Chapter IV: Introduction (3)

They were a body of Irish militia, forming a kind of standing army, employed for the purpose of defending the coasts of Ireland from the invasion of foreign foes. They were billeted upon the inhabitants during winter, and obliged to maintain themselves by hunting and fishing during summer. Each of the four provinces had its band of these warriors, termed Curaidhe or champions. Those of Ulster were termed the Curaidhe na Craoibh Ruaidhe, or champions of the red branch, and were stationed at Eamhain or Eamania, near Ulster. To this body belonged the celebrated Cuchullin and the sons of Uisneach. The militia of Connaught were the Curaidhe or champions of Jorras Domnan, otherwise called the Clanna Morna, to which belonged Goll Mac Morn, stationed at Dun Domnan, in Mayo. The militia of Munster were the Curaidhe Clann Deaghadh, to which belonged Curigh Mac Daire, stationed at Cathair Conrigh, in Kerry. The militia of Leinster were the Curaighe Clanna Baoisgne, to which belonged the renowned Finn Mac Cumhal, his sons, Ossin and Fergus Filidh, his grandson Oscar, and his relation, Caoilte Mac Ronan. Cuchullin lived in the first century, in the reign of Conaire Mac Eidersgeoil, King of Ireland, and Conchobar Mac Nessa, a king of Ulster; and at the same period lived Curigh Mac Daire, who was slain by him. Finn Mac Cumhal lived in the reign of Cormac Mac Art, who ruled from A.D. 227 to 266, and whose daughter Graine he married, and Goll Mac Moirna was his cotemporary. Finn was slain in the year 285, his grandson Oscar having fallen in the battle of Gahbra, fought in the following year. Oissin and Caoilte survived to the time of St. Patrick, whose mission to Ireland fell in the year 432, and related to him the exploits of the Feinne; one conversation between these aged Feinne and the apostle of Ireland having been preserved, and is termed Agallamh na seanorach or the Dialogue of the Sages.

Such is the account of the Feinne given by the Irish.

If this is history, _cadit questio_. The ancient Irish militia, like their more modern representatives, could not, it is presumed, be called upon to leave their country, except in case of invasion; and poems narrating their adventures and exploits must have been as Irish as the heroes which were the subject of them.

But we cannot accept it as history in any sense of the term. It is as illusory and uncertain as are the dates of St. Patrick, and the narrative of which the one forms a part, is as little to be regarded as a veracious chronicle, as the life of the other can be accepted as a genuine biography. The chronology of the one is as questionable as the era of the other.

Prior to the year 483, the Irish have, strictly speaking, no chronological history. The battle of Ocha, fought in that year, which established the dynasty of the Hy’Neills on the Irish throne, and the order of things which existed subsequent to that date, is the great chronological era which separates the true from the empirical, the genuine annals of the country from an artificially constructed history.

Prior to that date, we find the reigns of a long succession of monarchs recorded, with a strange mixture of minute detail, chronological exactness, and the wildest fable, a wonderful structure of history palpably artificial, and ranging over a period of upwards of 3000 years. Passing over the arrival of Casar, Noah’s niece, who landed in Ireland forty days before the deluge, on the fifteenth day of the moon, the so-called Irish history records the arrival of four colonies before that of the Milesians. First, that of Partolan and his followers, who landed at Inversceine, in the west of Munster, on the 14th day of May, in the year of the world 2320 or 2680 years B.C., and who all perished by a pestilence in one week to the number of 9000 on the Hill of Howth, thirty years after their arrival. Secondly, the Nemedians, under their leader Nemedius, thirty years after, who, after remaining 217 years in the island, left it, in consequence of the tyranny and oppression of the pirates, termed the Fomorians, in three bands,--one going to Thrace, from whom descended the Firbolg; the second to the North of Europe or Lochlan, from whom descended the Tuatha De Danann; and the third to Alban or Scotland, from whom descended the Britons. The third colony were the Firbolg, who returned to Ireland 217 years after the arrival of the Nemedians, and consisted of three tribes, the Firbolg, the Firdomnan, and the Firgailian under five leaders, by whom Ireland was divided into five provinces. With Slainge, the eldest of the five brothers, the Irish historians commence the monarchy of Ireland and the list of her kings. The fourth colony were the Tuatha De Danann, who went from Lochlan to Alban or Scotland, and from thence to Ireland, where they landed on Monday the 1st of May, and drove out the Firbolgs, after they had been thirty-six years in Ireland, to be in their turn driven out by the Scots, under the three sons of Milesius, Eremon, Eber, and Ir, who, with their uncle’s son Lughadh, the son of Ith, led the fifth and last colony from Spain to Ireland. The island was divided between the two brothers Eremon and Eber, the former having the north, and the latter the south half of Ireland; Ir obtaining Ulster under Eremon, and Lughadh a settlement in Munster under Eber.

From the sons of Milesius to the reign of Lughadh, who was placed on the throne by the battle of Ocha, there proceeded a line of monarchs amounting to 116 in number, and extending over a period of upwards of twenty-one centuries, the descendants of the different sons of Milesius alternating with each other from time to time, and the reign of each given with an exactness of date and minuteness of event which betrays its artificial character. As part of this narrative is introduced the existence of these bands of Fenian militia, with the dates at which their leaders are said to have lived.

