"My grief! I to be stopping after him, and without delight in games or in music; to be withering away after my comrades; my grief it is to be living. I and the clerks of the Mass books are two that can never agree.

"If Finn and the Fianna were living, I would leave the clerks and the bells; I would follow the deer through the valleys, I would like to be close on his track.

"Ask Heaven of God, Patrick, for Finn of the Fianna and his race; make prayers for the great man; you never heard of his like."

PATRICK. "I will not ask Heaven for Finn, man of good wit that my anger is rising against, since his delight was to be living in valleys with the noise of hunts."

OISIN. "If you had been in company with the Fianna, Patrick of the joyless clerks and of the bells, you would not be attending on schools or giving heed to God."

PATRICK. "I would not part from the Son of God for all that have lived east or west; O Oisin, O shaking poet, there will harm come on you in satisfaction for the priests."

OISIN. "It was a delight to Finn the cry of his hounds on the mountains, the wild dogs leaving their harbours, the pride of his armies, those were his delights."

PATRICK. "There was many a thing Finn took delight in, and there is not much heed given to it after him; Finn and his hounds are not living now, and you yourself will not always be living, Oisin."

OISIN. "There is a greater story of Finn than of us, or of any that have lived in our time; all that are gone and all that are living, Finn was better to give out gold than themselves."

PATRICK. "All the gold you and Finn used to be giving out, it is little it does for you now; he is in Hell in bonds because he did treachery and oppression."

OISIN. "It is little I believe of your truth, man from Rome with the white books, Finn the open-handed head of the Fianna to be in the hands of devils or demons."

PATRICK. "Finn is in bonds in Hell, the pleasant man that gave out gold; in satisfaction for his disrespect to God, he is under grief in the house of pain."

OISIN. "If the sons of Morna were within it, or the strong men of the sons of Baiscne, they would take Finn out of it, or they would have the house for themselves."

PATRICK. "If the five provinces of Ireland were within it, or the strong seven battalions of the Fianna, they would not be able to bring Finn out of it, however great their strength might be."

OISIN. "If Faolan and Goll were living, and brown-haired Diarmuid and brave Osgar, Finn of the Fianna could not be held in any house that was made by God or devils."

PATRICK. "If Faolan and Goll were living, and all the Fianna that ever were, they could not bring out Finn from the house where he is in pain."

OISIN. "What did Finn do against God but to be attending on schools and on armies? Giving gold through a great part of his time, and for another while trying his hounds."

PATRICK. "In payment for thinking of his hounds and for serving the schools of the poets, and because he gave no heed to God, Finn of the Fianna is held down."

OISIN. "You say, Patrick of the Psalms, that the Fianna could not take out Finn, or the five provinces of Ireland along with them.

"I have a little story about Finn. We were but fifteen men when we took the King of Britain of the feasts by the strength of our spears and our own strength.

"We took Magnus the great, the son of the King of Lochlann of the speckled ships; we came back no way sorry or tired, we put our rent on far places.

"O Patrick, the story is pitiful, the King of the Fianna to be under locks; a heart without envy, without hatred, a heart hard in earning victory.

"It is an injustice, God to be unwilling to give food and riches; Finn never refused strong or poor, although cold Hell is now his dwelling-place.

"It is what Finn had a mind for, to be listening to the sound of Druim Dearg; to sleep at the stream of Ess Ruadh, to be hunting the deer of Gallimh of the bays.

"The cries of the blackbird of Leiter Laoi, the wave of Rudraighe beating the strand, the bellowing of the ox of Magh Maoin, the lowing of the calf of Gleann da Mhail.

"The noise of the hunt on Slieve Crot, the sound of the fawns round Slieve Cua, the scream of the sea-gulls there beyond on Iorrus, the screech of the crows over the battle.

"The waves vexing the breasts of the boats, the howling of the hounds at Druim Lis; the voice of Bran on Cnoc-an-Air, the outcry of the streams about Slieve Mis.

"The call of Osgar going to the hunt; the voice of the hounds on the road of the Fianna, to be listening to them and to the poets, that was always his desire.

"A desire of the desires of Osgar was to listen to the striking of shields; to be hacking at bones in a battle, it is what he had a mind for always.

"We went westward one time to hunt at Formaid of the Fianna, to see the first running of our hounds.

"It was Finn was holding Bran, and it is with myself Sceolan was; Diarmuid of the Women had Fearan, and Osgar had lucky Adhnuall.

"Conan the Bald had Searc; Caoilte, son of Ronan, had Daol; Lugaidh's Son and Goll were holding Fuaim and Fothran.

"That was the first day we loosed out a share of our hounds to a hunting; and Och! Patrick, of all that were in it, there is not one left living but myself.

"O Patrick, it is a pity the way I am now, a spent old man without sway, without quickness, without strength, going to Mass at the altar.

"Without the great deer of Slieve Luchra; without the hares of Slieve Cuilinn; without going into fights with Finn; without listening to the poets.

"Without battles, without taking of spoils; without playing at nimble feats; without going courting or hunting, two trades that were my delight."

PATRICK. "Leave off, old man, leave your foolishness; let what you have done be enough for you from this out. Think on the pains that are before you; the Fianna are gone, and you yourself will be going."

OISIN. "If I go, may yourself not be left after me, Patrick of the hindering heart; if Conan, the least of the Fianna, were living, your buzzing would not be left long to you."

"Or if this was the day I gave ten hundred cows to the headless woman that came to the Valley of the Two Oxen; the birds of the air brought away the ring I gave her, I never knew where she went herself from me."

PATRICK. "That is little to trouble you, Oisin; it was but for a while she was with you; it is better for you to be as you are than to be among them again."

OISIN. "O Son of Calphurn of the friendly talk, it is a pity for him that gives respect to clerks and bells; I and Caoilte my friend, we were not poor when we were together.

"The music that put Finn to his sleep was the cackling of the ducks from the lake of the Three Narrows; the scolding talk of the blackbird of Doire an Cairn, the bellowing of the ox from the Valley of the Berries.

"The whistle of the eagle from the Valley of Victories, or from the rough branches of the ridge by the stream; the grouse of the heather of Cruachan; the call of the otter of Druim-re-Coir.

"The song of the blackbird of Doire an Cairn indeed I never heard sweeter music, if I could be under its nest.

