ill-treatment might not\ncome to the ears of Bran. But Branwen reared up a young starling in a\ncorner of her kneading-trough, and one day she tied a letter under its\nwing and taught it what to do. It flew away towards Britain, and finding\nBran at Caer Seiont in Arvon, it lit on his shoulder, ruffling its\nfeathers, and the letter was found and read. Bran immediately prepared a\ngreat hosting for Ireland, and sailed thither with a fleet of ships,\nleaving his land of Britain under his son Caradawc and six other chiefs.\n\n*The Invasion of Bran*\n\nSoon there came messengers to Matholwch telling him of a wondrous sight\nthey had seen; a wood was growing on the sea, and beside the wood a\nmountain with a high ridge in the middle of it, and two lakes, one at each\nside. And wood and mountain moved towards the shore of Ireland. Branwen is\ncalled up to explain, if she could, what this meant. She tells them the\nwood is the masts and yards of the fleet of Britain, and the mountain is\nBran, her brother, coming into shoal water, \u201cfor no ship can contain him\u201d;\nthe ridge is his nose, the lakes his two eyes.(234)\n\nThe King of Ireland and his lords at once took counsel together how they\nmight meet this danger; and the plan they agreed upon was as follows: A\nhuge hall should be built, big enough to hold Bran\u2014this, it was hoped,\nwould placate him\u2014there should be a great feast made there for himself and\nhis men, and Matholwch should give over the kingdom of Ireland to him and\ndo homage. All this was done by Branwen\u2019s advice. But the Irish added a\ncrafty device of their own. From two brackets on each of the hundred\npillars in the hall should be hung two leather bags, with an armed warrior\nin each of them ready to fall upon the guests when the moment should\narrive.\n\n*The Meal-bags*\n\nEvnissyen, however, wandered into the hall before the rest of the host,\nand scanning the arrangements \u201cwith fierce and savage looks,\u201d he saw the\nbags which hung from the pillars. \u201cWhat is in this bag?\u201d said he to one of\nthe Irish. \u201cMeal, good soul,\u201d said the Irishman. Evnissyen laid his hand\non the bag, and felt about with his fingers till he came to the head of\nthe man within it. Then \u201che squeezed the head till he felt his fingers\nmeet together in the brain through the bone.\u201d He went to the next bag, and\nasked the same question. \u201cMeal,\u201d said the Irish attendant, but Evnissyen\ncrushed this warrior\u2019s head also, and thus he did with all the two hundred\nbags, even in the case of one warrior whose head was covered with an iron\nhelm.\n\nThen the feasting began, and peace and concord reigned, and Matholwch laid\ndown the sovranty of Ireland, which was conferred on the boy Gwern. And\nthey all fondled and caressed the fair child till he came to Evnissyen,\nwho suddenly seized him and flung him into the blazing fire on the hearth.\nBranwen would have leaped after him, but Bran held her back. Then there\nwas arming apace, and tumult and shouting, and the Irish and British hosts\nclosed in battle and fought until the fall of night.\n\n*Death of Evnissyen*\n\nBut at night the Irish heated the magic cauldron and threw into it the\nbodies of their dead, who came out next day as good as ever, but dumb.\nWhen Evnissyen saw this he was smitten with remorse for having brought the\nmen of Britain into such a strait: \u201cEvil betide me if I find not a\ndeliverance therefrom.\u201d So he hid himself among the Irish dead, and was\nflung into the cauldron with the rest at the end of the second day, when\nhe stretched himself out so that he rent the cauldron into four pieces,\nand his own heart burst with the effort, and he died.\n\n*The Wonderful Head*\n\nIn the end, all the Irishmen were slain, and all but seven of the British\nbesides Bran, who was wounded in the foot with a poisoned arrow. Among the\nseven were Pryderi and Manawyddan. Bran then commanded them to cut off his\nhead. \u201cAnd take it with you,\u201d he said, \u201cto London, and there bury it in\nthe White Mount(235) looking towards France, and no foreigner shall invade\nthe land while it is there. On the way the Head will talk to you, and be\nas pleasant company as ever in life. In Harlech ye will be feasting seven\nyears and the birds of Rhiannon will sing to you. And at Gwales in Penvro\nye will be feasting fourscore years, and the Head will talk to you and be\nuncorrupted till ye open the door looking towards Cornwall. After that ye\nmay no longer tarry, but set forth to London and bury the Head.\u201d\n\nThen the seven cut off the head of Bran and went forth, and Branwen with\nthem, to do his bidding. But when Branwen came to land at Aber Alaw she\ncried, \u201cWoe is me that I was ever born; two islands have been destroyed\nbecause of me.\u201d And she uttered a loud groan, and her heart broke. They\nmade her a four-sided grave on the banks of the Alaw, and the place was\ncalled _Ynys Branwen_ to this day.(236)\n\nThe seven found that in the absence of Bran, Caswallan son of Beli had\nconquered Britain and slain the six captains of Caradawc. By magic art he\nhad thrown on Caradawc the Veil of Illusion, and Caradawc saw only the\nsword which slew and slew, but not him who wielded it, and his heart broke\nfor grief at the sight.\n\nThey then went to Harlech and remained there seven years listening to the\nsinging of the birds of Rhiannon\u2014\u201call the songs they had ever heard were\nunpleasant compared thereto.\u201d Then they went to Gwales in Penvro and found\na fair and spacious hall overlooking the ocean. When they entered it they\nforgot all the sorrow of the past and all that had befallen them, and\nremained there fourscore years in joy and mirth, the wondrous Head talking\nto them as if it were alive. And bards call this \u201cthe Entertaining of the\nNoble Head.\u201d Three doors were in the hall, and one of them which looked to\nCornwall and to Aber Henvelyn was closed, but the other two were open. At\nthe end of the time, Heilyn son of Gwyn said, \u201cEvil betide me if I do not\nopen the door to see if what was said is true.\u201d And he opened it, and at\nonce remembrance and sorrow fell upon them, and they set forth at once for\nLondon and buried the Head in the White Mount, where it remained until\nArthur dug it up, for he would not have the land defended but by the\nstrong arm. And this was \u201cthe Third Fatal Disclosure\u201d in Britain.\n\nSo ends this wild tale, which is evidently full of mythological elements,\nthe key to which has long been lost. The touches of Northern ferocity\nwhich occur in it have made some critics suspect the influence of Norse or\nIcelandic literature in giving it its present form. The character of\nEvnissyen would certainly lend countenance to this conjecture. The typical\nmischief-maker of course occurs in purely Celtic sagas, but not commonly\nin combination with the heroic strain shown in Evnissyen\u2019s end, nor does\nthe Irish \u201cpoison-tongue\u201d ascend to anything like the same height of\ndaimonic malignity.\n\n*The Tale of Pryderi and Manawyddan*\n\nAfter the events of the previous tales Pryderi and Manawyddan retired to\nthe dominions of the former, and Manawyddan took to wife Rhiannon, the\nmother of his friend. There they lived happily and prosperously till one\nday, while they were at the Gorsedd, or Mound, near Narberth, a peal of\nthunder was heard and a thick mist fell so that nothing could be seen all\nround. When the mist cleared away, behold, the land was bare before\nthem\u2014neither houses nor people nor cattle nor crops were to be seen, but\nall was desert and uninhabited. The palace of Narberth was still standing,\nbut it was empty and desolate\u2014none remained except Pryderi and Manawyddan\nand their wives, Kicva and Rhiannon.\n\nTwo years they lived on the provisions they had, and on the prey they\nkilled, and on wild honey; and then they began to be weary. \u201cLet us go\ninto Lloegyr,\u201d(237) then said Manawyddan, \u201cand seek out some craft to\nsupport ourselves.\u201d So they went to Hereford and settled there, and\nManawyddan and Pryderi began to make saddles and housings, and Manawyddan\ndecorated them with blue enamel as he had learned from a great craftsman,\nLlasar Llaesgywydd. After a time, however, the other saddlers of Hereford,\nfinding that no man would purchase any but the work of Manawyddan,\nconspired to kill them. And Pryderi would have fought with them, but\nManawyddan held it better to withdraw elsewhere, and so they did.\n\nThey settled then in another city, where they made shields such as never\nwere seen, and here, too, in the end, the rival craftsmen drove them out.\nAnd this happened also in another town where they made shoes; and at last\nthey resolved to go back to Dyfed. Then they gathered their dogs about\nthem and lived by hunting as before.\n\nOne day they started a wild white boar, and chased him in vain until he\nled them up to a vast and lofty castle, all newly built in a place where\nthey had never seen a building before. The boar ran into the castle, the\ndogs followed him, and Pryderi, against the counsel of Manawyddan, who\nknew there was magic afoot, went in to seek for the dogs.\n\nHe found in the centre of the court a marble fountain beside which stood a\ngolden bowl on a marble slab, and being struck by the rich workmanship of\nthe bowl, he laid hold of it to examine it, when he could neither withdraw\nhis hand nor utter a single sound, but he remained there, transfixed and\ndumb, beside the fountain.\n\nManawyddan went back to Narberth and told the story to Rhiannon. \u201cAn evil\ncompanion hast thou been,\u201d said she, \u201cand a good companion hast thou\nlost.\u201d\n\nNext day she went herself to explore the castle. She found Pryderi still\nclinging to the bowl and unable to speak. She also, then, laid hold of the\nbowl, when the same fate befell her, and immediately afterwards came a\npeal of thunder, and a heavy mist fell, and when it cleared off the castle\nhad vanished with all that it contained, including the two spell-bound\nwanderers.\n\nManawyddan then went back to Narberth, where only Kicva, Pryderi\u2019s wife,\nnow remained. And when she saw none but herself and Manawyddan in the\nplace, \u201cshe sorrowed so that she cared not whether she lived or died.\u201d\nWhen Manawyddan saw this he said to her, \u201cThou art in the wrong if through\nfear of me thou grievest thus. I declare to thee were I in the dawn of\nyouth I would keep my faith unto Pryderi, and unto thee also will I keep\nit.\u201d \u201cHeaven reward thee,\u201d she said, \u201cand that is what I deemed of thee.\u201d\nAnd thereupon she took courage and was glad.\n\nKicva and Manawyddan then again tried to support themselves by shoemaking\nin Lloegyr, but the same hostility drove them back to Dyfed. This time,\nhowever, Manawyddan took back with him a load of wheat, and he sowed it,\nand he prepared three crofts for a wheat crop. Thus the time passed till\nthe fields were ripe. And he looked at one of the crofts and said, \u201cI will\nreap this to-morrow.\u201d But on the morrow when he went out in the grey dawn\nhe found nothing there but bare straw\u2014every ear had been cut off from the\nstalk and carried away.\n\nNext day it was the same with the second croft. But on the following night\nhe armed himself and sat up to watch the third croft to see who was\nplundering him. At midnight, as he watched, he heard a loud noise, and\nbehold, a mighty host of mice came pouring into the croft, and they\nclimbed up each on a stalk and nibbled off the ears and made away with\nthem. He chased them in anger, but they fled far faster than he could run,\nall save one which was slower in its movements, and this he barely managed\nto overtake, and he bound it into his glove and took it home to Narberth,\nand told Kicva what had happened. \u201cTo-morrow,\u201d he said, \u201cI will hang the\nrobber I have caught,\u201d but Kicva thought it beneath his dignity to take\nvengeance on a mouse.\n\nNext day he went up to the Mound of Narberth and set up two forks for a\ngallows on the highest part of the hill. As he was doing this a poor\nscholar came towards him, and he was the first person Manawyddan had seen\nin Dyfed, except his own companions, since the enchantment began.\n\nThe scholar asked him what he was about and begged him to let go the\nmouse\u2014\u201cIll doth it become a man of thy rank to touch such a reptile as\nthis.\u201d \u201cI will not let it go, by Heaven,\u201d said Manawyddan, and by that he\nabode, although the scholar offered him a pound of money to let it go\nfree. \u201cI care not,\u201d said the scholar, \u201cexcept that I would not see a man\nof rank touching such a reptile,\u201d and with that he went his way.\n\nAs Manawyddan was placing the cross-beam on the two forks of his gallows,\na priest came towards him riding on a horse with trappings, and the same\nconversation ensued. The priest offered three pounds for the mouse\u2019s life,\nbut Manawyddan refused to take any price for it. \u201cWillingly, lord, do thy\ngood pleasure,\u201d said the priest, and he, too, went his way.\n\nThen Manawyddan put a noose about the mouse\u2019s neck and was about to draw\nit up when he saw coming towards him a bishop with a great retinue of\nsumpter-horses and attendants. And he stayed his work and asked the\nbishop\u2019s blessing. \u201cHeaven\u2019s blessing be unto thee,\u201d said the bishop;\n\u201cwhat work art thou upon?\u201d \u201cHanging a thief,\u201d replied Manawyddan. The\nbishop offered seven pounds \u201crather than see a man of thy rank destroying\nso vile a reptile.\u201d Manawyddan refused. Four-and-twenty pounds was then\noffered, and then as much again, then all the bishop\u2019s horses and\nbaggage\u2014all in vain. \u201cSince for this thou wilt not,\u201d said the bishop, \u201cdo\nit at whatever price thou wilt.\u201d \u201cI will do so,\u201d said Manawyddan; \u201cI will\nthat Rhiannon and Pryderi be free.\u201d \u201cThat thou shalt have,\u201d said the\n(pretended) bishop. Then Manawyddan demands that the enchantment and\nillusion be taken off for ever from the seven Cantrevs of Dyfed, and\nfinally insists that the bishop shall tell him who the mouse is and why\nthe enchantment was laid on the country. \u201cI am Llwyd son of Kilcoed,\u201d\nreplies the enchanter, \u201cand the mouse is my wife; but that she is pregnant\nthou hadst never overtaken her.\u201d He goes on with an explanation which\ntakes us back to the first _Mabinogi_ of the Wedding of Rhiannon. The\ncharm was cast on the land to avenge the ill that was done Llwyd\u2019s friend,\nGwawl son of Clud, with whom Pryderi\u2019s father and his knights had played\n\u201cBadger in the Bag\u201d at the court of Hevydd H\u0113n. The mice were the lords\nand ladies of Llwyd\u2019s court.\n\nThe enchanter is then made to promise that no further vengeance shall be\ntaken on Pryderi, Rhiannon, or Manawyddan, and the two spell-bound\ncaptives having been restored, the mouse is released. \u201cThen Llwyd struck\nher with a magic wand, and she was changed into a young woman, the fairest\never seen.\u201d And on looking round Manawyddan saw all the land tilled and\npeopled as in its best state, and full of herds and dwellings. \u201cWhat\nbondage,\u201d he asks, \u201chas there been upon Pryderi and Rhiannon?\u201d \u201cPryderi\nhas had the knockers of the gate of my palace about his neck, and Rhiannon\nhas had the collars of the asses after they have been carrying hay about\nher neck.\u201d And such had been their bondage.\n\n*The Tale of M\u0101th Son of M\u0101thonwy*\n\nThe previous tale was one of magic and illusion in which the mythological\nelement is but faint. In that which we have now to consider we are,\nhowever, in a distinctly mythological region. The central motive of the\ntale shows us the Powers of Light contending with those of the Under-world\nfor the prized possessions of the latter, in this case a herd of magic\nswine. We are introduced in the beginning of the story to the deity, M\u0101th,\nof whom the bard tells us that he was unable to exist unless his feet lay\nin the lap of a maiden, except when the land was disturbed by war.(238)\nM\u0101th is represented as lord of Gwynedd, while Pryderi rules over the\none-and-twenty cantrevs of the south. With M\u0101th were his nephews Gwydion\nand Gilvaethwy sons of D\u014dn, who went the circuit of the land in his stead,\nwhile M\u0101th lay with his feet in the lap of the fairest maiden of the land\nand time, Goewin daughter of Pebin of D\u014dl Pebin in Arvon.\n\n*Gwydion and the Swine of Pryderi*\n\nGilvaethwy fell sick of love for Goewin, and confided the secret to his\nbrother Gwydion, who undertook to help him to his desire. So he went to\nM\u0101th one day, and asked his leave to go to Pryderi and beg from him the\ngift, for M\u0101th, of a herd of swine which had been bestowed on him by Arawn\nKing of Annwn. \u201cThey are beasts,\u201d he said, \u201csuch as never were known in\nthis island before ... their flesh is better than the flesh of oxen.\u201d M\u0101th\nbade him go, and he and Gilvaethwy started with ten companions for Dyfed.\nThey came to Pryderi\u2019s palace in the guise of bards, and Gwydion, after\nbeing entertained at a feast, was asked to tell a tale to the court. After\ndelighting every one with his discourse he begged for a gift of the swine.\nBut Pryderi was under a compact with his people neither to sell nor give\nthem until they had produced double their number in the land. \u201cThou mayest\nexchange them, though,\u201d said Gwydion, and thereupon he made by magic arts\nan illusion of twelve horses magnificently caparisoned, and twelve hounds,\nand gave them to Pryderi and made off with the swine as fast as possible,\n\u201cfor,\u201d said he to his companions, \u201cthe illusion will not last but from one\nhour to the same to-morrow.\u201d\n\nThe intended result came to pass\u2014Pryderi invaded the land to recover his\nswine, M\u0101th went to meet him in arms, and Gilvaethwy seized his\nopportunity and made Goewin his wife, although she was unwilling.\n\n*Death of Pryderi*\n\nThe war was decided by a single combat between Gwydion and Pryderi. \u201cAnd\nby force of strength and fierceness, and by the magic and charms of\nGwydion, Pryderi was slain. And at Maen Tyriawc, above Melenryd, was he\nburied, and there is his grave.\u201d\n\n*The Penance of Gwydion and Gilvaethwy*\n\nWhen M\u0101th came back he found what Gilvaethwy had done, and he took Goewin\nto be his queen, but Gwydion and Gilvaethwy went into outlawry, and dwelt\non the borders of the land. At last they came and submitted themselves for\npunishment to M\u0101th. \u201cYe cannot compensate me my shame, setting aside the\ndeath of Pryderi,\u201d he said, \u201cbut since ye come hither to be at my will, I\nshall begin your punishment forthwith.\u201d So he turned them both into deer,\nand bade them come hither again in a twelvemonth.\n\nThey came at the appointed time, bringing with them a young fawn. And the\nfawn was brought into human shape and baptized, and Gwydion and Gilvaethwy\nwere changed into two wild swine. At the next year\u2019s end they came back\nwith a young one who was treated as the fawn before him, and the brothers\nwere made into wolves. Another year passed; they came back again with a\nyoung wolf as before, and this time their penance was deemed complete, and\ntheir human nature was restored to them, and M\u0101th gave orders to have them\nwashed and anointed, and nobly clad as was befitting.\n\n*The Children of Arianrod: Dylan*\n\nThe question then arose of appointing another virgin foot-holder, and\nGwydion suggests his sister, Arianrod. She attends for the purpose, and\nM\u0101th asks her if she is a virgin. \u201cI know not, lord, other than that I\nam,\u201d she says. But she failed in a magical test imposed by M\u0101th, and gave\nbirth to two sons. One of these was named Dylan, \u201cSon of the Wave,\u201d\nevidently a Cymric sea-deity. So soon as he was baptized \u201che plunged into\nthe sea and swam as well as the best fish that was therein.... Beneath him\nno wave ever broke.\u201d A wild sea-poetry hangs about his name in Welsh\nlegend. On his death, which took place, it is said, at the hand of his\nuncle Govannon, all the waves of Britain and Ireland wept for him. The\nroar of the incoming tide at the mouth of the river Conway is still called\nthe \u201cdeath-groan of Dylan.\u201d\n\n*Llew Llaw Gyffes*\n\nThe other infant was seized by Gwydion and brought up under his\nprotection. Like other solar heroes, he grew very rapidly; when he was\nfour he was as big as if he were eight, and the comeliest youth that ever\nwas seen. One day Gwydion took him to visit his mother Arianrod. She hated\nthe children who had exposed her false pretensions, and upbraided Gwydion\nfor bringing the boy into her sight. \u201cWhat is his name?\u201d she asked.\n\u201cVerily,\u201d said Gwydion, \u201che has not yet a name.\u201d \u201cThen I lay this destiny\nupon him,\u201d said Arianrod, \u201cthat he shall never have a name till one is\ngiven him by me.\u201d On this Gwydion went forth in wrath, and remained in his\ncastle of Caer Dathyl that night.\n\nThough the fact does not appear in this tale, it must be remembered that\nGwydion is, in the older mythology, the father of Arianrod\u2019s children.\n\n*How Llew Got his Name*\n\nHe was resolved to have a name for his son. Next day he went to the strand\nbelow Caer Arianrod, bringing the boy with him. Here he sat down by the\nbeach, and in his character of a master of magic he made himself look like\na shoemaker, and the boy like an apprentice, and he began to make shoes\nout of sedges and seaweed, to which he gave the semblance of Cordovan\nleather. Word was brought to Arianrod of the wonderful shoes that were\nbeing made by a strange cobbler, and she sent her measure for a pair.\nGwydion made them too large. She sent it again, and he made them too\nsmall. Then she came herself to be fitted. While this was going on, a wren\ncame and lit on the boat\u2019s mast, and the boy, taking up a bow, shot an\narrow that transfixed the leg between the sinew and the bone. Arianrod\nadmired the brilliant shot. \u201cVerily,\u201d she said, \u201cwith a steady hand (_llaw\ngyffes_) did the lion (_llew_) hit it.\u201d \u201cNo thanks to thee,\u201d cried\nGwydion, \u201cnow he has got a name. Llew Llaw Gyffes shall he be called\nhenceforward.\u201d\n\nWe have seen that the name really means the same thing as the Gaelic Lugh\nLamfada, Lugh (Light) of the Long Arm; so that we have here an instance of\na legend growing up round a misunderstood name inherited from a\nhalf-forgotten mythology.\n\n*How Llew Took Arms*\n\nThe shoes went back immediately to sedges and seaweed again, and Arianrod,\nangry at being tricked, laid a new curse on the boy. \u201cHe shall never bear\narms till I invest him with them.\u201d But Gwydion, going to Caer Arianrod\nwith the boy in the semblance of two bards, makes by magic art the\nillusion of a foray of armed men round the castle. Arianrod gives them\nweapons to help in the defence, and thus again finds herself tricked by\nthe superior craft of Gwydion.\n\n*The Flower-Wife of Llew*\n\nNext she said, \u201cHe shall never have a wife of the race that now inhabits\nthis earth.\u201d This raised a difficulty beyond the powers of even Gwydion,\nand he went to M\u0101th, the supreme master of magic. \u201cWell,\u201d said M\u0101th, \u201cwe\nwill seek, I and thou, to form a wife for him out of flowers.\u201d \u201cSo they\ntook the blossoms of the oak, and the blossoms of the broom, and the\nblossoms of the meadow-sweet, and produced from them a maiden, the fairest\nand most graceful that man ever saw. And they baptized her, and gave her\nthe name of Blodeuwedd, or Flower-face.\u201d They wedded her to Llew, and gave\nthem the cantrev of Dinodig to reign over, and there Llew and his bride\ndwelt for a season, happy, and beloved by all.\n\n*Betrayal of Llew*\n\nBut Blodeuwedd was not worthy of her beautiful name and origin. One day\nwhen Llew was away on a visit with M\u0101th, a lord named Gronw Pebyr came\na-hunting by the palace of Llew, and Blodeuwedd loved him from the moment\nshe looked upon him. That night they slept together, and the next, and the\nnext, and then they planned how to be rid of Llew for ever. But Llew, like\nthe Gothic solar hero Siegfried, is invulnerable except under special\ncircumstances, and Blodeuwedd has to learn from him how he may be slain.\nThis she does under pretence of care for his welfare. The problem is a\nhard one. Llew can only be killed by a spear which has been a year in\nmaking, and has only been worked on during the Sacrifice of the Host on\nSundays. Furthermore, he cannot be slain within a house or without, on\nhorseback or on foot. The only way, in fact, is that he should stand with\none foot on a dead buck and the other in a cauldron, which is to be used\nfor a bath and thatched with a roof\u2014if he is wounded while in this\nposition with a spear made as directed the wound may be fatal, not\notherwise. After a year, during which Gronw wrought at the spear,\nBlodeuwedd begged Llew to show her more fully what she must guard against,\nand he took up the required position to please her. Gronw, lurking in a\nwood hard by, hurled the deadly spear, and the head, which was poisoned,\nsank into Llew\u2019s body, but the shaft broke off. Then Llew changed into an\neagle, and with a loud scream he soared up into the air and was no more\nseen, and Gronw took his castle and lands and added them to his own.\n\nThese tidings at last reached Gwydion and M\u0101th, and Gwydion set out to\nfind Llew. He came to the house of a vassal of his, from whom he learned\nthat a sow that he had disappeared every day and could not be traced, but\nit came home duly each night. Gwydion followed the sow, and it went far\naway to the brook since called Nant y Llew, where it stopped under a tree\nand began feeding. Gwydion looked to see what it ate, and found that it\nfed on putrid flesh that dropped from an eagle sitting aloft on the tree,\nand it seemed to him that the eagle was Llew. Gwydion sang to it, and\nbrought it gradually down the tree till it came to his knee, when he\nstruck it with his magic wand and restored it to the shape of Llew, but\nworn to skin and bone\u2014\u201cno one ever saw a more piteous sight.\u201d\n\n*The Healing of Llew*\n\nWhen Llew was healed, he and Gwydion took vengeance on their foes.\nBlodeuwedd was changed into an owl and bidden to shun the light of day,\nand Gronw was slain by a cast of the spear of Llew that passed through a\nslab of stone to reach him, and the slab with the hole through it made by\nthe spear of Llew remains by the bank of the river Cynvael in Ardudwy to\nthis day. And Llew took possession, for the second time, of his lands, and\nruled them prosperously all his days.\n\nThe four preceding tales are called the Four Branches of the Mabinogi, and\nof the collection called the \u201cMabinogion\u201d they form the most ancient and\nimportant part.\n\n*The Dream of Maxen Wledig*\n\nFollowing the order of the tales in the \u201cMabinogion,\u201d as presented in Mr.\nNutt\u2019s edition, we come next to one which is a pure work of invention,\nwith no mythical or legendary element at all. It recounts how Maxen\nWledig, Emperor of Rome, had a vivid dream, in which he was led into a\nstrange country, where he saw a king in an ivory chair carving chessmen\nwith a steel file from a rod of gold. By him, on a golden throne, was the\nfairest of maidens he had ever beheld. Waking, he found himself in love\nwith the dream-maiden, and sent messengers far and wide to discover, if\nthey could, the country and people that had appeared to him. They were\nfound in Britain. Thither went Maxen, and wooed and wedded the maiden. In\nhis absence a usurper laid hold of his empire in Rome, but with the aid of\nhis British friends he reconquered his dominions, and many of them settled\nthere with him, while others went home to Britain. The latter took with\nthem foreign wives, but, it is said, cut out their tongues, lest they\nshould corrupt the speech of the Britons. Thus early and thus powerful was\nthe devotion to their tongue of the Cymry, of whom the mythical bard\nTaliesin prophesied:\n\n\u201cTheir God they will praise,\nTheir speech they will keep,\nTheir land they will lose,\n  Except wild Walia.\u201d\n\n*The Story of Lludd and Llevelys*\n\nThis tale is associated with the former one in the section entitled\nRomantic British History. It tells how Lludd son of Beli, and his brother\nLlevelys, ruled respectively over Britain and France, and how Lludd sought\nhis brother\u2019s aid to stay the three plagues that were harassing the land.\nThese three plagues were, first, the presence of a demoniac race called\nthe Coranians; secondly, a fearful scream that was heard in every home in\nBritain on every May-eve, and scared the people out of their senses;\nthirdly, the unaccountable disappearance of all provisions in the king\u2019s\ncourt every night, so that nothing that was not consumed by the household\ncould be found the next morning. Lludd and Llevelys talked over these\nmatters through a brazen tube, for the Coranians could hear everything\nthat was said if once the winds got hold of it\u2014a property also attributed\nto M\u0101th, son of M\u0101thonwy. Llevelys destroyed the Coranians by giving to\nLludd a quantity of poisonous insects which were to be bruised up and\nscattered over the people at an assembly. These insects would slay the\nCoranians, but the people of Britain would be immune to them. The scream\nLlevelys explained as proceeding from two dragons, which fought each other\nonce a year. They were to be slain by being intoxicated with mead, which\nwas to be placed in a pit dug in the very centre of Britain, which was\nfound on measurement to be at Oxford. The provisions, said Llevelys, were\ntaken away by a giant wizard, for whom Lludd watched as directed, and\novercame him in combat, and made him his faithful vassal thenceforward.\nThus Lludd and Llevelys freed the island from its three plagues.\n\n*Tales of Arthur*\n\nWe next come to five Arthurian tales, one of which, the tale of Kilhwch\nand Olwen, is the only native Arthurian legend which has come down to us\nin Welsh literature. The rest, as we have seen, are more or less\nreflections from the Arthurian literature as developed by foreign hands on\nthe Continent.\n\n*Kilhwch and Olwen*\n\nKilhwch was son to Kilydd and his wife Goleuddydd, and is said to have\nbeen cousin to Arthur. His mother having died, Kilydd took another wife,\nand she, jealous of her stepson, laid on him a quest which promised to be\nlong and dangerous. \u201cI declare,\u201d she said, \u201cthat it is thy destiny\u201d\u2014the\nGael would have said _geis_\u2014\u201cnot to be suited with a wife till thou obtain\nOlwen daughter of Yspaddaden Penkawr.