Is it possible, however, to accept this extraordinary bead-roll of shadowy monarchs during Pagan times, with their exact chronology, and the strange and almost ludicrous peculiarities by which each are distinguished, as serious history, or even to attempt to discriminate between what may be true and what is false? Are there any materials, or any data upon which we can even fix upon a date, within a reasonable compass of time, and say all before that is fable, all after may be history, till we arrive on firm ground, after the introduction of Christianity? Professor O’Curry is right when he says, in his admirable lectures on the MS. materials of ancient Irish history, that he cannot discover any ground on which the annalist Tighernac was able to say, “omnia monumenta Scotorum usque Cimbaoth (a king of Ulster, who flourished in the seventh century, B.C.) incerta erant.”

From Slainge, the first king of the Firbolgs, who began to reign 1934 years B.C., and ruled only one year, or even from Eremon, the first monarch of all Ireland of the Milesian race, who began to reign 1700 years B.C., down to Dathy, who was killed by a flash of lightning at the foot of the Alps in the year 428, and Laogare, his successor, who was slain by the elements for refusing obedience to St. Patrick’s mission which is said to have taken place during his reign, every reign is stamped with the same character; and what to accept and what to reject is a problem, for the solution of which the history itself affords no materials.

If this narrative is to be submitted to historic criticism, is the later portion less an object of such criticism than the earlier? There seems no reason why we should accept the history of Neill of the nine hostages, who reigned from 379 to 405, and had subjected all Britain and part of France to his sway, and reject that of Ugony More, who reigned 1000 years earlier, and whose conquests were equally extensive and equally unknown to European history, or why Ugony’s twenty-five sons are less worthy of credit than the thirty sons of Cathoirmor, who reigned 750 years later. Why the division of Ireland into the two great portions of north and south, between Conn of the hundred battles and Modha Nuadhat, in the second century, is to be accepted in preference to the original division into the same districts between Eremon and Eber, the sons of Milesius; or which of the divisions of Ireland into five provinces, that by Tuathal the acceptable, or Eochaddh, called Feidhlioch, from the deep sighs which he constantly heaved from his heart, or that by Slainge, the first king of the Firbolgs, is to be held to represent the event which produced it.

Are the conquests in Scotland by Crimthan mor, and Dathy in the fourth and fifth centuries, to be accepted, and these equally detailed battles of Aongus olmucadha and Rechtgidh righ-derg, some centuries earlier, to be rejected because they occupy a different place in this succession of unreal monarchs? Are we to accept the reign of Conchobar Mac Nessa in the first century--to whom the death of Christ upon the cross was revealed by a Druid at the time it happened, and who became Christian in consequence, and died from over-exertion in attacking a forest of trees with his sword which he mistook for the Jews; and the reign of Cormac Mac Art, called Ulfada, either from the length of his beard and hair, or because he drove the Uladh or Ultonians far from their country, where, however, they are ever after found notwithstanding; who was also miraculously converted to Christianity two centuries before the supposed arrival of St. Patrick, the apostle of Ireland, and died by choking upon the bone of an enchanted fish, or, according to other accounts, was strangled by a number of infernal fiends,--as history, in preference to the reigns of scores of older monarchs, the events of whose reigns cannot be said to be less probable.

Must we hold that the chronology of Cuchullin and Corroi, of Finn Mac Cumhal and Goll Mac Morn, is fixed, because the two former are placed in the reign of Conchobar Mac Nessa, and the two latter in that of Cormac Ulfada, or that their Irish character is demonstrated because they are woven into this Milesian fable?[33]

[33] The following passage is quoted by Petrie (_Round Towers_, p. 96) from an ancient tract termed the Senchas na Relec, preserved in the leabhar na h’uidhre, a MS. of the year 1100:--

“Cormac Mac Art was the third person who had believed in Erin before the arrival of St. Patrick; Conchobar Mac Nessa, to whom Œtno had told concerning the crucifixion of Christ, was the first; Moran, the son of Cairpre Cinncait, was the second; and Cormac was the third.”

Cairpre Cinncait was the leader of the Attachtuatha in the insurrection above referred to; and it is remarkable that the reign of Conchobar, in which Cuchullin and Curoi are said to have flourished, the era of the occupation of the country by the Attachtuatha, the descendants of the ante-Milesian population, and the reign of Cormac Mac Art, in which Finn Mac Cumhal and Goll Mac Morn are said to have lived and fought, should be connected by the link of a conversion to Christianity. It seems to synchronize these three periods in tradition with each other, and with the first introduction of Christianity into Ireland.

The same tract states, that the mythic King Cormac Mac Art “was slain by Siabhras, _id est_, the Tuatha De Danann, for they were called Siabhras.”

In fact, the whole of this history presents a structure so artificial, so compact, and so alike in all its features, that it is impossible for any one, like Samson, to withdraw any two pillars without bringing the whole edifice about his ears, and crushing the entire bead-roll of unbaptized monarchs beneath its ruins.

The truth is, that notwithstanding the claims of the Irish to an early cultivation and to a knowledge of letters in Pagan times, the art of writing was unknown in Ireland till after the introduction of Christianity, and written history there was none. The only materials that existed for it were poems, legends, historic tales, and pedigrees, handed down by tradition; and from these, at a subsequent period, when, as in all countries, the leisure hours of monks and ecclesiastics were employed in constructing a history of ante-Christian times, in imitation of more classical histories, a highly artificial system was by degrees constructed, embodying the substance of traditions and myths, real facts and imaginative poems, with bardic and monkish creations, and the whole based upon the classical model, by which the different ethnological elements which entered into the population of the country were cloaked under an artificial and symbolical genealogy.

