Pagan Ireland.

by Eleanor Hull

The Tribute Called to Boromhe.

CHAPTER XVIII.

Authorities : Keating's History of Ireland, with the piece en. citled " The Boromean Tribute." Edited by Dr. Standish Hayes O'Grady, in SilvaGadelica.

IT was Tuathal who formed the Province of Meath and set it apart for the support of the high king of Tara. He took a piece of land from each side of the great stone, still called the "Stone of the Divisions," which is on the side of the Hill of Usnech where the Provinces of Ulster, Munster, Leinster, and Connaught met, and he formed of this new division the royal Province of Meath, the estate of which was to form the special appanage of the High King of Tara. He held the Feis of Tara with great splendour and re-established the monarchy. It was in the reign of Tuath: 1 also that the heavy tribute called the Boromhe (Boru), about which so many fierce battles were fought, was tor the first time laid upon Leinster. It is from it that Brian Boromhe, or "Brian of the Tributes," is sup- posed to have got his name long afterwards.

This was the cause for which the tax was levied on the Kingdom of Leinster. Tuathal had two daughters, loving and beloved, and the elder of them

174 THE ROMANCE OF THE EARLY KINGS.

(for it was the custom in Ireland that the younger daughter should not be married before the elder) was given in marriage to the King of Leinster; but it was the younger that the King preferred, and would have sought in marriage. He got up a story that the elder sister, his wife, was dead, and returned to Tara to ask the hand of the other princess. Tuathal said, " Had I fifty and one daughters, gladly would I give them all to thee if thou wast in need of a wife." The other maiden was therefore given to him, and he bore her away to Leinster, and for a long time they were happy, but one day it chanced that Fithir caught sight of her sister, Dairine, and she knew that the report of her death was untrue, and she died straightway of grief and shame. The other sister died immediately after. When this story came to Tara, the King was exceedingly angry, because of the slight that had been pat upon his daughters; the Kings of Connaught and Ulster, too, who were the foster-fathers of the two girls, gathered their forces together, and they marched into the borders of Leinster to the North and West, and harried and devastated the country. More- over, they fought two battles with the King of Leinster, and his son was slain, and many chiefs; until at length, because winter was coming on, they made peace, and Leinster agreed to pay the blood-price which the King of Ireland exacted for the death of his two daughters. It was a heavy tribute that Tara

THE TRIBUTE OF THE EARLY KINGS. 175

laid upon Leinster. Thrice fifty times an hundred cows, thrice fifty hundred swine; mantles as many, and chains of silver; thrice fifty hundred sheep; thirty red- eared cows, with calves of the same colour; caldrons and other household pots. From the time of Tuathal to the time of Cormac, son of Art, that tribute was yearly lifted from Leinster, but often it could not be obtained without a battle, for the burden was heavy, and Leinster was impoverished by it, and the men of the province resisted the payment. After Cormac the payment could not be enforced for a time, though the destruction of the thirty royal maidens who were burned in their house at Tara by Dunlang, King of Leinster, caused them to endeavour to enforce it again.

Many great battles were fought to resist this unjust tribute from time to time, and it was because of the Boromhe that the Province of Leinster sided always with the enemies of Tara, as we shall see in the later history.

The King succeeding Tuathal, who fell in battle, was Feidhlimidh (Felim), called the " Legal," because he endeavoured to establish better laws and an appeal to justice in Ireland. Hitherto if p. man wounded or killed an adversary, he himself took vengeance, exacting life for life, eye for eye, hand for hand, according to the rule of " like for like "; but Felim strove to induce men to bring their cause before the Brehons, to be legally tried, and he obliged them

176 THE ROMAN'CE OF THE EARLY KINGS

to accept the decision of the judge. In his reign were great wars between Leinster and Munster.

Then, in 122 A.D., Cathair M6r, the "Great," seized the kingdom, and drove out the young Prince Conn, the son of Felim, who was afterwards called Conn of the Hundred Battles, to Connaught. There he was brought up in feats of arms and chivalry by Conall, King of Connaught. But one day a certain Druid, who had lived in his father's court, came to seek the prince. He found him hurling on the green among the other children, and he upbraided him for his childish behaviour in being content in the position in which he was, instead of seeking to recover the kingdom of his father. The boy, seeing the Druid in tears, threw away his hurly, and went to the King of Connaught and demanded freedom to go and recover the sovereignty of Tara.

" What, child," cried the King, " content yourself, you are not yet of age to war against the monarch of Tara. Stay with me till you are of maturer age and judgment." But when Conall saw that he would not be persuaded, he placed the whole forces and power of his kingdom in Conn's hands, and they met the forces of Cathair on the banks of the River Boyne, and there the army of Cathair was overthrown, and the king himself was slain, and he was buried near the river.

CHAPTER XIX.

CONN OF THE HUNDRED BATTLES, 123-157 A.D.

Authorities :" Annals of Clonmacnoise " and of "The Four Masters." The pieces entitled " The Battle of Magh Lena" and the "Courtship of Momera," edited by Eugene O'Curry for the Celtic Society, 1855.

So Conn slew Cathair M6r, King of Ireland, and reigned in his stead. It was in his reign that Eoghan (Owen) Mor wrested from the monarch of Ireland half the country, all south of a line from Dublin Bay to Gal- way, and the northern half henceforward was called Conn's half and the southern half Mogh's half (Leth Cuinn and Leth Mogha), and this is how it happened.

When Conn came to the throne, he bestowed the portion of Leinster on his tutor, the druid who had brought him up, in token of affection. But at this time, a captain of Conn's host, Cumhall (Cool) by name, had made himself leader of a great army gathered out of all the provinces of Erin for the support and protec- tion of the king. It was this host that was afterwards knov/n as the Fianna or Fians of Erin, and which accomplished wonderful exploits under Finn son of Cumhall (Finn mac Cool). Cumhall thought that the kingdom of Leinster should have been given to

M

178 THE ROMANCE OF THE EARLY KINGS.

him, in reward for his services in organising the army, and bringing it into such good condition; but at the moment when Conn gave the province to his tutor, Cumhall was away in Alba (Scotland), whither he had fled with the wife whom he had chosen, and who had been refused to him by her father. It was she who was mother of Finn.

He immediately returned, and seized upon the kingdom of Leinster. Conn called upon Aedh mac Morna, chief of the Fians of Connaught, to come to his help against Cumhall, and he offered him as a bribe the captaincy of all the Fians of Tara if he would fight against him. The Connaught Fians liked to be independent of the whole body, and they accepted these terms, and met Cumhall in the Battle of Cnuca, and in that battle Cumhall was killed and his troops defeated; but Aedh lost an eye, and he was called henceforth Goll, or the " blind " mac Morna. On the side of Cumhall in the battle of Cnuca were Eoghan Mor, son of the King of Munster, and the troops of Munster with him.

This Eoghan was discontented and ambitious, and he was not satisfied to be prince of Munster merely, but aspired to the monarchy. He picked 2 quarrel with Conn, because Conn had favoured three princes of Eoghan's family more than himself, and they met at the first battle of Magh Lena. A skirmish took place there, but Eoghan, finding himself hard pressed,

CONN OF THE HUNDRED BATTLES. 179

begged for a respite for three days and three nights to take counsel what he would do. Nevertheless he harried the country, and they soon fell to arms again, and Eoghan would have been killed but that he was carried away by a fairy maiden who loved him, and she brought him to her dwelling on the island called Inis Greagraidh, in Bantry Bay, and there she hid him for many days, and when his enemies pursued him, she put him on her ships and out to sea, beyond the reach of Conn. After a time his troops gathered to him there, and they took ship together and sailed away to Spain. And the King of Spain received Eoghan with great honour and gave him a place to dwell in, and made him and his followers welcome.

Now the king had a beautiful daughter, named Beare (though she is sometimes also called Momera), and before the coming of Eoghan, she had been told by her druid that there should come a prince from Ireland to woo her. The druid also bade her weave for him a lustrous coat out of the magic salmon's skin that swam in the River Ebro. So she caught the salmon that night and stripped him of his glistening coat, and out of it she wove a mantle bright and shining, and of iridescent colours. She laid it by till the prince should come for her. That very night came Eoghan and his train to ask for hospitality. When Eoghan saw the princess, he admired her exceedingly, and soon he grew to love her, but because

180 THE ROMANCE OF THE EARLY KINGS.

he was poor and an exile and had no dowry to give, he. dared not ask her hand in marriage, and she wondered that he did not speak. And all the time the shining mantle lay by. At last the king discovered the love that Eoghan had for Beare, and he asked him why he had not asked for her? Eoghan answered modestly that he had nothing worthy to bestow on her, being now an exile and without a kingdom. The king said that there was no one on whom he would so willingly bestow his daughter as on Eoghan, and that ai- for a gift, he himself would give all that was needed for them both. Then they were betrothed, and Beare brought the salmon's glistening robe and put it on Eoghan, and all were astonished at the splendour of his beauty and at the marvel of the iridescent mantle. So they were married, and for six years Eoghan so- journed there in quietude and happiness.

But his thoughts turned to home, and the longing grew upon him to reconquer his kingdom. But when he spoke of it to Beare, she said, "If that island of yours were loose at the roots, I would get my soldiers to cut it off and tow it over, and fix it to an angle of Spain, and then we both should be contented : you with your island home, and I with mine." So she laughed the matter off, for she did not want to leave Spain and voyage across to Ireland, and to be troubled with wars and contests, and all the struggle for a kingdom. However, at last he resolved to go, and Beare 's

CONN OF THE HUNDRED BATTLES. 181

brother and a great body of Spanish troops volun- teered to accompany him, and help him win the king- dom. They landed on the fairy isle in Bantry Bay, but he changed its name from that time, and called it Beare Island, in honour of his wife, because it was there she first set foot on Ireland, and so it is called to this day.