\u201d(239) And Kilhwch reddened at the\nname, and \u201clove of the maiden diffused itself through all his frame.\u201d By\nhis father\u2019s advice he set out to Arthur\u2019s Court to learn how and where he\nmight find and woo her.\n\nA brilliant passage then describes the youth in the flower of his beauty,\non a noble steed caparisoned with gold, and accompanied by two brindled\nwhite-breasted greyhounds with collars of rubies, setting forth on his\njourney to King Arthur. \u201cAnd the blade of grass bent not beneath him, so\nlight was his courser\u2019s tread.\u201d\n\n*Kilhwch at Arthur\u2019s Court*\n\nAfter some difficulties with the Porter and with Arthur\u2019s seneschal, Kai,\nwho did not wish to admit the lad while the company were sitting at meat,\nKilhwch was brought into the presence of the King, and declared his name\nand his desire. \u201cI seek this boon,\u201d he said, \u201cfrom thee and likewise at\nthe hands of thy warriors,\u201d and he then enumerates an immense list full of\nmythological personages and details\u2014Bedwyr, Gwyn ap Nudd, Kai,\nManawyddan,(240) Geraint, and many others, including \u201cMorvran son of\nTegid, whom no one struck at in the battle of Camlan by reason of his\nugliness; all thought he was a devil,\u201d and \u201cSandde Bryd Angel, whom no one\ntouched with a spear in the battle of Camlan because of his beauty; all\nthought he was a ministering angel.\u201d The list extends to many scores of\nnames and includes many women, as, for instance, \u201cCreiddylad the daughter\nof Lludd of the Silver Hand\u2014she was the most splendid maiden in the three\nIslands of the Mighty, and for her Gwythyr the son of Greidawl and Gwyn\nthe son of Nudd fight every first of May till doom,\u201d and the two Iseults\nand Arthur\u2019s Queen, Gwenhwyvar. \u201cAll these did Kilydd\u2019s son Kilhwch adjure\nto obtain his boon.\u201d\n\nArthur, however, had never heard of Olwen nor of her kindred. He promised\nto seek for her, but at the end of a year no tidings of her could be\nfound, and Kilhwch declared that he would depart and leave Arthur shamed.\nKai and Bedwyr, with the guide Kynddelig, are at last bidden to go forth\non the quest.\n\n*Servitors of Arthur*\n\nThese personages are very different from those who are called by the same\nnames in Malory or Tennyson. Kai, it is said, could go nine days under\nwater. He could render himself at will as tall as a forest tree. So hot\nwas his physical constitution that nothing he bore in his hand could get\nwetted in the heaviest rain. \u201cVery subtle was Kai.\u201d As for Bedwyr\u2014the\nlater Sir Bedivere\u2014we are told that none equalled him in swiftness, and\nthat, though one-armed, he was a match for any three warriors on the field\nof battle; his lance made a wound equal to those of nine. Besides these\nthree there went also on the quest Gwrhyr, who knew all tongues, and\nGwalchmai son of Arthur\u2019s sister Gwyar, and Menw, who could make the party\ninvisible by magic spells.\n\n*Custennin*\n\nThe party journeyed till at last they came to a great castle before which\nwas a flock of sheep kept by a shepherd who had by him a mastiff big as a\nhorse. The breath of this shepherd, we are told, could burn up a tree. \u201cHe\nlet no occasion pass without doing some hurt or harm.\u201d However, he\nreceived the party well, told them that he was Custennin, brother of\nYspaddaden whose castle stood before them, and brought them home to his\nwife. The wife turned out to be a sister of Kilhwch\u2019s mother Goleuddydd,\nand she was rejoiced at seeing her nephew, but sorrowful at the thought\nthat he had come in search of Olwen, \u201cfor none ever returned from that\nquest alive.\u201d Custennin and his family, it appears, have suffered much at\nthe hands of Yspaddaden\u2014all their sons but one being slain, because\nYspaddaden envied his brother his share of their patrimony. So they\nassociated themselves with the heroes in their quest.\n\n*Olwen of the White Track*\n\nNext day Olwen came down to the herdsman\u2019s house as usual, for she was\nwont to wash her hair there every Saturday, and each time she did so she\nleft all her rings in the vessel and never sent for them again. She is\ndescribed in one of those pictorial passages in which the Celtic passion\nfor beauty has found such exquisite utterance.\n\n\u201cThe maiden was clothed in a robe of flame-coloured silk, and about her\nneck was a collar of ruddy gold on which were precious emeralds and\nrubies. More yellow was her head than the flower of the broom, and her\nskin was whiter than the foam of the wave, and fairer were her hands and\nher fingers than the blossoms of the wood-anemone amidst the spray of the\nmeadow fountain. The eye of the trained hawk, the glance of the\nthree-mewed falcon, was not brighter than hers. Her bosom was more snowy\nthan the breast of the white swan, her cheek was redder than the reddest\nroses. Whoso beheld her was filled with her love. Four white trefoils\nsprang up wherever she trod. And therefore was she called Olwen.\u201d(241)\n\nKilhwch and she conversed together and loved each other, and she bade him\ngo and ask her of her father and deny him nothing that he might demand.\nShe had pledged her faith not to wed without his will, for his life would\nonly last till the time of her espousals.\n\n*Yspaddaden*\n\nNext day the party went to the castle and saw Yspaddaden. He put them off\nwith various excuses, and as they left flung after them a poisoned dart.\nBedwyr caught it and flung it back, wounding him in the knee, and\nYspaddaden cursed him in language of extraordinary vigour; the words seem\nto crackle and spit like flame. Thrice over this happened, and at last\nYspaddaden declared what must be done to win Olwen.\n\n*The Tasks of Kilhwch*\n\nA long series of tasks follows. A vast hill is to be ploughed, sown, and\nreaped in one day; only Amathaon son of D\u014dn can do it, and he will not.\nGovannon, the smith, is to rid the ploughshare at each headland, and he\nwill not do it. The two dun oxen of Gwlwlyd are to draw the plough, and he\nwill not lend them. Honey nine times sweeter than that of the bee must be\ngot to make bragget for the wedding feast. A magic cauldron, a magic\nbasket out of which comes any meat that a man desires, a magic horn, the\nsword of Gwrnach the Giant\u2014all these must be won; and many other secret\nand difficult things, some forty in all, before Kilhwch can call Olwen his\nown. The most difficult quest is that of obtaining the comb and scissors\nthat are between the two ears of Twrch Trwyth, a king transformed into a\nmonstrous boar. To hunt the boar a number of other quests must be\naccomplished\u2014the whelp of Greid son of Eri is to be won, and a certain\nleash to hold him, and a certain collar for the leash, and a chain for the\ncollar, and Mabon son of Modron for the huntsman and the horse of Gweddw\nto carry Mabon, and Gwyn son of Nudd to help, \u201cwhom God placed over the\nbrood of devils in Annwn ... he will never be spared them,\u201d and so forth\nto an extent which makes the famous _eric_ of the sons of Turenn seem\ntrifling by comparison. \u201cDifficulties shalt thou meet with, and nights\nwithout sleep, in seeking this [bride price], and if thou obtain it not,\nneither shalt thou have my daughter.\u201d Kilhwch has one answer for every\ndemand: \u201cIt will be easy for me to accomplish this, although thou mayest\nthink that it will not be easy. And I shall gain thy daughter and thou\nshalt lose thy life.\u201d\n\nSo they depart on their way to fulfil the tasks, and on their way home\nthey fall in with Gwrnach the Giant, whose sword Kai, pretending to be a\nsword-polisher, obtains by a stratagem. On reaching Arthur\u2019s Court again,\nand telling the King what they have to do, he promises his aid. First of\nthe marvels they accomplished was the discovery and liberation of Mabon\nson of Modron, \u201cwho was taken from his mother when three nights old, and\nit is not known where he is now, nor whether he is living or dead.\u201d Gwrhyr\ninquires of him from the Ousel of Cilgwri, who is so old that a smith\u2019s\nanvil on which he was wont to peck has been worn to the size of a nut, yet\nhe has never heard of Mabon. But he takes them to a beast older still, the\nStag of Redynvre, and so on to the Owl of Cwm Cawlwyd, and the Eagle of\nGwern Abwy, and the Salmon of Llyn Llyw, the oldest of living things, and\nat last they find Mabon imprisoned in the stone dungeon of Gloucester, and\nwith Arthur\u2019s help they release him, and so the second task is fulfilled.\nIn one way or another, by stratagem, or valour, or magic art, every\nachievement is accomplished, including the last and most perilous one,\nthat of obtaining \u201cthe blood of the black witch Orddu, daughter of the\nwhite witch Orwen, of Penn Nart Govid on the confines of Hell.\u201d The combat\nhere is very like that of Finn in the cave of Keshcorran, but Arthur at\nlast cleaves the hag in twain, and Kaw of North Britain takes her blood.\n\nSo then they set forth for the castle of Yspaddaden again, and he\nacknowledges defeat. Goreu son of Custennin cuts off his head, and that\nnight Olwen became the happy bride of Kilhwch, and the hosts of Arthur\ndispersed, every man to his own land.\n\n*The Dream of Rhonabwy*\n\nRhonabwy was a man-at-arms under Madawc son of Maredudd, whose brother\nIorwerth rose in rebellion against him; and Rhonabwy went with the troops\nof Madawc to put him down. Going with a few companions into a mean hut to\nrest for the night, he lies down to sleep on a yellow calf-skin by the\nfire, while his friends lie on filthy couches of straw and twigs. On the\ncalf-skin he has a wonderful dream. He sees before him the court and camp\nof Arthur\u2014here the _quasi_-historical king, neither the legendary deity of\nthe former tale nor the Arthur of the French chivalrous romances\u2014as he\nmoves towards Mount Badon for his great battle with the heathen. A\ncharacter named Iddawc is his guide to the King, who smiles at Rhonabwy\nand his friends, and asks: \u201cWhere, Iddawc, didst thou find these little\nmen?\u201d \u201cI found them, lord, up yonder on the road.\u201d \u201cIt pitieth me,\u201d said\nArthur, \u201cthat men of such stature as these should have the island in their\nkeeping, after the men that guarded it of yore.\u201d Rhonabwy has his\nattention directed to a stone in the King\u2019s ring. \u201cIt is one of the\nproperties of that stone to enable thee to remember that which thou seest\nhere to-night, and hadst thou not seen the stone, thou wouldst never have\nbeen able to remember aught thereof.\u201d\n\nThe different heroes and companions that compose Arthur\u2019s army are\nminutely described, with all the brilliant colour and delicate detail so\nbeloved by the Celtic fabulist. The chief incident narrated is a game of\nchess that takes place between Arthur and the knight Owain son of Urien.\nWhile the game goes on, first the knights of Arthur harry and disturb the\nRavens of Owain, but Arthur, when Owain complains, only says: \u201cPlay thy\ngame.\u201d Afterwards the Ravens have the better of it, and it is Owain\u2019s turn\nto bid Arthur attend to his game. Then Arthur took the golden chessmen and\ncrushed them to dust in his hand, and besought Owain to quiet his Ravens,\nwhich was done, and peace reigned again. Rhonabwy, it is said, slept three\ndays and nights on the calf-skin before awaking from his wondrous dream.\nAn epilogue declares that no bard is expected to know this tale by heart\nand without a book, \u201cbecause of the various colours that were upon the\nhorses, and the many wondrous colours of the arms and of the panoply, and\nof the precious scarfs, and of the virtue-bearing stones.\u201d The \u201cDream of\nRhonabwy\u201d is rather a gorgeous vision of the past than a story in the\nordinary sense of the word.\n\n*The Lady of the Fountain*\n\nWe have here a Welsh reproduction of the _Conte_ entitled \u201cLe Chevalier au\nlion\u201d of Chrestien de Troyes. The principal personage in the tale is Owain\nson of Urien, who appears in a character as foreign to the spirit of\nCeltic legend as it was familiar on the Continent, that of knight-errant.\n\n*The Adventure of Kymon*\n\nWe are told in the introduction that Kymon, a knight of Arthur\u2019s Court,\nhad a strange and unfortunate adventure. Riding forth in search of some\ndeed of chivalry to do, he came to a splendid castle, where he was\nhospitably received by four-and-twenty damsels, of whom \u201cthe least lovely\nwas more lovely than Gwenhwyvar, the wife of Arthur, when she has appeared\nloveliest at the Offering on the Day of the Nativity, or at the feast of\nEaster.\u201d With them was a noble lord, who, after Kymon had eaten, asked of\nhis business. Kymon explained that he was seeking for his match in combat.\nThe lord of the castle smiled, and bade him proceed as follows: He should\ntake the road up the valley and through a forest till he came to a glade\nwith a mound in the midst of it. On the mound he would see a black man of\nhuge stature with one foot and one eye, bearing a mighty iron club. He was\nwood-ward of that forest, and would have thousands of wild animals, stags,\nserpents, and what not, feeding around him. He would show Kymon what he\nwas in quest of.\n\nKymon followed the instructions, and the black man directed him to where\nhe should find a fountain under a great tree; by the side of it would be a\nsilver bowl on a slab of marble. Kymon was to take the bowl and throw a\nbowlful of water on the slab, when a terrific storm of hail and thunder\nwould follow\u2014then there would break forth an enchanting music of singing\nbirds\u2014then would appear a knight in black armour riding on a coal-black\nhorse, with a black pennon upon his lance. \u201cAnd if thou dost not find\ntrouble in that adventure, thou needst not seek it during the rest of thy\nlife.\u201d\n\n*The Character of Welsh Romance*\n\nHere let us pause for a moment to point out how clearly we are in the\nregion of medi\u00e6val romance, and how far from that of Celtic mythology.\nPerhaps the Celtic \u201cLand of Youth\u201d may have remotely suggested those\nregions of beauty and mystery into which the Arthurian knight rides in\nquest of adventure. But the scenery, the motives, the incidents, are\naltogether different. And how beautiful they are\u2014how steeped in the magic\nlight of romance! The colours live and glow, the forest murmurs in our\nears, the breath of that springtime of our modern world is about us, as we\nfollow the lonely rider down the grassy track into an unknown world of\nperil and delight. While in some respects the Continental tales are\ngreater than the Welsh, more thoughtful, more profound, they do not\napproach them in the exquisite artistry with which the exterior aspect of\nthings is rendered, the atmosphere of enchantment maintained, and the\nreader led, with ever-quickening interest, from point to point in the\ndevelopment of the tale. Nor are these Welsh tales a whit behind in the\nnoble and chivalrous spirit which breathes through them. A finer school of\ncharacter and of manners could hardly be found in literature. How strange\nthat for many centuries this treasure beyond all price should have lain\nunnoticed in our midst! And how deep must be our gratitude to the nameless\nbards whose thought created it, and to the nobly inspired hand which first\nmade it a possession for all the English-speaking world!\n\n*Defeat of Kymon*\n\nBut to resume our story. Kymon did as he was bidden, the Black Knight\nappeared, silently they set lance in rest and charged. Kymon was flung to\nearth, while his enemy, not bestowing one glance upon him, passed the\nshaft of his lance through the rein of Kymon\u2019s horse and rode off with it\nin the direction whence he had come. Kymon went back afoot to the castle,\nwhere none asked him how he had sped, but they gave him a new horse, \u201ca\ndark bay palfrey with nostrils as red as scarlet,\u201d on which he rode home\nto Caerleon.\n\n*Owain and the Black Knight*\n\nOwain was, of course, fired by the tale of Kymon, and next morning at the\ndawn of day he rode forth to seek for the same adventure. All passed as it\nhad done in Kymon\u2019s case, but Owain wounded the Black Knight so sorely\nthat he turned his horse and fled, Owain pursuing him hotly. They came to\na \u201cvast and resplendent castle.\u201d Across the drawbridge they rode, the\nouter portcullis of which fell as the Black Knight passed it. But so close\nat his heels was Owain that the portcullis fell behind him, cutting his\nhorse in two behind the saddle, and he himself remained imprisoned between\nthe outer gate of the drawbridge and the inner. While he was in this\npredicament a maiden came to him and gave him a ring. When he wore it with\nthe stone reversed and clenched in his hand he would become invisible, and\nwhen the servants of the lord of the castle came for him he was to elude\nthem and follow her.\n\nThis she did knowing apparently who he was, \u201cfor as a friend thou art the\nmost sincere, and as a lover the most devoted.\u201d\n\nOwain did as he was bidden, and the maiden concealed him. In that night a\ngreat lamentation was heard in the castle\u2014its lord had died of the wound\nwhich Owain had given him. Soon afterwards Owain got sight of the mistress\nof the castle, and love of her took entire possession of him. Luned, the\nmaiden who had rescued him, wooed her for him, and he became her husband,\nand lord of the Castle of the Fountain and all the dominions of the Black\nKnight. And he then defended the fountain with lance and sword as his\nforerunner had done, and made his defeated antagonists ransom themselves\nfor great sums, which he bestowed among his barons and knights. Thus he\nabode for three years.\n\n*The Search for Owain*\n\nAfter this time Arthur, with his nephew Gwalchmai and with Kymon for\nguide, rode forth at the head of a host to search for tidings of Owain.\nThey came to the fountain, and here they met Owain, neither knowing the\nother as their helms were down. And first Kai was overthrown, and then\nGwalchmai and Owain fought, and after a while Gwalchmai was unhelmed.\nOwain said, \u201cMy lord Gwalchmai, I did not know thee; take my sword and my\narms.\u201d Said Gwalchmai, \u201cThou, Owain, art the victor; take thou my sword.\u201d\nArthur ended the contention in courtesy by taking the swords of both, and\nthen they all rode to the Castle of the Fountain, where Owain entertained\nthem with great joy. And he went back with Arthur to Caerleon, promising\nto his countess that he would remain there but three months and then\nreturn.\n\n*Owain Forgets his Lady*\n\nBut at the Court of Arthur he forgot his love and his duty, and remained\nthere three years. At the end of that time a noble lady came riding upon a\nhorse caparisoned with gold, and she sought out Owain and took the ring\nfrom his hand. \u201cThus,\u201d she said, \u201cshall be treated the deceiver, the\ntraitor, the faithless, the disgraced, and the beardless.\u201d Then she turned\nher horse\u2019s head and departed. And Owain, overwhelmed with shame and\nremorse, fled from the sight of men and lived in a desolate country with\nwild beasts till his body wasted and his hair grew long and his clothing\nrotted away.\n\n*Owain and the Lion*\n\nIn this guise, when near to death from exposure and want, he was taken in\nby a certain widowed countess and her maidens, and restored to strength by\nmagic balsams; and although they besought him to remain with them, he rode\nforth again, seeking for lonely and desert lands. Here he found a lion in\nbattle with a great serpent. Owain slew the serpent, and the lion followed\nhim and played about him as if it had been a greyhound that he had reared.\nAnd it fed him by catching deer, part of which Owain cooked for himself,\ngiving the rest to his lion to devour; and the beast kept watch over him\nby night.\n\n*Release of Luned*\n\nOwain next finds an imprisoned damsel, whose sighs he hears, though he\ncannot see her nor she him. Being questioned, she told him that her name\nwas Luned\u2014she was the handmaid of a countess whose husband had left her,\n\u201cand he was the friend I loved best in the world.\u201d Two of the pages of the\ncountess had traduced him, and because she defended him she was condemned\nto be burned if before a year was out he (namely, Owain son of Urien) had\nnot appeared to deliver her. And the year would end to-morrow. On the next\nday Owain met the two youths leading Luned to execution and did battle\nwith them. With the help of the lion he overcame them, rescued Luned, and\nreturned to the Castle of the Fountain, where he was reconciled with his\nlove. And he took her with him to Arthur\u2019s Court, and she was his wife\nthere as long as she lived. Lastly comes an adventure in which, still\naided by the lion, he vanquishes a black giant and releases\nfour-and-twenty noble ladies, and the giant vows to give up his evil ways\nand keep a hospice for wayfarers as long as he should live.\n\n\u201cAnd thenceforth Owain dwelt at Arthur\u2019s Court, greatly beloved, as the\nhead of his household, until he went away with his followers; and these\nwere the army of three hundred ravens which Kenverchyn(242) had left him.\nAnd wherever Owain went with these he was victorious. And this is the tale\nof the Lady of the Fountain.\u201d\n\n*The Tale of Enid and Geraint*\n\nIn this tale, which appears to be based on the \u201cErec\u201d of Chrestien de\nTroyes, the main interest is neither mythological nor adventurous, but\nsentimental. How Geraint found and wooed his love as the daughter of a\ngreat lord fallen on evil days; how he jousted for her with Edeyrn, son of\nNudd\u2014a Cymric deity transformed into the \u201cKnight of the Sparrowhawk\u201d; how,\nlapped in love of her, he grew careless of his fame and his duty; how he\nmisunderstood the words she murmured over him as she deemed him sleeping,\nand doubted her faith; how despitefully he treated her; and in how many a\nbitter test she proved her love and loyalty\u2014all these things have been\nmade so familiar to English readers in Tennyson\u2019s \u201cEnid\u201d that they need\nnot detain us here. Tennyson, in this instance, has followed his original\nvery closely.\n\nLegends of the Grail: The Tale of Peredur\n\nThe Tale of Peredur is one of great interest and significance in connexion\nwith the origin of the Grail legend. Peredur corresponds to the Perceval\nof Chrestien de Troyes, to whom we owe the earliest extant poem on the\nGrail; but that writer left his Grail story unfinished, and we never learn\nfrom him what exactly the Grail was or what gave it its importance. When\nwe turn for light to \u201cPeredur,\u201d which undoubtedly represents a more\nancient form of the legend, we find ourselves baffled. For \u201cPeredur\u201d may\nbe described as the Grail story without the Grail.(243) The strange\npersonages, objects, and incidents which form the usual setting for the\nentry upon the scene of this mystic treasure are all here; we breathe the\nvery atmosphere of the Grail Castle; but of the Grail itself there is no\nword. The story is concerned simply with the vengeance taken by the hero\nfor the slaying of a kinsman, and for this end only are the mysteries of\nthe Castle of Wonders displayed to him.\n\nWe learn at the opening of the tale that Peredur was in the significant\nposition of being a seventh son. To be a seventh son was, in this world of\nmystical romance, equivalent to being marked out by destiny for fortunes\nhigh and strange. His father, Evrawc, an earl of the North, and his six\nbrothers had fallen in fight. Peredur\u2019s mother, therefore, fearing a\nsimilar fate for her youngest child, brought him up in a forest, keeping\nfrom him all knowledge of chivalry or warfare and of such things as\nwar-horses or weapons. Here he grew up a simple rustic in manner and in\nknowledge, but of an amazing bodily strength and activity.\n\n*He Goes Forth in Quest of Adventure*\n\nOne day he saw three knights on the borders of the forest. They were all\nof Arthur\u2019s Court\u2014Gwalchmai, Geneir, and Owain. Entranced by the sight, he\nasked his mother what these beings were. \u201cThey are angels, my son,\u201d said\nshe. \u201cBy my faith,\u201d said Peredur, \u201cI will go and become an angel with\nthem.\u201d He goes to meet them, and soon learns what they are. Owain\ncourteously explains to him the use of a saddle, a shield, a sword, all\nthe accoutrements of warfare; and Peredur that evening picked out a bony\npiebald draught-horse, and dressed him up in a saddle and trappings made\nof twigs, and imitated from those he had seen. Seeing that he was bent on\ngoing forth to deeds of chivalry, his mother gave him her blessing and\nsundry instructions, and bade him seek the Court of Arthur; \u201cthere there\nare the best, and the boldest, and the most beautiful of men.\u201d\n\n*His First Feat of Arms*\n\nPeredur mounted his Rosinante, took for weapons a handful of sharp-pointed\nstakes, and rode forth to Arthur\u2019s Court. Here the steward, Kai, rudely\nrepulsed him for his rustic appearance, but a dwarf and dwarfess, who had\nbeen a year at the Court without speaking one word to any one there,\ncried: \u201cGoodly Peredur, son of Evrawc; the welcome of Heaven be unto thee,\nflower of knights and light of chivalry.\u201d Kai chastised the dwarfs for\nbreaking silence by lauding such a fellow as Peredur, and when the latter\ndemanded to be brought to Arthur, bade him first go and overcome a\nstranger knight who had just challenged the whole Court by throwing a\ngoblet of wine into the face of Gwenhwyvar, and whom all shrank from\nmeeting. Peredur went out promptly to where the ruffian knight was\nswaggering up and down, awaiting an opponent, and in the combat that\nensued pierced his skull with one of his sharp stakes and slew him. Owain\nthen came out and found Peredur dragging his fallen enemy about. \u201cWhat art\nthou doing there?\u201d said Owain. \u201cThis iron coat,\u201d said Peredur, \u201cwill never\ncome off from him; not by my efforts at any rate.\u201d So Owain showed him how\nto unfasten the armour, and Peredur took it, and the knight\u2019s weapons and\nhorse, and rode forth to seek what further adventures might befall.\n\nHere we have the character of _der reine Thor_, the valiant and\npure-hearted simpleton, clearly and vividly drawn.\n\nPeredur on leaving Arthur\u2019s Court had many encounters in which he\ntriumphed with ease, sending the beaten knights to Caerleon-on-Usk with\nthe message that he had overthrown them for the honour of Arthur and in\nhis service, but that he, Peredur, would never come to the Court again\ntill he had avenged the insult to the dwarfs upon Kai, who was accordingly\nreproved by Arthur and was greatly grieved thereat.\n\n*The Castle of Wonders*\n\nWe now come into what the reader will immediately recognise as the\natmosphere of the Grail legend. Peredur came to a castle beside a lake,\nwhere he found a venerable man with attendants about him who were fishing\nin the lake. As Peredur approached, the aged man rose and went into the\ncastle, and Peredur saw that he was lame. Peredur entered, and was\nhospitably received in a great hall. The aged man asked him, when they had\ndone their meal, if he knew how to fight with the sword, and promised to\nteach him all knightly accomplishments, and \u201cthe manners and customs of\ndifferent countries, and courtesy and gentleness and noble bearing.\u201d And\nhe added: \u201cI am thy uncle, thy mother\u2019s brother.\u201d Finally, he bade him\nride forth, and remember, whatever he saw that might cause him wonder, not\nto ask the meaning of it if no one had the courtesy to inform him. This is\nthe test of obedience and self-restraint on which the rest of the\nadventure turns.\n\nOn next riding forth, Peredur came to a vast desert wood, beyond which he\nfound a great castle, the Castle of Wonders. He entered it by the open\ndoor, and found a stately, hoary-headed man sitting in a great hall with\nmany pages about him, who received Peredur honourably. At meat Peredur sat\nbeside the lord of the castle, who asked him, when they had done, if he\ncould fight with a sword. \u201cWere I to receive instruction,\u201d said Peredur,\n\u201cI think I could.\u201d The lord then gave Peredur a sword, and bade him strike\nat a great iron staple that was in the floor. Peredur did so, and cut the\nstaple in two, but the sword also flew into two parts. \u201cPlace the two\nparts together,\u201d said the lord. Peredur did so, and they became one again,\nboth sword and staple. A second time this was done with the same result.\nThe third time neither sword nor staple would reunite.\n\n\u201cThou hast arrived,\u201d said the lord, \u201cat two-thirds of thy strength.\u201d He\nthen declared that he also was\n\nPeredur\u2019s uncle, and brother to the fisher-lord with whom Peredur had\nlodged on the previous night. As they discoursed, two youths entered the\nhall bearing a spear of mighty size, from the point of which three streams\nof blood dropped upon the ground, and all the company when they saw this\nbegan wailing and lamenting with a great outcry, but the lord took no\nnotice and did not break off his discourse with Peredur. Next there came\nin two maidens carrying between them a large salver, on which, amid a\nprofusion of blood, lay a man\u2019s head. Thereupon the wailing and lamenting\nbegan even more loudly than before. But at last they fell silent, and\nPeredur was led off to his chamber. Mindful of the injunction of the\nfisher-lord, he had shown no surprise at what he saw, nor had he asked the\nmeaning of it. He then rode forth again in quest of other adventures,\nwhich he had in bewildering abundance, and which have no particular\nrelation to the main theme. The mystery of the castle is not revealed till\nthe last pages of the story. The head in the silver dish was that of a\ncousin of Peredur\u2019s. The lance was the weapon with which he was slain, and\nwith which also the uncle of Peredur, the fisher-lord, had been lamed.\nPeredur had been shown these things to incite him to avenge the wrong, and\nto prove his fitness for the task. The \u201cnine sorceresses of Gloucester\u201d\nare said to have been those who worked these evils on the relatives of\nPeredur. On learning these matters Peredur, with the help of Arthur,\nattacked the sorceresses, who were slain every one, and the vengeance was\naccomplished.