But it is not chronological history. The dates are quite artificial, and the whole creation melts and resolves itself into its original elements upon investigation. The pre-Milesian colonies are found existing and occupying large tracts of the country down to a late period of the ante-Christian history. The provincial kings, when closely examined, lose their Milesian name, and are found ruling over Firbolgs, Firdomnan and Cruithne; and notwithstanding that the Milesians had been for 1600 years in possession of the country, and a flourishing monarchy is supposed to have existed for so long a period, we find, as late as the second century after Christ, the Attachtuatha, as the descendants of the Firbolg, Firdomnan, and Tuatha De Danann were termed during the Milesian monarchy, in full possession of the country for nearly a century, and in close alliance with the Cruithne of Ulster; during which time the Milesian kings were in exile, and the process of subjugating these tribes, supposed to be completed 1600 years before by Eremon and Eber, is again repeated by Tuathal teachtmhar, who arrives with an army from Alban.

The descendants of the different sons of Milesius likewise assume foreign characteristics. The race of Ir, son of Milesius, who possessed the whole of Ulster till the Heremonian settlements almost within the domain of history, are found calling themselves on all occasions Cruithne. The descendants of Ith called themselves Clanna Breogan, and occupy the territory where Ptolemy, in the second century, places an offshoot of British Brigantes. Eremon and Eber seem to represent the northern and southern Scots distinguished by Bede, a distinction reproduced in Conn of the hundred battles, and Modha Nuadha.

The legend of St. Patrick, too, in its present shape, is not older than the ninth century; and, under the influence of an investigation into older authorities, he dissolves into three personages; Sen-Patricius, whose day in the calendar is the 24th August; Palladius _qui est Patricius_, to whom the mission in 432 properly belongs, and who is said to have retired to Alban or Scotland, where he died among the Cruithne; and Patricius, whose day is the 17th of March, and to whom alone a certain date can be assigned,--for he died, in the chronological period, in the year 493,--and from the acts of these three saints the subsequent legend of the great apostle of Ireland was compiled, and an arbitrary chronology applied to it.

The Feine also, when looked at a little more closely, emerge from under the guise of a Milesian militia, and assume the features of a distinct race. Cuchullin, Conall cearnach, and the children of Uisneach belong to the race of Ir, and are Cruithne. Goll Mac Morn and his Clanna Moirne are Firbolg; Curigh Mac Daire and his Clanna Deaghadh are Ernai; and though they are called Heremonians in Irish history, yet they are also said to be a Firbolg tribe of the same race with the Clanna Morna; and in the poem of Maolmura, who died in 884, they are said to be of the race of Ith, and, therefore, probably Britons,--a conjecture singularly corroborated by the fact that there exists, in Welsh, a poem on the death of Curigh Mac Daire; and, finally, Finn Mac Cumhal and his Clanna Baiosgne, although a Heremonian pedigree is given to them, it is not the only one known to the old Irish MSS. There is a second, deducing him from the Clanna Deaghaidh, the same race with that of Curigh Mac Daire; and a third, and probably the oldest, states that he was of the Ui Tairsigh, and that they were of the Attachtuatha, as the descendants of the non-Milesian tribes were called, a fact corroborated by Maolmura, who says--

Six tribes not of Breoghan’s people
Who hold lands,
The Gabhraighe Succa, _Ui Tairsigh_,
Galeons of Leinster.

The fact is, when the fictitious catalogue of Milesian kings was extended over so many centuries, and the Milesian monarchy drawn back to so remote a period, it became necessary to account for the appearance of non-Milesian races in the old traditional stories, and they were either clothed with a Milesian name and pedigree, or some device hit upon to account for their separate existence; and thus the Feinne, a pre-Milesian warrior race they could not account for, appear under the somewhat clumsy guise of a standing body of Milesian militia, having peculiar privileges and strange customs.

The Irish Ossianic poems, as well as those in the Dean’s MS., indicate that the Feinne were not a body of troops confined to Ireland, but belonged, whoever they were, to a much wider extent of territory.

Thus, the poem on the battle of Gabhra, published in the first volume of the Transactions of the Ossianic Society--a battle in which Oscar the son of Ossian was slain, and the Feinne from all quarters took part--we find the following verses:

The bands of the Fians of Alban,
And the supreme King of Breatan,
Belonging to the order of the Feinne of Alban,
Joined us in that battle.

The Fians of Lochlin were powerful.
From the chief to the leader of nine men,
They mustered along with us
To share in the struggle.

Again--

Boinne, the son of Breacal, exclaimed,
With quickness, fierceness, and valour,--
I and the Fians of Breatan,
Will be with Oscar of Eamhain.

There were thus in this battle, besides Feinne of Erin, Feinne of Alban, Breatan, and Lochlan.

Alba or Alban was Scotland, north of the Firths of Forth and Clyde.

Breatan was not Wales, but the southern districts of Scotland, of which Dunbreatan, now Dumbarton, was the chief seat.

Lochlan was the north of Germany, extending from the Rhine to the Elbe;[34] and the name of Lochlanach was originally applied to the ancient traditionary pirates termed the Fomorians. When the Norwegian and Danish pirates appeared in the ninth century, they were likewise called Lochlanach; and the name of Lochlan was transferred to Norway and Denmark, from whence they came. There is every reason to believe that the Low German race were preceded, in the more ancient Lochlan, by a Celtic people.

[34] A passage in one of the oldest of the MSS., deposited in the Library of the Faculty of Advocates, shows that the term Lochlan was anciently applied to the districts east of the Rhine. “Cæsar came with some entire legions of the ruthless youth of Italy into the rough land of Gallia, and the wide and long country of Lochlain. For these are one and the same country; _but for the interposition of the clear current of the Rhine, which divides and sunders the two lands_.”

