On high Fedain Collna,

Upon his sick-man’s bed, while hearkening

To the far noise and clamour of that battle,

Cucullin heard the great Ō-hawn´ of Conor

Moan through the air, when it was struck by Fergus

The son of Roy. “Good, O my friend, O Laeg,”

Cucullin said. “What man has now this daring—

The daring thus to smite the great Ō-hawn´

Of my dear guardian, Conor King of Ulster,

While I am yet alive?” Laeg said to him:

“It is the best of warriors and of men

Who smites it; he flings blood—increase of slaughter.

It is the man, Fergus the son of Roy.

His chariot-sword from out the Shee was hidden,

And now is with him once again. The steeds

Of Conor now have come unto the battle.”

“Loosen these hazel-bands, O gillie, swiftly,”

Cucullin said. “Blood shall be spent by men;

Swords shall sing music.” Then Laeg loosened them,

Albeit unwillingly. Cucullin leapt

Free from his bands, so that the hazel-bands

Went to Moy Thooaga amidst of Connaught;

And all his hooks flew to far Corcumroe,

Amidst the barren places in the west;

And the dry wisps and twists of moss and grass,

Which were within his wounds, rose through the air,

And through the firmament, even as far

As a lark flies on a bright day in summer,

Whereon there is no wind. His many sores,

And many hurts and gashes and deep wounds,

Seized him afresh thereat, so that each groove

And furrow of the earth was filled with gore

And with his streaming blood. None of his arms,

None of his weapons, had been left to him

Beside his sick man’s bed. Only his chariot

He found beside him there. He took the chariot;

And went unto the plain; and with the chariot

He struck and felled and hewed the men of Erin,

Until he reached the place wherein was Fergus

The son of Roy. And then he spake to Fergus.

“Come hitherward,” he said, “my master, Fergus!”

But Fergus answered not, because he heard not.

Cucullin spake and said those words again.

“Come hitherward,” he said, “my master, Fergus!

Or, if thou comest not, I then will grind thee

E’en as a millstone grinds fresh barley-malt.

Yea, I will cleave thee as a wood-axe cleaves

An oak of the forest: I will bind thee hard,

E’en as the woodbine binds great forest-trees:

I will attack thee as the hawk attacks

Small, helpless fledgelings: I will cast thee down

As fishes are cast down upon the sand:

Unless thou comest hitherward, O Fergus!”

“Is it to me that these Bive’s words are spoken?”

Said Fergus; “and who dares to speak these words

On this my day of vengeance and of battle,

Here where the Five Great Fifths of Erin meet

Upon the fields of Gawrig and Ilgawrig—

Here in this last great battle of the Táin?”

Cucullin said: “It is thy foster-son,

The son of Dectora, of Conor’s sister—

The son who is beloved by all in Ulster,

And who hath fought for all and fended all.

And thou didst promise, O my guardian, Fergus,

At thine own turn of combat on this Táin,

That when thou shouldst behold me bleeding, faint,

And filled with hurts and filled with dangerous wounds,

In this last battle of the Táin, thou truly

Wouldst flee before me on this day of battle;

For I myself fled before thee, O Fergus,

Then, at thy turn of combat on the Táin.”

And Fergus looked and saw his foster-son,

The Hound of Ulster, covered with rough gore,

Bleeding and pierced and filled with dangerous wounds;

And he remembered all that he had said

Beside that ford on grass-green Moy Mweerhevna

At his own turn of combat on the Táin.

And then it was, indeed, that Fergus fled.

With his own war-troop—with the Ulster Exiles,

Who had departed with him out of Ulster

Full seven years before—he left the battle.

Toward Connaught, toward the Shannon, toward the west,

He strode his three all-powerful hero-strides;

And he broke forth, over the western hill,

Out of the battle. And the seven kings

From Munster, which had come upon that hosting,

When they perceived that Fergus left the battle,

Broke likewise forth, over the western hill,

Leaving the battle; and with each of them

Was his own cantred. And the hosts of Connaught

Were left alone, maintaining the great battle

Against the Ulster hosts before them there.

Those who were left maintaining it were these:—

Maev with her cantred: Al-yill with his cantred:

The seven Mahn-yas and the Sons of Mahga,

Each with his cantred. In that hour of day

When Fergus and the seven kings from Munster

Abandoned Maev, leaving their share of battle,

And this was told to her, there came, as ’twere,

Before her eyes a dizzy, dim, blind mist,

Blinding her eyes and eye-sight, so that men

And trees appeared the same to her. Howbeit,

From midday till day’s waning she maintained

The battle strongly. It was at midday

That first Cucullin came into the battle

From Fedain Collna. When the golden sun

Sank ’mid the tresses of the western woods,

The last of all the battle-troops of Connaught

Was driven and routed o’er the western hill,

Out toward the west. And of his battle-chariot

There remained then, grasped in Cucullin’s hands,

Only a handful of the curving ribs

Pertaining to the body, and a handful

Of spokes from the two wheels; for with his chariot

He had been slaying, hewing, and destroying

The men of Erin throughout all that time.

This was the hour when Maev took up her shield,

And put her shield of guarding and protection

Behind the hosts guarding their sad retreat.

This was the hour when she sent off the bull,

The Donn of Cooley, swiftly to Rath Croohan

By a long circuit, having fifty heifers

And eight of her own messengers around him,—

So that, at ending of that Táin and hosting,

Whoever might arrive or not arrive

In safety at Rath Croohan on Moy Wee,

The Donn of mountainous Cooley should arrive,

Even as she had promised and had sworn.

Then Maev herself came soon unto the place

Where Fergus was, nigh the great river-ford.

And on that queen at falling of that hour

There was great weakness, faintness, weariness,

After the long, hard, ever-toilsome battle;

And there was anguish, bitterness, dejection,

After that great abandonment by Fergus,

And all that hard defeat and overthrow.

She said to Fergus then: “O Fergus, put

Thy shield of guarding and of sure protection

Across their track, guarding the men of Erin,

That I may rest a little.” Fergus said:

“’Tis an ill hour to rest in.” “Yet,” said Maev,

“I shall not live unless I rest a little.”

Then Fergus put his shield of sure protection

Across their track, guarding the men of Erin;

And so Maev rested. E’en as she was resting

’Mid some young trees, Cucullin came on her.

He slew her not. He deemed it were unworthy,

Dishonourable, so to slay her. Then

Maev lifted up her eyes and saw Cucullin

Before her there. She said: “To-day, Cucullin,

I ask a boon of thee.” “What boon?” he said.

“Take thou these hosts,” said Maev, “beneath thy honour

And sure protection, that they so may reach

Across the ford to westward.” Of all men

Of Erin who were living in his time,

Cucullin was the best for giving gifts

And generous bestowing; and thereafter,

In after time, there would be only two

Who should be equal to him, namely these—

Neev Columkillé of the race of Niall,

And Goory son of Colman in the west.

And, because thus he was the best in Erin

For giving gifts, he said to Maev: “O Maev,

I give that boon thou askest.” Then Maev rose

(Though that was hard for her); Cucullin went

Around the men of Erin, and he put

His shield of guarding and of sure protection

Across one side, guarding the men of Erin.

The Helping Triads of the men of Erin

Came to the other side; and Maev herself

Returned to her own place and firmly put

Her shield of guarding and of sure protection

Behind their central troops; and, in that way,

They which were left of all those hosts of Erin

Passed the great ford and came once more to Connaught.

Before he left the Connaught river-shore,

His famous sword was brought unto Cucullin,

His wonder-sword, the wondrous Croo´-adeen;

And in the dusk above the darkening ford

It beamed like a king’s candle (and in days

To come that sword should come to Art’s son Cormac,

Greatest of monarchs of all Erin). Then,

With that straight sword, the wondrous Croo´-adeen,

Cucullin struck its three straight wonder-blows;

And struck their summits from the three low hills

Beside the ford, that those three Maels of Connaught

Beside the Connaught river-shore, for men,

Might answer the three Maels of Meath.

And Fergus

Was watching all those hosts pass from the ford

Westward toward Croohan and Moy Wee of Connaught;

And through his heart there was great bitterness.

He knew that now old age would come on him

Without his doing hero-deeds, or winning

Great battles like the battles he had won.

For he—thus severed from his native land

And from the folk and heroes whom he loved

Fervently, passionately, zealously—

Was (like a spear-head parted from its shaft)

Deedless, of no avail. And he was sure

That he would die in exile and be buried

In exile, in a strange land not his own.

’Twas then he turned to Maev, “Truly,” said he

(And he spake roughly, darkly, bitterly),

“Truly,” he said, “the outcome of this day

Is fit and natural for all these hosts,

Which have been led and marshalled by a woman.

To-day these hosts have been deprived and robbed.

And, e’en as when a mare precedes her foals

Into a land unknown, without a head

Of counsel and of guidance going before her,

And her young foals are robbed and reft from her,

So stands it with these driven hosts to-day.”

And Maev said naught to all those words of Fergus;

For there was on her too much grief and woe

And pain and dole and sadness, after all

That treachery and that abandonment

By Fergus son of Roy, whom she had welcomed,

And had maintained and cherished royally;

And there was anguish, grief, and hard dejection,

After that great defeat and overthrow.

Cucullin left the Shannon river-shore,

And fared to eastward; and he reached that place

Where Conor was, with all the chiefs of Ulster,

Awaiting him. And faintness, weakness, trembling,

Came on him there; because his rage and ardour

Had gone from him, and now his many sores

And many hurts and gashes and deep wounds

Pained freshly. Then the gillies and the striplings

From Avvin Maha, seeing thus their friend

And dear companion filled with gory wounds

And very faint, raised their great cry of woe,

And their great outcry and their lamentation,

Till even the stones and gravel of the earth

Answered their grievous clamour. And men laid him

On a fresh bed of comfort and of healing.

And Conor, the great king, came to that bed,

And bent above him; and he spake above him

His very earnest kingly words of pity

And sad deploring and strong praise and love.

“O Hound,” he said, “O Battle-hound of Cooley,

O King of Heroes of our own Creev Roe,

For Ulster thou hast borne much grief and harm;

And men in Ulster will remember thee,

And all which thou hast wrought for war-like Ulster,

Long as pure waves shall break on Ulster shores.

Drink now, and sleep; and bide in rest and healing.”

So nigh the fields of Gawrig and Ilgawrig

The hosts of Ulster made their camp that night.

On Conor son of Fahtna Fahee there,

In his own tent, in his own place of camping,

There was depression and dark gloom that night;

And he was heavy-hearted. For, indeed,

Though he that day had broken that great battle

Upon the fields of Gawrig and Ilgawrig

Against the hosts of Connaught, ne’ertheless,

That did not change this fact, namely, that truly

Maev scarce had left a stead in all his Fifth,

E’en from the Boyne and fair Moy Bray to far

Dunseverick beside the northern sea,

Without destroying it and spoiling it

And leaving it a burned and blackened ruin;

And that great bull, the gold-horned Donn of Cooley,

She had made fast and borne with her to Croohan.

And this was true besides: to him a battle

In which no king had fallen did not seem

To be indeed a battle. So on Conor

There was deep gloom and heavy woe that night.

After that time Cucullin lay at healing

In Avvin Maha for a lengthened while;

But when his wounds were healed, he donned once more

His festal war-array, and travelled south

To rich Loolohta Lōha nigh the sea,

To take that maiden, who, ’midst other maidens,

Was as a sun ’midst pale, faint stars. He did

All that she had foretold that he would do

Ere he could reach her. Then he wedded her.

And they two—Emer daughter of Forgall Mona,

And many-victoried Cucullin—dwelt

In love throughout the space of twice five years;

Wherein Cucullin wrought great deeds, until

His foemen for the last time came against him

And he died young in years—even as Cathbad,

Cathbad, the lord of knowledge and wise druid,

Speaking sad truth of knowledge, had foretold.

Before Maev let the men of Erin part

And separate to reach their native homes,

She gathered them around herself in Croohan,

That they might see that combat of the bulls,

And the contention which should finally

Decide that contest and that strife and struggle,

Which had been fought through many lives and shapes.

When the high, gold-horned Donn of Cooley saw

That beautiful, all unknown land, which spread

Before him there in greenness and in beauty—

Namely, Moy Wee of Connaught—he raised up

His three loud-speaking, voiceful bellowings;

And the Find-benna heard him. Now no bull

Or male wild beast ’twixt the Four Fords of Wee—

The Ford of Moga and the Ford of Bercna,

The Ford of Shlissen and the Ford of Coltna—

Was wont to raise more than a little murmur,

Or a soft, timorous moaning, through his fear

Of that Find-benna. And the red Find-benna,

Hearing those speaking, voiceful bellowings,

Raised up his head and shook his three white manes,

Which were like snow upon a noble mountain,

And he came vehemently on toward Croohan

To meet the Donn of Cooley.

Of those bulls,

Each saw the other soon. Then both, in frenzy,

Raging, infuriated, frantic, maddened,

Pawed up the ground and dug the earth between them,

And flung the earth back o’er their shoulder-bones.

And their eyes glared red-hot within their heads,

Like fruits or berries of pure, sparkling fire:

Their cheeks and nostrils swelled and bulged, as bulge

A smith’s huge bellows in a forge. And each

Against the other dealt his sounding blow

Of doom and judgment; and each one began

To gore, to pierce, and to destroy the other.

This is the time wherein the red Find-benna

Of bright Moy Wee caused the dark Donn of Cooley

To swerve from his straight way and road and journey;

And in his side he thrust a curved, white horn;

And he was overcoming him. But Cormac

The son of Conor saw that thing. He took

A mighty spear-shaft which filled up his grasp;

And, with this spear-shaft, to the Donn of Cooley

He gave three long stroke-blows from ear to tail.

“This jewel is to us no lasting jewel,”

Said Cormac, “for there is not force in him

To match a calf of his own age.” That bull,

The Donn of Cooley, heard these railing words;

For he had man-like understanding. Then

He turned again against the great Find-benna;

And after that they, upon either side,

Were piercing and destroying each the other

For a long while and a great space of time.

And night descended on the men of Erin;

And after darkening night had so descended,

For all the men of Erin there was nothing

But to be listening to the storm and roaring

Of the great bulls throughout the land that night.