Then Eoghan summoned the princes of Munster to come to him, and join their forces with his to recover the kingdom for Eoghan. But they sent back a jeering message, and made little of Eoghan and his designs, until he sent a troop to surround them and to force them to submit. By degrees he collected a great army, and persuaded the men of Ulster and Leinster to revolt to his side, so that the three provinces were with him, and only Connaught was left to Conn, who fled from Tara to take refuge in Connaught among the troops of Coll. Eoghan followed Conn, and harried and plundered all Connaught, and when Conn heard of the great army that was with Eoghan, he gnawed his spear from the shaft to the iron point with rage. They sent their women into the lonely passes of the mountains and of the wildernesses, and Conn commanded that his troops should silently approach where Eoghan 's army lay. Also he com- manded that all through the wood where he was shelter- ing for the night, between every two or three of his few troops, a fire should be lit, so that it should appear

182 THE ROMANCE OF THE EARLY KINGS.

that the forest was filled with soldiers. " How does tne wood appear to you now? " asked Conn when all was done. "It is all one broad sheet of red flame," they said.

In the morning- a messenger came to Conn with pro- posals from Eoghan, and though the proposals were hard, namely, the half of Ireland to Eoghan, Conn thought it better to submit. So then Ire- land was divided into halves, from Dublin Bay to Gal- way; and Conn kept the Northern half, and Eoghan took the South. They were called Leth Cuinn, or Conn's half, and Leth Mogha, or Mogh's half, for Mogh Nuadhat was another name for Eoghan M6r.

For fifteen years things remained like this, yet Eoghan would not send the foreigners home; and all that they desired was to fight with Conn, for they liked a fight belter than a truce, and after that to return to their own country. They had come far, they said, and had not yet seen a battle. So they tried to stir up a cause of revolt in the mind of Eoghan. It hap- pened one time that Eoghan was making a kingly cir- cuit of his half of Ireland, until he came to the harbour of Ath-Cliath, or Dublin. Of the merchant vessels that lay in the harbour, only a small number were on his side, but on Conn's side the water was covered with ships. Eoghan demanded that as the half of Ireland was his, so, too, the half of all the goods and merchandise that came to Ireland should be his also. When Conn

CONN OF THE HUNDRED BATTLES. 183

heard that, he said that never while he lived would he consent, and rather would he lose his crown than submit to such unjust demands. At this reply, Eoghan and his troops were pleased, because it gave them a cause of war, and they got themselves in readiness, and it was not long before they marched with banners flying to Magh Lena, (Co. Westmeath), where the former battle had been fought. There they prepared themselves leisurely, setting up a kingly pavilion for Eoghan and huts and comfortable quarters for the soldiers. All lent a hand in cutting down the forest trees, choosing smooth poles and wattles with the best sedges from the marshes to build and thatch their sheltering sheds. And they made broad paths between the dwelling-places and stacked their weapons in ranges and their armour on racks, and they regulated their sleeping and cooking-places, and their markets, and their places for hearing music. Eoghan de- sired his best workmen to erect three high palisades for defence, and three strong forts and three lofty walls and three firm cathairs where they might lie in safety.

When the King of Ulster heard that they were come he rejoiced, for he knew that it would be to Conn like a fire in his heart, or like a troublesome creditor sitting at his door, to have those three strongholds erected on his borders. He descended from the North on Meath and Tara. and Meath was ravaged by his troops, and the

184 THE ROMANCE OF THE EARLY KINGS.

country became a high-road of plunder before them. Behind them, as they passed, they left a waste and a raging, awful sheet of rapid flame, burning villages, with women and children slaughtered. Then Conn gathered the hosts of Tara to him, and though it was like the sailing of a rotten ship between two powerful billows to steer between the troops of Ulster and those of Eoghan, he rushed valiantly upon the men of Ulster and drove them back. The King of Ulster was killed, and Conn restored the captives and the sorrowful women to their homes, and then he returned to cele- brate the Feis of Tara, and to be cured of his heavy wounds.

So soon as he was well he marched on Ath Luachra and encamped there, and he called a secret counsel of his chiefs to consult what should be done. They all encour- aged him to go forward, but he said that he felt the weakness of his troops against such a powerful army, and that it would be wiser and safer to come to terms with Eoghan. " What terms? " said Conal, the fore- most of his captains. " The terms," said the king sadly, " that he shall retain the provinces of Erin, which are already his, with Ulster added, though grievous it is to me to part from that sword-supporting land of my battalions; and that Connaught only be left to me with the territory of Teffia (the north-west portion of ancient Meath) and Tara, for from the profits of those territories I have been fed ever since my birth-"

CONN OF THE HUNDRED BATTLES. 185

'' Those are great terms," said Conall. Then two princely youths were charged to take that message, for the king said that if he sent it by the hand of the bards, as was usual, Eoghan would take it as a complete sub- irission; but the princes would present the message with dignity. The princes were admitted to the pavilion of Eoghan, who listened attentively to their words. But he answered at once that it would be like ale without a cup to drink it from, or like a loan which never was re- turned, to have the whole of Ireland without Tara. He was ready to attack them in his anger, but they said that it was not lawful to attack those who came with an offer of peace, nor was it wise to grow angry over deep submission. " Who are ye yourselves, O youths?" said Eoghan. " we are Eochaid (Eochy) of the white knees, and Fiacha of the white hands, sons of Crim- than of the yellow hair," they said. " If your lives are spared, will you remain with me as hostages for )our own king, that he acknowledge me supreme King of Erin? " said Eoghan. " Truly not, O high King," they fearlessly reply, ' ' for that would be for Conn to resign the crown; and the lives of any two would not oblige him to do that. Moreover, though Conn has offered you terms, we think, so far as we know him, that he will not readily give up the least farmland to you, and that he wishes that you should reject his terms." When Eoghan heard this defiant answer, he was filled with wroth, and he commanded, those two princely

186 THE ROMANCE OF THE EARLY KINGS.

youths to be seized and hanged at sundown. All his men refused to perform a deed of treachery upon the youths, but the king forced them, and between day and night, at the setting of the sun, they were hanged on a hill in face of the army of Conn. When Conn saw that, he said that though he would have retired and left the whole of Erin to Eoghan had he acted like a prince, he now would fight to the last. Then he sent Finn back to defend Tara, and that very evening he would have fallen on the foe in a night attack but that Goll refused, for he could not see to lead the troops at night. The next morning he put the battle in array, and every chief and great warrior undertook to oppose himself to some special division of the host of Eoghan. Conn said that he and Conall desired in this fight to do some special service, and asked what he should do. " Have done, O High King," they all ex- claim, " for the part of High Kings is only to exult in the brave deeds of their army."

But to Eoghan an awful apparition appeared as he prepared for battle, and as he passed through his troops to cheer and hearten them. Three venomous- tongued repulsive blue-bearded goblins, the like of whom were not known in Erin, met him with shrieking and dismal howlings. Women they were, but they had beards, grey and shaggy, like men, and their gaunt lean bodies and withered arms and claw-like finger- nails, struck terror into Eoghan and his host, so that

CONN OF THE HUNDRED BATTLES. 187

they cowered before them. " Whence are ye come? " cried Eoghan, " and how got ye here? " " We come from afar, and it is our own power that brought us," they replied. " what are your powers? " said Eoghan again. "It is to speak of them that we are come," say they. " It is we who draw the waters of the ocean up upon the high lands, and scatter the white snow upon the ground. It is we who cast over the wide plains the broad sheets of summer lightning, and bring distortion and madness upon men; and it is to show you the approach of your own death, and the little length of life that is left to you, that we are come, O Eoghan."

" Upon yourselves and upon Conn be your evil fore- bodings," said the king, " and may your evil intention be drowned and smothered in the depths of the sea. ' ' ' You may not escape us," they reply, " for the end of your life and of your prosperity is near, and every stroke ot the men that are with Conn shall find its victim. You yourself, O King, will leave your head and your trophies with the troops of Conn."

Even as they spoke the troops of Conn came on. Then Eoghan summoned his valour and his kingly com- mand, and he bestirred his men, and a valiant and eager contest was fought that day. Conn and Eoghan engaged in single combat, and those two chiefs meeting together was like the meeting of two young lions. In the end Eoq-han fell by the hand

138 THE ROMANCE OF THE EARLY KINGS.

of Conn, though Conn was sore wounded, and was carried off the field of battle. But after a time he re- vived again, and he gathered home his troops and reigned in Tara for twenty years from that.

Conn offered the sovereignty of Munster to his son, Conaire, but Conaire said, " Give it to Macniadh rather, for I am thy faithful vassal, but Macniadh is not submissive to thee. " "Take thou my blessing for that speech," said Conn; " Munster shall be divided be- tween you two; moreover I hope that thou wilt obtain the sovereignty of Erin after me," which fell out as he had said. For Conaire reigned next to Conn, and after him Conn's younger son, Art the Lonely One, as ue shall see.

One old writer says that when Eoghan was killed, GolPs warriors raised the body on high upon their shields before the contending armies, pierced as it was with wounds, exulting in his death. But when Goll saw that, he said, " Lay down the body of Munster's King, for he died as a hero should."

CHAPTER XX.

ART THE LONELY ONE, AND THE BATTLE OF MAGH MUCRAMHA, 166-196 A.D.

Authorities : The piece entitled " Battle of Magh Mucramha." edited by S. H. O'Grady in Siha Gadelica, " The Annals of the Four Masters," &c. Dr. Joyce gives an English version of the Voyage of Connla of the Golden Hair in Old Celtic Romances.