The Feinne then belonged to the pre-Milesian races, and were connected, not only with Erin, but likewise with Alban, Breatan, and Lochlan. Now, there are just two people mentioned in the Irish records who had settlements in Ireland, and who yet were connected with Alban, Breatan, and Lochlan. These were the people termed the Tuatha De Danann, and the Cruithne.

The traditionary migration of the Tuatha De Danann brings them from Lochlan, where they possessed four cities, to Alban, where they inhabited a district termed Dobhar and Jr Dobhar; and from thence they went to Erin, where they drove out the Firbolg, to be subdued in their turn by the Milesian Scots.

The Cruithne are likewise brought from Lochlan to Erin and from Erin to Alban, where they founded a kingdom, which included, till the seventh century, the Cruithne of Ulster, and which was subverted in the ninth century by the Milesian Scots.

These two tribes were thus the prior race in each country. Both must have been prior to the Low German population of Lochlan. The Cruithne were the race prior to the Scots in Alban, and the Tuatha De Dannan the prior colony to the Milesian Scots in Erin. The Feinne are brought by all the old historic tales into close contact with the Tuatha De Danann; a portion of them were avowedly Cruithne; and if they were, as we have seen, in Erin, not of the Milesian race, but of the prior population, and likewise connected with Alban, Breatan, and Lochlan, the inference is obvious, that, whether a denomination for an entire people or for a body of warriors, they belonged to the previous population which preceded the Germans in Lochlan and the Scots in Erin and Alban.

This view is corroborated by the fact, that in the old poems and tales the Feinne appear, as we have said, in close connexion with the Tuatha De Danann. They are likewise connected with the Cruithne, as in the Lamentation of Cuchullin over the body of his son Conlaoch, in Miss Brooke’s collection, where he says--

Alas! that it was not in the land of the Cruithne
Of the Feinne bloody and fierce,
That thou didst fall, active youth,
Or in the gloomy land of Sorcha.

While the traditions of the Cruithne, in narrating their migration and the names of their leaders, mention, as the mythic poet of their race, a name singularly like that of Ossian--

Cathmolodar the hardknobbed,
And Cathmachan the bright,
Were glorious youths;
The two valiant sons of Cathluan,

His hardy puissant champions;
Heavy, stern was their trampling,
Cing victorious in his victory.
Im, son of Pernn, were their names;
_Huasein_ was the name of his poet,
Who sought out the path of pleasantry.

In answering, then, the preliminary questions of who were the Feinne? and to what period do they belong? we may fairly infer that they were of the population who immediately preceded the Scots in Erin and in Alban, and that they belong to that period in the history of both countries, before a political separation had taken place between them, when they were viewed as parts of one territory, though physically separated, and when a free and unrestrained intercourse took place between them; when race and not territory was the great bond of association, and the movements of their respective populations from one country to the other were not restrained by any feeling of national separation.

It was natural that the deeds and events connected with this warrior race, associated as they must have been with the physical features of the country in which they dwelt, should have formed the subject of the early poems and legendary tales of their successors, and that a body of popular poetry should have sprung up in each country, which occupied itself with adventures, expeditions, and feats of bravery of this previous race, which were common to both countries, and which, attributed to their mythic poets, and full of the names of heroes, and of the scenes of their exploits, would be appropriated by the bards of each country to their own districts. The names of the places connected in tradition with these events would, as they were localized in the respective countries, be identified with its scenery and physical features, and thus a species of Fenian topography would spring up in each country, which, having a common origin, would bear the same character, and possess a mutual resemblance. Each country would thus claim the Feinne as their exclusive property, and could point to a body of popular Ossianic poetry in support of their claim, and to the Fenian names of their localities, in proof of the events which form the subject of the poems having there occurred.

The allusions to Fingal in the older Scottish historians who wrote long before Macpherson’s Ossian appeared, or the controversy arose, show that stories of the Feinne were current in Scotland, and that they were regarded as belonging to this country as much as to Ireland, while the Fenian names of localities in charters and other documents evince that a Fenian topography likewise existed in Scotland before that period.[35]

[35] It is unnecessary here to repeat these references. They will be found in the Report of the Highland Society, page 21.

The quotation from Barbour shows that the name of Fingal was known long before the time of Macpherson; and as most Gaelic proper names had a corresponding name in English which resembled it in sound, and was held to represent it, as Hector for Eachin, or Hugh for Aodh, it is not unlikely that Fingal may have been known as the recognised representative in English of Finn.

In fact, Finn and Fingal are both real names, and closely related to each other.

_Gal_ is a syllable of unknown origin and meaning, which enters largely into the composition of Gaelic proper names. Thus we have Aedgal, Aelgal, Angal, Ardgal, Artgal, Bodgal, Comgal, Congal, Donngal, Dubhgal, Dungal, Feargal, Fingal, Gormgal, Leargal, Maengal, Riagal, Saergal, Smiorgal. Some also take the form of _galach_; as Congalach, Dungalach, Fiangalach, Irgalach.

Those in which the first syllable expresses a colour appear both alone and with the affix _gal_, as Dubh and Dubhgal, Finn and Finngal, and are really the same name. The annals of the Four Masters mention several persons of the name of Finn, and, in 741, Finghal of Lismore.

Kirke, in his Psalter, published in 1684, adds the following address:--

Imthigh a Dhuilleachan gu dan,
Le dan glan diagha duisgiad thall;
Cuir failte arfonn fial nab fionn,
Ar-gharbh chriocha is Inseadh Gall.