That night the two bulls ranged through Erin all;

So that there is not any place in Erin

Named Clo-na-Darriv, Rath-na-Darriv, Drum-na-Darriv,

Barna-na-Darriv, Moy-na-Darriv, Loch-na-Darriv,

But it was named from those two bulls that night.

At very early dawn upon the morrow

The men were not long watching nigh Rath Croohan,

Ere they perceived the Donn of Cooley come

From out the west; and their own great Find-benna

Was borne in mangled fragments and dead pieces

On his high, peakéd horns. The men arose;

And in the dusky dawn they were not sure

Which of the bulls he was. But Fergus said:

“O men,” he said, “if ’tis your own Find-benna,

Whom ye discern approaching, let him be;

And if it is the Donn of mountainous Cooley,

Leave him his trophy; for I say to you,

Unless ye leave it, that which has been done

Because of these two bulls, indeed is little

To that which shall be done to you this day.”

The Donn of Cooley came. He raised on high

His three loud, voiceful roars, vaunting his trophy.

He turned his right toward Croohan; and he turned

His face to go to his own far, dear land.

He reached the margin of that Shannon-ford

Which the great hosts had crossed. He stooped to drink,

And there he left a loin of the Find-benna,

Whence is “Athlone,” “Ford of the Loin.” He went

Still eastward; and he came to high Ardcullin,

And to the pillar-stone, and gazed abroad

O’er Ulster there before him. Then he lifted

His head with ardour, strength, and vehemence,

And shook the fragments of the slain Find-benna

Abroad o’er Erin; so that many places

Are named from those divided parts and fragments

Of the Find-benna. Then he reached Slieve Bray;

And thence he saw against the north-east sky

The pure-formed peaks of Cooley; and at seeing

The peaks of his own native land and country

There came on him a powerful mind and spirit;

And he strove forward.

At the hour of eve

The women and young lads and little folk

Within the beautiful, high-mountained cantred

Of Cooley of blossomful, sweet-watered glens,

Were wailing for their Donn of Cooley. Then

They saw him, where he came approaching them.

But there was on him blindness and great ire,

Because of his sore wounds. He, storming on,

Stormed up amongst them; and full many there,

Of women and young lads and little folk,

Fell on that hill-slope of high Cooley, slain

By their own Donn of Cooley. He lay down

Against the hill, and his great heart broke there,

And sent a stream of blood down all the slope;

And thus, when all this war and Táin had ended,

In his own land, ’midst his own hills, he died.

[Illustration: “CUCULLIN GUARDS THE RETREAT OF THE MEN OF ERIN.”]

THE WRITING OF THE TÁIN

THE WRITING OF THE TÁIN

So to those saints that ancient warrior, Fergus,

Having been called from out his low, sad grave,

Had taught this history, this Táin Bo Cooley,

With its beginning and its deeds and end,

E’en as it had been acted in old days

Before the holy Faith had come to Erin.

And when he so had taught them all this tale,

He went from them; and the blind mist and fog,

Which had been round them, went; and they saw there

Only the flag-stone in that lonely place,

And the slow stream beside it. Then each saint

Left with his friends his tender, faithful blessing;

And each fared forth to his own place in Erin,

To his own cell, or church, or field, or hill.

But agéd Shen´-cawn went with holy Kieran

To Kieran’s holy field; and, as they went,

They crossed Moy Wee, and passed old, high Rath Croohan,

And passed the Place of Graves, where many mounds

Were green above high-kings and queens of Erin,

And above many kings and queens and princes

And noble chiefs of Connaught. There were buried

Al-yill and Maev—within their deep, green mound,

Enclosed from Gael and stranger. There were buried

In turfy mounds the seven sons of Mahga,

Brethren of Al-yill’s mother. There were buried

The seven Mahn-yas, sons of Maev and Al-yill,

In one mound, side by side. And there was buried

Dawthy, the last renowned high-king who reigned

Ere the Faith came to Erin: he, at warfare

In far-off Latin lands, had burned the home

Of a most holy hermit, and had died,

Slain by God’s lightning on the Alps; whereon

Awley, his son, had brought him o’er far seas,

For burial in Rath Croohan.

But those two,

Shen´-cawn and Kieran, left that heathen field,

And fared south-eastward; and at eve they came

To Kieran’s Green, to holy Clonmacnoise,

To Clonmacnoise upon a flowery slope

Amid a rushry by the pure, bright Shannon,

Where all was blest and still. And in that place

In after-time a sacred School and City

Should rise—Neev Kieran’s City—and should grow

Like a tall tree, whence rule and truth and wisdom

Should spread through half the land. And in that place,

Even in dew-bright, red-rosed Clonmacnoise,

Under rich, carven flags there should be buried

In after-time great kings and lords and chiefs,

And many prayerful abbots and wise bishops,

And many poets, who in after-days

Should die in faith. Yea, and Neev Columkillé

Said that, because of God’s great love for Kieran—

Sweet helper of the oft-times erring Gael—

It was at Clonmacnoise that the white souls

Of Erin should be gathered and assemble

Around Neev Patrick, when the Judgment-horn

Should blow from high Croagh Patrick o’er the lands

And hills and vales and sacred greens of Erin.

But at that time, when agéd Shen´-cawn came

To that blest place, there were but nine small cells

Of wattled boughs, and one small oaken church;

And in that place there was not yet one grave.

Then, when they so had reached that fair, blest place,

Neev Kieran took the wonder-working hide

Of his dun cow, who had fared forth with him,

Taking her calf, when he himself had fared—

He being young—to high renowned Clonard,

To learn beneath Neev Findian; and that cow,

While he was there learning pure truth and wisdom,

Had stayed with him, and always faithfully

Sustained him with her milk. He took that hide,

Which he had ever cherished tenderly;

And of that hide he made a noble book;

And in that book he wrote the Táin Bo Cooley,

With its beginning and its deeds and end,

E’en as it had been acted in old days

Before the holy Faith had reached their land;

That this famed history, this Táin Bo Cooley,

Which had been taught them by that warrior, Fergus,

Who had been sent from out his lonely grave,

Might so be known in after-days in Erin.

APPENDICES

APPENDIX A

IRISH TERMS USED IN THE VERSE

=Aely= [_Éli_, L.U. 78ᵃ, margin]. A spell or incantation.

=An-dord´= [_Andord_, L.L. 261ᵃ31]. Apparently a kind of tenor singing.

_Dord_ means the bass in music. _An_ here is probably a negative, not an

intensive, prefix; for O’Curry (M. & C. iii. 379) says that the short

strings of the harp were called _andord_, “not bass.”

=Bălt´-thănă= [_Beltene_. Mod. I. _Bealtaine_]. The first of May.

This was one of the chief points of division in the year. See Corm.,

_Belltaine_.

=Ban´-a-nah= [_Bânanach_]. A kind of airy spirit.

=Barnbrogues= [_Bernbróic_]. Probably a long, close-fitting covering for

the legs, breeches and hose combined. See Zimmer, K.S. 6, pp. 81-88.

=Bive= [_Badb_]. The raven, hooded-crow, carrion-crow, or other rapacious

bird. Often used as a name for the More-reega, the goddess of war, who

was wont to appear in the form of a carrion-bird.

=Boc´-a-nah= [_Bócanach_]. A kind of airy spirit.

=Boo´-an-bac= [_Buanbach_, _buanfach_]. A game, probably of the nature of

chess or draughts. See Zimmer, K.S. 6, p. 78.

=Baw´-ee Brashee= [_Bái brassi_]. One of Cucullin’s feats. _Brasse_ means

“quickness,” “readiness” (see Fél. Index). But it seems impossible to

determine the nature of the feat.

=Bran´-duv= [_Brandub_; Mod. Ir. _brannamh_]. Chess. Dr. Joyce (Soc.

Hist. ii. 480, 1) says that nothing has been discovered to show the

exact nature of this game. But in Keating’s _Trí Bior-ghaoithe an Bháis_

(“Three Shafts of Death”), p. 25, there is a passage in which the fate

of men is compared to the fate of the troop in a game of _brandubh_. It

is pointed out that just as in the game of _brandubh_, so long as the

game is being played, each man has his own rank, the King being in the

most honoured place on the board, and the Queen in the second place,

and so on,—similarly in the _brandubh_ of life each man has his own

place. And just as, when the game is over, the men of the _brandubh_ are

poured into the bag all mingled together without any respect to their

rank,—similarly, when Death comes to men he pays no more honour to one

than to another.

This passage shows that in Keating’s time, at all events, _brandubh_

meant “chess,” not “backgammon” or “draughts.”

=Bratt= [_Bratt_]. An outer covering, cloak, or mantle.

=Bressla More= [_Breslech mór_]. The great breaking or slaughter. The

name _Breslech mór_ seems afterwards to have been given to the spot where

the slaughter took place. See L.L. 75ᵇ49.

=Brewy= [_Bríuga_]. “A lord of land,” as (following Dr. Kuno Meyer) I

render it in Book vii; a wealthy farmer; a hospitaller.

=Broo= [_Brúgh_]. A mansion; a fairy palace. “The Broo of Angus Ōg” was

probably the great tumulus of New Grange on the Boyne. Angus Ōg was the

son of the great Dagda and of Boand (“Boyne”), whose name was given to

the river. See _Aislinge Oengusso_, Rev. Celt. iii. 344.

=Călăd-colg= [_Calad colg_]. The name of the sword of Fergus. Apparently

from _calad_, “hard,” and _colg_, “a straight sword,” “a dagger.” But

from its being compared to a rainbow, I judge that the _Calad colg_ was

curved, and I have treated it so. It is sometimes called the _calad bolg_.

=The two Cann-bracks´= [_na da chend bricc_]. The two dappled-heads:

Conor’s two steeds.

=Cantred= [_Tricha cét_]. Following the usual custom, I render the Irish

term, _tricha cét_, “thirty hundred,” by the Welsh word “cantred.” A

_tricha cét_ (defined in the Laws, vol. v, 50, 3, as “one _tuath_”) was a

territory containing thirty ballys or townlands. It corresponded roughly

to the modern barony. When _tricha cét_ is used to denote a division

in an army, it seems uncertain whether it means literally 3000 men, or

simply the complement of fighting men which a cantred of land was able to

furnish forth.

=Cass-awn´= [_Cassán_]. A brooch or pin.

=Cathbarr= [_Cath barr_]. A helmet, a head-piece.

=Cloth-nell´= [_Cloth nell_, L.L. 261ᵃ29]. I am not sure whether I have

been right in interpreting this as the name of the song. It may be merely

a _cheville_, a stop-gap, such as often occur in Irish poetry. In any

case, I do not understand what it means.

=Cōla= [_Coblach_, L.L. 261ᵃ30]. Apparently the voice or a mode of

singing between bass (_dord_) and tenor (_andord_). O’Curry (M. & C.

iii. 252, 379) says that the middle strings of the harp were called the

_cobhlaighe_.

=Con´-gan-ess= [_Congan-chness_]. Horn-skin; the name of Faerdeeah’s

armour. It may have been a close-fitting dress of leather, sewn all over

with little plates of horn.

=Cooal= [_Cual_, L.L. 102ᵃ37]. The word seems to refer to the bristling

mass of swords and spears with which each of these battle-castles was

surrounded. See the description of them: Windisch, Táin, pp. 809-821.

Compare L.L. 115ᵇ19, where cual gai seems to mean a _cheval-de-frise_ of

spears.

=Crann-dord´= [_Crandord_]. The musical lowing made by the Donn of

Cooley. _Crann_ means “a tune,” “a melody.” _Dord_ means “a humming,”

also “the bass in music.” O’Brien has _crann dordáin_, “a kind of music

made by putting the hand to the mouth.”

=Crann-towl´= [_crantaball_]. A sling-staff, or perhaps a kind of

crossbow, for shooting stones.

=Creev Roe= [_Cráebrúad_]. “The Red Branch”: the name of Conor’s great

banqueting-house at Avvin Maha.

=Croo´-a-deen= [_Cruadín_]. The name of Cucullin’s sword; formed from

_cruaidh_, “hard.” _Cruaidh_ is the modern word for “steel.”

=Crooan= [_Cruan_]. Probably a kind of red enamel. Very beautiful

examples of early Irish enamel-work may be seen in the collection of the

R.I.A. in Dublin.

=Curragh= [_Currach_]. A coracle: a light boat made of a wooden

framework, which in ancient times used to be covered with hides, and in

modern times is covered with tarred canvas.

=Dael= [_Dáel_]. Some kind of black chafer or beetle.

=Dael-clish= [_Deil chliss_; _deil chniss_]. Of somewhat uncertain

meaning. In the passage in Book xi., where it occurs (see L.L. 77ᵇ5; L.U.

79ᵇ9), the context seems to suggest that it was a dart greater and more

important than the eight little darts; but it may have been some kind of

bow or sling for shooting the little darts. In Book v. I have rendered

the word vaguely, “dael-feat”; it may mean a sling-staff with which the

ball was to be cast. _Del_ or _deil_ meant “a rod,” or “switch.”

=Dael-feat.= See =Dael-clish=.

=Doon= [_Dún_]. A fortress; a fortified residence.

=The Enga= [_an Engach_]. The name of Conall Carna’s ship, as given in

the _Foghlaimh Chonchulainn_.

=Eric= [_Eric_]. “A fine or penalty exacted from an offender, according

to the assessment of established custom, or the determination of the

Brehons.” Laws vi., p. 311.

=The Eura= [_An Iubrach_, _in Ibhrach_]. The name of the boat belonging

to Fergus. It seems to be connected with ibar (Mod. Ir., _iubhar_), “a

yew-tree.”

=Faen-feat= [_Foenchless_]. One of Cucullin’s feats. From _foen_,

“supine,” “flat.” A passage in the “Destruction of Da Derga’s Hostel”

shows that this feat was performed with the shield. See L.U. 97ᵇ20, 21,

where Mac Cecht performs the faen-feat with his shield, and the edge-feat

with his sword.

=Faer-dord´= [_Ferdord_ L.U. 78ᵃ23, 24]. _Fer_ (Mod. Ir., _fear_) is “a

man.” _Dord_ means “a humming,” also “the bass in music.” Thus _ferdord_

was probably some kind of deep bass crooning with the intent of inducing

sleep.

=Feea= [_Fiach_]. A debt.

