_Source._--Kindly condensed by Mr. Alfred Nutt from Prof. Meyer's
edition of _The Vision_ published in book form in 1892. This contains
two versions, a longer one from a fourteenth century MS., _Leabhar Breac
or Speckled Book_, and a shorter one from a sixteenth century MS. in
the Library of Trinity College, Dublin. A translation of the former
version was given by the late W. M. Hennessy in _Fraser's Magazine_,
September, 1873. Prof. Wollner, who contributed to Prof. Meyer's edition
an introduction dealing with the story from the standpoint of
comparative literature, considers that the later version reproduces the
original common source more nearly.
_Parallels._--At first sight _The Vision_ seems to picture the Land of
Cockayne (on which see Poeschel, _Das Maehrchen vom Schlaraffenlande_,
Halle, 1878), but as Prof. Wollner remarks, the Irish form is much more
simple and primitive, and represents rather an agricultural conception
of a past _aurea aetas_. The conception of enormous appetite being due
to the presence of a voracious animal or demon within the body is
widespread among the folk. Prof. Wollner gives numerous parallels,
_l.c._ XLVII.-LIII. The common expression "to wolf one's food" is said
to be derived from this conception. On the personification of disease,
see Tylor, _Primitive Culture_, ii. 148.
I can myself remember a tale somewhat similar to _The Vision_ which I
heard from my nurse in Australia, I fancy as a warning against gluttony.
She told me of a man, who in swallowing large pieces of food had
swallowed a little hairy monster, which grew and grew and grew and
caused the man to be eating all day to satisfy his visitors. He was
cured by being made to fast, and then a bowl of brandy was brought in
front of his mouth into which the hairy thing, attracted by the fumes,
jumped and was drowned.
_Remarks._--We have here an interesting example of the personification
of disease in the form of a demon, of which some examples occur in the
Gospels. The rollicking Rabelaisian tone in which the story is told
prevents us, however, from attributing any serious belief in the
conception by the Irish Monk the author of the tale, who was parodying,
according to Prof. Wollner, the Visions of the Saints. Still he would be
scarcely likely to use the conception, even for purposes of parody,
unless it were current among the folk, and it occurs among them even at
the present day. (See Hyde, _Beside the Fire_, p. 183.)