That is,--

Little volume go boldly forth,
Rouse whom you reach to pure and godly strains;
Hail the generous land of the Feinne,
The Roughbounds and the Western Isles.

The Roughbounds were the districts from Morvaren to Glenelg, which, with the Isles, are thus called the land of the Feinne.

The districts in which the Fenian names enter most largely into the topography of the Highlands are Atholl, Lochaber, Lorn, and Morvaren, Glenelg, and the districts about Loch Ness; and the antiquity of this topography in the Highlands of Scotland is proved by an old gloss to a charter by Alexander the Second to the monks of Kinloss of the lands of Burgyn, within the ancient Celtic province of Moray, which is preserved in the Chartulary of the Bishopric. The boundary of the lands passes by a place called Tuber na Fein, meaning literally the well of the Feinne, and the gloss is “or _feyne_, of the grett or kempis men callit _ffenis_, is ane well.”

Cuchullin was of the race of the Cruithne, and belongs both to Ulster and to Scotland. In Ulster his seat was Dundealgan, and the scene of his exploits the district of Cuailgne and the mountains of Sleave Cuillin; but even Irish tradition admits that he was reared by Sgathaig, in the Isle of Skye, and here we have Dunsgathaig and the Cuillin Hills.

The children of Uisneach were likewise Cruithne, and must have preceded the Scots, for the great scene of their Scotch adventures are the districts of Lorn, Loch Aw, and Cowall, afterwards the possessions of the Dalriadic Scots; thus, in the vicinity of Oban, we have Dun mhic Uisneachan, now corruptly called in guide-books Dun mac Sniachan, a fort with vitrified remains; and here we have on Loch Etive, Glen Uisneach, and Suidhe Deardhuil. The names of the three sons of Uisneach were Ainle, Ardan, and Naoise; and it is remarkable that Adomnan, in his life of St. Columba, written in the seventh century, appears to mention only three localities in connexion with St. Columba’s journey to the palace of the king of the Picts, near Loch Ness, and these are Cainle, Arcardan, and the flumen Nesae. Two vitrified forts in the neighbourhood of Lochness are called Dundeardhuil.[36]

[36] It is remarkable that the ancient legends of Cuchullin and the sons of Uisneach connect them with those remarkable structures termed vitrified forts. Dun Scathaig, Dun mhic Uisneachan, and Dundheardhuil, are all vitrified forts, and the latter is a common name for them. There is probably a mythic meaning under this.

The hunt of Diarmed O’Duine after the boar on Bengulbain, and his death by measuring his length against the bristles, enters into Scotch topography in three different localities; in Glenshee, where there is a hill called Bengulbain, also in Glenroy, where we have also a Bengulbain and an Eassroy, and also on the south bank of Loch Ness. Daire donn, who appears in the Cath Finntragha identified by the Irish with Ventry, has also deposited his name on a mountain in Ardgour, close to the west sea, called Meall Dayre donn.

The mountain streams and lakes in these districts of the Highlands are everywhere redolent of names connected with the heroes and actions of the Feinne, and show that a body of popular legends connected with them, whether in poetry or in prose, preserved by oral recitation or committed to writing, must have existed in the country when this topography sprung up, though it does not follow that the events, though now associated with the scenery of the country, originally happened there any more than does the Fenian topography of Ireland.

These legendary poems and tales seem to have passed through three different stages.

In the first and oldest form they were pure poems, of more or less excellence, narrating the adventures and deeds of these warrior bands, whose memory still lingered in the country; each poem being complete in itself, and constructed upon a metrical system which brought the aid of alliteration and of rhyme, or correspondence of sounds, to assist the memory in retaining what had been received by oral recitation, and to render it less easy to forget or lose a part. These poems seem generally to have been attributed to one mythic poet of the race they celebrate.

Then, as the language in which these poems were composed became altered or modified, or as the reciters were less able to retain the whole, they would narrate, in ordinary prose, the events of the part of the poem they had forgotten, and merely recite the poetry of what they recollected; and thus they would pass into the second stage of prose tales, interspersed with fragments of poetry.

Bards who were themselves composers as well as reciters, besides composing poems on the subjects of the day in which they lived, would likewise select the Fenian legends as their themes, and become imitators of the older Ossianic poetry. The prose narrative would form the basis of their poem; and thus would arise the third stage of their poems, in which they were reconstructed from the prose tales, and again appear as long poems, the names and incidents being the same as in the older poems, and the fragments of them preserved in the prose tale, imbedded in the new poem.

The poems of the first stage were probably common to Ireland and to Scotland, and traces of them are to be found wherever the Feinne were supposed to have once existed; though, in countries where their successors were of a different race, and spoke a different language, the continuity of the tradition would be at once broken.

Among the ancient poems in the Welsh language which have been preserved, there exists an Ossianic poem called Marwnad Coire map Daire, or the death-song of Curoi, son of Daire, the traditionary head, according to Irish history, of the Fenian militia of Munster, but who, as we have seen, appears to belong to the body called the Feinne of Breatan; and the poem, no doubt, belongs to the northern Cumbrian kingdom, which had Dunbreatan for its chief seat. Curoi is called Chief of the Southern Sea, and the contest between him and Cuchullin is mentioned.[37]

[37] This poem, with a translation, is given in the Additional Notes, pp. 143, 144.

