VOLUME V SLICE V Cat to Celt (continued 13)

Authorities.—J. Rhys, Celtic Britain (London², 1905), The Welsh People (London3, 1902), “The Language and Inscriptions of the Northern Picts,” in Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland (1892); H. Zimmer, “Das Mutterrecht der Pikten,” in Savignys Zeitschrift (1895); also trans. by G. Henderson in Leabhar nan Gleann (Inverness, 1898); W.F. Skene, Celtic Scotland (Edinburgh, 1876); A. Macbain in appendix to reprint of Skene’s Highlanders of Scotland (Stirling, 1902); A. Macbain, “Ptolemy’s Geography of Scotland,” in Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Inverness, xviii. 267-288; W. Stokes, Bezzenbergers Beiträge, xviii. 267 ff.; H. d’Arbois de Jubainville, Les Druides et les dieux celtiques à forme d’animaux (Paris, 1906). The various theories have been recently reviewed and criticized by T. Rice Holmes in an appendix to his Caesar’s Invasion of Britain (London, 1907).

IV. History of Celtic Philology.—For many centuries the affinities of the Celtic languages were the subject of great dispute. The languages were in turn regarded as descended from Hebrew, Teutonic and Scythian. The first attempt to treat the dialects comparatively was made by Edward Lhuyd in his Archaeologia Britannica (Oxford, 1707), but the work of this scholar seems to have remained unnoticed. A century later Adelung in Germany divided the dialects into true Celtic (= Goidelic) and Celtic influenced by Teutonic (= Brythonic). But it took scholars a long time to recognize that these languages belonged to the Indo-European family. Thus they were excluded by Bopp in his comparative grammar, though he did not fail to notice certain resemblances between Celtic and Sanskrit. James Pritchard was the first to demonstrate the true relationship of the group in his Eastern Origin of the Celtic Nations (London, 1831), but his conclusions were not accepted. As late as 1836 Pott denied the Indo-European connexion. A year later Pictet resumed Pritchard’s arguments, and Bopp himself in 1838 admitted the languages into the charmed circle, showing in an able paper entitled Über die keltischen Sprachen that the initial mutations were due to the influence of terminations now lost. But it was reserved to a Bavarian historian, J.C. Zeuss (1806-1856), to demonstrate conclusively the Indo-European origin of the Celtic dialects. Zeuss, who may worthily rank with Grimm and Diez among the greatest German philologists, rediscovered the Old Irish glosses on the continent, and on them he reared the magnificent structure which goes by his name. The Grammatica Celtica was first published in 1853. The material contained in this monumental work was greatly extended by a series of important publications by Whitley Stokes and Hermann Ebel, so much so that the latter was commissioned to prepare a second edition, which appeared in 1871. Stokes has rendered the greatest service to the cause of Celtic studies by the publication of countless texts in Irish, Cornish and Breton. In 1870 the Revue celtique (vol. xxviii. in 1908) was founded by Henri Gaidoz, whose mantle later fell upon H. d’Arbois de Jubainville. In 1879 E. Windisch facilitated the study of Irish by publishing a grammar of Old Irish, and a year later a volume of important Middle Irish texts with an exhaustive glossary, the first of its kind. Since then Windisch and Stokes have collaborated to bring out some of the greatest monuments of Irish literature in the series of Irische Texte. The text of the Würzburg glosses was published by Zimmer (1881) and by Stokes (1887), and that of the Milan glosses by Ascoli. An important step forward was the discovery of the laws of the Irish accent made simultaneously by Zimmer and Thurneysen. This discovery led to a thorough investigation of the difficult verb system of Old Irish—a task which has largely occupied the attention of Strachan in England, Thurneysen and Zimmer in Germany, and Pedersen and Sarauw in Denmark. In a sense the publication of the Thesaurus Palaeohibernicus (Cambridge, 1901-1903) may be regarded as marking the close of this epoch. The older stages of Irish have hitherto so monopolized the energies of scholars that other departments of Celtic philology save Breton have been left in large measure unworked. J. Strachan had begun to tap the mine of the Old Welsh poems when his career was cut short by death. J. Loth and E. Ernault have concentrated their attention on Breton, and can claim that the development of the speech of Brittany has been more thoroughly investigated than that of any other Celtic language. The number of periodicals devoted entirely to Celtic studies has increased considerably of recent years. In 1896 K. Meyer and L. C. Stern founded the Zeitschrift für celtische Philologie (now in its 7th volume), and in 1897 the Archiv für celtische Lexikographie began to appear under the direction of K. Meyer and W. Stokes. As a supplement to the latter Meyer has been publishing his invaluable contributions to Middle Irish lexicography. In Ireland a new periodical styled Ériu was started by the Irish School of Learning in 1904. The Scottish Celtic Review, dealing more particularly with Scottish and Irish Gaelic, began to appear in 1903, and the Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Inverness are in the 26th volume. For Wales we have Y Cymmrodor since 1877, and the Transactions of the Hon. Society of Cymmrodorion since 1892, and for Brittany the Annales de Bretagne, published by the Faculty of Letters at Rennes (founded 1886).

See V. Tourneur, Esquisse d’une histoire des études celtiques (Liége, 1905).

(E. C. Q.)

Celtic Literature

I. Irish Literature.—In the absence of a native coinage it is extremely difficult to say when the use of letters was introduced into Ireland. It is probable that the Latin alphabet first came in with Christianity. With the exception Ogam inscriptions. of the one bilingual Ogam inscription as yet discovered in Ireland (that at Killeen Cormac) all the inscriptions in Roman letters are certainly later than 500. Indeed, apart from the stone reading “LIE LUGUAEDON MACCI MENUEH,” they are all contemporary with or later than the Old Irish glosses. With regard to the Ogam inscriptions we cannot make any confident assertions. Owing to the lack of criteria for dating certain Irish sound-changes accurately it is impossible to assign chronological limits for the earlier stones. The latter cannot be later than the 5th century, but there is nothing to show whether they are Christian or not, and if pagan they may be a century or two earlier. It is true that the heroes and druids of the older epics are represented in the stories as making constant use of Ogam letters on wood and stone, and as the state of civilization described in the oldest versions of the Ulster sagas seems largely to go back to the beginning of the Christian era, it is not impossible that this peculiar system of writing had been framed by them. The Ogam system is certainly based on the Latin and not the Greek alphabet, and was probably invented by some person from the south of Ireland who received his knowledge of the Roman letters from traders from the mouth of the Loire. It may, however, be regarded as certain that the Ogam script was never employed in early times for literary purposes. We are told that the Gaulish druids disdained to commit their lore to writing, although they were familiar with the use of Greek letters, and their Irish confrères probably resembled them in this respect. Tradition connects the codification of the Brehon Laws with the name of Patrick, and there is reason for believing, as we shall see later, that the greatest Irish epic was first committed to writing in the 7th century.

The great bulk of Irish literature is contained in MSS. belonging to the Middle Irish period (1100-1550), and in order to be able to treat this literature as a whole it will be convenient for us to deal first with those documents which are Old Irish MSS. termed Old Irish, especially as the contemporary remains of the literature of the earlier period are almost exclusively of a religious nature. Most of the Old Irish documents have been printed by Stokes and Strachan in the Thesaurus Palaeohibernicus, and where no reference is given the reader is referred to that monumental work. The extraordinary outburst of intellectual activity in Ireland from the 6th to the 9th centuries and the compositions of Irishmen in the Latin language, belong to the history of medieval European literature and fall outside the scope of this article. For the Confession of St Patrick and his “Letter to the Subjects of Coroticus” see Patrick. The only Irish document ascribed to the saint is the strange so-called “Hymn,” the fáeth fiada, more properly fóid fiada, “the cry of the deer.” This is a rhythmical incantation which is said Hymns. to have rendered the saint and his companions invisible to King Loigaire and his druids. The Trinity and powers of nature are invoked to help him to resist spells of women and smiths and wizards. The hymn, which contains a number of strange grammatical forms, is undoubtedly referred to in the Book of Armagh, and may very well go back to the 5th century. The Latin hymns contained in two MSS. dating from the end of the 11th or beginning of the 12th century, a Trinity College, Dublin, MS., and a MS. belonging to the Franciscan monastery in Dublin, are of interest to us as exhibiting the influence of the native metrical system. Quantity and elision are ignored, and rhymes, assonances, alliterations and harmonies abound in true Irish fashion. The line consists of two units which commonly contain either seven or eight syllables apiece. The earliest and best-known of these religious poems are the Hymn of Secundinus (Sechnall d. 447) on St Patrick, and the two hymns attributed to St Columba (d. 597) beginning “Noli pater” and “Altus prosator,” the latter of which exhibits some of the peculiarities of the so-called Hibernian Latin of the Hisperica Famina and the Lorica of Gildas. The date of the Irish hymns in the Liber Hymnorum ranges, according to Stokes and Strachan, from the 7th to the 11th centuries. Ultán’s hymn on St Brigit beginning “Brigit bé bithmaith,” which is by far the most artistic of the collection, was perhaps composed in the 7th century. Definite metrical laws had evidently been elaborated when this poem was written. The beat is iambic, but the natural accent of the words is rigidly observed. The long line consists of two units of five syllables each. The rhymes are dissyllabic and perfect. Alliteration is always observed in the latter half of each line and assonances are found knitting up the half-lines. The short prayer ascribed to Ninine or to Fiacc is a highly alliterative piece without rhyme, the date of which cannot be fixed. The well-known hymn on St Patrick traditionally ascribed to Fiacc, bishop of Sletty, and the piece beginning “Sén Dé,” traditionally ascribed to Colmán, are assigned on linguistic grounds to the beginning of the 9th century. The lines going by the name of “Sanctán’s Hymn” probably belong to the same century, whilst the metrical catalogue of marvels performed by St Brigit contains such a medley of older and later forms, probably due to interpolation, that it is impossible to determine its age. The few lines entitled “Mael-Ísu’s Hymn” are the most recent of all and probably belong to the 11th century (Mael-Ísu d. 1086). The Patrician documents by Muirchu Maccu Machthéni, who professed to write at the command of Bishop Aed of Sletty (d. 698), and by Tirechán, who is said to have received his information from Bishop Ultán (d. 656), are contained in the Book of Armagh, a MS. compiled by Ferdomnach in 807. These documents, like the Life of St Columba by Adamnan, the MS. of which was written by Dorbbéne, abbot of Hi (d. 713), contain a number of names and forms of great importance for the study of the language.

