🧚 Opening, part 16

So ends the _Tain_: Not less, in mirth or spleen, that legend old Primeval battle-chaunt of Erin’s race, Adds yet a second close.1 Cuchullain led That host Ulidian home; while Meave made oath Northward to send, and range round Eman’s walls Her spoil, the war’s sole triumph, countless flocks, The herds milk-yielding of the large-eyed kine, The horses, and the asses, and the goats, The household stuffs, rich vests, and precious dyes, The hinds laborious, and the men age-bent, And maidens skilled in work; but, first, and chief That sable Bull, the cause of all the war.2 Fulfilled were all these pledges save the last; For Meave upon that fatal day, while hung Doubtful the battle-scales, had given command To lead the Donn to Cruachan.3 Ill-pleased He on his keepers turning slew a score, Yet peaceful paced at last betwixt their ranks, At each side fifty spears.4 Next day, far south, Forth rolled the roar of Ailill’s Bull snow-white, Fionbannah.5 Bursting through his guard, the Donn Rushed t’ward the sound.6 Upon the midway plain The rivals met.7 All day that battle raged While wood to wood thunder on thunder hurled, And all the bulls of Erin sent reply.8 Shepherds, through wood-skirts peering, saw the end, The Donn, at sunset, rushing t’ward the north, And, on his conqueror’s back--their horns entwined-- Fionbannah dead!9 All night that conqueror rushed O’er hill and plain and prone morass.10 When dawn Looked coldly forth through mist along the meads Far off he kenned a rock: that rock he deemed A second bull: collecting all his might Thereon he hurled his giant bulk, and died.11

Northward thus marched from Cruachan the kings; Then back.12 The Foray of Queen Meave thus far.13

NOTES.14

PREFACE15

Footnote 1:16

_Lectures on the MS. Materials of Ancient Irish History_, p. 41.17

Footnote 2:18

_Lectures on the MS. Materials of Ancient Irish History_, p. 30.19

Footnote 3:20

_Manners and Customs of the Ancient Irish_, vol. iii. p. 403.21

Footnote 4:22

Author of _The Collegians_.23

Footnote 5:24

More correctly written Uisnach.25 See _Loch Etive and the Sons of Uisnach_, Macmillan & Co.26

Footnote 6:27

Advertisement to ‘Inisfail,’ p. 52.28

Footnote 7:29

1.30 Lays of the Western Gael.31 2.32 Congal.33 3.34 Poems.35 By Sir Samuel Ferguson.36 Bell and Sons.37

THE SONS OF USNACH38

Footnote 8:39

Ulster.40

Footnote 9:41

Eman, also called Emania, stood nearly on the present site of Armagh.42

Footnote 10:43

Page 9.44 _He taught her all the Ogham Signs to read.45 _ The Ogham characters are a species of alphabet, or as some call them cypher, cut upon stones, or wooden staves.46 They are found in many parts of Ireland; and much has been written on them by the most learned Irish antiquarians of recent times, especially by Bishop Graves.47

Footnote 11:48

The Irish, originally ‘Scoti,’ were so called from Scota.49

Footnote 12:50

Ballyshannon.51

Footnote 13:52

Howth.53

Footnote 14:54

Page 38.55 _By Geisa bound.56 _ These _Gesa_, or _Geisa_, often as trivial in character as they were rigidly enforced, have a large place in the legends of the Irish pre-Christian times.57 Sometimes they applied to particular individuals alone: thus, in the case of Cuchullain, it was a _Gesa_ that no one should wake him out of his sleep.58 Sometimes they were self-imposed: thus Fergus Mac Roy and Cuchullain also, had bound themselves in youth never to refuse an invitation to the feast of a good man, however humble.59 The most remarkable illustrations of the _Gesa_ will be found in ‘Conary,’ the noble poem of my friend, Sir Samuel Ferguson, who speaks of them as ‘certain sacred injunctions, the violation of which was attended with temporal punishment.60 The agents in inflicting such retribution appear in the form of Fairies.’61 (Poems by Sir Samuel Ferguson, p. 61.62 McGee, Dublin; George Bell, London.)63

Footnote 15:64

Page 39.65 _Deirdré and he were playing chess together_: Chess was a favourite game with the Irish, and is frequently alluded to in the earliest tales.66

THE CHILDREN OF LIR67

Footnote 16:68

Page 73.69 _The ‘Lia Fail,’ and Ogham lore revered.70 _ The ‘Lia Fail,’ or ‘Stone of Destiny,’ was the stone on which the Irish ‘Chief Kings,’ or Ard-Righs, were crowned at Tara.71 It was subsequently used for the same purpose during many centuries in Scotland, to which it had been brought by the Dalriad Irish recorded by Bede, at the coronation of her Kings of Irish race.72 It was removed by Edward the First from Scone to Westminster Abbey, where it still supports the chair of Edward the Confessor.73 (See ‘Hist. of Scotland’ by Sir Walter Scott, vol. i. p. 34.)74

Footnote 17:75

Bamba, Fodhla, and Eire.76

Footnote 18:77

The current running between Cantire, in Scotland, and the northern coast of Ireland.78