Poems of the same character seem also to have been known in the Isle of Man, as O’Connor, in his catalogue of the Stow ms., mentions a MS. containing “Finn and Ossian,--a Manx coronach, with Manx on one side of the page, and Irish on the other.”

The oldest which has been found in any MSS. preserved in the Highlands is a poem of five quatrains, at the end of a glossary contained in a MS. written prior to the year 1500. It is in old Gaelic, and there is an interlineal gloss, explaining the meaning of the expressions in more familiar language. At the end there is a line stating that Ossian was the author of the poem.

It may be not uninteresting to insert here the text of the poem, with its glosses:--

.i. do chodladar mo shuile
Tuilsither mo dherca suain
.i. mo sleagh .i. mo sgiath
mo ruibhne mum luibhne ar lo
.i. mo cladhiomh um dhorn
mo ghenam um dhuais ro bhaoi
.i. mo dhorn fam chluais
agus mo dhuais fam o

.i. aislinge .i. tarla
Adhbhul fisi ar mo ta
.i. dar leiges .i. mo chu
dar cinnius go dian mo chuib
.i. ar mhuic
ar criobhais a leirg ar art
.i. saill go fiacuil a carbui
fo cheird bracht go feic a cuil

.i. throigh .i. gun broigh
Triocha treathan damh gun naibh
.i. go moing a srona
iona taoibh go a tul moing tuinn
.i. orladh .i. na fiacuil
Triocha nena Finn na feic
.i. a sa cionn amach
asseicsi tuas re fa thuinn

.i. coimed re coire gach sul di
Meidis re habhron a dherc
meidis re mes afert fo
.i. tesgus mo cladhiomh a muineal
Sealus mo ghenam a muin
.i. mo chu as a cluais
agus mo chuibh as a ho

.i. muic
Criobais mhara Tallann tair
.i. ria cloic ris ambenann tonn
benus ria hail tairges tnu
.i. mo bhoill as comairce diob nert
mo leo uam fhaosamh domniadh
.i. ni lag mar tu
mar tusa ni triath mar tu

Oisin ro chan ann sin attraigh mara tallann.
ar nia na muice.

TRANSLATION.

My eyes slumbered in sleep,
My spear was with my shield,
My sword was in my hand,
And my hand under my ear.
A strange dream happened to me,
I set swiftly my dogs
On a sow in the plain upon flesh.
She was fat to the tusk in her jaw,
Thirty feet for me with my shoes
In her side to the beard of her snout.
Thirty inches for Finn in her tusk
Fat above on her under her hide.
Large as a caldron was each eye,
Large as a vessel the hollow beneath.
My sword hewed in her neck,
And my dogs fixed on her ear.
Sow of the sea of eastern Tallann,
Which strikes the rock where the wave touches.
My limbs were to me a protection to me strong,
As thyself not weak like thee.

Ossian sung this at the shore of the sea of Tallann, for the champion of the sow.[38]

[38] The scene of this poem is in Scotland, the sea of Tallann being said to be in the east, and it must have been written in Scotland, as the accent is placed on the first syllable of the name Oisin.

The Highlanders call a whale _muic mhara_, and, from the description, this creature appears to have been a whale.

On communicating this curious poem to Professor O’Curry, he informs me that there is a copy of it in the Book of Leinster, an MS. of the thirteenth century. The text is the same, but the glosses a little different.

I may take this opportunity of calling attention to Professor O’Curry’s admirable Lectures on the MS. literature of Ireland, just published. They are most interesting and instructive, and for the masterly and complete survey taken of the subject, as well as for accurate and minute detail, they are almost unexampled in the annals of literature. They will well repay perusal.

The tales of Cuchullin and Conlaoch, and the tale of the Sons of Uisneach, are good specimens of the second class. The latter is one of three tales, called the Three Woes, the two others relating to families of the Tuatha De Danann; but though these tales may be Irish, and of this period, they contain fragments of poems probably much older, and which may have been derived from another source. One of the poems in the tale of the Children of Uisneach contains such a tender recollection of and touching allusion to Highland scenery, that it is hardly possible to suppose that it was not originally composed by a genuine son of Alban.

It is the lament of Deirdre or Darthula over Alban, and the following is a translation:--

Beloved land that Eastern land,
Alba, with its wonders.
O that I might not depart from it,
But that I go with Naise.

Beloved is Dunfidhgha and Dun Finn;
Beloved the Dun above them;
Beloved is Innisdraighende,
And beloved Dun Suibhne.

Coillchuan! O Coillchuan!
Where Ainnle would, alas! resort;
Too short, I deem, was then my stay
With Ainnle in Oirir Alban.

Glenlaidhe! O Glenlaidhe!
I used to sleep by its soothing murmur;
Fish, and flesh of wild boar and badger
Was my repast in Glenlaidhe.

Glenmasan! O Glenmasan;
High its herbs, fair its boughs.
Solitary was the place of our repose
On grassy Invermasan.

Gleneitche! O Gleneitche!
There was raised my earliest home.
Beautiful its woods on rising,
When the sun struck on Gleneitche.

Glen Urchain! O Glen Urchain!
It was the straight glen of smooth ridges.
Not more joyful was a man of his age
Than Naoise in Glen Urchain.

Glendaruadh! O Glendaruadh!
My love each man of its inheritance.
Sweet the voice of the cuckoo on bending bough,
On the hill above Glendaruadh.

Beloved is Draighen and its sounding shore;
Beloved the water o’er pure sand.
O that I might not depart from the east,
But that I go with my beloved![39]

[39] The oldest copy of this tale, which was the foundation of Macpherson’s Darthula, is in the Glenmasan MS., in the collection in the Advocates’ Library, which bears the date of 1238, and this translation is made from it.

