🧚 Opening, part 1

LEGENDS1

OF2

IRELAND’S HEROIC AGE3

BY THE SAME AUTHOR.4

Alexander the Great: a Dramatic Poem.5 Small crown 8vo. cloth, price 5_s._ The Infant Bridal, and other Poems.6 A New and enlarged Edition.7 Fcp.8 8vo. cloth, price 7_s._ 6_d._ (_A selection from the Author’s Poems.9 _) The Legends of St. Patrick, and other Poems.10 Small crown 8vo. cloth, price 5_s._ St. Thomas of Canterbury: a Dramatic Poem.11 Large fcp.12 8vo. cloth, price 5_s._ Legends of the Saxon Saints.13 Small crown 8vo. cloth, price 6_s._ Antar and Zara: an Eastern Romance.14 INISFAIL, and other Poems Meditative and Lyrical.15 Fcp.16 8vo. price 6_s._ The Fall of Rora, the Search after Proserpine, and other Poems Meditative and Lyrical.17 Fcp.18 8vo. price 6_s._19

KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, & CO., 1 Paternoster Square.20

May Carols.21 Third Edition, enlarged.22

BURNS & OATES.23

BY THE LATE SIR AUBREY DE VERE, BART.24

Mary Tudor: an Historical Drama.25 Julian the Apostate, and the Duke of Mercia.26 A Song of Faith, Devout Exercises and Sonnets.27

B. M. PICKERING.28

THE FORAY29

OF30

QUEEN MEAVE31

AND OTHER32

_LEGENDS OF IRELAND’S HEROIC AGE_33

BY34

AUBREY DE VERE35

LONDON KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, & CO., 1 PATERNOSTER SQUARE 188236

(_The rights of translation and of reproduction are reserved_)37

PREFACE.38

The ‘Foray of Queen Meave,’ the longest of the following poems, is founded on and in substance represents the far-famed ‘Tain bo Cuailgné,’ a tale regarded by many Irish scholars as the great Irish epic of ancient times, by others as a part only of some larger epic of which numerous portions remain, but which unhappily found no Pisistratus to combine them into a whole.39 The lamented Professor Eugene O’Curry has expressed his opinion that ‘in the time of Senchan and St. Columba’ (that is in the sixth century) ‘it was generally believed that Fergus was the original writer of the tale.’40 [1] ‘On this supposition it must have existed in a rudimental form a little before the Christian Era.41 It was lost for several centuries, but recovered in the sixth, when, according to the legend recorded by Professor O’Curry, St. Kiaran wrote down the tale “in a book which he had made from the hide of his pet cow--a book called the Leabhar na h-Uidré.”’42 [2] Elsewhere that great authority states that a large portion of this work is preserved in a copy ‘written at the same Clonmacnoise by a famous scribe named Maelmire, who was killed there in 1106.’43 [3] That copy of St. Kiaran’s version is still extant in the Royal Irish Academy, as well as a copy of a later version included in the ‘Book of Leinster,’ a collection compiled about 1150.44 Translations of both these versions have been made by Professor O’Looney, and to both I have had access through his kindness.45 These two versions differ much from each other, the earlier being the simpler and stronger, while the later is the richer in detail.46 To the sixth century belong not a few Irish works of unquestioned authenticity, such as the elegy written by Dallan Forgaill on the death of St. Columba, A.D.47 592, found also in the Leabhar na h-Uidré.48 To an earlier period, the fifth century, belongs the tract entitled the ‘Battle of Magh Tuireadh,’ or Moytura.49 Several poems are confidently referred to Dubthach, chief Bard of King Laeghaire, St. Patrick’s earliest convert at the Royal Court; and to the same century belongs the Senchas Mor, or Compilation of Laws.50 The ‘Tripartite Life of St. Patrick’ is attributed by Colgan and others to the sixth century, because it mentions as still living many persons known to have died before the close of that age.51 Books are recorded as having been in the hands of the Druids before St. Patrick’s time, or soon after, such as the ‘Cuilmenn,’ the ‘Sailtair of Tara,’ attributed to the third century, the ‘Book of St. Mochta,’ one of St. Patrick’s early disciples, the ‘Book of Cuana,’ &c. There is consequently nothing to surprise us in the circumstance that the ‘Tain bo Cuailgné’ belongs to a period so early.52 The following poem, written of course in the character of an old Irish bard, is not a translation except as regards some passages which occur chiefly in Fragment III.53 It is not in the form of translation that an ancient Irish tale of any considerable length admits of being rendered in poetry.54 What is needed is to select from the original such portions as are at once the most essential to the story, and the most characteristic, reproducing them in a condensed form, and taking care that the necessary additions bring out the idea, and contain nothing that is not in the spirit, of the original.55