\n\n*The Conte del Graal*\n\nThe tale of Chrestien de Troyes called the \u201cConte del Graal\u201d or \u201cPerceval\nle Gallois\u201d launched the story in European literature. It was written\nabout the year 1180. It agrees in the introductory portion with \u201cPeredur,\u201d\nthe hero being here called Perceval. He is trained in knightly\naccomplishments by an aged knight named Gonemans, who warns him against\ntalking overmuch and asking questions. When he comes to the Castle of\nWonders the objects brought into the hall are a blood-dripping lance, a\n\u201cgraal\u201d accompanied by two double-branched candlesticks, the light of\nwhich is put out by the shining of the graal, a silver plate and sword,\nthe last of which is given to Perceval. The bleeding head of the Welsh\nstory does not appear, nor are we told what the graal was. Next day when\nPerceval rode forth he met a maiden who upbraided him fiercely for not\nhaving asked the meaning of what he saw\u2014had he done so the lame king (who\nis here identical with the lord of the Castle of Wonders) would have been\nmade whole again. Perceval\u2019s sin in quitting his mother against her wish\nwas the reason why he was withholden from asking the question which would\nhave broken the spell. This is a very crude piece of invention, for it was\nmanifestly Peredur\u2019s destiny to take arms and achieve the adventure of the\nGrail, and he committed no sin in doing so. Later on in the story Perceval\nis met by a damsel of hideous appearance, who curses him for his omission\nto ask concerning the lance and the other wonders\u2014had he done so the king\nwould have been restored and would have ruled his land in peace, but now\nmaidens will be put to shame, knights will be slain, widows and orphans\nwill be made.\n\nThis conception of the question episode seems to me radically different\nfrom that which was adopted in the Welsh version. It is characteristic of\nPeredur that he always does as he is told by proper authority. The\nquestion was a test of obedience and self-restraint, and he succeeded in\nthe ordeal. In fairy literature one is often punished for curiosity, but\nnever for discretion and reserve. The Welsh tale here preserves, I think,\nthe original form of the story. But the French writers mistook the\nomission to ask questions for a failure on the part of the hero, and\ninvented a shallow and incongruous theory of the episode and its\nconsequences. Strange to say, however, the French view found its way into\nlater versions of the Welsh tale, and such a version is that which we have\nin the \u201cMabinogion.\u201d Peredur, towards the end of the story, meets with a\nhideous damsel, the terrors of whose aspect are vividly described, and who\nrebukes him violently for not having asked the meaning of the marvels at\nthe castle: \u201cHadst thou done so the king would have been restored to\nhealth, and his dominions to peace. Whereas from henceforth he will have\nto endure battles and conflicts, and his knights will perish, and wives\nwill be widowed, and maidens will be left portionless, and all this is\nbecause of thee.\u201d I regard this loathly damsel as an obvious interpolation\nin the Welsh tale. She came into it straight out of the pages of\nChrestien. That she did not originally belong to the story of Peredur\nseems evident from the fact that in this tale the lame lord who bids\nPeredur refrain from asking questions is, according to the damsel, the\nvery person who would have benefited by his doing so. As a matter of fact,\nPeredur never does ask the question, and it plays no part in the\nconclusion of the story.\n\nChrestien\u2019s unfinished tale tells us some further adventures of Perceval\nand of his friend and fellow-knight, Gauvain, but never explains the\nsignificance of the mysterious objects seen at the castle. His\ncontinuators, of whom Gautier was the first, tell us that the Graal was\nthe Cup of the Last Supper and the lance that which had pierced the side\nof Christ at the Crucifixion; and that Peredur ultimately makes his way\nback to the castle, asks the necessary question, and succeeds his uncle as\nlord of the castle and guardian of its treasures.\n\n*Wolfram von Eschenbach*\n\nIn the story as given by Wolfram von Eschenbach, who wrote about the year\n1200\u2014some twenty years later than Chrestien de Troyes, with whose work he\nwas acquainted\u2014we meet with a new and unique conception of the Grail. He\nsays of the knights of the Grail Castle:\n\n\u201cSi lebent von einem steine\nDes gesl\u00e4hte ist v\u00eel reine . . .\nEs heizet _lapsit [lapis] exill\u00ees_,\nDer stein ist ouch genannt der Gr\u00e2l.\u201d(244)\n\nIt was originally brought down from heaven by a flight of angels and\ndeposited in Anjou, as the worthiest region for its reception. Its power\nis sustained by a dove which every Good Friday comes from heaven and lays\non the Grail a consecrated Host. It is preserved in the Castle of\nMunsalv\u00e4sche [Montsalvat] and guarded by four hundred knights, who are\nall, except their king, vowed to virginity. The king may marry, and is\nindeed, in order to maintain the succession, commanded to do so by the\nGrail, which conveys its messages to mankind by writing which appears upon\nit and which fades away when deciphered. In the time of Parzival the king\nis Anfortas. He cannot die in presence of the Grail, but he suffers from a\nwound which, because he received it in the cause of worldly pride and in\nseeking after illicit love, the influence of the Grail cannot heal until\nthe destined deliverer shall break the spell. This Parzival should have\ndone by asking the question, \u201cWhat aileth thee, uncle?\u201d The French version\nmakes Perceval fail in curiosity\u2014Wolfram conceives the failure as one in\nsympathy. He fails, at any rate, and next morning finds the castle empty\nand his horse standing ready for him at the gate; as he departs he is\nmocked by servitors who appear at the windows of the towers. After many\nadventures, which are quite unlike those either in Chrestien\u2019s \u201cConte del\nGraal\u201d or in \u201cPeredur,\u201d Parzival, who has wedded the maiden Condwiramur,\nfinds his way back to the Grail Castle\u2014which no one can reach except those\ndestined and chosen to do so by the Grail itself\u2014breaks the spell, and\nrules over the Grail dominions, his son Loherangrain becoming the Knight\nof the Swan, who goes abroad righting wrongs, and who, like all the Grail\nknights, is forbidden to reveal his name and origin to the outside world.\nWolfram tells us that he had the substance of the tale from the Proven\u00e7al\npoet Kyot or Guiot\u2014\u201cKyot, der meister wol bekannt\u201d\u2014who in his turn\u2014but\nthis probably is a mere piece of romantic invention\u2014professed to have\nfound it in an Arabic book in Toledo, written by a heathen named\nFlegetanis.\n\n*The Continuators of Chrestien*\n\nWhat exactly may have been the material before Chrestien de Troyes we\ncannot tell, but his various co-workers and continuators, notably\nManessier, all dwell on the Christian character of the objects shown to\nPerceval in the castle, and the question arises, How did they come to\nacquire this character? The Welsh story, certainly the most archaic form\nof the legend, shows that they did not have it from the beginning. An\nindication in one of the French continuations to Chrestien\u2019s \u201cConte\u201d may\nserve to put us on the track. Gautier, the author of this continuation,\ntells us of an attempt on the part of Gauvain [Sir Gawain] to achieve the\nadventure of the Grail. He partially succeeds, and this half-success has\nthe effect of restoring the lands about the castle, which were desert and\nuntilled, to blooming fertility. The Grail therefore, besides its other\ncharacters, had a talismanic power in promoting increase, wealth, and\nrejuvenation.\n\n*The Grail a Talisman of Abundance*\n\nThe character of a cornucopia, a symbol and agent of abundance and\nvitality, clings closely to the Grail in all versions of the legend. Even\nin the loftiest and most spiritual of these, the \u201cParzival\u201d of Wolfram von\nEschenbach, this quality is very strongly marked. A sick or wounded man\nwho looked on it could not die within the week, nor could its servitors\ngrow old: \u201cthough one looked on it for two hundred years, his hair would\nnever turn grey.\u201d The Grail knights lived from it, apparently by its\nturning into all manner of food and drink the bread which was presented to\nit by pages. Each man had of it food according to his pleasure, _\u00e0 son\ngr\u00e9_\u2014from this word _gr\u00e9, gr\u00e9able_, the name Gral, which originated in the\nFrench versions, was supposed to be derived.(245) It was the satisfaction\nof all desires. In Wolfram\u2019s poem the Grail, though connected with the\nEucharist, was, as we have seen, a stone, not a cup. It thus appears as a\nrelic of ancient stone-worship. It is remarkable that a similar Stone of\nAbundance occurs also in the Welsh \u201cPeredur,\u201d though not as one of the\nmysteries of the castle. It was guarded by a black serpent, which Peredur\nslew, and he gave the stone to his friend Etlyn.\n\n*The Celtic Cauldron of Abundance*\n\nNow the reader has by this time become well acquainted with an object\nhaving the character of a talisman of abundance and rejuvenation in Celtic\nmyth. As the Cauldron of the Dagda it came into Ireland with the Danaans\nfrom their mysterious fairy-land. In Welsh legend Bran the Blessed got it\nfrom Ireland, whither it returned again as part of Branwen\u2019s dowry. In a\nstrange and mystic poem by Taliesin it is represented as part of the\nspoils of Hades, or Annwn, brought thence by Arthur, in a tragic adventure\nnot otherwise recorded. It is described by Taliesin as lodged in Caer\nPedryvan, the Four-square Castle of Pwyll; the fire that heated it was\nfanned by the breath of nine maidens, its edge was rimmed with pearls, and\nit would not cook the food of a coward or man forsworn:(246)\n\n\u201cAm I not a candidate for fame, to be heard in song\n In Caer Pedryvan, four times revolving?\n The first word from the cauldron, when was it spoken?\n By the breath of nine maidens it was gently warmed.\n Is it not the cauldron of the chief of Annwn? What is its fashion?\n A rim of pearls is round its edge.\n It will not cook the food of a coward or one forsworn.\n A sword flashing bright will be raised to him,\n And left in the hand of Lleminawg.\n\n And before the door of the gate of Uffern(247) the lamp was burning.\n When we went with Arthur\u2014a splendid labour\u2014\n Except seven, none returned from Caer Vedwyd.(248)\n\nMore remotely still the cauldron represents the Sun, which appears in the\nearliest Aryo-Indian myths as a golden vessel which pours forth light and\nheat and fertility. The lance is the lightning-weapon of the Thunder God,\nIndra, appearing in Norse mythology as the hammer of Thor. The quest for\nthese objects represents the ideas of the restoration by some divine\nchampion of the wholesome order of the seasons, disturbed by some\ntemporary derangement such as those which to this day bring famine and\ndesolation to India.\n\nNow in the Welsh \u201cPeredur\u201d we have clearly an outline of the original\nCeltic tale, but the Grail does not appear in it. We may conjecture,\nhowever, from Gautier\u2019s continuation of Chrestien\u2019s poem that a talisman\nof abundance figured in early Continental, probably Breton, versions of\nthe legend. In one version at least\u2014that on which Wolfram based his\n\u201cParzival\u201d\u2014this talisman was a stone. But usually it would have been, not\na stone, but a cauldron or vessel of some kind endowed with the usual\nattributes of the magic cauldron of Celtic myth. This vessel was\nassociated with a blood-dripping lance. Here were the suggestive elements\nfrom which some unknown singer, in a flash of inspiration, transformed the\nancient tale of vengeance and redemption into the mystical romance which\nat once took possession of the heart and soul of Christendom. The magic\ncauldron became the cup of the Eucharist, the lance was invested with a\nmore tremendous guilt than that of the death of Peredur\u2019s kinsman.(249)\nCeltic poetry, German mysticism, Christian chivalry, and ideas of magic\nwhich still cling to the rude stone monuments of Western Europe\u2014all these\ncombined to make the story of the Grail, and to endow it with the strange\nattraction which has led to its re-creation by artist after artist for\nseven hundred years. And who, even now, can say that its course is run at\nlast, and the towers of Montsalvat dissolved into the mist from which they\nsprang?\n\n*The Tale of Taliesin*\n\nAlone of the tales in the collection called by Lady Charlotte Guest the\n\u201cMabinogion,\u201d the story of the birth and adventures of the mythical bard\nTaliesin, the Amergin of Cymric legend, is not found in the\nfourteenth-century manuscript entitled \u201cThe Red Book of Hergest.\u201d It is\ntaken from a manuscript of the late sixteenth or seventeenth century, and\nnever appears to have enjoyed much popularity in Wales. Much of the very\nobscure poetry attributed to Taliesin is to be found in it, and this is\nmuch older than the prose. The object of the tale, indeed, as Mr. Nutt has\npointed out in his edition of the \u201cMabinogion,\u201d is rather to provide a\nsort of framework for stringing together scattered pieces of verse\nsupposed to be the work of Taliesin than to tell a connected story about\nhim and his doings.\n\nThe story of the birth of the hero is the most interesting thing in the\ntale. There lived, it was said, \u201cin the time of Arthur of the Round\nTable,\u201d(250) a man named Tegid Voel of Penllyn, whose wife was named\nCeridwen. They have a son named Avagddu, who was the most ill-favoured man\nin the world. To compensate for his lack of beauty, his mother resolved to\nmake him a sage. So, according to the art of the books of Feryllt,(251)\nshe had recourse to the great Celtic source of magical influence\u2014a\ncauldron. She began to boil a \u201ccauldron of inspiration and science for her\nson, that his reception might be honourable because of his knowledge of\nthe mysteries of the future state of the world.\u201d The cauldron might not\ncease to boil for a year and a day, and only in three drops of it were to\nbe found the magical grace of the brew.\n\nShe put Gwion Bach the son of Gwreang of Llanfair to stir the cauldron,\nand a blind man named Morda to keep the fire going, and she made\nincantations over it and put in magical herbs from time to time as\nFeryllt\u2019s book directed. But one day towards the end of the year three\ndrops of the magic liquor flew out of the cauldron and lighted on the\nfinger of Gwion. Like Finn mac Cumhal on a similar occasion, he put his\nfinger in his mouth, and immediately became gifted with supernatural\ninsight. He saw that he had got what was intended for Avagddu, and he saw\nalso that Ceridwen would destroy him for it if she could. So he fled to\nhis own land, and the cauldron, deprived of the sacred drops, now\ncontained nothing but poison, the power of which burst the vessel, and the\nliquor ran into a stream hard by and poisoned the horses of Gwyddno\nGaranhir which drank of the water. Whence the stream is called the Poison\nof the Horses of Gwyddno from that time forth.\n\nCeridwen now came on the scene and saw that her year\u2019s labour was lost. In\nher rage she smote Morda with a billet of firewood and struck out his eye,\nand she then pursued after Gwion Bach. He saw her and changed himself into\na hare. She became a greyhound. He leaped into a river and became a fish,\nand she chased him as an otter. He became a bird and she a hawk. Then he\nturned himself into a grain of wheat and dropped among the other grains on\na threshing-floor, and she became a black hen and swallowed him. Nine\nmonths afterwards she bore him as an infant; and she would have killed\nhim, but could not on account of his beauty, \u201cso she wrapped him in a\nleathern bag, and cast him into the sea to the mercy of God.\u201d\n\n*The Luck of Elphin*\n\nNow Gwyddno, of the poisoned horses, had a salmon weir on the strand\nbetween Dyvi and Aberystwyth. And his son Elphin, a needy and luckless\nlad, one day fished out the leathern bag as it stuck on the weir. They\nopened it, and found the infant within. \u201cBehold a radiant brow!\u201d(252) said\nGwyddno. \u201cTaliesin be he called,\u201d said Elphin. And they brought the child\nhome very carefully and reared it as their own. And this was Taliesin,\nprime bard of the Cymry; and the first of the poems he made was a lay of\npraise to Elphin and promise of good fortune for the future. And this was\nfulfilled, for Elphin grew in riches and honour day after day, and in love\nand favour with King Arthur.\n\nBut one day as men praised King Arthur and all his belongings above\nmeasure, Elphin boasted that he had a wife as virtuous as any at Arthur\u2019s\nCourt and a bard more skilful than any of the King\u2019s; and they flung him\ninto prison until they should see if he could make good his boast. And as\nhe lay there with a silver chain about his feet, a graceless fellow named\nRhun was sent to court the wife of Elphin and to bring back proofs of her\nfolly; and it was said that neither maid nor matron with whom Rhun\nconversed but was evil-spoken of.\n\nTaliesin then bade his mistress conceal herself, and she gave her raiment\nand jewels to one of the kitchenmaids, who received Rhun as if she were\nmistress of the household. And after supper Rhun plied the maid with\ndrink, and she became intoxicated and fell in a deep sleep; whereupon Rhun\ncut off one of her fingers, on which was the signet-ring of Elphin that he\nhad sent his wife a little while before. Rhun brought the finger and the\nring on it to Arthur\u2019s Court.\n\nNext day Elphin was fetched out of prison and shown the finger and the\nring. Whereupon he said: \u201cWith thy leave, mighty king, I cannot deny the\nring, but the finger it is on was never my wife\u2019s. For this is the little\nfinger, and the ring fits tightly on it, but my wife could barely keep it\non her thumb. And my wife, moreover, is wont to pare her nails every\nSaturday night, but this nail hath not been pared for a month. And\nthirdly, the hand to which this finger belonged was kneading rye-dough\nwithin three days past, but my wife has never kneaded rye-dough since my\nwife she has been.\u201d\n\nThen the King was angry because his test had failed, and he ordered Elphin\nback to prison till he could prove what he had affirmed about his bard.\n\n*Taliesin, Prime Bard of Britain*\n\nThen Taliesin went to court, and one high day when the King\u2019s bards and\nminstrels should sing and play before him, Taliesin, as they passed him\nsitting quietly in a corner, pouted his lips and played \u201cBlerwm, blerwm\u201d\nwith his finger on his mouth. And when the bards came to perform before\nthe King, lo ! a spell was on them, and they could do nothing but bow\nbefore him and play \u201cBlerwm, blerwm\u201d with their fingers on their lips. And\nthe chief of them, Heinin, said: \u201cO king, we be not drunken with wine, but\nare dumb through the influence of the spirit that sits in yon corner under\nthe form of a child.\u201d Then Taliesin was brought forth, and they asked him\nwho he was and whence he came. And he sang as follows:\n\n\u201cPrimary chief bard am I to Elphin,\n And my original country is the region of the summer stars;\n Idno and Heinin called me Merddin,\n At length every being will call me Taliesin.\n\n\u201cI was with my Lord in the highest sphere,\n On the fall of Lucifer into the depth of hell;\n I have borne a banner before Alexander;\n I know the names of the stars from north to south\n\n\u201cI was in Canaan when Absalom was slain,\n I was in the court of D\u014dn before the birth of Gwydion.\n I was at the place of the crucifixion of the merciful Son of God;\n I have been three periods in the prison of Arianrod.\n\n\u201cI have been in Asia with Noah in the ark,\n I have seen the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.\n I have been in India when Roma was built.\n I am now come here to the remnant of Troia.(253)\n\n\u201cI have been with my Lord in the ass\u2019s manger,\n I strengthened Moses through the waters of Jordan;\n I have been in the firmament with Mary Magdalene;\n I have obtained the Muse from the cauldron of Ceridwen.\n\n\u201cI shall be until the day of doom on the face of the earth;\n And it is not known whether my body is flesh or fish.\n\n\u201cThen was I for nine months\n In the womb of the witch Ceridwen;\n I was originally little Gwion,\n And at length I am Taliesin.\u201d(254)\n\nWhile Taliesin sang a great storm of wind arose, and the castle shook with\nthe force of it. Then the King bade Elphin be brought in before him, and\nwhen he came, at the music of Taliesin\u2019s voice and harp the chains fell\nopen of themselves and he was free. And many other poems concerning secret\nthings of the past and future did Taliesin sing before the King and his\nlords, and he foretold the coming of the Saxon into the land, and his\noppression of the Cymry, and foretold also his passing away when the day\nof his destiny should come.\n\n*Conclusion*\n\nHere we end this long survey of the legendary literature of the Celt. The\nmaterial is very abundant, and it is, of course, not practicable in a\nvolume of this size to do more than trace the main current of the\ndevelopment of the legendary literature down to the time when the mythical\nand legendary element entirely faded out and free literary invention took\nits place. The reader of these pages will, however, it is hoped, have\ngained a general conception of the subject which will enable him to\nunderstand the significance of such tales as we have not been able to\ntouch on here, and to fit them into their proper places in one or other of\nthe great cycles of Celtic legend. It will be noticed that we have not\nentered upon the vast region of Celtic folk-lore. Folk-lore has not been\nregarded as falling within the scope of the present work. Folk-lore may\nsometimes represent degraded mythology, and sometimes mythology in the\nmaking. In either case, it is its special characteristic that it belongs\nto and issues from a class whose daily life lies close to the earth,\ntoilers in the field and in the forest, who render with simple directness,\nin tales or charms, their impressions of natural or supernatural forces\nwith which their own lives are environed. Mythology, in the proper sense\nof the word, appears only where the intellect and the imagination have\nreached a point of development above that which is ordinarily possible to\nthe peasant mind\u2014when men have begun to co-ordinate their scattered\nimpressions and have felt the impulse to shape them into poetic creations\nembodying universal ideas. It is not, of course, pretended that a\nhard-and-fast line can always be drawn between mythology and folk-lore;\nstill, the distinction seems to me a valid one, and I have tried to\nobserve it in these pages.\n\nAfter the two historical chapters with which our study has begun, the\nobject of the book has been literary rather than scientific. I have,\nhowever, endeavoured to give, as the opportunity arose, such results of\nrecent critical work on the relics of Celtic myth and legend as may at\nleast serve to indicate to the reader the nature of the critical problems\nconnected therewith. I hope that this may have added somewhat to the value\nof the work for students, while not impairing its interest for the general\nreader. Furthermore, I may claim that the book is in this sense\nscientific, that as far as possible it avoids any adaptation of its\nmaterial for the popular taste. Such adaptation, when done for an avowed\nartistic purpose, is of course entirely legitimate; if it were not, we\nshould have to condemn half the great poetry of the world. But here the\nobject has been to present the myths and legends of the Celt as they\nactually are. Crudities have not been refined away, things painful or\nmonstrous have not been suppressed, except in some few instances, where it\nhas been necessary to bear in mind that this volume appeals to a wider\naudience than that of scientific students alone. The reader may, I think,\nrely upon it that he has here a substantially fair and not over-idealised\naccount of the Celtic outlook upon life and the world at a time when the\nCelt still had a free, independent, natural life, working out his\nconceptions in the Celtic tongue, and taking no more from foreign sources\nthan he could assimilate and make his own. The legendary literature thus\npresented is the oldest non-classical literature of Europe. This alone is\nsufficient, I think, to give it a strong claim on our attention. As to\nwhat other claims it may have, many pages might be filled with quotations\nfrom the discerning praises given to it by critics not of Celtic\nnationality, from  Matthew Arnold downwards. But here let it speak for\nitself. It will tell us, I believe, that, as Maeld\u016bn said of one of the\nmarvels he met with in his voyage into Fairyland: \u201cWhat we see here was a\nwork of mighty men.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n\nGLOSSARY AND INDEX\n\n\n                    THE PRONUNCIATION OF CELTIC NAMES\n\nTo render these names accurately without the living voice is impossible.\nBut with the phonetic renderings given, where required, in the following\nindex, and with attention to the following general rules, the reader will\nget as near to the correct pronunciation as it is at all necessary for him\nto do.\n\n                                I. GAELIC\n\nVowels are pronounced as in French or German; thus _i_ (long) is like _ee,\ne_ (long) like _a_ in \u201cdate,\u201d _u_ (long) like _oo_. A stroke over a letter\nsignifies length; thus d\u016bn is pronounced \u201cdoon\u201d (not \u201cdewn\u201d).\n\n_ch_ is a guttural, as in the word \u201cloch.\u201d It is never pronounced with a\n_t_ sound, as in English \u201cchip.\u201d\n\n_c_ is always like _k_.\n\n_gh_ is silent, as in English.\n\n                                II. CYMRIC\n\n_w_, when a consonant, is pronounced as in English; when a vowel, like\n_oc_.\n\n_y_, when long, is like _ee_; when short, like _u_ in \u201cbut.\u201d\n\n_ch_ and _c_ as in Gaelic.\n\n_dd_ is like _th_ in \u201cbreathe\u201d.\n\n_f_ is like _v; ff_like English _f_.\n\nThe sound of _ll_ is perhaps better not attempted by the English reader.\nIt is a thickened _l_, something between _cl_ and _th_.\n\nVowels as in Gaelic, but note that there are strictly no diphthongs in\nWelsh, in combinations of vowels each is given its own sound.\n\nA\n\nABRED. The innermost of three concentric circles representing the totality\n            of being in the Cymric cosmogony\u2014the stage of struggle and\n            evolution, 333\n\nABUNDANCE. See Stone of Abundance\n\n\u00c6DA (ay\u00b4da). 1. Dwarf of King Fergus mac Leda, 247.\n  2. Royal suitor for Vivionn\u2019s hand;\n  Vivionn slain by, 287\n\n\u00c6D\u00b4UANS. Familiar with plating of copper and tin, 44\n\n\u00c6GIRA. Custom of the priestess of Earth at, in Ach\u00e6a, ere prophesying, 167\n\n\u00c6SUN. Umbrian deity, 86\n\n\u00c6SUS. Deity mentioned by Lucan, 86\n\nAED THE FAIR (AED FINN) (aid). Chief sage of Ireland;\n  author of \u201cVoyage of Maeld\u016bn,\u201d 331\n\nAEI (ay\u00b4ee), PLAIN OF, where Brown Bull of Quelgny meets and slays Bull of\n            Ailell, 225\n\nAFRICAN ORIGIN. Primitive population of Great Britain and Ireland,\n            evidence of language suggests, 78\n\nAGE, IRON. The ship a well-recognised form of sepulchral enclosure in\n            cemeteries of the, 76\n\nAG\u00b4NOMAN. Nemed\u2019s father, 98\n\nAIDEEN. Wife of Oscar, 261;\n  dies of grief after Oscar\u2019s death, 261;\n  buried on Ben Edar (Howth), 261, 262\n\nAIFA (eefa). Princess of Land of Shadows;\n  war made upon, by Skatha, 189;\n  Cuchulain overcomes by a trick, 190;\n  life spared conditionally by Cuchulain, 190;\n  bears a son named Connla, 190\n\nAILBACH (el-yach)\n  Fortress in Co. Donegal, where Ith hears MacCuill and his brothers are\n              arranging the division of the land, 132\n\nAILILL (el\u2019yill), or AILELL.\n  1. Son of Laery, treacherously slain by his uncle Covac, 152.\n  2. Brother of Eochy; his desperate love for Etain, 158-160.\n  3. King of Connacht, 122;\n     Angus \u014cg seeks aid of, 122;\n     Fergus seeks aid of, 202;\n     assists in foray against province of Ulster, 203-251;\n     White horned Bull of, slain by Brown Bull of Quelgny, 225;\n     makes seven years\u2019 peace with Ulster, 225;\n     hound of mac Datho pursues chariot of, 244;\n     slain by Conall, 245\n\nAILILL EDGE-OF-BATTLE.\n  Of the sept of the Owens of Aran;\n  father of Maeld\u016bn, slain by reavers from Leix, 310\n\nAILILL OLUM (el-yill olum)\n  King of Munster;\n  ravishes Ain\u00e9 and is slain by her, 127\n\nAIN\u00c9.\n  A love-goddess, daughter of the Danaan Owel;\n  Ailill Olum and Fitzgerald her lovers, 127;\n  mother of Earl Gerald, 128;\n  still worshipped on Midsummer Eve, 128;\n  appears on a St. John\u2019s Night, among girls on the Hill, 128\n\nAINL\u00c9.\n  Brother of Naisi, 198\n\nALEXANDER THE GREAT.\n  Counter-move of Hellas against the East under, 22;\n  compact with Celts referred to by Ptolemy Soter, 23\n\nALLEN, MR. ROMILLY.\n  On Celtic art, 29, 30\n\nALLEN, HILL OF.\n  In Kildare;\n  Finn\u2019s chief fortress, 266, 273\n\nAMA\u00b4SIS I\n  Human sacrifices abolished by, 86\n\nAMATHA\u00b4ON.\n  Son of D\u014dn;\n  and the ploughing task, 390\n\nAMER\u00b4GIN.\n  Milesian poet, son of Miled, husband of Skena, 133;\n  his strange lay, sung when his foot first touched Irish soil, 134;\n  his judgment, delivered as between the Danaans and Milesians, 135;\n  chants incantations to land of Erin, 136;\n  the Druid, gives judgment as to claims to sovranty of Eremon and Eber,\n              148;\n  Ollav F\u014dla compared with, 150\n\nAMMIA\u00b4NUS MARCELLIN\u00b4US.\n  Gauls described by, 42\n\nAMOR\u00b4GIN.\n  Father of Conall of the Victories, 177\n\nAMYN\u00b4TAS II.\n  King of Macedon, defeated and exiled, 23\n\nANGLO-SAXON.\n  Wace\u2019s French translation of \u201cHistoria Regum Britani\u00e6\u201d translated by\n              Layamon into, 338\n\nANGUS.\n  A Danaan deity, 143.\n  See Angus \u014cg\n\nANGUS \u014cG (ANGUS THE YOUNG).\n  Son of the Dagda, Irish god of love, 121, 123;\n  wooes and wins Caer, 121-123;\n  Dermot of the Love spot bred up with, 123;\n  Dermot of the Love spot revived by, 123;\n  father of Maga, 181;\n  Dermot and Grama rescued by magical devices of, 299;\n  Dermot\u2019s body borne away by, 303\n\nANKH, THE.\n  Found on Megalithic carvings, 77, 78;\n  the symbol of vitality or resurrection, 78\n\nAN\u00b4LUAN.