The scenery is all in Argyllshire. Inis Draighen is Inistrynich in Loch-awe; Dun Suibhne, Castle Sween; Glenlaidhe is now called Glenlochy, where is Benlaoidhe; Glenmasan still bears the name; Gleneitche, in another copy called Loch Eitche, is Glenetive and Loch Etive; Glenurchain is Glenurchay; and Glendaruadh is now called Glendaruail.

The third class of Ossianic poems belongs principally to that period when, during the sway of the Lords of the Isles, Irish influence was so much felt on the language and literature of the Highlands, and when the Highland bards and sennachies were trained in bardic schools, presided over by Irish bards of eminence. It was at this period mainly that the Irish poems assumed so much the shape of a dialogue between the Ossianic poets and St. Patrick, the apostle of Ireland; and the Highland bards imitated this form, often adding or prefixing a few sentences of such dialogue to older poems, or composing poems in imitation of Ossian in this form; but the imitation, in this respect, of Irish poems by native bards is apparent from this, that Patrick is in the Irish poems correctly called Mac Calphurn or M’Alphurn, his father, according to his own “Confessio,” having been Calphurnius, but the Highland bards, to whom Patrick’s history was strange, and this epithet unintelligible, have substituted the peculiarly Scotch form of Alpine, and styled him Patrick Mac Alpine.

One of the poems in Macpherson’s fragments has been one of these--the sixth fragment,--which begins and ends with a dialogue between Ossian and the son of Alpin.

It was at the same period that the collection of Gaelic poems was made by the Dean of Lismore, and it includes many poems in which this dialogue occurs, but in most the saint is termed Macalpine, showing its non-Irish source.

The Ossianic poems in this collection attributed to Ossian, Fergus Filidh, and Caoilte, the three Fenian bards, and those which are either anonymous or composed by imitators, as Gillecalum Mac an Olla and Allan Mac Ruadhri, with the other poems which are not Ossianic, afford a fair specimen of the poetic literature current in the Highlands of Scotland at the close of this period, and before the fall of the Lords of the Isles, and the Reformation again severed that country from Ireland, and ushered in a period of reaction and return towards the native dialect and literature.

On the whole, then, we fully admit the claims of Ireland to Fenian legends and tales, and their attendant poems, but not to an exclusive possession of them.

We admit that its Fenian topography is authentic, but it is not the only one.

We admit its claim to an early written and cultivated speech, but not to the only dialect of Gaelic in which such poems once existed.

We hold that Scotland possesses likewise Fenian legends and Ossianic poetry derived from an independent source, and a Fenian topography equally genuine; and we consider her dialect of the common Gaelic tongue not undeserving of the attention of philologers.

W. F. S.

CONTENTS OF THE DEAN OF LISMORE’S MS.

NOTE.--The figures on the left hand refer to the
pages in the original MS.; and those added
on the right--to the poems selected for
publication--refer to the pages in this volume
where the translation and the original text will
be found.

