Note 129 — PART II (continued 2)
Reading edition
As in the Voyage of Maelduin’s Curach, an Imram of substantially the original type, treated from a Christian point of view. The trait is copied in the Adventures of Tadg Mac Céin, a late mediæval romance composed in the archaic style, where it receives from Tadg the characteristic comment, ‘’Tis queer, though charming’; he evidently regarded it as an example intended rather for edification than imitation. It is interesting to note how the idea recurs in modern Irish poetry, as, indeed, practically, in Irish peasant life. In poor Mangan’s beautiful Love Ballad, translated or imitated from the Irish, the hero—
‘Sheltered by the sloe-bush black, Sat, laughed, and talked, while thick sleet fell, And cold rain. Thanks to God! no guilty leaven Dashed our childish mirth. You rejoice for this in Heaven, I not less on earth.’