ART THE SOLITARY, son of Conn. He was called the Soli- tary or Lonely One (i.e., Art Oenfer, ' Only-Man '), be- cause his two brothers, Connla and Crinna, had been slain in their youth, and he was the only one left of his family. But Connla, who was called " Connla of the Golden Hair," did not die as Crinna did, but he went a dream voyage over the western sea, and entered the Land of the Ever-fair and Ever-young, for a fairy maiden had called him, and she held out to him the golden apple from the immortal wine-producing apple-tree, and he was fain to go. So he passed gladly out of the dark unquiet land of earth and entered the bright and fragrant land of everlasting life. But Crinna died, and Art was left alone, and he reigned in Tara, in the place of his father, Conn of the Hundred Battles. Now Olioll Olum, " Bare-ear," was King of Munster, and some say that he was called Olioll Bare-

190 THE ROMANCE OF THE EARLY KINGS.

ear because Aine of the fairy mound had bitten his ear in her anger, when he had killed her father, the king of the shee-mound of Knock-Aine. His wife was Sabia, daughter of Conn of the Hundred Battles, and from them were the Tribes of Thomond, or North Munster, descended; that is, the great Dalcassian race. They had seven sons, and a foster-son also, who was brought up with their sons, but lived to be a trouble to their race, for by him his foster-brothers were slain at the Battle of Magh Mucramha. His name was Lugaid (Lewy) Maccon, " Son of the Hound," for when he was a child he played with a great hound, so that the two were seldom seen apart; therefore the people called him the Hound's Son.

The cause of the quarrel between Lewy and his foster-brothers was the dispute of the phantom yew-tree of Mac Aingis, which held the little fairy man. One day the foster-brothers heard that Art the Solitary was making a journey in Connaught, and they set out to- gether to join him. As they were passing across a flat land by the River Maigue, in Co. Limerick, they heard the sound of sweetest music coming from a clump of yew that overhung a waterfall. They halted to see who made that music, and in the clump they saw a little fairy man with a timpan, a tiny instrument of three strings, in his hand. Then they caught the little man and they began to quarrel together which of them should have him for their own. They could not decide, for both of

ART THE LONELY OXE. 191

them wanted him, so they turned back to Olioll the king to ask him to decide. The king asked the little man his name. " I am Ferfi, son of the king of the shee- mound whom you slew in your youth," said the little man. " And what are you quarrelling about? " said the king to his sons. " We are quarrelling who shall have the little man." "Why, what good is he?" asked the king again. " He plays on the timpan," said they. " Let me hear him play," said Oiloll. Then the tiny man sat up and he played first the weeping- strain, so that all who heard him began to weep and wail, and all in the palace were shedding tears; and then he changed and played the laughing-tune, and they laughed so loud and long, that their mouths were wide open, and you could see right down their throats; and then he played the sleeping-strain, and it threw them into a sleep so sound that they did not wake again for many hours, and while they slept he returned back into the fairy palace whence he came. Now all this was a device of the little man to breed mischief be- tween the foster-brothers, in revenge for the death of his father, the king of the fairy palace. Much mischief, indeed, it did breed, for when they awoke, the brothers fell a-quarrelling again as to whose should be the phantom yew-tree. " Not much use is the yew-tree to you now," said the king, " seeing that the timpan- player is gone; what said ye when the little man was found? " "I said, ' Mine his music,' " said Maccon;

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" And I, ' Mine the musician,' " said the other. " Just so," said the king, "and yours he shall be." And at that decision Maccon was so wroth, that the two foster- brothers fell to hot words, and Maccon said he would have the head from Eoghan his brother on the battle- field. That day month they fought the battle of Cenn Febhrat and Maccon was defeated, and fled away to Scotland with part of his forces.

For fear of being known, Maccon instructed his friends to disguise themselves and never to tell their names, for he was afraid the King of Scotland would send him back to his own country. But in course of time the king guessed who his visitor was, and he entrapped him into telling his name. It was with the desire to help him and not in order to betray him that the king did this, and as soon as he knew certainly that it was Maccon, he sent to the kings of Britain and of the Saxons, who were his rela- tions, and gathered together a great army, and it is said that the fleet of ships and galleys and of small boats made a continuous line from Scotland across to Ireland. Maccon sailed round the South of Ireland, but found no place where it was safe to land until he came to the coast of Galway. There he and his host put ashore, and Maccon and Beine Brit, son of the King of Britain, led on their troops, until they met the forces of Art at Magh Mucramha (Moy Mucrava) between Athenry and Galway. The plain is called Magh Mucramha, or the

ART THE LONELY ONE. 193

"Plain of Pig-counting," because there it was that Queen Maive tried to number the pigs of darkness and destruction that issued out of the Cave of Cruachan. For wherever those pigs trod, whether it were on corn or green grass-blade, no living thing would grow for the space of seven years, but if anyone tried to number them, they would migrate into another country. After the counting of Maive, they fled away, and it is not known whither they went.

There Maccon made traps cunningly to destroy his enemies. He placed his advance guard in pits, so that they could not be seen, and over them he placed light hurdles, with their spear-points just showing be- tween the hurdles. To prevent the hired soldiers from Scotland and Britain deserting from his forces, he made the foot of each one of them fast to the foot of a Gael, or to one Gael two Britons would be attached; thus none could run away alone if the battle went against them. There a great battle was joined, and each of the leaders went forward with a crested helmet on his head and a coat of mail about him, and a broad sword in his hand. In the thick of the fight the warriors arose out of the pits and surrounded the forces of Art and Eoghan on every hand, and they gave way before them, and the victory remained with Maccon. The brother of Olioll was fighting on Maccon's side against his own kith and kin, and he saw Beine the Briton striking the head off his nephew Eoghan, and anger cane upon him,

N

194 THE ROMANCE OF THE EARLY KINGS.

and the warm stirring of affection, and he sprang- upon Beine from behind, and smote him, so that the head of Seine fell upon the prostrate body of Eoghan. When Maccon saw that, he cried out, " That was a bad stroke of generalship, O Lugaid (Lewy), to strike off the head of an ally." "I will make up to thee for that, " said Eoghan, " for in place of the head of Beine I will bring you the King of Ireland's head." Then he set forth northwards until he encountered Art, and he slew him and took off his head, and brought it to Maccon.

Then forcibly Maccon seized on the kingship of Ire- land, and for seven full years he was in Tara, but in his reign was neither plenty nor prosperity : the grasses would not pierce the ground, nor the leaves sprout in the woods, nor would the grain grow in the fields. Because he was a tyrant the men of Ireland hated him, and his foster-father Olioll hated him secretly more than they, for he had caused the death of his sons. In the end the men of Ireland drove him out of the kingdom, and with great plenty of cattle, horses, and followers, he returned southward to his own country. For he thought that Olioll would receive him, and care for him to the end of his days. But Sabia, his foster-mother, bade him beware of Olioll. " An evil man is he," she cried, "and an unforgiving." Maccon heeded her not, and went up to embrace the old man, and Olioll caught him and inflicted on him a wound, and drove him out, and sent men after him to destroy him, among whom the

ART THE LONELY ONE. 195

chief was Perches the poet. When Maccon saw Perches, he placed his back to a pillar-stone, and his followers made a circle round him with their shields; but Perches flung his spear athwart the host, and struck Maccon in the forehead so that he died. Olioll, when he heard that, said, " For thirty years till now I have been a worn old man, but the cast that Perches made has roused me from my lethargy." And he took the kingship of Munster again into his hands. But Sabia, his wife, said, " Alas and woe the day that ever Ferfi played sweet music in the yew 1 "

CHAPTER XXI.

CORMAC MAC AIRT, 227-266, A.D.

Authorities : Pieces edited by Standish Hayes O'Grady in Silva Gadelica, entitled " The Panegyric of Conn's Grandson, Cormac," the " Battle of Crinna," " The Birth of Cormac, Grandson of Conn," and " The Adventures of Teigue, son of Cian." Piece entitled " Cormac's Adventure in the Land of Promise ;" edited by Dr. Whitley Stokes, Irische Texte, Dritte serie, i. heft.

OF all the kings who reigned in Ireland, three were pre- eminent in nobility, in renown, and in the prosperity of their rule, namely, Conor, King of Ulster, and Conaire M6r, who died in the Destruction of the Bruighen of Da Derga, and Cormac mac Airt, King of Ireland. But in wisdom, and in power, and in the love and affection of his people Cormac exceeded them all. When his father Art died in the Battle of Magh Mucramha, Cormac was not yet born. His mother was on a journey to Connaught when the child was born. She came down from her chariot and her maid pulled twigs from an overhanging tree, and made a couch of leaves for the mother and the babe, and there the mother fell asleep, enjoining the maid to look after the child, until she should wake again. But the maid was weary with the journey, and she too fell asleep; and while she slept a she-wolf came out of the forest and

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carried off the babe in her mouth to the stone cave in which her whelps were being reared. When the mother awoke and found that her child was gone, she started out of her sleep suddenly, and uttered a lamentable cry. There Lughna (Luna), a friend of Art, to whom she was going, found her; and he was much disturbed that the child had been carried off. He took her to his house, and gave out that whoever could find the child should have whatever reward he desired. For Lughna knew that it was the son of a king. One day a man wandering about the country came by chance in front of a cave where wolf-cubs were playing, and among them a little wild child gamboling on all fours. " Ah," said the wanderer to himself, " this is certainly the lost child." He went to Lughna, and made his bargain with him for lands and property; and then he led Lughna to the cave; and both the boy and the cubs were taken away by him, and brought to his home to be nurtured. The boy grew in comeliness of form and feature, so that he was a joy to many to look upon; in ready speech, too, and fire and pride and high spirit he surpassed all his companions, and Lughna called him Cormac, as Art had desired. Once upon a time Cormac was at play with Lughna's sons, and Cormac struck one of the lads. " Ochone !" cried the lad, " I have been struck by a fellow whose very birth and clan is uncertain, and whose father no man knows." When Cormac heard this he was sorely cast

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down; and he went to his foster-father, and told what the boys had said. " They said not the truth," replied Lughna; " for indeed thou art the son of a king, namely, of Art, son of Conn of the Hundred Fights, and of thee it is foretold that thou shalt possess thy father's realm; moreover, so long as he who now rules in Tara is lord, there shall neither be prosperity nor plenty in the land."

