The High Deeds of Finn and other Bardic Romances of Ancient Ireland | Page 2

dates of the MSS. in which they are contained. The order is given by the position, in real or mythical history, of the events they deal with. Of course it is not practicable to dovetail them into one another with perfect accuracy. Where a story, like that of the Children of Lir, extends over nearly a thousand years, beginning with the mythical People of Dana and ending in the period of Christian monasticism, one can only decide on its place by considering where it will throw most light on those which come nearest to it. In this, as in the selection and treatment of the tales, there is of course room for much difference of opinion. I can only ask the critic to believe that nothing has been done in the framing of this collection of Gaelic romances without the consideration and care which the value of the material demands and which the writer's love of it has inspired.
T.W. ROLLESTON
[2] There is one important tale of the Finn cycle, the _Pursuit of Dermot and Grania_, which I have not included. I have omitted it, partly because it presents the character of Finn in a light inconsistent with what is said of him elsewhere, and partly because it has in it a certain sinister and depressing element which renders it unsuitable for a collection intended largely for the young.
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
COIS NA TEINEADH
BARDIC ROMANCES
I. THE STORY OF THE CHILDREN OF LIR
II. THE QUEST OF THE SONS OF TURENN
III. THE SECRET OF LABRA
IV. KING IUBDAN AND KING FERGUS
V. THE CARVING OF MAC DATHO'S BOAR
VI. THE VENGEANCE OF MESGEDRA
VII. THE STORY OF ETAIN AND MIDIR
VIII. HOW ETHNE QUITTED FAIRYLAND
THE HIGH DEEDS OF FINN
IX. THE BOYHOOD OF FINN MAC CUMHAL
X. THE COMING OF FINN
XI. FINN'S CHIEF MEN
XII. THE TALE OF VIVIONN THE GIANTESS
XIII. THE CHASE OF THE GILLA DACAR
XIV. THE BIRTH OF OISíN
XV. OISíN IN THE LAND OF YOUTH
THE HISTORY OF KING CORMAC
XVI. 1. THE BIRTH OF CORMAC
2. THE JUDGMENT OF CORMAC
3. THE MARRIAGE OF KING CORMAC
4. THE INSTRUCTIONS OF THE KING
5. CORMAC SETS UP THE FIRST MILL IN ERINN
6. A PLEASANT STORY OF CORMAC'S BREHON
7. THE JUDGMENT CONCERNING CORMAC'S SWORD
8. THE DISAPPEARANCE OF CORMAC
9. DESCRIPTION OF CORMAC
10. DEATH AND BURIAL OF CORMAC
NOTES ON THE SOURCES
PRONOUNCING INDEX
ILLUSTRATIONS
"FINN HEARD FAR OFF THE FIRST NOTES OF THE FAIRY HARP" (Frontispiece)
"THERE SAT THE THREE MAIDENS WITH THE QUEEN"
"THEY MADE AN ENCAMPMENT AND THE SWANS SANG TO THEM"
"BEAR US SWIFTLY, BOAT OF MANANAN, TO THE GARDEN OF THE HESPERIDES"
"THERE DWELT THE RED-HAIRED OCEAN-NYMPHS"
"THEY ALL TROOPED OUT, LORDS AND LADIES, TO VIEW THE WEE MAN"
"FERGUS GOES DOWN INTO THE LAKE"
"A MIGHTY SHOUT OF EXULTATION AROSE FROM THE ULSTERMEN"
"THEY ROSE UP IN THE AIR"
"SHE HEARD HER OWN NAME CALLED AGAIN AND AGAIN"
"AND THAT NIGHT THERE WAS FEASTING AND JOY IN THE LONELY HUT"
"THEY RAN HIM BY HILL AND PLAIN"
"DERMOT TOOK THE HORN AND WOULD HAVE FILLED IT"
"'FOLLOW ME NOW TO THE HILL OF ALLEN'"
"THEY RODE UP TO A STATELY PALACE"
"THE WHITE STEED HAD VANISHED FROM THEIR EYES LIKE A WREATH OF MIST"
Introduction
Many years have passed by since, delivering the Inaugural Lecture of the Irish Literary Society in London, I advocated as one of its chief aims the recasting into modern form and in literary English of the old Irish legends, preserving the atmosphere of the original tales as much as possible, but clearing them from repetitions, redundant?expressions, idioms interesting in Irish but repellent in English, and, above all, from absurdities, such as the sensational fancy of the later editors and bards added to the simplicities of the original tales.
Long before I spoke of this, it had been done by P.W. Joyce in his OLD CELTIC ROMANCES, and by Standish O'Grady for the whole story of Cuchulain, but in this case with so large an imitation of the Homeric manner that the Celtic spirit of the story was in danger of being lost. This was the fault I had to find with that inspiring book,[3] but it was a fault which had its own attraction.
[3] I gave this book--The History of Ireland (HEROIC?PERIOD)--to Burne-Jones in order to interest him in Irish myth and legend. "I'll try and read it," he said. A week afterwards he came and said--"It is a new world of thought and pleasure you have opened to me. I knew nothing of this, and life is quite enlarged. But now, I want to see all the originals. Where can I get them?"
I have only spoken of prose writing above. But in poetry (and in Poetry well fitted to the tales), this work had already been done nobly, and with a fine Celtic splendour of feeling and expression, by Sir Samuel Ferguson.
Since then, a number of writers have translated into literary English a host of the Irish tales, and have done this with a just reverence for their originals. Being, in