=Feehill= [_Fidchell_, _fithchioll_]. Often translated “chess.” But

_fidchell_ and _brandubh_ seem to have been distinct games. In the

_Agallamh_ (I. T. Vierte Serie, 1 Heft. p. 196) we are told that on a

certain occasion a _fidchell_ was given to every six men, a _brannabh_

to every five men, and so on. As _brandubh_ seems certainly to have been

chess, perhaps _fidchell_ may have been a game like draughts. Dr. Stokes

and Dr. Meyer translate it “draughts.” At the same time, a line occurring

in a poem in “The Pursuit of Diarmuid and Grainne,” _idir triath agus

laoch_, “both chief and soldier,” seems to show that in _fidchell_ there

were pieces of more than one value. See Oss. iii. 154.

=Fertas= [_Fertas_]. A distaff; a spindle; the pole of a chariot. Hence,

probably in place-names, a sandy bar across the mouth of a river. Was

the modern _fersad_, which has all these meanings, formed by metathesis

from _fertas_? See Windisch, Táin, line 5650, where _ferrsat_ is used for

_fertas_.

=Fin-drin´-ny= [_Findruine_]. Often translated “white bronze.” It seems

to have been some kind of white alloy.

=Fooan= [_Fúan_]. This seems to have been a kind of very ample wrap or

mantle.

=Fooavrōg= [_Fuathbróc_]. A covering for the lower part of the body,

probably short breeches. See Zimmer, K.S. 6, pp. 81-88.

=Gae Bulg.= The name of Cucullin’s famous spear. _Gae_ means “a spear,”

“a dart.” In the L.L. text of the Táin we have the forms _gai bulgga_,

_gae bulgae_, _gae bulga_. Perhaps I ought to have adopted the form _gae

bulga_. But in the _Foghlaimh Chonchulainn_ we have _cles an gadh builg_.

In the curious poem translated by O’Curry, M. & C. ii. 311, we twice have

the form _Gae Bolg_. This poem says that the spear was made from the

bones of a sea-monster by Bolg mac Buain a famed champion of the east,

and that after passing through various other hands it came to Scawtha.

=The Gantree= [_Gentraide_]. A kind of music. From _gen_ (Mod. Ir.

_gean_), “laughter,” “a smile.” See L.L. 249ᵃ; also M. & C.

=Gass=, pl. =gassa= [_Geis_, pl. _gesa_. Mod. Ir. _geas_, pl. _geasa_].

A prohibition or injunction, magically imposed and involving magical

penalties if disregarded. Often translated “taboo.”

=Gillie= [_Gilla_, Mod. Ir. _Giolla_]. “A lad,” “a youth,” generally “a

servant-lad.”

=The Goltree= [_Goltraide_]. A kind of music; from _gol_, “the act of

weeping or crying.” See L.L. 249ᵃ.

=Greeanawn= [_Gríanán_]. A sunny apartment; from _grian_, the sun.

=Guipney= [_Gipne_]. A fillet passed round the forehead.

=The Iarngool= [_Ind ierngúali_, L.U. 121ᵇ8]. “The Iron-coal,” the name

of the wonderful vat or cask in the Creev Roe. It would appear to be the

same as the _ól-nguala_, the mighty _dabach_ or vat of brass, which Conor

took as loot from the fortress of Gerg. See L.L. 258ᵇ14-19; L.L. 107ᵇ11.

=Imbas Forosnai= [_Imbas Forosnai_]. A method of divination. It is said

to have been prohibited by St. Patrick. See Corm., _Imbas Forosnai_.

=Imda= [_Imda_, _imdae_]. A small sleeping compartment or cubicle

contained within the great dwelling-house or hall. See the excellent

account given by Joyce, Soc. Hist. ii. 45-54.

=Imlee of Glendomna= [_Imslige glennamnach_, L.L. 78ᵃ52; _Imsligi

gleanndomnach_, Y.B.L. 43ᵃ25]. _Imslige_ means “mutual slaughter.” The

name seems afterwards to have been given to the spot where this slaughter

took place (see L.L. 92ᵃ24); but I cannot identify it.

=Innar= [_Inar_]. This would seem to have been a kind of short,

close-fitting body-coat or tunic.

=Inver= [_Inber_, Mod. Ir. _Inbhear_]. The mouth of a river.

=Kenn´caem= [_Cend-chaem_]. “Handsome head,” the name of Conor’s

playing-board for feehill.

=Kesh= [_Cess_]. Suffering, torture. The _cess_ (more fully, _cess

noinden_) was the name of the peculiar suffering into which the Ultonian

warriors were thrown as the result of the curse of Maha.

=Layna= [_léne_, _léine_], A shirt or smock; a linen garment worn next

the skin.

=Liss= [_Lis_, Mod. Ir. _lios_]. A dwelling or space protected by a

circular mound.

=Mĭnd= [_Mind_]. A crown, a diadem.

=Neev= [_Nóeb_, _nóem_]. Holy. “_Neev_ Kieran” means “Saint Kieran.”

=Nomad= [_Nomad_]. A period of nine days.

=The Nowin= [_ind Neamain_]. At L.L. 76ᵃ14 this name is glossed _in

badb_, “the Bive,” and it evidently refers either to the More-reega or to

a sister-goddess.

=Ogam= [_Ogum_, Mod. Ir. _ogham_]. A kind of writing, the letters of

which were formed by combinations of points and short lines set at both

sides of a stem or middle-line. In the Book of Ballymote, p. 308, there

is an ancient treatise on ogam, with fascinating diagrams. Readers

interested in the subject may consult ¹ Brash: _The Ogam inscribed

Monuments of the Gaedhil in the British Islands_. ² Macalister: _Irish

Epigraphy_.

=The Ō-hawn´= [_in n-ócháin_]. The name of Conor’s great shield. This

shield had four ears of gold. _Ó_ means “an ear”; and Dr. Windisch

(_Táin_, p. 864) thinks that this element is contained in the name.

=Ollav= [_Ollam_, Mod. Ir. _ollamh_]. A doctor of learning; a chief

professor; a man in the highest rank of learned poets.

=Partar= [_Partar_]. This is the form of the word that occurs L.L. 259ᵇ36

and 40. At L.L. 55ᵇ41 we have the form _partaing_. According to Dr.

Windisch (_Táin_, p. 28), it was the name of the _Purpureae Parthicae_,

“the Parthian purple.”

=Rath= [_Ráith_, _raith_]. A fort, usually a circular earthen fort; a

dwelling or collection of dwellings enclosed by an earthen rampart.

=The Reeastartha= [_in ríastarde_]. “The Contorted,” a name sometimes

given to Cucullin, owing to the contortion to which he was subject when

overcome by rage. A description of this contortion occurs in Book xi.

=Shee or Shee-mound= [_Síd_]. A hill or mound which was believed to be

the dwelling of supernatural beings, gods or fairies.

=Shee= [_Síde_, Mod. Ir. _sídh_]. The supernatural inhabitants of a

Shee-mound.

=Shessra= [_Seisrech_, L.L. 78ᵃ50]. This is evidently derived from

_sesser_, six (persons), which in its genitive form occurs two lines

previously. I have rendered it “the six-fold slaughter.”

=Sooantree= [_Suantraide_]. A kind of music, from suan, “sleep.” See L.L.

249ᵃ.

=Sowin= [_Samain_]. The first of November, now Hallowe’en. This was one

of the chief points of division in the year. It was believed that evil

spirits and also people of the Shee were specially wont to appear on

that night. See the wild, weird tale of the Adventures of Nera, edited

by Dr. Kuno Meyer, Rev. Celt. x. 212. There can be no doubt that many

Hallowe’en customs of the present day, both in Ireland and Scotland, have

come down to us from pagan times.

=Srōl= [_sról_]. This was some kind of silken material of delicate

texture. An old Connaught native speaker tells me that in her youth

_sról_ was the name of a kind of very beautiful tabbinet made of a

mixture of silk and wool.

=Stooag= [_Stuag_]. Something arched or curved or peaked; a hook.

=Táin= [_Táin_]. A cattle-raid, a cattle-driving.

=Tal´-kend= [_Tal-cend_, _tail-cend_]. See Lib. Hym. i. 100. “Adze-head,”

a name given to St. Patrick in allusion to his tonsure. It was evidently

meant to express derision. I hope I do not err in using it as a term of

honour! But compare _Battle of Magh Rath_, p. 182, line 17, “_Tricha

Tailgenn togaide_,” on which O’Donovan remarks: “Here the word ‘Tailgenn’

is used to denote a distinguished saint or ecclesiastic.”

=Timpan= [_Timpan_]. Derived form the Latin _Tympanum_; yet it was

certainly a stringed instrument. See O’Curry’s discussion of the whole

subject, M. &. C. vol. iii. lecture xxxii.

=Turlough= [_Taurloch_, L.L. 59, 31]. A lake which dries up in summer.

=Yō= [_Eó_]. A brooch; probably a brooch of the familiar Irish type,

having a long spike or stave. _Eó_ was an old word for “tree.” See L.L.

200ᵃ12, _Dair dano eo Mugna_, “Now the tree of Mugna is an oak.” “Spike”

or “stave” was probably a derivative meaning.

APPENDIX B

THE PLACE-NAMES OCCURRING IN THE VERSE

[The “learned terms” in Book vii. are not included.]

=Aenloch= [_Énloch_, L.L. 245ᵇ10]. I adopt this form in L.L. which

means “bird-lake,” and have supposed it to be somewhere to the north

or north-west of Croohan. Elsewhere (See L.L. 31ᵇ29, and Archiv. iii,

p. 5) the place of the death and burial of Fergus is called Findloch,

“white-lake”; and this, probably, was the lake still called _Findloch_,

about seven miles south-east of Croohan. _Énloch for Maig Ai_, “Aenloch

on Moy Wee,” is mentioned Silv. Gad. i. 256, but its whereabouts is not

indicated.

=Africa= [_Affraic_]. See Windisch, _Táin_, p. 819.

=Alba= [_Alba_]. Scotland.

=Alps.= See Appendix E.

=Ard A´-had= [_Ardachad_]. “High-field.” There were many places so named.

This “High-field” comes next after Ath Gowla in the Itinerary L.L. 56.

=Ardcullin= [_Ard Chuillend_, L.L.; _Iraird Cuillend_, L.U.]. In L.U. we

are told that this place is called “_Crossa Cúil_ to-day.” _Crossa Cúil_

may perhaps be the village of Crossakeel in Meath, and the pillar-stone

may have been on some adjoining height from which a wide view could be

obtained. The boundary of ancient Ulster, which extended from the mouth

of the Boyne to the point where County Leitrim touches the sea, may very

well have passed through this place.

=Ard-keen´-aht= [_Árd Chiannacht_]. The whole of the present barony of

Ferrard, in the County Louth, was called _Árd Cianachta_. (See B.R. p.

186, note). But in the _Táin_, _Árd Ciannacht_ seems to apply to some one

definite spot.

=Ards of Ulster.= In the _Mesca Uladh_, L.L. 267ᵇ3, we have the words:

_Blad briuga mac Fiachna a Temair na hArda_, “Blad (= Blai) the brewy,

the son of Fiachna from Tara in the Ards.” This, I feel no doubt, was

the very fine earthen fort still called Tara, which crowns a hill at the

southern extremity of the Ards peninsula to the east of Strangford Lough.

This _Bruiden_ or “house of hospitality” of Blai the Brewy was one of the

six most celebrated houses of entertainment in ancient Erin. (See L.L.

112ᵃ4).

=Armenia.= See Appendix E.

=Assal.= See “Road of Assal.”

=Assa-roe´= [_Ess Rúaid_]. The falls at Ballyshannon in County Donegal.

=Ath Carpat= [_Áth Carpait_]. A ford on the Nith. See “Goola Milhy.”

=Ath Cleea= [_Áth Cliath_]. The usual Irish name for Dublin. Cf. L.L.

104ᵃ47, _Dublind rissaraiter Ath Cliath_, “Dublin, which is called Ath

Cliath.”

=Ath Faerdeeah= [_Áth Fhir diad_]. “The Ford of Faerdeeah,” now shortened

to Ardee, the name of a little town on the river Dee (the ancient Nith)

in County Louth. O’Donovan says: “The grave of Ferdiah is shown at Ardee,

14 yards long, 9 or 10 feet wide. About two yards of the tumulus in the

middle is cut away, so as to be level with the ground. It lies ... about

80 perches west of Ardee.”

=Ath Fayna= [_Áth Féinne_]. Not an uncommon ford-name. This may be the

same as the _Áth fhéne_ of the _Amra Choluim Chille_ (see L.U. 6ᵃ29).

=Ath Frae= [_Áth Fráich_, L.U. 63ᵇ24]. “The Ford of Frae.” Not

identified, so far as I know. At L.U. 63ᵇ11 we are told that its former

name was _Ath Fúait_; but it was not therefore necessarily near _Sliab

Fúait_, for the element _fúait_ enters into various place-names.

=Ath Gowla= [_Áth n-Gabla_]. This has sometimes been spoken of as a

ford on the Boyne, but it was not: the host came past Kells and did not

go south of the Boyne. At L.L. 59. 31, we are told that it was at “the

turlough of the great forest, northward of Knowth of Kings.” Knowth is

about two miles east of Slane. A turlough is a lake which dries up in

summer. L.U. 58ᵃ33 (gloss) speaks of the pass (_beloch_) through the

great forest. Was the turlough a flood-like expansion of the little river

Mattock?

=Ath Greena= [_Áth n-grena_]. The older name of _Ath Gowla_.

=Ath Lahan= [_Áth Lethain_]. A ford on the Nith. See “Goola Milhy.”

=Athlone= [_Áth luain_]. “The Ford of the Loin.” The town of Athlone on

the Shannon.

=Ath na Foraire= [_Áth na Foraire_]. See “Ford of Watching.”

=Ath Neermeeda= [_Áth n-Irmidi_]. The older name of _Ath Fayna_, which

see.

=Ath Tray= [_Áth Traiged_]. “Ford of the Foot.” Said to be in Tir Mór;

but but I cannot identify _Tir Mór_.

=Ath Vaeva= [_Áth Medbi_]. “The Ford of Maev.”

=Avvin Maha= [_Emain Macha_]. The ancient capital of Ulster was two

miles due west of the present city of Armagh. The great mound, with what

remains of its fosse, is now called Navan Ring. A townland to the west

of the Ring still bears the name of Creeve Roe. Avvin Maha was destroyed

by the three Collas, A.D. 331; and the Ulstermen did not dwell in it

afterwards. It has been conjectured that Avvin Maha was Ptolemy’s _Regia_.

