THE FIONN SAGA.
The most prominent characters in the Fionn saga, after the death of
Fionn's father Cumal, are Fionn, his son Oisin, his grandson Oscar, his
nephew Diarmaid with his _ball-seire_, or "beauty-spot," which no woman
could resist; Fergus famed for wisdom and eloquence; Caoilte mac Ronan,
the swift; Conan, the comic character of the saga; Goll mac Morna, the
slayer of Cumal, but later the devoted friend of Fionn, besides a host
of less important personages. Their doings, like those of the heroes of
saga and epos everywhere, are mainly hunting, fighting, and love-making.
They embody much of the Celtic character--vivacity, valour, kindness,
tenderness, as well as boastfulness and fiery temper. Though dating from
pagan times, the saga throws little light upon pagan beliefs, but
reveals much concerning the manners of the period. Here, as always in
early Celtdom, woman is more than a mere chattel, and occupies a
comparatively high place. The various parts of the saga, like those of
the Finnish _Kalevala_, always existed separately, never as one complete
epos, though always bearing a certain relation to each other. Lonnrot,
in Finland, was able, by adding a few connecting links of his own, to
give unity to the _Kalevala_, and had MacPherson been content to do this
for the Fionn saga, instead of inventing, transforming, and serving up
the whole in the manner of the sentimental eighteenth century, what a
boon would he have conferred on Celtic literature. The various parts of
the saga belong to different centuries and come from different authors,
all, however, imbued with the spirit of the Fionn tradition.
A date cannot be given to the beginnings of the saga, and additions have
been made to it even down to the eighteenth century, Michael Comyn's
poem of Oisin in Tir na n-Og being as genuine a part of it as any of the
earlier pieces. Its contents are in part written, but much more oral.
Much of it is in prose, and there is a large poetic literature of the
ballad kind, as well as _Märchen_ of the universal stock made purely
Celtic, with Fionn and the rest of the heroic band as protagonists. The
saga embodies Celtic ideals and hopes; it was the literature of the
Celtic folk on which was spent all the riches of the Celtic imagination;
a world of dream and fancy into which they could enter at all times and
disport themselves. Yet, in spite of its immense variety, the saga
preserves a certain unity, and it is provided with a definite framework,
recounting the origin of the heroes, the great events in which they were
concerned, their deaths or final appearances, and the breaking up of the
Fionn band.
The historic view of the Fians is taken by the annalists, by Keating,
O'Curry, Dr. Joyce, and Dr. Douglas Hyde.[506] According to this view,
they were a species of militia maintained by the Irish kings for the
support of the throne and the defence of the country. From Samhain to
Beltane they were quartered on the people, and from Beltane to Samhain
they lived by hunting. How far the people welcomed this billeting, we
are not told. Their method of cooking the game which they hunted was one
well known to all primitive peoples. Holes were dug in the ground; in
them red-hot stones were placed, and on the stones was laid venison
wrapped in sedge. All was then covered over, and in due time the meat
was done to a turn. Meanwhile the heroes engaged in an elaborate
toilette before sitting down to eat. Their beds were composed of
alternate layers of brushwood, moss, and rushes. The Fians were divided
into _Catha_ of three thousand men, each with its commander, and
officers to each hundred, each fifty, and each nine, a system not unlike
that of the ancient Peruvians. Each candidate for admission to the band
had to undergo the most trying ordeals, rivalling in severity those of
the American Indians, and not improbably genuine though exaggerated
reminiscences of actual tests of endurance and agility. Once admitted he
had to observe certain _geasa_ or "tabus," e.g. not to choose his wife
for her dowry like other Celts, but solely for her good manners, not to
offer violence to a woman, not to flee when attacked before less than
nine warriors, and the like.
All this may represent some genuine tradition with respect to a warrior
band, with many exaggerations in details and numbers. Some of its
outstanding heroes may have had names derived from or corresponding to
those of the heroes of an existing saga. But as time went on they became
as unhistorical as their ideal prototypes; round their names
crystallised floating myths and tales; things which had been told of the
saga heroes were told of them; their names were given to the personages
of existing folk-tales. This might explain the great divergence between
the "historical" and the romantic aspects of the saga as it now exists.
