III The Authorities
The following is a list of the authorities I have been chiefly helped by in putting these stories together and in translation of the text. But I cannot make it quite accurate, for I have sometimes transferred a mere phrase, sometimes a whole passage from one story to another, where it seemed to fit better. I have sometimes, in the second part of the book, used stories preserved in the Scottish Gaelic, as will be seen by my references. I am obliged to write these notes away from libraries, and cannot verify them, but I think they are fairly correct.
Part One. Books One, Two, and Three
THE COMING OF THE TUATHA DE DANAAN, AND LUGH OF THE LONG HAND, AND THE COMING OF THE GAEL.—
O’Curry, Manners and Customs of the Ancient Irish;
MSS. Materials;
Atlantis;
De Jubainville, Cycle Mythologique;
Hennessy, Chronicum Scotorum;
Atkinson, Book of Leinster;
Annals of the Four Masters;
Nennius, Hist, Brit. (Irish Version);
Zimmer, Glossae Hibernacae;
Whitley Stokes, Three Irish Glossaries;
Revue Celtique and Irische Texte;
Gaedelica;
Nutt, Voyage of Bran;
Proceedings Ossianic Societ;
O’Beirne Crowe, Amra Columcille;
Dean of Lismore’s Book;
Windisch, Irische Texte;
Hennessy and others in Revue Celtique;
Kilkenny Archaeological Journal;
Keatinge’s History;
Ogyia;
Curtin’s Folk Tales;
Proceedings Royal Irish Academy, MSS. Series;
Dr Sigerson, Bards of Gael and Gall;
Miscellanies, Celtic Society.
Book Four: The Ever-Living Living Ones
I have used many of the above, and for separate stories, I may give these authorities:—
MIDHIR AND ETAIN.—
O’Curry, Manners and Customs;
Professor Kuno Meyer in Nutt’s Voyage of Bran;
Müller, Revue Celtique;
Nutt, Voyage of Bran;
De Jubainville, Epopée Celtique;
Standish Hayes O’Grady, MS. lent me by him.
MANANNAN AT PLAY.—
S. Hayes O’Grady, Silva Gaedelica.
HIS CALL TO BRAN.—
Professor Kuno Meyer in Nutt’s Voyage of Bran;
S. Hayes O’Grady, Silva Gaedelica;
De Jubainville, Cycle Mythologique.
HIS THREE CALLS TO CORMAC.—
Whitley Stokes, Irische Texte.
CLIODNA’S WAVE.—
S. Hayes O’Grady, Silva Gaedelica;
Whitley Stokes, Dinnsenchus.
HIS CALL TO CONNLA.—
O’Beirne Crowe, Kilkenny Arch. Journal;
Windisch, Irische Texte.
TADG IN THE ISLANDS.—
S. Hayes O’Grady, Silva Gaedelica.
LAEGAIRE IN THE HAPPY PLAIN.—
S.H. O’Grady, Silva Gaedelica; Kuno Meyer in Nutt’s Voyage of Bran.
FATE OF THE CHILDREN OF LIR.—
O’Curry, Atlantis.
Part Two. The Fianna
THE COMING OF FINN, AND FINN’S HOUSEHOLD.—
Proceedings Ossianic Society;
Kuno Meyer, Four Songs of Summer and Winter;
Revue Celtique;
S. Hayes O’Grady, Silva Gaedelica;
Curtin’s Folk Tales.
BIRTH OF BRAN.—
Proc. Ossianic Society.
OISIN’S MOTHER.—
Kennedy, Legendary Fictions Irish Celts;
Mac Innis;
Leabhar na Feinne.
BEST MEN OF THE FIANNA.—
Dean of Lismore’s Book;
Silva Gaedelica;
Leabhar na Feinne.
LAD OF THE SKINS.—
Waifs and Strays of Celtic Tradition;
Larminie’s Folk Tales;
Curtin’s Tales.
THE HOUND.—
Silva Gaedelica;
Whitley Stokes, Dinnsenchus.
RED RIDGE.—
Silva Gaedelica.
BATTLE OF THE WHITE STRAND.—
Kuno Meyer, Anec. Oxonienses;
Hanmer’s Chronicle;
Dean of Lismore;
Curtin’s Tales;
Silva Gaedelica.
KING OF BRITAIN’S SON.—
Silva Gaedelica.