"My grief that I ever took baptism; it is little credit I got by it, being without food, without drink, doing fasting and praying."

PATRICK. "In my opinion it did not harm you, old man; you will get nine score cakes of bread, wine and meat to put a taste on it; it is bad talk you are giving."

OISIN. "This mouth that is talking with you, may it never confess to a priest, if I would not sooner have the leavings of Finn's house than a share of your own meals."

PATRICK. "He got but what he gathered from the banks, or whatever he could kill on the rough hills; he got hell at the last because of his unbelief."

OISIN. "That was not the way with us at all, but our fill of wine and of meat; justice and a right beginning at the feasts, sweet drinks and every one drinking them.

"It is fretting after Diarmuid and Goll I am, and after Fergus of the True Lips, the time you will not let me be speaking of them, O new Patrick from Rome."

PATRICK. "We would give you leave to be speaking of them, but first you should give heed to God. Since you are now at the end of your days, leave your foolishness, weak old man."

OISIN. "O Patrick, tell me as a secret, since it is you have the best knowledge, will my dog or my hound be let in with me to the court of the King of Grace?"

PATRICK. "Old man in your foolishness that I cannot put any bounds to, your dog or your hound will not be let in with you to the court of the King of Power."

OISIN. "If I had acquaintance with God, and my hound to be at hand, I would make whoever gave food to myself give a share to my hound as well.

"One strong champion that was with the Fianna of Ireland would be better than the Lord of Piety, and than you yourself, Patrick."

PATRICK. "O Oisin of the sharp blades, it is mad words you are saying. God is better for one day than the whole of the Fianna of Ireland."

OISIN. "Though I am now without sway and my life is spent to the end, do not put abuse, Patrick, on the great men of the sons of Baiscne.

"If I had Conan with me, the man that used to be running down the Fianna, it is he would break your head within among your clerks and your priests."

PATRICK. "It is a silly thing, old man, to be talking always of the Fianna; remember your end is come, and take the Son of God to help you."

OISIN. "I used to sleep out on the mountain under the grey dew; I was never used to go to bed without food, while there was a deer on the hill beyond."

PATRICK. "You are astray at the end of your life between the straight way and the crooked. Keep out from the crooked path of pains, and the angels of God will come beneath your head."

OISIN. "If myself and open-handed Fergus and Diarmuid were together now on this spot, we would go in every path we ever went in, and ask no leave of the priests."

PATRICK. "Leave off, Oisin; do not be speaking against the priests that are telling the word of God in every place. Unless you leave off your daring talk, it is great pain you will have in the end."

OISIN. "When myself and the leader of the Fianna were looking for a boar in a valley, it was worse to me not to see it than all your clerks to be without their heads."

PATRICK. "It is pitiful seeing you without sense; that is worse to you than your blindness; if you were to get sight within you, it is great your desire would be for Heaven."

OISIN. "It is little good it would be to me to be sitting in that city, without Caoilte, without Osgar, without my father being with me.

"The leap of the buck would be better to me, or the sight of badgers between two valleys, than all your mouth is promising me, and all the delights I could get in Heaven."

PATRICK. "Your thoughts are foolish, they will come to nothing; your pleasure and your mirth are gone. Unless you will take my advice to-night, you will not get leave on this side or that."

OISIN. "If myself and the Fianna were on the top of a hill to-day drawing our spear-heads, we would have our choice of being here or there in spite of books and priests and bells."

PATRICK. "You were like the smoke of a wisp, or like a stream in a valley, or like a whirling wind on the top of a hill, every tribe of you that ever lived."

OISIN. "If I was in company with the people of strong arms, the way I was at Bearna da Coill, I would sooner be looking at them than at this troop of the crooked croziers.

"If I had Scolb Sceine with me, or Osgar, that was smart in battles, I would not be without meat to-night at the sound of the bell of the seven tolls."

PATRICK. "Oisin, since your wits are gone from you be glad at what I say; it is certain to me you will leave the Fianna and that you will receive the God of the stars."

OISIN. "There is wonder on me at your hasty talk, priest that has travelled in every part, to say that I would part from the Fianna, a generous people, never niggardly."

PATRICK. "If you saw the people of God, the way they are settled at feasts, every good thing is more plentiful with them than with Finn's people, however great their name was.

"Finn and the Fianna are lying now very sorrowful on the flag-stone of pain; take the Son of God in their place; make your repentance and do not lose Heaven."

OISIN. "I do not believe your talk now. O Patrick of the crooked staves, Finn and the Fianna to be there within, unless they find pleasure being in it."

PATRICK. "Make right repentance now, before you know when your end is coming; God is better for one hour than the whole of the Fianna of Ireland."

OISIN. "That is a daring answer to make to me, Patrick of the crooked crozier; your crozier would be in little bits if I had Osgar with me now.

"If my son Osgar and God were hand to hand on the Hill of the Fianna, if I saw my son put down, I would say that God was a strong man.

"How could it be that God or his priests could be better men than Finn, the King of the Fianna, a generous man without crookedness.

"If there was a place above or below better than the Heaven of God, it is there Finn would go, and all that are with him of his people.

"You say that a generous man never goes to the hell of pain; there was not one among the Fianna that was not generous to all.

"Ask of God, Patrick, does He remember when the Fianna were alive, or has He seen east or west any man better than themselves in their fighting.

"The Fianna used not to be saying treachery; we never had the name of telling lies. By truth and the strength of our hands we came safe out of every battle.

"There never sat a priest in a church, though you think it sweet to be singing psalms, was better to his word than the Fianna, or more generous than Finn himself.

"If my comrades were living to-night, I would take no pleasure in your crooning in the church; as they are not living now, the rough voice of the bells has deafened me.

"Och! in the place of battles and heavy fights, where I used to have my place and to take my pleasure, the crozier of Patrick being carried, and his clerks at their quarrelling.

"Och! slothful, cheerless Conan, it is great abuse I used to be giving you; why do you not come to see me now? you would get leave for making fun and reviling through the whole of the niggardly clerks.

"Och! where are the strong men gone that they do not come together to help me! O Osgar of the sharp sword of victory, come and free your father from his bonds!

"Where is the strong son of Lugaidh? Och! Diarmuid of all the women! Och! Caoilte, son of Ronan, think of our love, and travel to me!"