Yet we cannot fail to see that what is claimed as historical is full of
exaggeration, and, in spite of the pleading of Dr. Hyde and other
patriots, little historic fact can be found in it. Even if this exists,
it is the least important part of the saga. What is important is that
part--nine-tenths of the whole--which "is not true because it cannot be
true." It belongs to the region of the supernatural and the unreal. But
personages, nine-tenths of whose actions belong to this region, must
bear the same character themselves, and for that reason are all the more
interesting, especially when we remember that the Celts firmly believed
in them and in their exploits. A Fionn myth arose as all myths do,
increasing as time went on, and the historical nucleus, if it ever
existed, was swamped and lost. Throughout the saga the Fians are more
than mere mortals, even in those very parts which are claimed as
historical. They are giants; their story "bristles with the
supernatural"; they are the ideal figures of Celtic legend throwing
their gigantic shadows upon the dim and misty background of the past. We
must therefore be content to assume that whether personages called
Fionn, Oisin, Diarmaid, or Conan, ever existed, what we know of them now
is purely mythical.
Bearing in mind that they are the cherished heroes of popular fancy in
Ireland and the Scottish Highlands, we have now to inquire whether they
were Celtic in origin. We have seen that the Celts were a conquering
people in Ireland, bringing with them their own religion and mythology,
their own sagas and tales reflected now in the mythological and
Cúchulainn cycles, which found a local habitation in Ireland. Cúchulainn
was the hero of a saga which flourished more among the aristocratic and
lettered classes than among the folk, and there are few popular tales
about him. But it is among the folk that the Fionn saga has always been
popular, and for every peasant who could tell a story of Cúchulainn a
thousand could tell one of Fionn. Conquerors often adopt beliefs,
traditions, and customs of the aboriginal folk, after hostilities have
ceased, and if the pre-Celtic people had a popular hero and a saga
concerning him, it is possible that in time it was accepted by the Celts
or by the lower classes among them. But in the process it must have been
completely Celticised, like the aborigines themselves; to its heroes
were given Celtic names, or they may have been associated with existing
Celtic personages like Cumal, and the whole saga was in time adapted to
the conceptions and legendary history of the Celts. Thus we might
account for the fact that it has so largely remained without admixture
with the mythological and Cúchulainn cycles, though its heroes are
brought into relation with the older gods. Thus also we might account
for its popularity as compared with the Cúchulainn saga among the
peasantry in whose veins must flow so much of the aboriginal blood both
in Ireland and the Highlands. In other words, it was the saga of a
non-Celtic people occupying both Ireland and Scotland. If Celts from
Western Europe occupied the west of Scotland at an early date, they may
have been so few in number that their own saga or sagas died out. Or if
the Celtic occupation of the West Highlands originated first from
Ireland, the Irish may have been unable to impose their Cúchulainn saga
there, or if they themselves had already adopted the Fionn saga and
found it again in the Highlands, they would but be the more attached to
what was already localised there. This would cut the ground from the
theory that the Fionn saga was brought to Scotland from Ireland, and it
would account for its popularity in the Highlands, as well as for the
fact that many Fionn stories are attached to Highland as well as to
Irish localities, while many place-names in both countries have a Fian
origin. Finally, the theory would explain the existence of so many
_Märchen_ about Fionn and his men, so few about Cúchulainn.
Returning to the theory of the historic aspect of the Fians, it should
be noted that, while, when seen through the eyes of the annalists, the
saga belongs to a definite historical period, when viewed by itself it
belongs to a mythic age, and though the Fians are regarded as champions
of Ireland, their foes are usually of a supernatural kind, and they
themselves move in a magic atmosphere. They are also brought into
connection with the unhistoric Tuatha Dé Danann; they fight with them or
for them; they have amours with or wed their women; and some of the gods
even become members of the Fian band. Diarmaid was the darling of the
gods Oengus and Manannan, and in his direst straits was assisted by the
former. In all this we are in the wonderland of myth, not the _terra
firma_ of history. There is a certain resemblance between the Cúchulainn
and Fionn sagas, but no more than that which obtains between all sagas
everywhere. Both contain similar incidents, but these are the stock
episodes of universal saga belief, fitted to the personages of
individual sagas. Hence we need not suppose with Professor Windisch that
the mythic incidents of the Fionn saga are derived from the Cúchulainn
cycle.