=Baeg= [_Bedg_]. One of Cucullin’s rivers of healing. Not identified.

_Bedg_ means “a sudden spring or start.”

=Bally Al´-yone= [_Bélat aileáin_]. “The Crossway of the Island.” (See

“Cooley”).

=Banba= [_Banba_]. One of the ancient names for Ireland.

=Barna na darriv= [_Berna na d-tarb_]. “The gap of the bulls.”

=Barna Tána Bó.= (See “Cooley”).

=Ben Edar= [_Bend Etair_]. The Hill of Howth, near Dublin.

=Bill-awn´= [_Bithlán_, _Bithslán_]. “The Ever-full,” or “the

Ever-healthful.” One of Cucullin’s rivers of healing. Not identified.

=Billi Vaeva= [_Bile Medba_]. “Maev’s Tree.” _Bile_ means generally a

large, venerable or sacred tree.

=Bir= [_Bir_]. One of Cucullin’s rivers of healing. Not identified. _Bir_

means “a spit.”

=Booan= [_Buan_]. One of Cucullin’s rivers of healing. Not identified.

_Buan_ means “enduring.”

=Boyne= [_Boand_]. The river Boyne, which joins the sea at Drogheda.

=Bray Ross= [_Breg Ross_]. Evidently the district just north of Ardee.

=Bree Aerga= [_Brí Errgi_]. I do not know that this famous place has yet

been identified; but I think it should be looked for in County Donegal,

not far from Ballyshannon. I take the _Raith Argi_ of Trip. Life, p.

328, to be the same place, and this was in the barony of Tirhugh, County

Donegal. Compare Trip. Life, 352, where it is said that the extent of the

boundary of St. Patrick’s see was to be: “_a pinna montis Berbicis_ [=

probably _Benna Boirche_, the Mourne Mountains] usque ad montem _Mis_ [=

Slemish in County Antrim], a monte _Miss_ usque ad _Bri Erigi_, a _Bri

Erigi_ usque ad _Dorsos Breg_ [= Drum Bray].” If, as I conjecture, _Raith

Argi_ and _Bri Erigi_ were the same place, the extent of St. Patrick’s

see, as promised by the angel, was practically to coincide with the

extent of ancient Ulster.

=Bregan’s Tower= [_Tor m-Breogain_]. After the Gaels had come from

Scythia to Spain, one of their number, Bregan, erected a tower and city

which were named after him, Brigantia. It was from this tower that Ith,

his son, in the evening of a winter day first perceived Ireland in the

distance! (See L.L. 3 and 4). Brigantia was on the coast not far from

the modern Betanzos, in Galicia. See the account of O’Donnell’s visit to

Bregan’s Tower in 1602. “He was rejoiced to have landed at that place,

for he deemed it to be an omen of good success that he had arrived at the

place from whence his ancestor had formerly obtained power and sway over

Ireland.” (F.M. 1602).

=Brenid= [_Brenide_]. One of Cucullin’s rivers of healing. Not

identified. It probably means “stinking,” “rotten.” Let us hope that the

stream belied its name at the time when Cucullin was bathed in it.

=Bressla More= [_Breslech Mór_]. (See the same name, Appendix A.) It must

have been somewhere in the northern half of County Louth. _Ath Aladh_ was

another name for the same place. Windisch, _Táin_, p. 337, n. 6.

=Britain= [_Bretain_, _Breatain_]. Those western parts of Great Britain

which were inhabited by the Britons.

=Bush= [_Buas_]. The river Bush in County Antrim. It was “one of the

sovereign waters of Ireland.” See Rev. Celt. xxii. 321.

=Caha= [_Catha_ L.L. 56ᵇ42]. Apparently a river flowing into the Boyne,

some way to the west of Slane.

=Cahir Conree= [_Cathir Conruí_]. “The City of Cúrúi.” The remains of

this cahir are still to be seen on Slieve Mish, near Tralee, in Kerry. In

the Triads (Y.B.L. 415ᵃ2) it is mentioned as one of the Three Doons, or

strong places of Ireland, the other two being Dunseverick and Duncermna.

=Callan= [_Calland_]. The river which flows past Armagh, and joins the

Blackwater near Moy. It is still called the Callan.

=Cann Teera More= [_Cend Tiri Móir_]. “The Head of the Great Land.” The

same term occurs _Rennes_ 66. I do not understand it.

=Carrloig= [_Carrlóig_, L.L. 94ᵇ1]. I think that this place, from which

Kehern was to be summoned, was probably an old name for _Dun-Ceithirn_,

now the Giant’s Sconce, in the parish of Dunboe, in the north of County

Londonderry. Kehern’s father, Finntan, and his grandfather, Niall

Niamhghlonnach, lived at _Dún dá bheann_, now Mount Sandel, not very far

away. The words _laoch_ and _carn_ occurring in the two last lines of

Inda’s Lament (Windisch, _Táin_, p. 639), though they suggest a different

etymology, contain, I fancy, an allusion to this place-name. The

_Carrlaoigh_ of “Fragments of Irish Annals,” p. 14, and the _Cairloegh_

of F.M. 478, appear to be the same place as the _Carrlóig_ of the _Táin_.

=Carthage.= See Windisch, _Táin_, p. 819.

=Cenannas= [_Cenannas_]. Now Kells, in Meath.

=City of Moorn= [_Cathair Muirne_]. See the full account in “The Martial

Career of Conghal Cláiringhneach” (Irish Texts Soc., vol. v.). Is the

story founded on an account of Iceland and its volcano by some very early

traveller? Fergus was said to be a fortnight and a month sailing to it

from Lochlann (Denmark).

=Clahra= [_Clathra_, _Clartha_]. This may possibly be Clara on the

Brosna in King’s County; but it is more likely, I think, to be _Caislean

Clártha_, now anglicised Clare Castle, which “is situated on a

conspicuous hill in the parish of Killare, not far from the celebrated

but now poor village of Ballymore Lough Sewdy, in the County of

Westmeath.” See F.M. 1544, note _y_.

=Cleer Bó Ulla= [_Clithar bō Ulad_]. “The shelter of the cows of the

Ultonians.” Probably somewhere towards the centre of County Louth.

=Cletty= [_Cleittech_]. This was a famous royal residence “above the

brink of the Boyne” not far from Slane.

=Clon-ard´= [_Cluain Iraird_]. On the Boyne about ten miles above Trim.

See the account of it in Wilde’s “Beauties of the Boyne.”

=Clō-na-Darriv= [_Clodh na d-tarb_]. “The dyke, or earthen wall, of the

bulls.”

=Clonmacnoise= [_Cluain-mic-Nois_]. On the Shannon about nine miles below

Athlone.

=Connallia Mweerhevna= [_Conailli Muirthemni_]. See “Moy Mweerhevna.”

=Connaught= [_Connacht_]. The ancient Connacht included the present

County of Clare. See O’Mahony’s Keating, p. 88.

=Cooley= [_Cualnge_]. In dealing with the topography of Cooley we are met

by two difficulties. The first lies in our ignorance of the exact extent

of the ancient Cooley, the Cooley of the Táin. It would seem to have

included not only the mountainous Carlingford peninsula in County Louth,

but also Slieve Gullion in County Armagh, and the Mourne Mountains in

County Down.

Compare =1.= _Echtra Nerai_ (Rev. Celt. x. 224), where there is a poem

containing the line _i m-Bairchi hi Cuailgniu_, “in Bairchi in Cooley.”

_Bairchi_ seems to mean the Mourne Mountains, the old name of which was

_Benna Boirche_ (or _Bairche_).

=2.= _Cóir Anmann_, 269 (I.T.) where _Glenn Samaisce_ is said to be in

Cooley. In the Táin we are told that it is in Slieve Gullion.

=3.= Y.B.L. 53ᵃ26, where we are told that the bull on returning to

Cooley, “went upon the Road of Meedlougher into _Cuib_. It is there that

he used to be with the dry kine of Dawra.” _Cuib_ is “Moy Cova” in the

baronies of Upper and Lower Iveagh in County Down. Hence it seems likely

that the house of Dawra may have been on one of the northern slopes of

the Mourne Mountains.

Our second difficulty lies in this: we have three versions of the

harrying of Cooley. The first is contained in L.L. 69ᵃ44-69ᵇ46. It is

the simplest and clearest; but much of the most interesting material is

omitted. The other two accounts are in L.U., whose redactor in his usual

scholarly manner gives them successively, so that the reader may compare

them for himself. The second of these two L.U. accounts is chiefly in

poetry, archaic and difficult, and it perhaps represents the oldest

Táin-material which has come down to us. To reconcile the topography of

these three versions is impossible, though there are some points wherein

they seem to agree. Thus, up to the present we have been able to identify

hardly any of the places in Cooley. I can only make the following

suggestions:—

_Drumenna_ [_Druim En_ L.L., _Druim Féne_ L.U.]. I think this was

perhaps the wooded height now called Trumpet Hill, near Ballymascanlan,

County Louth. In the very interesting old “map of County Down” by Gerard

Kremer-Mercator this hill is marked _Drommena_, and an old woman living

near the place told me that in her childhood Irish-speakers called it by

this name. The situation would fit the story: it was just on the borders

of Cooley and Connallia.

_Slieve Fauhan_ [_Sliab Ocháine_]. If Trumpet Hill was _Druim En_,

Slieve Fauhan, whence Cucullin hurled at the camp, must have been one of

the higher mountains to the east of it. Now, in Mercator’s map one of

these mountains is marked _Slew Wyaghno_, a name which might easily be a

corruption of _Sliab Ocháine_. Perhaps the name applied to the whole line

of mountains between Ballymakellett and Piedmont. Does it still survive?

I failed to find it.

_Glen Fauhan_ [_Glend Focháine_]. If the identification of Slieve Fauhan

is right, Glen Fauhan was probably the valley of the little river which

joins the sea a short mile to the east of Bellurgan Station.

_Glass Crond_ [_Crond_; _Glaiss Cruind_]. It seems likely that this may

have been the stream now called the Piedmont River. It issues from the

mountain just below the Windy Gap (at “the Long Woman’s Grave”) by which

the roadway crosses the Carlingford Peninsula, and it falls into Dundalk

Bay.

_Barna Tana Bo Cooley_. If the Piedmont River is Glass Crond, then the

famous pass which Maev caused to be made is the above-mentioned Windy Gap.

_Glass Colpa_ [_Glaiss Colptha_]. This seems to be the same as the _Aband

cholpthai i cualngiu_ of L.L. 110ᵇ33 (the story of Goll and Garb). But I

cannot identify it.

These are all the suggestions I can make.

The account of the harrying of Cooley which I give in Book viii. is a

much abbreviated conflation of the three versions described above. Those,

therefore, who wish to work at the topography of Cooley, will not find

help in it; they must work from original sources.

=Cool Shibrilly= [_Cúil Sibrilli, Cúil Sibrinni_]. Said in the Táin to be

south-west of Kells. According to F.M., A.M. 3991, _Dún Chuile Sibrinne_

was an old name for Kells.

=Cool Shillinny= [_Cúil Silinne_]. Now Kilcooley, only four miles or so

to the south-east of Croohan. See F.M. 1418.

=Corann= [_Corann_]. This territory is now represented by the barony of

Corran in County Sligo.

=Corcum-roe´= [_Corcumruad_]. Now represented by the barony of Corcumroe

in County Clare; but in ancient times the territory of Corcumroe included

Burren.

(The) =Corry of Glenn Gatt= [_Dub cairiu glinni Gatt_. L.U. 65ᵃ21]. See

“Cooley.”

(The) =Craggs of Manann= [_Cairrge Manann_]. Rocks on the coast of the

Isle of Man.

=Crannig= [N. _Crandach_; G. _Crandche_; D. _Crandaig_]. In making

Crannig the old name of Faughard, I was relying on L.L. 73ᵃ47-51; but in

reality _Crandach_, “the Woody Place,” seems to be used somewhat vaguely;

and it may have been applied to a good stretch of country.

=Crithny= [_Cruithnech_]. The Land of the Picts. The Irish Picts were

settled in the ancient _Dál araidhe_, namely, the southern half of County

Antrim and the northern part of County Down.

=Croagh Patrick= [_Cruach-Phádruig_]. A high mountain on the southern

side of Clew Bay in County Mayo. On a clear afternoon it may be seen from

Rath Croohan, fifty miles to the east of it.

=Cromma= [_Cromma_]. Apparently a river flowing into the Boyne a little

to the west of Slane.

=Croohan= [_Cruachan_ or _Rath Cruachan_]. The ancient capital of

Connaught, now Rathcroghan, near Bellanagare in County Roscommon. Many

mounds and raths are still to be seen there, as well as the ancient royal

burial-field and the pillar-stone over the grave of Dawthy.

=Cullin= [_Cuilend_]. One of Cucullin’s rivers of healing. Is it the

Cully Water which flows southward from County Armagh into County Louth to

the west of Forkill?

=Cumung= [_Cumung_]. One of Cucullin’s rivers of healing. Not identified.

_Cumung_ means “narrow,” “constricted.”

=Dalriada= [_Dál riada_]. The northern part of County Antrim. See the

account of it, Reeves, p. 318.

=Deehaem= [_Dichaem_]. One of Cucullin’s rivers of healing. Not

identified.

=Delind= [_Delaind_]. A river crossed by the hosts on their way eastward

to Kells. Not identified.

=Delt= [_Delt_]. A river crossed by the hosts on their way eastward to

Kells. Not identified.

=Delt= [_Delt_]. One of Cucullin’s rivers of healing. It may possibly

have been the _Doailte_ in _Crich Roiss_ which is mentioned F.M.,

A.M. 4169. _Crich Roiss_ was partly in the barony of Farney in County

Monaghan, and partly in the adjoining portion of County Louth.

=Dooglass= [_Dubglass_]. “The black stream.” One of Cucullin’s rivers of

healing. Not identified.

=Doolough= [_Dubloch_]. “The black lake.” Somewhere between Kilcooley and

Slieve Bawne in County Roscommon.

=Doon Borrig= [_Dún Borraig_]. This famous fortress was on the headland

of Torr in County Antrim, a point at which there are only about twelve

miles between the coasts of Ireland and Scotland. It would now be

pronounced “Dunwarry” or “Dunvarry.” See the very interesting account,

O’Lav. iv. 479 and 520.