When Cormac heard that, he said, " Let us go to Tara, and bide our time, till I return to my father's house and kingdom." "We will go," said Lughna. So they set forth, Cormac and Lughna, and a body- guard of foot soldiers with them : but with Cormac went his wolves, following him; and they were received at Tara, and he dwelt as a pupil there. Maccon sat yet on the throne, but he was hated for his evil rule, and for the poverty that fell on the people of Erin in his time. Once the King made an award because of some wandering sheep that had eaten up the queen's crop of greenstuff. The king angrily demanded that the sheep should be given to the queen instead of the stuff that they had eaten. But Cormac, who sat beside the king upon the couch, exclaimed, "That is too harsh an award, O King. Rather let the sheep be sheared, and the wool be given for the food that they have eaten, for both the greenstuff and the wool will grow again." This he said because he saw that the woman who owned the sheep was sorely afflicted on

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account of their loss. " It is a just award," said all; "surely it is the award of a king's son. " And they paid attention to the boy from that time forward. For another year Maccon reigned, but so tyrannical was he, that at last the people rose against him, and ran him out of the kingdom, as we saw, and set up Cormac in his stead.

So Cormac dwelt at Tara, and reigned as King ovet Ireland, and there was not in the world so great a king as he. In wisdom and eloquence, in dominion and royal sway, in the vigour and splendour of his rule, there was none like him before or after him. And of Ireland he made a land of promise : there was no theft or violence in his day, nor did any need to guard the flocks, nor was anyone distressed for want of food and clothing. For every man went about his daily work, and none dare fail, except he were required by the king for military service in the defence of the kingdom. Cormac rebuilt the palace of Tara with great magnificence, and added the banqueting-hall, and the Griandn, or Sunny House, for his daughter, Grainne, and many buildings and underground storehouses besides. Here he cele- brated the Feis of Tara with splendour, so that the old writers say that this was the noblest convocation ever held before the Christian Faith. At that meeting the book of the ranks and clans of the men of Erin was revised, and the possessions and authority of each was set down; the laws also were settled and promulgated.

200 THE ROMANCE OF THE EARLY KINGS.

Splendid was the appearance of Cormac and the chiefs as they entered that assembly. Every chief had around him his royal robe, and his golden helmet on his head, for they wore their crowns only on the battle-field. But Cormac outshone them all. His hair was golden, and slightly curled. Around him was his kingly purple mantle, fastened with a golden jewelled brooch upon his breast. A necklace of gold round his throat, and a girdle of gold with precious gems around him. He wore two shoes of network of gold, and golden buckles, and in his hand he carried two ringed spears, with many clasps of bronze, and a crimson shield with engraved devices, and golden hooks and clasps of silver. In the full glow of his beauty, without defect or blemish, he stood before the assembly.

It was Cormac's daughter, Grainne, who was to have married Finn, but who preferred to run away with Diar- muid (Dermot), his follower; and it was in the beautiful house that Cormac had built for her, that the banquet took place, from which she escaped with Diarmuid. For Grainne was vain and frivolous, and she despised Finn because he was, as she said, old enough to be her father, while Diarmuid was young and handsome. And Diar- muid was forced to go with her half against his will, and he met his death in consequence.

The reign of Cormac was not peaceful, for the men of Ulster and of Munster made war on him; and

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it is said that in one day seven fights were made against them, in all of which the men of Ulster were routed. The fiercest fight, it was the first, was the Battle of Crinna; and the cause of it was that the men of Ulster considered that they were treated with indignity when they went to the Feis of Tara. They had sent on messengers to prepare the houses in which they should dwell during the feast; but the messengers found the walls agape and ruinous no thatch, no means of warming, and the place foul from the cattle of the town. They returned in anger, and told these tidings; they said, moreover, that the troops of Cormac were few, and that it was an opportunity in which they might safely meet him in battle. So they sent a challenge to Cormac, but the king felt himself not yet strong enough to meet the forces of Ulster, so he marched south, and begged help from Olioll Olum, King of Munster, and from his grandson, Teigue.

Olioll welcomed him, but he said he was now an aged man, and that he had given up the kingdom to his sons; he advised that Cormac should seek the help of Lugaid (Lewy), his nephew, a famous warrior. Cormac knew that Lugaid would not be willing to aid him, for he had been the friend of Maccon, and he hated Cormac because he had superseded Maccon, and taken the kingdom from him. When Cormac reached the Glen of Aherlach, where Lugaid dwelt, they heard that Lugaid was unarmed, and bathing in a stream.

202 THE ROMANCE OF THE EARLY KINGS.

Cormac divided his men into three parties, and they came on Lug-aid on all sides at once, and Cormac drew his sword and held it over his head, and cried, " Death hangs over thee, O Lugaid!" " I will give thee the life of another instead of my own," said Lugaid. " I will take no life," said Cormac, " except it be the life of a king in battle." " I will give thee that," said Lugaid. " I will take no life," said Cormac again, " except it be the life of Fergus Blacktooth, King of Ulster." "Thou shalt have it," said Lugaid. " Pledge thine honour upon it," said Cormac. " I do so," Lugaid replied; but with that he raised his head, and cried, " May he who prompted thee to this never prosper, for it is Olioll who has sent thee here; bad is the beginning of this affair, and bad will be its end." Then Cormac went on to Teigue, but Teigue refused, for he said it was none of his affair. But Cormac persuaded him, and he promised him that if he would fight the battle of Crinna, he should have, over and above his just reward, so much land as his chariot could drive round between the hour at which the battle was won and the fall of night on the same evening. Then Teigue consented to go with him; but on the night before the battle, a deep sleep fell on Teigue, and he went away to the spirit land, and he foretold the end of the battle, and revealed the future to Cormac in his sleep. For Teigue was of those who dream, and to whom wondrous unseen things are revealed; and he

CORMAC MAC AIRT.

went in after days into the Land of Promise, and of Eternal Youth, and he abode there a good time, and saw wonders. But of this we cannot here tell the tale. Then they set in order the battle, and Cormac re- minded Lugaid of his promise to give him the head of Fergus Blacktooth, Ulster's King. And Lugaid pro- mised again. Then the troops of Ulster charged with reckless valour, rushing into the battle, so that the earth shook and trembled beneath their feet. Their horses were maddened with the blows on the war-shields, and by the hurtling of javelins through the air and the rattling of the glittering mail, and they gave way before the forces of Cormac and Teigue. But Lugaid, wreaking his fury as he passed along, made his way to Fergus, as he thought, through the press, and though he was sore wounded as he went, he struck the head of Fergus from him, and carried it to Cormac. " Here, Cormac," he cried, " is the head I promised thee." "A blessing on thy valour," said Cormac; " had it been indeed the head of Fergus, I could hardly have been more pleased : but this is the head of Fergus's brother, set up with the king's helmet and crown upon it, to deceive us. I see the king yonder, fighting yet, O Lugaid, and I claim thy promise from thee." Then Lugaid said, " Stuff into my wounds some healing balms, that I may see what I can make of this other Fergus." Right and left then Lugaid smote down his foes, until he reached the spot where

204 THE ROMANCE OF THE EARLY KINGS.

the king, as he thought, was, and on the same stone as that on which he had smitten off the former head, he smote off the head of Fergus. Then he flung the head and diadem at Cormac's feet, crying, " The head of a king for thee, Cormac. " " Success attend thy honour and thy name, O Lugaid," said Cormac; " for next to the king himself, there is no head that pleases me more than this." " What is this," cried Lugaid; " is this also not the head of the king?" " It is not," said Cormac. Then said Lugaid to his spear-bearer, " Look now, boy, and see how the battle goes, and if Teigue is still afoot." " I see him fighting still," answered the boy. " What are they doing now?" " The grey-beards of Munster in their last line of battle, are facing the youths of Ulster," said the boy. " Put some more sops into my wounds," said Lugaid, " that along with the grey-beards of Munster, I may wreak my death-fury on the men of Ulster." Then he rushed into the battle, where the old warriors of Munster were routing the striplings of Ulster, and upon the same stone Lugaid smote off the head of Fergus. Now, Cormac was afraid of the wrath and battle-fury of Lugaid when he returned from this last rout, and he forced his wizard to take the royal seat and place the kingly crown upon his head. When Lugaid returned to seek Cormac, he made a shot with the head of Fergus at the wizard, supposing it to be the king; and he slew the wizard with that stroke.

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Then Cormac came to Lugaid. " It was no kindly stroke which killed my wizard, O Lugaid," he said. " Not thy wizard but thyself it was that I meant to kill," was the wrathful reply.

Even as he spoke, a great outcry was heard from the battle. " What shouting is that which I hear?" asked Lugaid of the boy. " It is the cheering of the men of Munster, pursuing the flying Ulstermen," cried the boy. At the same time there came a roar of battle from the front. "What cry is that?" asked Lugaid. "It is the men of Ulster returning to face their foes," said the boy. " If that be so," said Cormac, " it must be that Eochaid (Eochy) has joined them, and it will be no child's play to contend with him." " Unless I myself make my way to him," said Lugaid, " there is no man that can stand up to him; the little remnant of my life that is in me, on him it must be expended." Therewith he arose, and rushed again into the battle, and then and there, indeed, a fight was delivered; for when the weapons of both parties were flung away or destroyed and useless, hand to hand they fell upon each other. There the Ulstermen were routed, and the day remained with Cormac and the men of Munster.