\n  Son of Maga;\n  rallies to Maev\u2019s foray against Ulster, 204;\n  Conall produces the head of, to Ket, 244\n\nANNWN (annoon).\n  Corresponds with Abyss, or Chaos;\n  the principle of destruction in Cymric cosmogony, 333\n\nANSWERER, THE.\n  Mananan\u2019s magical sword, 125\n\nAOIFE (eefa).\n  Lir\u2019s second wife;\n  her jealousy of her step children, 139, 140;\n  her punishment by B\u014dv the Red, 140\n\nAONBARR (ain-barr).\n  Mananan\u2019s magical steed, 125\n\nAPOLLO. Celtic equivalent, Lugh.\n  Magical services in honour of, described by Hecataeus, 58;\n  regarded by Gauls as deity of medicine, 87, 88\n\nAQUITAN\u00b4I. One of three peoples inhabiting Gaul when Caesar\u2019s conquest\n            began, 58\n\nARABIA. Dolmens found in, 53\n\nARAWN. A king in Annwn;\n  appeals to Pwyll for help against Havgan, 357;\n  exchanges kingdoms for a year with Pwyll, 357-359\n\nARD MACHA (Armagh). Emain Macha now represented by grassy ramparts of a\n            hill-fortress close to, 150;\n  significance, 251\n\nARD RIGH (ard ree) (_i.e._, High King). Dermot MacKerval, of Ireland, 47\n\nARDAN. Brother of Naisi, 198\n\nARDCULLIN. Cuchulain places white round pillar-stone of, 207\n\nARDEE. Significance, 251\n\nARI\u00b4ANROD. Sister of Gwydion;\n  proposed as virgin foot-holder to M\u0101th;\n  Dylan and Llew sons of. 380, 381\n\nARISTOTLE. Celts and, 17\n\nARMAGH. Invisible dwelling of Lir on Slieve Fuad in County, 125\n\nARNOLD, MATTHEW. Reference to, in connexion with Celtic legendary\n            literature, 419\n\nARR\u00b4IAN. Celtic characteristics, evidence of, regarding, 36\n\nARTAIUS. A god in Celtic mythology who occupies the place of Gwydion, 349\n\nARTHUR. Chosen leader against Saxons, whom he finally defeated in battle\n            of Mount Badon, 337;\n  Geoffrey of Monmouth\u2019s \u201cHistoria Regum Britaniae\u201d commemorates exploits\n              of, 337;\n  son of Uther Pendragon and Igerna, 337;\n  Modred, his nephew, usurps crown of, 337;\n  Guanhumara, wife of, retires to convent, 337, 338;\n  genealogy set forth, 352;\n  tales of, in Welsh literature, 386;\n  Kilhwch at court of, 387, 388;\n  the \u201cDream of Rhonabwy\u201d and, 392, 393;\n  Owain, son of Urien, plays chess with, 393;\n  adventure of Kymon, knight of court of, 394-396;\n  Gwenhwyvar, wife of, 394;\n  Owain at court of, 396, 397, 399;\n  Peredur at court of, 401, 402\n\nARTHURIAN SAGA. Mention of early British legend suggests, 336;\n  the saga in Brittany and Marie de France, 339, 340;\n  Miss Jessie L. Weston\u2019s article on, in the \u201cEncyc. Britann.,\u201d 341;\n  Chrestien de Troyes influential in bringing into the poetic literature\n              of Europe the, 340, 341;\n  various sources of, discussed, 342;\n  the saga in Wales, 343, 344;\n  never entered Ireland, 343;\n  why so little is heard of, in accounts of Cymric myths, 344\n\nASA. Scandinavian deity, 86\n\nASAL. Of the Golden Pillars King, 115\n\nASURA-MASDA. Persian deity, 86\n\nATHNURCHAR (ath-nur\u00b4char), or ARDNURCHAR (The Ford of the Sling-cast). The\n            River-ford where Ket slings Conall\u2019s \u201cbrain ball\u201d at Conor mac\n            Nessa, 240;\n  significance, 251\n\nATLANTIC, THE. Aoife\u2019s cruelty to her step-children on waters of, 140, 141\n\nAUSTRIA. Discovery of pre-Roman necropolis in, 28;\n  relics found in, developed into the La T\u00e8ne culture, 29\n\nAVAGDDU (avagdhoo). Son of Tegid Voel, 413;\n  deprived of gift of supernatural insight, 413\n\nA\u00b4VALON. Land of the Dead;\n  bears relation with Norse _Valhall_, 338;\n  its later identification with Glastonbury, 338\n\nAVON DIA. Duel between Cuchulain and Ferdia causes waters of, to hold\n            back, 121\n\nB\n\nBABYLONIA. The ship symbol in, 76\n\nBALKANS. Earliest home of mountain Celts was ranges of, 57\n\nBALOR. Ancestor of Lugh, 88;\n  Bres sent to seek aid of, 109;\n  informed that Danaans refuse tribute, 113;\n  Fomorian champion, engages Nuada of the Silver Hand, and slain by Lugh,\n              117;\n  one of the names of the god of Death, 130;\n  included in Finn\u2019s ancestry, 255\n\nBANBA Wife of Danaan king, MacCuill, 132\n\nBANN, THE RIVER. Visited by mac Cecht, 175\n\nBARBAROSSA, KAISER. Tradition that Finn lies in some enchanted cove\n            spellbound, like, 308\n\n\u201cBARDDAS.\u201d Compilation enshrining Druidic thought, 332;\n  Christian persons and episodes figure in, 333;\n  extract from, in catechism form, 334, 335\n\nBARDIC differs from popular conception of Danaan deities, 104\n\nBARROW, THE RIVER. Visited by mac Cecht, 175\n\nBAR\u00b4UCH. A lord of the Red Branch; meets Naisi and Deirdre on landing in\n            Ireland, 199;\n  persuades Fergus to feast at his house, 199;\n  d\u016bn, on the Straits of Moyle, 251\n\nBAVB (bayv). Calatin\u2019s daughter; puts a spell of straying on Niam, 230\n\nBE\u00c4LCU (bay\u2019al-koo). A Connacht champion; rescue of Conall by, 244;\n  slain by sons owing to a stratagem of Conall\u2019s, 245;\n  Conall slays sons of, 245\n\nBEBO. Wife of Iubdan. King of Wee Folk, 247\n\nBED\u00b4WYR (bed-weer). Equivalent, Sir Bedivere. One of Arthur\u2019s servitors\n            who accompanies Kilhwch on his quest for Olwen, 388-392\n\nBELG\u00c6. One of three peoples inhabiting Gaul when C\u00e6sar\u2019s conquest began,\n            58\n\nBELI. Cymric god of Death, husband of D\u014dn;\n  corresponds with the Irish Bil\u00e9, 348, 349;\n  Lludd and Llevelys, sons of, 385\n\nBELL, MR. ARTHUR Reference to a drawing by, showing act of stone-worship,\n            66\n\nBEL\u00b4TEN\u00c9. One of the names of the god of Death;\n  first of May sacred to, 133\n\nBEN BULBEN. Dermot of the Love-spot slain by the wild boar of, 123, 301,\n            302;\n  Dermot and the Boar of, 290, 291\n\nBEN\u00b4DIGEID VRAN, or \u201cBRAN THE BLESSED.\u201d King of the Isle of the Mighty\n            (Britain);\n  Manawyddan, his brother, 365;\n  Branwen, his sister, 366;\n  gives Branwen as wife to Matholwch, 366;\n  makes atonement for Evnissyen\u2019s outrage by giving Matholwch the magic\n              cauldron, &c., 367, 368;\n  invades Ireland to succour Branwen, 369, 372;\n  the wonderful head of, 371, 372\n\nBERTRAND, A. See pp. 55, 64, 83\n\nBIL\u00c9 (bil-ay). One of the names of the god of Death (_i.e._, of the\n            underworld), 130;\n  father of Miled, 130;\n  equivalent, Cymric god Beli, husband of D\u014dn, 348, 349\n\nBIR\u014cG. A Druidess who assists Kian to be avenged on Balor, 111\n\nBLACK KNIGHT, THE. Kymon and, 396;\n  Owain and, 396-397\n\nBLACK SAINGLEND (sen\u2019glend). Cuchulain\u2019s last horse; breaks from him, 232\n\nBLAI. Ois\u012bn\u2019s Danaan mother, 282\n\nBLANID. Wife of Curoi; sets her love on Cuchulain, 228-229;\n  her death, 229\n\nBLE\u00b4HERIS.\n  A Welsh poet identical with _Bledhericus_, mentioned by Giraldus\n              Cambrensis, and with Br\u00e9ris, quoted by Thomas of Brittany,\n              342\n\n\u201cBLERWM, BLERWM\u201d (bleroom).\n  Sound made by Taliesin by which a spell was put on bards at Arthur\u2019s\n              court, 416\n\nBLODEUWEDD, or \u201cFLOWER-FACE.\u201d\n  The flower-wife of Llew, 382, 383\n\nBOANNA (the river Boyne).\n  Mother of Angus \u014cg, 121\n\nBOOK OF ARMAGH.\n  References to, 104, 147\n\nBOOK OF CAERMARTHEN, BLACK.\n  Gwyn ap Nudd figures in poem included in, 353\n\nBOOK OF THE DUN COW.\n  Reference to, 97;\n  Cuchulain makes his reappearance legend of Christian origin in, 238;\n  \u201cVoyage of Maeld\u016bn\u201d is found in, 309\n\nBOOK OF HERGEST, THE RED.\n  Forms main source of tales in the \u201cMabinogion,\u201d 344;\n  the story of Taliesin not found in, 412\n\nBOOK OF INVASIONS.\n  Reference to, 106\n\nBOOK OF LEINSTER.\n  References to, 24, 85, 208\n\nB\u014cV THE RED.\n  King of the Danaans of Munster, brother of the Dagda;\n  searches for maiden of Angus \u014cg\u2019s dream, 121-123;\n  goldsmith of, named Len, 123;\n  Aoife\u2019s journey to, with her step-children, 139, 140\n\nBOYNE, THE RIVER.\n  Angus \u014cg\u2019s palace at, 121;\n  Angus and Caer at, 122;\n  Milesians land in estuary of, 136;\n  Ethn\u00e9 loses her veil of invisibility while bathing in river, 144;\n  church, Kill Ethn\u00e9, on banks of, 145\n\nBRAN.\n  See Bendigeid\n\nBRANWEN.\n  Sister of Bran, 366;\n  given in marriage to Matholwch, 366;\n  mother of Gwern,  368;\n  degraded because of Evnissyen\u2019s outrage, 369;\n  brought to Britain, 372;\n  her death and burial on the banks of the Alaw, 372\n\nBREA (bray).\n  Battle of, reference to Finn\u2019s death at, 275\n\nBREGIA.\n  Locality of, 168;\n  the plains of, viewed by Cuchulain, 193;\n  St. Patrick and folk of, 282\n\nBREG\u00b4ON.\n  Son of Miled, father of Ith, 130;\n  tower of, perceived by Ith, 132\n\nBRENOS (BRIAN).\n  Under this form, was the god to whom the Celts attributed their\n              victories at the Allia and at Delphi, 126\n\nBRES.\n  1. Ambassador sent to Firbolgs, by People of Dana, 106;\n     slain in battle of Moytura, 107.\n  2. Son of Danaan woman named Eri, chosen as King of Danaan territory in\n              Ireland, 107;\n     his ill-government and deposition, 107-108.\n  3. Son of Balor;\n     learns that the appearance of the sun is the face of Lugh of the Long\n                 Arm, 123\n\nBRI LEITH (bree lay).\n  Fairy palace of Midir the Proud at, in Co. Longford, 124;\n  Etain carried to, 163\n\nBRIAN.\n  One of three sons of Turenn, 114\n\nBRIAN.\n  Equivalent, Brenos.\n  Son of Brigit (Dana), 126\n\nBRICCRIU OF THE POISONED TONGUE (bric\u2019roo).\n  Ulster lord;\n  causes strife between Cuchulain and Red Branch heroes as to Championship\n              of Ireland, 195;\n  summons aid of demon named The Terrible, 196;\n  his suggestion for carving mac Datho\u2019s boar, 243\n\nBRIDGE OF THE LEAPS.\n  Cuchulain at, 187;\n  Cuchulain leaps, 188\n\nBRIGINDO.\n  Equivalents, Brigit and \u201cBrigantia,\u201d 103\n\nBRIGIT (g as in \u201cget\u201d).\n  Irish goddess identical with Dana and \u201cBrigindo,\u201d &c., 103, 126;\n  daughter of the god Dagda, \u201cThe Good,\u201d 103, 126;\n  Ecne, grandson of, 103\n\nBRITAIN.\n  See Great Britain.\n  Carthaginian trade with, broken down by the Greeks, 22;\n  place-names of, Celtic element in, 27;\n  under yoke of Rome, 35;\n  magic indigenous in, 62;\n  votive inscriptions to \u00c6sus, Teutates, and Taranus found in, 86;\n  dead carried from Gaul to, 131;\n  Ingcel, son of King of, 169;\n  visit of Demetrius to, 355;\n  Bran, King of, 365;\n  Caradawc rules over in his father\u2019s name, 369;\n  Caswallan conquers, 372;\n  the \u201cThird Fatal Disclosure\u201d in, 373\n\nBRITAN.\n  Nedimean chief who settled in Great Britain and gave name to that\n              country, 102\n\nBRITISH ISLES.\n  Sole relics of Celtic empire, on its downfall, 34;\n  Maev, Grania, Findabair, Deirdre, and Boadicea, women who figure in\n              myths of, 43\n\nBRITONS.\n  Geoffrey of Monmouth, like Nennius, affords a fantastic origin for the,\n              338\n\nBRITTANY.\n  Man\u00e9-er-H\u00b4oeck, remarkable tumulus in, 63;\n  tumulus of Locmariaker in, markings on similar to those on tumulus at\n              New Grange, Ireland, 72;\n  symbol of the feet found in, 77;\n  book brought from, by Walter, Archdeacon of Oxford, formed basis of\n              Geoffrey of Monmouth\u2019s \u201cHistoria Regum Britani\u00e6,\u201d 337;\n  Arthurian saga in, 339, 340\n\nBROGAN.\n  St. Patrick\u2019s scribe, 119, 290\n\nBROWN BULL.\n  See Quelgny\n\nBRUGH NA BOYNA (broo-na-boyna).\n  Pointed out to Cuchulain, 193\n\nBUDDHA.\n  Footprint of, found in India as symbol, 77;\n  the cross-legged, frequent occurrence in religious art of the East and\n              Mexico, 87\n\nBUIC (boo\u00b4ik).\n  Son of Banblai;\n  slain by Cuchulain, 211\n\nBURNEY\u2019S \u201cHISTORY OF MUSIC.\u201d\n  Reference to Egyptian legend in, 118\n\nBURY, PROFESSOR.\n  Remarks of, regarding the Celtic world, 59\n\n*C*\n\nCAER.\n  Daughter of Ethal Anubal;\n  wooed by Angus \u014cg, 122, 123;\n  her dual life, 122;\n  accepts the love of Angus \u014cg, 122\n\nCAERLEON-ON-USK.\n  Arthur\u2019s court held at, 337\n\nC\u00c6SAR, JULIUS.\n  Critical account of Gauls, 37;\n  religious beliefs of Celts recorded by, 51, 52;\n  the Belg\u00e6, the Celt\u00e6, and the Aquitani located by, 58;\n  affirmation that doctrine of immortality fostered by Druids to promote\n              courage, 81, 82;\n  culture superintended by Druids, recorded by, 84;\n  gods of Aryan Celts equated with Mercury, Apollo, &c., by, 86\n\nCAIR\u00b4BRY.\n  Son of Cormac mac Art, father of Light of Beauty, 304;\n  refuses tribute to the Fianna, 305;\n  Clan Bascna makes war upon, 305-308\n\nCALIBURN (Welsh _Caladvwlch_).\n  Magic sword of King Arthur, 338.\n  See Excalibur, 224, _note_\n\nCAMBREN\u00b4SIS, GIRAL\u00b4DUS.\n  Celts and, 21\n\nCAMPBELL.\n  Version of battle of Gowra, in his \u201cThe Fians,\u201d 305-307\n\nCAR\u00b4ADAWC.\n  Son of Bran;\n  rules Britain in his father\u2019s absence, 369\n\nCARELL.\n  Reputed father of Tuan, 100\n\nCARPATHIANS.\n  Earliest home of mountain Celts was ranges of the, 57\n\nCARTHAGINIANS.\n  Celts conquered Spain from, 21;\n  Greeks break monopoly of trade of, with Britain and Spain, 22\n\nCAS\u00b4CORACH. Son of a minstrel of the Danaan Folk;\n  and St. Patrick, 119\n\nCASTLE OF WONDERS. Peredur at, 405, 406\n\nCAS\u00b4WALLAN. Son of Beli;\n  conquers Britain during Bran\u2019s absence, 372\n\nCATHBAD. Druid;\n  wedded to Maga, wife of Ross the Red, 181;\n  his spell of divination overheard by Cuchulain, 185;\n  draws Deirdre\u2019s horoscope, 197;\n  casts evil spells over Naisi and Deirdre, 200\n\nCATHOLIC CHURCH. Medi\u00e6al interdicts of, 46\n\nCATO, M. PORCIUS. Observances of, regarding Gauls, 37\n\nCAULDRON OF ABUNDANCE. See equivalent, Stone of Abundance;\n  also see Grail\n\nCELT\u00c6 One of three peoples inhabiting Gaul when C\u00e6ar\u2019s conquest began, 58\n\nCELTCHAR (kelt-yar). Son of Hornskin;\n  under debility curse, 205\n\nCELTDOM. The Golden Age of, in Continental Europe, 21\n\nCELTIC. Power, diffusion of, in Mid-Europe, 26;\n  placenames in Europe, 27;\n  artwork relics, story told by, 28;\n  Germanic words, Celtic element in, 32;\n  empire, downfall of, 34;\n  weak policy of peoples, 44;\n  religion, the, 46, 47;\n  High Kings, traditional burial-places of, 69;\n  doctrine of immortality, origin of so-called \u201cCeltic,\u201d 75, 76;\n  ideas of immortality, 78-87;\n  deities, names and attributes of, 86-88;\n  conception of death, the, 89;\n  culture, five factors in ancient, 89, 90;\n  the present-day populations, 91, 92;\n  cosmogony, the, 94, 95;\n  things, \u201cBarddas\u201d a work not unworthy the student of, 333\n\nCELTICA. Never inhabited by a single pure and homogeneous race, 18;\n  Greek type of civilisation preserved by, 22;\n  art of enamelling originated in, 30;\n  the Druids formed the sovran power in, 46;\n  Brigit (Dana) most widely worshipped goddess in, 126\n\nCELTS. Term first found in Hecat\u00e6us;\n  equivalent, Hyperboreans, 17;\n  Herodotus and dwelling-place of, 17;\n  Aristotle and, 17;\n  Hellanicus of Lesbos and, 17;\n  Ephorus and, 17;\n  Plato and, 17;\n  their attack on Rome, a landmark of ancient history, 18;\n  described by Dr. T. Rice Holmes, 18, 19;\n  dominion of, over Mid-Europe, Gaul, Spain, and the British Isles, 20;\n  their place among these races, 20;\n  Giraldus Cambrensis and, 21;\n  Spain conquered from the Carthaginians by, 21;\n  Northern Italy conquered from the Etruscans by, 21;\n  Vergil and, 21;\n  conquer the Illyrians, 21;\n  alliance with the Greeks, 22;\n  conquests of, in valleys of Danube and Po, 23;\n  Alexander makes compact with, 23;\n  national oath of, 24;\n  welded into unity by Ambicatus, 25;\n  defeat Romans, 26;\n  Germanic peoples and, 26, 33;\n  decorative motives derived from Greek art, 29;\n  art of enamelling learnt by classical nations from, 30;\n  burial rites practised by, 33;\n  character, elements comprising, 36;\n  Strabo\u2019s description of, 39;\n  love of splendour and methods of warfare, 40;\n  Polybius\u2019 description of warriors in battle of Clastidium, 41;\n  their influence on European literature and philosophy, 49, 50;\n  the Religion of the, 51-93;\n  ranges of the Balkans and Carpathians earliest home of mountain, 57;\n  musical services of, described by Hecat\u00e6us, 58;\n  Switzerland, Burgundy, the Palatinate, Northern France, parts of\n              Britain, &c., occupied by mountain, 58;\n  origin of doctrine of immortality, 75;\n  idea of immortality and doctrine of transmigration, 80, 81;\n  the present-day, 91, 92;\n  no non-Christian conception of origin of things, 94;\n  victories at the Alba and at Delphi attributed to Brenos (Brian), 126;\n  true worship of, paid to elemental forces represented by actual natural\n              phenomena, 147\n\nCENCHOS.\n  Otherwise The Footless;\n  related to Vitra, the God of Evil in Vedantic mythology, 97\n\nCER\u00b4IDWEN.\n  Wife of Tegid, 413;\n  sets Gwion Bach and Morda to attend to the magic cauldron, 413\n\nCEUGANT (Infinity).\n  The outermost of three concentric circles representing the totality of\n              being in the Cymric cosmogony, inhabited by God alone, 334\n\nCHAILLU, DU.\n  His \u201cViking Age,\u201d 72\n\nCHAMPION OF IRELAND.\n  Test at feast of Briccriu, to decide who is the, 195, 196;\n  Cuchulain proclaimed such by demon The Terrible, 196\n\nCHARLEMAGNE.\n  Tree- and stone-worship denounced by, 66\n\nCHILDREN OF LIR.\n  Reference to, 121\n\nCHRESTIEN DE TROYES.\n  French poet, influential in bringing the Arthurian saga into the poetic\n              literature of Europe, 340, 341;\n  Gautier de Denain the earliest continuator of, 341;\n  variation of his \u201cLe Chevalier au lion\u201d seen in \u201cThe Lady of the\n              Fountain,\u201d 394-399;\n  the \u201cTale of Enid and Geraint\u201d based on \u201cErec\u201d of, 399;\n  Peredur corresponds to the Perceval of, 400;\n  his \u201cConte del Graal,\u201d or \u201cPerceval le Gallois,\u201d 303;\n  Manessier a continuator of, 408\n\nCHRISTIAN.\n  Symbolism, the hand as emblem of power in, 65;\n  faith, heard of by King Cormac ere preached in Ireland by St. Patrick,\n              69;\n  influences in Ireland, and the Milesian myth, 138;\n  ideas, gathered around Cuchulain and his lord King Conor of Ulster, 239,\n              240;\n  pagan ideals contrasted with, in Ois\u012bn dialogues, 288;\n  Myrddin dwindles under influences, 354\n\nCHRISTIANITY.\n  Reference to conversion of Ireland to, 83;\n  People of Dana in their overthrow, and attitude of, 138;\n  Cuchulain summoned from Hell by St. Patrick to prove truths of, to High\n              King Laery, 239;\n  effect of on Irish literature, 295, 296\n\nCHRY\u00b4SOSTOM, DION.\n  Testimony of, to power of the Druids, 83\n\nCLAN BASCNA.\n  One of the divisions of the Fianna of Erin, 252;\n  Cumhal, father of Finn, chief of, 255;\n  Cairbry causes feud between Clan Morna and, 305-308\n\nCLAN CALATIN.\n  Sent by men of Erin against Cuchulain, 215;\n  Fiacha, son of Firaba, cuts off the eight-and-twenty hands of, 216;\n  Cuchulain slays, 216;\n  the widow of, gives birth to six children whom Maev has instructed in\n              magic and then looses against Cuchulain, 228-233;\n  cause Cuchulain to break his _geise_, 231\n\nCLAN MORNA.\n  One of the divisions of the Fianna of Erin, 252;\n  Lia becomes treasurer to, 255;\n  Cairbry causes feud between Clan Bascna and, 305-308\n\nCLASTID\u00b4IUM.\n  Battle of, Polybius\u2019 description of behaviour of the G\u00e6sati in, 41\n\nCLEENA.\n  A Danaan maiden once living in Mananan\u2019s country, the story of, 127\n\nCLUS\u00b4IUM.\n  Siege of, Romans play Celts false at, 25;\n  vengeance exacted by Celts, 26\n\nCOFFEY, GEORGE.\n  His work on the New Grange tumulus, 69\n\nCOLLOQUY OF THE ANCIENTS.\n  A collection of tales mentioning St Patrick and Cascorach, 119, 281;\n  interest of, 284-308\n\nCOLUMBA, ST.\n  Symbol of the feet and, 77\n\nCOMYN, MICHAEL\n  Reference to \u201cLay of Ois\u012bn in the Land of Youth,\u201d by, 253, 276\n\nCONALL OF THE VICTORIES.\n  Member of Conary\u2019s retinue at Red Hostel, 173;\n  Amorgin, his father, found by him at Teltin, 176, 177;\n  shrinks from test _re_ the Championship of Ireland, 195, 196;\n  under the Debility curse, 205;\n  avenges Cuchulain\u2019s death by slaying Lewy, 233;\n  his \u201cbrain ball\u201d causes death of Conor mac Nessa, 240, 241;\n  mac Datho\u2019s boar and, 243, 244;\n  slays Ket, 244\n\nCONAN MAC LIA.\n  Son of Lia, lord of Luachar;\n  Finn makes a covenant with, 258, 259\n\nCONAN MAC MORNA; otherwise THE BALD.\n  His adventure with the Fairy Folk, 259, 260;\n  he slays Liagan, 260;\n  adventure with the Gilla Dacar\u2019s steed, 293-295\n\nCONANN.\n  Fomorian king, 101\n\nCON\u00b4ARY M\u014cR.\n  The singing sword of, 121;\n  the legend-cycle of the High King, 155-177;\n  descended from Etain Oig, daughter of Etain, 164;\n  Messbuachalla, his mother, 166, 167;\n  Desa, his foster-father, 167;\n  Ferlee, Fergar, and Ferrogan, his foster-brothers, 167;\n  Nemglan commands him go to Tara, 168;\n  proclaimed King of Erin, 168;\n  Nemglan declares his _geise_, 168;\n  banishment of his foster-brothers, 169;\n  lured into breaking his _geise_, 170;\n  the three Reds and, at Da Derga\u2019s Hostel, 170;\n  visited by the Morrigan at Da Derga\u2019s Hostel, 172;\n  members of his retinue: Cormac son of Conor, warrior mac Cecht, Conary\u2019s\n              three sons, Conall of the Victories, Duftach of Ulster, 173;\n  perishes of thirst, 175\n\nCONDWIRAMUR.\n  A maiden wedded by Parzival, 408\n\nCONN.\n  One of the Children of Lir, 142\n\nCONNACHT.\n  Ethal Anubal, prince of the Danaans of, 122;\n  Ailell and Maev, mortal King and Queen of, Angus \u014cg seeks their help in\n              efforts to win Caer, 122;\n  origin of name, 154;\n  Cuchulain makes a foray upon, 193, 194;\n  Cuchulain descends upon host of, under Maev, 209;\n  Ket a champion, 241;\n  Queen Maev reigned in, for eighty-eight years, 245\n\nCONNLA.\n  Son of Cuchulain and Aifa, 190;\n  his _geise_, 190;\n  Aifa sends him to Erin, 190;\n  his encounters with the men of Ulster, 191;\n  slain by Cuchulain, 191, 192\n\nCONNLA\u2019S WELL.\n  Equivalent, Well of Knowledge.\n  Sinend\u2019s fatal visit to, 129\n\nCONOR MAC NESSA.\n  Son of Fachtna and Nessa, proclaimed King of Ulster in preference to\n              Fergus, 180;\n  Cuchulain brought up at court of, 183;\n  grants arms of manhood to Cuchulain, 185;\n  while at a feast on Strand of the Footprints he descries Connla, 190;\n  his ruse to put Cuchulain under restraint, 194;\n  Deirdre and, 195-200;\n  his guards seize Naisi and Deirdre, 201;\n  suffers pangs of the Debility curse, 205-221;\n  the curse lifted from, 222;\n  summons Ulster to arms, 222;\n  Christian ideas have gathered about end of, 239, 240;\n  his death caused by Conall\u2019s \u201cbrain ball,\u201d 240, 241;\n  he figures in tale entitled \u201cThe Carving of mac Datho\u2019s Boar,\u201d 241;\n  sends to mac Datho for his hound, 241\n\nCONSTANTINE. Arthur confers his kingdom on, 338\n\n\u201cCONTE DEL GRAAL.\u201d See Grail\n\nCORAN\u00b4IANS. A demoniac race called, harass land of Britain, 385\n\nCORCADY\u00b4NA. Landing of Ith and his ninety warriors at, in Ireland, 131-136\n\nCORMAC. 1. Son of Art, King of Ireland;\n  story of burial of, 69;\n  historical character, 225;\n  Finn and, feasted at Rath Grania, 300.\n  2. King of Ulster;\n  marries Etain Oig, 166;\n  puts her away owing to her barrenness, 166.\n  3. Son of Conor mac Nessa;\n  rallies to Maev\u2019s foray against Ulster, 205\n\nCORONATION STONE. Now at Westminster Abbey, is the famous Stone of Scone,\n            105;\n  the _Lia Fail_ and, 105\n\nCORPRE. Poet at court of King Bres, 108\n\nCOSMONOGY, 1. The Celtic, 94, 95.\n  2. The Cymric, 332-335;\n  God and Cythrawl, standing for life and destruction, in, 333\n\nCOTTERILL, H. B. Quotation from his hexameter version of the \u201cOdyssey,\u201d 80\n\nCRAF\u00b4TINY. King Scoriath\u2019s harper;\n  sings Moriath\u2019s love-lay before Maon, 153;\n  discovers Maon\u2019s secret deformity, 155\n\nCRED\u00b4N\u00c9. The artificer of the Danaans, 117\n\nCREU\u00b4DYLAD (CREIDDYLAD).\n  Daughter of Lludd; combat for possession of, every May-day, between\n              Gwythur ap Greidawl and Gwyn ap Nudd, 353, 388\n\nCRIMMAL. Rescued by his nephew, Finn, 256\n\nCROM CRUACH (crom croo\u00b4ach).\n  Gold idol (equivalent, the Bloody Crescent) referred to in \u201cBook of\n              Leinster,\u201d 85;\n  worship introduced by King Tiernmas, 149\n\nCROMLECHS. See Dolmens, 53\n\nCRUNDCHU (crun\u00b4hoo). Son of Agnoman;\n  Macha comes to dwell with, 178\n\nCUALGN\u00c9. See Quelgny\n\nCUCHULAIN (CUCHULLIN) (coo-hoo\u00b4lin). Ulster hero in Irish saga, 41;\n  duel with Ferdia referred to, 121;\n  Lugh, the father of, by Dectera, 123, 182;\n  loved and befriended by goddess Morrigan, 126;\n  his strange birth, 182;\n  earliest name Setanta, 183;\n  his inheritance, 183;\n  his name derived from the hound of Cullan, 183, 184;\n  claims arms of manhood from Conor, 185;\n  wooes Emer, 185, 186;\n  Laeg, charioteer of, 185;\n  Skatha instructs, in Land of Shadows, 187-189;\n  overcomes Aifa, 190;\n  father of Connla by Aifa, 190;\n  slays Connla, 191, 192;\n  returns to Erin, 193-194;\n  slays Foill and his brothers, 194;\n  met by women of Emania, 194;\n  leaps \u201cthe hero\u2019s salmon leap,\u201d 195;\n  the winning of Emer, 195;\n  proclaimed by The Terrible the Champion of Ireland, 195, 196;\n  places Maev\u2019s host under _geise_, 207, 208;\n  slays Orlam, 209;\n  the battle-frenzy and _rias-tradh_ of, 209, 210;\n  compact with Fergus, 211;\n  the Morrigan offers love to, 212;\n  threatens to be about his feet in bottom of Ford, 212;\n  attacked by the Morrigan while engaged with Loch, 213;\n  slays Loch, 213;\n  Ferdia consents to go out against, 216;\n  Ferdia reproached by, 216, 217;\n  their struggle, 217-221;\n  slays Ferdia, 220;\n  severely wounded by Ferdia, 220, 221;\n  roused from stupor by sword-play of Fergus, 224;\n  rushes into the battle of Garach, 224;\n  in Fairyland, 225-228;\n  loved by Fand, 226;\n  the vengeance of Maev upon, 228-233;\n  other enemies of Erc, and Lewy son of Curoi, 228;\n  Blanid, Curoi\u2019s wife, sets her love on, 228;\n  his madness, 229-231;\n  Bave personates Niam before, 230;\n  the Morrigan croaks of war before, 230;\n  Dectera and Cathbad urge him wait for Conall of the Victories ere\n              setting forth to battle, 230;\n  the Washer at the Ford seen by, 231;\n  Clan Calatin cause him to break his _geise_, 231;\n  finds his foes at Slieve Fuad, 232;\n  the Grey of Macha being mortally wounded, he takes farewell of, 232;\n  mortally wounded by Lewy, 232;\n  his remaining horse, Black Sainglend, breaks away from, 232;\n  Lewy slays outright, 233;\n  his death avenged by Conall of the Victories, 233;\n  reappears in later legend of Christian origin found in \u201cBook of the Dun\n              Cow,\u201d 238, 239;\n  St. Patrick\u2019s summons from Hell, 238\n\nCULLAN. His feast to King Conor in Quelgny, 183;\n  Cuchulain slays his hound, 183;\n  Cuchulain named the Hound of, 184;\n  his daughter declared responsible for Finn\u2019s enchantment, 280\n\nCUMHAL (coo\u00b4al). Chief of the Clan Morna, son of Trenm\u014dr, husband of Murna\n            of the White Neck, the father of Finn, 255, 257;\n  slain at battle of Knock, 255\n\nCUP-AND-RING MARKINGS. Meaning of, in connexion with Megalithic monuments,\n            no light on, 67;\n  example in Dupaix\u2019 \u201cMonuments of New Spain,\u201d 68;\n  reproduction in Lord Kingsborough\u2019s \u201cAntiquities of Mexico,\u201d 68\n\nCUP OF THE LAST SUPPER Identical with the Grail, 406;\n  equivalent, the Magic Cauldron, 411\n\nCUROI (coo\u00b4roi). Father of Lewy, husband of Blanid, 228;\n  slain by Cuchulain, 229\n\nCUSCRID. Son of Conor mac Nessa;\n  under Debility curse, 205;\n  mac Datho\u2019s boar and, 243\n\nCUSTENN\u00b4IN. Brother of Yspaddaden;\n  assists Kilhwch in his quest for Olwen, 389\n\nCYCLE-S. The, of Irish legend, 95;\n  the Mythological, 95-145;\n  the Ultonian, 178-251;\n  Ossianic, 241-245;\n  certain stories of Ultonian, not centred on Cuchulain, 246;\n  the Ultonian, time of events of the, 252;\n  the Ossianic and Ultonian contrasted, 253-255\n\nCYMRIC. 1. Peoples;\n  effect of legends of, on Continental poets, 50;\n  2. Myths;\n  Druidic thought enshrined in Llewellyn Sion\u2019s \u201cBarddas,\u201d edited by by J.\n              A. Williams ap Ithel for the Welsh MS. Society, 332;\n  cosmogony, the, 333-335;\n  God and Cythrawl in, 333;\n  why so little of Arthurian saga heard in, 344;\n  comparison between Gaelic and, 344-368\n\nCYTHRAWL. God and, two primary existences standing for principles of\n            destruction and life, in Cymric cosmogony, 333;\n  realised in \u201cAnnwn\u201d (the Abyss, or Chaos), 333\n\nD\n\nDA DERGA. A Leinster lord at whose hostel Conary seeks hospitality, 170;\n  Conary\u2019s retinue at, 173;\n  Ingcel and his own sons attack the hostel, 174\n\nDAGDA. \u201cThe Good,\u201d or possibly = _Doctus_, \u201cThe Wise\u201d God, and supreme\n            head of the People of Dana, father of Brigit (Dana), 103;\n  the Cauldron of the, one of the treasures of the Danaans, 106;\n  the magical harp of, 118-119;\n  father and chief of the People of Dana, 120, 121;\n  Kings MacCuill, MacCecht, and MacGren\u00e9 grandsons of, 132;\n  portions out spiritual Ireland between the Danaans, 136\n\nDALAN. A Druid who discovers to Eochy that Etain has been carried to mound\n            of Bri-Leith, 163\n\nDALNY. Queen of Partholan, 96\n\nDAMAN. The Firbolg, father of Ferdia, 187\n\nDAMAYAN\u00b4TI AND NALA. Hindu legend, compared with story of Etain, 163\n\nDANA. The People of, Nemedian survivors who return to Ireland, 102;\n  literal meaning of _Tuatha De Danann_, 103;\n  equivalent Brigit, 103, 126;\n  name of \u201cgods\u201d given to the People of, by Tuan mac Carell, 104;\n  Milesians conquer the People of, 104;\n  origin of People of, according to Tuan mac Carell, 105;\n  cities of Falias, Gorias, Finias, and Murias, 105;\n  treasures of the People of, 105, 106;\n  the Firbolgs and the People of, 106-119;\n  gift of Fa\u00ebry (_i.e._, skill in music) the prerogative of, 119;\n  daughter of the Dagda and the greatest of Danaan goddesses, 126;\n  Brian (ancient form Brenos), Iuchar, and Iucharba, her sons, 126;\n  Firbolgs and the People of, 137;\n  equivalent D\u014dn, Cymric mother-goddess, 348, 349\n\nDAN\u00b4AAN-S. Send to Balor refusing tribute, 113;\n  their encounter with the Fomorians, 117;\n  power of, exercised by spell of music, 118;\n  account of principal gods and attributes of, 119-145;\n  reference to their displacement in Ireland by Milesians, 130;\n  kings, Ireland ruled by three, MacCuill, MacCecht, and MacGren\u00e9, 132;\n  the three kings welcome Ith to Ireland, 133;\n  dwell in spiritual Ireland, 136;\n  myth, the meaning of, 137;\n  the, after the Milesian conquest, 146, 147;\n  Donn son of Midir at war with, 285;\n  relations of the Church with, very cordial, 286\n\nDANES. Irish monuments plundered by Danes, 69\n\nDANUBE. Sources of, place of origin of Celts, 19, 56\n\nDARA. Son of Fachtna, owner of Brown Bull of Quelgny, 202;\n  Maev\u2019s request for loan of Brown Bull, 204\n\nDARK, THE. Druid;\n  changes Saba into a fawn, 267;\n  his further ill-treatment of, 268, 269\n\nDEAD, LAND OF. The Irish Fairyland, 96;\n  equivalent, \u201cSpain,\u201d 102\n\nDEATH. The Celtic conception of, 89;\n  names of Balor and Bil\u00e9 occur as god of, 130\n\nDEBILITY OF THE ULTONIANS, THE. Caused by Macha\u2019s curse, 179, 180;\n  manifested on occasion of Maev\u2019s famous cattle-raid of Quelgny (_Tain Bo\n              Cuailgn\u00e9_), 180\n\nDECIES. Son of King of the, wooes Light of Beauty (_Sgeimh Solais_), 304\n\nDEC\u00b4TERA. Mother of Cuchulain by Lugh, 123;\n  daughter of Druid Cathbad, 182;\n  her appearance to Conor mac Nessa after three years\u2019 absence, 182;\n  her gift of a son to Ulster, Cuchulain, by Lugh, 182\n\nDEE, THE RIVER. Now the Ford of Ferdia, 211\n\nDEIRDRE (deer\u00b4dree). Daughter of Felim, 196;\n  Druid Cathbad draws her horoscope, 197;\n  Conor decides to wed when of age, 197;\n  nursed by Levarcam, 197;\n  her love for Naisi, 198;\n  carried off by Naisi, 198;\n  returns with Naisi to Ireland, 198-200;\n  forced to wed Conor, she dashes herself against a rock and is killed,\n              201;\n  the tales of Grania and, compared, 296-304\n\nDEITIES. The Celtic, C\u00e6sar on, 87, 88;\n  popular and bardic conception of Danaan, 104\n\nDEMETRIUS. Visit to Britain of, 355;\n  mentions island where \u201cKronos\u201d was imprisoned in sleep while Briareus\n              kept watch over him, 355\n\nDEMNA. Otherwise Finn.