=Doon Dalgan= [_Delga_ L.U. 68ᵃ8; _go Dun Dealgan_ C.R.R. 66]. Now

anglicised Dundalk. The ancient doon, now called the Castletown Moat, is

about a mile inland.

=Doon Feea= [_Dún-fidhgha_; _Dûn fiodhaigh_]. “The doon of the wood, or

thicket.” Perhaps near Loch Etive.

=Doon Finn= [_Dún Finn_]. “The white doon.” Perhaps near Loch Etive.

(The) =Doon of the Sons of Nahta Scaena= [_Dún mac Nechtáin Scéne_].

O’Curry says this was “on the right bank of the little river Mattock,

where it falls into the Boyne.” See M. and C. ii., p. 292. This doon is

mentioned in the _Dindsenchas_. See Rev. Celt. xvi., p. 83; but outside

the Táin, I remember no other reference to it.

=Drong= [_Drong_]. One of Cucullin’s rivers of healing. Not identified.

=Drum Bray= [_Druimne Breg_ T.E. § 38.] = Slieve Bray [_Sliab Breg_]. A

line of low heights stretching across the barony of Upper Slane in Meath

and the barony of Ferrard in Louth, and forming the northern watershed of

the Boyne.

=Drumenna=. See under “Cooley.”

=Drum Keen= [_Druim Cáin_, L.L. 56ᵇ20]. “The fair or beautiful ridge.”

There were many places so named.

=Drum Leek= [_Druimm Licci_]. “The ridge of the flagstone.” Somewhere

near Slane.

=Drum-na-darriv= [_Druim na d-tarbh_]. “The ridge of the bulls.”

=Drum Saulinn= [_Druim Salaind_, L.L.; _Druim Sálfind_, L.U.]. Is this

Drumshallon about six miles north of Drogheda? It seems possible.

=Dunseverick= [_Dún Sobairche_]. About three miles east of the Giant’s

Causeway in County Antrim. One of the Three Doons of Ireland. (Triads,

Y.B.L. 415ᵃ2).

=Duv= [_Dub_]. “The Black.” The first river passed after leaving Kells.

Therefore, almost certainly, the Blackwater.

=Edon More= [_Eo dond mór_]. “The great brown tree.” Somewhere towards

the middle of County Louth. Probably the same place as that in which the

battle of _Euduind móir_ was fought. See F.M. 590.

=Erin= [N. _Eriu_; G. _Erend_; D. _Erind_] Ireland. I have adhered to the

dative form, which has already been adopted in English.

=Farney= [_Fernmag_]. “The plain of alders.” Now the barony of Farney in

County Monaghan.

=Faughard= [_Fochaird_]. The height still called Faughard about three

miles north of Dundalk.

=Fauhan.= See under “Cooley.”

=Fawl= [_Fál_]. An old name for Ireland. See L.L. 261ᵃ37. Sometimes we

have _Inis Fáil_, “the Island of Fál.” The name was derived from the

_Fál_ or _Lia Fáil_ in Tara, “the stone that used to roar under the feet

of every king that would take possession of Ireland.” See Rev. Celt. xv.

281 and 285.

=Fedain Collna= [_Fedain chollna_, Y.B.L. 50ᵃ28]. This must have been

somewhere near Clahra, which see.

=Fĕven= [_Femen_]. The Plain of Femen was in the south of Tipperary. It

is now the barony of Iffa and Offa East. I do not know whether the famous

Sheemound of Bove has been identified or not; but see _Ac. na Sen_. 2775,

where we are told that in somewhat later times it was called _Sidh ban

find_, “the Shee-mound of white women.” O’Donovan says that _Sliabh na

mban bhfionn_, “the mountain of the white women,” was the ancient name of

Slieve-na-man; so, probably, it was this striking mountain which was the

residence of Bove.

=Findabair.= (See under “Cooley”).

=Finncarn.= (See under “Slieve Mourne”).

=Finnglass= [_Finnglais_]. “The white stream.” One of Cucullin’s rivers

of healing. Not identified.

=Finnglass= [_Finnglass Assail_]. A river crossed by the hosts. Not

identified. See “Road of Assal.”

=Finngower= [_Fingabair_]. Probably in Slieve Foo-id; for at L.L. 89ᵇ26

Fingin is said to be at _Leccain Sleibe Fúait_.

=Fo-dromma= [_Fodromma_]. This seems to be a river flowing into the Boyne

very close to Slane.

=Ford of Bercna= [_Áth Bercna_]. Probably to the north-west of Croohan,

near Bellanagare or Frenchpark. See also _Ac. na Sen._ 7862.

=Ford of Coltna= [_Áth Coltna_]. This seems to be connected with

_Coltain_ L.L. 56ᵇ15, and _Móin Coltna_ L.L. 58ᵃ17. It must have been

somewhere near Slieve Bawne, and south-east of Croohan.

=Ford of Moga= [_Áth Moga_]. A ford over the river Suck. Now Ballymoe,

about ten miles south-west of Croohan.

=Ford of Shlissen= [_Áth Slissen_]. A ford over the Owenure River, near

Elphin, now Bellaslishen Bridge. See F.M. 1288. It is about six miles to

the north-east of Croohan.

=Ford of the two Magic Deeds= [_Áth da Ferta_, Y.B.L. 55ᵃ23, cf. _vadum

duarum virtutum_ (_Mirabilium_), An. Ulster 818]. At L.L. 79ᵇ7 this

ford is said to be in Slieve Foo-id. Elsewhere it is said to be in Moy

Mweerhevna. Therefore, probably, it was at a point where the hills

(Slieve Foo-id) join the plain (Moy Mweerhevna) on the southern border of

the barony of Upper Fews in County Armagh.

=Ford of Watching= [_Áth na Foraire_]. This was evidently on the road

between Avvin Maha and Loch Ahtra (Lake Muckno). Outside the _Táin_ I

remember no reference to _Áth na Foraire_; but there are many references

to _Carn na foraire_, “the Cairn of Watching”; and the latter may perhaps

be identified with Carnagh, a hill about four miles south of Keady. This

hill must have commanded a wide view towards the territory of Mourne and

the sometimes hostile sub-kingdom of Farney in the south.

=Gan´-a-win= [_Gáinemain_]. “The sandy.” One of Cucullin’s rivers of

healing. Not identified.

=Gaul.= See the remarks by Dr. Kuno Meyer, Rev. Celt. xi. 438.

=Gawrig= [_Gárech_, dat. _Gárig_]. I think the site of the great battle

was near Ballymore, in Westmeath. See “Clahra.”

=Glass Colpa= [_Glaiss Colptha_]. See under “Cooley.”

=Glass Crond= [_Crond_; _Glaiss Cruind_]. See under “Cooley.”

=Glass Gatlig= [_Glaiss Gatlaig_]. See under “Cooley.”

=Glen´-a-win= [_Glenamain_]. One of Cucullin’s rivers of healing. Not

identified.

=Glen Bray= [_Gleunn mBreogaind_, T.E. § 39]. A glen between Drum Bray

and the Boyne. Moy Bray, Glen Bray, &c., are said to have been named

after Bregan, the builder of Bregan’s Tower.

=Glen Daw Roo= [_Glenn Da Rúadh_]. Said to be Glendaruel, in Argyle. For

an account of the various glens in Argyle, supposed to be those which are

described in Daerdra’s song, see “Loch Etive and the Sons of Uisneach,”

by the late Dr. Angus Smith.

=Glendomna.= See “Imlee of Glendomna,” Appendix A.

=Glen Etive= [_Glenn Eitchi_]. Glen Etive in Argyle.

=Glen Faer-bay´= [_Glend Firbaith_, L.U. 74ᵃ11]. This must have been

close to Faughard.

=Glen Fauhan= [_Glend Focháine_]. See under “Cooley.”

=Glen Gatt= [_Glend ngat_, L.U. 65ᵃ23]. See under “Cooley.”

=Glen Law´-ee= [_Glend Láid_]. Said to be Glenlochy in Argyle.

=Glen Massan= [_Glend Masain_]. Said to be Glenmasan, at the head of Loch

Striven, in Argyle.

=Glen Samaska= [_Glend na Samaisce_]. “Glen of the heifers.” This must

have been close to Slieve Gullion, in County Armagh.

=Glen Taul= [_Glend Táil_]. See under “Cooley.”

=Glen Urkeen= [_Glend Urchán_, _Orchaoin_]. Said to be Glenorchy, in

Argyle.

=Glore= [_Gleóir_]. One of Cucullin’s rivers of healing. Not identified.

=Goola Milhy= [_Guala Muilchi_]. On the river Dee (the ancient _Nith_).

Is this the townland of Drumgoolestown between Dromin and Stabannan in

County Louth?

=Gower= [_Gabair_]. Perhaps to the west of Loch Neagh. See _Fir Gabrae_,

Trip. Life, Index.

=Granard= [_Granard_, L.U. 57ᵃ30 _gloss_]. The town of Granard, in the

east of County Longford.

=Great Greece.= See Appendix E.

=Great Snowy Land.= See Appendix E.

=Greece.= See Appendix E.

=Grellah Cul´-găry= [_Grellach Culgairi_]. “The miry place of the

chariot-noise.” One gathers from _Táin Bo Regamna_ that this was the old

name for Grellah Dollud, which see.

=Grellah Dollud= [_Grellach Dolluid_]. O’Donovan (F.M. 693, note)

suggests that this place was Girly near Kells. But _Tochmarc Emire_ and

_Táin Bo Regamna_ show clearly that it was somewhere in Moy Mweerhevna.

=Grey Lake= [_Lind Liath_]. Somewhere in Slieve Foo-id.

(The) =Height of Willows= [_Árd na Sáilech_]. Now Armagh, cf. Trip. Life,

ii. 473.

(The) =Hill of Usna= [_Uisneach_]. In the barony of Rathconrath, in

Westmeath. “The reputed centre of Ireland.”

=Ilgawrig= [_Ilgáirig_]. See “Gawrig.”

=Imlee of Glendomna.= See Appendix A.

=Immil.= See “Loch Laery.”

=Innish Cooscree= [_Inis Cuscraid_]. Now Inch, near Downpatrick.

=Innish Draiguen= [_Inis Draigen_]. Perhaps “a projecting rocky land

called _Ruadh nan Draighnean_,” near Bunawe, in Argyle. See “Loch Etive

and the Sons of Uisneach.”

=Inn´-yone= [_Indeóin_]. This was the old name of the Dungolman River,

which separates the baronies of Rathconrath and Kilkenny West, in

Westmeath. It seems to mark the southern limit of “the long devious

course” by which Fergus led the hosts.

=Inver Colpa= [_Inbher Colptha_]. The estuary of the Boyne.

=Iona= [_I Choluim Chille_]. An island off the Ross of Mull in Scotland.

Of great fame in connexion with St. Columba.

=Irrus Domnann= [_Irros Domnand_]. Now the barony of Erris in County Mayo.

=Islands of the Athishec.= See Appendix E.

=Islands of the Foreigners= } [_Insi-Gall_]. The Hebrides, or Western

=Islands of the Gall= } Isles of Scotland.

=Isles of Gat= [_Indsi Gaid_, Y.B.L. 46ᵃ27]. When writing, I understood

these to be the same as the _Insi Cadd_ of C.R.R. p. 10, and the _Insi

Cat_ of G. and G., p. 152, namely, the Shetland Islands; and I recast

the passage. But Dr. Windisch (_Táin_, p. 722) quite rightly, I think,

understands them to be the Islands of Cadiz. The sentiment expressed by

Fergus is not affected by the difference!

=Isles of Orc= [_Indsi Orcc_, Y.B.L. 46ᵃ26]. The Orkney Islands.

=Kell Cooan= [_Caill Cuan_]. “The Wood of Cooan.” I cannot identify this;

but there was a high road leading to it from Moy Mweerhevna. _Cuan_ means

“a harbour.”

=Kyle Cooan= [_Caill Cuan_]. Somewhere in Argyle. I don’t know whether it

has been identified.

=Knowth= [_Cnogba_]. A great tumulus on the Boyne, a couple of miles

east of Slane. In the Triads the Cave of Knowth is one of the three Dark

Places of Erin.

=Land of Sorca= [_Tír na Sorcha_; _Tír Sorcha_]. A supernatural country,

the same as _Tír Tairngiri_, “the Land of Promise.” In the story called

_Serglige Conculaind_ (L.U. 43-50) it is described in very beautiful

poetry: the name occurs at L.U. 48ᵃ41.

(The) =Larguey= [_Lerga_]. _Lerga_ means “a slope,” “a hillside,” and is

found in very many place-names in Ulster. The Larguey of Book xi. must

have been close to the place afterwards called the Bressla More.

=Leek More= [dat. _ic Líic Móir_]. Not identified.

=Leesa Leek= [_Liasa liac_]. See under “Cooley.”

=Le-Glass= [_Lethglais_, _Dún Leithglaisse_]. Now Downpatrick. The great

doon of Keltar, which has given its name, “Down,” to the whole country,

may still be seen there.

=Leinster= [_Lagen_]. An ancient name for Leinster was _Gailean_. In the

_Táin_ the men of Leinster are called the _Galeóin_.

=Letteree= [_Leitir-Ruige_]. Unfortunately I have not read the _Cath

Leitreach-Ruige_, of which there is a copy, R.I.A. 23 k. 37. It may

supply data for the identification of this place.

=Lind Format.= See Appendix E.

=Loch Ahtra= [_co Fertais Locha Echtrand_]. Now Muckno Lake, County

Monaghan. See F.M., A.M. 2535, note t.

=Loch Etive= [_Loch Eitche_]. Loch Etive in Argyle.

=Loch Laery= [_Loch Laoghaire_, Haliday’s Keating, p. 390]. This must

have been Belfast Lough. Compare “Death-Tales of Ulster Heroes” by Dr.

Kuno Meyer, p. 22, and “Deaths of some Irish Heroes” by Dr. Stokes, Rev.