The earliest pieces of connected prose in Irish are three:—(1) the Cambray Homily, contained in an 8th-century codex at Cambray copied by a continental hand from a MS. in the Irish character; the language is very archaic and Earliest prose. dates from the second half of the 7th or the beginning of the 8th century; (2) the additions to the notes of Tirechán on the life of St Patrick in the Book of Armagh; these seem to go back to the early 8th century; (3) the tract on the Mass in the Stowe Missal, which is in all probability nearly as old as the Cambray Homily, though contained in a 10th or 11th century MS. Of especial interest are the spells and poems found in the Stowe Missal and two continental MSS. The Stowe MS. (now deposited in the Royal Irish Academy) contains three rather badly preserved spells for a sore eye, a thorn and disease of the urine. A St Gall codex has preserved four Irish incantations of the 8th and 9th centuries. These are respectively against a thorn, urinary disease, headache and various ailments. Another charm, which is partly obscure, occurs in the 9th-century codex preserved at the monastery of St Paul in Carinthia. The same MS. also contains (1) a humorous poem treating of the doings of a bookish writer and his favourite cat Pangur Bán; (2) a riddling poem ascribed to Suibne Geilt, a king who is said to have lost his reason at the battle of Moira (a.d. 637); (3) verses extracted from a poem ascribed to St Moling (d. 697), who may very well have been the actual author; (4) a poem in praise of some Leinster princeling called Aed.

For our knowledge of the older language, however, we have to rely mainly on the numerous glosses scattered about in a large number of MSS., which it is impossible to enumerate here. Indeed, such an enumeration is now rendered Old glosses. superfluous owing to the publication of the Thesaurus Palaeohibernicus, in which all the various glosses have been collected. For our purpose it will be sufficient to mention the three most important codices containing Old Irish glosses. These are as follows:—(1) The Codex Paulinus at Würzburg, which contains the thirteen epistles of St Paul, and the Epistle to the Hebrews, with a great mass of explanatory glosses, partly in Latin, partly in Irish, partly mixed. The chief source of the commentary is the commentary of Pelagius, who is often cited by name. The date of this highly important MS. is much disputed; part of the Irish glosses seem to date from about 700, whilst the rest may be placed a little before 800. (2) The Codex Ambrosianus, formerly at Bobbio, now at Milan, which contains a commentary on the psalter with a large number of Irish glosses. In their present state these glosses were copied in the first half of the 9th century. (3) Glosses on Priscian contained in four MSS., of which the most important is the Codex Sangallensis, dating from the middle of the 9th century. Apart from the biblical glosses and scholia the other chief texts or authors provided with Irish glosses are Augustine, Bede, the Canons, the Computus, Eutychius, Juvencus, Philargyrius, Prudentius and Servius.

The Milan and the St Gall codices just mentioned both contain several short poems in Irish. In two stanzas in the Swiss MS. we find expressed for the first time that keen sympathy with nature in all her moods which is so marked a feature of Irish and Welsh verse.

Two ponderous religious poems have now to be noticed. To Oengus the Culdee is attributed the lengthy Félire or Calendar of Church Festivals, consisting of 365 quatrains in rinnard metre, one for each day in the year. The language of this dry compilation, which is heavily glossed and annotated, points to 800 as the date of composition, and Oengus, who is stated to have lived about that time, may well have been the author. This calendar has been twice edited by W. Stokes with an English translation, the first time for the Royal Irish Academy (Dublin, 1880), and again for the Bradshaw Society (London, 1905).

It may perhaps be as well to enumerate here the later Irish martyrologies. (1) The Martyrology of Tallaght (Tamlacht), founded on an 8th-century calendar, but containing additions down to 900 (ed. D.H. Kelly, Dublin, 1857). (2) The metrical Martyrology of O’Gorman, c. 1166-1174, edited by Stokes for the Bradshaw Society (London, 1895). (3) The Martyrology of Donegal, an important compilation in prose made by Michael O’Clery in 1630, edited by J.H. Todd (Dublin, 1864). A composition which is wrongly assigned to Oengus the Culdee is the Saltair na Rann or Psalter in Quatrains, contained in an Oxford MS. (Rawlinson B 502) and published without a translation by Stokes (Oxford, 1883). The work proper consists of 150 poems corresponding to the number of Psalms in the psalter, but 12 poems have been added, and in all it contains 2098 quatrains, chiefly in deibide metre of seven syllables. The poems are mainly based on biblical (Old Testament) history, but they preserve a large measure of medieval sacred lore and cosmogony. The psalter received additions as late as 998, and the Oxford MS. belongs to the 12th century. We should perhaps also mention here the famous Amra or Eulogy of St Columba, commonly attributed to Dallán Forgaill, a contemporary of the saint, but Stokes takes the view that it was written in the 9th century, and is intentionally obscure. The oldest but not the best copy of the Amra is preserved in the Trinity College, Dublin, MS. of the Liber Hymnorum, but it also occurs in LU. and elsewhere. It invariably appears heavily gloss-laden, and the glosses and commentary added thereto are out of all proportion to the text. This piece, which is not extant in its integrity, was probably intended as artificial alliterative prose, but, as we have it, it is a medley of isolated phrases and irrelevant comment.

During the 9th and 10th centuries Ireland was harassed by the Vikings, and a host of scholars seem to have fled to the continent, carrying with them their precious books, many of which are preserved in Italy, Switzerland, Germany Old collectors. and elsewhere. Hence very few early Irish MSS. are preserved in Ireland itself. When the fury of the storm was past, Irish scholars showed increased interest in the old literary documents, and copied all that they could lay hands on into miscellaneous codices. The earliest of these collections, such as the Cin of Druim Snechta, the Yellow Book of Slane, the Book of Dubdaleithe, the Psalter of Cashel, exist no longer, though their names have come down and certain of them were known in the 17th century. However, copies of a goodly portion of the contents of these old books are preserved to us in one form or another, but mainly in a series of huge miscellaneous codices Book of the Dun Cow. ranging in date from the 12th to the 16th century. The oldest is Lebor na h-uidre, or Book of the Dun Cow, preserved in the Royal Irish Academy and published in facsimile (Dublin, 1870). This MS. was compiled in part in the monastery of Clonmacnoise by Moelmuire MacCelechair, who was slain in 1106. The Book of the Dun Cow (where necessary we shall abbreviate as LU.) derives its name from a legend that Ciaran of Clonmacnoise (d. 544) took down the story of the Táin Bó Cualnge on a parchment made from the hide of his favourite cow. The name seems to have been wrongly applied to the 12th-century MS. in the 15th century. LU. is almost entirely devoted to romance, the stories which Book of Leinster. it contains belonging mainly to the Ulster cycle. The next MS. in point of age is the Book of Leinster (abbreviated LL.) now in Trinity College, Dublin. It was transcribed by Finn, son of Gorman, bishop of Kildare (d. 1160). LL. also contains a large number of romances in addition to other important matter, mainly historical and Yellow Book of Lecan. genealogical, bearing more particularly on the affairs of Leinster. The Yellow Book of Lecan (YBL.), also in Trinity College, Dublin, was written at different times by the MacFirbis family, but chiefly by Gilla Isa, son of Donnchad Mór MacFirbis about 1391. The MacFirbises were hereditary scribes and genealogists to the O’Dowds, chiefs of the Hy Fiachrach (Co. Sligo). YBL. contains a vast amount of romance, and is indispensable as supplementing and checking Book of Ballymote. the contents of LU. and LL. The most extensive collection of all is the Book of Ballymote (BB.), now belonging to the Royal Irish Academy, which was compiled about the beginning of the 15th century by various scribes. The book was in the possession of the chiefs of Ballymote for more than a century. In 1522 it was purchased by the O’Donnells for 140 milch cows. BB. only contains little romantic matter, but it has preserved much valuable historical and Speckled Book. genealogical material. The contents of the Leabhar Breac (LB.), or Speckled Book, now in the Royal Irish Academy, are chiefly ecclesiastical and religious. LB. seems to have been compiled in large measure before 1544. All these five codices have been published in facsimile by the Royal Irish Academy with a description of their contents. Two important Mid. Ir. MSS. in the Bodleian (Rawlinson B 512 and Laud 610), containing a good deal of romantic material, are also published in facsimile by Henry Frowde.

Other MSS. which require special mention are (1) The Great Book of Lecan, compiled in the year 1417 by Gilla Isa Mór MacFirbis, in the Royal Irish Academy; (2) The Book of Lismore, the property of the duke of Devonshire at Lismore Other MSS. material. Castle. This codex was compiled in the latter half of the 15th century from the lost book of Monasterboice and other MSS. Its contents are described in the introduction to Stokes’s Lives of Saints from the Book of Lismore (Oxford, 1890). (3) The Book of Fermoy in the Royal Irish Academy. The contents are described in the introduction to O’Beirne Crowe’s edition of the Táin Bó Fraich (Dublin, 1870). (4) The Book of Hy Maine recently acquired by the Royal Irish Academy. The scribe who wrote it died in 1372. O’Curry, O’Longan and O’Beirne Crowe drew up a MS. catalogue of the Irish MSS. in the Royal Irish Academy, and O’Donovan performed the same service for the Trinity College, Dublin, collection. A briefer account of the Irish MSS. in TCD. will be found in Abbott’s Catalogue of the MSS. in that library. O’Curry also drew up a list of the Irish MSS. in the British Museum, and S.H. O’Grady has printed part i. of a descriptive catalogue of this collection (London, 1901), part ii. by T. O’Maille. The twenty-six MSS. in the Franciscan monastery in Dublin are described by J.T. Gilbert in the Fourth Report of the Royal Commission on Historical MSS. W.F. Skene catalogued the collection of MSS. in the Advocates’ Library, Edinburgh, a printed catalogue of which has been issued by D. Mackinnon (Edinburgh, 1909; see also Trans. Gaelic Soc. of Inverness, xvi. 285-309).