PATRICK. "Stop your talk, you withered, witless old man; it is my King that made the Heavens, it is He that gives blossom to the trees, it is He made the moon and the sun, the fields and the grass."

OISIN. "It was not in shaping fields and grass that my king took his delight, but in overthrowing fighting men, and defending countries, and bringing his name into every part.

"In courting, in playing, in hunting, in baring his banner at the first of a fight; in playing at chess, at swimming, in looking around him at the drinking-hall.

"O Patrick, where was your God when the two came over the sea that brought away the queen of Lochlann of the Ships? Where was He when Dearg came, the son of the King of Lochlann of the golden shields? Why did not the King of Heaven protect them from the blows of the big man?

"Or when Tailc, son of Treon, came, the man that did great slaughter on the Fianna; it was not by God that champion fell, but by Osgar, in the sight of all.

"Many a battle and many a victory was gained by the Fianna of Ireland; I never heard any great deed was done by the King of Saints, or that He ever reddened His hand.

"It would be a great shame for God not to take the locks of pain off Finn; if God Himself were in bonds, my king would fight for His sake.

"Finn left no one in pain or in danger without freeing him by silver or gold, or by fighting till he got the victory.

"For the strength of your love, Patrick, do not forsake the great men; bring in the Fianna unknown to the King of Heaven.

"It is a good claim I have on your God, to be among his clerks the way I am; without food, without clothing, without music, without giving rewards to poets.

"Without the cry of the hounds or the horns, without guarding coasts, without courting generous women; for all that I have suffered by the want of food, I forgive the King of Heaven in my will."

Oisin said: "My story is sorrowful. The sound of your voice is not pleasant to me. I will cry my fill, but not for God, but because Finn and the Fianna are not living."



CHAPTER IV. OISIN'S LAMENTS

And Oisin used to be making laments, and sometimes he would be making praises of the old times and of Finn; and these are some of them that are remembered yet:—

I saw the household of Finn; it was not the household of a soft race; I had a vision of that man yesterday.

I saw the household of the High King, he with the brown, sweet-voiced son; I never saw a better man.

I saw the household of Finn; no one saw it as I saw it; I saw Finn with the sword, Mac an Luin. Och! it was sorrowful to see it.

I cannot tell out every harm that is on my head; free us from our trouble for ever; I have seen the household of Finn.

It is a week from yesterday I last saw Finn; I never saw a braver man. A king of heavy blows; my law, my adviser, my sense and my wisdom, prince and poet, braver than kings, King of the Fianna, brave in all countries; golden salmon of the sea, clean hawk of the air, rightly taught, avoiding lies; strong in his doings, a right judge, ready in courage, a high messenger in bravery and in music.

His skin lime-white, his hair golden; ready to work, gentle to women. His great green vessels full of rough sharp wine, it is rich the king was, the head of his people.

Seven sides Finn's house had, and seven score shields on every side. Fifty fighting men he had about him having woollen cloaks; ten bright drinking-cups in his hall; ten blue vessels, ten golden horns.

It is a good household Finn had, without grudging, without lust, without vain boasting, without chattering, without any slur on any one of the Fianna.

Finn never refused any man; he never put away any one that came to his house. If the brown leaves falling in the woods were gold, if the white waves were silver, Finn would have given away the whole of it.

Blackbird of Doire an Chairn, your voice is sweet; I never heard on any height of the world music was sweeter than your voice, and you at the foot of your nest.

The music is sweetest in the world, it is a pity not to be listening to it for a while, O son of Calphurn of the sweet bells, and you would overtake your nones again.

If you knew the story of the bird the way I know it, you would be crying lasting tears, and you would give no heed to your God for a while.

In the country of Lochlann of the blue streams, Finn, son of Cumhal, of the red-gold cups, found that bird you hear now; I will tell you its story truly.

Doire an Chairn, that wood there to the west, where the Fianna used to be delaying, it is there they put the blackbird, in the beauty of the pleasant trees.

The stag of the heather of quiet Cruachan, the sorrowful croak from the ridge of the Two Lakes; the voice of the eagle of the Valley of the Shapes, the voice of the cuckoo on the Hill of Brambles.

The voice of the hounds in the pleasant valley; the scream of the eagle on the edge of the wood; the early outcry of the hounds going over the Strand of the Red Stones.

The time Finn lived and the Fianna, it was sweet to them to be listening to the whistle of the blackbird; the voice of the bells would not have been sweet to them.

There was no one of the Fianna without his fine silken shirt and his soft coat, without bright armour, without shining stones on his head, two spears in his hand, and a shield that brought victory.

If you were to search the world you would not find a harder man, best of blood, best in battle; no one got the upper hand of him. When he went out trying his white hound, which of us could be put beside Finn?

One time we went hunting on Slieve-nam-ban; the sun was beautiful overhead, the voice of the hounds went east and west, from hill to hill. Finn and Bran sat for a while on the hill, every man was jealous for the hunt. We let out three thousand hounds from their golden chains; every hound of them brought down two deer.

Patrick of the true crozier, did you ever see, east or west, a greater hunt than that hunt of Finn and the Fianna? O son of Calphurn of the bells, that day was better to me than to be listening to your lamentations in the church.

* * * * *

There is no strength in my hands to-night, there is no power within me; it is no wonder I to be sorowful, being thrown down in the sorrow of old age.

Everything is a grief to me beyond any other man on the face of the earth, to be dragging stones along to the church and the hill of the priests.

I have a little story of our people. One time Finn had a mind to make a dun on the bald hill of Cuailgne, and he put it on the Fianna of Ireland to bring stones for building it; a third on the sons of Morna, a third on myself, and a third on the sons of Baiscne.

I gave an answer to Finn, son of Cumhal; I said I would be under his sway no longer, and that I would obey him no more.

When Finn heard that, he was silent a long time, the man without a He, without fear. And he said to me then: "You yourself will be dragging stones before your death comes to you."

I rose up then with anger on me, and there followed me the fourth of the brave battalions of the Fianna. I gave my own judgments, there were many of the Fianna with me.

Now my strength is gone from me, I that was adviser to the Fianna; my whole body is tired to-night, my hands, my feet, and my head, tired, tired, tired.

It is bad the way I am after Finn of the Fianna; since he is gone away, every good is behind me.

Without great people, without mannerly ways; it is sorrowful I am after our king that is gone.

