Note 12 — Chapter IX
Reading edition
Sir Samuel Ferguson's admirable poem upon the death of Cormac refers to the priests of the idol, but there is no recorded evidence of any such priesthood—
"Crom Cruach and his sub-gods twelve, Saith Cormac, are but carven treene. The axe that made them haft or helve, Had worthier of your worship been.
But he who made the tree to grow, And hid in earth the iron stone, And made the man with mind to know The axe's use is God alone.
Anon to priests of Crom were brought— Where girded in their service dread, They ministered in red Moy Slaught— Word of the words King Cormac said.
They loosed their curse against the king, They cursed him in his flesh and bones, And daily in their mystic ring They turned the maledictive stones."
D'Arcy McGee also refers to Crom Cruach in terms almost equally poetic, but equally unauthorised:—
"Their ocean-god was Manannán Mac Lir, Whose angry lips In their white foam full often would inter Whole fleets of ships. Crom was their day-god and their thunderer, Made morning and eclipse; Bride was their queen of song, and unto her They prayed with fire-touched lips!"