The personages against whom Fionn and his men fight show the mythic
nature of the saga. As champions of Leinster they fight the men of
Ulster and Connaught, but they also war against oversea invaders--the
Lochlanners. While Lochlann may mean any land beyond the sea, like the
Welsh _Llychlyn_ it probably meant "the fabulous land beneath the lakes
or the waves of the sea," or simply the abode of hostile, supernatural
beings. Lochlanners would thus be counterparts of the Fomorians, and the
conflicts of the Fians with them would reflect old myths. But with the
Norse invasions, the Norsemen became the true Lochlanners, against whom
Fionn and his men fight as Charlemagne fought Muhammadans--a sheer
impossibility. Professor Zimmer, however, supposes that the Fionn saga
took shape during the Norse occupation from the ninth century onwards.
Fionn is half Norse, half Irish, and equivalent to Caittil Find, who
commanded the apostate Irish in the ninth century, while Oisin and Oscar
are the Norse Asvin and Asgeirr. But it is difficult to understand why
one who was half a Norseman should become the chosen hero of the Celts
in the very age in which Norsemen were their bitter enemies, and why
Fionn, if of Norse origin, fights against Lochlanners, i.e. Norsemen. It
may also be inquired why the borrowing should have affected the saga
only, not the myths of the gods. No other Celtic scholar has given the
slightest support to this brilliant but audacious theory. On the other
hand, if the saga has Norse affinities, and if it is, in origin,
pre-Celtic, these may be sought in an earlier connection of Ireland with
Scandinavia in the early Bronze Age. Ireland had a flourishing
civilisation then, and exported beautiful gold ornaments to Scandinavia,
where they are still found in Bronze Age deposits.[507] This flourishing
civilisation was overwhelmed by the invasion of the Celtic barbarians.
But if the Scandinavians borrowed gold and artistic decorations from
Ireland, and if the Fionn saga or part of it was already in existence,
why should they not have borrowed some of its incidents, or why, on the
other hand, should not some episodes have found their way from the north
to Ireland? We should also consider, however, that similar incidents may
have been evolved in both countries on similar lines and quite
independently.
The various contents of the saga can only be alluded to in the briefest
manner. Fionn's birth-story belongs to the well-known "Expulsion and
Return" formula, applied to so many heroes of saga and folk-tale, but
highly elaborated in his case at the hands of the annalists. Thus his
father Cumal, uncle of Conn the Hundred Fighter, 122-157 A.D., wished to
wed Muirne, daughter of Conn's chief druid, Tadg. Tadg refused, knowing
that through this marriage he would lose his ancestral seat. Cumal
seized Muirne and married her, and the king, on Tadg's appeal, sent an
army against him. Cumal was slain; Muirne fled to his sister, and gave
birth to Demni, afterwards known as Fionn. Perhaps in accordance with
old matriarchal usage, Fionn's descent through his mother is emphasised,
while he is related to the ancient gods, Tadg being son of Nuada. This
at once points to the mythical aspect of the saga. Cumal may be
identical with the god Camulos. In a short time, Fionn, now a marauder
and an outlaw, appeared at Conn's Court, and that same night slew one of
the Tuatha Déa, who came yearly and destroyed the palace. For this he
received his rightful heritage--the leadership of the Fians, formerly
commanded by Cumal.[508] Another incident of Fionn's youth tells how he
obtained his "thumb of knowledge." The eating of certain "salmon of
knowledge" was believed to give inspiration, an idea perhaps derived
from earlier totemistic beliefs. The bard Finnéces, having caught one of
the coveted salmon, set his pupil Fionn to cook it, forbidding him to
taste it. But as he was turning the fish Fionn burnt his thumb and
thrust it into his mouth, thus receiving the gift of inspiration.
Hereafter he had only to suck his thumb in order to obtain secret
information.[509] In another story the inspiration is already in his
thumb, as Samson's strength was in his hair, but the power is also
partly in his tooth, under which, after ritual preparation, he has to
place his thumb and chew it.[510]
Fionn had many wives and sweethearts, one of them, Saar, being mother of
Oisin. Saar was turned into a fawn by a Druid, and fled from Fionn's
house. Long after he found a beast-child in the forest and recognised
him as his son. He nourished him until his beast nature disappeared, and
called him Oisin, "little fawn." Round this birth legend many stories
sprang up--a sure sign of its popularity.[511] Oisin's fame as a poet
far excelled that of Fionn, and he became the ideal bard of the Gaels.