I am a shaking tree, my leaves gone from me; an empty nut, a horse without a bridle; a people without a dwelling-place, I Oisin, son of Finn.

* * * * *

It is long the clouds are over me to-night! it is long last night was; although this day is long, yesterday was longer again to me; every day that comes is long to me!

That is not the way I used to be, without fighting, without battles, without learning feats, without young girls, without music, without harps, without bruising bones, without great deeds; without increase of learning, without generosity, without drinking at feasts, without courting, without hunting, the two trades I was used to; without going out to battle, Ochone! the want of them is sorrowful to me.

No hunting of deer or stag, it is not like that I would wish to be; no leashes for our hounds, no hounds; it is long the clouds are over me to-night!

Without rising up to do bravery as we were used, without playing as we had a mind; without swimming of our fighting men in the lake; it is long the clouds are over me to-night!

There is no one at all in the world the way I am; it is a pity the way I am; an old man dragging stones; it is long the clouds are over me to-night!

I am the last of the Fianna, great Oisin, son of Finn, listening to the voice of bells; it is long the clouds are over me to-night!



NOTES

I. THE APOLOGY

The Irish text of the greater number of the stories in this book has been published, and from this text I have worked, making my own translation as far as my scholarship goes, and when it fails, taking the meaning given by better scholars. In some cases the Irish text has not been printed, and I have had to work by comparing and piecing together various translations. I have had to put a connecting sentence of my own here and there, and I have fused different versions together, and condensed many passages, and I have left out many, using the choice that is a perpetual refusing, in trying to get some clear outline of the doings of the heroes.

I have found it more natural to tell the stories in the manner of the thatched houses, where I have heard so many legends of Finn and his friends, and Oisin and Patrick, and the Ever-Living Ones, and the Country of the Young, rather than in the manner of the slated houses, where I have not heard them.

Four years ago, Dr Atkinson, a Professor of Trinity College, Dublin, in his evidence before the Commission of Intermediate Education, said of the old literature of Ireland:—"It has scarcely been touched by the movements of the great literatures; it is the untrained popular feeling. Therefore it is almost intolerably low in tone—I do not mean naughty, but low; and every now and then, when the circumstance occasions it, it goes down lower than low ... If I read the books in the Greek, the Latin or the French course, in almost every one of them there is something with an ideal ring about it—something that I can read with positive pleasure—something that has what the child might take with him as a [Greek: ktema eis dei]—a perpetual treasure; but if I read the Irish books, I see nothing ideal in them, and my astonishment is that through the whole range of Irish literature that I have read (and I have read an enormous range of it), the smallness of the element of idealism is most noticeable ... And as there is very little idealism there is very little imagination ... The Irish tales as a rule are devoid of it fundamentally."

Dr Atkinson is an Englishman, but unfortunately not only fellow-professors in Trinity but undergraduates there have been influenced by his opinion, that Irish literature is a thing to be despised. I do not quote his words to draw attention to a battle that is still being fought, but to explain my own object in working, as I have worked ever since that evidence was given, to make a part of Irish literature accessible to many, especially among my young countrymen, who have not opportunity to read the translations of the chief scholars, scattered here and there in learned periodicals, or patience and time to disentangle overlapping and contradictory versions, that they may judge for themselves as to its "lowness" and "want of imagination," and the other well-known charges brought against it before the same Commission.

I believe that those who have once learned to care for the story of Cuchulain of Muirthemne, and of Finn and Lugh and Etain, and to recognise the enduring belief in an invisible world and an immortal life behind the visible and the mortal, will not be content with my redaction, but will go, first to the fuller versions of the best scholars, and then to the manuscripts themselves. I believe the forty students of old Irish lately called together by Professor Kuno Meyer will not rest satisfied until they have explored the scores and scores of uncatalogued and untranslated manuscripts in Trinity College Library, and that the enthusiasm which the Gaelic League has given birth to will lead to much fine scholarship.

A day or two ago I had a letter from one of the best Greek scholars and translators in England, who says of my "Cuchulain": "It opened up a great world of beautiful legend which, though accounting myself as an Irishman, I had never known at all. I am sending out copies to Irish friends in Australia who, I am sure, will receive the same sort of impression, almost an impression of pride in the beauty of the Irish mind, as I received myself." And President Roosevelt wrote to me a little time ago that after he had read "Cuchulain of Muirthemne," he had sent for all the other translations from the Irish he could get, to take on his journey to the Western States.

I give these appreciative words not, I think, from vanity, for they are not for me but for my material, to show the effect our old literature has on those who come fresh to it, and that they do not complain of its "want of imagination." I am, of course, very proud and glad in having had the opportunity of helping to make it known, and the task has been pleasant, although toil-some. Just now, indeed, on the 6th October, I am tired enough, and I think with sympathy of the old Highland piper, who complained that he was "withered with yelping the seven Fenian battalions."



II. THE AGE AND ORIGIN OF THE STORIES OF THE FIANNA

Mr Alfred Nutt says in Ossian and the Ossianic Literature, No. 3 of his excellent series of sixpenny pamphlets, Popular Studies in Mythology, Romance, and Folklore:—

"The body of Gaelic literature connected with the name of Ossian is of very considerable extent and of respectable antiquity. The oldest texts, prose for the most part, but also in verse, are preserved in Irish MSS. of the eleventh and twelfth centuries, and go back to a period from one hundred and fifty to two hundred and fifty years older at least. The bulk of Ossianic literature is, however, of later date as far as the form under which it has come down to us is concerned. A number of important texts, prose for the most part, are preserved in MSS. of the fourteenth century, but were probably redacted in the thirteenth and twelfth centuries. But by far the largest mass consists of narrative poems, as a rule dramatic in structure. These have come down to us in MSS. written in Scotland from the end of the fifteenth to the middle of the seventeenth century, in Ireland from the sixteenth down to the middle of the nineteenth century. The Gaelic-speaking peasantry, alike in Ireland and Scotland, have preserved orally a large number of these ballads, as also a great mass of prose narratives, the heroes of which are Ossian and his comrades.

"Were all Ossianic texts preserved in MSS. older than the present century to be printed, they would fill some eight to ten thousand octavo pages. The mere bulk of the literature, even if we allow for considerable repetition of incident, arrests attention. If we further recall that for the last five hundred years this body of romance has formed the chief imaginative recreation of Gaeldom, alike in Ireland and Scotland, and that a peasantry unable to read or write has yet preserved it almost entire, its claims to consideration and study will appear manifest."