After the battle, Teigue repaired to Cormac, and said, " Fulfil your promise, and give me the land round which a chariot can ride before sundown." "It shall be done," said Cormac. But

206 THE ROMANCE OF THE EARLY KINGS.

Teigue was so sore wounded that every moment he would swoon away, and Cormac, seeing this, laid a trap for him, that he might not be obliged to give him the land. He placed him in his own chariot, and instructed his charioteer, that whenever Teigue should swoon away, he should turn back the horses, and retrace his steps. " What reward shall I get for this?" asked the charioteer. "Thy freedom and the freedom of thy children for ever, if thou see that neither Taillte (Teltown) nor Tara fall to Teigue," said the king. So the charioteer did as the king com- manded, and when Teigue fainted with the exhaustion of his wounds, he would turn the horses round east- ward again and retrace their steps. In the evening they came to the River Liffey, and Teigue said, " Good now, boy, what river is this?" "Verily, it is the Liffey," said the man. " Have we passed round Taillte and Tara?" asked Teigue. " We have not," answered the charioteer. " Have we brought away either of them?" enquired Teigue. " We have not," was the reply. Then was Teigue wroth. " An ill trick hast been played me," he cried, " but the reward for which thou hast played it shall never be thine." And he drew his sword, and slew the charioteer on the spot. Then he set out for his own home, and when he found that Cormac sought excuses why he should not give him the land, he prepared to fight him for it; but when the king heard that, he gave way, and did as he had promised him.

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A great misfortune overtook Cormac in the height of his prosperity. This was the loss of one of his eyes by a thrust from the weapon of Angus of the Poisoned Spear. A brother of Conn of the Hundred Battles named Fiacha lived on some land he had acquired near Tara called DeSsi (Deece, Co. Meath), and he had three distinguished sons. One of these, Angus of the Poisoned Spear, became security for a warrior who had fallen under the displeasure of King Cormac. This was frequently done in those days, and a king would seldom injure a man who had been taken under the protection of a powerful chief. But one day a son of Cormac, named Cellach, fell out with the warrior, took him prisoner, and had his eyes put out, without the knowledge of the king, his father. Angus, on hearing what was done, marched straight to Tara, his spear in his hand, and with one thrust of it he killed Cellach, who was standing behind the monarch's chair, and, by misadventure, at the same time put out Cormac's eye. Cormac on this raised a force and drove Angus and his sept into banishment. For one year they remained in Leinster, constantly fighting Cormac; thence they proceeded south into Ossory; and finally Olioll Olum, whose wife was a sister of Conn of the Hundred Battles, and aunt of Angus, invited them to Munster, and he gave them a tract of land in his territories in Waterford and Tipperary, where they established themselves, and were known henceforth as the Deisi

208 THE ROMANCE OF THE EARLY KINGS.

of Munster. This expulsion of the great clan of the Deisi from Meath and their settlement in Munster is a well-marked fact in Irish history.*

These events brought about great wars with Munster, which occupied much of Cormac's reign. In one of the battles Angus of the Poisoned Spear was killed. Cormac endeavoured to impose rents on Munster to support his great household, for he had largely increased the number of his dependents, and the province of Meath was not sufficient to supply them. But the King of Munster refused; and when Cormac levied a host against him and marched into Munster, he was driven back in rout to Ossory, and was compelled to give him hostages and securi- ties. Some authorities say that Cormac was afterwards forced to retire with his fleet from Ireland, and that at this time he obtained a kingdom in Scotland. However this may be, he was obliged to resign the throne of Tara, for there was an old Irish law that no king with any defect or blemish should hold the monarchy; therefore, on account of his injured eye he could no longer remain King of Ireland. He

* There were two divisions of the sept. The Northern Deisi had the Plain of Cashel from the R. Siuir to Corcu-Ethrach The Southern Deisi had from the R. Siuir to the sea, and from Lismore to Credan Head. By the time the Anglo-Normans came to Ireland only the Southern Deisi remained (see Book of Rights Ed. O'Donovan, page 49-50 )

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withdrew to a house that he had built for himself at Cletty on the River Boyne, resigning his throne to his son, Cairbre of the Liffey; and there, in his old age, he composed the Laws and Royal Institutes of Ireland; and it is there that he is said to have renounced the doctrines of the Druids and his belief in pagan gods, and to have become a Christian. The Druids were very angry at this; and they caused him to be choked with a salmon bone, which had been kneaded up with a loaf of bread, and of which he died. He prayed that he might not be buried with his pagan ancestors at Brugh on the Boyne, but in spite of this, the host endeavoured to cross the river with his body to bury it in the tombs of the kings. But three times the river rose to a flood, and they were driven back, and at length they turned aside, and buried him at Rosnaree, with his face set eastward towards the rising sun.

CHAPTER XXII.

CAIRBRE OF THE LIFFEY AND THE FIANNA OF ERIN.

Authorities : Keating's History ; Transactions of, the Ossianic Society ; Silva Gadelica, Vol. i., pp. 89-93, 130-132, 257 ; vol. ii., pp. 96-101, 142-145, 292, &c.

IT is well that you should know something more about the Fianna and Finn mac Curahall (Finn mac Cool), their leader ; for though the stories about them are so mixed with legend that it is difficult to know how much is true, yet in all the tales of Conn of the Hundred Battles and his successors they play an important part. Old people in Ireland who speak the national tongue can still tell stories of Finn and his warriors, even if they have forgotten about Cuchulain and the Champions of the Red Branch ; and in Scotland, too, he is well remembered, and the old people recite tales and songs of him round the fire on the long winter evenings.

It is very probable that some such band of trained warriors as the Fianna are represented to have been, did exist in Ireland about the time of which we are speaking. The foreign wars in which Ireland took part, and the constant invasion of troops from Britain and Scotland, would have made it necessary to have a standing army to guard the coasts and to be ready

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for foreign expeditions. Hitherto there had been no regular army, but every man was trained to war, as is the case with the Swiss nation to-day. War was made chiefly at certain seasons of the year, when the people were not needed for husbandry; but the chiefs and upper classes seem to have given up their entire lives to war- fare, and to have thought of little else. The warriors did not live in barracks, but in their own homes, and they assembled whenever the chief or king determined on a raid or battle. Cormac mac Airt is said, however, to have added a large military station to the palace buildings at Tara, and he constantly had trained soldiers in his service.

Finn had been born and bred an exile from his country, and he first came under the notice of the king from having one night, when he was still a youth, protected Tara against a threatened destruction. In reward, the king had restored to him his patrimony and his rights, and had made him also the Chief of the Fianna of Erin, in place of Goll mac Morna, whom he forced to strike his hand in Finn's hand and to swear to obey him. Finn proved himself to be a great war- rior and an heroic and hospitable man, and he became so powerful that he was called the " Seventh King of Erin "; that is, the kings of the five provinces, and the King of Tara, and Finn himself.

It was not an easy thing to enter the ranks of the Fianna. Any youth who desired to be enrolled had to

212 THE ROMANCE OF THE EARLY KINGS.

prove his agility and skill by a variety of severe tests. He must run so swiftly that when pursued through the forests by men intent on inflicting on him a wound, he must escape unhurt from them. If his weapon quivered in his hand, or if in his flight he had cracked a dry branch of the wood, or if a braid of his plaited hair had been caught by a branch and ruffled, he would not be accepted. He must, without slackening his pace, leap a fence level with his brow, and stoop under a bar no higher than his knee : while running at full speed he must draw a thorn out of his foot without stopping. Besides all these proofs of dexterity and quickness, he must be able to defend himself from a hole in the ground with only a shield and a hazel- sti^k against nine warriors contending with him; he must never turn his back to fly before any nine warriors who were opposed to him.

He was to be learned as well as warlike; for no warrior could enter the Fianna without having passed through the highest education that could be given in those days. He was obliged to obtain the rank of a poet, and to be versed in the twelve books of poetry.

In return for their protection, the Fianna, however, obtained great privileges, and they made large demands upon the people. They had the right to hunt where they would through Ireland, and many are the stories told of their chase of wild boar, deer, and wild birds. Finn had a pack of famous hounds of his own, of which his favour-

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ite was Bran, the dog which saved Dermot and Grainne when they were pursued by Finn.*

Their success, and the idleness in which they passed a great part of the year when they were not engaged in fighting, led them at last into great excesses; they grew burdensome and insolent, and oppressed the people terribly, and they were so strong, having all the military power in their hands, that even the King of Tara dare not offend or resist them. They demanded unheard of sacrifices from the people and chiefs, namely, a cantred in every province, a townland in every cantred, and a house in every town- land, besides wolf-dogs and other perquisites. For half of every year during the winter the troops were quartered about on the country, and no one dare refuse to take his share of the soldiers; while during the summer only the Fianna were allowed to hunt the wild game, and if any other person took even a hare found dead on the ground, he must pay a heavy fine : an ox if he killed a stag, a cow if he shot a fawn, and a sheep for smaller game. They even came to demand that no girl should be allowed to marry unless she had three times been offered to the Fians, and if one of them wanted her, she was forced to marry him instead of her own lover. This tyranny was the harder to bear, because the Fians were of an inferior

*" Pursuit of Diannuid and Grainne," (Society for the Preservation of the Irish language, 2 vols.).

'214 THE ROMANCE OF THE EARLY KINGS.

race, and though they were good warriors and expert champions, such demands became intolerable.

The matter came to a crisis in the reign of Cairbre of the Liffey. King Cairbre had a lovely daughter, Sgeimhsolas, " Light of Beauty," and a chief of the Deisi, O'Faolain (Phelan), desired to marry her. When Finn heard this, he and his Fians dispatched messengers to Cairbre, reminding him that he was bound to pay them a large sum in gold as tribute for her marriage, or to deliver the girl up to them. Cairbre was naturally indignant, and said that sooner would he resign his crown than consent to such con- ditions. Finn replied that if he did not do so, the head of the princess would fall in revenge, and nothing short of this would satisfy them. Cairbre felt that the time had come to put a stop to this tyranny, and he sent envoys to call together in consultation the Kings of Ulster, Leinster, and Munster. They met, and agreed to submit no longer to such servitude; and, returning home, they gathered together their forces in the hope of expelling the Fianna from Ireland. The leaders of the Fianna also collected their troops from all parts of the country, as well as from Alba; there are said to have been twenty times the number of the king's forces in the army of the Fians. They met at Gabhra, or Gaura, in Meath, and this battle, which ended the power of the Fianna in Ireland, has been celebrated in many songs and stories. The troops of

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Erin were led by the king himself, who fell in the battle. The Fianna were led by Osgur, grandson of Finn, whose death in the heat of the fight is told in such pathetic language in the old tales. They were in alliance with Morgcorb, King of Munster. Many of the poems and tales describing the deeds of the Fianna are ascribed to Oisin (Ossian), son of Finn, who was be- lieved to have come back to the world again in the time of St. Patrick, to tell him the brave tales of the old days. They are, therefore, called the Ossianic Tales and Poems, though few, if any, of them could have been written by Oisin himself.