\n  Birth of, 255\n\nDEO\u00b4CA. A princess of Munster;\n  Children of Lir and, 142\n\nDERMOT MACKERVAL. Rule of, in Ireland, and the cursing of Tara, 47, 48;\n  arrests and tries Hugh Guairy, 48;\n  dream of wife of, 48\n\nDERMOT OF THE LOVE SPOT (DERMOT O\u2019DYNA). Follower of Finn mac Cumhal,\n            lover of Grania, bred up with Angus at palace on Boyne, 123;\n  the typical lover of Irish legend, 123;\n  slain by wild Boar of Ben Bulben, 123, 301, 302;\n  friend of Finn\u2019s, 261;\n  described as a Gaelic Adonis, 290;\n  Donn, father of, 290;\n  Roc and, 290, 291;\n  how Dermot got the Love Spot, 292;\n  adventure with Gilla Dacar\u2019s steed, 293-295;\n  fight with the Knight of the Well, 294;\n  love-story of Grania and, 296-304\n\nDERRYVAR\u00b4AGH, LAKE. Aoife\u2019s cruelty to her step-children at, 139-142\n\nDESA. Foster-father of Conary M\u014dr, 167\n\nDEWY-RED. Horse of Conall of the Victories, 233\n\nDIALOGUES. Reference to Ois\u012bn-and-Patrick and Keelta-and-Patrick, 289\n\nDIANCECHT (dee\u00b4an-kecht). Physician to the Danaans, 108\n\nDINEEN\u2019S IRISH DICTIONARY. Reference to, 164, 165\n\nDINNSENCHUS (din-shen\u00b4cus). Ancient tract, preserved in the \u201cBook of\n            Leinster,\u201d 85\n\nDIN\u00b4ODIG. Cantrev of, over which Llew and Blodeuwedd reigned, 382, 383\n\nDINRIGH (din\u00b4ree). Maon slays Covac at, 153\n\nDIODOR\u00b4US SIC\u00b4ULUS. A contemporary of Julius C\u00e6sar;\n  describes Gauls, 41, 42;\n  Pythagoras and, 80\n\nDIS. Pluto, equivalent, 88\n\nDITHOR\u00b4BA. Brother of Red Hugh and Kimbay, slain by Macha, 151;\n  five sons of, taken captive by Macha, 151, 152\n\nDIUR\u00b4AN THE RHYMER. Germ\u0101n and, companions of Maeld\u016bn on his wonderful\n            voyage, 313;\n  returns with piece of silver net, 331\n\nDODDER, THE RIVER, 175\n\nDOLMENS Cromlechs, tumuli and, explanation of, 53\n\nD\u014cN (_o_ as in \u201cbone\u201d).\n  A Cymric mother-goddess, representing the Gaelic Dana, 348, 349;\n  Penardun, a daughter of 349;\n  Gwydion, son of, 349;\n  genealogy set forth, 350\n\nDONN. 1. Mac Midir, son of Midir the Proud, 285.\n  2. Father of Dermot;\n  gives his son to be nurtured by Angus \u014cg, 290\n\nDONNYBROOK. Da Derga\u2019s hostel at, 170\n\nDOOCLOONE. Ailill slain in church of, 310;\n  Maeld\u016bn at, 311\n\nDOWTH. Tumulus of, 74\n\nDRUIDISM. Its existence in British Isles, Gaul, &c., 82;\n  magical rites of, belief in survived in early Irish Christianity, 83\n\nDRUIDS. Doctrines of, 37, 39;\n  regarded as intermediaries between God and man, 42;\n  the sovran power in Celtica, 46;\n  suppressed by Emperor Tiberius, 62;\n  Aryan root for the word discovered, 82;\n  testimony of Dion Chrysostom to the power of the, 83;\n  religious, philosophic and scientific culture superintended by, record\n              of C\u00e6sar regarding, 84;\n  cosmogonic teaching died with their order, 95\n\nDUBLIN. Conary goes toward, 167;\n  Conary\u2019s foster-brothers land at, for raiding purposes, 169\n\nDUPAIX. Reference to cup-and-ring markings in book \u201cMonuments of New\n            Spain,\u201d 68\n\nDYFED. Pryderi and Manawyddan at, 374;\n  Gwydion and Gilvaethwy at, 379\n\nDYLAN (\u201cSon of the Wave\u201d). Son of Arianrod;\n  his death-groan the roar of the tide at mouth of the river Conway, 380\n\nE\n\nEAGLE OF GWERN ABWY, THE, 392\n\nEBER DONN (Brown Eber). Milesian lord;\n  his brutal exultation and its sequel, 136;\n  reference to, as one of Milesian leaders, 148\n\nEBER FINN (Fair Eber). One of the Milesian leaders, 148;\n  slain by Eremon, 148\n\nECNE (ec\u00b4nay). The god whose grandmother was Dana, 103\n\nEGYPT-IAN. The ship symbol in the sepulchral art of, 75;\n  Feet of Osiris, symbol of visitation, in, 77;\n  ideas of immortality, 78-87;\n  human sacrifices in, abolished by Amasis I., 86\n\nEIS\u00b4IRT. Bard to King of Wee Folk, 247;\n  his visit to King Fergus in Ulster, 247\n\nELPHIN. Son of Gwyddno;\n  finds Taliesin, 414;\n  his boast of wife and bard at Arthur\u2019s court, 415;\n  the sequel, 415-417\n\nEM\u00b4AIN MACH\u00b4A. The Morrigan passes through, to warn Cuchulain, 127;\n  founding of, with reign of Kimbay, 150;\n  equivalent, the Brooch of Macha, 150;\n  Macha compels five sons of Dithorba to construct ramparts and trenches\n              of, 151, 152;\n  appearance of Dectera in fields of, 182;\n  Cuchulain drives back to, 186;\n  news of Cuchulain\u2019s battle-fury brought to, 194;\n  Fergus returns to, 201;\n  boy corps at, go forth to help Cuchulain, 214;\n  Ulster men return to, with great glory, 225;\n  Conall\u2019s \u201cbrain ball\u201d laid up at, 240\n\nEMA\u00b4NIA. Women of, meet Cuchulain, 194;\n  sacrifice of boy corps of, avenged by Cuchulain, 214;\n  Cuchulain takes farewell of womenfolk of, 231.\n  See Emain Macha\n\nEMER. Daughter of Forgall;\n  wooed by Cuchulain, 185-186;\n  Cuchulain seeks and carries off, 195;\n  becomes Cuchulain\u2019s wife, 195;\n  learns of the tryst between Cuchulain and Fand, 226, 228;\n  Cuchulain sees her corpse in his madness, 230\n\nENAMELLING. Celts and art of, 30\n\nENCYCLOP\u00c6DIA BRITANNICA. Article on Arthurian saga in, 341\n\nENID. The tale of Geraint and, 399, 400\n\nEOCHY (yeo\u00b4hee). 1. Son of Erc, Firbolg king, husband of Taltiu, or Telta,\n            103.\n  2. King of Ireland;\n  reference to appearance of Midir the Proud to, on the Hill of Tara, 124;\n  High King of Ireland, wooes and marries Etain, 157, 158;\n  Midir appears to, and challenges to play chess, 161, 162\n\nEPH\u00b4ORUS. Celts and, 17, 36\n\nERC. King of Ireland, Cuchulain\u2019s foe, 228-233;\n  mortally wounds the Grey of Macha, 232\n\nER\u00b4EMON. First Milesian king of all Ireland, 143, 144, 148\n\nERI. Mother of King Bres, 107-108;\n  reveals father of Bres as Elatha, 108\n\nERINN (ERIN). See Eriu, 132;\n  reference to High-Kingship of, 152\n\nERIU. Wife of Danaan king MacGren\u00e9, 132;\n  dative form, Erinn, poetic name applied to Ireland, 132\n\nERRIS BAY. The Children of Lir at, 141, 142\n\nET\u00b4AIN.\n  Second bride of Midir the Proud, 156;\n  transformed by Fuamnach into a butterfly, 156;\n  driven by a magic tempest into the fairy palace of Angus, 156;\n  again the magic tempest drives her forth, 156;\n  swallowed by Etar, and reappears as a mortal child, 156, 157;\n  visited by Eochy, the High King, who wooes and makes her his wife, 157,\n              158;\n  the desperate love of Ailill for, 158-160;\n  Midir the Proud comes to claim, as his Danaan wife, 160-163;\n  recovered by Eochy, 163\n\nETAIN OIG.\n  Daughter of Etain, 163;\n  King Conary M\u014dr descended from, 164;\n  married Cormac, King of Ulster, 165;\n  put away owing to barrenness, 166;\n  cowherd of Eterskel cares for her one daughter, 166\n\nET\u00b4AR.\n  Mother of Etain, 157\n\nETERSKEL.\n  King of Ireland, whose cowherd cares for Messbuachalla, 166;\n  on his death he is succeeded by Conary M\u014dr, 167-169\n\nETH\u00b4AL A\u00b4NUBAL.\n  Prince of Danaans of Connacht, father of Caer, 122\n\nETHLINN, or ETHNEA.\n  Daughter of Balor, 110;\n  gives her love to Kian, 111;\n  gives birth to three sons, 111;\n  one son, Lugh, 112, 182;\n  belongs to Finn\u2019s ancestry, 255\n\nETHN\u00c9.\n  The tale of, 142-145\n\nETRUSCANS.\n  Celts conquer Northern Italy from, 21\n\nEUROPE.\n  Seeds of freedom and culture in, kept alive by Celtica, 22;\n  diffusion of Celtic power in Mid-, 26;\n  Celtic place-names in, 27;\n  what it owes to Celts, 49;\n  western lands of, dolmens found in, 53\n\nEVNISS\u00b4YEN.\n  Son of Eurosswyd and Penardun, 366;\n  mutilates horses of Matholwch, 367;\n  atonement made by Bran for his outrage, 367, 368;\n  slays the warriors hidden in the meal-bags, 370;\n  dies in the magic cauldron, 371\n\nEVRAWC.\n  Father of Peredur, 401\n\nEVRIC.\n  Farmer who befriends Fionuala and her brothers, 141\n\nEXCALIBUR.\n  See Caliburn, 338, and _note_, p. 224\n\n*F*\n\nFABII.\n  Romans elect as military tribunes, 25\n\nFAB\u00b4IUS AMBUST\u00b4US.\n  Treachery of three sons of, against Celts, 25\n\nFACHT\u00b4NA.\n  The giant, King of Ulster, 180;\n  Nessa, wife of, 180;\n  father of Conor, 180;\n  succeeded at death by his half-brother, Fergus, 180\n\nFAIR MANE.\n  Woman who nurtured many of the Fianna, 262\n\nFAIRY FOLK.\n  Equivalent, _Sidhe_ (shee). The tumulus at New Grange (Ireland) regarded\n              as dwelling-place of, 69;\n  the _Coulin_ overheard from, 119;\n  Conary M\u014dr lured by, into breaking his _geise_, 170;\n  seal all sources of water against mac Cecht, 175, 176;\n  Fergus mac Leda and, 246-249;\n  Conan mac Morna and, 259, 260;\n  Keelta and the, 266;\n  Gwyn ap Nudd, King of Welsh (_Tylwyth Teg_), 353\n\nFAIRYLAND.\n  Land of the Dead, 96;\n  Cleena swept back to, by a wave, 127;\n  Connla\u2019s Well in, 129;\n  war carried on against, by Eochy, who at last recovers his wife, Etain,\n              163;\n  Cuchulain in, 225-228;\n  Laeg\u2019s visit to, 226;\n  Fergus mac Leda and, 246-249;\n  tales of the Fianna concerned with, 252;\n  Ois\u012bn\u2019s journey to, 272;\n  the rescue of, by Finn and the Fianna, 294, 295;\n  rescue of, by Pwyll, 357\n\nFAL\u00b4IAS, THE CITY OF (see Dana), 105, 106\n\nFAND.\n  The Pearl of Beauty, wife of Mananan;\n  sets her love on Cuchulain, 226;\n  returns to her home with Mananan, 227\n\nFAYLINN.\n  The Land of the Wee Folk, 246;\n  Iubdan, King of, 246\n\nFEDEL\u00b4MA.\n  Prophetess from Fairy Mound of Croghan, questioned by Maev, 205, 206;\n  her vision of Cuchulain, 206\n\nFEET SYMBOL, THE TWO. 77\n\nFELIM.\n  Son of Dall, father of Deirdre, 196, 197;\n  his feast to Conor and Red Branch heroes, 196, 197\n\nFER\u00b4AMORC.\n  The kingdom of, over which Scoriath is king;\n  Maon taken to, 153\n\nFERCART\u00b4NA.\n  The bard of Curoi, 229;\n  leaps with Blanid to death, 229\n\nFERDIA.\n  Duel between Cuchulain and, referred to, 121;\n  son of the Firbolg, Daman, friend of Cuchulain, 187, 188;\n  rallies to Maev\u2019s foray against Ulster, 204;\n  consents to Maev\u2019s entreaty that he should meet and fight his friend\n              Cuchulain, 216;\n  the struggle, 217-221;\n  Cuchulain slays, 220;\n  buried by Maev, 221\n\nFERGUS.\n  Nemedian chief who slays Conann, 102\n\nFERGUS THE GREAT.\n  Son of Erc;\n  stone of Scone used for crowning, 105;\n  ancestor of British Royal Family, 105\n\nFERGUS MAC LEDA.\n  The Wee Folk and, 246-249;\n  visited by Eisirt, King of Wee Folk\u2019s bard, 247;\n  visited by Iubdan, King of Wee Folk, 247-249;\n  the blemish of Fergus, 249\n\nFERGUS MAC ROY.\n  Son of Roy, Fachtna\u2019s half-brother;\n  succeeds to kingship of Ulster, 180;\n  loves Nessa, 180;\n  sent to invite return of Naisi and Deirdre to Ireland, 198-200;\n  the rebellion of, 201-251;\n  Maev and, 202;\n  compact with Cuchulain, 211;\n  reputed author of the \u201cTain,\u201d 234;\n  slain by Ailell, 245\n\nFERGUS TRUELIPS.\n  Rescued from enchanted cave by Goll, 278\n\nFERGUSON, SIR SAMUEL.\n  Quoted, 46, 234-238;\n  his description of King Fergus mac Leda\u2019s death, 249-251\n\nFERYLLT.\n  Welsh name of Vergil, 413\n\nFIACHA (fee\u00b4ach-a).\n  Son of Firaba;\n  cuts off eight-and-twenty hands of the Clan Calatin, 216;\n  gives spear to Finn, 258\n\nFIACHRA (fee\u00b4ach-ra).\n  One of the Children of Lir, 142\n\nFIAL (fee\u00b4al).\n  Sister of Emer, 186\n\nFIANNA (fee\u00b4anna) OF ERIN, THE.\n  Explanation of this Order, 252;\n  Clan Bascna and Clan Morna, clans comprising the, 252;\n  Goll, captain of the, 257;\n  Finn made captain of the, 258;\n  tests of, 264, 265;\n  tales of the, told by Keelta, 283;\n  attempt in vain to throw the wether, 291, 292;\n  the chase of the Hard Gilly and, 292-295;\n  rescue of Fairyland by, 294, 295;\n  tribute refused by Cairbry, 305;\n  almost all the, slain in battle of Gowra, 306\n\nFIANS.\n  See Fianna\n\nFIN\u00b4CHOOM.\n  Dectera\u2019s sister, foster-mother to Cuchulain, 182, 183;\n  mother of Conall, 243\n\nFINCHOR\u00b4Y, ISLAND OF. 115, 116\n\nFIND\u00b4ABAIR OF THE FAIR EYE-BROWS.\n  Daughter of Maev;\n  offered to Ferdia if he will meet and fight Cuchulain, 216\n\nFIN\u00b4EGAS.\n  Druid, of whom Finn learns poetry and science, 256\n\nFINGEN.\n  Conor mac Nessa\u2019s physician;\n  his pronouncement _re_ Conall\u2019s \u201cbrain ball\u201d by which Ket has wounded\n              the king, 240\n\nFIN\u00b4IAS. THE CITY OF (see Dana), 105, 106\n\nFINN MAC CUMHAL (fin mac coo\u00b4al). Fothad slain in a battle with, 81;\n  Dermot of the Love Spot a follower of, 123;\n  Ossianic Cycle clusters round, 252;\n  Ois\u012bn, son of, 252;\n  the coming of, 255;\n  his Danaan ancestry, 255;\n  Murna of the White Neck his mother, Cumhal his father, 255;\n  Demna his original name, 255;\n  put out to nurse, 256;\n  origin of name Finn (Fair One), 256;\n  slays Lia, 256;\n  taught poetry and science by Druid Finegas, 256;\n  eats of the Salmon of Knowledge, 256;\n  slays goblin at Slieve Fuad, 258;\n  made captain of the Fianna of Erin, 258;\n  makes a covenant with Conan, 258, 259;\n  Dermot of the Love Spot, friend of, 261;\n  weds Grania, 261;\n  Ois\u012bn, son of, 261;\n  Geena mac Luga, one of the men of, 262;\n  teaches the maxims of the Fianna to mac Luga, 262, 263;\n  Murna, the mother of, 266;\n  Bran and Skolawn, hounds of, 266-269;\n  weds Saba, 267;\n  Saba taken from, by enchantment, 268;\n  Niam of the Golden Hair comes to, 270;\n  experience in the enchanted cave, 277, 278;\n  Goll rescues, 277, 278;\n  gives his daughter Keva to Goll, 278;\n  \u201cThe Chase of Slievegallion\u201d and, 278-280;\n  \u201cThe Masque of,\u201d by Mr. Standish O\u2019Grady, 280, 281;\n  the Hard Gilly (Gilla Dacar) and, 292-295;\n  Grania and, 296-304;\n  bewails Oscar\u2019s death, 306;\n  in all Ossianic literature no complete narrative of death of, 308;\n  tradition says he lies in trance in enchanted cave, like Kaiser\n              Barbarossa, 308\n\nFINTAN. The Salmon of Knowledge, of which Finn eats, 256\n\nFIONUALA (fee-un-oo\u00b4la). Daughter of Lir and step-daughter of Aoife, 139;\n  Aoife\u2019s transformation into swans of Fionuala and, her brothers, 140-142\n\nFIR-BOLG. See Firbolgs, 103\n\nFIRBOLGS. Nemedian survivors who return to Ireland, 102;\n  name signifies \u201cMen of the Bags,\u201d 102, 103;\n  legend regarding, 102, 103;\n  the Fir-Bolg, Fir-Domnan, and Galioin races generally designated as the,\n              103;\n  the Danaans and the, 106-119, 137\n\nFIR-DOM\u00b4NAN. See Firbolgs, 103\n\nFLEGETAN\u00b4IS. A heathen writer, whose Arabic book formed a source for poet\n            Kyot, 408\n\nFOHLA (f\u014d\u00b4la). Wife of Danaan King mac Cecht, 132\n\nFOILL. A son of Nechtan, slain by Cuchulain, 194\n\nFOLL\u00b4AMAN. Conor\u2019s youngest son;\n  leads boy corps against Maev, 214\n\nFOMOR\u00b4IANS. A misshapen, violent people representing the powers of evil;\n  their battle with the Partholanians, 97;\n  Nemedians in constant warfare with, 101;\n  their tyranny over country of Ireland, 109;\n  encounter between the Danaans and, 117, 118, 137\n\nFORBAY. Son of Conor mac Nessa;\n  slays Maev, 245\n\nFORD OF FERDIA. Place on the River Dee;\n  one champion at a time to meet Cuchulain at, 211;\n  the struggle at, between Cuchulain and Ferdia, 216-220\n\nFORGALL THE WILY. The lord of Lusca, father of Emer, 185;\n  meets his death in escaping from Cuchulain, 195\n\nFOTH\u00b4AD. King, slain in battle with Finn mac Cumhal;\n  wager as to place of death made by Mongan, 81\n\nFRAG\u00b4ARACH (\u201cThe Answerer\u201d).\n  Terrible sword brought by Lugh from the Land of the Living, 113\n\nFRANCE. Place-names of, Celtic element in, 27\n\nFUAMNACH (foo\u00b4am-nach). Wife of Midir the Proud, 156;\n  her jealousy of a second bride, Etain, 156;\n  transforms Etain into a butterfly by magic art, 156-158;\n  Midir tells of her death, 160\n\nG\n\nGAE BOLG. The thrust of, taught by Skatha to Cuchulain, 188, 189;\n  Cuchulam slays his son Connla by, 192;\n  Cuchulain slays Loch by, 213;\n  Cuchulain slays Ferdia by, 220\n\nGAELIC. Cymric language and, 35;\n  effect of legends of, on Continental poets, 50;\n  bards\u2019 ideas of chivalric romance anticipated by, 246;\n  Cymric legend and, compared, 344-419;\n  Continental romance and, 345\n\nGAELS. Sacrifices of children by, to idol Crom Cruach, 85\n\nG\u00c6SAT\u00b4I. Celtic warriors, in battle of Clastidium, 41\n\nGALATIA. Celtic state of, St. Jerome\u2019s attestation _re_, 34\n\nGAL\u00b4IOIN. See Firbolgs, 103\n\nGALLES, M. REN\u00c9. Tumulus of Man\u00e9-er-H\u00b4oeck described by, 63\n\nGARACH. Mac Roth views Ulster men on Plain of, 223;\n  the battle of, 223-225\n\nGAUL-S. Under Roman yoke, 35;\n  C\u00e6sar\u2019s account of, 37;\n  described by Diodorus Siculus, 41, 42;\n  described by Ammianus Marcellinus, 42;\n  Dr. Rice Holmes describes, 43;\n  commerce on Mediterranean, Bay of Biscay, &c., of, 44;\n  religious beliefs and rites described by Julius C\u00e6sar, 51, 52;\n  human sacrifices in, 84;\n  votive inscriptions to \u00c6sus, Teutates, and Taranus, found in, 86, 87;\n  Dis, or Pluto, a most notable god of, 88;\n  dead carried from, to Britain, 131;\n  Maon taken to, 153\n\n\u201cGAULOIS, LA RELIGION DES.\u201d Reference to, 55, 83\n\nGAUVAIN (SIR GAWAIN). Fellow-knight with Perceval, 406\n\nGAVR\u00b4INIS. Chiromancy at, 64\n\nGEENA MAC LUGA. Son of Luga, one of Finn\u2019s men, 262;\n  Finn teaches the maxims of the Fianna to, 262, 263\n\nGEIS-E (singular, gaysh; plural, gaysha). The law of the, 164;\n  meaning of this Irish word explained, 164;\n  instances: Dermot of the Love Spot, Conary M\u014dr, and Fergus mac Roy, 165;\n  Grania puts Dermot under, 298\n\nGELON. Defeat of Hamilcar by, at Himera, 22\n\nGENEALOGY. Of Conary M\u014dr, from Eochy, 164;\n  of Conor mac Nessa, from Ross the Red, 181;\n  of Cuchulain and Conall of the Victories, from Druid Cathbad, 181;\n  of D\u014dn, 350;\n  of Llyr, 351;\n  of Arthur, 352\n\nGENEIR. Knight of Arthur\u2019s court, 401\n\nGEOFFREY OF MONMOUTH. Bishop of St. Asaph;\n  his \u201cHistoria Regum Britani\u00e6\u201d written to commemorate Arthur\u2019s exploits,\n              337\n\nGERAINT. The tale of Enid and, 399, 400\n\nGERALD, EARL. Son of goddess Ain\u00e9, 128\n\nGERM\u0100N (ghermawn\u2014_g_ hard). Diuran and, companions of Maeld\u016bn on his\n            wonderful voyage, 313\n\nGERMANIC WORDS. Many important, traceable to Celtic origin, 32\n\nGERMANS. Menace to classical civilisation of, under names of Cimbri and\n            Teutones, 31;\n  de Jubainville\u2019s explanation regarding, as a subject people, 31;\n  overthrow of Celtic supremacy by, 33;\n  burial rites practised by, 33;\n  chastity of, 41\n\nGERMANY. Place-names of, Celtic element in, 27\n\nGILLA DACAR (The Hard Gilly). Story of, 292-295\n\nGILVAETH\u00b4WY. Son of D\u014dn, nephew of M\u0101th, 378;\n  his love for Goewin, and its sequel, 378-380\n\nGIRALDUS CAMBRENSIS. Testimony to the fairness of the Irish Celt, 21.\n  See Bleheris\n\nGLEN ETIVE. Dwelling place of Naisi and Deirdre, 198\n\nGLOUCESTER. Mabon released from prison in, 392;\n  the \u201cnine sorceresses\u201d of, 404\n\nGLOWER. The strong man of the Wee Folk, 246\n\nGLYN CUCH. Pwyll\u2019s hunt in woods of, 357\n\nGOBAN THE SMITH. Brother of Kian and Sawan;\n  corresponds to Wayland Smith in Germanic legend, 110, 117;\n  Ollav F\u014dla compared with, 150\n\nGOD. Cythrawl and, two primary existences in the Cymric cosmogony,\n            standing for principles of life and destruction, 333-335;\n  the ineffable Name of, pronounced, and the \u201cManred\u201d formed, 333\n\nGODS. Megalithic People\u2019s conception of their, 86, 87;\n  of Aryan Celts, equated by C\u00e6sar with Mercury, Apollo, Mars, &c , 86;\n  triad of, \u00c6sus, Teutates, and Taranus, mentioned by Lucan, 86;\n  Lugh, or Lugus, the god of Light, 88\n\nGOEWIN (go-ay\u00b4win). Daughter of Pebin;\n  Gilvaethwy\u2019s love for, and its sequel, 378-380\n\nGOLASECCA. A great settlement of the Lowland Celts, in Cisalpine Gaul, 56\n\nGOLEUDDYDD. Wife of Kilydd;\n  mother of Kilhwch, 386, 387\n\nGOLL MAC MORNA. Son of Morna, captain of the Fianna of Erin, 257;\n  swears service to Finn, 258;\n  Finn recalls the great saying of, 267;\n  rescues Finn from the enchanted cave, 277, 278;\n  Keva of the White Skin given as wife to, 278;\n  adventure with the wether, 291, 292\n\nGONEMANS. Knight who trains Perceval (Peredur), 405\n\nGORBODUC. \u201cHistoria Regum Bntani\u00e6\u201d furnished subject for, 337 338\n\nGOR\u00b4IAS, THE CITY OF (see Dana), 105, 106\n\nGOWRA (GABHRA). References to Oscar\u2019s death at, 261-275;\n  battle of, between Clan Bascna and Clan Morna, 305-309;\n  Oscar\u2019s death at, 305-308;\n  King of Ireland\u2019s death at, 306\n\nGRAIL. Legends of the, 400;\n  the tale of Peredur and the 400;\n  Chrestien de Troyes\u2019 story of, 404;\n  identical with the Cup ot the Last Supper, 406;\n  Wolfram von Eschenbach\u2019s conception of the story of the 407;\n  preserved in Castle of Munsalv\u00e4sche, 407;\n  the, a talisman of abundance, 409;\n  false derivation of the word, from _gr\u00e9able_, 409;\n  true derivation, 409, _note_;\n  combination of Celtic poetry, German mysticism, Christian Chivalry, and\n              ancient sun-myths contained in, 411, 412\n\nGRANIA. Loved by Dermot of the Love Spot, 123;\n  elopes with Dermot, 261;\n  tales of Deirdre and, compared, 296-304;\n  borne to Hill of Allen as Finn\u2019s bride, 304\n\nGREAT BRITAIN. Western extremity of, is Land of the Dead, 131\n\nGREECE. Dolmens found in, 53;\n  oppression in, of the Firbolgs, 102, 103\n\nGREEK-S. Celts and, 17;\n  wars in alliance with Celts, 22;\n  break monopoly of Carthaginian trade with Britain and Spain, 22;\n  secure overland route across France to Britain 22;\n  type of civilisation, Celtica preserved, 22\n\nGREY OF MACHA. Cuchulain\u2019s horse, ridden by Sualtam to rouse men of\n            Ulster, 221, 222;\n  resists being harnessed by Laeg, 230;\n  mortally wounded by Erc, 232;\n  defends Cuchulain, 233\n\nGRONW PEBYR (gron\u00b4oo payber).\n  Loved by Blodeuwedd, 383;\n  slain by Llew, 384\n\nGUAIRY, HUGH (gwai\u00b4ry).\n  Arrested for  murder, and tried at Tara by Dermot, 48\n\nGUARY (gwar\u00b4y).\n  High King;\n  taunts Sanchan Torpest about the \u201cTain,\u201d 234\n\nGUEST, LADY CHARLOTTE.\n  Her collections of tales, 412\n  See \u201cMabinogion\u201d\n\nGWALCHMAI.\n  Nephew of King Arthur, 397, 401\n\nGWAWL.\n  Rival of Pwyll\u2019s for Rhiannon\u2019s hand, 361, 362\n\nGWENHWYVAR (gwen\u00b4hoo-ivar).\n  Wife of King Arthur, 394\n\nGWERN.\n  Son of Matholwch and Branwen, 368;\n  assumes sovranty of Ireland, 370\n\nGWION BACH. Son of Gwreang;\n  put to stir magic cauldron by Ceridwen, 413;\n  similar action to Finn, 413\n\nGWLWLYD (goo-loo\u00b4lid).\n  The dun oxen of, 390\n\nGWREANG (goo\u00b4re-ang).\n  Father of Gwion Bach, 413\n\nGWRNACH (goor-nach).\n  Giant;\n  the sword of the, 390\n\nGWYDDNO GAR\u00b4ANHIR.\n  Horses of, drink of poisoned stream, hence the stream \u201cPoison of the\n              Horses of,\u201d 413;\n  his son Elphin finds Taliesin, 414\n\nGWYDION.\n  Son of D\u014dn;\n  place in Cymric mythology taken later by the god Artaius, 349;\n  nephew of M\u0101th, 378;\n  the swine of Pryderi and, 378-380\n\nGWYN AP NUDD.\n  A Cymric deity likened to Finn (Gaelic) and to Odin (Norse), 349;\n  combat every May-day between Gwythur ap Greidawl and, 353, 388\n\nGWYNEDD.\n  M\u0101th, lord of, 378\n\nGWYNFYD.\n  Purity;\n  the second of three concentric circles representing the totality of\n              being in the Cymric cosmogony, in which life is manifested\n              as a pure, rejoicing force triumphant over evil, 334\n\nGWYTHUR AP GREIDAWL (VICTOR, SON OF SCORCHER).\n  Combat every May-day between Gwyn ap Nudd and, 353, 388\n\n*H*\n\nHADES (or ANNWN).\n  The Magic Cauldron part of the spoils of, 410\n\nHAM\u00b4ILCAR.\n  Defeat of, at Himera, by Gelon, 22\n\nHAMITIC, THE.\n  Preserved in syntax of Celtic languages, 78\n\nHAVGAN.\n  Rival of Arawn;\n  mortally wounded by Pwyll, 357,358\n\nHECAT\u00c6\u00b4US OF ABDERA.\n  Musical services of Celts (probably of Great Britain) described by, 58\n\nHECAT\u00c6US OF MILETUS.\n  First extant mention of \u201cCelts\u201d by, 17\n\nHEILYN.\n  Son of Gwynn, 372\n\nHEININ.\n  Bard at Arthur\u2019s court, 416\n\nHELLAN\u00b4ICUS OF LESBOS.\n  Celts and, 17\n\nHERO\u00b4DOTUS.\n  Celts and, 17, 56\n\nHEVYDD H\u0112N.\n  Father of Rhiannon, 360\n\nHIGH KINGS OF IRELAND.\n  Stone of Destiny used for crowning of, 105\n\nHILL OF AIN\u00c9.\n  Name of goddess Ain\u00e9 clings  to, 128;\n  Ain\u00e9 appears, on a St. John\u2019s Night, among girls on, 128\n\nHILL OF ALLEN.\n  Finn\u2019s hounds, while returning to, recognise Saba, 266;\n  Ois\u012bn returns to, 273;\n  Finn returns to, 278;\n  return of the Fianna to, to celebrate the wedding feast of Finn and\n              Tasha, 295;\n  Finn bears Grania as his  bride to, 304\n\nHILL OF KESHCORRAN. Finn bewitched by hags on, 277\n\nHILL OF MACHA. Significance, 251\n\n\u201cHISTORIA BRITONUM.\u201d See Nennius\n\nHISTORIA REGUM BRITANI\u00c6. See Geoffrey of Monmouth.