He then goes on to discuss how far the incidents in the stories can be accepted as they were accepted by Irish historical writers of the eleventh century as authentic history:—

"Fortunately there is little need for me to discuss the credibility or otherwise of the historic records concerning Finn, his family, and his band of warriors. They may be accepted or rejected according to individual bent of mind without really modifying our view of the literature. For when we turn to the romances, whether in prose or verse, we find that, although the history is professedly the same as that of the Annals, firstly, we are transported to a world entirely romantic, in which divine and semi-divine beings, ungainly monsters and giants, play a prominent part, in which men and women change shapes with animals, in which the lives of the heroes are miraculously prolonged—in short, we find ourselves in a land of Faery; secondly, we find that the historic conditions in which the heroes are represented as living do not, for the most part, answer to anything we know or can surmise of the third century. For Finn and his warriors are perpetually on the watch to guard Ireland against the attacks of over-sea raiders, styled Lochlannac by the narrators, and by them undoubtedly thought of as Norsemen. But the latter, as is well known, only came to Ireland at the close of the eighth century, and the heroic period of their invasions extended for about a century, from 825 to 925; to be followed by a period of comparative settlement during the tenth century, until at the opening of the eleventh century the battle of Clontarf, fought by Brian, the great South Irish chieftain, marked the break-up of the separate Teutonic organisations and the absorption of the Teutons into the fabric of Irish life. In these pages then we may disregard the otherwise interesting question of historic credibility in the Ossianic romances: firstly, because they have their being in a land unaffected by fact; secondly, because if they ever did reflect the history of the third century the reflection was distorted in after-times, and a pseudo-history based upon events of the ninth and tenth centuries was substituted for it. What the historian seeks for in legend is far more a picture of the society in which it took rise than a record of the events which it commemorates."

In a later part of the pamphlet Mr Nutt discusses such questions as whether we may look for examples of third-century customs in the stories, what part of the stories first found their way into writing, whether the Oisin and Patrick dialogues were written under the influence of actual Pagan feeling persisting from Pagan times, or whether "a change came over the feeling of Gaeldom during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries," when the Oisin and Patrick dialogues in their present form began to be written. His final summing-up is that "well-nigh the same stories that were told of Finn and his warrior braves by the Gael of the eleventh century are told in well-nigh the same way by his descendant to-day." Mr Nutt does not enquire how long the stories may have been told before the first story was written down. Larminie, however, whose early death was the first great loss of our intellectual movement, pushes them backward for untold ages in the introduction to his West Irish Folk Tales and Romances. He builds up a detailed and careful argument, for which I must refer readers to his book, to prove that the Scottish Highlands and Ireland have received their folk-lore both from "Aryan and Non-Aryan sources," and that in the Highlands there is more non-Aryan influence and more non-Aryan blood than in Ireland. He argues that nothing is more improbable than that all folk-tales are Aryan, as has sometimes been supposed, and sums up as follows:—

"They bear the stamp of the genius of more than one race. The pure and placid but often cold imagination of the Aryan has been at work on some. In others we trace the more picturesque fancy, the fierceness and sensuality, the greater sense of artistic elegance belonging to races whom the Aryan, in spite of his occasional faults of hardness and coarseness, has, on the whole, left behind him. But as the greatest results in the realm of the highest art have always been achieved in the case of certain blends of Aryan with other blood, I should hardly deem it extravagant if it were asserted that in the humbler regions of the folk-tale we might trace the working of the same law. The process which has gone on may in part have been as follows:—Every race which has acquired very definite characteristics must have been for a long time isolated. The Aryans during their period of isolation probably developed many of their folk-germs into their larger myths, owing to the greater constructiveness of their imagination, and thus, in a way, they used up part of their material. Afterwards, when they became blended with other races less advanced, they acquired fresh material to work on. We have in Ireland an instance to hand, of which a brief discussion may help to illustrate the whole race theory.

"The larger Irish legendary literature divides itself into three cycles—the divine, the heroic, the Fenian. Of these three the last is so well-known orally in Scotland that it has been a matter of dispute to which country it really belongs. It belongs, in fact, to both. Here, however, comes in a strange contrast with the other cycles. The first is, so far as I am aware, wholly unknown in Scotland, the second comparatively unknown. What is the explanation? Professor Zimmer not having established his late-historical view as regards Finn, and the general opinion among scholars having tended of recent years towards the mythical view, we want to know why there is so much more community in one case than in the other. Mr O'Grady long since seeing this difficulty, and then believing Finn to be historical, was induced to place the latter in point of time before Cuchulain and his compeers. But this view is of course inadmissible when Finn is seen not to be historical at all. There remains but one explanation. The various bodies of legend in question are, so far as Ireland is concerned, only earlier or later, as they came into the island with the various races to which they belonged. The wider prevalence, then, of the Finn Saga would indicate that it belonged to an early race occupying both Ireland and Scotland. Then entered the Aryan Gael, and for him henceforth, as the ruler of the island, his own gods and heroes were sung by his own bards. His legends became the subject of what I may call the court poetry, the aristocratic literature. When he conquered Scotland, he took with him his own gods and heroes; but in the latter country the bardic system never became established, and hence we find but feeble echoes of the heroic cycle among the mountains of the North. That this is the explanation is shown by what took place in Ireland. Here the heroic cycle has been handed down in remembrance almost solely by the bardic literature. The popular memory retains but few traces of it. Its essentially aristocratic character is shown by the fact that the people have all but forgotten it, if they ever knew it. But the Fenian cycle has not been forgotten. Prevailing everywhere, still cherished by the conquered peoples, it held its ground in Scotland and Ireland alike, forcing its way in the latter country even into the written literature, and so securing a twofold lease of existence ... The Fenian cycle, in a word, is non-Aryan folk-literature partially subjected to Aryan treatment."

The whole problem is extremely complex, and several other writers have written upon it. Mr Borlase, for instance, has argued in his big book on the Dolmens that the cromlechs, and presumably the Diarmuid and Crania legend, is connected with old religious rites of an erotic nature coming down from a very primitive state of society.