Footnote 19:79

Achill Island, on the coast of Connaught.80

Footnote 20:81

The ‘Tonsured One,’ _i.e._ St. Patrick.82

Footnote 21:83

‘The term _Mael_, Mull (or Moyle, as Moore calls it), does not properly apply to the current itself, but to the _Mael_, or bald headland by which it runs.’--_Professor Eugene O’Curry.84

Footnote 22:85

‘They met a young man of good family whose name was Aibhric, and his attention was often attracted to the birds, and their singing was sweet to him, so that he came to love them greatly, and that they loved him; and it was this young man that afterwards arranged in order and narrated all their adventures.’--_The Fate of the Children of Lir_, prose version by Professor O’Curry.86

Footnote 23:87

Page 105.88 _Or Acaill_; Now Achill Head.89

THE FORAY OF QUEEN MEAVE90

Footnote 24:91

Now Connaught.92

Footnote 25:93

Now Ulster.94

Footnote 26:95

Chief King.96

Footnote 27:97

Now Dundalk.98

Footnote 28:99

Armagh.100

Footnote 29:101

_Cu_ in Irish means hound.102

Footnote 30:103

Page 146.104 _Hail Eric just.105 _ The fine exacted for various offences by the Brehon law.106

Footnote 31:107

Page 151.108 _The dread Mor Reega.109 _ The War Goddess of the ancient Irish.110 An account of this divinity will be found in the admirable essay contributed to the ‘Revue Celtique’ (May 1870), by W. M. Hennessy, Esq.111

Footnote 32:112

Page 153.113 _Among the Sidils.114 _ The Fairy Hills.115

Footnote 33:116

Page 181.117 _There shone the torque of Meave.118 _ ‘Take off his armour that I may see the Brooch for the sake of which he undertook the combat.119 Leagh came, and stripped Ferdīa....120 Cuchullain saw the brooch; and he began to lament and moan for him.’121 (MS. translation, by Professor O’Looney.)122

Footnote 34:123

Page 191.124 _And, southward next, that lake.125 _ Lough Derg in Donegal, a place of pilgrimage still frequented.126 To this island properly belongs the legend illustrated by Calderon in his ‘Purgatory of St. Patrick,’ so admirably presented to the English reader by my lamented friend, the late Denis Florence MacCarthy.127

Footnote 35:128

The Shannon.129

Footnote 36:130

Page 201.131 _Beside Ath-Luain.132 _ Now Athlone.133

Footnote 37:134

Page 226.135 _From Caiseal’s crested rock.136 _ Now Cashel.137

LONDON: PRINTED BY SPOTTISWOODE AND CO., NEW-STREET SQUARE AND PARLIAMENT STREET138

Transcriber’s Notes139

This file uses _underscores_ to indicate italic text.140 New original cover art included with this ebook is granted to the public domain.141

The original printed book included both footnotes and endnotes.142 In this edition, all notes have been converted to sequentially numbered endnotes.143

De Vere consistently spells the Irish title “ollamh” as “ollamb”; this and other non-standard spellings of Irish words have not been corrected.144

There are some errors and inconsistencies in the rendering of single and double quotation marks in nested dialogue, especially in the long narration by Fergus starting on page 138.145 These have been silently corrected.146

The following changes and corrections have been made:147

• p. vi: Added closing single quotation mark after phrase “a famous scribe named Maelmire, who was killed there in 1106.”148 • p. 1: Added closing single quotation mark after phrase “goodlier is this child / Than e’er till now on proudest parent smiled!”149 • p. 16: Added opening single quotation mark before phrase “Ever at Uladh’s feasts the clansmen say,” change internal opening single quotation mark in this stanza to double quotation mark, and add closing double quotation mark to end of stanza.150 • p. 17: Added opening single quotation mark before phrase “Their singing is the best all Uladh boasts” and at the start of the following stanza.151 • p. 28: Added opening single quotation mark before phrase “Lay first that head, and march we hence this night!”152 • p. 69: Added closing single quotation mark after phrase “A woman’s hand one day shall strike him dead!”153 • p. 78: Replaced “Finōla” with “Finola” in phrase “Finola paced the high-arched alleys green.”154 • p. 80: Added period and closing single quotation mark after phrase “if not--my hate.”155 • p. 81: Added closing single quotation mark after phrase “Their voices too are voices of the Gael!”156 • p. 89: Added exclamation mark and closing single quotation mark after phrase “Farewell, my little Conn!”157 • p. 90: Added closing single quotation mark after phrase “Thou hear’st the charge: how makest thou reply?”158 • p. 114: Added period after phrase “Through Faith the birthright, though the younger son.”159 • p. 145: Changed “bou” to “boughs” in phrase “Bird-song by autumn chilled, that brake through boughs.”160 • p. 153: Added closing single quotation mark after phrase “My strength must lessen day by day.”161 • p. 155: Changed “o er” to “o’er” in phrase “o’er the axle bent.”162 • p. 164: Added closing single quotation mark after phrase “this Island should be theirs!”163 • p. 190: Changed “Fionbannagh” to “Fionbannah” in phrase “the Bulls that shake this day our land, / Fionbannah, and the Donn.”164 • p. 203: Added closing single quotation mark after phrase “Is past since northward to the war we marched.”165 • p. 227: Added closing single quotation mark after phrase “One day I shared her feast: she shall not die!”166 • p. 228: Added comma after phrase “The household stuffs, rich vests, and precious dyes.”167