\n  Furnished subject for \u201cGorborduc\u201d and \u201cKing Lear,\u201d 338;\n  wonderful success of, translated by Wace into French, by Layamon into\n              Anglo-Saxon, 338, 339\n\nHOMER. His gloomy picture of the departed souls of men conducted to the\n            underworld, 79, 80;\n  reference to, 147\n\nHORSES OF MANANAN. White-crested waves called, 125\n\nHOUND OF ULSTER. See Cuchulain, 217, 233;\n  element in Gaelic names, 184\n\nHUGH. One of the Children of Lir, 142\n\nHULL, Miss, referred to, 133, _note_; 203, _note_\n\nHUNGARY. Miled\u2019s name as a god in a Celtic inscription from, 130\n\nHYDE, DR. DOUGLAS. Reference to his folk tale about Dermot of the Love\n            Spot. 291\n\nHYPERBOR\u00b4EANS. Equivalent to Celts, 17\n\nI\n\nIBERIANS Aquitani and, resemblance between, 58, 59\n\nILDA\u00b4NACH (\u201cThe All-Craftsman\u201d). Surname conferred upon Lugh, the Sun-god,\n            113\n\nILLYRIANS Celts conquer, 22\n\nIMMORTALITY. Origin of so-called \u201cCeltic\u201d doctrine of, 75, 76;\n  Egyptian and \u201cCeltic\u201d ideas of, 78-89\n\nINDIA. Dolmens found in, 53;\n  symbol of the feet found in, 77;\n  practice in, of allotting musical modes to seasons of the year, 118\n\nINDRA. Hindu sky-deity corresponding to Brown Bull of Quelgny, 203\n\nINGCEL. One-eyed chief, son of King of Great Britain, an exile, 169\n\nINVASION MYTHS, THE, OF IRELAND. See Myths\n\nINVERSKEN\u00b4A Ancient name of Kenmore River, so called after Skena, 133\n\nIRELAND Unique historical position of, 35;\n  Dermot mac Kerval, High King of, 47;\n  apostolised by St Patrick, 51;\n  Lowland Celts founders of lake-dwellings in, 56;\n  holy wells in, 66;\n  tumulus and symbolic carvings at New Grange in, 69-72;\n  reference to conversion of, to Christianity, 83;\n  Lugh, or Lugus, god of Light, in, 88;\n  history of, as related by Tuan, 98-100;\n  Nemed takes possession of, 98;\n  Fomorians establish tyranny over, 101;\n  Standish O\u2019Grady\u2019s \u201cCritical History of,\u201d reference to, 119, 120;\n  displacement of Danaans in, by Milesians, 130;\n  Ith\u2019s coming to, 130-136;\n  name of Eriu (dative form Erinn), poetic name applied to, 132;\n  Amergin\u2019s lay, sung on touching soil of, 134;\n  Milesian host invade, 135;\n  the Children of Miled enter upon sovranty of, but henceforth there are\n              two Irelands, the spiritual, occupied by the Danaans, and\n              the earthly by the Milesians, 136-145;\n  Eremon, first Milesian king of all, 143, 144;\n  reference to Christianity and paganism in, 145;\n  Milesian settlement of, 148;\n  Ollav F\u014dla, most distinguished Ollav of, 149\u2014150;\n  Maon reigns over, 154;\n  raid of Conary\u2019s foster-brothers in, 169;\n  The Terrible decides the Championship of, 196;\n  proclaims Cuchulain Champion of, 196;\n  Naisi and Deirdre land in, 199;\n  Cairbry, son of Cormac mac Art, High King of, 304;\n  Maeld\u016bn and his companions return to, 330;\n  the Arthurian saga never entered, 343;\n  invaded by Bran, 369-372;\n  Matholwch hands over to Gwern the sovranty of, 370\n\nIRISH. Element of place-names, found in France, Switzerland, Austria, &c.,\n            28;\n  Spenser\u2019s reference to eagerness of, to receive news, 37;\n  the Ulster hero, Cuchulain, in saga, 41;\n  the tumulus at New Grange in, 69;\n  Christianity, early, magical rites of Druidism survive in, 83;\n  legend, four main divisions in cycle of, 95;\n  folk-melodies, the _Coulin_, one of the most beautiful of, 119;\n  god of Love, Angus \u014cg the, 121;\n  \u201cMythological Cycle,\u201d de Jubainville\u2019s, reference to, 131;\n  place-names, significance of, 250;\n  legend, St. Patrick and, 283;\n  literature, effect of Christianity on, 295 296\nIRNAN. Lays Finn under _geise_ to engage in single combat, 278;\n  slain by Goll, 278\n\nIRON AGE. The ship a well-recognised form of sepulchral enclosure in\n            cemeteries of the, 76\n\nISLAND-S. Strange adventures of Maeld\u016bn and his companions on wonderful,\n            312-331;\n  of the Slayer, 313;\n  of the Ants, 313;\n  of the Great Birds, 313;\n  of the Fierce Beast, 314;\n  of the Giant Horses, 314;\n  of the Stone Door, 314;\n  of the Apples, 315;\n  of the Wondrous Beast, 315;\n  of the Biting Horses, 315;\n  of the Fiery Swine, 316;\n  of the Little Cat, 316;\n  of the Black and White Sheep, 317;\n  of the Giant Cattle, 317;\n  of the Mill, 318;\n  of the Black Mourners, 318;\n  of the Four Fences, 318;\n  of the Glass Bridge, 319;\n  of the Shouting Birds, 320;\n  of the Anchorite, 320;\n  of the Miraculous Fountain, 320;\n  of the Smithy, 321;\n  of the Sea of Clear Glass, 321;\n  of the Undersea, 321;\n  of the Prophecy, 322;\n  of the Spouting Water, 322;\n  of the Silvern Column, 322;\n  of the Pedestal, 323;\n  of the Women, 323, 324;\n  of the Red Berries, 325;\n  of the Eagle, 325-327;\n  of the Laughing Folk, 327;\n  of the Flaming Rampart, 327;\n  of the Monk of Tory, 327-329;\n  of the Falcon, 329, 330\n\nISLANDS OF THE DEAD. See Mananan, 125\n\nISLE OF MAN. Supposed throne of Mananan, 125\n\nITALY. Northern, Celts conquer from Etruscans, 21, 25;\n  Murgen and Eimena sent to, by Sanchan Torpest, to discover the \u201cTain,\u201d\n              234, 235\n\nITH. Son of Bregon, grandfather of Miled, 130;\n  his coming to Ireland, 130-136;\n  shores of Ireland perceived by, from Tower of Bregon, 132;\n  learns of Neit\u2019s slaying, 132;\n  welcomed by mac Cuill and his brothers, 133;\n  put to death by the three Danaan Kings, 133\n\nIUBDAN (youb-dan). King of the Wee Folk, 246;\n  Bebo, wife of, 247;\n  Bebo and, visit King Fergus in Ulster, 247-249\n\nIUCHAR (you\u00b4char). One of three sons of Turenn, 114;\n  Brigit, mother of, 126\n\nIUCHARBA (you-char\u00b4ba). One of three sons of Turenn, 114;\n  Brigit, mother of, 126\n\nJ\n\nJAPAN. Dolmens found in, 53\n\nJEROME, ST. Attestation of, on Celtic State of Galatia, 34\n\nJOHN, MR. IVOR B. His opinion of Celtic mystical writings, 332\n\nJONES, BRYNMOR. Findings of, on origin of populations of Great Britain and\n            Ireland, 78\n\nJOYCE, DR. P.W. Reference to his \u201cOld Celtic Romances,\u201d 303, 309, 312\n\nJUBAINVILLE, M. D\u2019ARBOIS DE. Great Celtic scholar, 18, 23, 24;\n  explanation of, regarding Germans as a subject people, 31;\n  record regarding Megalithic People, 55;\n  reference of, to Taranus (? Thor), the god of Lightning, 87;\n  opinion regarding Dis, or Pluto, as representing darkness, death, and\n              evil, 88;\n  reference to Gaulish god whom C\u00e6sar identifies with Mercury, 113;\n  Brigit identical with Dana, according to, 126;\n  Ith\u2019s landing in Ireland described in his \u201cIrish Mythological Cycle,\u201d\n              131;\n  his translation of Amergin\u2019s strange lay, 134\n\nK\n\nKAI. King Arthur\u2019s seneschal, 387, 388;\n  accompanies Kilhwch on his quest for Olwen, 388-392;\n  refuses Peredur, 401, 402\n\nKEATING. Reference to his \u201cHistory of Ireland,\u201d 150;\n  his reference to Maon, 153;\n  \u201cHistory\u201d of, tells of Ket\u2019s death, 244;\n  \u201cHistory\u201d of, tells of Maev\u2019s death, 245\n\nKEELTA MAC RONAN. Summoned from the dead by Mongan, 81;\n  warrior and reciter, one of Finn\u2019s chief men, 261;\n  St. Patrick and, 265, 266, 289;\n  Finn whispers the tale of his enchantment to, 280;\n  Ois\u012bn and, resolve to part, 282;\n  meets St. Patrick, 282;\n  assists Ois\u012bn bury Oscar, 307\n\nKEEVAN OF THE CURLING LOCKS. Lover of Cleena, 127\n\nKELTCHAR (kelt\u00b4yar). A lord of Ulster;\n  mac Datho\u2019s boar and, 243\n\nKENMARE RIVER. In Co. Kerry;\n  ancient name \u201cInverskena,\u201d so called after Skena, 133\n\nKENVERCH\u00b4YN. The three hundred ravens of, 399\n\nKERRY. Murna marries King of, 256\n\nKESAIR (kes\u00b4er). Gaulish princess, wife of King Ugainy the Great, 152;\n  grandmother of Maon, 153\n\nKET. Son of Maga;\n  rallies to Maev\u2019s foray against Ulster, 204;\n  slings Conall\u2019s \u201cbrain ball\u201d at Conor mac Nessa which seven years after\n              leads to his death, 240, 241;\n  the Boar of mac Datho and, 241-244;\n  death of, told in Keating\u2019s \u201cHistory of Ireland,\u201d 244\n\nKEVA OF THE WHITE SKIN. Daughter of Finn, given in marriage to Goll mac\n            Morna, 278\n\nKIAN. Father of Lugh, 109;\n  brother of Sawan and Goban, 110;\n  the end of, 114\n\nKICVA. Daughter of Gwynn Gohoyw, wife of Pryderi, 365, 373\n\nKILHWCH (kil\u00b4hugh). Son to Kilydd and Goleuddydd;\n  story of Olwen and, 386-392;\n  accompanied on his quest (to find Olwen) by Kai, Bedwyr, Kynddelig,\n              Bedwyr (Bedivere), Gwrhyr, Gwalchmai, and Menw, 388-392\n\nKILLARNEY, LAKES OF. Ancient name, Locha Lein, given to, by Len, 123\n\nKILYDD. Husband of Goleuddydd, father of Kilhwch, 386, 387\n\nKIMBAY (CIMBAOTH). Irish king;\n  reign of, and the founding of Emain Macha, 150;\n  brother of Red Hugh and Dithorba, 151;\n  compelled to wed Macha, 151\n\nKING LEAR. \u201cHistoria Regum Britani\u00e6\u201d furnished the subject of, 337, 338\n\nKINGSBOROUGH, LORD. \u201cAntiquities of Mexico,\u201d example of cup-and-ring\n            markings reproduced in his book, 68\n\nKNOWLEDGE. Nuts of, 256;\n  the Salmon of, 256\n\nKYM\u00b4IDEU KYME\u00b4IN-VOLL. Wife of Llassar Llaesgyvnewid, 368\n\nKYMON. A knight of Arthur\u2019s court;\n  the adventure of, 394-399\n\nKYN\u00b4DDELIG. One of Arthur\u2019s servitors;\n  accompanies Kilhwch on his quest for Olwen, 388-392\n\nKYOT (GUIOT). Proven\u00e7al poet;\n  and Wolfram von Eschenbach, 408\n\nL\n\nLA T\u00c8NE CULTURE. Relics found in Austria developed into, 29\n\nLABRA THE MARINER. See Maon, 154\n\nLAEG (layg). Cuchulain\u2019s friend and charioteer, 183;\n  sent by Cuchulain to rouse men of Ulster, 213;\n  visits Fairyland to report on Fand, 226;\n  the Grey of Macha resists being harnessed by, 230;\n  slain by Lewy, 232\n\nLAERY (lay\u00b4ry). 1. Son of King Ugainy the Great;\n  treacherously slain by his brother Covac, 152.\n  2. The Triumphant;\n  shrinks from test for the Championship of Ireland, 196;\n  mac Datho\u2019s boar and, 243.\n  3. Son of Neill;\n  sees vision of Cuchulain, 239\n\nLAIRGNEN (lerg-nen). Connacht chief, betrothed to Deoca;\n  seizes the Children of Lir, 142\n\nLAKE OF THE CAULDRON. Place where Matholwch met Llassar Llaesgyvnewid and\n            his wife Kymideu Kymeinvoll, 367, 368\n\nLAKE OF THE DRAGON\u2019S MOUTH. Resort of Caer, 121;\n  Angus \u014cg joins his love, Caer, at, 122\n\nLAND OF THE DEAD. \u201cSpain\u201d a synonymous term, 130;\n  the western extremity of Great Britain is, according to ancient writer\n              cited by Plutarch, and also according to Procopius, 131\n\nLAND OF THE LIVING. = Land of the Happy Dead, 96;\n  gifts which Lugh brought from, 113\n\nLAND OF SHADOWS. Dwelling-place of Skatha;\n  Cuchulain at, 187-189\n\nLAND OF THE WEE FOLK. See Wee Folk (otherwise, Faylinn), 246, &c.\n\nLAND OF YOUTH. Identical with \u201cLand of the Dead,\u201d \u201cLand of the Living,\u201d\n            _q.v._;\n  See Mananan, 113, 125;\n  Cleena once lived in, 127;\n  Connla\u2019s Well in, visited by Sinend, 129;\n  still lives in imagination of Irish peasant, 137;\n  mystic country of People of Dana after their dispossession by Children\n              of Miled, 156;\n  pagan conception of, referred to, 161;\n  lover from, visits Messbuachalla, to whom she bears Conary, 166, 167;\n  Ois\u012bn sees wonders of, 272;\n  Ois\u012bn returns from, 273;\n  \u201cThe Lady of the Fountain\u201d and the, 395, 396\n\nLAYAMON. Translator. See \u201cHistoria Regum Britani\u00e6\u201d\n\nLEGEND. The cycles of Irish, 95\n\nLEICESTER. See Llyr\n\nLEINSTER. Book of, and de Jubainville, 24;\n  ancient tract, the \u201cDinnsenchus,\u201d preserved in, 85;\n  traditional derivation of name, 154;\n  men of, rally to Maev\u2019s foray against Ulster, 205;\n  Mesroda, son of Datho, dwelt in province of, 241\n\nLEIX. Reavers from, slay Ailill Edge-of-Battle, 310;\n  Maeld\u016bn\u2019s voyage to, 311-331\n\nLEN. Goldsmith of B\u014dv the Red;\n  gave ancient name, Locha Lein, to the Lakes of Killarney, 123\n\nLEVAR\u00b4CAM. Deirdre\u2019s nurse, 197-200;\n  Conor questions, _re_ sons of Usna, 199\n\nLEWY. Son of Curoi, Cuchulain\u2019s foe, 228-233;\n  slain by Conall of the Victories, 233\n\nLIA (lee\u00b4a). Lord of Luachar, treasurer to the Clan Morna, 255;\n  slain by Finn, 256;\n  father of Conan, 258\n\nLIA FAIL (lee\u00b4a fawl), THE. The Stone of Destiny, 121\n\nLIAGAN (lee\u00b4a-gan). A pirate, slain by Conan mac Morna, 260\n\nLIGHT-OF-BEAUTY. See Sgeimh Solais\n\nLIR (leer).\n  1. Sea-god, father of Mananan, 113, 139;\n     Mananan and, referred to, 125;\n     identical with the Greek Oceanus, 125;\n     father of Lodan and grandparent of Sinend, 129;\n     Cymric deity Llyr corresponds with, 347.\n  2. The Children of, the transformation of, 139-142;\n     their death, 142\n\nLISMORE. \u201cThe Dean of Lismore\u2019s Book,\u201d by James Macgregor.\n  Dean of, described, 288\n\nLLASSAR LLAESGYV\u00b4NEWID. Husband of Kymideu Kymeinvoll, giver of magic\n            cauldron to Bran, 368\n\nLLEVELYS. Son of Beli;\n  story of Ludd (Nudd) and, 385, 386\n\nLLEW LLAW GYFFES. Otherwise \u201cThe Lion of the Sure Hand.\u201d\n  A hero the subject of the tale \u201cM\u0101th Son of M\u0101thonwy,\u201d 347, 348;\n  identical with the Gaelic deity Lugh of the Long Arm, 347, 348;\n  how he got his name, 381, 382;\n  the flower-wife of, named Blodeuwedd, 382, 383;\n  slays Gronw Pebyr, who had betrayed him, 383, 384\n\nLLUDD. See Nudd\n\nLLWYD. Son of Kilcoed, an enchanter;\n  removes magic spell from seven Cantrevs of Dyfed, and from Pryderi and\n              Rhiannon, 377\n\nLLYR. In Welsh legend, father of Manawyddan;\n  Irish equivalents, Lir and Mananan, 347;\n  Llyr-cester (now Leicester) once a centre of the worship of, 347;\n  house of, corresponds with Gaelic Lir, 348, 349;\n  Penardun, daughter of D\u014dn, wife of, 349;\n  genealogy set forth, 351\n\nLOCH. Son of Mofebis, champion sent by Mae against Cuchulain, 212;\n  wounds Cuchulain, but is slain by him, 212\n\nLOCH GARA. Lake in Roscommon;\n  mac Cecht\u2019s visit to, 176\n\nLOCH RORY. Fergus mac Leda\u2019s adventure in, 249\n\nLOCH RYVE. Maev retires to island on, and is slain there by Forbay, 245\n\nLODAN. Son of Lir, father of goddess Sinend, 129\n\nLOHERANGRAIN. Knight of the Swan, son of Parzival, 408\n\nLOUGHCREW. Great tumulus at, supposed burying-place of Ollav F\u014dla, 150\n\nLOURDES. Cult of waters of, 66, 67\n\nLUCAN. Triad of deities mentioned by, 86\n\nLUCHAD (loo-chad). Father of Luchta, 112\n\nLUCHTA (looch-ta). Son of Luchad, 112;\n  the carpenter of the Danaans, 117\n\nLUDGATE. For derivation see Nudd\n\nLUGH (loo), or LUGUS.\n  1. See Apollo, 58;\n     the god of Light, in Gaul and Ireland, as, 88;\n  2. Son of Kian, the Sun-god _par excellence_ of all Celtica, the coming\n              of, 109-113;\n     other names, Ild\u00e1nach (\u201cThe All-Craftsman\u201d) and Lugh Lamfada (Lugh of\n                 the Long Arm), 113, 123;\n     his eric from sons of Turenn for murder of his father, Kian, 115-116;\n     slays Balor and is enthroned in his stead, 117;\n     fiery spear of, 121;\n     his worship widely spread over Continental Celtica, 123;\n     father, by Dectera, of Cuchulain, 123, 182;\n     Cymric deity Llew Llaw Gyffes corresponds with, 347, 348\n\nLUGH OF THE LONG ARM. See Lugh.\n  Invincible sword of, 105, 106;\n  Bres, son of Balor, and, 123;\n  husband of Dectera and father of Cuchulain, 182;\n  appears to Cuchulain and protects the Ford while his son rests, 214;\n  fights by his son\u2019s side, 215;\n  Cymric hero Llew Llaw Gyfles corresponds with, 347, 348\n\nLUNED. Maiden who rescued Owain, 397;\n  Owain rescues her, 398, 399\n\nM\n\n\u201cMABIN\u014eG\u00b4ION, THE\u201d (singular, _Mabinogi_).\n  Reference to story of Kilhwch and Olwen in, 343;\n  \u201cThe Red Book of Hergest,\u201d the main source of the tales of, 344;\n  \u201cM\u0101th Son of M\u0101thonwy,\u201d tale in, 347;\n  Mr. Alfred Nutt\u2019s edition, 356;\n  Four Branches of the Mabinogi form most important part of, 384;\n  Peredur\u2019s story in, and French version, 406;\n  the tale of Taliesin and, 412\n\nMABON. Son of Modron, released by Arthur, 391, 392\n\nMACCECHT. Danaan king, husband of Fohla, 132;\n  member of Conary\u2019s retinue at Da Derga\u2019s Hostel, 175;\n  his search for water, 175, 176\n\nMACCUILL (quill). Danaan king, husband of Banba, 132;\n  at fortress of Aileach, 132\n\nMACGREN\u00c9. Danaan king, husband of Eriu, 132;\n  mythical name Son of the Sun, 132\n\nMAC INDOC\u00b4, THE PLAIN OF. Laery and St. Benen on, 239\n\nMACKERVAL, DERMOT. Rule of, in Ireland, and the cursing of Tara, 47, 48.\n  See Dermot\n\nMACPHERSON. Pseudo-Ossian poetry of, 238\nMAC ROTH. Maev\u2019s steward, named, and the Brown Bull of Quelgny, 202;\n  sent to view host of Ulster men, 223\n\nMACEDON. Attacked by Thracian and Illyrian hordes, 23\n\nMACHA. Daughter of Red Hugh, 151;\n  slays Dithorba and compels Kimbay to wed her, 151;\n  captures five sons of Dithorba, 151, 152;\n  forms an instance of the intermingling of the attributes of the Danaan\n              with the human race, 152;\n  a super-natural being, 178;\n  goes to dwell with Crundchu, 178;\n  her race against Ultonian horses, 179;\n  gives birth to twins and curses the Ultonians, 180;\n  her curse on men of Ulster, 203-221;\n  the curse removed from men of Ulster, 222\n\nMAELD\u016aN. Son of Ailill Edge-of-Battle, 310;\n  departs to his own kindred, 311;\n  sets out on his wonderful voyage, 311-331\n\nMAELD\u016aN, VOYAGE OF (mayl\u2019-doon). Found in MS. entitled \u201cBook of the Dun\n            Cow,\u201d 309;\n  reference to Dr. Whitley Stokes\u2019 translation in the \u201cRevue Celtique,\u201d\n              309;\n  theme of Tennyson\u2019s \u201cVoyage of Maeldune\u201d furnished by Joyce\u2019s version in\n              \u201cOld Celtic Romances,\u201d 309;\n  narrative of, 311-331\n\nMAEN TYRIAWC (ma\u2019en tyr\u2019i-awc). Burial-place of Pryderi, 379\n\nMAEV (mayv). Queen of Connacht, 122;\n  Angus \u014cg seeks aid of, 122;\n  debility of Ultonians manifested on occasion of Cattle-raid of Quelgny,\n              180;\n  Fergus seeks aid of, 202;\n  her famous bull Finnbenach, 202;\n  her efforts to secure the Brown Bull of Quelgny, 204-246;\n  host of, spreads devastation through the territories of Bregia and\n              Murthemney, 209;\n  offers her daughter Findabair of Fair Eyebrows to Ferdia if he will meet\n              Cuchulain, 216;\n  Conor summons men of Ulster against, 222;\n  overtaken but spared by Cuchulain, 225;\n  makes seven years\u2019 peace with Ulster, 225;\n  vengeance of, against Cuchulain, 228-233;\n  mac Datho\u2019s hound and, 241-244;\n  retires to island on Loch Ryve, 245;\n  slain by Forbay, 245\n\nMAGA. Daughter of Angus \u014cg, wife of Ross the Red, 181;\n  wedded also to Druid Cathbad, 181\n\nMAGI. Word magic derived from, 60;\n  treated by Pliny, 61\n\nMAGIC. The religion of Megalithic People that of, 59;\n  origin of word, 60;\n  Pliny on, 61;\n  religion of, invented in Persia and by Zoroaster, 61;\n  traces of, in Megalithic monuments, 63;\n  Clan Calatin learn, in Ireland, Alba, and Babylon, to practise against\n              Cuchulain, 228-233\n\nMAITRE, M. ALBERT. Inspector of Mus\u00e9e des Antiquit\u00e9s Nationales, 64\n\nMALORY. Anticipated by Wace, 338, 339;\n  Cymric myths and, 388\n\nMAN\u00b4ANAN. Son of the Sea-god, Lir, 113, 139;\n  magical Boat of, brought by Lugh, with Horse of, and sword _Fragarach_,\n              from the Land of the Living, 113, 121;\n  attributes of Sea-god mostly conferred on, 125;\n  the most popular deity in Irish mythology, 125;\n  lord of sea beyond which Land of Youth or Islands of the Dead were\n              supposed to lie, 125;\n  master of tricks and illusions, owned magical possessions\u2014boat,\n              Ocean-Sweeper; steed, Aonbarr; sword, The Answerer, &c. &c.,\n              125;\n  reference to daughter of, given to Angus, a Danaan prince, 143;\n  his wife, Fand, sets her love on Cuchulain, 226;\n  Fand recovered by, 227;\n  shakes his cloak between Fand and Cuchulain, 228;\n  Cymric deity Manawyddan corresponds with, 347, 348\n\nMANAWYDDAN (mana-wudh\u2019en). In Welsh mythology, son of Llyr;\n  Irish equivalents, Mananan and Lir, 347;\n  Bendigeid Vran (\u201cBran the Blessed\u201d), his brother, 365;\n  the tale of Pryderi and, 373-378;\n  weds Rhiannon, 373\n\nMAN\u00c9-ER-H\u00b4OECK. Remarkable tumulus in Brittany, 63, 64\n\nMAN\u00c9S. Seven outlawed sons of Ailell and Maev, 169;\n  their rally to Maev\u2019s foray against Ulster, 204\n\nMANESSIER. A continuator of Chrestien de Troyes, 408\n\nMAN\u00b4ETHO. Egyptian historian, reference to human sacrifices, 85, 86\n\nMANRED. The ineffable Name of God pronounced, and so was formed, 333;\n  the primal substance of the universe, 333\n\nMAON (may\u2019un). Son of Ailill;\n  brutal treatment of, by Covac, 152-154;\n  has revenge on Ailill by slaying him and all his nobles, 153;\n  weds Moriath, and reigns over Ireland, 154;\n  equivalent, \u201cLabra the Mariner,\u201d 154\n\nMARCELLIN\u00b4US, AMMIAN\u00b4US. Gauls described by, 42\n\nMARIE DE FRANCE. Anglo-Norman poetess;\n  sources relating to the Arthurian saga in writings of, 339, 340\n\nM\u0100TH SON OF M\u0100THONWY. Title of tale in the \u201cMabinogion,\u201d 347;\n  Llew Llaw Gyffes, a character in tale of, 347, 348;\n  brother of Penardun, 349;\n  the tale of, 378-384;\n  Gwydion and Gilvaethwy, nephews of, 378;\n  his strange gift of hearing, 386\n\nMATHOLWCH (math\u2019o-law). King of Ireland;\n  comes seeking Branwen\u2019s hand in marriage, 366;\n  wedding of, and Branwen\u2019s, celebrated at Aberffraw, 366;\n  Evnissyen mutilates his horses, 367;\n  Bran, among other gifts, gives a magic cauldron to, 367, 368;\n  father of Gwern, 368;\n  informed of Bran\u2019s invasion, 369;\n  hands sovranty of Ireland to Gwern, 370\n\nM\u0100THONWY. Ancestor of House of D\u014dn, 349\n\nMATI\u00c8RE DE FRANCE. Source of Round Table and chivalric institutions\n            ascribed to Arthur\u2019s court, 341\n\nMAXEN WLEDIG (oo\u2019le-dig). Emperor of Rome;\n  the dream of, 384, 385\n\nMAY-DAY. Sacred to Belten\u00e9, day on which Sons of Miled began conquest of\n            Ireland, 133, 134;\n  combat every, between Gwythur ap Greidawl and Gwyn ap Nudd, 353;\n  strange scream heard in Britain on eve of, 385\n\nMEATH. Fergus in his battle-fury strikes off the tops of the three _Maela_\n            of, 224;\n  St. Patrick and the folk of, 282\n\nMEDICINE. See Magic, 60, 61;\n  Pliny and, 61\n\nMEGALITHIC PEOPLE. Builders of dolmens, cromlechs, &c., 52-93;\n  origin of the, 54-58;\n  Professor Ridgeway\u2019s contention about, 56;\n  their religion that of magic, 59;\n  representations of the divine powers under human aspect unknown to, 75;\n  Druidism imposed on the Celts by the, 82;\n  human sacrifices, practice a survival from the, 84;\n  conception of, regarding their deities, 86\n\nMERCURY. Regarded as chief of the gods by Gauls, 87;\n  Lugh Lamfada identified with, 113\n\nMERLIN. See Myrddin.\n  Reference to his magical arts, 337;\n  equivalent Myrddin, 354;\n  believed by Geoffrey of Monmouth to have erected Stonehenge, 354;\n  the abode of, described, 354-356\n\nMESGED\u00b4RA. The vengeance of, fulfilled, 241\n\nMESRO\u00b4DA, MAC DATHO. Son of Datho, 241;\n  the carving of the boar of, 241-244;\n  Conor and Maev both send to purchase his hound, 241\n\nMESSBUACHALLA (mess-boo\u2019hala). Only daughter of Etain Oig, 166;\n  significance, \u201cthe cowherd\u2019s foster-child,\u201d 166;\n  King Eterskel\u2019s promised son and, 166;\n  visited by a Danaan lover, and birth of Conary, 166, 167\n\nMEXICO. Cup-and-ring marking in, 68;\n  symbol of the feet found in, 77;\n  the cross-legged \u201cBuddha,\u201d frequent occurrence in religious art of, 87\n\nMIDIR THE PROUD (mid\u2019eer). A son of the Dagda;\n  a type of splendour, 124;\n  his appearance to King Eochy, 124;\n  Fuamnach, wife of, 156;\n  Etain, second bride of, 156;\n  recovers his wife from Eochy, 160-163;\n  yields up Etain, 163\n\nMILED.\n  1. Sons of;\n     conquer the People of Dana, 100;\n     the coming of, to displace rule in Ireland of Danaans, 130;\n     Bregon, son of, 130;\n     Amergin, son of, 133;\n     begin conquest of Ireland on May-day, 133, 134.\n  2. A god, represented as, in a Celtic inscription from Hungary, son of\n              Bil\u00e9, 130.\n  3. Children of;\n     resolve to take vengeance for Ith\u2019s slaying, 133;\n     enter upon the sovranty of Ireland, 136\n\nMILESIAN-S. See Sons of Miled, 130;\n  myth, meaning of, 138-145;\n  the early kings, 146-148\n\nMINORCA. Analogous structures (to represent ships) to those in Ireland\n            found in, 76\n\nMOCHAEN (mo-chayn\u2019). Hill of, and Lugh\u2019s eric, 115\n\nMODRED. King Arthur\u2019s nephew;\n  usurps his uncle\u2019s crown and weds his wife Guanhumara, 337;\n  Arthur defeats and slays, 337, 338\n\nMONGAN. Irish chieftain, reincarnation of Finn;\n  wager as to place of death of King Fothad, 81\n\nMONTEL\u00b4IUS, DR. OSCAR. And the ship symbol, 72\n\nMOONRE\u00b4MUR. A lord of Ulster;\n  mac Datho\u2019s boar and, 243\n\nMORANN. Druid;\n  prophecy of, concerning Cuchulain, 183\n\nMORC. Fomorian king, 101\n\nMORDA. A blind man, set by Ceridwen to keep fire under the magic cauldron,\n            413\n\nMOR\u00b4IATH. Daughter of Scoriath, the King of Feramore;\n  her love for Maon and her device to win him back to Ireland, 153, 154;\n  curious tale regarding his hair, 154\n\nMORNA. Father of Goll, 257\n\nMORR\u00b4IGAN, THE. Extraordinary goddess, embodying all that is perverse and\n            horrible among supernatural powers, 126;\n  her love and friendship for Cuchulain, 126;\n  her visit to Conary M\u014dr at Hostel of Da Derga, 172;\n  appears to Cuchulain and offers her love, 212;\n  her threat to be about his feet in bottom of the Ford, 212;\n  attacks Cuchulain, and is wounded by him, 213;\n  croaks of war and slaughter before Cuchulain, 230;\n  settles on the dead Cuchulain\u2019s shoulder as a crow, 233\n\nMOUNTAINS OF MOURNE. Cuchulain on, 193\n\nMOYRATH. Battle of, ended resistance of Celtic chiefs to Christianity, 51\n\nMOYSLAUGHT (\u201cThe Plain of Adoration\u201d).\n  Idol of Crom Cruach erected on, 85, 149\n\nMOYTURA, PLAIN OF.\n  1. Scene of First Battle (Co. Sligo) between Danaans and the Firbolgs,\n              106, 107.\n  2. Scene of Second Battle (Co. Mayo) between Danaans and Fomorians, 117,\n              130;\n     the Dagda and, 120\n\nMUNSALV\u00c4SCHE (MONTSALVAT), THE CASTLE OF, where, in W. von Eschenbach\u2019s\n            poem, the Grail is preserved, 407\n\nMUNSTER. Ailill Olum, King of, 127;\n  \u201cHill of Ain\u00e9\u201d and goddess Ain\u00e9 128;\n  origin of name, 154\n\nMUR\u00b4IAS, THE CITY OF (see Dana), 105, 106\n\nMURNA OF THE WHITE NECK. Wife of Cumhal, mother of Finn, 255, 266;\n  takes refuge in forests of Slieve Bloom, and gives birth to Demna\n              (Finn), 255;\n  marries King of Kerry, 256\n\nMURTAGH MAC ERC. King of Ireland, brother of Fergus the Great;\n  lends famous Stone of Scone to Scotland, 105\n\nMURTHEM\u00b4NEY.\n  Kian killed on Plain of, 114;\n  Cuchulain of, seen in a vision by prophetess Fedelma, 206;\n  the carnage of, 214;\n  host of Ulster assemble on, 229;\n  Cuchulain at his d\u016bn in, 230\n\nMYCEN\u00b4\u00c6. Burial chamber of the Atreid\u00e6, ancient dolmen yet stands beside,\n            in, 53\n\nMYRDDIN. See Merlin.\n  A deity in Arthur\u2019s mythological cycle, corresponds with Sun-god Nudd,\n              354;\n  suggestion of Professor Rhys that chief deity worshipped at Stonehenge\n              was, 355;\n  seizes the \u201cThirteen Treasures of Britain,\u201d 355\n\nMYTHOLOGICAL CYCLE, THE, 95, 96\n\nMYTHOLOGY. Comparison between Gaelic and Cymric, 346-348;\n  compared with folklore, 418\n\nMYTHS. Danaan, meaning of, 137;\n  Milesian, meaning of, 138, 139;\n  Invasion, of Ireland, 138-145\n\nN\n\nNAISI (nay\u2019see). Son of Usna, loved by Deirdre, 198;\n  abducts Deirdre, 198;\n  Ardan and Ainl\u00e9, his brothers, 198;\n  Conor invites return of, 198;\n  his return under care of Fergus, 199;\n  slain by Owen son of Duracht, 201\n\nNAQADA (nak\u2019a-da). Signs on ivory tablets discovered by Flinders Petrie in\n            cemetery at, 78\n\nNARBERTH. Castle where Pwyll had his court, 359;\n  Pwyll\u2019s adventure on the Mound of Arberth, near, 359-365;\n  Pryderi and Manawyddan and their wives left desolate at palace of, 373\n\nNATCHRANTAL (na-chran\u2019tal). Famous champion of Maev;\n  assists to capture Brown Bull, 211\n\nNECHTAN. D\u016bn of the sons of, 193;\n  Cuchulain provokes a fight with sons of, 193, 194;\n  sons of, slain, 194\n\nNEIT (nayt).\n  Danaan king, slain in battle with the Fomorians, 132\n\nNEMED. Son of Agnoman;\n  takes possession of Ireland, 98;\n  fights victoriously against Fomorians, his death, 101\n\nNEMEDIANS. Sail for Ireland, 99;\n  akin to the Partholanians, 101;\n  revolt of, against Fomorians, 101, 102;\n  routed by Fomorians, 102\n\nNEMGLAN. Commands Conary go to Tara, 168;\n  he declares Conary\u2019s _geise_, 168\n\nNENNIUS. British historian in whose \u201cHistoria Britonum\u201d (A.D. 800) is\n            found first mention of Arthur, 336\n\nNESSA. Daughter of Echid Yellow-heel, wife of Fachtna, mother of Conor,\n            180;\n  loved by Fergus, 180\n\nNETHERLANDS. Place-names of, Celtic element in, 27\n\nNEW GRANGE. Tumulus at, regarded as dwelling-place of Fairy Folk, 69, 70;\n  symbolic carvings at, 70, 71;\n  the ship symbol at, 71-73;\n  Angus \u014cg\u2019s palace at, 121;\n  Angus\u2019 fairy palace at Brugh na Boyna identical with, 143\n\nNIAM (nee\u2019am).\n  1. Wife of Conall of the Victories;\n     tends Cuchulain, 229;\n     Bave puts a spell of straying on her, 230\n  2. Of the Golden Hair;\n     daughter of the King of the Land of Youth, 270;\n     Ois\u012bn departs with, 271, 272;\n     permits Ois\u012bn to visit the Land of Erin, 273\n\nNISS\u00b4YEN. Son of Eurosswyd and Penardun, 366\n\nNODENS. See Nudd\n\nNUADA OF THE SILVER HAND (noo\u2019ada). King of the Danaans, 107-108;\n  his encounter with Balor, champion of the Fomorians, 117;\n  belongs to Finn\u2019s ancestry, 255;\n  identical with solar deity in Cymric mythology, viz., Nudd or Lludd,\n              346, 347\n\nNUDD, or LLUDD. Roman equivalent, Nodens.\n  A solar deity in Cymric mythology, 346, 347;\n  identical with Danaan deity, Nuada of the Silver Hand, 347;\n  under name Lludd, said to have had a temple on the site of St. Paul\u2019s,\n              347;\n  entrance to Lludd\u2019s temple called _Parth Lludd_ (British), which Saxons\n              translated _Ludes Geat_\u2014our present Ludgate, 347;\n  story of Llevelys and, 385, 386;\n  Edeyrn, son of, jousts with Geraint for Enid, 399, 400\n\nNUTS OF KNOWLEDGE. Drop from hazel-boughs into pool where Salmon of\n            Knowledge lived, 256\n\nNUTT, MR. ALFRED. Reference to, in connexion with the \u201cHill of Ain\u00e9,\u201d 128,\n            129;\n  reference to, in connexion with Ois\u012bn-and-Patrick dialogues, 288, 289;\n  reference to object of the tale of Taliesin in his edition of the\n              \u201cMabinogion,\u201d 412\n\nNYNNIAW. Peibaw and, brothers, two Kings of Britain, their quarrel over\n            the stars, 355, 356\n\nO\n\nO\u2019DONOVAN. A great Irish antiquary;\n  folk-tale discovered by, 109-119\n\nO\u2019DYNA, CANTRED OF. Dermot\u2019s patrimony, 300\n\nO\u2019GRADY.\n  1. STANDISH.\n     References to his \u201cCritical History of Ireland\u201d on the founding of\n                 Emain Macha, 119, 120, 151, 152;\n     his \u201cMasque of Finn\u201d referred to, 280, 281\n  2. STANDISH HAYES.\n     Reference to his \u201cSilva Gadelica,\u201d 250, 276, 281\n\nOCEAN-SWEEPER. Mananan\u2019s magical boat, 125\n\nODYSSEY, THE. Mr H.B. Cotterill\u2019s hexameter version, quotation from, 79,\n            80\n\nOGMA. Warrior of Nuada of the Silver Hand, 112, 118\n\nOIS\u012aN (ush\u2019een). Otherwise Little Fawn.\n  Son of Finn, greatest poet of the Gael, 261;\n  father of Oscar, 261;\n  buries Aideen, 261;\n  birth of, from Saba, 266-270;\n  loved by Niam of the Golden Hair, 270-272;\n  returns from Land of Youth, 273;\n  Keelta and, resolve to part, 282;\n  assists Keelta bury Oscar, 307\n\nOLD CELTIC ROMANCES. Reference to Dr. P.W. Joyce\u2019s, 303, 309, 312\n\nOLLAV. Definition of the term, 149\n\nOLLAV F\u014cLA. Eighteenth King of Ireland from Eremon, the most distinguished\n            Ollav of Ireland, 149-150;\n  compared with Goban the Smith and Amergin the Poet, 150\n\nOLWEN. The story of Kilhwch and, 386-392;\n  daughter of Yspaddaden, 387;\n  how she got the name \u201cShe of the White Track,\u201d 390;\n  bride of Kilhwch, 392\n\nORLAM. Slain by Cuchulain, 209\n\nOSCAR. Son of Ois\u012bn;\n  slays Linn\u00e9,  261;\n  Aideen, wife of, 261;\n  her death after battle of Gowra, 261;\n  type of hard strength, 262;\n  reference to death at battle of Gowra, 275;\n  his death described, 306, 308\n\nOSI\u00b4RIS. Feet of, symbol of visitation, in Egypt, 77\n\nOSSIANIC SOCIETY. \u201cTransactions\u201d of, 278-280;\n  battle of Gowra (Gabhra) described in, 305\n\nOS\u00b4THANES. Earliest writer on subject of magic, 62\n\nOTHER-WORLD. Keelta summoned from, 81;\n  faith of, held by Celts, 82;\n  Mercury regarded by Gauls as guide of dead to, 87\n\nOWAIN. Son of Urien;\n  plays chess with King Arthur, 393;\n  the Black Knight and, 396-399;\n  seen by Peredur, 401\n\nOWEL. Foster-son of Mananan and a Druid, father of Ain\u00e9, 127\n\nOWEN. Son of Duracht;\n  slays Naisi and other sons of Usna, 201\n\nOWENS OF ARAN. Ailill, of the sept of, 311;\n  Maeld\u016bn goes to dwell with, 311\n\nOWL OF CWM CAWLWYD (coom cawl\u00b4w\u016dd), THE, 392\n\nP\n\nPATRICK, ST. Ireland apostolised by, 51;\n  symbol of the feet and, 77\n\nPASTH\u00b4OLAN. His coming into Ireland from the West;\n  his origin, 96\n\nPARTHOLANIANS. Battle between the Fomorians and, 97;\n  end of race by plague on the Old Plain, 97;\n  Nemedians akin to, 101\n\nPEIBAW. Nynniaw and, two brothers, Kings of Britain, their quarrel over\n            the stars, 355, 356\n\nPENAR\u00b4DUN. Daughter of D\u014dn, wife of Llyr, and also of Eurosswyd, sister of\n            M\u0101th, 349, 366;\n  mother of Bran, also of Nissyen and Evnissyen, 366\n\nPEOPLE OF THE SIDHE (shee).