I have come to my own conclusion not so much because of any weight of argument, as because I found it impossible to arrange the stories in a coherent form so long as I considered them a part of history. I tried to work on the foundation of the Annalists, and fit the Fianna into a definite historical epoch, but the whole story seemed trivial and incoherent until I began to think of them as almost contemporaneous with the battle of Magh Tuireadh, which even the Annalists put back into mythical ages. In this I have only followed some of the story-tellers, who have made the mother of Lugh of the Long Hand the grandmother of Finn, and given him a shield soaked with the blood of Balor. I cannot think of any of the stories as having had a modern origin, or that the century in which each was written down gives any evidence as to its age. "How Diarmuid got his Love-Spot," for instance, which was taken down only a few years ago from some old man's recitation by Dr Hyde, may well be as old as "Finn and the Phantoms," which is in one of the earliest manuscripts. It seems to me that one cannot choose any definite period either from the vast living mass of folk-lore in the country or from the written text, and that there is as good evidence of Finn being of the blood of the gods as of his being, as some of the people tell me, "the son of an O'Shaughnessy who lived at Kiltartan Cross."

Dr Douglas Hyde, although he placed the Fenian after the Cuchulain cycle in his History of Irish Literature, has allowed me to print this note:—

"While believing in the real objective existence of the Fenians as a body of Janissaries who actually lived, ruled, and hunted in King Cormac's time, I think it equally certain that hundreds of stories, traits, and legends far older and more primitive than any to which they themselves could have given rise, have clustered about them. There is probably as large a bulk of primitive mythology to be found in the Finn legend as in that of the Red Branch itself. The story of the Fenians was a kind of nucleus to which a vast amount of the flotsam and jetsam of a far older period attached itself, and has thus been preserved."

As I found it impossible to give that historical date to the stories, I, while not adding in anything to support my theory, left out such names as those of Cormac and Art, and such more or less historical personages, substituting "the High King." And in the "Battle of the White Strand," I left out the name of Caelur, Tadg's wife, because I had already followed another chronicler in giving him Ethlinn for a wife. In the earlier part I have given back to Angus Og the name of "The Disturber," which had, as I believe, strayed from him to the Saint of the same name.



III. THE AUTHORITIES

The following is a list of the authorities I have been chiefly helped by in putting these stories together and in translation of the text. But I cannot make it quite accurate, for I have sometimes transferred a mere phrase, sometimes a whole passage from one story to another, where it seemed to fit better. I have sometimes, in the second part of the book, used stories preserved in the Scottish Gaelic, as will be seen by my references. I am obliged to write these notes away from libraries, and cannot verify them, but I think they are fairly correct.



PART ONE. BOOKS ONE, TWO, AND THREE

THE COMING OF THE TUATHA DE DANAAN, AND LUGH OF THE LONG HAND, AND THE COMING OF THE GAEL.— O'Curry, Manners and Customs of the Ancient Irish; MSS. Materials; Atlantis; De Jubainville, Cycle Mythologique; Hennessy, Chronicum Scotorum; Atkinson, Book of Leinster; Annals of the Four Masters; Nennius, Hist, Brit. (Irish Version); Zimmer, Glossae Hibernacae; Whitley Stokes, Three Irish Glossaries; Revue Celtique and Irische Texte; Gaedelica; Nutt, Voyage of Bran; Proceedings Ossianic Societ; O'Beirne Crowe, Amra Columcille; Dean of Lismore's Book; Windisch, Irische Texte; Hennessy and others in Revue Celtique; Kilkenny Archaeological Journal; Keatinge's History; Ogyia; Curtin's Folk Tales; Proceedings Royal Irish Academy, MSS. Series; Dr Sigerson, Bards of Gael and Gall; Miscellanies, Celtic Society.

BOOK FOUR

THE EVER-LIVING LIVING ONES

I have used many of the above, and for separate stories, I may give these authorities:—

MIDHIR AND ETAIN.— O'Curry, Manners and Customs; Whitley Stokes, Dinnsenchus; Mueller, Revue Celtique; Nutt, Voyage of Bran; De Jubainville, Epopee Celtique; Standish Hayes O'Grady, MS. lent me by him.

MANANNAN AT PLAY.— S. Hayes O'Grady, Silva Gaedelica.

HIS CALL TO BRAN.— Professor Kuno Meyer in Nutt's Voyage of Bran; S. Hayes O'Grady, Silva Gaedelica; De Jubainville, Cycle Mythologique.

HIS THREE CALLS TO CORMAC.— Whitley Stokes, Irische Texte.

CLIODNA'S WAVE.— S. Hayes O'Grady, Silva Gaedelica; Whitley Stokes, Dinnsenchus.

HIS CALL TO CONNLA.— O'Beirne Crowe, Kilkenny Arch. Journal; Windisch, Irische Texte.

TADG IN THE ISLANDS.— S. Hayes O'Grady, Silva Gaedelica.

LAEGAIRE IN THE HAPPY PLAIN.— S.H. O'Grady, Silva Gaedelica; Kuno Meyer in Nutt's Voyage of Bran.

FATE OF THE CHILDREN OF LIR.— O'Curry, Atlantis.

PART TWO. THE FIANNA

THE COMING OF FINN, AND FINN'S HOUSEHOLD.— Proceedings Ossianic Society; Kuno Meyer, Four Songs of Summer and Winter; Revue Celtique; S. Hayes O'Grady, Silva Gaedelica; Curtin's Folk Tales.

BIRTH OF BRAN.— Proc. Ossianic Society.

OISIN'S MOTHER.— Kennedy, Legendary Fictions Irish Celts; Mac Innis; Leabhar na Feinne.

BEST MEN OF THE FIANNA.— Dean of Lismore's Book; Silva Gaedelica; Leabhar na Feinne.

LAD OF THE SKINS.— Waifs and Strays of Celtic Tradition; Larminie's Folk Tales; Curtin's Tales.

THE HOUND.— Silva Gaedelica; Whitley Stokes, Dinnsenchus.

RED RIDGE.— Silva Gaedelica.

BATTLE OF THE WHITE STRAND.— Kuno Meyer, Anec. Oxonienses; Hanmer's Chronicle; Dean of Lismore; Curtin's Tales; Silva Gaedelica.

KING OF BRITAIN'S SON.— Silva Gaedelica.

THE CAVE OF CEISCORAN.— Silva Gaedelica.

DONN, SON OF MIDHIR.— Silva Gaedelica.

HOSPITALITY OF CUANNA'S HOUSE.— Proc. Ossianic Society.