In order to give some idea of the enormous extent of Irish MS. material we may quote some calculations made by O’Curry, who states that if the five oldest vellum MSS. were printed the result would be 9400 quarto pages. Other vellum MSS. ranging in date from 1300 to 1600 would fill 9000 pages of the same size, whilst the innumerable paper MSS. belonging chiefly to the early 18th century would cover no less than 30,000 pages. The well-known French scholar, D’Arbois de Jubainville, published in 1883 a tentative catalogue of Irish epic literature. His work is by no means complete, but his figures are instructive. He mentions 953 Irish MSS. containing epic matter preserved in Irish and English libraries. To these have to be added another 56 in continental libraries. Of this mass of material 133 Irish and British MSS. and 35 continental MSS. were written before 1600. It should, however, be stated that the same subject is treated over and over again, and much of the later material is absolutely valueless.

Before we pass on to the consideration of the literature itself, it will be well to make a few preliminary observations on the nature of the language in which the pieces are written and on the status of the poet in medieval Ireland. Character of Middle Irish. The language in which the huge miscellaneous codices enumerated above are contained is called by the general name of Middle Irish, which is a very wide term. Irish scribes often copied their original somewhat mechanically, without being tempted to change the language to that of their own time. Thus in many parts of LU. we find a thin Middle Irish veneer on what is largely Old Irish of the 8th or 9th century. Hence such a MS. often preserves forms which had been current several centuries before, and it may even happen that a 14th or 15th century MS. such as YBL. contains much older forms than a corresponding passage in LL. Of recent years several scholars—notably Strachan—have devoted much attention to the Old Irish verb-forms, so that we have now safe criteria for establishing with some degree of certainty the age of recensions of stories and poems preserved in late MSS. In this way a number of compositions have been assigned to the 9th, 10th and 11th centuries, though actual written documents belonging to this period are comparatively rare.

It remains for us to say a few words about the fili, the professional literary man in Ireland. The fili (from the stem vel-, “to see,” Welsh, Breton, gwelet, “to see”) appears to have been originally a diviner and magician, and corresponds The “fili.” to the vates, οὐάτεις, of the ancient Gauls mentioned by classical writers. In Ireland he is represented as sole possessor of three methods of divination: the imbas forosnai, teinm lóida and díchetal di chennaib cnáime. The first two of these were forbidden by Patrick, but they seem to have survived as late as the 10th century. Part of the tremendous influence exercised by the fili was due to the belief in his powers of satire. By reciting a satirical poem or incantation he was able to raise blotches on the face of and so disfigure any person who aroused his displeasure. Numerous cases of this occur in Irish literature. The origin of the science of the fili is sometimes traced back to the Dagda, one of the figures of the Irish pantheon, and they were held in such esteem that the annalists give the obituaries of the head-ollams as if they were so many princes. With the introduction of Christianity they seem to have gradually superseded the druid, and their functions are therefore very wide. We are told that they acted in three capacities: (i) as story-tellers (fer comgne or scélaige); (2) as judges (brithem), including the professions of arbiters, legislators and lawyers; (3) as poets proper (fercerte). We are here only concerned with the fili in his capacity of story-teller and poet. In accordance with the minute classification of the various ranks of society in early Ireland, the social status of the literary man was very carefully defined. The degrees vary slightly in different documents, but the following list of ten from the Senchus Mór is very instructive: (1) The highest degree is the ollam (ollave), who knows 350 stories; (2) the ánruth, 175 stories; (3) the clíí, 80 stories; (4) the cana, 60 stories; (5) the doss, 50 stories; (6) the macfuirmid, 40 stories; (7) the fochlocon, 30 stories; (8) the drisac, 20 stories; (9) the taman, 10 stories; (10) the oblaire, 7 stories. In LL. we are told that the stories (scél) are divided into primary and secondary, and that the latter are only obligatory on the first four of the grades enumerated. Again, certain styles of composition seem to have been the monopoly of certain grades. Thus the poem which was most highly rewarded and demanded the highest technical skill was called the anomain, and was the exclusive right of the ollam. A notable instance of this kind of composition is the Amra of Columba, attributed to Dallán Forgaill. The higher grades were allowed a number of attendants, whom the kings had to support along with the poet himself. Thus the fochlocon had two and the doss four attendants. In the 6th century Dallán Forgaill, the chief fili of Ireland, claimed the right to be attended by thirty filid, which was the number of the train allowed to the supreme king. The reigning monarch, Aed MacAinmirech, weary of the pretensions of the poets, attempted to banish them, which led to the famous assembly of Druim Ceta, where Columba intervened and reduced the number to twenty-four (the train of a provincial king). In the plan of the hall of Tara, preserved in LL. and YBL., the sui littre or doctor in theology has the seat of honour opposite the king. The ollam brithem or supreme judge or lawyer ranks with the highest rank of nobility, whilst the ollam fili is on a footing with the nobleman of the second degree.

We have already stated that the stories which formed the stock-in-trade of the poets were divided into primary and secondary stories. Of the latter there were 100, but little is known of them. However, several more or less complete lists of the primary stories have come down to us. The oldest catalogue (contained in LL.) gives the titles of 187 of these tales arranged under the following heads—destructions, cow-spoils, courtships, battles, caves, navigations, violent deaths, expeditions, elopements and conflagrations; together with the following, which also reckon as prime-stories—irruptions, visions, loves, hostings and migrations. Of these stories sixty-eight have been preserved in a more or less complete form. The tales enumerated in these catalogues, which in their substance doubtless go back to the 8th or even to the 7th century, fall into four main categories: (1) the mythological cycle, (2) the Cúchulinn cycle, (3) the Finn cycle, (4) pieces relating to events of the 5th, 6th and 7th centuries. Meyer has estimated that of the 550 titles of epic tales in D’Arbois’s Catalogue about 400 are known to us, though many of them only occur in a very fragmentary state; and about 100 others have since been discovered which were not known in 1883.

The course of training undergone by the fili was a very lengthy one. It is commonly stated to have extended over twelve years, at the end of which time the student was thoroughly versed in all the legendary, legal, historical and topographical lore of his native country, in the use of the innumerable and excessively complicated Irish metres, in Ogam writing and Irish grammar. The instruction in the schools of poetry seems to have been entirely oral, and the course consisted largely in learning by heart the verses in which the native lore was enshrined. These schools of learning existed in one form or another down to the 17th century. In the early days the fili is represented as employing a mysterious archaic form of speech—doubtless full of obscure kennings—which was only intelligible to the initiated. An instance of this bérla féine, as it was termed, is the piece entitled Acallam an Dá Shuad (Colloquy of the Two Sages, Rev. celt. xxvi. 4 ff.). In this piece two filid of the 1st century a.d. are represented as contending in this dialect for the office of chief ollam of Ireland, much to the chagrin of King Conchobar, to whom their speeches were unintelligible. It was in consequence of this that Conchobar ruled that the office of fili should no longer carry with it of necessity the office of judge (brithem). It ought to be observed that the church never showed itself hostile to the filid, as it did to the druids. Dubthach, chief fili of Ireland in the time of St Patrick, is represented as the saint’s constant companion, and the famous Flann Mainistrech (d. 1056), though a layman and fili, was head of the monastery school at Monasterboice.

Before leaving the subject of the literary classes, we must notice an inferior grade of poet—the bard. Like the official filid, the bards were divided into grades. There were both patrician and plebeian bards, each subdivided into The bard. eight degrees, having their own peculiar metres. Like the fili the bard had to go through a long course of study, and he was generally attached to the house of some chieftain whose praises he had to sing. In course of time the office of fili became extinct, owing to a variety of causes, and from the 13th to the 16th century we find the hitherto despised family bard stepping into the place of the most influential literary man in Ireland. His importance was fully realized by the English government, which did its best to suppress the order.

The medieval romances form by far the most attractive part of Irish literature, and it is to them that we shall first turn our attention. Two main groups of stories have to be distinguished. The one is the Ulster cycle, with Medieval romances. Conchobar and Cúchulinn as central figures. The other is the Southern or Leinster-Munster cycle, revolving round Finn and Ossian. Further stories dealing with mythological and historical personages will be mentioned in their turn.

The Ulster cycle may be regarded as Ireland’s most important contribution to the world’s literature. The chief and at the same time the lengthiest romance in which the heroes of this group figure is the great epic, the Táin Bó Cualnge or the Ulster cycle. Cattle-raid of Cooley (Co. Louth). Here we find ourselves in a world of barbaric splendour, and we are constantly reminded of the Iliad, though the Irish epic from a purely literary point of view cannot bear comparison with the work of Homer. The main actors in the drama are Conchobar, king of Ulster, the great warrior Cúchulinn (see Cúchulinn), Ailill and Medb, king and queen of Connaught, The “Táin.” and Fergus, Conchobar’s predecessor as king of Ulster, now in exile in Connaught. These persons may or may not have actually lived, but the Irish annalists and synchronists agree in placing them about the beginning of the Christian era. And there cannot be any doubt as to the antiquity of the state of civilization disclosed in this great saga. It has been repeatedly pointed out that the Irish heroes are equipped and conduct themselves in the same manner as the Gauls described by the Greek traveller Posidonius, and Prof. W. Ridgeway has shown recently that several articles of dress and armour correspond exactly to the La Tène types of the continent. To mention a few primitive traits among many—the Irish champions of the Táin still fight in chariots, war-dogs are employed, whilst the heads of the slain are carried off in triumph and slung round the necks of the horses. It may also be mentioned that Emain Macha, Conchobar’s residence, is reported by the annalists to have been destroyed in a.d. 323, and that portions of Meath, which is stated to have been made into a separate province in the 2nd century a.d., are in the Táin regarded as forming part of Ulster. Noteworthy is the exalted position occupied by the druid in the Ulster sagas, showing how little the romances were influenced by Christianity. No Roman soldier ever set foot in Ireland, and this early epic literature is of supreme value as a monument of primitive Celtic civilization. Ireland has always been a pastoral country. In early times no native coins were in circulation: the land belonged to the tribe. Consequently a man’s property consisted mainly of cattle. Cattle-raids were an event of daily occurrence, and Sir Walter Scott has made us familiar with similar expeditions on the part of the Scottish Highlanders in the 18th century. Hence it is not a matter for surprise that the theme of the greatest Irish epic is a cattle-raid. At the time there were two wonderful bulls in Ireland, the Bond or Brown Bull of Cualnge, and the Findbennach or White-horn, belonging to Medb. These two animals are of no ordinary nature. Other stories represent them as having existed under many different forms before they were reborn as bulls. First they appear as swineherds belonging to the supernatural people of the síd of fairy mounds; then they are metamorphosed successively as ravens, warriors, sea-monsters and insects. It was Queen Medb’s ambition to gain possession of the Brown Bull of Cualnge, and for this purpose she collected the united hosts of Ireland to raid the province of Ulster and carry him off. Medb chooses the season when she knows the Ulstermen are all incapacitated as the result of a curse laid upon them by a fairy woman. Cúchulinn alone is exempt from this debility.