Celt, xxiii, pp. 320, 325, 335: from these passages we learn that the

house of the great Laery the Victorious was on the brink of _Loch Lái_,

_Loch Laogh_, _Loch Láig_, _Loch Lóig_, all various spellings of the old

name for Belfast Lough. The country near his house was called _Críoch

Láoghaire Bhuadhaigh_, “the Territory of Laery the Victorious.” In the

_Táin_ the name of his rath is variously given as _Immiailli_, _Impail_,

_Ráith Imbil_, _Ráith Impail_, &c., a name which possibly, I think,

contains an allusion to its situation on the edge of the sea, for _Imbel_

means “an edge,” “a border.” I would suggest that it may have been at

Carnalea, the last syllable of which name is probably derived from the

ancient name of the Lough.

=Loch-na-darriv= [_Loch-na-d-tarb_]. “The lake of the bulls.”

=Loch Ree= [_Loch Rí_]. Lough Ree, an expansion of the Shannon.

=Loo´-a-her= [_Luachair_]. Perhaps Slieve Lougher near Castleisland in

County Kerry.

=Loolohta Lōha= [dat. _Luglochtaib Loga_]. In “_The Battle of Magh

Rath_,” p. 52, we are told that the _bruighean_ of Forgall Mona was _i

taeb Lusca_ “beside Lusk” (County Dublin).

=Maeda of the Bird= [_Méide ind eóin_]. } These places must have

=Maeda of the Squirrel= [_Méide in togmaill_]. } been near the middle

of the County Louth.

_Méide_ means “a neck.”

(The Three) =Maels of Meath= [_na tri Maela Mide_]. There is a reference

to these Silv. Gad. i. 308; but I cannot identify them.

(The Three) =Maels of Connaught= [_na tri maoláin Atha Luáin_, “the three

Maels of Athlone”]. These must be three hills close to Athlone, on the

Connaught side.

=Meath= [_Mide_]. The ancient Meath contained the present counties of

Meath and Westmeath and much territory besides. See O’Mahony’s Keating,

p. 86.

=Meedlougher=. See “Road of Meedlougher.”

=Meelic= [_Miliuc_]. One of Cucullin’s rivers of healing. Not identified.

=Mone Coltna= [_Móin Chóiltrae_, L.U. 57ᵃ9]. This seems to be the same

place as the _Coltain_ of the Itinerary L.U. and L.L. Apparently a moor

between Slieve Bawne and the Shannon.

=Mooah= [_Muach_]. One of Cucullin’s rivers of healing. Not identified.

=Mound of Ercmon= [_Sid Ercmon_, Celt. Zeit. 241]. In the unedited _Coga

Fergusa agus Conchobar_, “Wars of Fergus and Conor,” R.I.A. 23 k. 37,

there is a _Síodh Ealcmar_, which may be the same place; but I cannot

identify it.

=Mourne= [_a Moduirn atúaid_, L.L. 98ᵃ42]. It seems likely that this

territory of Munnrower son of Guerkind was _Mughdhorn Breagh_, “Mourne

of Bray,” which was partly in Cavan, partly in Meath. Munnrower met

his death “in his own lake,” Loch Munreamair (Rev. Celt. xxiii, 327)

now Lough Ramor, County Cavan. At L.L. 114ᵃ38 he is called _Munremur

lond Locha Sáil_; and _Loch Sáil_ seems to be _Loch Sailind_, now Lough

Sheelin, not far from Lough Ramor.

=Movilla= [_Magh bhile_]. Near Newtownards in County Down.

=Moy Bray= [_Magh Breagh_]. Used vaguely for the whole of the

comparatively level country between Dublin and Kells and Dundalk.

=Moy Cova= [_Magh Cobha_]. The plain north-west of the Mourne Mountains,

in the baronies of Upper and Lower Iveagh, County Down.

=Moy Cronn= [_Magh Cruinn_]. This would seem to have been part of Moy Wee.

=Moy Innish= [_Magh Inis_]. Now the baronies of Upper and Lower Lecale in

County Down.

=Moy Linny= [_Magh Line_]. Chiefly in the barony of Upper Antrim, County

Antrim.

=Moy Mweerhevna= [_Magh Muirthemne_]. The level plain in the north of

County Louth.

=Moy-na-darriv= [_Magh-na-d-tarbh_]. The plain of the bulls.

=Moy Thooaga= [_Mag Tuaga_]. Somewhere in Connaught.

=Moy Traega= [_Mag Trega_]. The level country in the barony and county of

Longford.

=Moy Twirra= [_Mag Tuireadh_]. Near Lough Arrow in the barony of

Tirerrill, County Sligo. See F.M., A.M. 3330, note s.

=Moy Wee= [_Mag Ái_, _Mag Aei_]. The plain in County Roscommon on which

Rath Coohan was situated. It extended from Ballymoe to Elphin, and from

Bellanagare to Strokestown.

=Munster= [_Muma_].

=Murrisc= [_Muiresc_]. The barony of Murrisk in County Mayo.

=Nemud= [_Nemud_]. Somewhere in Slieve Foo-id. It may be the same place

as the _nemed_ in Trip. Life, p. 240.

=Nith= [_Nith_]. The ancient name of the river of Ardee. See F.M., A.M.

4169, note. Now called the Dee.

=Ohawn= [_Ochun_, _Ochuind_]. This seems likely to be the _Ochonn_ of

Meath, where Niall of the Nine Hostages was buried. (See Rev. Celt. xv,

p. 295.) I don’t know whether it has been identified.

=Ollbinni= [_Ollbine_, _Ailbine_. T.E. § 46]. The river Delvin, which

falls into the sea at Gormanstown a little north of Balbriggan. See

Reeves, Col., p. 108, note d.

=Ooanub= [_Uanabh_, _Uanuib_]. Is this the White River between the

baronies of Ferrard and Ardee in County Louth?

=Oorawn Garad= [_Uarán Garad_]. In O’Donovan’s map of Hy Many this is

marked due south of Croohan. Our old literature contains some singularly

charming references to this well.

=Orkill= [_Oircel_, _Orcel_]. Now Forkill; the valley of the Forkill

river, west of Slieve Gullion in County Armagh.

=Oughter Netmon= [_Ouchter Nedmon_]. Somewhere a little to the north of

Drum Bray.

=Partry= [_Partraigi_]. Does this name still survive a little to the

south-west of Kells?

=Pass of Awny= [_Belach náne_, L.U. 63ᵇ7]. _Belach_ being a neuter noun,

I take the following _n_ to be “transported.” Not identified so far as I

know.

=Poopal Vaeva= [_Pupall Medba_]. “Maev’s tent.”

=Raeda Lōha= [_Réde Loche_]. See under Cooley.

=Rath Aerheer= [_Ráith Airthir_]. “The Eastern Fort.” There was a _Ráith

Airthir_ close to Taltin (See Trip. Life, p. 70), but this was not in

Farney, of which Owen was king.

=Rath Immil.= See “Loch Laery.”

=Rathlin= [_Rachriu_]. A large island off the northern coast of Antrim.

An old name for it was _Inis Cuilinn_.

=Rath-na-darriv= [_Ráith na dtarbh_]. “The rath of the bulls.”

=Reedonn= [_Rígdond_]. Is this the same place as that in which St.

Patrick afterwards founded his church of _Domnach Rígduind_, “The church,

or cathedral, of Rígdond”? _Domnach Rígduind_ was in the south of County

Derry, between Slieve Gullion and Loch Neagh. See Trip. Life, p. 169, and

Reeves, p. 294. At Y.B.L. 47ᵇ45, the place whence Rohee came is called

_Brig dumae_.

=Rind= [_Rind_]. One of Cucullin’s rivers of healing. Not identified.

=Road of Assal= [_Slighe Asail_]. One of the great high roads of ancient

Ireland. It ran from Tara westwards, at least as far as _Tig Lommain_

(now Portloman) on the western shore of Lough Owel, in Westmeath. See

L.U. 6ᵃ31-33.

=Road of Meedlougher= [_Slighe Midhluachra_]. One of the great high roads

of ancient Ireland. It ran northward from Tara; and from various passages

in the literature (especially Y.B.L. 53ᵃ26) we are able to gather that

it went through the western part of Cooley—perhaps through the Moyry

Pass—and so past Newry into Moy Cova.

=Sawss= [_Sás_]. One of Cucullin’s rivers of healing. Not identified.

=Saxon land= [_Saxain_]. England. But the Saxons had not come to Britain

at the time when the _Táin_ took place. The first mention of Saxons in

F.M. is under the year 683 A.D.

=Sayer= [_Saighir_]. Now Seir-kieran, about six miles to the east of

Parsonstown, in the King’s County.

=Scythia.= See Appendix E.

=Seel= [_Síl_]. Somewhere in Lecale, in County Down.

=Shannon= [_Sionainn_]. The river Shannon.

=Slahta= [_Slechta_]. To the south-west of Kells. Does the name survive?

=Slane= [_Sláne_]. The town of Slane, on the Boyne.

=Slane of Meath= [_Slemain Mide_]. “Now divided into Slanebeg and

Slanemore, two townlands in the parish of Dysart, County Westmeath.” An.

Ulster i., p. 33, note. An adjoining townland is called Slanestown. This

district is about three miles to the west of Mullingar.

=Slawnga= [_Slánge_]. The ancient name of Slieve Donard, the highest of

the Mourne Mountains.

=Slieve Bawne= [_Badbgna_]. “A mountainous territory extending from

Lanesborough to Rooskey, on the west side of the Shannon, in the County

of Roscommon.” F.M. 678, note.

=Slieve Bray= [_Slíab Breg_]. See “Drum Bray.”

=Slieve Fauhan= [_isin tsléib tuath ochaíne_, L.U. 67ᵃ15]. See under

“Cooley.”

=Slieve Findabair= [_Findabair Slebe_]. There were many places named

Findabair. I cannot identify this one. The name is usually anglicised

Fennor.

=Slieve Foo-id= [_Slíab Fúait_]. This name seems to have been applied

vaguely to almost all the mountainous country west and north-west of

Slieve Gullion, in the southern half of County Armagh. One could make a

long list of names of places which in our old literature were said to be

“in Slieve Foo-id.”

=Slieve Gullion= [_Sliab Culind_]. A striking mountain in the barony of

Upper Orior, County Armagh. See under “Cooley.”

=Slieve Mourne= [_Sliab Moduirn_]. A country of low hills in the southern

part of the barony of Cremourne, County Monaghan. Finncarn, “the white

cairn,” must have been on a height which commanded a wide view towards

the south.

=Spain= [_Espain_].

=Suir= [_Siúir_]. The river which forms the northern boundary of County

Waterford.

=Tahg= [_Tadg_]. One of Cucullin’s rivers of healing. Not identified.

=Taltin= [_Taltiu_; dat. _Tailtin_]. Now Teltown, on the Blackwater

between Kells and Navan. A very famous place in ancient Erin.

=Tamlaht Orlam= [_oc Tamlactain órláib_, L.L. 68ᵃ28]. Said in L.L. to be

to the north of _Disert Lochad_, but where was this? _Tamlachta_ means a

plague-grave. Near Drumshallon, to the west, there is a townland called

_Kiltallaght_. Was this the place?

=Tara= [_Temair_]. The ancient capital of Ireland. In the barony of

Screen, County Meath.

=Tara in the Ards.= See “Ards of Ulster.”

=Tara of Cooley.= See under “Cooley.”

=Teffia= [_Tethba_]. North and south Teffia were large territories, the

boundaries of which doubtless varied at different periods. In early times

the river Inny, which flows into Lough Ree, divided north Teffia from

south Teffia. See B.R., p. 11.

=Telamet= [_Telaméit_]. One of Cucullin’s rivers of healing. Not

identified.

=Thromma= [_Tromma_]. A river evidently flowing into the Boyne close to

Slane. In F.M. 512 there is mention of a _Sidh Truim_ close to Slane. The

names are probably connected. Sidh Truim is also mentioned L.U. 47ᵃ33.

=Toom Mona= [_Tóm Mona_, _Tuaim Mona_]. Now Toomona, two or three miles

south of Rath Croohan. See the interesting note, F.M. 1488, note _a_.

=Tyrrhene Sea= [_Muir Toirrian_]. See Appendix E.

=Ulster= [_Ulaid_]. The boundary of ancient Ulster extended from the

estuary of the Boyne to the river Drowes, which flows from Lough Melvin

into Donegal Bay. In the Táin, however, _Ulaid_ is occasionally used in

a more restricted sense, and seems to apply only to the north-eastern

corner of Ireland, Antrim and Down and Armagh.

=Wave of Cleena= [_Tond Chlidna_]. In Glandore Harbour, County Cork. See

the very interesting note by O’Donovan, F.M. 1557.

=Wave of Rury= [_Tond Rudraige_]. In the Bay of Dundrum, County Down.

This place was also called _Inbhear n-Gaoth_, “the River-mouth of Winds.”

See I.T.S. v. 168.

=Wave of Thooig Inver= [_Tond Tuage Inbir_]. At the mouth of the Bann, in

County Derry.

APPENDIX C

NAMES OF PERSONS, TRIBES, AND ANIMALS OCCURRING IN THE VERSE.

Three =Abrat-rooas= [_Trí Abrat-rúaid_].

=Aen=, charioteer of Conall Carna [_Oen_].

=Aen=, son of Mahga [_Én mac Magach_].

=Aerrga Ecbael= [_Errge Echbél_].

=Ăl´-yill= [_Ailill_].

=Angus= [_Oengus_].

=An´-looan= [_Anlúan_].

=Annly= [_Ainnle_].

=Ar-dawn´= [_Ardán_].

=Av´-ver-guin= [_Amargin_].

=Awley= [_Amhalgaidh_].

=Baefinn= [_Befind_].

=Bahlor= [_Balor_].

=Bas= [_Bas_].

=Bashny= [_Baiscne_].

=Baskell= [_Bascell_].

=Blai= [_Blai_].

=Blawth= [_Bláth_].

=Bled= [_Bled_].

=Blod= [_Blod_].

=Bō´-guin-ă= [_Bogaine_].

=Boi= [_Bude_].

=Borrig= [_Borrach_; gen. _Borraig_].

=Bove= [_Bodb_].

=Boyne= [_Boand_].

=Brendan= [_Brenainn_].

=Bress= [_Bress_].

=Brian= [_Brian_].

=Brigit= [_Brigit_].

=Broo´-ă-her= [_Brúachar_].

=Bwinn´-ye= [_Buinne_].

=Caillin= [_Caillin_].

=Căl´-a-teen= [_Calatín_].

=Carpry neea Faer= [_Carpre Nia fer_].