CAT-HEADS AND DOG-HEADS.— Dean of Lismore; Leabhar na Feinne; Campbell's Popular Tales of the Western Highlands.

LOMNA'S HEAD.— O'Curry, Orc. Treith, O'Donovan, ed. Stokes.

ILBREC OF ESS RUADH.— Silva Gaedelica.

CAVE OF CRUACHAN.— Stokes, Irische Texts.

WEDDING AT CEANN SLIEVE.— Proc. Ossianic Society.

THE SHADOWY ONE.— O'Curry.

FINN'S MADNESS.— Silva Gaedelica.

THE RED WOMAN.— Hyde, Sgealuidhe Gaedhealach.

FINN AND THE PHANTOMS.— Kuno Meyer, Revue Celtique.

THE PIGS OF ANGUS.— Proc. Ossianic Society.

HUNT OF SLIEVE CUILINN.— Proc. Ossianic Society.

OISIN'S CHILDREN.— O'Curry; Leabhar na Feinne; Campbell's Popular Tales of the Western Highlands; Stokes, Irische Texte; Dean of Lismore; Celtic Magazine; Waifs and Strays of Celtic Tradition.

BIRTH OF DIARMUID.— Pursuit of Diarmuid and Grania (Society for Preservation of the Irish Language); Campbell's Popular Tales.

HOW DIARMUID GOT HIS LOVE-SPOT.— Hyde, Sgealuidhe Gaedhealach.

DAUGHTER OF KING UNDER-WAVE.— Campbell's Popular Tales.

THE HARD SERVANT.— Silva Gaedelica.

HOUSE OF THE QUICKEN TREES.— MSS. in Royal Irish Academy, and in Dr Hyde's possession.

DIARMUID AND GRANIA.— Text Published by S. Hayes O'Grady, Proc. Ossianic Society, and re-edited by N. O'Duffey for Society for Preservation of the Irish Language; Kuno Meyer, Revue Celtique, and Four Songs; Leabhar na Feinne; Campbell's Popular Tales; Kilkenny Arch. Journal; Folk Lore, vol. vii., 1896; Dean of Lismore; Nutt, Waifs and Strays of Celtic Tradition.

CNOC-AN-AIR, ETC.— Proc. Ossianic Society.

WEARING AWAY OF THE FIANNA.— Silva Gaedelica; Dean of Lismore; Leabhar na Feinne; Campbell's Popular Tales; Proc. Ossianic Society; O'Curry; Waifs and Strays of Celtic Tradition; Stokes, Irische Texte.

THE END OF THE FIANNA.— Hyde, Sgealuidhe Gaedhealach; Proc. Ossianic Society; Silva Gaedelica; Miss Brooke's Reliques; Annals of the Four Masters; Celtic Magazine.

OISIN AND PATRICK, AND OISIN'S LAMENTS.— Proc. Ossianic Society; Dean of Lismore; Kilkenny Arch, fournal; Curtin's Tales.

I have taken Grania's sleepy song, and the description of Finn's shield and of Cumhal's treasure-bag, and the fact of Finn's descent from Ethlinn, from Duanaire Finn, now being edited for the Irish Texts Society by Mr John MacNeill, the proofs of which I have been kindly allowed to see. And I have used sometimes parts of stories, or comments on them gathered directly from the people, who have kept these heroes so much in mind. The story of Caoilte coming to the help of the King of Ireland in a dark wood is the only one I have given without either a literary or a folk ancestry. It was heard or read by Mr Yeats, he cannot remember where, but he had, with it in his mind, written of "Caoilte's burning hair" in one of his poems.

I and my readers owe special thanks to those good workers in the discovery of Irish literature, Professor Kuno Meyer and Mr Whitley Stokes, translators of so many manuscripts; and to my friend and kinsman Standish Hayes O'Grady, for what I have taken from that wonderful treasure-house, his Silva Gaedelica.



IV. THE PRONUNCIATION

This is the approximate pronunciation of some of the more difficult names:

Adhnuall Ai-noo-al. Ailbhe. Alva. Almhuin All-oon, or Alvin. Aobh Aev, or Eev. Aodh Ae (rhyming to "day"). Aoibhill Evill. Aoife Eefa.

Badb Bibe. Beltaine, or Bealtaine Bal-tinna. Bladhma Bly-ma. Bodb Dearg Bove Darrig.

Caoilte Cweeltia. Cam Ruidhe Corn Rwee. Ciabhan Kee-a-van. Cliodna Cleevna. Coincheann Kun-Kann. Crann Buidhe Cran bwee. Credhe Crae-a. Cumhal Coo-al.

Deaghadh D'ya-a. Dubhthach Duffach. Duibhreann Dhiv-ran. Duibhrium Dhiv-rinn. Dun Doon.

Eimher Aevir. Emhain Avvin. Eochaid Eohee. Eoghan Owen.

Fionnchad Finn-ach-a. Fodhla Fola. Fodla Fola.

Gallimh Gol-yiv. Glas Gaibhnenn Glos Gov-nan.

Leith Laeig Leh Laeg. Loch Dairbhreach Loch Darvragh. Lugaidh Loo-ee, or Lewy. Lugh Loo.

Magh an Ionganaidh Moy-in-eean-ee. Magh Cuillean Moy Cullin. Magh Feabhail Moy Fowl. Magh Macraimhe Moy Mucrivva. Magh Mell Moy Mal. Magh Rein Moy Raen. Magh Tuireadh Moytirra. Manannan Mananaun. Midhe Mee. Midhna Mec-na. Mochaomhog Mo-cwecv-og. Muadhan Moo-aun. Murchadh Murachu.

Nemhnain Now-nin. Niamh Nee-av.

Og Og.

Rath Medba, or Meadhbha Ra Maev-a. Rudraighe Rury.

Samhain Sow-in. Scathniamh Scau-nee-av. Sceolan Skolaun. Searbhan Sharavaun. Sidhe Shee. Slieve Echtge Sleev Acht-ga.

Tadg Teig. Teamhair T'yower, or Tavvir. Tuatha de Danaan Too-a-ha dae Donnan. Tuathmumhain Too-moon.