By far the most passionate and tragic story of the saga is that of
Diarmaid and Grainne, to whom Fionn was betrothed. Grainne put _geasa_
upon Diarmaid to elope with her, and these he could not break. They
fled, and for many days were pursued by Fionn, who at last overtook
them, but was forced by the Fians to pardon the beloved hero. Meanwhile
Fionn waited for his revenge. Knowing that it was one of Diarmaid's
_geasa_ never to hunt a wild boar, he invited him to the chase of the
boar of Gulban. Diarmaid slew it, and Fionn then bade him measure its
length with his foot. A bristle pierced his heel, and he fell down in
agony, beseeching Fionn to bring him water in his hand, for if he did
this he would heal him. In spite of repeated appeals, Fionn, after
bringing the water, let it drip from his hands. Diarmaid's brave soul
passed away, and on Fionn's character this dire blot was fixed for
ever.[512]
Other tales relate how several of the Fians were spirited away to the
Land beyond the Seas, how they were rescued, how Diarmaid went to Land
under Waves, and how Fionn and his men were entrapped in a Fairy Palace.
Of greater importance are those which tell the end of the Fian band.
This, according to the annalists, was the result of their exactions and
demands. Fionn was told by his wife, a wise woman, never to drink out of
a horn, but coming one day thirsty to a well, he forgot this tabu, and
so brought the end near. He encountered the sons of Uirgrenn, whom he
had slain, and in the fight with them he fell.[513] Soon after were
fought several battles, culminating in that of Gabhra in which all but a
few Fians perished. Among the survivors were Oisin and Caoilte, who
lingered on until the coming of S. Patrick. Caoilte remained on earth,
but Oisin, whose mother was of the _síd_ folk, went to fairyland for a
time, ultimately returning and joining S. Patrick's company.[514] But a
different version is given in the eighteenth century poem of Michael
Comyn, undoubtedly based on popular tales. Oisin met the Queen of Tir na
n-Og and went with her to fairyland, where time passed as a dream until
one day he stood on a stone against which she had warned him. He saw his
native land and was filled with home-sickness. The queen tried to
dissuade him, but in vain. Then she gave him a horse, warning him not to
set foot on Irish soil. He came to Ireland; and found it all changed.
Some puny people were trying in vain to raise a great stone, and begged
the huge stranger to help them. He sprang from his horse and flung the
stone from its resting-place. But when he turned, his horse was gone,
and he had become a decrepit old man. Soon after he met S. Patrick and
related the tale to him.
Of most of the tales preserved in twelfth to fifteenth century MSS. it
may be said that in essence they come down to us from a remote
antiquity, like stars pulsing their clear light out of the hidden depths
of space. Many of them exist as folk-tales, often wild and weird in
form, while some folk-tales have no literary parallels. Some are
_Märchen_ with members of the Fian band as heroes, and of these there
are many European parallels. But it is not unlikely that, as in the case
of the Cúchulainn cycle, the folk versions may be truer to the original
forms of the saga than the rounded and polished literary versions.
Whatever the Fians were in origin--gods, mythic heroes, or actual
personages--it is probable that a short _Heldensage_ was formed in early
times. This slowly expanded, new tales were added, and existing
_Märchen_ formulæ were freely made use of by making their heroes the
heroes of the saga. Then came the time when many of the tales were
written down, while later they were adapted to a scheme of Irish
history, the heroes becoming warriors of a definite historic period, or
perhaps connected with such warriors. But these heroes belonged to a
timeless world, whose margins are "the shore of old romance," and it was
as if they, who were not for an age but for all time, scorned to become
the puppets of the page of history.
The earliest evidence of the attitude of the ecclesiastical world to
these heroes is found in the _Agallamh na Senorach_, or "Colloquy of the
Ancients."[515] This may have been composed in the thirteenth century,
and its author knew scores of Fionn legends. Making use of the tradition
that Caoilte and Oisin had met S. Patrick, he makes Caoilte relate many
of the tales, usually in connection with some place-name of Fian origin.
The saint and his followers are amazed at the huge stature of the Fians,
but Patrick asperges them with holy water, and hosts of demons flee from
them. At each tale which Caoilte tells, the saint says, "Success and
benediction, Caoilte. All this is to us a recreation of spirit and of
mind, were it only not a destruction of devotion and a dereliction of
prayer." But presently his guardian angel appears, and bids him not only
listen to the tales but cause them to be written down. He and his
attendant clerics now lend a willing ear to the recital and encourage
the narrator with their applause. Finally, baptism is administered to
Caoilte and his men, and by Patrick's intercessions Caoilte's relations
and Fionn himself are brought out of hell. In this work the
representatives of paganism are shown to be on terms of friendliness
with the representatives of Christianity.