THE CAVE OF CEISCORAN.—
Silva Gaedelica.
DONN, SON OF MIDHIR.—
Silva Gaedelica.
HOSPITALITY OF CUANNA’S HOUSE.—
Proc. Ossianic Society.
CAT-HEADS AND DOG-HEADS.—
Dean of Lismore;
Leabhar na Feinne;
Campbell’s Popular Tales of the Western Highlands.
LOMNA’S HEAD.—
O’Curry, Orc. Treith, O’Donovan, ed. Stokes.
ILBREC OF ESS RUADH.—
Silva Gaedelica.
CAVE OF CRUACHAN.—
Stokes, Irische Texts.
WEDDING AT CEANN SLIEVE.—
Proc. Ossianic Society.
THE SHADOWY ONE.—
O’Curry.
FINN’S MADNESS.—
Silva Gaedelica.
THE RED WOMAN.—
Hyde, Sgealuidhe Gaedhealach.
FINN AND THE PHANTOMS.—
Kuno Meyer, Revue Celtique.
THE PIGS OF ANGUS.—
Proc. Ossianic Society.
HUNT OF SLIEVE CUILINN.—
Proc. Ossianic Society.
OISIN’S CHILDREN.—
O’Curry;
Leabhar na Feinne;
Campbell’s Popular Tales of the Western Highlands;
Stokes, Irische Texte;
Dean of Lismore;
Celtic Magazine;
Waifs and Strays of Celtic Tradition.
BIRTH OF DIARMUID.—
Pursuit of Diarmuid and Grania (Society for Preservation of the Irish Language);
Campbell’s Popular Tales.
HOW DIARMUID GOT HIS LOVE-SPOT.—
Hyde, Sgealuidhe Gaedhealach.
DAUGHTER OF KING UNDER-WAVE.—
Campbell’s Popular Tales.
THE HARD SERVANT.—
Silva Gaedelica.
HOUSE OF THE QUICKEN TREES.—
MSS. in Royal Irish Academy, and in Dr Hyde’s possession.
DIARMUID AND GRANIA.—
Text Published by S. Hayes O’Grady, Proc. Ossianic Society, and re-edited by N. O’Duffey for Society for Preservation of the Irish Language;
Kuno Meyer, Revue Celtique, and Four Songs;
Leabhar na Feinne;
Campbell’s Popular Tales;
Kilkenny Arch. Journal;
Folk Lore, vol. vii., 1896;
Dean of Lismore;
Nutt, Waifs and Strays of Celtic Tradition.
CNOC-AN-AIR, ETC.—
Proc. Ossianic Society.
WEARING AWAY OF THE FIANNA.—
Silva Gaedelica;
Dean of Lismore;
Leabhar na Feinne;
Campbell’s Popular Tales;
Proc. Ossianic Society;
O’Curry;
Waifs and Strays of Celtic Tradition;
Stokes, Irische Texte.
THE END OF THE FIANNA.—
Hyde, Sgealuidhe Gaedhealach;
Proc. Ossianic Society;
Silva Gaedelica;
Miss Brooke’s Reliques;
Annals of the Four Masters;
Celtic Magazine.
OISIN AND PATRICK, AND OISIN’S LAMENTS.—
Proc. Ossianic Society;
Dean of Lismore;
Kilkenny Arch, fournal;
Curtin’s Tales.
I have taken Grania’s sleepy song, and the description of Finn’s shield and of Cumhal’s treasure-bag, and the fact of Finn’s descent from Ethlinn, from Duanaire Finn, now being edited for the Irish Texts Society by Mr John MacNeill, the proofs of which I have been kindly allowed to see. And I have used sometimes parts of stories, or comments on them gathered directly from the people, who have kept these heroes so much in mind. The story of Caoilte coming to the help of the King of Ireland in a dark wood is the only one I have given without either a literary or a folk ancestry. It was heard or read by Mr Yeats, he cannot remember where, but he had, with it in his mind, written of “Caoilte’s burning hair” in one of his poems.
I and my readers owe special thanks to those good workers in the discovery of Irish literature, Professor Kuno Meyer and Mr Whitley Stokes, translators of so many manuscripts; and to my friend and kinsman Standish Hayes O’Grady, for what I have taken from that wonderful treasure-house, his Silva Gaedelica.