Myths & Legends of the Celtic Race Part 55

165 It was a point of honour to refuse nothing to a bard; one king is said to have given his eye when it was demanded of him.

_ 166 Craobh Ruadh_the Red Branch hostel.

167 The story is told in full in the authors High Deeds of Finn.

168 p.r.o.nounced Bay-al-koo.

169 Inis Clothrann, now known as Quakers Island. The pool no longer exists.

170 Youbdan.

171 Dr. P. W. Joyces Irish Names of Places is a storehouse of information on this subject.

172 P. 211, _note_.

173 The name is given both to the hill, _ard_, and to the ford, _atha_ beneath it.

174 p.r.o.nounced mac Cool.

175 p.r.o.nounced Usheen.

176 Subject, of course, to the possibility that the present revival of Gaelic as a spoken tongue may lead to the opening of a new chapter in that history.

177 See Ossian and Ossianic Literature, by Alfred Nutt, p. 4.

178 Now Castleknock, near Dublin.

179 In the Kings County.

180 The hill still bears the name, Knockanar.

181 Glanismole, near Dublin.

182 Talkenn, or Adze-head, was a name given to St. Patrick by the Irish. Probably it referred to the shape of his tonsure.

183 p.r.o.nounced Sleeve-na-mon: accent on last syllable. It means the Mountain of the [Fairy] Women.

184 Translation by S.H. OGrady.

185 See p. 105.

186 Examples of these have been published, with translations, in the Transactions of the Ossianic Society.

187 Taken down from the recital of a peasant in Co. Galway and published at Rennes in Dr. Hydes An Sgeuluidhe Gaodhalach, vol. ii. (no translation).

188 Now Athlone (_Atha Luain_).

189 How significant is this nave indication that the making of forays on his neighbours was regarded in Celtic Ireland as the natural and laudable occupation of a country gentleman! Compare Spensers account of the ideals fostered by the Irish bards of his time, View of the Present State of Ireland, p. 641 (Globe edition).

190 Dr. John Todhunter, in his Three Irish Bardic Tales, has alone, I think, kept the antique ending of the tale of Deirdre.

191 Waifs and Strays of Celtic Tradition, Argylls.h.i.+re Series. The tale was taken down in verse, word for word, from the dictation of Roderick mac Fadyen in Tiree, 1868.

192 Here we have evidently a reminiscence of Briccriu of the Poisoned Tongue, the mischief-maker of the Ultonians.

193 The Arans are three islands at the entrance of Galway Bay. They are a perfect museum of mysterious ruins.

194 p.r.o.nounced Ghermawnthe G hard.

195 Horse-racing was a particular delight to the ancient Irish, and is mentioned in a ninth-century poem in praise of May as one of the attractions of that month. The name of the month of May given in an ancient Gaulish calendar means the month of horse-racing.

196 The same phenomenon is recorded as being witnessed by Peredur in the Welsh tale of that name in the Mabinogion.

197 Like the bridge to Skathat dun, p. 188.

198 Probably we are to understand that he was an anchorite seeking for an islet on which to dwell in solitude and contemplation. The western islands of Ireland abound in the ruins of huts and oratories built by single monks or little communities.

199 Tennyson has been particularly happy in his description of these undersea islands.

200 Ps. ciii. 5.

201 This disposes of the last of the foster-brothers, who should not have joined the party.

202 Tory Island, off the Donegal coast. There was there a monastery and a church dedicated to St. Columba.

203 One day we shall delight in the remembrance of these things. The quotation is from Vergil, n. i. 203 Sacred poet is a translation of the _vates sacer_ of Horace.

204 This sage and poet has not been identified from any other record.

Praise and thanks to him, whoever he may have been.

205 The Mabinogion, pp. 45 and 54.

206 p.r.o.nounced Annoon. It was the word used in the early literature for Hades or Fairyland.

207 Barddas, vol. i. pp. 224 _sqq_.

208 Strange as it may seem to us, the character of this object was by no means fixed from the beginning. In the poem of Wolfram von Eschenbach it is a stone endowed with magical properties. The word is derived by the early fabulists from _grable_, something pleasant to possess and enjoy, and out of which one could have _ son gr_, whatever he chose of good things. The Grail legend will be dealt with later in connexion with the Welsh tale Peredur.

209 Distinguished by these from the other great storehouse of poetic legend, the _Matire de Bretagnei.e._, the Arthurian saga.

210 See p. 103.

211 Cultur der Gegenwart, i. ix.

212 A list of them is given in Lobineaus Histoire de Bretagne.

213 See, _e.g.,_ pp. 243 and 218, _note_.