But in Highland ballads collected in the sixteenth century by the Dean
of Lismore, as well as in Irish ballads found in MSS. dating from the
seventeenth century onwards, the saint is a sour and intolerant cleric,
and the Fians are equally intolerant and blasphemous pagans. There is no
attempt at compromise; the saint rejoices that the Fian band are in
hell, and Oisin throws contempt on the God of the shaven priests. But
sometimes this contempt is mingled with humour and pathos. Were the
heroes of Oisin's band now alive, scant work would be made of the monks'
bells, books, and psalm-singing. It is true that the saint gives the
weary old man hospitality, but Oisin's eyes are blinded with tears as he
thinks of the departed glories of the Fians, and his ears are tormented
"by jangling bells, droning psalms, and howling clerics." These ballads
probably represent one main aspect of the attitude of the Church to
Celtic paganism. How, then, did the more generous _Colloquy_ come into
being? We must note first that some of the ballads have a milder tone.
Oisin is urged to accept the faith, and he prays for salvation. Probably
these represent the beginning of a reaction in favour of the old heroes,
dating from a time when the faith was well established. There was no
danger of a pagan revival, and, provided the Fians were Christianised,
it might be legitimate to represent them as heroic and noble. The
_Colloquy_ would represent the high-water mark of this reaction among
the lettered classes, for among the folk, to judge by popular tales, the
Fians had never been regarded in other than a favourable light. The
_Colloquy_ re-established the dignity of the Fian band in the eyes of
official Christianity. They are baptized or released from hell, and in
their own nature they are virtuous and follow lofty ideals. "Who or what
was it that maintained you in life?" asks Patrick. And Caoilte gives the
noble reply, "Truth that was in our hearts, and strength in our arms,
and fulfilment in our tongues." Patrick says of Fionn: "He was a king, a
seer, a poet, a lord with a manifold and great train; our magician, our
knowledgeable one, our soothsayer; all whatsoever he said was sweet with
him. Excessive, perchance, as ye deem my testimony of Fionn, although ye
hold that which I say to be overstrained, nevertheless, and by the King
that is above me, he was three times better still." Not only so, but
Caoilte maintains that Fionn and his men were aware of the existence of
the true God. They possessed the _anima naturaliter Christiana_. The
growing appreciation of a wider outlook on life, and possibly
acquaintance with the romances of chivalry, made the composition of the
_Colloquy_ possible, but, again, it may represent a more generous
conception of paganism existing from the time of the first encounter of
Christianity with it in Ireland.
The strife of creeds in Ireland, the old order changing, giving place to
new, had evidently impressed itself on the minds of Celtic poets and
romancers. It suggested itself to them as providing an excellent
"situation"; hence we constantly hear of the meeting of gods, demigods,
or heroes with the saints of the new era. Frequently they bow before the
Cross, they are baptized and receive the Christian verity, as in the
_Colloquy_ and in some documents of the Cúchulainn cycle. Probably no
other European folk-literature so takes advantage of just this
situation, this meeting of creeds, one old and ready to vanish away, the
other with all the buoyant freshness of youth.
Was MacPherson's a genuine Celtic epic unearthed by him and by no one
else? No mortal eye save his has ever seen the original, but no one who
knows anything of the contents of the saga can deny that much of his
work is based on materials collected by him. He knew some of the tales
and ballads current among the folk, possibly also some of the Irish MS.
