This eBook was produced by John B. Hare and Carrie Lorenz.
@@{Redactors Note: In the original book the 'Literal Translation' isprinted on facing pages to the poetic translation. In this etext theliteral translation portions have been collated after the poetictranslation, for the sake of readability. Hence the page numbers arenot sequential—JBH}
It seems to have been customary in ancient Ireland to precede byshorter stories the recital of the Great Tain, the central story of theIrish Heroic Age. A list of fourteen of these "lesser Tains," three ofwhich are lost, is given in Miss Hull's "Cuchullin Saga"; thosepreserved are the Tain bo Aingen, Dartada, Flidais, Fraich, Munad,Regamon, Regamna, Ros, Ruanadh, Sailin, and Ere. Of these, five onlyhave been edited, viz. the Tain bo Dartada, Flidais, Fraich, Regamon,and Regamna; all these five are given in this volume.
The last four tales are all short, and perhaps are more truly"preludes" (remscela) than the Tain bo Fraich, which has indeed enoughof interest in itself to make it an independent tale, and is as long asthe four put together. All the five tales have been rendered intoverse, with a prose literal translation opposite to the verserendering, for reasons already given in the preface to the firstvolume. A short introduction, describing the manuscript authority, isprefixed to each; they all seem to go back in date to the best literaryperiod, but appear to have been at any rate put into their present formlater than the Great Tain, in order to lead up to it. A possibleexception to this may be found at the end of the Tain bo Flidais, whichseems to give a different account of the end of the war of Cualgne, andto claim that Cuchulain was defeated, and that Connaught gained hisland for its allies. It may be mentioned that the last four tales areexpressly stated in the text to be "remscela" to the Great Tain.
When to an Irish court of old
Came men, who flocked from near and far
To hear the ancient tale that told
Cuchulain's deeds in Cualgne's War;
Oft, ere that famous tale began,
Before their chiefest bard they hail,
Amid the throng some lesser man
Arose, to tell a lighter tale;
He'd fell how Maev and Ailill planned
Their mighty hosts might best be fed,
When they towards the Cualgne land
All Irelands swarming armies led;
How Maev the youthful princes sent
To harry warlike Regamon,
How they, who trembling, from her went,
His daughters and his cattle won;
How Ailill's guile gained Darla's cows,
How vengeful fairies marked that deed;
How Fergus won his royal spouse
Whose kine all Ireland's hosts could feed;
How, in a form grotesque and weird,
Cuchulain found a Power Divine;
Or how in shapes of beasts appeared
The Magic Men, who kept the Swine;
Or how the rowan's guardian snake
Was roused by order of the king;
Or how, from out the water, Fraech
To Finnabar restored her ring.
And though, in greater tales, they ch