On the Hill of Howth, near Dublin, is a cromlech, known as " Aideen's Grave." Aideen was betrothed to Osgur, and she died of grief on receiving the news of his death.

CHAPTER XXIII. RISE OF NIALL OF THE NINE HOSTAGES.

Authorities : " The Death of Crimthan son of Fidach " and the " Adventures of the Sons of Eochaid Muigmedon." There are two editions of these tales, one by Dr. Wh. Stokes. Rev. Celt., XXIV., 1903, and another from a different version by S. H. O'Grady, Silva Gadelica, Vol. i., pp. 326-336 ; Vol. ii., pp. 368-378.

CAIRBRE of the Liffey was succeeded by his son Fiacha. He had a son named Muiredach, whom he made his lieu- tenant and general of his forces, and who was to reign after him at Tara. One time when Muiredach was away fighting in Munster, a conspiracy was made by his cousins, the three Collas, to dethrone Fiacha, his father, in his absence, and seize the kingdom. They excited rebellion in the army of Tara, which they com- manded, and they killed Fiacha in battle. But Muire- dach, returning victorious from Munster at the head of an enthusiastic army which was ready to proclaim him king, soon overthrew the Collas, and sent them flying to Alba (Scotland) for protection. The King of Scot- land received them warmly, for they were good soldiers and brave men. After three years they determined to return to Tara; they had been told by a Druid that if they could so exasperate the king as to make him

RISE OF MALL OF THE NINE HOSTAGES. 217

kill one of them, the sovereignty would pass from him and his descendants and be transferred to them. They went alone and unarmed to Tara, and asked admission. The gatekeeper sent word to the palace, " The three Collas stand on the green without; what shall be done with them? " " Open the liss," said Muiredach, " and enquire wherefore they are come." When they stood before the king, he asked : " Have ye news? " They replied, " No news can be more grievous to thee than our act in killing thy father." " We know that news already," said the king. " We are not come to ask pardon for that deed, you understand," said the men insolently. " Do not trouble about that," replied the king, " for no revenge shall be taken on you. If it was to excite me to kill you that you are come it will not succeed; for I will not take this means to make men forget the infamy with which you have covered your- selves." " That is the taunt of a coward," answered the Collas. " Be not disturbed by such ideas," said the king, " and you shall have peace and a welcome." When they saw that they could by no means disturb the gentleness of the king, they changed their manner to- wards him, and entered into friendly relations and brotherhood, and Muiredach made them commander*, in his army, and a great affection grew up between them.

After a time, when their families increased in number, the Collas asked King Muiredach whether

218 THE ROMANCE OF THE EARLY KINGS.

they might conquer a territory for themselves and settle on it. Muiredach advised them to turn their arms against Ulster, which was not kindly disposed to him. So they entered into alliance with Connaught, and routed Ulster in seven battles, and harried the country, and made sword-land of it for themselves from Lough Neagh and the River Newry westwards. They destroyed the old capital, Emain Macha, and binned it, so that only its raths remain to-day ; and they settled on those great territories, and made them their patrimony. This was about the year 332 A.D.*

Muiredach was succeeded by his son, Eochaid (Eochy), who had two wives, Mongfind of the Long Fair Hair of Munster, and Cairenn of the Curly Black Locks, daughter of the King of the Saxons. Mongfind had four sons Brian, AiliJl, Fiacra, and Fergus but Cairenn had never more than one child, who was more famous than all the rest, for he was Niall of the Nine Hostages, from whom men are proud to trace their pedigree. Mongfind was a harsh and evil woman, full of passion and black jealousy, and she hated Cairenn because the king loved her better than herself. She drove the poor girl out of the royal palace, and made a slave of her, condemning her to draw water from the well on the palace green : she alone to supply all the water needed by the servants

* See Extracts from Annals Silva Gadelica. Vol. II. (II. xviii.). The story is given in a shorter form by Keating.

RISE OF NIALL OF THE NINE HOSTAGES. 219

in the palace. Even on the day when Niall was born she must do her duty, and draw as usual, for the queen's desire was to kill both her and the babe she bore. There, on the green before Tara, beside the pail was Xiall born, and the mother durst not even pick the boy up from the ground, but left him exposed to the birds of prey; nor, for fear of Mongfind, who was possessed of magical power, durst any man of Erin come to her help.

But the same evening Torna the Poet, the Man of Learning, came across the green, and he saw the babe lying there all alo.ie, and the wild birds of the air swooping down upon it. He snatched up the child from them, and laid it in his bosom, and then and there he sang a song to it. " A welcome to the little guest that shall yet be Niall of the Xine Hostages; in his time a multitude will fall by him; battle-plains will be enlarged; hostages will be overthrown; wars will be fought. Watchman of Tara, Leader of Magh Femin's hosts;* Veteran of Liffey; Guardian of Moinmoy;t twenty-and-seven years shall Erin be ruled by him, and from him ever will the men of Erin reckon their descent." Then Torna took the boy home with him and fostered him; and until Niall was old enough to be

* A plain in Munster.

t A territory in Co. Galway. Niall is acclaimed as ruler of all the provinces of Ireland.

220 THE ROMANCE OF THE EARLY KINGS.

king neither he nor his fosterer came to Tara. At length the day of his return arrived, and there on the green they saw Cairenn, who, during all those years, still drew water as a woman-slave, for even the king dared not interfere with Mongfind. She passed with her pail as Niall came near, but Niall, when he knew it was his mother, cried, " Leave alone that service, mother." " I dare not," she answered, "because of the queen." " My mother shall not work as a slave and I the son of the King of Ireland," he replied; and whether she would or no, he took her with him to the palace, and commanded that she should be clad in purple raiment, as became a queen.

Then Mongfind was furious, for she heard the men of Erin acclaiming Niall as their future king. She went secretly to the king, her husband, and said : " Tell me which of thy sons shall receive the kingdom after thee. " " I cannot tell," said Eochaid, " but we will consult the smith of Tara, who is a wise man and a prophet." The smith called the young men into his forge, and when he had got them inside he shut them in and set fire to it. " Now we shall see," he said. Out came Niall first, bringing the anvil and its block along with him. " Niall prevails," cried the smith, " and he will be a solid anvil for ever." Then Brian got out, and he had the sledge-hammers in his hand. " Brian, the hammerer in battle," cried the smith. Fiacra brought with him a pail of ale and the bellows,

RISE OP NIALL OF THE NINE HOSTAGES. 221

and Ailill carried the chest with the spear heads. " Fiacra for ornament and science and Ailill for ven- geance," said the smith. At length Fergus appearad; but all he had with him was a bundle of dry sticks with one bar of green yew amongst them. " Withered and useless is Fergus," said the smith; and that was true, for of his seed only one came to any good.

Mongfind was now more angry than ever because Niall was chosen, and she tried to get her sons to kill Niall, but Torna preserved him from them.

One day the youths were hunting together in a forest with new weapons that the smith had made for them, and they lost their way, and could not by any means discover the path leading homewards. So they lighted a fire and roasted a portion of their game. Then they felt thirsty, and sent Fergus to look for water. He found a well, but it was guarded by an old, withered crone, so hideous to behold that he was terrified. " So that's the way, is it?" he said. " The very way," she answered. "Will you let me take away some water." " I will, indeed," she replied; " but only if you give me one kiss on my cheek." " I pledge my word," he said, " that sooner than give thee a kiss, I would perish with thirst."

One after another the brothers went to the well, but none of them could make up their minds to kiss the old crone, until Niall came. But he said that he would kiss her willingly for all she was so ugly, for

222 THE ROMANCE OF THE EARLY KINGS.

they needed the water greatly, and were near dying of thirst. As he kissed her he looked up, and lo ! the old hag was gone, and in her place a young damsel, more graceful and beautiful than the eye of man had ever beheld. " What art thou, O maiden of many charms." cried the lad. " I am the Royal Rule and Sovereignty of Tara," she replied. " And as at first I was ugly, so is Royal Rule, which may not be won without battles and conflict, but in the end it is splendid and comely. Take the water to thy brethren, but give it not to them till they yield thee their place and birth-right, with thy weapon raised an hand's breadth over theirs, and an oath from them not to oppose thee or thy posterity. For none of their descendants shall reign at Tara save Dathi and Ailill, of the seed of Fiacra, and Brian of the Tributes out of Munster."

Then Niall did as the maiden bade him, and they returned to Tara and seated themselves, with Niall in their midst, and his weapon the breadth of a hero's hand above their weapons. And all men acknowledged him as the future King of Tara.

But Mongfind was not appeased that her eldest son Brian should not reign; and when Eochaid died, she used all her magic arts to have her brother, Crimthan, made king in order to keep Niall out of his sovereignty until Brian might go over the seas and learn the arts of a brave warrior, that so he might return and claim his

RISE OF XI ALL OF THE NINE HOSTAGES. 223

realm. At the end of seven years Brian came back, bronzed and vigorous, with the strength of a bull and the knowledge of all martial science and skill. Mong- find, who had put Crimthan into the sovereignty, now wanted to get rid of him, so that Brian might im- mediately take the kingdom. But Crimthan had proved himself a powerful king and a great warrior, and had made himself respected even among foreign nations on account of his over-sea wars, and it was not easy to get rid of him without raising an insurrection in the country, so in her foul heart she planned an ill design ; for she invited her brother to a banquet, and there she offered him with her own hands a poisoned cup. " I will not drink," he said, " till thou drink first " : for he suspected that his sister had a design upon him. Then they drank together, and Mongfind died, but Crimthan got as far as the home of his fore- fathers, and he died at the Mountain of the Throne, which is now called Crimthan's grave.