An attempt to introduce to modern readers a work so ancient, and connected with allusions so unfamiliar, seems to call for some remarks on the character of that work, and on the age which produced it.56 The ‘Tain bo Cuailgné’ is especially valued, not only for its poetic merits, but for the light which it throws upon early Irish customs, such as the use of the war-chariot, abandoned, apparently, as early as the second century.57 It marks strikingly the mutual relations of Ireland’s different kingdoms, classes, and races.58 It is the amplest voice from Ireland’s ‘Heroic Age,’ thus belonging to the first, as the so-called ‘Ossianic’ poems belong to the second cycle of ancient Irish song.59 The latter cycle derives its name from the circumstance that, though little of it can be traced back to Ossian, it records the warriors of the Fianna Eireann who were his contemporaries, and flourished in the second century.60 Yet even they, scarcely excepting Diarmid, Oscar, and Fionn himself, though the terror of Ireland’s provincial kings till their power, rendered too exacting by long success, was extinguished by a single fatal reverse, were never counted equal to the mighty ones of her earlier time.61

The Heroic Age had reached its highest greatness shortly before the Christian Era.62 It was then that Fergus Mac Roy reigned over Uladh, now Ulster; but he renounced his throne, incensed at seeing his wily stepson preferred to him, and was exiled because he had revenged the murder of Usnach’s sons.63 Among the ancient Irish heroes he was the popular favourite, princely in all his ways, magnanimous, truthful, just, and not the less majestic because a man of mirth.64 His supplanter, Conor Conchobar, was his opposite in all things, a man more sagacious, but perfidious and implacable.65 At that time lived also Conal Carnach, and his foster-son Cuchullain immeasurably the greatest of all Ireland’s legendary warriors.66 His character is one so consistent and so original that it suffices by itself to stamp the age which conceived it as high among the most poetic of the world.67 Cuchullain has been called the Achilles of early Erin; yet with the swiftness, the fierce impulse, and indomitable might that belonged to the Greek, he blends in perfect harmony qualities that remind us more of Hector.68 Like him, he is the defender of the city, more inspired by patriotic zeal than even by his love of glory: like him, he is generous, modest, forbearing to the weak.69 It is to the strong only among his country’s foes that he is unpitying; and even in his dealings with them there is no ferocity.70 They have to die, and he slays them.71 He is reverent to both his parents--fiercely as they were at variance with each other--to age, to woman; and about him, even in his sterner moods, there plays often the joyous spirit of the child.72 His devotion to Ferdīa is tenderer than that of Achilles to Patroclus; but on him there has fallen a sterner duty.73 He has not to avenge that friend, but to encounter and lay him low when the invader of Uladh.74 The one blemish in Cuchullain’s life, his desertion of Aifné, his boyhood’s love in Scatha’s Island, for a rival whose chief attraction was perhaps that she could only be won by force of arms, is an episode not included within the scope of the Tain.75 His lifelong aspiration was fulfilled.76 A few years after the repulse of Meave, while the other warriors of Ulster were engaged on an invasion of Alba (Scotland), Cuchullain alone remained behind for the protection of his country.77 Suddenly the forces of all the other kingdoms fell again upon the northern land, stirred up by ancient hatred, and led on by a remnant of Cailitin’s ‘Magic Clan.’78 Cuchullain again held them at bay till the return of the Ulster army: but it returned only in time to avenge his death, still in the prime of youth, and to complete his work.79