\n  Danaans dwindle into fairies, otherwise the, 137\n\nPER\u00b4DICCAS II. Son of Amyntas II., killed in battle, 23\n\nPER\u00b4EDUR. The tale of, and the origin of the Grail Legend, 400, 407;\n  corresponds to Perceval of Chrestien de Troyes, 400\n\nPER\u00b4GAMOS. Black Stone of, subject of embassy from Rome during Second\n            Punic War, 66\n\nPERILOUS GLEN. Cuchulain escapes beasts of, 187\n\n\u201cPERONNIK\u201d folk tale, 400, _note_\n\nPERSIA. Religion of magic invented in, by Zoroaster, 61\n\nPETRIE, FLINDERS. Discoveries by, 78;\n  on Egyptian origin of symbol of mother and child, 79\n\nPHILIP. Younger brother of Perdiccas, 23\n\nPHILO\u00b4STRATUS. Reference of, to enamelling by Britons, 30\n\nPLAIN OF ILL-LUCK. Cuchulain crosses, 187\n\nPLATO. Celts and, 17;\n  evidence of, to Celtic characteristics, 36\n\nPLINY. Religion of magic discussed by, 61\n\nPLUTARCH. Land of the Dead referred to by, as the western extremity of\n            Great Britain, 131\n\nPLUTO (Gk. Pluton). Dis, equivalent;\n  god of the Underworld, 88;\n  associated with wealth, like Celtic gods of the Underworld, 349\n\nPOLYB\u00b4IUS. Description of the G\u00e6sati in battle of Clastidium, 41\n\nPOLYNESIAN, the practice named \u201ctabu\u201d and the Irish _geis_, similarity\n            between, 165\n\nPORTUGAL. Place-names of, Celtic element in, 27\n\nPOSIDON\u00b4IUS. On bardic institution among Celts, 57\n\nPROCOP\u00b4IUS. Land of the Dead referred to by as the western extremity of\n            Great Britain, 131\n\nPROVINCE OF THE SPEARMEN (Irish, _Laighin_\u2014\u201cLy-in\u201d). See Leinster, 154\n\nPRYDERI (pri-dair\u2019y) (Trouble). Son of Pwyll and Rhiannon;\n  his loss 363;\n  his restoration by Teirnyon, 365;\n  Kicva, the wife of, 365;\n  the tale of Manawyddan and, 373-378;\n  Gwydion and the swine of, 378;\n  his death, 379\n\nPWYLL (poo-till; modern Powell). Prince of Dyfed;\n  how he got his title _Pen Annwn_, or \u201cHead of Hades,\u201d 336-359;\n  his adventure on the Mound of Arberth, near the Castle of Narberth,\n              359-365;\n  fixes his choice on Rhiannon for wife, 360;\n  Gwawl\u2019s trick on him, 361;\n  Rhiannon\u2019s plan to save Pwyll from Gwawl\u2019s power, 361;\n  weds Rhiannon, 362;\n  imposes a penance on his wife, 363;\n  his son Pryderi (Trouble) found, 365\n\nPYTHAG\u00b4ORAS. Celtic idea of transmigration and, 80\n\nPYTH\u00b4EAS. The German tribes about 300 B.C. mentioned by, 31\n\nQ\n\nQUELGNY, or CUAILGN\u00c9. Cattle-raid of, made by Queen Maev, 180;\n  Brown Bull of, owned by Dara, 202;\n  the theme of the \u201cTain Bo Cuailgn\u00e9\u201d is the Brown Bull of, 203;\n  Brown Bull of, is Celtic counterpart of Hindu sky-deity, Indra, 203;\n  Brown Bull of, captured at Slievegallion, Co. Armagh, by Maev, 211;\n  white-horned Bull of Ailell slain by Brown Bull of, 225;\n  reputed author of, Fergus mac Roy, 234;\n  Sanchan Torpest searches for lost lay of, 234-238\n\nR\n\nR\u0100. Egyptian Sun god;\n  ship symbol in sepulchral art of Egypt connected with worship of, 74-76\n\nRATH GRANIA. King Cormac and Finn feasted at, 300\n\nRATH LUACHAR. Lia keeps the Treasure Bag at, 255\n\nRATHCROGHAN. Maev\u2019s palace in Roscommon, 202\n\nRED BRANCH. Order of chivalry which had its seat in Emain Macha, 178;\n  the time of glory of, during Conor\u2019s reign, 181;\n  heroes of, and Cuchulain strive for the Championship of Ireland, 195,\n              196;\n  Hostel, Naisi and Deirdre at, 199, 200;\n  with Cuchulain and Conor passes away the glory of, 241\n\nRED HUGH. Ulster prince, father of Macha, brother of Dithorba and Kimbay,\n            151\n\nRED RIDERS. Conary\u2019s journey with, 170, 171\n\nRELIGION. The Celtic, 46;\n  Megalithic People\u2019s, that of Magic, 58;\n  of Magic, invented in Persia and by Zoroaster, 61\n\nREVUE CELTIQUE. Dr. Whitley Stokes\u2019 translation of the \u201cVoyage of Maeld\u016bn\u201d\n            in, 309\n\nRHIANNON (ree\u2019an-non). Daughter of Hevydd H\u0113n;\n  sets her love on Pwyll, 360;\n  marries Pwyll, 362;\n  her penance for slaying her son, 363;\n  her son Pryderi (Trouble) found, 365;\n  wedded to Manawyddan, 373\n\nRHONABWY (r\u014dne\u2019a-bwee). The dream of, 392, 393\n\nRHUN. Sent from King Arthur\u2019s court to Elphin\u2019s wife, 415\n\nRHYS AP TEWDWR. South Welsh prince;\n  brought knowledge of Round Table to Wales, 343\n\nRHYS, SIR J. His views on origin of population of Great Britain and\n            Ireland, 78;\n  on Myrddin and Merlin, 354, 355\n\nRIDGE OF THE DEAD WOMAN. Vivionn buried at, 287, 288\n\nROC. Angus\u2019 steward, 290;\n  his son crushed to death by Donn, 291;\n  then changed into a boar and charged to bring Dermot to death at length,\n              291\n\nROMANCE. Gaelic and Continental, 345\n\nROMANS. Arthur resists demand for tribute by the, 337\n\nROME. Celts march on and sack, 25, 26;\n  Britain and Gaul under yoke of, 35;\n  the empire of Maxen Wledig in, usurped, 385\n\nROSS THE RED. King of Ulster, husband of Maga, a daughter of Angus \u014cg,\n            181;\n  Roy, his second wife, 181;\n  originator of the Red Branch, 181\n\nROUND TABLE, THE. References to, 338, 339, 341, 343\n\nROY. Second wife of Ross the Red, 181\n\nRU\u00b4ADAN, ST. Tara cursed by, 47, 49\n\nRUSSELL, MR. G.W. Irish poet;\n  fine treatment of myth of Sinend and Connla\u2019s Well, 129, 130\n\nS\n\nSABA. Wife of Finn, mother of Ois\u012bn, 266-270\n\nSACRIFICES. Practice of human, noted by C\u00e6sar among Celts, 84;\n  human, in Ireland, 85;\n  Celtic practice of human, paralleled in Mexico and Carthage, 85;\n  of children, to idol Crom Cruach, by Gaels, 85;\n  in Egypt, practice of human, rare, 85, 86\n\nST. BENEN. A companion of St. Patrick, 239\n\nST. FINNEN. Irish abbot;\n  legend concernin Tuan mac Carell and, 97\n\nST. PATRICK. Record of his mission to Ireland, 51;\n  Cascorach and, referred to in the \u201cColloquy of the Ancients,\u201d 119;\n  Brogan, the scribe of, 119;\n  Ethn\u00e9 aged fifteen hundred years old at coming of, 144;\n  Ethn\u00e9 baptized by, 144;\n  summons Cuchulain from Hell, 238, 239;\n  name Talkenn given by Irish to, 275;\n  met by Keelta, 282;\n  Irish legend and, 283\n\nSALMON OF KNOWLEDGE. See Fintan\n\nSALMON OF LLYN LLYW (lin li-oo\u2019), THE, 392\n\nSAMNITE WAR, THIRD. Coincident with breaking up of Celtic Empire, 26\n\nSANCHAN TORPEST. Chief bard of Ireland;\n  and the \u201cTain,\u201d 234-238\n\nSA\u00b4WAN. Brother of Kian and Goban, 110\n\nSCANDINAVIA. Dolmens found in, 53;\n  symbol of the feet found in, 77\n\nSEM\u00b4ION. Son of Stariat, settlement in Ireland of;\n  Firbolgs descended from, 100\n\nSERA. Father of Partholan, 96;\n  father of Starn, 98\n\nSETAN\u00b4TA. Earliest name of Cuchulain, 183;\n  \u201cthe little pupil,\u201d harries Maev\u2019s hosts, 208\n\nSGEIMH SOLAIS (skayv sulish) (Light of Beauty).\n  Daughter of Cairbry, wooed by son of King of the Decies, 304\n\nSHANNON, THE RIVER. Myth of Sinend and the Well of Knowledge accounts for\n            name of, 129;\n  Dithorba\u2019s five sons flee over, 151;\n  mac Cecht visits, 175;\n  Dermot and Grania cross Ford of Luan on the, 299\n\nSHIP SYMBOL, THE. 71-76\n\nSIC\u00b4ULUS, DIODORUS. A contemporary of Julius C\u00e6sar;\n  describes Gauls, 41, 42\n\nSIDHE (shee), or FAIRY FOLK. Tumulus at New Grange (Ireland) regarded as\n            dwelling-place of, 69\n\nSILVA GADELICA. Reference to Mr. S.H. O\u2019Grady\u2019s work, 250, 276, 281\n\nSIN\u00b4END. Goddess, daughter of Lir\u2019s son, Lodan;\n  her fatal visit to Connla\u2019s Well, 129\n\nSIGN, LLEWELLYN. Welsh bard, compiler of \u201cBarddas,\u201d 332\n\nSKATHA. A mighty woman-warrior of Land of Shadows, 187;\n  instructs Cuchulain, 187-189;\n  her two special feats, how to leap the Bridge of the Leaps and to use\n              the Gae Bolg, 188\n\nSKENA. Wife of the poet Amergin;\n  her untimely death, 133\n\nSLAYNEY, THE RIVER. Visited by mac Cecht, 175\n\nSLIEVB BLOOM. Murna takes refuge in forests of, and there Demna (Finn) is\n            born, 255\n\nSLIEVE FUAD (sleeve foo\u2019ad) (afterwards Slievegallion).\n  Invisible dwelling of Lir on, 125;\n  Cuchulain finds his foe on, 232;\n  Finn slays goblin at, 258\n\nSLIEVEGALL\u00b4ION. A fairy mountain;\n  the Chase of, 278-280.\n  See Slieve Fuad\n\nSLIEVENAMON (sleeve-na-mon\u2019). The Brugh of, Finn and Keelta hunt on,\n            284-286\n\nSOHRAB AND RUSTUM. Reference to, 192\n\nSPAIN. Celts conquer from the Carthaginians, 21;\n  Carthaginian trade with, broken down by Greeks, 22;\n  place-names of Celtic element in, 27;\n  dolmens found round the Mediterranean coast of, 53;\n  equivalent, Land of the Dead, 102\n\nSQUIRE, MR. Author of \u201cMythol. of Brit. Islands,\u201d 348, 353, 411\n\nSRENG. Ambassador sent to People of Dana by Firbolgs, 106\n\nSTAG OF REDYNVRE (red-in\u2019vry), THE, 392\n\nSTARN. Son of Sera, brother of Partholan, 97\n\nSTOKES, DR. WHITLEY. Reference to, 166, 167;\n  reference to his translation of the \u201cVoyage of Maeld\u016bn\u201d in \u201cRevue\n              Celtique,\u201d 309\n\nSTONE, CORONATION. At Westminster Abbey, identical with Stone of Scone,\n            105\n\nSTONE OF ABUNDANCE. Equivalent, Cauldron of Abundance.\n  The Grail in Wolfram\u2019s poem as a, 409;\n  similar stone appears in the Welsh \u201cPeredur,\u201d 409;\n  correspondences, the Celtic Cauldron of the Dagda, 410;\n  in the Welsh legend Bran obtained the Cauldron, 410;\n  in a poem by Taliesin the Cauldron forms part of the spoils of Hades,\n              410\n\nSTONE OF DESTINY. Otherwise _Lia Fail_.\n  One of the treasures of the Danaans, 105\n\nSTONE OF SCONE. Fabulous origin of, and present depository, 105\n\nSTONE-WORSHIP. Supposed reason of, 65, 66;\n  denounced by Synod of Arles, 66;\n  denounced by Charlemagne 66;\n  black stone of Pergamos and Second Punic War, 66;\n  the Grail a relic of ancient, 409\n\nSTONEHENGE. Dressed stones used in megalithic monument at, 54;\n  Professor Rhys\u2019 suggestion that Myrddin was worshipped at, 354;\n  Geoffrey of Monmouth and, 354\n\nSTRABO. Characteristics of Celts, told by, 39, 46\n\nSTRAITS OF MOYLE (between Ireland and Scotland).\n  Aoife\u2019s cruelty to her step-children on the, 140\n\nSTRAND OF THE FOOTPRINTS. How name derived, 191\n\nSUALTAM (soo\u2019al-tam). Father of Cuchulain (see Lugh), 206;\n  his attempts to arouse Ulster, 221;\n  his death, 222\n\nSWEDEN. The ship symbol on rock-sculptures of, 72, 73\n\nSWITZERLAND. Place-names of, Celtic element in, 27;\n  lake-dwellings in, 56\n\nT\n\n\u201cTAIN BO CUAILGN\u00c9\u201d (thawn bo quel\u2019gny). Significance, 203;\n  tale of, all written out by Finn mac Gorman, Bishop of Kildare, in 1150,\n              225;\n  the recovery of, 234;\n  reputed author, Fergus mac Roy, 234;\n  Sir S. Ferguson treats of recovery of, in \u201cLays of the Western Gael,\u201d\n              234;\n  Sanchan Torpest, taunted by High King Guary, resolves to find the lost,\n              234-236;\n  early Celtic MSS. and, 296\n\nTALIESIN (tal-i-es\u2019in). A mythical bard;\n  his prophecy regarding the devotion of the Cymry to their tongue, 385;\n  the tale of, 412-417;\n  found by Elphin, son of Gwyddno, 414;\n  made prime bard of Britain, 415-417\n\nTALKENN. (Adze-head). Name given by the Irish to St. Patrick, 275\n\nTALTIU, or TELTA. Daughter of the King of the \u201cGreat Plain\u201d (the Land of\n            the Dead), wedded by Eochy mac Erc, 103\n\nTARA. Seat of the High Kings of Ireland;\n  the cursing of, 47, 48-49;\n  Stone of Scone sent to Scotland from, 105;\n  Lugh accuses sons of Turenn at, of his father\u2019s murder, 115;\n  appearance of Midir the Proud to Eochy on Hill of, 124, 161;\n  Milesian host at, 135;\n  institution of triennial Festival at, 149-150;\n  bull-feast at, to decide by divination who should be king in Eterskel\u2019s\n              stead, 167, 168;\n  Conary commanded to go to, by Nemglan, 168;\n  proclaimed King of Erin at, 168;\n  pointed out to Cuchulain, 193;\n  Cuchulain\u2019s head and hand buried at, 233;\n  Finn at, 257, 258\n\nTAR\u00b4ANUS (? Thor). Deity mentioned by Lucan, 86, 87\n\nTEGID VOEL. A man of Penllyn, husband of Ceridwen, father of Avagddu, 413\n\nTEIRNYON (ter\u2019ny-on). A man of Gwent Is Coed;\n  finds Pryderi, 364;\n  restores Pryderi, 365\n\nTELLTOWN (TELTIN). Palace at, of Telta, Eochy mac Erc\u2019s wife, 103;\n  great battle at, between Danaans and Milesians, 136;\n  Conall of the Victories makes his way to, after Conary\u2019s death, 176;\n  pointed out to Cuchulain, 193\n\nTENNYSON, LORD. Reference to source of his \u201cVoyage of Maeldune,\u201d 309;\n  Cymric myths and, 388;\n  reference to his \u201cEnid,\u201d 400\n\nTEUTAT\u00b4ES. Deity mentioned by Lucan, 86\n\nTEUTONIC. Loyalty of races, 45, 46\n\nTEZCATLIPOCA. Sun-god;\n  festival of, in Mexico, 77\n\nTHE TERRIBLE. A demon who by strange test decides the Championship of\n            Ireland, 196\n\nTHOMAS OF BRITTANY. See Bleheris\n\nTIBERIUS, EMPEROR. Druids, prophets, and medicine-men suppressed by, 62\n\nTIERNA (Teer\u2019na). Abbot of Clonmacnois, eleventh-century historian, 150\n\nTIERNMAS (teern\u2019mas). Fifth Irish king who succeeded Eremon, 148;\n  idol Crom Cruach and, 148, 149;\n  his death, 149\n\nTONN CLIODHNA (thown cleena). Otherwise \u201cWave of Cleena.\u201d\n  One of the most notable landmarks of Ireland, 127\n\nTOR M\u014cR. Precipitous headland in Tory Island;\n  Ethlinn imprisoned by Balor in tower built on, 110\n\nTORY ISLAND. Stronghold of Fomorian power, 101;\n  invaded by Nemedians, 101\n\nTRADABAN\u00b4, THE WELL OF. Keelta\u2019s praises of, 282, 283\n\nTRANSMIGRATION. The doctrine of, allegation that Celtic idea of\n            immortality embodied Oriental conception of, 80;\n  doctrine of, not held by Celts in same way as by Pythagoras and the\n              Orientals, 81;\n  Welsh Taliessin who became an eagle, 100.\n  See Tuan mac Carell\n\nTRENDORN. Conor\u2019s servant, 199;\n  spies on Deirdre, 200;\n  is blinded in one eye by Naisi, 200;\n  declares Deirdre\u2019s beauty to Conor, 200\n\nTREON (tray\u2019on). Father of Vivionn, 287\n\nTRISTAN AND ISEULT. Tale of Dermot and Grania paralleled in story as told\n            by Heinrich von Freiberg, 299\n\nTROYES. See Chrestien de Troyes\n\nTUAN MAC CARELL. The legend of, recorded in MS. \u201cBook of the Dun Cow,\u201d 97;\n  king of all deer in Ireland, 99;\n  name of \u201cgods\u201d given to the People of Dana by, 104\n\nTUATHA DE DANANN (thoo\u2019a-haw day danawn\u2019). Literal meaning, \u201cthe folk of\n            the god whose mother is Dana,\u201d 103\n\nTUMULI. See Dolmens, 53\n\nTURENN. The quest of the Sons of, 113-116;\n  reference to Lugh in the quest of the Sons of, 123\n\nTWRCH TRWYTH (toorch troo\u2019-with). A king in shape of a monstrous boar, 391\n\nTYLER. Reference of, in his \u201cPrimitive Culture,\u201d to festival of Sun-god,\n            Tezcatlipoca, 77\n\nTYLWYTH TEG. Welsh fairies;\n  Gwyn ap Nudd, King of the, 353\n\nTYREN. Sister to Murna, 266;\n  Ullan, husband of, 266;\n  changed by a woman of the Fairy Folk into a hound, 266\n\nU\n\nUGAINY THE GREAT (oo\u2019gany). Ruler of Ireland, &c., husband of Kesair,\n            father of Laery and Covac, 152\n\nULSTER. Kingdom of, founded in reign of Kimbay, 150;\n  Dithorba\u2019s five sons expelled from, 151;\n  Dectera\u2019s gift of Cuchulain to, 182;\n  Conor, King of, 180, 190, 191;\n  Felim, son of Dall, a lord of, 196;\n  Maev\u2019s war against province of, to secure Brown Bull of Quelgny,\n              202-251;\n  under the Debility curse, 205;\n  passes of, guarded by Cuchulain of Murthemney, 206;\n  aroused by Sualtam, 221, 222;\n  Macha\u2019s curse lifted from men of, 222;\n  Ailell and Maev make a seven years\u2019 peace with, 225;\n  curse of Macha again on the men of, 229;\n  Wee Folk swarm into 248, 249\n\nULTONIAN-S. Great fair of, visited by Crundchu, 178;\n  his boast of Macha\u2019s swiftness, 179;\n  the debility of, caused by Macha\u2019s curse, 179, 180;\n  the debility of, descends on Ulster, 205;\n  Cycle, events of, supposed to have happened about time of Christ, 252\n\nUNDERWORLD. The cult of, found existing by Celts when they got to Western\n            Europe, 82;\n  Dis, or Pluto, god of, 88;\n  M\u0101th, god of, 349;\n  identical with Land of the Dead, 130\n\nUSNA. Father of Naisi, 198;\n  sons of, inquired for by Conor, 199\n\nUTHER PENDRAGON. Father of Arthur, 337\n\nV\n\nVALLEY OF THE THRUSHES. Ois\u012bn\u2019s spell broken in, 274\n\nVEIL OF ILLUSION, THE. Thrown over Caradawc by Caswallan, 372\n\nVERCINGETORIX. Celtic chief;\n  his defeat by C\u00e6sar, his death, 40\n\nVERGIL. Evidence of Celtic ancestry in name, 21.\n  See Feryllt, 413\n\nVITRA. The God of Evil in Vedantic mythology, related to _Cenchos_, the\n            Footless, 97\n\nVIVIONN (BEBHIONN). A young giantess, daughter of Treon, from the Land of\n            Maidens, 287;\n  slain by \u00c6da, and buried in the place called the Ridge of the Dead, 288\n\nVOYAGE OF MAELD\u016aN. See Maeld\u016bn\n\nW\n\nWACE. Author of \u201cLi Romans de Brut,\u201d 338\n\nWALES. Arthurian saga in, 343, 344;\n  prophecy of Taliesin about, 385\n\nWAVE OF CLEENA. See Tonn Cliodhna\n\nWEE FOLK, THE. Fergus mac Leda and, 246-249;\n  Iubdan, King of, 246\n\nWELL OF KESAIR. Mac Cecht visits, 175\n\nWELL OF KNOWLEDGE. Equivalent, Connla\u2019s Well.\n  Sinend\u2019s fatal visit to, 129\n\nWELSH FAIRIES. See Tylwyth Teg\n\nWELSH LITERATURE. The Arthur in the Arthurian saga wholly different from\n            the Arthur in, 336;\n  compared with Irish, 344;\n  tales of Arthur in, 386\n\nWELSH MS. SOCIETY. Llewellyn Sion\u2019s \u201cBarddas\u201d edited by J.A. Williams ap\n            Ithel for, 332\n\nWELSH ROMANCE. The character of, 395, 396\n\nWESTON, MISS JESSIE L. Reference to her studies on the Arthurian saga, 341\n\nWILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. Reference to, in connexion with Arthurian saga, 343\n\nWOLFRAM VON ESCHENBACH. His story of the Grail, 407\n\nY\n\nYELLOW BOOK OF LECAN. Tale of Cuchulain and Connla in, 192\n\nYOUTH. The maiden who gave the Love Spot to Dermot, 292\n\nYSPADDADEN PENKAWR (is-pa-dhad\u2019en). Father of Olwen, 387;\n  the tasks he set Kilhwch, 390-392;\n  slain by Goreu son of Custennin, 392\n\nZ\n\nZIMMER, DR. HEINRICH. On the source of the Arthurian saga, 343\n\nZOROASTER. Religion of magic invented by, 61\n\n\n\n\n\n\n    1 In reference to the name \u201cFreeman,\u201d Mr. Nicholson adds: \u201cNo one was\n      more intensely \u2018English\u2019 in his sympathies than the great historian\n      of that name, and probably no one would have more strenuously\n      resisted the suggestion that he might be of Welsh descent; yet I\n      have met his close physical counterpart in a Welsh farmer (named\n      Evans) living within a few minutes of Pwllheli.\u201d\n\n    2 He speaks of \u201cNyrax, a Celtic city,\u201d and \u201cMassalia [Marseilles], a\n      city of Liguria in the land of the Celts\u201d (\u201cFragmenta Hist. Gr\u00e6c.\u201d).\n\n    3 In his \u201cPremiers Habitants de l\u2019Europe,\u201d vol. ii.\n\n    4 \u201cC\u00e6esar\u2019s Conquest of Gaul,\u201d pp. 251-327.\n\n    5 The ancients were not very close observers of physical\n      characteristics. They describe the Celts in almost exactly the same\n      terms as those which they apply to the Germanic races. Dr. Rice\n      Holmes is of opinion that the real difference, physically, lay in\n      the fact that the fairness of the Germans was blond, and that of the\n      Celts red. In an interesting passage of the work already quoted (p.\n      315) he observes that, \u201cMaking every allowance for the admixture of\n      other blood, which must have considerably modified the type of the\n      original Celtic or Gallic invaders of these islands, we are struck\n      by the fact that among all our Celtic-speaking fellow subjects there\n      are to be found numerous specimens of a type which also exists in\n      those parts of Brittany which were colonised by British invaders,\n      and in those parts of Gaul in which the Gallic invaders appear to\n      have settled most thickly, as well as in Northern Italy, where the\n      Celtic invaders were once dominant; and also by the fact that this\n      type, _even among the more blond representatives of it, is\n      strikingly different, to the casual as well as to the scientific\n      observer, from that of the purest representatives of the ancient\n      Germans_. The well-known picture of Sir David Wilkie, \u2018Reading of\n      the Waterloo Gazette,\u2019 illustrates, as Daniel Wilson remarked, the\n      difference between the two types. Put a Perthshire Highlander side\n      by side with a Sussex farmer. Both will be fair; but the red hair\n      and beard of the Scot will be in marked contrast with the fair hair\n      of the Englishman, and their features will differ still more\n      markedly. I remember teeing two gamekeepers in a railway carriage\n      running from Inverness to Lairey. They were tall, athletic, fair\n      men, evidently belonging to the Scandinavian type, which, as Dr.\n      Beddoe says, is so common in the extreme north of Scotland; but both\n      in colouring and in general aspect they were utterly different from\n      the tall, fair Highlanders whom I had seen in Perthshire. There was\n      not a trace of red in their hair, their long beards being absolutely\n      yellow. The prevalence of red among the Celtic-speaking people is,\n      it seems to me, a most striking characteristic. Not only do we find\n      eleven men in every hundred whose hair is absolutely red, but\n      underlying the blacks and the dark browns the lame tint is to be\n      discovered.\u201d\n\n    6 See the map of comparative nigrescence given in Ripley\u2019s \u201cRaces of\n      Europe,\u201d p. 318. In France, however, the Bretons are not a dark race\n      relatively to the rest of the population. They are composed partly\n      of the ancient Gallic peoples and partly of settlers from Wales who\n      were driven out by the Saxon invasion.\n\n    7 See for these names Holder\u2019s \u201cAltceltischer Sprachschatz.\u201d\n\n    8 Vergil might possibly mean \u201cthe very-bright\u201d or illustrious one, a\n      natural form for a proper name. _Ver_ in Gallic names\n      (Vercingetorix, Vercassivellasimus, &c.) is often an intensive\n      prefix, like the modern Irish _fior_. The name of the village where\n      Vergil was born, Andes (now Pietola), is Celtic. His love of nature,\n      his mysticism, and his strong feeling for a certain decorative\n      quality in language and rhythm are markedly Celtic qualities.\n      Tennyson\u2019s phrases for him, \u201clandscape-lover, lord of language,\u201d are\n      suggestive in this connexion.\n\n    9 Ptolemy, a friend, and probably, indeed, half-brother, of Alexander,\n      was doubtless present when this incident took place. His work has\n      not survived, but is quoted by Arrian and other historians.\n\n   10 One is reminded of the folk-tale about Henny Penny, who went to tell\n      the king that the sky was falling.\n\n   11 The Book of Leinster is a manuscript of the twelfth century. The\n      version of the \u201cT\u00e1in\u201d given in it probably dates from the eighth.\n      See de Jubainville, \u201cPremiers Habitants,\u201d ii. 316.\n\n   12 Dr. Douglas Hyde in his \u201cLiterary History of Ireland\u201d (p. 7) gives a\n      slightly different translation.\n\n   13 It is also a testimony to the close accuracy of the narrative of\n      Ptolemy.\n\n   14 Roman history tells of various conflicts with the Celts during this\n      period, but de Jubainville has shown that these narratives are\n      almost entirely mythical. See \u201cPremiers Habitants,\u201d ii. 318-323.\n\n_   15 E.g.,_ Moymell (_magh-meala_), the Plain of Honey, a Gaelic name\n      for Fairyland, and many place-names.\n\n   16 For these and many other examples see de Jubainville\u2019s \u201cPremiers\n      Habitants,\u201d ii. 255 _sqq._\n\n   17 Quoted by Mr. Romilly Allen in \u201cCeltic Art,\u201d p. 136.\n\n   18 \u201cPremiers Habitants,\u201d ii. 355, 356.\n\n   19 Irish is probably an older form of Celtic speech than Welsh. This is\n      shown by many philological peculiarities of the Irish language, of\n      which one of the most interesting may here be briefly referred to.\n      The Goidelic or Gaelic Celts, who, according to the usual theory,\n      first colonised the British Islands, and who were forced by\n      successive waves of invasion by their Continental kindred to the\n      extreme west, had a peculiar dislike to the pronunciation of the\n      letter _p_. Thus the Indo-European particle _pare_, represented by\n      Greek _\u03c0\u03b1\u03c1\u03ac_, beside or close to, becomes in early Celtic _are_, as\n      in the name _Are-morici_ (the Armoricans, those who dwell _ar muir_,\n      by the sea); _Are-dunum_ (Ardin, in France); _Are-cluta_, the place\n      beside the Clota (Clyde), now Dumbarton; _Are-taunon,_ in Germany\n      (near the Taunus Mountains), &c. When this letter was not simply\n      dropped it was usually changed into _c (k, g)_. But about the sixth\n      century B.C. a remarkable change passed over the language of the\n      Continental Celts. They gained in some unexplained way the faculty\n      for pronouncing _p_, and even substituted it for existing _c_\n      sounds; thus the original _Cretanis_ became _Pretanis_, Britain, the\n      numeral _qetuares_ (four) became _petuares_, and so forth. Celtic\n      place-names in Spain show that this change must have taken place\n      before the Celtic conquest of that country, 500 B.C. Now a\n      comparison of many Irish and Welsh words shows distinctly this\n      avoidance of _p_ on the Irish side and lack of any objection to it\n      on the Welsh. The following are a few illustrations:\n\n      _Irish_        _Welsh_   _English_\n      crann          prenn     tree\n      mac            map       ton\n      cenn           pen       head\n      clumh (cluv)   pluv      feather\n      c\u00faig           pimp      five\n\n      The conclusion that Irish must represent the older form of the\n      language seems obvious. It is remarkable that even to a\n      comparatively late date the Irish preserved their dislike to _p_.\n      Thus they turned the Latin _Pascha_ (Easter) to _Casg; purpur_,\n      purple, to _corcair, pulsatio_ (through French _pouls_) to _cuisle_.\n      It must be noted, however, that Nicholson in his \u201cKeltic Researches\u201d\n      endeavours to show that the so-called Indo-European _p_\u2014that is, _p_\n      standing alone and uncombined with another consonant\u2014was pronounced\n      by the Goidelic Celts at an early period. The subject can hardly be\n      said to be cleared up yet.\n\n   20 The Irish, says Edmund Spenser, in his \u201cView of the Present State of\n      Ireland,\u201d \u201cuse commonyle to send up and down to know newes, and yf\n      any meet with another, his second woorde is, What newes?\u201d\n\n   21 Compare Spenser: \u201cI have heard some greate warriors say, that in all\n      the services which they had seen abroad in forrayne countreys, they\n      never saw a more comely horseman than the Irish man, nor that cometh\n      on more bravely in his charge ... they are very valiante and hardye,\n      for the most part great endurours of cold, labour, hunger and all\n      hardiness, very active and stronge of hand, very swift of foote,\n      very vigilaunte and circumspect in theyr enterprises, very present\n      in perrils, very great scorners of death.\u201d\n\n   22 The scene of the surrender of Vercingetorix is not recounted by\n      C\u00e6sar, and rests mainly on the authority of Plutarch and of the\n      historian Florus, but it is accepted by scholars (Mommsen, Long,\n      &c.) as historic.\n\n   23 These were a tribe who took their name from the _g\u00e6sum_, a kind of\n      Celtic javelin, which was their principal weapon. The torque, or\n      twisted collar of gold, is introduced as a typical ornament in the\n      well-known statue of the dying Gaul, commonly called \u201cThe Dying\n      Gladiator.\u201d Many examples are preserved in the National Museum of\n      Dublin.\n\n   24 \u201cC\u00e6sar\u2019s Conquest of Gaul,\u201d pp. 10, 11. Let it be added that the\n      aristocratic Celts were, like the Teutons, dolichocephalic\u2014that is\n      to say, they had heads long in proportion to their breadth. This is\n      proved by remains found in the basin of the Marne, which was thickly\n      populated by them. In one case the skeleton of the tall Gallic\n      warrior was found with his war-car, iron helmet, and sword, now in\n      the Music de St.-Germain. The inhabitants of the British Islands are\n      uniformly long-headed, the round-headed \u201cAlpine\u201d type occurring very\n      rarely. Those of modern France are round-headed. The shape of the\n      head, however, is now known to be by no means a constant racial\n      character. It alters rapidly in a new environment, as is shown by\n      measurements of the descendants of immigrants in America. See an\n      article on this subject by Professor Haddon in \u201cNature,\u201d Nov. 3,\n      1910.\n\n   25 In the \u201cTain Bo Cuailgne,\u201d for instance, the King of Ulster must not\n      speak to a messenger until the Druid, Cathbad, has questioned him.\n      One recalls the lines of Sir Samuel Ferguson in his Irish epic poem,\n      \u201cCongal\u201d:\n\n      \u201c... For ever since the time When Cathbad smothered Usnach\u2019s sons in\n      that foul sea of slime Raised by abominable spells at Creeveroe\u2019s\n      bloody gate, Do ruin and dishonour still on priest-led kings await.\u201d\n\n_   26 Celtice_, Diarmuid mac Cearbhaill.\n\n   27 It was the practice, known in India also, for a person who was\n      wronged by a superior, or thought himself so, to sit before the\n      doorstep of the denier of justice and fast until right was done him.\n      In Ireland a magical power was attributed to the ceremony, the\n      effect of which would be averted by the other person fasting as\n      well.\n\n   28 \u201cSilva Gadelica,\u201d by S.H. O\u2019Grady, p. 73.\n\n   29 The authority here quoted is a narrative contained in a\n      fifteenth-century vellum manuscript found in Lismore Castle in 1814,\n      and translated by S.H. O\u2019Grady in his \u201cSilva Gadelica.\u201d The\n      narrative is attributed to an officer of Dermot\u2019s court.\n\n   30 From Greek _megas_, great, and _lithos_, a stone.\n\n   31 See p. 78.\n\n   32 See Borlase\u2019s \u201cDolmens of Ireland,\u201d pp. 605, 606, for a discussion\n      of this question.