The story is divided into a number of sections, and has been summarized by Miss Hull as follows:—(1) the prologue, relating, in the form of a night dialogue between Ailill and Medb, the dispute between them which brought about the raid; (2) the collecting of Medb’s hosts and the preliminary movements of the army, during which period she first became aware of the presence and powers of Cúchulinn. Her inquiry of Fergus as to who this formidable foe is leads to a long section called (3) Cúchulinn’s boy-deeds, in which Fergus relates the remarkable prodigies of Cúchulinn’s youth, and warns Medb that, though the hero is but a beardless youth of seventeen, he will be more than a match for all her forces. (4) A long series of single combats, of which the first part of the tale is made up; they are at first gay and bombastic in character, but become more grave as they proceed, and culminate in the combat of Cúchulinn with his old companion, Fer Diad. This section contains the account of Cúchulinn’s “distortion” or frenzy, which always occurred before any great output of the hero’s energy, and of the rout of the hosts of Medb which followed it. (5) The general awakening of the warriors of Ulster from their lethargy, and their gathering by septs upon the Hill of Slane, clan by clan being described as it comes up in order. (6) The final Battle of Gairech and Ilgairech, followed (7) by the rout of Medb’s army and (8) the tragic death of the bulls.

The text of the Táin has come down to us as a whole or in part in nearly a score of MSS., most of which, however, are modern. The most important MSS. containing the story are LU., LL. and YBL. Of these LU. and YBL. are substantially the same, whilst LL. contains a longer and fuller text later in both style and language. LL. attempts to give a complete and consistent narrative in more polished form. In ancient times there were doubtless other versions now lost, but from the middle of the 12th century the scribes seem to have taken few liberties with the text, whilst previously the filid were constantly transforming the material and adding fresh matter. The YBL. version preserves a number of forms as old as the O. Ir. glosses (i.e. 8th century or earlier), and a curious story contained in LL. seems to point to the fact that the Táin was first committed to writing in the 7th century. Senchán Torpeist, who lived in the first half of the 7th century and succeeded Dallán Forgaill as chief ollam of Ireland, summoned the filid to inquire which of them knew the Táin in its entirety. As they were only familiar with fragments he despatched them to discover it. One of them seated himself at the grave of Fergus MacRoig, who appeared to him in a mist and dictated the whole story to him in three days and three nights.

At this point it will be well to say a few words about the form of the Táin. The old Irish epic is invariably in prose with poems of varying length interspersed. The narrative and descriptive portions are in prose and are frequently followed by a brief epitome in verse. Dialogues, eulogies and laments also appear in metrical form. The oldest poems, termed rhetoric, which are best represented in LU., seem to be declamatory passages in rhythmical prose, not unlike the poetical passages in the Old Testament, and the original Táin may have consisted of such rhetorics bound together with short connecting pieces of prose. At a later date poems were inserted in the metres of the filid (particularly the quatrain of four heptasyllabic lines) which Thurneysen and Windisch consider to have been developed out of medieval Latin verse. When in course of time the old rhetorics became unintelligible they were often omitted altogether or new poems substituted. Thus the LL. version contains a larger number of poems than the LU.-YBL. copy, whilst LU. preserves a number of rhetorics which do not appear in the later MS. The prose portions in LU. are very poor from a literary point of view. These passages are abrupt, condensed and frequently obscure, with no striving after literary effect such as we find in LL. The form in which many episodes are cast is not unlike a mnemonic, leaving the story-teller to fill in the details himself. In the 11th century certain portions of the theme possessing great human interest were vastly extended, new poems were added, and in this manner such episodes come to form sagas complete in themselves. The most notable instance of this is the “Fight with Fer Diad,” which is not contained in LU. The genesis of the Táin may thus be briefly summarized as follows. The story was first committed to writing in the 7th or 8th century, after which it was worked up by the filid. Extended versions existing in the 10th or 11th century form the basis of the copies we now possess.

Though the sagas of the Ulster cycle are eminently Irish and pagan in character and origin, it cannot be denied that traces of foreign influence are to be observed. A number of Latin and Norse loan-words occur in them, and there can be little doubt that the monkish scribes consciously thrust the supernatural element into the background. However, although figures of Vikings are unmistakable in a few cases, and in one story Cúchulinn is made to fight with Hercules, such foreign elements can easily be detected in the older tales. They only affect minor details, and do not influence the body of the romances.

From what we have already said it will be plain that the Irish epic is in a fluid state. The Táin is of interest in the history of literature as representing the preliminary stage through which the great verse epics of other nations have had to pass, but its value as a work of art is limited by its form. We must now say a few words about the character and style of these romances. As already stated, the atmosphere is frankly pagan and barbaric, with none of that courtly element which we find in the Arthurian epics. The two features which strike one most forcibly in the medieval Irish romances are dramatic force and humour. The unexpected and weird is always happening, the effect of which is considerably heightened by the grim nature of the actors. In particular the dialogues are remarkably brilliant and clever, and it is a matter for surprise that this gifted race never developed a drama of its own. This is doubtless partly due to the political conditions of the island. And, moreover, we are constantly struck by the lack of sustained effort which prevented the filid from producing great epics in verse. Dramatic material is abundantly present in the old epics, but it has never been utilized. As one might expect from the vernacular literature of Ireland, these romances are pervaded by a keen sense of humour. We feel that the story-teller is continually expecting a laugh and he exaggerates in true Irish fashion, so that the stories are full of extravagantly grotesque passages. In the later LL. version we notice a tendency to linger over pathetic situations, but this is unknown in the earlier stage. Perhaps the most serious defect of all Irish literary products is the lack of any sense of proportion, which naturally goes hand in hand with the love of the grotesque. Far too much attention is paid to trivial incidents and minute descriptions, however valuable the latter may be to the antiquarian, to the detriment of the artistic effect. Further, the story-teller does not know when to stop. He goes meandering on long after the main portion of the story is finished, with the result that Irish romances are apt to end in a most uninteresting anticlimax. Finally we are wearied with a constant repetition of the same epithets and similes, and with turgid descriptions; even the grotesque exaggerations pall when we find them to be stereotyped. But the early epics do not offend our sense of propriety in expression to the same extent as the later Finn cycle.

The Táin Bó Cualnge formed a kind of nucleus round which a number of other tales clustered. A number of these are called remscéla or introductory stories to the Táin. Such are the “Revealing of the Táin” (already mentioned), the “Debility of the Ultonians” (giving the story of the curse), “The Cattle-Driving of Regamon, Dartaid and Flidais,” “Táin bó Regamna,” “The Cattle-Driving of Fraech,” “The Dispute of the Swineherds,” telling the previous history of the Bulls, “The Capture of the Fairy Mound,” “The Dream of Mac ỏc,” the “Adventures of Nera,” the “Wooing of Ferb.” Other stories form a kind of continuation of the Táin. Thus the “Battle of Rosnaree” (“Cath Ruis na Ríg”) relates how Conchobar, as a result of the loss of the Bull, sends an army against the kings of Leinster and Tara, and would have been routed but for the prowess of Cúchulinn. The “Great Rout of the Plain of Murthemne” and “Cúchulinn’s Death” tell how the hero’s downfall is compassed by a monstrous brood of ill-shapen beings whose father and brothers had been slain by him during the Táin. He finally meets with his end at the hands of Lugaid, son of Curói mac Daire (the central hero of a Munster cycle which has not come down to us), and Erc, king of Tara. We are also told of the terrible vengeance taken on the murderers by Conall Cernach. Other stories deal with the “Conception of Conchobar,” the “Conception of Cúchulinn,” “The Glories of Conchobar’s Reign,” with an account of how he acquired the Throne from Fergus, “The Wooing of Emer and the Hero’s Education in Scotland under Scathach,” “The Siege of Howth,” “Bricriu’s Feast and the Exile of the Sons of Doel Dermait,” “The Battle of the Boyne” (Ériu, vol. ii.), “The Deaths of Ailill, Medb and Conall Cernach,” “Destruction of Bruden Dá Choca,” “The Tragical Death of Conlaech at the hands of Cúchulinn his father,” “The Deaths of Goll and Garbh,” “The Sickbed of Cúchulinn,” in which the hero is lured away for a time into the invisible land by a fairy, Fand, wife of Manandán, “The Intoxication of the Ultonians,” telling of a wild raid by night across the entire extent of the island from Dún-da-Benn near Coleraine to the fort of Curói MacDaire at Temair-Luachra in Kerry, “The Death of Conchobar,” “The Phantom Chariot of Cúchulinn,” in which the hero is brought up from the grave to witness before St Patrick and King Loigaire to the truth of the Christian doctrine.

Four other stories in connexion with the Ulster cycle remain to be mentioned. The first is “Scél mucci Maic Datho” (“The Story of MacDatho’s Pig”). Various writers of antiquity inform us that at the feasts of the Gauls the champion received the best portion of meat, which frequently led to brawls. In this savage but picturesque Irish story we find the Ulstermen vaunting their achievements against the Connaughtmen, until at last the contest lies between Conall Cernach and Cet MacMagach. Nowhere, perhaps, is the dramatic element better brought out.