CHAPTER XXIV.

CLOSE OF THE PAGAN PERIOD.

Authorities : English Chronicle, Bede's Eccle. History, Rhys' Celtic Britain, with the piece entitled " The Death of Crimthan," in Silva Gadelica.

BUT, after all, Mongfind's cruelty did not avail her ; for Brian, her son, did not succeed to the throne, but Niall succeeded. He was one of the most powerful kings of his day. He made wars in Britain, Alba, and Armorica (Brittany), and gained the name of Niall of the Nine Hostages, because he subdued princes in all these countries, and took hostages from them. Niall went with a great army to strengthen the Irish settlers in the south-west of Alba (Scotland) against the Picts. This province began to be called Scotia Minor, or Lesser Scotland, while Ireland was called Scotia Major, of Greater Scotland ; for you will remember that Ireland was then commonly called Scotia and its people Scots, and Scotland was always called Alba. But when these settlers grew powerful, as they did in after days, they gave their kings to the country, and then the name of Scotland became common to the whole kingdom, and was finally transferred from Ireland to Northern Britain. On the Continent, however, Ireland

CLOSE OF THE PAGAN PERIOD.

was known by the name of Scotia as late as the 15th century. The reigns of Niall and his immediate successors were marked by the descents of the Picts and Scots upon the Roman settlements in Britain, about which we hear so much in English and Roman history. The Scots there spoken of were the Irish of Erin and Alba, who united with the Picts of North Britain, and made frequent and terrific descents upon the northern and western coasts of England. The accounts in the Irish Annals are here, therefore, strictly historical. The Irish Annals tell us that during his short reign Crimthan had overrun Britain, Alba, and Gaul. This would be about 366 A.D., and we know from the English Annals that twenty years later the Scots and their allies had made such progress that they were driven back from the gates of London by the Emperor Theodosius.*

In 364 they were joined by the Picts and Saxons and by the Atecotti, who seem to have inhabited part of the district between the walls of Hadrian and Severus. Theodosius drove back the combined forces each to its own country, and the Atecotti, who seem to have been great fighters, were enrolled in the Roman army and sta- tioned on the Continent. In 387 Britain was weakened by the drawing off of a large army under Maximus to Gaul. Maximus was a Briton who had obtained the command of the Roman army in Britain and had

* Bede mentions that the Picts came from the North and the Scots from the West. Eccle. Hist. Book I., Ch. XII.

226 THE ROMANCE OP THE EARLY KINGS.

caused himself to be proclaimed emperor. He went over to Gaul with the flower of the army to support his claims, and perished there with most of his followers. His usurpation was disastrous to his own country; for his withdrawal of the troops left it exposed to the attacks of enemies on all sides.

The Britons appealed for aid to Rome, and in 396 A.D. the able General Stilicho was sent to drive back the invaders. The difficulty of his task is proved by the rapturous praise bestowed on Stilicho by Claudian on the successful general's return. " The Scot (i.e., the Irishman)," he exclaims, " moved all lerne against us, and the sea foamed under his hostile oars." It was probably against Niall of the Nine Hostages that Stilicho fought.

When the Roman troops were again withdrawn in 402 A.D., the Picts and Scots once more swept over the country, and again the Romans sent aid. It was in 407 A.D., two years after the death of Niall, that Constantine withdrew the Roman troops for the last time to resist the invasions of the Goths, who were threatening to overwhelm Rome.

-^ Niall brought hostages and slaves with him from every country in which he warred successfully; one of these slaves was St. Patrick, whom he carried off as a boy of fifteen from his father's home, which was pro- bably situated in the district between the walls, some- where near Dumbarton, and brought as a captive to the North of Ireland. It was during the close

CLOSE OF THE PAGAN* I'ERIOD. 227

of the reign of Xiall and in that of his successor Dathi, that Patrick lived as a slave and keeper of swine among the mountains of Slemish, in Co. Down.

Tradition says that it was during one of his wars in Gaul, that Niall met his death. He had in his host, besides his Irish troops and people from the district of Scotia Minor, a son of a king of Leinster whom Niall had defeated and driven into exile. This young man had followed the army in the hope of finding some opportunity of taking vengeance for the death of his father. He did not present himself before the king, who seems to have been unaware of his presence, but when Niall encamped beside the River Loire, he entered a grove on the opposite side of the river, and awaiting his opportunity, he shot Niall through the heart with an arrow. Niall had fourteen sons, who settled in Meath and Ulster, but he was succeeded on the throne by his nephew Dathi, a son of Fiacra, one of Mongfind's children.

These step-brothers of the King had not only indulged in wars between themselves during his reign, but they had proved very troublesome to Niall. He had placed Brian next to himself as head of his army, and had per. mitted him to acquire the sovereignty of Connaught, but Brian was so jealous of his brother Fiacra and of his nephew Dathi, who had also obtained some pro- perty there, that he pursued them in one battle after another till Dathi finally defeated Brian and killed him in battle. Niall then bestowed Brian's kingdom on

228 THE ROMANCE OF THE EARLY KINGS.

Fiacra and his son Dathi, but Fiacra fell in a battle with Munster. There is a terrible story that when he was buried, the hostages of Munster who were with his army were buried alive round his tomb as a taunt and reproach to his enemies.

Dathi was the last of the Pagan Kings of Ireland. He also was a warlike man and carried on the foreign wars of Niall. He had advanced as far as the Alps with his troops and was ascending the mountains, possibly with the idea of passing into Italy, when he was struck by a flash of lightning and killed. It was generally believed that this fate overtook him in conse- quence of his cruel treatment of a recluse named For- menus, who had built a tower for himself high up on the mountains, in which, after the manner of some recluses, he had shut himself up so that he never saw daylight. The soldiers of Dathi began to demolish the tower, but Formenus knew nothing until he sud- denly felt himself exposed to the air and light. His body was buried or his relics preserved at a village lower down on the mountain.

The body of Dathi was carried by his army all the way home to Ireland. On their way they fought several battles, and it is said that his son caused the dead body of his father to be carried in state in the midst of the army, erect, and with a lighted fuse in the mouth, that the enemy might still think him to be alive and breathing. He was buried at Rathcroghan in Co. Roscommon, the royal burial place of the Kings of Connaught.

INDEX

Adamnan, St., 65, 113.

Aedh Slaine, King, 31.

Ailill, King, 30.

Aithech Tuatha, 169, 171.

Alba (see Scotland).

Amergin, 22, 23, 25.

Ancient Laws, 59, 65, 67.

Angus Og, 18, 19.

Art the Solitary, King, 43, 189-194, 196-198.

Assemblies, Public (see Fairs).

Ath Cliath (see Dublin).

Athairne, 75.

B.

Badb, 18.

Baiie the Sweet-spoken, tale of, 136-138.

Ballysadare, 15.

Balor of the Evil Eye, 17.

Baths, 118.

Bealtaine (May Day), 87.

Eeare, Spanish Princess, 179-181.

Beliefs, Pagan, 80-86.

Book of Leinster, 78.

Boromhe or Leinster Tribute, 173-175.

Eoyne R., 176 ; TumuH on, 19.

Brehons or Judges, 60, 67, 73, 89, 130, 175.

Brehon Law (see Ancient Laws).

Brian Boromhe "of the Tributes," 173, 222.

Bricriu, 95.

Bridges, 32.

Britons or Brythons, 2-3.

Burial, Modes of, 138 j in Tumuli, 138-141; Standing, 141.

C.

Cairbre of the Liffey, 46-48, 209, 210-215.

Cairbre Cathead, 169.

Cathair Mor, 176.

Celts, 1, 2.

Cessair, Grand-daughter of Noah, 6-7, 8.

Champions Portion, 96-100.

Chariots, 29.

Chess, 13, 119.

Chiefs, 41, 42; Succession to, 41.

Cimbaoth, 145.

Clans, 24-25.

Cloghan or "Bee-hive Huts," 102-104.

Cnuca, B. of, 178.

Cobthach Caol, 150-156.

Collas, The Three, 216-217.

Columcille, St., 51-52, 57, 76.

Crimthan, King, 168, 170, 222-223, 225.

C ombats, Single, 58.

Conaire M6r, King, 43, 111, 157-165, 196.

Conall the Victorious, 98-99.

Conn "of the Hundred Battles," King, 43, 171, 176, 177-188.

Connla of the Golden Hair, 189.

Cormac Mac Airt, King, 38, 43, 46-48, 80, 94, 141, 175, 196-

209 ; his magnificence, 199-2CJ. Crede, 120-124. Crime, its Punishment, 01. Crimthan, King, 168, 170, 222-223, 225.

Crinna, B. of, 201.

Cuchulain, 11, 35, SO, 103-111, 147.. 167.

Culdremhne, B. of, 57.

Cumhall, fathfr of Finn, 177-178.

D.

Da Derga, Destruction of, 161-165.

Dathi, King, 222, 227-228.

Deisi, Sept of, 38 ; Territory of, 207 ; Expulsion of, 208-

Dind Righ, 150-155.

Dingle, Co. Kerry, 103-104.

Distress. Law of, 59-62.

Dagda Mor, 17, IS, 19, 1-10.

Dona House of, 24.

Donn of Cuailnge, 35.

Dress, Colours of, 39, 1W; Women's. 12i; King's, 94-95.

Dress, King's, 94-95.

Druids, 44, 57, 176, 209; Rites of, 79-80.