Four =Casses= [_Cethri Caiss_].

=Cathbad= [_Cathbath_, _Cathbad_].

=Catt= [_Catt_].

=Caur= [_Caur_].

Three =Cauriths= [_Trí Caurith_].

=Clothra= [_Clothra_].

Five =Coffys= [_cóic Cobthaig_].

=Collac= [_Collach_].

=Colum-killé= [_Columb-cille_].

Three =Com´-beergas= [_trí Combirgi_].

=Conall Carna= [_Conall Cernach_].

=Conmac= [_Conmac_].

=Conn= [_Conn_].

Eight =Connlas= [_Ochtar Conlai_].

=Connra Cae= [_Connra Caech_].

=Connud= [_Connud_].

=Conor the son of Fahtna Fahee son of Ross the Red-haired son of Rury=

[_Conchobar mac Ḟachtna Ḟathaig meic Rossa Ruaid meic Rudraigi_].

=Cooar= [_Cuar_].

=Coor son of Daw-loath´= [_Cúr mac Da Lóth_].

=Cooroi son of Dawra= [_Cúrúi mac Daire_].

=Cooscree Mend Maha= [_Cuscraid Mend Macha_].

=Corc= [_Corc_].

=Cormac Con-ling´-ish= [_Cormac Condloinges_].

=Cotreb= [_Cotreb_].

=Crin´niuc= [_Cruinniucc_].

Three =Cromms= [_trí Cruim_].

Two =Croo´-ees= [_dá Chrúaid_].

=Crunniuc the son of Agnoman= [_Crunniuc mac Agnoman_].

=Cruthen= [_Cruthen_].

=Cullan= [_Culand_].

=Cu-cullin= [_Cúchulaind_].

=Daerbra= [_Derbriu_].

=Daerdra= [_Derdriu_].

The =Dagda= [_In Dagda_].

Nine =Dahmahs= [_nói n-Dámaig_].

Nine =Daigiths= [_nói n-Daigith_].

=Dawra son of Feeacna= [_Dára mac Fiachnai_].

=Dawthy= [_Dathí_].

=Dec´-tor-a= [_Dechtíre_].

Ten =Delbaes= [_deich n-Delbaith_].

=Dess= [_Dess_: explained in a gloss to mean _Dia_, “God.”]

=Dōha son of Mahga= [_Dóche mac Magach_].

=Domnall= [_Domnall_].

=Donn of Cooley= [_Dond Cualnge_].

Six =Dooahs= [_sé Duaich_].

=Doo Sanglenn= [_Dubh Sainglend_].

=Dorndoll= [_Dorndoll_].

=Duffa Dael= [_Dubthach Dóel_].

Six =Dungalls= [_Sé Dungail_].

Two =Eckells= [_Dá Éicell_].

=Ecket= [_Ecet_].

=Edarcool son of Feda and Leth´-rinny= [_Etarcumul mac Feda ocus

Lethrnini_].

=Ella= [_Éle_].

=Emer= [_Emer_].

=Erc= [_Ercc_].

=Err= [_Err_].

=Esorb= [_Esorb_].

=Ethna= [_Ethne_].

=Etty= [_Eitte_].

=Faebur= [_Faebur_].

=Faer´-a-dah= [_Feradach_].

=Faer-bay´ son of Baet´-an= [_Fer báeth mac Baetain_].

=Faer-bay´ son of Faer-bend´= [_Fer báeth mac Fir bend_].

=Faer-daet´ son of Dăm´-an= [_Fer dét mac Damáin_].

=Faer-dee´-ah son of Dăm-an= [_Fer diad mac Damáin_].

=Faer-lō-ga= [_Fer loga_].

=Fann´-la= [_Faindle_].

=Faylim= [_Feidlimid_].

=Faylimy= [_Feidlimid_].

=Fedelm= [_Feidelm_].

=Fed´-il-mid= [_Fedlimid_, _Feidilmid_].

Ten =Fee´-acs= [_Deich Féic_].

=Fee´-ac-na= [_Fiachna_].

=Fee´-a-ha= [_Fiacha_].

=Fee´-al= [_Fíal_].

=Fehan= [_Fethan_].

=Fergus son of Leddy= [_Fergus mac Leti_].

=Fergus the son of Roy the son of Yōhee Lenny= [_Fergus mac Roeich meic

Echdach Lenni_].

=Findabair= [_Findabair_].

=Find-benn´-a= [_Findbennach_].

=Findian= [_Finnén_].

=Fĭnd-more´= [_Find mór_].

=Finguin= [_Fingin_].

=Finn the son of Ross the Red= [_Find mac Rosa Ruaid_].

=Finn´-caem= [_Findcoem_].

=Finn-ha Faer-bend´= [_Findchad Fer bend_].

=Fintan= [_Fintan_].

=Fohair= [_Feochair_].

=Fohnam= [_Fochnam_].

=Foill= [_Fóill_].

=Foll-oon´= [_Follomain_].

=Foorbee Faer benn= [_Furbaide Fer bend_]

=Forgall Mona= [_Forgall Monach_].

Four =Fotas= [_Cethri Fotai_].

=Frae the son of Eedath= [_Froech mac Idaith_].

Four =Furacars= [_Cethri Furachair_].

=Germanus= [_German_].

=Glass the son of Delga= [_Glass mac Delga_].

=Ibbur= [_Iubar_].

=Illann Finn= [_Illann Find_].

=Ill´-i-ah= [_Iliach_].

=Imha= [_Imchad_].

=Inguen= [_Ingen_].

=Inn´-yel= [_Innell_].

=Ivor= [_Ibar_].

Two =Kahlas= [_Da Chaladh_].

=Keear= [_Cíar_].

=Keen´-bĭlĭ= [_Cáinbili_].

Two =Keers= [_Dá Chír_].

=Kĕ´-hern= [_Cethern_].

=Keltar the son of Oo´-hĭder= [_Celtchar mac Uthecair_].

Five =Kermans= [_Cóic Cermain_].

=Ket the son of Mahga= [_Cet mac Magach_].

=Kieran= [_Ciaran_].

=Laeg son of Ree-angowra= [_Lóeg mac Riangabra_].

=Laer´-ĭny= [_Lairine_].

=Laery= [_Lóegaire_].

=Lath Gobla= [_Lath Gaiblie_].

=Lath son of Daw-brō´= [_Lath mac Da Bro_].

=Lawry Ling-sha= [_Labhraidh Loingseach_].

=Leddi= [_Leiti_].

=Leea Maha= [_Liath Macha_].

=Lewy son of Nōs son of Alamac= [_Lugaid mac Nois mac Alamaic_].

=Lewy son of Solmoy= [_Lugaid mac Solamaig_].

=Lō´-har= [_Lóthar_].

=Lōk son of Emonis= [_Lóch mac Emonis_, L.U. 74ᵇ9].

=Long= [_Long_].

=Loo son of Ethlenn= [_Lug mac Ethlend_].

=Looan= [_Lúan_].

=Looath= [_Luath_].

Two =Looees= [_Da Lui_].

=Low´-er-cam= [_Leborcham_].

Three =Lussens= [_Trí Lussin_].

=Mac Roth= [_Mac Roth_].

=Maccorb= [_Maccorb_].

=Maellia= [_Meille_].

=Maev= [_Medb_].

=Maha daughter of Sanrith son of Imba= [_Macha ingen Sainrith mac

Imbaith_, L.L. 126ᵃ13].

=Mahn´-ya Ath-roo´-il= [_Mane Athremail_].

=Mahn´-ya Con´-da-gau Illy= [_Mane Condagaib uile_].

=Mahn´-ya Math-roo´-il= [_Mane Mathremail_].

=Mahn´-ya Mō-aepert= [_Mane Moepert_].

=Mahn´-ya Meen´-gar= [_Mane Mingor_].

=Mahn´-ya More´-gar= [_Mane Mórgor_].

=Mahn´-ya Toi= [_Mane Tái_].

=Manannawn= [_Mannanán_].

=Marc= [_Marc_].

=Mar-vawn´= [_Marbhan_].

=Mawta Murrisc= [_Máta Murisc_].

=Mend son of Sal-colg´-an= [_Mend mac Salcholgan_].

=Mess Lahan= [_Meslethan_].

=Mess Leea= [_Mesláighe_].

=Mess Linny= [_Meslinni_].

=Mil= [_Mil_].

=Milhy= [_Muilchi_].

=Moo´-gawn= [_Mugain_].

The =More-reega daughter of Ernmas= [_In Mórrígu ingen Ernmais_].

=Mu-gar´-ny= [_Mugairne_].

Eight =Mullahs= [_Ocht Mulaig_].

=Munn-row´-er son of Guerkind= [_Munremur mac Gerrcind_].

=Mur´-i-dah= [_Muridach_].

=Nahta Scaena= [_Nechta Scene_].

=Nath-corp´-a= [_Nathcoirpthe_, L.U. 70ᵃ12].

=Nath-crant´-il= [_Nathcrantail_].

=Neesha= [_Nóisi_].

=Ōkill= [_Ochall_; gen. _Ochaill_].

=Oo´-a-ha= [_Uathach_].

=Oo´-al= [_Ual_].

Seven =Oo-arguses= [_secht nuárgusa_, L.U. 75ᵃ5].

=Oola= [_Uala_].

=Orlam= [_Orlám_; _Orláb_].

=Owen= [_Eogain_].

=Patrick= [_Patraic_].

=Raen= [_Ró-en_].

=Renc= [See L.L. 58ᵇ4. I think I ought to have read this word

_rechtaire_, “steward,” as Dr. Windisch does. I took it to be an

abbreviation for the name of the mother of Err and Innel, and made her

_Renc_].

=Riccny= [_Ruiccni_].

=Rind= [_Rind_].

Eight =Rindahs= [_Ocht Rindaich_].

=Rinn= [_Rinn_].

Seven =Rohas= [_Secht Rochaid_].

=Rōhee son of Fa´-ha-win= [_Reochaid mac Fathemain_].

Eight =Rohties= [_Ocht Rochtaid_].

=Roncu= [_Roncu_].

Seven =Ronawns= [_Secht Ronáin_].

=Rooad= [_Ruad_].

=Root= [_Rucht_].

=Ross the son of Feeacna= [_Ros mac Fiacna_].

=Roy= [_Rói_].

Seven =Ruras= [_Secht Rurthig_].

Six =Saxans= [_Sé Saxain_].

=Scandall son of Mahga= [_Scandal mac Magach_].

=Scaw= [_Scath_].

=Scawtha daughter of Aird´-gămă= [_Scathach ingen Airdgeme_, cf. Y.B.L.

214ᵃ4].

=Setanta= [_Setanta_].

=Sheen= [_Sin_].

=Shenca= [_Sencha_].

=Shen´-cawn= [_Senchan_].

=Shennel Oo-aha= [_Senal Uathach_].

=Skeeath= [_Sciath_].

=Skibbur= [_Sciuhar_].

=Soda= [_Soda_].

=Soo´-al-tim= [_Sualtaim_].

=Sreb-loo´-ah= [_Srebluath_].

=Srub Dawra son of Fedaig= [_Srub dare mac Fedaig_].

=Tethra= [gen. _Tetrach_].

=Thoo´-a-ha Dae Danann= [_Túatha Dé Danann_].

=Tin´-niuc= [_Tinniuc_].

=Tinny son of Conrig Cass= [_Tinndi mac Conrach Cais_].

=Toohal son of Nahta= [_Tuachall mac Nechtain_].

=Trescath= [_Trescad_].

=Triath= [_Triath_].

=Ultonians= [_Ulaid_].

=Ul´-becawn= [_Ulbecan_].

=Weefa= [_Aiffe_].

=Yōhee Bec= [_Eochaid Bec_].

=Yōhee Fayla= [_Eochaid Feidlech_].

APPENDIX D

THE PRINCIPAL SOURCES FROM WHICH THE NARRATIVE HAS BEEN DRAWN

THE FINDING OF THE TÁIN

1. _Do fallsigud tána bó cualṅge_, “The revealing of the Táin bo

Cualṅge.” L.L. 245ᵇ3-42.

2. _Imtheacht na Tromdháime, Ina bh-foillsighthear cionas do fuaras an

Táin ar tús_, 7c. “The journeying of the burdensome learned men, in which

it is revealed how the Táin was first found,” &c. Oss. vol. v.

3. The version of the Revealing of the Táin in Egerton 1782, fol. 87ᵇ.

Printed in Archiv. iii. 3.

4. The version of the Revealing of the Táin, MS. D. 4. 2 (R.I.A.) fol.

49ᵇ2. Printed in Archiv. iii. 4.

[These four versions differ very much from each other.]

5. “Lives of the Saints from the Book of Lismore,” edited by Dr. Whitley

Stokes, Oxford, 1890.

6. “Life of St. Kieran of Saighir.” Silv. Gad.

BOOK I

1. T.B.C.; L.L.

2. _De chophur in da muccide_, “of the Generation (?) of the two

Swineherds.” L.L. 246ᵃ-247ᵃ. Also the Egerton Text, edited by Windisch,

I.T., Dritte Serie, 1 Heft.

3. _Ferchuitred Medba._ “Maev’s Three Husbands,” Rawlinson MS. B 512. [I

made a transcript of this in the Bodleian several years ago.]

4. _Cath Boinde._ “The Battle of the Boyne,” Book of Lecan, 351ᵇ-353ᵃ, a

text almost identical with _Ferchuitred Medba_. It has been edited by Mr.

Joseph O’Neill, in _Ériu_ ii. 173.

In causing the Druid to give the account of the transmigrations of the

swine-herds, and in causing Maev to be the narrator of her own youthful

history, I merely adopt the characteristic Gaelic device for introducing

episodes from the past, the same device which is used in the texts of the

Táin itself, where the three distinguished exiles from Ulster are made to

relate the boyish exploits of Cucullin.

BOOK II

1. _Cid dia mboi loṅges mac nUsnig._ “What caused the exile of the Sons

of Usna?” L.L. 259ᵇ-261ᵇ. This text has been edited by Dr. Windisch,

I.T., first series.

2. _Oided mac nUisnig._ “The Tragic Deaths of the Sons of Usna,” edited

by Dr. Stokes, I.T., Zweite serie, 2 Heft.

3. _Déirdre_, edited by Dr. Douglas Hyde from a manuscript in the Belfast

Museum, Zeitschrift für Celtische Philologie, vol. ii.