Apart from the Táin the greatest and at the same time the longest saga in which Cúchulinn figures is Fled Bricrend (Bricriu’s Feast). Bricriu is the mischief-maker among the Ulstermen, and he conceives the idea of building a banqueting hall in order to invite Conchobar and his nobles to a feast. After much hesitation they consent. Bricriu in turn incites the three chief heroes, Cúchulinn, Conall Cernach and Loigaire Buadach, to claim the champion’s portion. He does the same thing with the spouses of the three warriors, who declaim in obscure verse the achievements and excellences of their several husbands in a passage entitled the “Women’s War of Words.” Loosely attached to this story follows a wild series of adventures in which the powers of the three champions are tested, Cúchulinn always proving his superiority. In order to decide the dispute, visits are paid to Medb at Rath Cruachan and to Curói in Kerry, and the story ends with the “beheading incident,” which occurs in the romance of “Sir Gawayne and the Green Knight.” Fled Bricrend presents a number of textual difficulties. The text of the oldest MS. (LU.) shows signs of contamination, and several versions of the story seem to have been current.

But the story of the Ulster cycle which is better known than any other, is the story of the “Tragical Death of the Sons of Usnech, or the Life and Death of Deirdre,” one of the “Three Sorrows of Story-telling.” This is the only tale of the group which has survived in the minds of the common people down to the present day. It is foretold of Deirdre, a girl-child of great beauty, that she will be the cause of great misfortunes, but Conchobar, having lost his wife, determines to have her brought up in solitude and marry her himself. However, the maiden chances to see a noble youth named Naisi, one of the three sons of Usnech, and persuades him to carry her off to Scotland, where they live for many years. At length they are induced to return after several of the most prominent Ulster warriors have gone bail for their safety. But Conchobar resorts to treachery, and the three sons of Usnech are slain, whilst the account of Deirdre’s end varies. The oldest version of the story is found in LL., and the characters are as rugged and unsophisticated as those of the Táin. But in the later versions the savage features are toned down.

Before passing on, we must mention several old stories which are independent of the Ulster cycle, but which deal with events which are represented as having taken place before the Christian era. Few of the old romances deal directly with what we may call Irish mythology. The “Battle of Moytura” tells of the tremendous struggle between the Tuatha Dé Danann and their enemies, the Fomorian pirates. Connected with the events of this saga is the story of the “Tragic Deaths of the Sons of Tuirenn,” which, though mentioned in Cormac’s glossary, is not found in any MS. older than the 18th century. The three sons of Tuirenn have slain Cian, father of Lug Lamfhada, who lays upon them a huge eric-fine. They go through terrific ordeals and accomplish their task, but return home to die. This is the second of the “Three Sorrows of Story-telling.” An old story dealing with Tuatha Dé Danann personages, but having a certain bearing on the Cúchulinn cycle, is the “Courtship of Étáin,” who, though of supernatural (síd) birth, is wedded to Eochaid Airem, a mortal king. In her previous existence she was the wife of the supernatural personage Midir of Brí-leith, who wins back Étáin from her mortal husband in a game of chess and carries her off to his fairy mound.

For sake of completeness we may add the titles of two other well-known stories here. The one is the “Story of Baile the Sweet-spoken,” which tells of the deaths of two lovers for grief at the false tidings of each other’s death. The other is the “Fate of the Children of Lir,” the third of the “Three Sorrows of Story-telling,” which is only known in a modern dress. It relates how the four daughters of Lir (father of the sea-god Manandán and the original of Shakespeare’s Lear) were changed into swans by a cruel stepmother, and how, after 900 years of wandering on the ocean, they at length regain their human form through the instrumentality of St Mochaomhog.

A large number of sagas, which claim to be founded on historical events, present a great similarity to the tales of the Ulster cycle. Most of them are mentioned in the old catalogues. We can only name the more important here. The “Destruction of Dind-Rig and Exile of Labraid Loingsech” relates how the kingdom of Leinster was snatched by one brother from another in the 6th century b.c., and how the son of the murdered prince with the aid of a British force sacked Dind-Rig, the fortress of the usurper. The story of the visit of the pigmies to the court of Fergus MacLeite, king of Ulster in the 2nd century b.c., is only contained in a 15th-century MS. This tale is commonly stated to have given Swift the idea of his Gulliver’s Travels to Lilliput. “Caithréim Chonghail Claringnigh,” which only occurs in a modernized 17th-century version, deals with a revolution in the province of Ulster, supposed to have taken place before the Christian era.

The most important Old Irish saga after the Táin is beyond doubt the Destruction of Dá Derga’s Hostel, contained in LU. It deals with events in the reign of the High-King Conaire Mór, who is said by the annalists to have been slain in 43 b.c. after a reign of seventy years. Conaire, who was a descendant of the Étáin mentioned above, was a just ruler, and had banished among other lawless persons his own five foster brothers. These latter devoted themselves to piracy and made common cause with one Ingcel, a son of the king of Britain, who had been outlawed by his father. The high-king was returning from Co. Clare when he found the whole of Meath in flames. He turned aside into Leinster and made for Dá Derga’s hostel. The pirates perceive this, and Ingcel is sent to spy out the hostel and discover the size of Conaire’s force. This gives the story-teller a chance for one of those lengthy minute descriptions of persons in which his soul delighted. This catalogue occupies one-half of the whole story. The pirates make their attack, and the king and most of his followers are butchered.

We can do no more than enumerate the titles of other historical tales: The “Destruction of the Hostel of MacDareo,” describing the insurrection of the Aithech-Tuatha (1st century a.d.), “The Expulsion of the Déisi” and the “Battle of Mag Lemna” (2nd century a.d.), “Battle of Mag Mucrime” (a.d. 195 or a.d. 218), “Siege of Drom Damgaire” (3rd century), “Adventures of the Sons of Eochaid Muigmedóin, father of Niall Nóigiallach” (4th century), “Death of Crimthann” (reigned 366-378), “Death of Dathi” (d. 428), “Death of Murchertach, son of Erc,” and “Death of Diarmait, son of Cerball” (6th century) “Wooing of Becfola, who became the wife of Diarmait, son of Aed Slane” (reigned 657-664), “Battle of Mag Rath” (637), “Battle of Carn Conaill” (c. 648), “Death of Maelfothartaig MacRonain” (7th century), who was a kind of Irish Hippolytus, “Battle of Allen” (722).

It will be well to deal here with another class of story in its various stages of development. We have seen that in the older romances there is a close connexion between mortals and supernatural beings. The latter are represented as either inhabiting the síd mounds or as dwelling in islands out in the ocean, which are pictured as abodes of bliss and variously called Mag Mell (Plain of Delight), Tír na n-Óc (Land of Youth) and Tír Tairngiri (Land of Promise). The visits of mortals to the Irish Elysium form the subject of three romances which we must now examine. The whole question has been exhaustively dealt with by Kuno Meyer and Alfred Nutt in the Voyage of Bran (London, 1895-1897). Condla Caem, son of Conn Cétchathach, was one day seated by his father on the hill of Usnech, when he saw a lady in strange attire approaching invisible to all but himself. She describes herself, as coming from the “land of the living,” a place of eternal delight, and invites the prince to return with her. Conn invokes the assistance of his druid to drive away the strange visitor, who in parting throws an apple to Condla. The young man partakes of no food save his apple, which does not diminish, and he is consumed with longing. At the end of a month the fairy-maiden again makes her appearance. Condla can hold out no longer. He jumps into the damsel’s skiff of glass. They sail away and were seen no more. This is the Imram or Adventure of Condla Caem, the oldest text of which is found in LU. A similar story is entitled Imram Brain maic Febail, contained in YBL. and Rawlinson B 512 (the end also occurs in LU.), only with this difference that Bran, with twenty-seven companions, puts to sea to discover tir na mban (the land of maidens). After spending some time there, one of his comrades is seized with home-sickness. They return, and the home-sick man, on being set ashore, immediately turns to dust. A later story preserved in BB., YBL. and the Book of Fermoy, tells of the visit of Cormac, grandson of Conn Cétchathach, to Tír Tairngiri. These themes are also worked into tales belonging to the Ossianic cycle, and Finn and Ossian in later times become the typical warriors who achieve the quest of the Land of Youth. The romances we have just mentioned are almost entirely pagan in character, but a kindred class of story shows us how the old ideas were transformed under the influence of Christianity. A typical instance is Imram curaig Maelduin, contained in YBL. and in part in LU. Maelduin constructs a boat and sets out on a voyage with a large company to discover the murderer of his father. This forms the framework of the story. Numerous islands in the ocean are visited, each containing some great marvel. Imram ua Corra (Book of Fermoy) and Imram Snedgusa ocus Mac Riagla (YBL.) contain the same plan, but in this case the voyage is undertaken as an expiation for crime. In the 11th century an unknown monkish writer compiled the Navigatio S. Brendani, drawing the material for his episodes from Imram curaig Maelduin. This famous work only appears in an Irish dress in a confused and disconnected “Life of St Brendan” in the Book of Lismore. The same MS. contains yet another voyage, the “Adventure of Tadg MacCéin.”