\n\n   33 Professor Ridgeway (see Report of the Brit. Assoc. for 1908) has\n      contended that the Megalithic People spoke an Aryan language;\n      otherwise he thinks more traces of its influence must have survived\n      in the Celtic which supplanted it. The weight of authority, as well\n      as such direct evidence as we possess, seems to be against his view.\n\n   34 See Holder,\u201cAltceltischer Sprachschatz.\u201d _sulb voce_ \u201cHyperboreoi.\u201d\n\n   35 Thus the Greek _pharmakon_=medicine, poison, or charm; and I am\n      informed that the Central African word for magic or charm is\n      _mankwala_, which also means medicine.\n\n   36 If Pliny meant that it was here first codified and organised he may\n      be right, but the conceptions on which magic rest are practically\n      universal, and of immemorial antiquity.\n\n   37 Adopted 451 B.C. Livy entitles them \u201cthe fountain of all public and\n      private right.\u201d They stood in the Forum till the third century A.D.,\n      but have now perished, except for fragments preserved in various\n      commentaries.\n\n   38 See \u201cRevue Archeologique,\u201d t. xii., 1865, \u201cFouilles de Ren\u00e9 Galles.\u201d\n\n   39 Jade is not found in the native state in Europe, nor nearer than\n      China.\n\n   40 Small stones, crystals, and gems were, however, also venerated. The\n      celebrated Black Stone of Pergamos was the subject of an embassy\n      from Rome to that city in the time of the Second Punic War, the\n      Sibylline Books having predicted victory to its possessors. It was\n      brought to Rome with great rejoicings in the year 205. It is stated\n      to have been about the size of a man\u2019s fist, and was probably a\n      meteorite. Compare the myth in Hesiod which relates how Kronos\n      devoured a stone in the belief that it was his offspring, Zeus. It\n      was then possible to mistake a stone for a god.\n\n   41 Replaced by a photograph in this edition.\n\n   42 See Sir J. Simpson\u2019s \u201cArchaic Sculpturings\u201d 1867.\n\n   43 The fact is recorded in the \u201cAnnals of the Four Masters\u201d Under the\n      date 861, and in the \u201cAnnals of Ulster\u201d under 862.\n\n   44 See \u201cTransactions of the Royal Irish Academy,\u201d vol. xxx. pt. i.,\n      1892, and \u201cNew Grange,\u201d by G. Coffey, 1912.\n\n   45 It must be observed, however, that the decoration was, certainly, in\n      some, and perhaps in all cases, carried out before the stones were\n      placed in position. This is also the case at Gavr\u2019inis.\n\n   46 He has modified this view in his latest work, \u201cNew Grange,\u201d 1912.\n\n   47 \u201cProc. Royal Irish Acad.,\u201d vol. viii. 1863, p. 400, and G. Coffey,\n      _op. cit._ p. 30.\n\n   48 \u201cLes Sculptures de Rochers de la Su\u00e8de,\u201d read at the Prehistoric\n      Congress, Stockholm, 1874; and see G. Coffey, _op. cit._ p. 60.\n\n   49 \u201cDolmens of Ireland,\u201d pp. 701-704.\n\n   50 \u201cThe Religion of Babylonia and Assyria.\u201d\n\n   51 A good example from Amaravati (after Fergusson) is given by\n      Bertrand, \u201cRel. des G.,\u201d p. 389.\n\n   52 Sergi, \u201cThe Mediterranean Race,\u201d p. 313.\n\n   53 At L\u00f6keberget, Bohusl\u00e4n; see Monteiius, _op. cit._\n\n   54 See Lord Kingsborough\u2019s \u201cAntiquities of Mexico,\u201d _passim_, and the\n      Humboldt fragment of Mexican painting (reproduced in Churchward\u2019s\n      \u201cSigns and Symbols of Primordial Man\u201d).\n\n   55 See Sergi, _op. cit._ p. 290, for the _Ankh_ on a French dolmen.\n\n   56 \u201cBulletin de la Soc. d\u2019Anthropologie,\u201d Paris, April 1893.\n\n   57 \u201cThe Welsh People,\u201d pp. 616-664, where the subject is fully\n      discussed in an appendix by Professor J. Morris Jones. \u201cThe\n      pre-Aryan idioms which still live in Welsh and Irish were derived\n      from a language allied to Egyptian and the Berber tongues.\u201d\n\n   58 Flinders Petrie, \u201cEgypt and Israel,\u201d pp. 137, 899.\n\n   59 I quote from Mr. H.B. Cotterill\u2019s beautiful hexameter version.\n\n   60 Valerius Maximus (about A.D 30) and other classical writers mention\n      this practice.\n\n   61 Book V.\n\n   62 De Jubainville, \u201cIrish Mythological Cycle,\u201d p.191 _sqq._\n\n   63 The etymology of the word \u201cDruid\u201d is no longer an unsolved problem.\n      It had been suggested that the latter part of the word might be\n      connected with the Aryan root VID, which appears in \u201cwisdom,\u201d in the\n      Latin _videre_, &c., Thurneysen has now shown that this root in\n      combination with the intensive particle _dru_ would yield the word\n      _dru-vids_, represented in Gaelic by _draoi_, a Druid, just as\n      another intensive, _su_, with _vids_ yields the Gaelic _saoi_, a\n      sage.\n\n   64 See Rice Holmes, \u201cC\u00e6sar\u2019s Conquest,\u201d p. 15, and pp. 532-536. Rhys,\n      it may be observed, believes that Druidism was the religion of the\n      aboriginal inhabitants of Western Europe \u201cfrom the Baltic to\n      Gibraltar\u201d (\u201cCeltic Britain,\u201d p. 73). But we only _know_ of it where\n      Celts and dolmen-builders combined. C\u00e6sar remarks of the Germans\n      that they had no Druids and cared little about sacrificial\n      ceremonies.\n\n   65 \u201cRel. des Gaulois,\u201d le\u00e7on xx.\n\n   66 Quoted by Bertrand, _op. cit._ p. 279.\n\n   67 \u201cThe Irish Mythological Cycle,\u201d by d\u2019Arbois de Jubainville, p. 6l.\n      The \u201cDinnsenchus\u201d in question is an early Christian document. No\n      trace of a being like Crom Cruach has been found as yet in the pagan\n      literature of Ireland, nor in the writings of St. Patrick, and I\n      think it is quite probable that even in the time of St. Patrick\n      human sacrifices had become only a memory.\n\n   68 A representation of human sacrifice has, however, lately been\n      discovered in a Temple of the Sun in the ancient Ethiopian capital,\n      Mero\u00eb.\n\n   69 \u201cYou [Celts] who by cruel blood outpoured think to appease the\n      pitiless Teutates, the horrid \u00c6sus with his barbarous altars, and\n      Taranus whose worship is no gentler than that of the Scythian\n      Diana\u201d, to whom captive were offered up. (Lucan, \u201cPharsalia\u201d, i.\n      444.) An altar dedicated to \u00c6sus has been discovered in Paris.\n\n   70 Mont Mercure, Merc\u0153ur, Mercoirey, Montmartre (_Mons Mercurii_), &c.\n\n   71 To this day in many parts of France the peasantry use terms like\n      _annuit, o\u2019n\u00e9, anneue_, &c., all meaning \u201cto-night,\u201d for\n      _aujourd\u2019hui_ (Bertrand, \u201cRel. des G.,\u201d p. 356).\n\n   72 The _fili_, or professional poets, it must be remembered, were a\n      branch of the Druidic order.\n\n   73 For instance, Pelagius in the fifth century; Columba, Columbanus,\n      and St. Gall in the sixth; Fridolin, named _Viator_, \u201cthe\n      Traveller,\u201d and Fursa in the seventh; Virgilius (Feargal) of\n      Salzburg, who had to answer at Rome for teaching the sphericity of\n      the earth, in the eighth; Dicuil, \u201cthe Geographer,\u201d and Johannes\n      Scotus Erigena\u2014the master mind of his epoch\u2014in the ninth.\n\n   74 Dealgnaid. I have been obliged here, as occasionally elsewhere, to\n      modify the Irish names so as to make them pronounceable by English\n      readers.\n\n   75 See p. 48, _note_ 1.\n\n   76 I follow in this narrative R.I. Best\u2019s translation of the \u201cIrish\n      Mythological Cycle\u201d of d\u2019Arbois de Jubainville.\n\n   77 De Jubainville, \u201cIrish Mythological Cycle,\u201d p. 75.\n\n   78 Pronounced \u201cYeo\u00b4hee.\u201d See Glossary for this and other words.\n\n   79 The science of the Druids, as we have seen, was conveyed in verse,\n      and the professional poets were a branch of the Druidic Order.\n\n   80 Meyer and Nutt, \u201cVoyage of Bran,\u201d ii. 197.\n\n   81 \u201cMoytura\u201d means \u201cThe Plain of the Towers\u201d\u2014_i.e._, sepulchral\n      monuments.\n\n   82 Shakespeare alludes to this in \u201cAs You Like It.\u201d \u201cI never was so\n      be-rhymed,\u201d says Rosalind, \u201csince Pythagoras\u2019 time, that I was an\n      Irish rat\u2014which I can hardly remember.\u201d\n\n   83 Lyons, Leyden, Laon were all in ancient times known as _Lug-dunum,_\n      the Fortress of Lugh. _Luguvallum_ was the name of a town near\n      Hadrian\u2019s Wall in Roman Britain.\n\n   84 It is given by him in a note to the \u201cFour Masters,\u201d vol. i. p. 18,\n      and is also reproduced by de Jubainville.\n\n   85 The other two were \u201cThe Fate of the Children of Lir\u201d and \u201cThe Fate\n      of the Sons of Usna.\u201d The stories of the Quest of the Sons of Turenn\n      and that of the Children of Lir have been told in full by the author\n      in his \u201cHigh Deeds of Finn and other Bardic Romances,\u201d and that of\n      the \u201cSons of Usna\u201d (the Deirdre Legend) by Miss Eleanor Hull in her\n      \u201cCuchulain,\u201d both published by Harrap and Co\n\n   86 O\u2019Curry\u2019s translation from the bardic tale, \u201cThe Battle of Moytura.\u201d\n\n   87 O\u2019Curry, \u201cManners and Customs,\u201d iii. 214.\n\n   88 The ancient Irish division of the year contained only these three\n      seasons, including autumn in summer (O\u2019Curry, \u201cManners and Customs,\u201d\n      iii. 217).]\n\n   89 S.H. O\u2019Grady, \u201cSilva Gadelica,\u201d p. 191.\n\n   90 Pp. 104 _sqq._, and _passim_.\n\n   91 O\u2019Grady, _loc. cit._\n\n   92 O\u2019Grady, _loc. cit._\n\n   93 See p. 112.\n\n   94 Miss Hull has discussed this subject fully in the introduction to\n      her invaluable work, \u201cThe Cuchullin Saga.\u201d\n\n   95 See the tale of \u201cEtain and Midir,\u201d in Chap. IV.\n\n   96 The name Tara is derived from an oblique case of the nominative\n      _Teamhair_, meaning \u201cthe place of the wide prospect.\u201d It is now a\n      broad grassy hill, in Co. Meath, covered with earthworks\n      representing the sites of the ancient royal buildings, which can all\n      be clearly located from ancient descriptions.\n\n   97 A.H. Leahy, \u201cHeroic Romances,\u201d i. 27.\n\n   98 See p. 114.\n\n   99 I cannot agree with Mr. O\u2019Grady\u2019s identification of this goddess\n      with Dana, though the name appears to mean \u201cThe Great Queen.\u201d\n\n  100 Gerald, the fourth Earl of Desmond. He disappeared, it is said, in\n      1398, and the legend goes that he still lives beneath the waters of\n      Loch Gur, and may be seen riding round its banks on his white steed\n      once every seven years. He was surnamed \u201cGerald the Poet\u201d from the\n      \u201cwitty and ingenious\u201d verses he composed in Gaelic. Wizardry,\n      poetry, and science were all united in one conception in the mind of\n      the ancient Irish.\n\n  101 \u201cPopular Tales of Ireland,\u201d by D. Fitzgerald, in \u201cRevue Celtique,\u201d\n      vol. iv.\n\n  102 \u201cThe Voyage of Bran,\u201d vol. ii. p. 219.\n\n  103 In Irish, _Sionnain_.\n\n  104 Translation by R.I. Best.\n\n  105 The solar vessels found in dolmen carvings. See Chap. II. p. 71\n      _sqq_. Note that the Celtic spirits, though invisible, are material\n      and have weight; not so those in Vergil and Dante.\n\n  106 De Jubainville, \u201cIrish Mythological Cycle,\u201d p. 136. Belten\u00e9 is the\n      modern Irish name for the month of May, and is derived from an\n      ancient root preserved in the Old Irish compound _epelta_, \u201cdead.\u201d\n\n  107 \u201cIrish Mythological Cycle,\u201d p. 138.\n\n  108 I follow again de Jubainville\u2019s translation; but in connexion with\n      this and the previous poems see also Ossianic Society\u2019s\n      \u201cTransactions,\u201d vol. v.\n\n  109 Teltin; so named after the goddess Telta. See p. 103.\n\n  110 Pronounced \u201cShee.\u201d It means literally the People of the [Fairy]\n      Mounds.\n\n  111 Pronounced \u201cEefa.\u201d\n\n  112 This name means \u201cThe Maid of the Fair Shoulder.\u201d\n\n  113 The story here summarised is given in full in the writer\u2019s \u201cHigh\n      Deeds of Finn\u201d (Harrap and Co.).\n\n  114 It may be mentioned that the syllable \u201cKill,\u201d which enters into so\n      many Irish place-names (Kilkenny, Killiney, Kilcooley, &c.), usually\n      represents the Latin _cella_, a monastic cell, shrine, or church.\n\n  115 Cleena (_Cliodhna_) was a Danaan princess about whom a legend is\n      told connected with the Bay of Glandore in Co. Cork. See p. 127.\n\n  116 See p. 85.\n\n  117 \u201cOmnia monumenta Scotorum ante Cimbaoth incerta erant.\u201d Tierna, who\n      died in 1088, was Abbot of Clonmacnois, a great monastic and\n      educational centre in medi\u00e6val Ireland.\n\n  118 Compare the fine poem of a modern Celtic writer (Sir Samuel\n      Ferguson), \u201cThe Widow\u2019s Cloak\u201d\u2014_i.e._, the British Empire in the\n      days of Queen Victoria.\n\n  119 \u201cCritical History of Ireland,\u201d p. 180.\n\n  120 Pronounced \u201cEl\u00b4yill.\u201d\n\n  121 The ending _ster_ in three of the names of the Irish provinces is of\n      Norse origin, and is a relic of the Viking conquests in Ireland.\n      Connacht, where the Vikings did not penetrate, alone preserves its\n      Irish name unmodified. Ulster (in Irish _Ulaidh_) is supposed to\n      derive its name from Ollav F\u014dla, Munster (_Mumhan_) from King Eocho\n      Mumho, tenth in succession from Eremon, and Connacht was \u201cthe land\n      of the children of Conn\u201d\u2014he who was called Conn of the Hundred\n      Battles, and who died A.D. 157.\n\n  122 The reader may, however, be referred to the tale of Etain and Midir\n      as given in full by A.H. Leahy (\u201cHeroic Romances of Ireland\u201d), and\n      by the writer in his \u201cHigh Deeds of Finn,\u201d and to the tale of Conary\n      rendered by Sir S. Ferguson (\u201cPoems,\u201d 1886), in what Dr. Whitley\n      Stokes has described as the noblest poem ever written by an\n      Irishman.\n\n  123 Pronounced \u201cYeo\u00b4hee.\u201d\n\n  124 I quote Mr. A.H. Leahy\u2019s translation from a fifteenth-century\n      Egerton manuscript (\u201cHeroic Romances of Ireland,\u201d vol. i. p. 12).\n      The story is, however, found in much more ancient authorities.\n\n  125 Ogham letters, which were composed of straight lines arranged in a\n      certain order about the axis formed by the edge of a squared\n      pillar-stone, were used for sepulchral inscription and writing\n      generally before the introduction of the Roman alphabet in Ireland.\n\n  126 The reference is to the magic swine of Mananan, which were killed\n      and eaten afresh every day, and whose meat preserved the eternal\n      youth of the People of Dana.\n\n  127 See p. 124.\n\n  128 The meaning quoted will be found in the Dictionary under the\n      alternative form _geas_\n\n  129 I quote from Whitley Stokes\u2019 translation, _Revue Celtique_, January\n      1901, and succeeding numbers.\n\n  130 Bregia was the great plain lying eastwards of Tara between Boyne and\n      Liffey\n\n  131 \u201cThe Destruction of Da Derga\u2019s Hostel.\u201d\n\n  132 Pronounced \u201cKoohoo\u00b4lin.\u201d\n\n  133 See p. 150.\n\n  134 See pp. 121-123 for an account of this deity.\n\n  135 It is noticeable that among the characters figuring in the Ultonian\n      legendary cycle many names occur of which the word _Cu_ (hound)\n      forms a part. Thus we have Curoi, Cucorb, Be\u00e4lcu, &c. The reference\n      is no doubt to the Irish wolf-hound, a fine type of valour and\n      beauty.\n\n  136 Now Lusk, a village on the coast a few miles north of Dublin.\n\n  137 Owing to the similarity of the name the supernatural country of\n      Skatha, \u201cthe Shadowy,\u201d was early identified with the islands of\n      Skye, where the Cuchulain Peaks still bear witness to the legend.\n\n  138 This, of course, was Cuchulain\u2019s father, Lugh.\n\n  139 This means probably \u201cthe belly spear.\u201d With this terrible weapon\n      Cuchulain was fated in the end to slay his friend Ferdia.\n\n  140 See genealogical table, p. 181.\n\n  141 Miss Hull, \u201cThe Cuchullin Saga,\u201d p. lxxii, where the solar theory of\n      the Brown Bull is dealt with at length.\n\n  142 A _cumal_ was the unit of value in Celtic Ireland. It is mentioned\n      as such by St. Patrick. It meant the price of a woman-slave.\n\n  143 The cune laid on them by Macha. Sec p. 180.\n\n  144 Cuchulain, as the son of the god Lugh, was not subject to the curse\n      of Macha which afflicted the other Ultonians.\n\n  145 His reputed father, the mortal husband of Dectera\n\n  146 In the Irish bardic literature, as in the Homeric epics, chastity\n      formed no part of the masculine ideal either for gods or men.\n\n  147 \u201cThe Ford of the Forked Pole.\u201d\n\n  148 I quote from Standish Hayes O\u2019Grady\u2019s translation, in Miss Hull\u2019s\n      \u201cCuchullin Saga.\u201d\n\n_  149 Ath Fherdia_, which is pronounced and now spelt \u201cArdee.\u201d It is in\n      Co. Louth, at the southern border of the Plain of Murthemney, which\n      was Cuchulain\u2019s territory.\n\n  150 See p. 126.\n\n  151 In ancient Ireland there were five provinces, Munster being counted\n      as two, or, as some ancient authorities explain it, the High King\u2019s\n      territory in Meath and Westmeath being reckoned a separate province.\n\n  152 \u201cClan\u201d in Gaelic means children or offspring. Clan Calatin=the sons\n      of Calatin.\n\n  153 Together with much that is wild and barbaric in this Irish epic of\n      the \u201cTain\u201d the reader will be struck by the ideals of courtesy and\n      gentleness which not infrequently come to light in it. It must be\n      remembered that, as Mr. A.H. Leahy points out in his \u201cHeroic\n      Romances of Ireland,\u201d the legend of the Raid of Quelgny is, at the\n      very latest, a century earlier than all other known romances of\n      chivalry, Welsh or Continental. It is found in the \u201cBook of\n      Leinster,\u201d a manuscript of the twelfth century, as well as in other\n      sources, and was doubtless considerably older than the date of its\n      transcription there. \u201cThe whole thing,\u201d says Mr. Leahy, \u201cstands at\n      the very beginning of the literature of modern Europe.\u201d\n\n  154 Another instance of the survival of the oath formula recited by the\n      Celtic envoys to Alexander the Great. See p. 23.\n\n  155 \u201cRising-out\u201d is the vivid expression used by Irish writers for a\n      clan or territory going on the war-path. \u201cHosting\u201d is also used in a\n      similar sense.\n\n  156 See p. 130.\n\n  157 The sword of Fergus was a fairy weapon called the _Caladcholg_ (hard\n      dinter), a name of which Arthur\u2019s more famous \u201cExcalibur\u201d is a\n      Latinised corruption.\n\n  158 The reference is to Deirdre.\n\n  159 See p. 211.\n\n  160 A.H. Leahy\u2019s translation, \u201cHeroic Romances of Ireland,\u201d vol. i.\n\n  161 The cloak of Mananan (see p. 125) typifies the sea\u2014here, in its\n      dividing and estranging power.\n\n  162 This Curoi appears in various tales of the Ultonian Cycle with\n      attributes which show that he was no mortal king, but a local deity.\n\n  163 This apparition of the Washer of the Ford is of frequent occurrence\n      in Irish legend.\n\n  164 See p. 164 for the reference to _geis_. \u201cHis namesake\u201d refers, of\n      course, to the story of the Hound of Cullan, pp. 183, 184.\n\n  165 It was a point of honour to refuse nothing to a bard; one king is\n      said to have given his eye when it was demanded of him.\n\n_  166 Craobh Ruadh_\u2014the Red Branch hostel.\n\n  167 The story is told in full in the author\u2019s \u201cHigh Deeds of Finn.\u201d\n\n  168 Pronounced \u201cBay-al-koo.\u201d\n\n  169 Inis Clothrann, now known as Quaker\u2019s Island. The pool no longer\n      exists.\n\n  170 \u201cYoub\u00b4dan.\u201d\n\n  171 Dr. P. W. Joyce\u2019s \u201cIrish Names of Places\u201d is a storehouse of\n      information on this subject.\n\n  172 P. 211, _note_.\n\n  173 The name is given both to the hill, _ard_, and to the ford, _atha_\n      beneath it.\n\n  174 Pronounced \u201cmac Cool.\u201d\n\n  175 Pronounced \u201cUsheen.\u201d\n\n  176 Subject, of course, to the possibility that the present revival of\n      Gaelic as a spoken tongue may lead to the opening of a new chapter\n      in that history.\n\n  177 See \u201cOssian and Ossianic Literature,\u201d by Alfred Nutt, p. 4.\n\n  178 Now Castleknock, near Dublin.\n\n  179 In the King\u2019s County.\n\n  180 The hill still bears the name, Knockanar.\n\n  181 Glanismole, near Dublin.\n\n  182 Talkenn, or \u201cAdze-head,\u201d was a name given to St. Patrick by the\n      Irish. Probably it referred to the shape of his tonsure.\n\n  183 Pronounced \u201cSleeve-na-mon\u00b4\u201d: accent on last syllable. It means the\n      Mountain of the [Fairy] Women.\n\n  184 Translation by S.H. O\u2019Grady.\n\n  185 See p. 105.\n\n  186 Examples of these have been published, with translations, in the\n      \u201cTransactions of the Ossianic Society.\u201d\n\n  187 Taken down from the recital of a peasant in Co. Galway and published\n      at Rennes in Dr. Hyde\u2019s \u201cAn Sgeuluidhe Gaodhalach,\u201d vol. ii. (no\n      translation).\n\n  188 Now Athlone (_Atha Luain_).\n\n  189 How significant is this na\u00efve indication that the making of forays\n      on his neighbours was regarded in Celtic Ireland as the natural and\n      laudable occupation of a country gentleman! Compare Spenser\u2019s\n      account of the ideals fostered by the Irish bards of his time, \u201cView\n      of the Present State of Ireland,\u201d p. 641 (Globe edition).\n\n  190 Dr. John Todhunter, in his \u201cThree Irish Bardic Tales,\u201d has alone, I\n      think, kept the antique ending of the tale of Deirdre.\n\n  191 \u201cWaifs and Strays of Celtic Tradition,\u201d Argyllshire Series. The tale\n      was taken down in verse, word for word, from the dictation of\n      Roderick mac Fadyen in Tiree, 1868.\n\n  192 Here we have evidently a reminiscence of Briccriu of the Poisoned\n      Tongue, the mischief-maker of the Ultonians.\n\n  193 The Arans are three islands at the entrance of Galway Bay. They are\n      a perfect museum of mysterious ruins.\n\n  194 Pronounced \u201cGhermawn\u201d\u2014the \u201cG\u201d hard.\n\n  195 Horse-racing was a particular delight to the ancient Irish, and is\n      mentioned in a ninth-century poem in praise of May as one of the\n      attractions of that month. The name of the month of May given in an\n      ancient Gaulish calendar means \u201cthe month of horse-racing.\u201d\n\n  196 The same phenomenon is recorded as being witnessed by Peredur in the\n      Welsh tale of that name in the \u201cMabinogion.\u201d\n\n  197 Like the bridge to Skatha\u2019t d\u016bn, p. 188.\n\n  198 Probably we are to understand that he was an anchorite seeking for\n      an islet on which to dwell in solitude and contemplation. The\n      western islands of Ireland abound in the ruins of huts and oratories\n      built by single monks or little communities.\n\n  199 Tennyson has been particularly happy in his description of these\n      undersea islands.\n\n  200 Ps. ciii. 5.\n\n  201 This disposes of the last of the foster-brothers, who should not\n      have joined the party.\n\n  202 Tory Island, off the Donegal coast. There was there a monastery and\n      a church dedicated to St. Columba.\n\n  203 \u201cOne day we shall delight in the remembrance of these things.\u201d The\n      quotation is from Vergil, \u201c\u00c6n.\u201d i. 203  \u201cSacred poet\u201d is a\n      translation of the _vates sacer_ of Horace.\n\n  204 This sage and poet has not been identified from any other record.\n      Praise and thanks to him, whoever he may have been.\n\n  205 \u201cThe Mabinogion,\u201d pp. 45 and 54.\n\n  206 Pronounced \u201cAnnoon.\u201d It was the word used in the early literature\n      for Hades or Fairyland.\n\n  207 \u201cBarddas,\u201d vol. i. pp. 224 _sqq_.\n\n  208 Strange as it may seem to us, the character of this object was by no\n      means fixed from the beginning. In the poem of Wolfram von\n      Eschenbach it is a stone endowed with magical properties. The word\n      is derived by the early fabulists from _gr\u00e9able_, something pleasant\n      to possess and enjoy, and out of which one could have _\u00e0 son gr\u00e9_,\n      whatever he chose of good things. The Grail legend will be dealt\n      with later in connexion with the Welsh tale \u201cPeredur.\u201d\n\n  209 Distinguished by these from the other great storehouse of poetic\n      legend, the _Mati\u00e8re de Bretagne\u2014i.e._, the Arthurian saga.\n\n  210 See p. 103.\n\n  211 \u201cCultur der Gegenwart,\u201d i. ix.\n\n  212 A list of them is given in Lobineau\u2019s \u201cHistoire de Bretagne.\u201d\n\n  213 See, _e.g.,_ pp. 243 and 218, _note_.\n\n  214 See p. 233, and a similar case in the author\u2019s \u201cHigh Deeds of Finn,\u201d\n      p. 82.\n\n  215 See p. 232, and the tale of the recovery of the \u201cTain,\u201d p. 234.\n\n  216 \u201cPwyll King of Dyfed,\u201d \u201cBran and Branwen,\u201d \u201cMath Sor of M\u0101thonwy,\u201d\n      and \u201cManawyddan Son of Llyr.\u201d\n\n  217 See p. 107.\n\n  218 \u201cHibbert Lectures,\u201d pp. 237-240.\n\n  219 See pp. 88, 109, &c. Lugh, of course, = Lux, Light. The Celtic words\n      _Lamh_ and _Llaw_ were used indifferently for hand or arm.\n\n  220 Mr. Squire, in his \u201cMythology of the British Islands,\u201d 1905, has\n      brought together in a clear and attractive form the most recent\n      results of studies on this subject.\n\n  221 Finn and Gwyn are respectively the Gaelic and Cymric forms of the\n      same name, meaning fair or white.\n\n  222 \u201cMythology of the British Islands,\u201d p. 225.\n\n  223 The sense appears to be doubtful here, and is variously rendered.\n\n  224 Lloegyr = Saxon Britain.\n\n  225 Rhys, \u201cHibbert Lectures,\u201d quoting from the ancient saga of Merlin\n      published by the English Text Society, p. 693.\n\n  226 \u201cMythology of the British Islands,\u201d pp. 325, 326; and Rhys, \u201cHibbert\n      Lectures,\u201d p. 155 _sqq_.\n\n  227 In the \u201cIolo MSS.,\u201d collected by Edward Williams.\n\n  228 See, _e.g._, pp. 111, 272.\n\n  229 We see here that we have got far from primitive Celtic legend. The\n      heroes fight like mediaeval knights on horseback, tilting at each\n      other with spears, not in chariots or on foot, and not with the\n      strange weapons which figure in Gaelic battle-tales.\n\n  230 H\u0113n, \u201cthe Ancient\u201d; an epithet generally implying a hoary antiquity\n      associated with mythological tradition.\n\n  231 Pronounced \u201cPry-dair\u00b4y.\u201d\n\n  232 Evidently this was the triangular Norman shield, not the round or\n      oval Celtic one. It has already been noticed that in these Welsh\n      tales the knights when they fight tilt at each other with spears.\n\n  233 The reader may pronounce this \u201cMatholaw.\u201d\n\n  234 Compare the description of Mac Cecht in the tale of the Hostel of De\n      Derga, p. 173.\n\n  235 Where the Tower of London now stands.\n\n  236 These stories, in Ireland and in Wales, always attach themselves to\n      actual burial-places. In 1813 a funeral urn containing ashes and\n      half-burnt bones was found in the spot traditionally supposed to be\n      Branwen\u2019s sepulchre.\n\n  237 Saxon Britain.\n\n  238 This is a distorted reminiscence of the practice which seems to have\n      obtained in the courts of Welsh princes, that a high officer should\n      hold the king\u2019s feet in his lap while he sat at meat.\n\n  239 \u201cHawthorn, King of the Giants.\u201d\n\n  240 The gods of the family of D\u014dn are thus conceived as servitors to\n      Arthur, who in this story is evidently the god Artaius.\n\n  241 \u201cShe of the White Track.\u201d Compare the description of Etain, pp. 157,\n      158.\n\n  242 There is no other mention of this Kenverchyn or of how Owain got his\n      raven-army, also referred to in \u201cThe Dream of Rhonabwy.\u201d We have\n      here evidently a piece of antique mythology embedded in a more\n      modern fabric.\n\n  243 Like the Breton Tale of \u201cPeronnik the Fool,\u201d translated in \u201cLe Foyer\n      Br\u00e9ton,\u201d by Emile Souvestre. The syllable _Per_ which occurs in all\n      forms of the hero\u2019s name means in Welsh and Cornish a bowl or vessel\n      (Irish _coire_\u2014see p. 35, note). No satisfactory derivation has in\n      any case been found of the latter part of the name.\n\n  244 \u201cThey are nourished by a stone of most noble nature ... it is called\n      _lapsit exill\u00ees_; the stone is also called the Grail.\u201d The term\n      _lapsit exill\u00ees_ appears to be a corruption for _lapis ex celis_,\n      \u201cthe stone from heaven.\u201d\n\n  245 The true derivation is from the Low Latin _cratella_, a small vessel\n      or chalice.\n\n  246 A similar selective action is ascribed to the Grail by Wolfram. It\n      can only be lifted by a pure maiden when carried into the hall, and\n      a heathen cannot see it or be benefited by it. The same idea is also\n      strongly marked in the story narrating the early history of the\n      Grail by Robert de Borron, about 1210: the impure and sinful cannot\n      benefit by it. Borron, however, does not touch upon the Perceval or\n      \u201cquest\u201d portion of the story at all.\n\n  247 Hades.\n\n  248 Caer Vedwyd means the Castle of Revelry. I follow the version of\n      this poem given by Squire in his \u201cMythology of the British Islands,\u201d\n      where it may be read in full.\n\n  249 The combination of objects at the Grail Castle is very significant.\n      They were a sword, a spear, and a vessel, or, in some versions, a\n      stone. These are the magical treasures brought by the Danaans into\n      Ireland\u2014a sword, a spear, a cauldron, and a stone. See pp. 105, 106.\n\n  250 The Round Table finds no mention in Cymric legend earlier than the\n      fifteenth century.\n\n  251 Vergil, in his medi\u00e6val character of magician.\n\n  252 Taliesin.\n\n  253 Alluding to the imaginary Trojan ancestry of the Britons.\n\n  254 I have somewhat abridged this curious poem. The connexion with ideas\n      of transmigration, as in the legend of Tuan mac Carell (see pp.\n      97-101), is obvious. Tuan\u2019s last stage, it may be recalled, was a\n      fish, and Taliesin was taken in a salmon-weir.\n\n\n\n\n\n<pre id=\"pg-footer\">","title":"Myths & Legends of the Celtic Race","tradition":"myth-cosmogony","translated_text":null,"word_count":141200}