Dublin (Ath Cliath), 28, 182.

Duels (see Combats, Single).

Ernain Macha, 146, 147

Emer, 108-111, 114-116.

Eochaid, King of the Firbolg, 15.

Ecchaid, King, "the Constant Sigh.ng," 157-153.

Etain, 124-125, 158.

Eoghan Bel, 141-142.

Eog-an Mor, 177-188.

Eric or Fines. 53. 56, 58-39.

Etain, 124-125, 13s.

I'terscel, Kins. 139.

INDEX. F.

Fairs, 88-90; (see Tara, Feis of).

"Fasting upon" a Debtor, 62-66.

Feidhlimidh, King, 175.

Ferceirtne, 151.

Ferdiadh, 11.

Fianna, 42, 86, 177, 210-214.

Fili (see Poets).

Finn, 120, 177, 211.

Finnachta, King, 42.

Fintan, husband of Cessair, 8.

Firtolg, 10-12, 14-17 ; their character, 11, 16.

Fornorians, 9-10, 17.

Fords, 32, 33.

Forests, 28.

Forts of the Firbo-lg, 16.

Fosterage, 128; Literary, 129.

Freemen, 39.

Fuidhirs, 38-39, 56.

G.

Gaels, 1-4.

Games, 131-134 (see Chess).

Gaul, 4, 225-226, 227.

Gaura, B. of, 214.

Grainne, d, of Cormac, 199, 200.

Greece, 14.

Grianans (Women's Chambers), 119-121, 199.

H.

Heber and Heremon, 24-25, 143.

Hostages, 51-52.

Houses, 101-104.

Houses, 101-104; Hospitable, 36, 104-108; Life in, 108-111.

Howth Hill (Benn Edair), 162, 165).

INDEX. I.

Idols, 82-84.

Ireland, Poetic Names for, 20, 22; called Scotia, 22.

Ith, Prince of the Milesians, 20-21.

Keating, Dr. Geoffrey, 7, 44, 149.

Kings. 41 ; Dress of, 94-95 ; Election of, 43 ; Duties of, 46-40 ; Retinue, 49 ; "Honour-price," 50.

Labraid Maen, 151-156.

Laegaire, King, 82, 142 ; his rath, 142.

Leagaire Lore, King, 150.

Land Ownership, 28-32.

Leaonar na hUidhre or "Book of the . >un Cow," 77.

Legends of the Settlements, 5, 8, 26.

Leinster, 33, 156, 173.

Leth Cuinn, 177, 182.

Leth Mogha, 177, 182.

Lugaid "of the Red Stripes," King, 166-168.

Lia Fail, 45-46.

Lugaid Maccon, :90-195, 198-199, 201.

Lugh Lamhfhada, 12-14, 18.

Lughnasadh (Lammas), 88, 90.

Lusk, Co. Dublin, 105.

M.

Maccon (see Lugaid Maccon). Mac Datho, 97. Mac ha, IS, 146-147.

Maelduin, Voyage of, 56.

Magh Breagh, 150.

Magh Cm, 169.

Magh n-Ealta, 9.

Magh Lena, B. of, 183.

Magh Murcramha, 192, 196.

Magh Rath (Moira), 59.

Maive, Queen, 30, 39, 97, 193.

Manannan mac Lir, 18,85.

Maximus, 225.

Meath, Province of, 30, 33, 173, 183.

Midir, 157.

Milesians, 19, 143 ; their migrations, 20

Military Service, 37, 42.

Money, 31.

Mongfind, Queen, 216, 220-223, 224.

Morrigan, 18.

Moytura, S., Battle of, 14-16.

Moytura, N., Battle of, 17, 18.

Munster, 33, 52; Kings of, 148.

N.

Nedhe, 70-72, 75.

Neimheadh, 8, 9-10.

New Grange, 139.

Niall "of the Nine Hostages," King, 216, 218-222, 224-225,

226-227.

Normans, 27, 31. Northmen, 27, 28. Nuada, King, 17.

O'Dcnnells, 44. Ogam Writing, 135.

INDEX.

Clioll Olum, 171, 139, 194-195, 201, 207. Ollamh Fodhla, King, 144. Oilamh, The, 74-78. Ordeal, Trial by, 54, 55. Ossianic Poems, 85, 215.

P.

Parents, Pcnver of, 126-127.

Partholan, 8.

Patrick, St., 54-55, 82, 84-85, 142, 226.

Picts, 225, 226.

Poets (fill), 56-57 t>8-73 ; their Duties, 73-76.

Property, Private, 30-31.

Provinces, Five, 33 ; Kings of, 43.

R.

Fed Branch, Heroes of, 147. Romans, 4, 5.

Samhain (Hallowe'en 1 ;, 10, 83, 87, 88, 144.

Sanctuary, Rights of, 56-57.

Scannlan, Prince of Ossory, 51.

Scotland (Alba;, 165, 168, 216, 224, 225; Soldier* ^f, 193,

Senchus Mor (see Ancient Laws).

Settlements, Legends of, 5, S-26.

Slavery, 35-36, 50.

Stilicho, General, 226.

T.

Tain b6 Cnailnge, 11, 35. Tains, 35.

VDEX.

Tafllaght, 9, 105.

Tanist, 41, 42, 43.

Tara, 13, 22, 30, 46, 92, 143, 148, 171, 211, 216-217, 222; Fall of, 57, 66 ; Banqueting Hall of, 92-95 ; Feis of, 88-91, 137, 144-145, 152, 173, 184, 199; Ard-Rign of, 34, 43, 50, 150; Election of, 43-45, 159, 166-167.

Theodosius, Emperor, 225.

Tighernmas, King, 144.

Tighernach, 145.

Tir na n-Og, 85.

Tlachtga, 171, 172.

Torna, Poet, 219, 221.

Tributes, 35-36.

Trophies, 100.

Tuatha De Danann, 12-19, 21-26, 81, 139.

Tuathal (Toole) King, 34, 117, 171, 172-175.

Tumuli, 19, 138-141.

U.

Ugaine Mdr, 168. Ulster, 30, 145-147, 157, 201. Ulster, Kings of, 148, 183-184, 203.

V.

Vassalage, 36-38.

Ventry, B. of, 122, 133-134.

W.

Weapons, 134.

Women, Position of, 112, 114-117. Women, Warriors, 112; doctors, 117-119; bond women, 35-36,

50 ; their houses, 119-121 ; their dress, 124-125. Writings, 135; Ogam, 135; on tablets, 136-138.

By the same Author*. THE CUCHULLIN SAGA IN IRISH LITERATURE

;: The English reatiei could not wish for a better introduction to the wildest and most fascinating division of Irish .jyth. 1 '

Academy.

" A book that is little spoken of, a book that does not make too many concessions to the ordinary reader, and one that is placed among the score of books the present writer would least willingly part with, is the fine piecemeal translation of the Irish Iliad, ' The Cuchullin Saga,' compiled and edited by Miss Eleanor Hull. A good deal of attention has been bestowed lately on Lady Gregory's ' Cuchulain of Muirthemne,' a popular recension which takes the reader over much the same ground . . . . ; if in point of style and fidelity to the spirit of the great Irish epic we adjudge her translation inferior to Miss Hull's collected version, it is not because we rank her book low, but because we place Miss Hull's very high."

Edward Garnett in The Academy of i4th Feb., 1903 ; Art. on "Books too little known."

" Miss Hull and Lady Gregory, in the books to which their names are attached above, have aimed at collecting in one volume all, or uearly all, of the ancient legends centering around the national hero, Cuchulain. They necessarily invite comparison with each other. Such a comparison Mr. Edward Garnett has lately instituted in the ' Academy ' with the result that, on the whole, he gives the palm to Miss Hull. It is our opinion also that she has better fulfilled the conditions laid down as essential to any, even a very free, treatment of these Sagas."

Art on " Song and Sagas of the Gael," Quarterly Revitw, June, 1903.

" Obschon diese Sammlung von vierzehn irischen Heldensajren in englischer Bearbeitung sich an das grosse Publikum wenrlet, so enthiilt sie doch auch fur den fachgelehrten gar manches Neue und Reachtenswerte. Vor allem sei auf Miss Hull's Ein- leitung hingewiesen, in we'cher die Fragen, die sich an Entstehung und Uberlieferung dieser Texte kniipfen, klar und einsichtig behandelt werden."

Dr^ Kuno Meyer in Zeitschrift fur Celtische Philologie.

" Miss Hull has been well advised in giving the reading public a collection of the chief stories about the greatest of the Red Branch heroes, together with an analysis of the Tiin R6

Cuailgne It is a handy book of reference for the imp T-

tant mass of legend that has crvstalli/ed about Cuchullin's name ; and one would now hope that Miss Hull may see her way to co-operate with some Irish scholar and bring out the English of the whole Tain."

Professor York Powell in Folklore.

" Miss Hull is an admirable guide for an Anglo-Saxon render

through these old-world tales ; she is always there when

required to explain some reference by an illuminative note, and she rarely obtrudes. Her greatest service, however, is a really masterly ' Introduction ' dealing with the Saga as a whole, which gives evidence on every page of long and loving study ; of exact scholarship and scrupulous accuracy, of breadth of view and luminous statement."

Bradford Observer.

" One of the most important contributions yet made to the study of Irish Literature in English, and even if it stood alone it should confound those learned professors of Trinity, who fail to see beauty, or heroism, or loftiness of purpose in Irish bardic romances."

Irish Independent.

"Every Irish reader who desires to know something, as all of us should desire, of his spiritual ancestry, should place this book on his shelves, and should read it and re-read it till his own spirit catches fire at the divine flame which inspired it. Then its meaning will begin to glow and live for him."

Daily Express.

"Here are fifty pages of not merely learned and careful, but of illuminating criticism and analysis : perhaps the most com- pr hensive, and certainly the most suggestive, essay on the earliest chapter in Irish literary history."

FretmatCs Journal