We must now turn our attention to the later heroic cycle, commonly called the Fenian or Ossianic. Unfortunately the origin of the stories and poems connected with Finn and his warriors is obscure, and scholars are by no Fenian or Ossianic cycle. means agreed over the question (see Finn Mac Cool). In the earlier cycle the figures and the age in which they live are sharply drawn, and we can have no hesitation in assuming that the Táin represents in the main the state of Ireland at the beginning of the Christian era. Finn and his companions are nebulous personages, and, although it is difficult to discover the actual starting-point of the legend, from the 12th century onwards we are able to trace the development of the saga with some degree of certainty. A remarkably small amount of space is devoted to this cycle in the oldest MSS. Of the 134 pages contained in LU. only half-a-dozen deal with Finn as against 58 with Cúchulinn. In LL. the figures are, Ulster cycle 100 pp., Ossianic 25 pp., the latter being mainly made up of short ballads, whilst in 15th-century MSS., such as the Book of Lismore and Laud 610, the proportion is overwhelmingly in favour of the later group. Again in Urard MacCoisi’s list of tales, which seems to go back to the 10th century, only two appear to deal with subjects taken from the Ossianic cycle. In the first instance Finn seems to have been a poet, and as such he appears in the 12th-century MSS., LU. and LL. Thus the subjects of the Ossianic cycle in the earliest MSS. appear in a new dress. The vehicle of the older epic is prose, but the later cycle is clothed in ballad form. Of these ballads about a dozen, apart from poems in the Dindsenchus are preserved in LU., LL. and YBL., and none of these poems are probably much older than the 11th century. In the commentary to the Amra of Columbkille a beautiful poem on winter is attributed to Finn. At the same time we do find a few prose tales, e.g. “Fotha catha Cnucha” in LU., describing the death of Cumall, Finn’s father, and in LL. and Rawlinson B 502, part of which Zimmer assigns to the 7th century, we have the first story in which Finn actually occurs. But it is remarkable that in no case do tales belonging to the Finn cycle contain any of the old rhetorics which occur in the oldest of the Ulster romances. Already in LL., by the side of Finn, Ossian, Cáilte and Fergus Finnbel are represented as poets, and the strain of lament over the glories of the past, so characteristic a feature of the later developments of the legend, is already sounded. Hence by the 12th century the stories of the Fiann and their destruction at the battle of Gabra must have been fully developed, and from this time onward they appear gradually to have supplanted the Cúchulinn cycle in popular favour. Several reasons have been assigned for this. In the first place until the time of Brian Boroime the high-kings of Ireland had almost without exception been drawn from Ulster, and consequently the northern traditions were pre-eminent. This exclusiveness on the part of the north was largely broken down by the Viking invasions, and during the 11th century the leading poets were attached to the court of Brian and his descendants. In this manner an opportunity was afforded to the Leinster-Munster Fenian cycle to develop into a national saga. John MacNeill has pointed out Finn’s connexion with a Firbolg tribe, and maintains that the Fenian cycle was the property of the subject race. Zimmer has attempted to prove with great plausibility that Finn and his warriors were transformed on the model of the Ulster heroes. Thus one text deals with the boyish exploits of Finn in the manner of Cúchulinn’s youthful feats recorded in the Táin. And it is possible that the Siaburcharpat Conchulainn gave rise to the idea of connecting Ossian and Cáilte with Patrick. As Cúchulinn was opposed to the whole of Ireland in the Táin, so Finn, representing Ireland, is pitted against the whole world in the Battle of Ventry.

We have already stated that the form assumed by the stories connected with Finn in the earliest MSS. is that of the ballad, and this continued down to the 18th century. But here again the Irish poets showed themselves incapable of rising from the ballad to the true epic in verse, and in the 14th century we find the prose narrative of the older cycle interspersed with verse again appearing. The oldest composition of any length which deals with the Ossianic legends is the Acallam na Senórach or Colloquy of the Old Men, which is mainly preserved in three 15th-century MSS., the Book of Lismore, Laud 610 and Rawlinson 487. In this text we have the framework common to so much of the later Ossianic literature. Ossian and Cáilte are represented as surviving the battle of Gabra and as living on until the time of Patrick. The two warriors get on the best of terms with the saint, and Cáilte is his constant companion on his journey through Ireland. Patrick inquires the significance of the names of the places they visit, and Cáilte recounts his reminiscences. In this manner we are given nearly a hundred stories, the subjects of some of which occur in the short ballads in older MSS., whilst others appear later as independent tales. A careful comparison of the Acallam with the Cúchulinn stories, whether from the point of view of civilization or language or art, discloses that the first lengthy composition of the Ossianic cycle is but a feeble imitation of the older group. All that had become unintelligible in the Ulster stories, owing to their primitive character, is omitted, and in return for that the reminiscences of the Viking age play a very prominent part.

With the 16th century we reach the later treatment of the legend in the Battle of Ventry. In this tedious story Daire, the king of the whole world, comes to invade Ireland with all his forces, but is repulsed by Finn and his heroes. The Battle of Ventry, like all later stories, is a regular medley of incidents taken from the writers of antiquity and European medieval romance. The inflated style to which the Irishman is so prone is here seen at its worst, and we are treated to a nauseous heaping up of epithet upon epithet, e.g. we sometimes find as many as twenty-seven adjectives accompanying a substantive running in alliterating sets of three.

Of greater literary interest are the later ballads connected with Finn and Ossian. The latter has become the typical mouthpiece of the departed glory of the Fenian warriors, and Nutt has pointed out that there is a striking difference in spirit between the Acallam na Senórach and the 15th-16th century poems. In the latter Ossian is represented as a “pagan, defiant and reckless, full of contempt and scorn for the howling clerics and their churlish low-bred deity,” whilst Patrick is a sour and stupid fanatic, harping with wearisome monotony on the damnation of Finn and all his comrades. The earliest collection of these later Ossianic poems is that made in Scotland by James Macgregor, dean of Lismore, early in the 16th century. Another miscellany is the Duanaire Finn, a MS. in the Franciscan monastery in Dublin, compiled from earlier MSS. in 1627. This “song-book,” which has been edited for the Irish Texts Society by John MacNeill (part i. 1908), contains no less than sixty-nine Ossianic ballads, amounting in all to some ten thousand lines. Other Ossianic poems of dates varying from the 15th to the 18th century have been published in the Transactions of the Ossianic Society (Dublin, 1854-1861), including amongst others “The Battle of Gabhra,” “Lamentation of Oisin (Ossian) after the Fenians,” “Dialogue between Oisin and Patrick,” “The Battle of Cnoc an Air,” and “The Chase of Sliabh Guilleann.” These ballads still survive amongst the peasants at the present day. We further possess a number of prose romances, which in their present form date from the 16th to the 18th century; e.g. The Pursuit of Diarmaid and Gráinne, Finn and Gráinne, Death of Finn, The Clown in the Drab Coat, Pursuit of the Gilla Decair, The Enchanted Fort of the Quicken-tree, The Enchanted Cave of Ceis Corann, The Feast in the House of Conan.

At the present moment it is impossible to give a complete survey of the other branches of medieval Irish literature. The attention of scholars has been largely devoted to the publication of the sagas to the neglect of other portions of the wide field. An excellent survey of the subject is given by K. Meyer, Die Kultur der Gegenwart, i. xi. 1. pp. 78-95 (Berlin-Leipzig, 1909).

We have already pointed out that as early as the Old Irish period nameless Irish poets were singing the praises of nature in a strain which sounds to our ears peculiarly modern. At the present time it is difficult to say how much of Nature poetry. what is really poetic in Irish literature has come down to us. Our MSS. preserve whole reams of the learned productions of the filid which were so much prized in medieval Ireland, but it is, generally speaking, quite an accident if any of the delightful little lyrics entered in the margins or on blank spaces in the MSS. have remained. The prose romances sometimes contain beautiful snatches of verse, such as the descriptions of Mag Mell in Serglige Conculaind, Tochmarc Étáine, and the Voyage of Bran or the Lament of Cúchulinn over Fer Díad. Mention has also been made of the exquisite nature poems ascribed to Finn, which have been collected into a pamphlet with English renderings by Kuno Meyer (under the title of “Four Old Irish Songs of Summer and Winter,” London, 1903). The same writer points out that the ancient treatise on Irish prosody published by Thurneysen contains no less than 340 quotations from poems, very few of which have been preserved in their entirety. To Meyer we also owe editions of two charming little texts which sufficiently illustrate the lyrical powers of the early poets. The one is a poem referred to the 10th century in the form of a colloquy between Guaire of Aidne and his brother Marban. Guaire inquires of his brother why he prefers to live in a hut in the forest, keeping the herds and swine of the king, to dwelling in the king’s palace. The question calls forth so wonderful a description of the delights of nature as viewed from a shieling that Guaire exclaims, “I would give my glorious kingship to be in thy company, Marban” (King and Hermit, ed. with trans. by K. Meyer, London, 1901). Another text full of passionate emotion and tender regret ascribed to the 9th century tells of the parting of a young poet and poetess, who after plighting their troth are separated for ever (Liadain and Curithir, ed. with trans. by K. Meyer, London, 1902). In the Old Woman of Beare (publ. K. Meyer in Otia Merseiana) an old hetaira laments her departed youth, comparing her life to the ebbing of the tide (10th century).