I have not followed a fixed rule as to the spelling of Irish names; I have taken the spelling I give from various good authorities, but they vary so much that, complete accuracy not being easy, I sometimes look to custom and convenience. I use, for instance, "Slieve" for "Sliabh," because it comes so often, and a mispronunciation would spoil so many names. I have treated "Inbhir" (a river mouth) in the same way, spelling it "Inver," and even adopting it as an English word, because it is so useful. The forty scholars of the New School of Old Irish will do us good service if they work at the question both of spelling and of pronunciation of the old names and settle them as far as is possible.

V. THE PLACE NAMES

Accuill Achill, Co. Mayo. Aine Cliach Cnoc Aine, Co. Limerick. Almhuin Near Kildare. Ath Cliath Dublin. Athluain Athlone. Ath na Riogh Athenry. Badhamain Cahir, Co. Tipperary. Baile Cronin Barony of Imokilty, Co. Cork. Banna The Bann. Beare Berehaven. Bearna na Eadargana Roscommon. Bearnas Mor Co. Donegal. Beinn Gulbain Benbulban, Co. Sligo. Beire do Bhunadas Berehaven. Bel-atha Senaig Ballyshannon. Belgata In Connemara. Benna Boirde Source of the Bann and Mourne Mountains. Berramain Near Tralee. Bhas River Bush. Boinn River Boyne. Bri Leith Co. Longford.

Cairbre Carbury. Cairgin Three miles south of Londonderry. Carrthach River River Carra, near Dunkerrin Mountains. Ceanntaile Kinsale. Ceiscorainn Co. Sligo. Cill Dolun Killaloe, Co. Clare. Cliodna's Wave At Glandore, Co. Cork. Cluantarbh Clontarf. Cnoc Aine Co. Limerick. Cnoc-an-Air Co. Kerry. Cnoc na righ Co. Sligo. Corca Duibhne Corcaguiny, Co. Kerry. Corrslieve Carlow Mountains. Crotta Cliach Galtee Mountains. Cruachan Co. Roscommon. Cruachan Aigle Croagh Patrick.

Doire a Cairn Derrycarn, Co. Meath. Doire-da-Bhoth In Slieve Echtge. Druim Cleibh Co. Sligo. Druim Lis Near Loch Gill. Druimscarha Near River Arighis, Co. Cork. Dun Sobairce Dunsevenh, Co. Antrim. Durlas Thurles.

Ess Dara Near Sligo. Ess Ruadh Assaroe, Co. Donegal. Fidh Gaible Fergill, Co. Sligo. Finntraighe Ventry. Fionn The Finn. Fionnabraic Kilfenna, Co. Clare. Fionntutach Co. Limerick. Fleisge Co. Kerry.

Gabhra Near Tara. Gaibh atha na Fiann River Leamhar, flows from Killarney. Gairech and Ilgairech Hills near Mullingar. Gallimh Galway. Gleann na Caor Co. Cork. Gullach Dollairb Barony of Rathconrath.

Hill of Bairnech Near Killarney. Hill of Uisnech Co. Westmeath.

Inver Cechmaine East coast of Ulster. Inver Colpa Drogheda. Inver Slane N.E. of Leinster. Irrus Domnann Erris, Co. Mayo. Island of Toraig Tory Island, Co. Donegal.

Laoi River Lee. Leith Laoi Leitrim. Linn Feic Near Slaney. Loch Bel Sead Co. Tipperary. Loch Ce Co. Roscommon. Loch Dairbhreach Loch Derryvaragh, Co. Westmeath. Loch Deirg Dheirc Loch Derg on the Shannon. Loch Eirne Loch Erne. Loch Feabhail Loch Foyle. Loch Lein Killarney. Loch Orbson Loch Corrib. Loch na-n Ean In Co. Roscommon. Lough Neatach Loch Neagh. Luimneach Limerick.

Maev Mhagh Plain about Loughrea. Magh Cobha Iveagh, Co. Down. Magh Cuilenn Moycullen, Co. Galway. Magh Femen Co. Tipperary. Magh Larg Co. Roscommon. Magh Leine King's County. Magh Luirg Co. Roscommon. Magh Maini Co. Wexford. Magh Mucraimhe Near Athenry. Magh Nia Same as Magh Tuireadh. Magh Rein Co. Leitrim. Magh Tuireadh Moytura near Sligo, scene of great battle, and Moytura, near Cong, scene of first battle. March of Finnliath River Lee, near Tralee. Midhe Meath, west of Ardagh. Mis Geadh In Bay of Erris. Muaid River Moy. Muc-inis Muckinish, off Connemara.

Nas Naas. Nem The Nem.

Oenach Clochan Morristown, Co. Limerick. Osraige Ossory.

Paps of Dana Co. Kerry. Portlairge Waterford.

River Maigh Co. Limerick. Ros da Shioleach Limerick. Ruirlech Liffey.

Samair R. Cumhair, runs through Bruff. Sionnan River Shannon. Siuir River Suir, Co. Tipperary. Siuir and Beoir Suir and Nore and Barrow. and Berba Slieve Baisne Co. Roscommon. Slieve Bladmai Slieve Bloom. Slieve Buane Slieve Banne, Co. Roscommon. Slieve Conaill Border of Leitrim and Donegal. Slieve Crot Co. Tipperary. Slieve Cua Co. Waterford. Slieve Cua and Slieve Crot In Galtee Mountains. Slieve Cuailgne Co. Louth. Slieve Echtge Co. Galway. Slieve Fuad Co. Armagh. Slieve Guaire Co. Cavan. Slieve Luchra Co. Kerry. Slieve Lugha Co. Mayo. Slieve Mis Co. Kerry. Slieve Muice Co. Tipperary. Slieve-nam-Ban Co. Tipperary Sligach Sligo. Srub Bruin In West Kerry. Sruth na Maoile Mull of Cantire.

Tailltin Telltown. Teamhair Tara, Co. Meath. Teunhair Luchra Near Castle Island, Co. Kerry. The Beith River Behy, Barony of Dunkerrin. The Beoir The Berba. The Islands of Mod In Clew Bay. The Lemain River Laune, Co. Kerry. The Muaidh River Moy, Co. Sligo. Tonn Toime Toines, near Killarney. Traigh Eothaile Near Ballisodare. Tuathmumain Thomond.

Ui Chonaill Gabhra Co. Limerick. Ui Fiachraih, Fiachraig Co. Mayo.

Wave of Rudraighe Bay of Dundrum.

THE END