4. _The Glenmasan Manuscript_, Advocates’ Library, Edinburgh. This MS.

is invaluable for the account which it gives of the events that occurred

between the deaths of the sons of Usna and the opening of the Táin. Some

years ago I began to make a copy of it; but I was happily saved from

continuing this difficult labour by its gradual appearance, edited by

Professor Mackinnon, in the _Celtic Review_.

5. _Caithréim Conghail Cláiringnig_, “Martial Career of Conghal

Cláiringhneach,” edited by P. M. MacSweeney, M.A., I.T.S., vol. v. This

tells us also of the “martial career” of Fergus in the days before the

exile of the Sons of Usna.

It is necessary to know the story of the children of Usna in order to

understand the position of Fergus in the Táin. In supposing Lowercam to

be exiled in Connaught, and in making her the narrator of the story, I

again merely adopt the characteristic Gaelic device.

BOOK III

1. T.B.C.; L.L.

2. T.B.C.; L.U.

3. _Cóir Anmann_, “Fitness of Names,” edited by Dr. Whitley Stokes, I.T.,

Dritte Serie, 2 Heft.

4. _Ferchuitred Medba_ and _Cath Boinde_, as in Book I.

5. _Táin bo Fraech_, “The Driving of the Kine of Frae,” L.L. 248ᵃ-252ᵇ.

6. _Noinden Ulad cid di-atá_, “What was the origin of the ‘noinden’ of

Ulster?” L.L. 125ᵇ-126ᵃ.

In making the Druid the narrator of this tale I again, as in Books I and

II, adopt the Gaelic method. A knowledge of the tale is essential to the

proper understanding of the _Táin_.

BOOK IV

1. T.B.C.; L.U.

2. T.B.C.; L.L.

The description of the making of Maev’s camp was suggested by a passage

in _Cath Mhuighe Léana_, “The Battle of Magh Léana”; and the account of

the harpers and their music was suggested by _Táin bo Fraech_.

BOOK V

1. T.B.C; L.L.

2. T.B.C.; L.U.

BOOKS VI AND VII

(See Appendix E.)

BOOK VIII

1. T.B.C; L.L.

2. T.B.C; L.U.

The account of “Laeg’s one combat on the Táin” was taken from the MS.

marked H. 2. 17 in Trinity College, Dublin.

The account of Cucullin’s meeting with the More-reega is from the _Táin

bo Regamna_, edited by Dr. Windisch, I.T., Zweite Serie, 2 Heft.

BOOK IX

1. T.B.C.; L.L.

2. T.B.C.; L.U.

BOOK X

1. T.B.C.; L.L.

2. T.B.C.; L.U.

I took the account of the combat of Laeriny from the MS. marked Addendum

18748 in the British Museum. The same narrative from Egerton 93 is

printed by Nettlau, Rev. Celt. xiv, 261.

BOOK XI

1. T.B.C.; L.L.

2. T.B.C.; L.U.

For the account given of himself by Loo the son of Ethlenn see “The

Second Battle of Moytura,” edited by Dr. Whitley Stokes, Rev. Celt. xii;

and for the substance of Maev’s speech to Fergus, see the Glenmasan MS.

BOOK XII

1. T.B.C.; L.L.

2. T.B.C.; L.U.

3. “The Ferdiad Episode in the Táin Bo Cuailnge,” by Nettlau, Rev. Celt.

x and xi.

BOOK XIII

1. T.B.C.; L.L.

2. T.B.C.; L.U.

3. T.B.C.; Y.B.L.

For the description of Cooroi see the passage in _Fled Bricrend_, L.U.

110ᵇ44-111ᵃ3.

For _Taltin_, see passage in _Senchas na relec_, “History of the

Cemeteries,” L.U. 51ᵇ1; also L.U. 38ᵇ34.

For _Brigit_, see _Corm_, _s.v._ _Brigit_; also Rennes, section 159; also

L.L. 170ᵇ55 and L.L. 187ᶜ55.

BOOK XIV

1. T.B.C.; L.L.

2. T.B.C.; Y.B.L.

BOOK XV

1. T.B.C.; L.L.

2. T.B.C.; Y.B.L.

For the Battle-castles see Windisch, _Táin_, pp. 785-803, where a long

extract from the Stowe MS. is given.

For the idea of Maev’s going three times round the hosts see a passage in

“The Battle of Magh Rath.”

For the substance of Maev’s first speech to Fergus see the

above-mentioned extract from the Stowe MS., also the Glenmasan MS., &c.

For the Three Waves see C.R.R.

For the comparison of Cucullin to St. Columcille see the “Life of Colum

cille,” edited by Dr. Henebry.

For the sword of Cucullin see the “Decision as to Cormac’s sword,” edited

by Dr. Whitley Stokes, I.T. Dritte Serie, 1 Heft.

For the cry of the striplings see Rennes, section 120.

For Conor’s gloom and depression see opening of C.R.R.

For the wedding of Emer, see close of T.E.

For the death of Cucullin (only alluded to here, since it does not come

within the scope of the narrative) see the text abridged from L.L. by Dr.

Whitley Stokes, Rev. Celt. iii, 175.

THE WRITING OF THE TÁIN

1. The same materials as in “The Finding of the Táin.”

2. _Senchas na relec_, “History of the Cemeteries,” L.U. 50ᵇ-52ᵃ.

3. _Aided Nathi ocus a adnacol_, “The Violent Death and the Burial of

Dathi,” L.U. 38.

4. “Christian Inscriptions in the Irish Language,” edited by Petrie.

5. “Life of Colum cille,” edited by Dr. Henebry.

APPENDIX E

NOTES ON BOOKS VI AND VII

It is necessary to know the story of Cucullin’s training to arms, in

order that we may understand his relationship to his fellow-pupils in

Books X and XII.

Most writers who in recent times have touched upon this story have

assumed that the place of his training was the Isle of Skye, in Scotland.

The treatment of the subject which I present in Book VII will, therefore,

be regarded by some readers as a new departure, and one which requires

justification.

The story of his training is found in two quite different versions.

One version forms a part of the _Tochmarc Emire_ [T.E.], “The Wooing

of Emer.” An account of the various MSS. in which the _Tochmarc Emire_

has come down to us is given to us by Dr. Kuno Meyer, Rev. Celt., vol.

xi. I have used chiefly the Harleian text, printed by Dr. Meyer in the

_Zeitschrift für Celtische Philologie_, vol. iii. The other version

of his training is found in the _Foghlaimh Conchulaind_ [F.C.], “The

Education of Cucullin,” a tract which, so far as I know, has not yet been

edited. I have worked from a copy which is in the R.I.A. This version

exists now only in rather modern MSS.; but its substance is ancient. It

represents the version of Cucullin’s training which is presupposed both

in the L.L. and L.U. recensions of the Táin; it is the version which

tells of the solemn binding together of her pupils by their teacher,

Scawtha.

Now, in F.C. Cucullin is trained, not in Skye, but in the east of

Europe—in Scythia, and in “Great Greece” [_san nGréig mhóir_]. Scythia

was a vague term for a region extending from what is now Hungary,

eastward, far into Asia. In Ptolemy Scythia is made to cover a vast

expanse. The name occurs frequently in our old Irish literature. “Great

Greece,” I think, was an equally vague term for the countries in which

Greek was spoken, and which bordered on Scythia. It is to be remembered

that at the time of the Táin the Celts were found over a great part of

central Europe, and probably in “Scythia”; and they still spoke their own

language. That there should have been frequent intercourse between them

and the Celts of Ireland, and that our young nobles should have gone from

Ireland to get a warlike training amongst the Celts of the Continent, is

only what we might have expected. Compare various passages in Professor

Bury’s “Life of St. Patrick,” concerning the frequency of intercourse in

early times between Ireland and the continent of Europe. The tradition of

this intercourse has never died out in Irish literature.

In T.E., which contains the first-named version of Cucullin’s training,

if we look closely into it, we find the same continental tradition. Owing

to their close likeness, it was very easy to confuse the Gaelic words for

Scotland and for the Alps. I believe that the _Alpi_ of T.E. means the

Alps. The land of Scawtha was _fri Alpi allaanoir_, “eastward from Alpi.”

That would not answer to the position of Skye with regard to Scotland;

but it would answer very well to the position of Scythia with regard to

the Alps.

In the text of the Táin itself we have references to Cucullin’s training

in the East. One of these is at L.L. 69ᵃ6, where he is said to have gone

to the mountains of Armenia, and also to have brought slaughter amongst

the _Cichloiste_ (read _-loiscthe_). _Cichloiscthe_ is the Irish word for

Amazons. It occurs in Middle-Irish translations from the classics, and

it means “Burnt-breasts.” The classical “myths” concerning the Amazons,

and the apparently quite independent Irish tradition of warrior-women in

Scythia and “Great Greece,” are interesting in relation to each other.

Why should we suppose that such warrior-women did not really exist?

Other references in the text of the Táin are in the Germanus poem, L.L.

88ᵃ4-88ᵇ24. At Y.B.L. 37ᵇ51-2 we are told that the fortress of Germanus

was above the edge-borders of the _Muir Toirrian_, which, following Dr.

Stokes and others, I have rendered by “the Tyrrhene Sea.” But the _Muir

Toirrian_ really meant the whole Mediterranean. (Compare L.L. 3ᵃ23-28,

where Bráth, starting from somewhere in the East, sails along the length

of the _Muir Toirrian_ to Crete and Sicily, and finally to Spain.)

As to the whereabouts of _Lind Format_ I can offer no suggestion. In the

_Isles of the Athisech_ we might suspect an allusion to Athens; but it

seems doubtful whether the _n_ would have disappeared.

Did the later statements that Scawtha lived in the Isle of Skye arise

from a double confusion between the Irish words for Skye and for Scythia

on the one hand, and for Scotland and for the Alps on the other hand? Or

was there really an early and independent Scotland-tradition? Perhaps

some Scottish Gael will work out the subject.

The sources for Books VI and VII, besides the texts mentioned above,

are the L.L. text of the Táin, and “The Fer Diad episode of the Táin Bó

Cuailnge,” by Dr. M. Nettlau, in Rev. Celt. x. and xi.

I have chosen Faerdeeah as the teller of this tale in order that he may

become known to us as the friend of Cucullin. From the artistic point of

view the great defect in the account of the combat between Cucullin and

Faerdeeah, as it occurs in both the recensions of the Táin, is that in

one of the pair of combatants we have no previous interest.

I had completed the writing of Books VI and VII, and prepared my notes on

them, before I had the gratification of seeing that on the question of

the geography implied in T.E., Dr. Windisch is in agreement with me. See

his _Táin_, pp. 436-437.

Dr. Whitley Stokes allows me to have the great pleasure of saying that he

hopes some day to give us an edition of the _Foghlaimh Conchulaind_.

ABBREVIATIONS USED IN THE APPENDICES

=Ac. na Sen.= _Acallamh na Senórach_, edited by Dr. Whitley Stokes.

Irische Texte, Vierte Serie, 1 Heft.

=An. Ulster.= _Annals of Ulster_, edited by W. M. Hennessy.

=Archiv.= _Archiv für Celtische Lexicographie_, herausgegeben

von Whitley Stokes und Kuno Meyer.

=B.R.= _Book of Rights_, edited by O’Donovan, 1847.

=Corm.= _Cormac’s Glossary_, edited by Dr. Whitley Stokes.

Calcutta, 1868.

=C.R.R.= _Cath Ruis na Ríg for Bóinn_, edited for the Royal

Irish Academy by Edmund Hogan, S.J. Dublin, 1892.

=F.C.= _Foghlaimh Conchulaind._

=F.M.= _The Annals of the Kingdom of Ireland by the Four

Masters_, edited by O’Donovan.

=Fél.= _The Calendar of Oengus_, edited by Dr. Whitley

Stokes, 1880.

=G. and G.= _The War of the Gaedhil with the Gaill_, edited by

James Henthorne Todd, D.D. 1867.

=I.T.= _Irische Texte_, edited by Stokes and Windisch.

=I.T.S.= _Irish Texts Society._

=Laws= _Ancient Laws of Ireland._

=Lib. Hym.= _The Irish Liber Hymnorum_, edited for the Henry

Bradshaw Society by Drs. Bernard and Atkinson.

=L.L.= The lithographic facsimile of the Book of Leinster,

published by the Royal Irish Academy in 1880.

=L.U.= The lithographic facsimile of the _Leabhar na

h-Uidhri_, published by the Royal Irish Academy

in 1870.

=M. and C.= _Manners and Customs of the Ancient Irish_, by Eugene

O’Curry. 1873.

=O’Brien.= _O’Brien’s Irish-English Dictionary._ Dublin, 1832.

=O’Lav.= _An Historical Account of the Diocese of Down and

Connor_, by the Rev. James O’Laverty. Dublin, 1878.

=Oss.= Transactions of the Ossianic Society. Dublin,

1854-1861.

=Reeves.= _Ecclesiastical Antiquities of Down, Connor, and

Dromore_, by the Rev. William Reeves. 1847.

=Reeves, Col.= Adamnan’s _Life of St. Columba_, edited by William

Reeves, D.D. 1857.

=Rennes.= “The Prose Tales of the Rennes Dinsenchas,” edited

by Dr. Whitley Stokes. _Revue Celtique_, vols.

xv. and xvi.

=R.I.A.= Royal Irish Academy.

=Rev. Celt.= _Revue Celtique._

=Silv. Gad.= _Silva Gadelica_, by S. H. O’Grady. 1892.

=Soc. Hist.= _A Social History of Ancient Ireland_, by P. W.

Joyce. 1903.

=T.B.C.= Text of the _Táin Bó Cúalnge_.

=T.E.= _Tochmarc Emire la Coinculaind_, edited by Dr. Kuno

Meyer. _Zeitschrift für Celtische Philologie_,

vol. iii.

=Trip. Life.= _The Tripartite Life of St. Patrick_, edited by Dr.

Whitley Stokes. 1887.

=Windisch, Táin.= The _Táin Bó Cualnge_, edited, with German

translation, by Dr. Windisch. Leipzig, 1905.

=Y.B.L.= Photographic facsimile of the Yellow Book of Lecan,

published by the Royal Irish Academy, 1896.

=Zimmer, K.S.= Zimmer, _Keltische Studien_.