We must now step aside from pure literature and turn our attention to the various productions of the professional learned classes of Ireland during the middle ages. The range of subjects coming under this heading is a very wide one, comprising history, genealogies, hagiology, topography, grammar, lexicography and metre, law and medicine. It will perhaps be as well first of Professional literature. all to deal with the learned filid whose works have been preserved. Irish tradition preserves the names of a number of antiquarian poets of prehistoric or early medieval times, such as Amergin, one of the Milesian band of invaders; Moran Roigne, son of Ugaine Mór, Adna and his successor Ferceirtne, Torna (c. 400), tutor to Niall Nóigiallach, Dallán Forgaill, Senchán Torpéist, and Cennfaelad (d. 678), but the poems attributed to these writers are of much later date. We can only enumerate the chief of those whose works have been preserved. To Maelmura (d. 887) is attributed a poem on the Milesian migrations. About the same time lived Flanagan, son of Cellach, who wrote a long composition on the deaths of the kings of Ireland, preserved in YBL., and Flann MacLonáin (d. 918), called by the Four Masters the Virgil of Ireland, eight of whose poems have survived, containing in all about 1000 lines. Cormacan, son of Maelbrigde (d. 946), composed a vigorous poem on the circuit of Ireland performed by Muirchertach, son of Niall Glúndub. A poet whose poems are most valuable from an antiquarian point of view is Cinaed Ua h-Artacáin (d. 975). Some 800 lines of his have been preserved in LL. and elsewhere. Contemporary with him is Eochaid O’Flainn (d. c. 1003), whose chief work is a long chronological poem giving a list of the kings of Ulster from Cimbaeth down to the destruction of Emain in 331. A little later comes MacLiac (d. 1016), who celebrated in verse the glories of the reign of Brian Boroime. His best-known work is a lament over Kincora, the palace of Brian. Contemporary with MacLiac is MacGilla Coim Urard MacCoisi (d. 1023). To Cúán ua Lothcháin (d. 1024), chief poet in the reign of Maelsheachlainn II., are ascribed poems on the antiquities of Tara. Sixteen hundred lines of his have come down to us. A writer who enjoyed a tremendous reputation in medieval Ireland was Flann Mainstrech (d. 1056), who in spite of his being a layman was head of the monastery school at Monasterboice. He is the author of no fewer than 2000 lines in LL., and many other poems of his are contained in other MSS. His best-known work is a Book of Synchronisms of the kings of Ireland and those of the ancient world. We have also poems from his pen on the monarchs descended from Niall Nóigiallach and on the chronology of the high-kings and provincial kings from the time of Loigaire. Flann’s successor, Gilla Coemgin (d. 1072), gives us a chronological poem dealing with the annals of the world down to a.d. 1014. He also is the author of the Irish version of Nennius which contains substantial additions dealing with early Ireland. Minor writers of the same nature whose works have come down to us are Colmán O’Sesnáin (d. 1050), Néide ua Maelchonaire (d. 1136), Gilla na noem ua Duinn (d. 1160), Gilla Moduda O’Cassidy (1143). In the 13th century these historical poems become very rare. In the next century we again find antiquarian poets of whom the best-known is John O’Dugan (d. 1372). His most valuable composition treats of the tribes of the northern half of Ireland at the time of the northern conquest. This work, containing 1660 lines in all in debide metre, was completed by his younger contemporary Gilla na naem O’Huidhrin. From the beginning of the 13th century the official poets began to give way to the hereditary bards and families of scribes. Among the chief bardic families we may mention the O’Dalys, the MacWards, the O’Higinns, the MacBrodys and the MacDaires. We must here content ourselves with glancing at a few of the more prominent names. Muiredach Albanach (c. 1214-1240), whose real name was O’Daly, has left behind in addition to the religious verses a considerable number of poems in praise of various patrons in Ireland and Scotland. He is said by Skene to be the first of the Macvurrichs, bards to Macdonald of Clanranald. A number of his compositions are preserved in the Book of the Dean of Lismore. Gilla Brigde MacConmidhe was a contemporary of the last-mentioned bard. He wrote a number of poems in praise of the O’Neills and O’Donnells. We may next mention the name of an abbot of Boyle, Donnchad Mór O’Dálaig (d. 1244), a writer whose extant poems are usually of a religious character. Many of them are addressed to the Virgin. Most of them appear in late MSS., but some few are preserved in the Book of the Hy Maine. Donnchad Mór is said to be the greatest religious poet that Ireland has produced. Many other members of the O’Daly family belonging to the 14th and 15th centuries have left poems behind them, but we cannot mention them here. Angus O’Daly, who lived in the second half of the 16th century, was employed by the English to satirize the chief Gaelic families in Ireland. Two members of the O’Higinn family deserve mention, Tadg mór O’Higinn (d. 1315). and Tadg Óg O’Higinn (d. 1448), a voluminous writer who eulogized the O’Neills, O’Connors and O’Kellys. Tadg Óg also composed a number of religious poems, which enjoyed enormous popularity in both Ireland and Scotland. A duanaire was inserted into YBL., which contains some forty poems by him.

Closely connected with the compositions of the official poets are the works of native topography. Most of the sagas contain a number of explanations of the origins of place-names. The Dindsenchus is a compilation of such etymologies. But its chief value consists in the amount of legendary matter it contains, adduced in support of the etymologies given. The Dindsenchus has come down to us in various forms both in prose and in verse. Irish tradition ascribes it to Amergin MacAmalgaid, who lived in the 6th century, but if the kernel of the work goes back as early as this it must have been altered considerably in the course of the centuries. Both prose and verse forms of it are contained in LL. A kindred compilation is the Cóir Anmann (Fitness of Names), which does for personal names what the Dindsenchus does for geographical names. We further possess a versified compendium of geography for educational purposes dealing with the three continents, from the pen of Airbertach MacCosse-dobráin (10th century).

No people on the face of the globe have ever been more keenly interested in the past of their native country than the Irish. This will already have been patent from the compositions of the filid, and now we may describe briefly History. the historical works in prose which have come down to us. The latter may be divided into two classes, (1) works containing a connected narrative, (2) annals. Closely allied to these are the sagas dealing with the high-kings. Even in the serious historical compositions we often find the manner of the sagas imitated, e.g. the supernatural plays a prominent part, and we are treated to the same exaggerated descriptions. The earliest of these histories is the wars of the Gael and Gall (Cogad Gaedel re Gallaib), which gives an account of the Viking invasions of Ireland, the career of Brian Boroime and the overthrow of the Norsemen at the battle of Clontarf. This composition, a portion of which is contained in LL., is often supposed to be in part the work of MacLiac, and it is plain from internal evidence that it must have been written by an eye-witness of the battle, or from materials supplied by a person actually present. Numerous shorter tracts dealing with the same period exist, but as yet few of them have been published. Caithreim Cellacháin Caisil treats of the conflicts between the Vikings and the Irish, and the Leabhar Oiris gives an account of Irish history from 979 to 1027. Compilations relating to local history are the Book of Fenagh and the Book of Munster. Another ancient work also partly preserved in LL. is the Book of Invasions (Leabhar Gabhála). This deals with the five prehistoric invasions of Ireland (see IRELAND: Early History) and the legendary history of the Milesians. The most complete copy of the Leabhar Gabhála which has been preserved was compiled by Michael O’Clery about 1630. The Boroma or History of the Leinster Tribute contained in LL. belongs rather to romance. Another history is the Triumphs of Turlough O’Brian, written about the year 1459 by John MacCraith, a Munster historian (edited by S.H. O’Grady, Camb. Press). This inflated composition is an important source of information on Munster history from the landing of the Normans to the middle of the 14th century. We also possess several documents in Irish concerning the doings of the O’Neills and O’Donnells at the close of the 16th century. A life of Hugh Roe O’Donnell, by Lughaidh O’Clery, has been published, and a contemporary history of the Flight of the Earls, by Tadhg O’Cianan, was being prepared in 1908. But the most celebrated Irish historian is certainly Geoffrey Keating (c. 1570-1646), who is at the same time the greatest master of Irish prose. Keating was a Munster priest educated in France, who drew down upon himself the displeasure of the English authorities and had to go into hiding. He travelled up and down Ireland examining all the ancient records, and compiled a history of Ireland down to the Norman Conquest. His work, entitled Forus Feasa ar Eirinn, was never published, but it circulated from end to end of Ireland in MS. Keating’s history is anything but critical. Its value for the scholar lies in the fact that the author had access to many important sources of information now lost, and has preserved accounts of events independent of and differing from those contained in the Four Masters. In addition to the history and a number of poems, Keating is also the author of two theological works in Irish, the Defence of the Mass (Eochairsgiath an Aifrinn) and a collection of sermons entitled the Three Shafts of Death (Trí biorghaoithe an Bháis), which are models of Irish prose.

From the writers of historical narrative we turn to the annalists, the most important sources of information with regard to Irish history. We have already mentioned the Synchronisms of Flann Mainistrech. Apart from this work the earliest collection of annals which has come down to us is the compilation by Tigernach O’Braein (d. 1088), abbot of Clonmacnoise. Tigernach, whose work is partly in Latin, partly in Irish, states that all Irish history previous to 305 b.c. is uncertain. No perfect copy is known of this work, but several fragments are in existence. The Annals of Innisfallen (a monastery on an island in the Lower Lake of Killarney), which are also in Latin and Irish, were perhaps compiled about 1215, though they may have begun two centuries earlier. The invaluable Annals of Ulster were compiled on Belle Isle on Upper Lough Erne by Cathal Maguire (d. 1498), and afterwards continued by two different writers down to 1604. This work, which deals with Irish affairs from a.d. 431, exists in several copies. The Annals of Loch Cé (near Boyle in Roscommon) were copied in 1588 and deal with Irish events from 1014 to 1636. The Annals of Connaught run from 1224 to 1562. The Chronicon Scotorum, one copy of which was transcribed about 1650 by the famous antiquary Duald MacFirbis, deals with Irish affairs down to 1135. The Annals of Boyle extend down to 1253. The Annals of Clonmacnoise, which come down to 1408, only exist in an English translation made by Connell MacGeoghegan in 1627. The most important of all these collections is the Annals of the Four Masters (so christened by Colgan), compiled in the Franciscan monastery of Donegal by Michael, Conary and Cucogry O’Clery and Ferfesa O’Mulconry. The O’Clerys were for a long period the hereditary ollams to the O’Donnells. Michael O’Clery (1575-1643), the greatest of the four, was a lay brother in the order of St Francis, and devoted his whole life to the history of Ireland. He collected all the historical MSS. he could find, and was encouraged in his undertaking by Fergal O’Gara, prince of Coolavin, who paid all expenses. The great work, which was begun in 1632 and finished in 1636, begins with the arrival in Ireland of Ceasair, granddaughter of Noah, and comes down to 1616. Nearly all the materials from which O’Clery drew his statements are now lost. O’Clery is also the author of a catalogue of the kings of Ireland, the genealogies of the Irish saints, and the Martyrology of Donegal and the Book of Invasions.

Of less interest, but every whit as important, are the lists of genealogies which occupy a great deal of space in LL., YBL. and BB., and two Trinity College, Dublin, MSS. (H. 3.18 and H. 2.4). But by far the most important collection of all is that made by the last great shanachie Duald MacFirbis, compiled between 1650 and 1666 in the college of St Nicholas at Galway. The only portions of any considerable length which have as yet been published deal with two Connaught tribes; viz. the Hy Fiachrach from Duald mac Firbis and the Hy Maine (O’Kellys), and a Munster tribe, the Corcalaidhe, both from YBL. Valuable information with regard to early Irish history is often contained in the prophecies or, as they are sometimes termed, Baile (raptures, visions), a notable example of which is Baile in Scáil (Vision of the Phantom).