versions. He saw that there was a certain unity among them, and he saw
that it was possible to make it more evident still. He fitted the
floating incidents into an epic framework, adding, inventing, altering,
and moulding the whole into an English style of his own. Later he seems
to have translated the whole into Gaelic. He gave his version to the
world, and found himself famous, but he gave it as the genuine
translation of a genuine Celtic epic. Here was his craft; here he was
the "charlatan of genius." His genius lay in producing an epic which
people were willing to read, and in making them believe it to be not his
work but that of the Celtic heroic age. Any one can write an epic, but
few can write one which thousands will read, which men like
Chateaubriand, Goethe, Napoleon, Byron, and Coleridge will admire and
love, and which will, as it were, crystallise the aspirations of an age
weary with classical formalism. MacPherson introduced his readers to a
new world of heroic deeds, romantic adventure, deathless love, exquisite
sentiments sentimentally expressed. He changed the rough warriors and
beautiful but somewhat unabashed heroines of the saga into sentimental
personages, who suited the taste of an age poised between the bewigged
and powdered formalism of the eighteenth century, and the outburst of
new ideals which was to follow. His _Ossian_ is a cross between Pope's
_Homer_ and Byron's _Childe Harold_. His heroes and heroines are not on
their native heath, and are uncertain whether to mince and strut with
Pope or to follow nature with Rousseau's noble savages and Saint
Pierre's Paul and Virginia. The time has gone when it was heresy to cast
doubt upon the genuineness of MacPherson's epic, but if any one is still
doubtful, let him read it and then turn to the existing versions,
ballads, and tales. He will find himself in a totally different
atmosphere, and will recognise in the latter the true epic note--the
warrior's rage and the warrior's generosity, dire cruelty yet infinite
tenderness, wild lust yet also true love, a world of magic
supernaturalism, but an exact copy of things as they were in that
far-off age. The barbarism of the time is in these old tales--deeds
which make one shiver, customs regarding the relations of the sexes now
found only among savages, social and domestic arrangements which are
somewhat lurid and disgusting. And yet, withal, the note of bravery, of
passion, of authentic life is there; we are held in the grip of genuine
manhood and womanhood. MacPherson gives a picture of the Ossianic age as
he conceived it, an age of Celtic history that "never was on sea or
land." Even his ghosts are un-Celtic, misty and unsubstantial phantasms,
unlike the embodied _revenants_ of the saga which are in agreement with
the Celtic belief that the soul assumed a body in the other world.
MacPherson makes Fionn invariably successful, but in the saga tales he
is often defeated. He mingles the Cúchulainn and Ossianic cycles, but
these, save in a few casual instances, are quite distinct in the old
literature. Yet had not his poem been so great as it is, though so
un-Celtic, it could not have influenced all European literature. But
those who care for genuine Celtic literature, the product of a people
who loved nature, romance, doughty deeds, the beauty of the world, the
music of the sea and the birds, the mountains, valour in men, beauty in
women, will find all these in the saga, whether in its literary or its
popular forms. And through it all sounds the undertone of Celtic pathos
and melancholy, the distant echo
"Of old unhappy, far-off things
And battles long ago."
FOOTNOTES:
[506] See Joyce, _OCR_ 447.
[507] Montelius, _Les Temps Préhistoriques_, 57, 151; Reinach, _RC_ xxi.
8.
[508] The popular versions of this early part of the saga differ much in
detail, but follow the main outlines in much the same way. See Curtin,
_HTI_ 204; Campbell, _LF_ 33 f.; _WHT_ iii. 348.
[509] In a widespread group of tales supernatural knowledge is obtained
by eating part of some animal, usually a certain snake. In many of these
tales the food is eaten by another person than he who obtained it, as in
the case of Fionn. Cf. the Welsh story of Gwion, p. 116, and the
Scandinavian of Sigurd, and other parallels in Miss Cox, _Cinderella_,
496; Frazer, _Arch. Rev._ i. 172 f. The story is thus a folk-tale
formula applied to Fionn, doubtless because it harmonised with Celtic or
pre-Celtic totemistic ideas. But it is based on ancient ideas regarding
the supernatural knowledge possessed by reptiles or fish, and among
American Indians, Maoris, Solomon Islanders, and others there are
figured representations of a man holding such an animal, its tongue
being attached to his tongue. He is a _shaman_, and American Indians
believe that his inspiration comes from the tongue of a mysterious river
otter, caught by him. See Dall, _Bureau of Ethnol._ 3rd report; and Miss
Buckland, _Jour. Anth. Inst._ xxii. 29.
[510] _TOS_ iv.; O'Curry, _MS. Mat._ 396; Joyce, _OCR_ 194, 339.
[511] For ballad versions see Campbell, _LF_ 198.
[512] Numerous ballad versions are given in Campbell _LF_ 152 f. The
tale is localised in various parts of Ireland and the Highlands, many
dolmens in Ireland being known as Diarmaid and Grainne's beds.
[513] For an account differing from this annalistic version, see _ZCP_
i. 465.
[514] O'Grady, ii. 102. This, on the whole, agrees with the Highland
ballad version, _LF_ 198.
[515] _IT_ iv.; O'Grady, _Silva Gad._ text and translation.