When we turn from secular to religious themes we find that Ireland is also possessed of a very extensive Christian literature, which is extremely valuable for the comparative study of medieval literature. Apart from the martyrologies Religious literature. already mentioned in connexion with Oengus the Culdee, a number of lives of saints and other ecclesiastical literature have come down to us. One of the most important documents is the Tripartite Life of St Patrick, which cannot very well have been composed before the 10th or 11th century, as it is full of the extravagant miracles which occur in the later lives of saints. The work consists of three separate homilies, each complete in itself. A later version of the Tripartite Life was printed by Colgan in 1647. The Leabhar Breac contains a quantity of religious tracts, most of which have been published. R. Atkinson issued a number of them under the title of Passions and Homilies from Leabhar Breac (Dublin, 1887). These are not original Irish compilations, but translations from Latin lives of saints. Nor do they deal with the lives of any Irish saints. Stokes has published nine lives of Irish saints from the Book of Lismore, including Patrick, Brigit, Columba, Brendan, Findian (Clonard), Ciaran, Senan, Findchua and Mochua. They are written in the form of homilies preceded by short explanations of a text of scripture. These lives also occur in the Leabhar Breac. Other lives of saints have been published by O’Grady in Silva Gadelica. The longest life of St Columba was compiled in 1536 at the command of Manus O’Donnell. This tedious work is a specimen of hagiology at its worst. The Leabhar Breac further contains a number of legends, such as those on the childhood of Christ, and scattered through many MSS. are short anecdotes of saints which are very instructive.

But the most interesting Irish religious text is the Vision of Adamnan (preserved in LU.), which Stokes assigns to the 11th century. The soul of Adamnan is represented as leaving his body for a space to visit heaven and hell under the conduct of an angel. The whole treatment of the theme challenges comparison with Dante’s great poem, but the Irish composition contains many ideas peculiar to the land of its origin. Later specimens of this kind of literature tend to develop into grotesque buffoonery. We may mention the Vision of Fursae, the Vision of Tundale (Tnugdal), published by V. Friedel and K. Meyer (Paris, 1907), Laisrén’s Vision of Hell and the Vision of Merlino. A further vision attributed to Adamnan contains a stern denunciation of the Irish of the 11th century. Another form of religious composition, which was very popular in medieval Ireland, was the prophecy in verse, but scarcely any specimens have as yet been published. Kuno Meyer edited a tract on the Psalter in his Hibernica Minora from a 15th century Oxford MS., but he holds that the text goes back to 750. A number of collections of monastic rules both in prose and verse have been edited in Ériu, and the MSS. contain numerous prayers, litanies and religious poems.

In LU. are preserved two sermons, Scéla na esergi (Tidings of Resurrection) and Scéla lái brátha (Tidings of Doomsday); and a number of other homilies have been published, such as the “Two Sorrows of the Kingdom of Heaven,” “The Penance of Adam,” the “Ever-new Tongue,” and one on “Mortals’ Sins.” All the homilies contained in LB. have been published by R. Atkinson in his Legends and Homilies from Leabhar Breac (Dublin, 1887), and E. Hogan, The Irish Nennius (Dublin, 1895). The popular “Debate of the Body and the Soul” appears in Ireland in the form of a homily. A collection of maxims and a short moral treatise have been published by K. Meyer.

For the religious literature in general the reader may refer to O’Curry, Lectures on the MS. Materials of Ancient Irish History (pp. 339-434), and G. Dottin, “Notes bibliographiques sur l’ancienne littérature chrétienne de l’Irlande,” in Revue d’histoire et de litterature religieuses, v. 162-167. See also Revue celtique, xi. 391-404. ib. xv. 79-91.

Here we may perhaps mention an extraordinary production entitled Aisling Meic Conglinne, the Vision of Mac Conglinne, found in LB. and ascribed to the twelfth century (ed. K. Meyer, London, 1892). Cathal MacFinguine, king of Munster (d. 737), was possessed by a demon of gluttony and is cured by the recital of a strange vision by a vagrant scholar named MacConglinne. The composition seems to be intended as a satire on the monks, and in particular as a travesty of medieval hagiology. Another famous satire, entitled the Proceedings of the Great Bardic Institution, holds up the professional bards and their extortionate methods to ridicule. This curious work contains the story of how the great epic, the Táin bó Cualnge, was recovered (see Transactions of the Ossianic Society, vol. v.).

Collections of pithy sayings in the form of proverbs and maxims must have been made at a very early period. Not the least remarkable are the so-called Triads (publ. K. Meyer, Dublin, 1906), which illustrate every statement with Gnomic literature. 3 examples. Over 200 such triads were brought together in the 9th century. There are also two documents attributed to 1st-century personages, “The Testament of Morann MacMóin to his son Feradach,” which is quoted as early as the 8th century, and “The Instructions of Cúchulinn to his foster-son Lugaid.” K. Meyer has published Tecosca Cormaic or the Precepts of Cormac MacAirt to his son Cairpre (Dublin, 1909). Other collections such as the Senbriathra Fithail still await publication.

With that enthusiasm for the classics which is characteristic of the Irish, it is not strange that we should find medieval versions of some of the better-known authors of antiquity. It is interesting to note that only those works are Classical stories. translated that could be utilized by the professional story-teller. So much so, that in the ancient (10th century) catalogue of sagas enumerated by Urard MacCoisi we find mention of Togail Troi and Scéla Alexandir maic Pilip. We get descriptions of battle weapons and clothing similar to those occurring in the native sagas. Togail Troi is taken from the medieval prose version, Historia de Excidio Troiae of Dares Phrygius. The oldest Irish copy is found in LL. This version is exceedingly valuable, as it enables us to determine the meaning of words and formulas in the sagas which are otherwise obscure. An Irish abstract of the Odyssey, following an unknown source, and part of the story of Theseus have been published by K. Meyer. Scéla Alexandir is preserved in LB. and BB. Imthechta Aeniusa, taken from the Aeneid, is contained in BB. A number of MSS. contain the Cath Catharda, a version of books vi. and vii. (?) of Lucan’s Pharsalia, which has been published by Wh. Stokes. There is further at least one MS. containing a version of Statius’s Thebaid and of Heliodorus’s Aethiopica. Somewhat later, the medieval literature of western Europe comes to be represented in translations. Thus we have Irish versions, amongst others of the Gesta Romanorum, the Historia Brittonum, the Wars of Charlemagne, the History of the Lombards, Sir John Maundeville’s Travels (trans. by Fingin O’Mahony in 1475), the Book of Ser Marco Polo (abridged), Guy Earl of Warwick, Bevis of Southampton, the Quest of the Holy Grail, Octavian, the chronicle of Turpin, Barlaam and Josaphat, and the story of Fierabras. The Arthurian cycle is developed in independent fashion in the Adventures of the Eagle Boy and the Adventures of the Crop-eared Dog. For translation literature see M. Nettlau, Revue celtique, x. pp. 184, 460-461.

Hand in hand with the interest of the medieval Irish scholars in the history of their island goes the cultivation of the native tongue. Owing to the profound changes produced by the working of the Irish laws of accent and initial Philology. mutation, it is doubtful if any other language lends itself so well to wild etymological speculation. By the beginning of the Middle Irish period a good part of the cumbrous Old Irish verb-system had become obsolete, and texts which were at all faithfully copied had to be plentifully supplied with glosses. Moreover, if, as is probable, all the historical and legal lore was in verse, a large part of it must have been unintelligible except to those who knew the bérla féne. But even before this Cormac mac Cuillenáin, the bishop-king of Cashel (d. 903), had compiled a glossary of archaic words which are accompanied by explanations, etymologies, and illustrative passages containing an amount of invaluable information concerning folk-lore and legendary history. This glossary has come down to us in various recensions all considerably later in date than the original work (the oldest copy is in LB.). Later collections of archaic words are O’Mulconry’s Glossary (13th century), the Lecan Glossary (15th century), which draws principally from the glosses in the Liber Hymnorum, O’Davoren’s Glossary (16th century), drawn principally from the Brehon Laws, a 16th century list of Latin and Irish names of plants employed in medicine, and O’Clery’s Glossary (published at Louvain, 1643). BB. contains a curious tract on Ogamic writing. An Irish treatise on grammar, called Uraicept na n-éces, the Poet’s Primer, traditionally ascribed to Cennfaelad and others, is contained in BB. and YBL. It appears to be a kind of medley of Donatus and the notions of the medieval Irish concerning the origin of their language. The St Gall glosses on Priscian contain Irish terms for all the nomenclature of the Latin grammarians, and show how extensive was the use made of Irish even in this department of learning.

Thurneysen had edited from BB., Laud 610 and a TCD. MS. three treatises on metric which give an account of the countless metres practised by the filid. It is impossible for us here to enter into the question of Irish prosody in any Prosody. great detail. We have seen that there is some reason for believing that the primitive form of Irish verse was a kind of rhythmical alliterative prose as contained in the oldest versions of the sagas. The filid early became acquainted with the metres of the Latin church hymns, whence rhyme was introduced into Ireland. (This is the view of Thurneysen and Windisch. Others like Zeuss have maintained that rhyme was an invention of the Irish.) In any case the filid evolved an intricate system of rhymes for which it is difficult to find a parallel. The medieval metres are called by the general name of Dán Dírech, “Direct Metre.” Some of the more general principles were as follows. The verses are grouped in stanzas of four lines, each stanza being complete in itself. Each line must contain a fixed number of syllables, whilst the different metres vary as to the employment of internal and end rhyme, assonance and alliteration. The Irish elaborated a peculiar system of consonantal correspondence which counted as rhyme. The consonants were divided with a considerable degree of phonetic accuracy into six groups, so that a voiceless stop (c) rhymes with another voiceless stop (t, p), a voiced stop (b) with another voiced stop (d, g), and so forth. The commonest form of verse is the four-line stanza of seven syllables. Such a verse with rhymes abab and monosyllabic or dissyllabic finals belongs to the class rannaigecht. A similar stanza with aabb rhymes is the basis of the so-called debide (cut in two) metres. A peculiarity of the latter is that the rhyming word ending the second line must contain at least one syllable more than the rhyming word which ends the first. Another frequently employed metre is the rindard, consisting of lines of six syllables with dissyllabic endings. In the metrical treatises examples are given of some 200 odd metres. The result of the complicated technique evolved in Ireland was an inclination to sacrifice sense to musical harmony. See K. Meyer, A Primer of Irish Metrics (Dublin,1909).