P. of MS. Eng. Gaelic.
The first four pages illegible.
5. Earl Gerald. 6 lines. Indistinct.
6. Author’s name defaced. 38 lines on John,
son of Sir Robert Stewart. Illegible.
7. Duncan M’Dougall Maoil. Quatrain on John,
son of Colin Campbell.
8. Anonymous. Obscure--apparently on O’Ruark. 34 lines.
10. Duncan Campbell. 12 lines. Satire on Women.
11. Earl Gerald. 6 lines. Indistinct.
11. Duncan O’Daly. 6 lines. Religious.
12. ---- fynn O’Daly. 88 lines. Religious.
15. Anonymous. 20 lines. Indistinct.
16. Cochondach Mac Thearlaich bhuidh. 65 lines.
On Irish Chiefs.
19. Muireach Albanach. 14 lines, 157 120 121
19. Do. 8 lines, 158 120 121
20. Muireach Lessin Dall O’Daly. 60 lines.
Counsels to Chiefs.
23. Duncan Mor from Lennox. 10 lines, 93 68 69
23. Gilchrist Taylor. 32 lines, 93 68 69
25. Anonymous. Ossianic. 14 lines, 71 50 51
26. Do. 15 lines. Illegible.
27. Six lines in Latin on the Scotch Kings.
27. Scotch. A legal deed.
27. Dean’s Autograph. _Vide_ Fac-simile, inserted at p. xcvi.
27. Anonymous. A Quatrain.
28. Duncan M’Dougall Maoil. 9 lines.
28. Gilliecallum Mac an Ollaimh. On the Macdonalds, 95 70 71
30. Anonymous. 31 lines. An Ursgeul, or Tale.
31. Ossian. 8 lines. The household of Finn, 1 2 3
32. Anonymous. 36 lines. On M’Glass M’Gluaire.
33. Do. 23 lines. Satire on Women.
35. Dougall. Dialogue with his Wedder.
36. Anonymous. 33 lines. Eulogy on a Lady.
37. Duncan M’Cailein. 16 lines.
38. Scotch. The three perilous days in each season.
39. M’Eachag. On John M’Leod, 140 106 107
41. John Mor O’Daly. 84 lines. On Tuathal Teachdmhar.
44. Anonymous. Note on the hanging of Cochrane in 1480.
45. Do. 14 lines. On Conall M’Scanlan, 98 72 73
48. Notes of purchases in Perth, etc., in Scotch.
48. Lines on Marriage, in Scotch.
49. Anonymous. 18 lines. Indistinct.
50. Ossian. A Lament, 3 2 3
51. Maoldonaich M’Aonghuis Mhuilich. 50 lines.
To the Virgin Mary.
53. Gorrie Finn O’Daly. 30 lines. In praise of Gormlay.
54. Gilliepatrick M’Lachlan. A Quatrain.
55. John of Knoydart. On O’Cairbar, 99 72 73
55. Gormlay Ni Fhlainn. Lament for Nial Glundubh, 100 74 75
56. Nial M’Eoghain bhig. A Quatrain.
57. Gormlay Ni Fhlainn. Lament for Nial Glundubh, 101 74 75
57. Anonymous. 30 lines. On Tabblisk (Tables).
58. Do. A Quatrain, 104 78 79
59. Do. 8 lines, 102 76 77
59. Phelim M’Dougall. Aphorisms, 102 76 77
60. Anonymous. A Quatrain, 108 82 83
61. John M’Murrich, 108 82 83
62. William M’Lachlan. A Quatrain.
62. Gormlay Ni Fhlainn, 118 90 91
63. Ossian. “Sliabh nam ban fionn,” 4 4 5
64. Duncan M’Dougall Maoil. A Quatrain.
64. Duncan M’Pherson, 110 82 83
64. Anonymous.
65. Gille Thuirse O’Sluabhainn. 57 lines. Indistinct.
68. Anonymous. Aphorisms, 104 78 79
68. Earl Gerald. A Satire, 105 78 79
69. Andrew M’Intosh, 106 80 81
70. The Bard M’Intyre, 107 80 81
71. Allan M’Dougall bain. 32 lines. A Satire on Women.
73. Astronomical Notes.
73. Colin Earl of Argyle. 12 lines. Satire on Women.
74. Notes of purchases in Dunkeld, etc.
75. Anonymous. 49 lines. On Muircheartach, an Ulster Prince.
77. Scotch. Satirical. 13 lines.
77. Two anonymous Quatrains.
78. List of Scottish Kings, from Boece.
84. Eoin M’Dhunchaidh Ruaidh. 12 lines. Indistinct.
85. Anonymous. On Alexander the Great, 110 84 85
87. Song of the Three Brothers. 32 lines. Moral.
88. Gerald. 6 lines. A Satire on Women.
88. Fearchar M’Phadruig Grannd (Grant). 6 lines. Do.
88. John M’Murrich. A Quatrain, 112 84 85
89. Duncan M’Pherson. 4 lines. On Eoin Riabhaich.
91. List of Names. Genealogical. Robert “clarsair Leoid,”
“harper of Lude,” among them.
No number. Fragments on Astrology, etc.
93. Ossian. “Cath Fionntraigh,” 7 6 7
97. Anonymous. 81 lines. On M’Ricard of Connaught.
101. Duncan Mor O’Daly. 26 lines. On Cathal’s Belt.
103. Finlay, the red-haired bard. M’Gregor’s Horse, 112 84 85
104. Do. do. On M’Gregor, 114 86 87
106. Teague òg O’Huggin. 49 lines. Religious.
106. Sir Duncan M’Kermont. 20 lines. Satire on Women.
109. Duncan M’Cailein. On a Miser, 116 88 89
111. Do. Satire on Donald donn. 14 lines.
112. Dermod O’Heffernan. 36 lines. An Eulogy.
113. Muireach Albanach. A Quatrain.
114. Ossianic. “Am brat,” 72 50 51
115. Eoin Liath M’Aonghuis. 6 lines.
117. Author’s name defaced. 80 lines. Indistinct.
On John Lord of the Isles.
120. Gilchrist Taylor. 48 lines. An Ecclesiastical Legend.
122. Duncan Mor O’Daly. 36 lines. Do.
124. Gorry finn O’Daly. 44 lines. On O’Brien.
126. Ossian. “Feeble this Night,” 13 10 11
128. Earl Gerald. On Death. 27 lines.
129. Duncan M’Cabe. On the Macdougalls, 119 90 91
130. John M’Ewen M’Eacharn. Do. 121 92 93
133. Caoilte M’Ronan, 62 42 43
141. Continuation from page 215, 122 123
143. Finlay M’Nab. On the Book of Poems, 125 94 95
144. Earl Gerald. 6 lines.
144. Genealogy of Writer, and date 1512, 161 124 125
145. Fergus the Bard. “Rosg Ghuill,” 43 28 29
147. Allan M’Rory. “Bàs Dhiarmaid,” 30 20 21
148. Eafric M’Corquodale. Elegy on M’Niel, 126 96 97
149. Duncan M’Cailein. 16 lines.
150. Muireach Albanach. 81 lines. Hymn to the Virgin.
153. Gilchrist Bruilingeach, bard an Lymin. 43 lines.
155. Dougall M’Ghille ghlais. 48 lines. On M’Gregor, 128 98 99
157. Duncan Campbell, the good knight. 12 lines.
158. Gillepatrick M’Lachlan. 78 lines.
On James, son of John. Indistinct.
161. Anonymous. 14 lines. A Lament.
161. Do. The Clans. 131 100 101
163. Notes on Adam’s Family.
164. Ossianic. The Expedition of Eight, 74 52 53
165. Gorry finn. 21 lines. Moral.
166. Teague Og. 72 lines. Religious.
170. Robert M’Lamont “a Gassgaitr.” 16 lines. Moral.
171. Ossianic. “Binn guth,” 80 58 59
171. Date 12th February 1526. Indiction 15.
4th year of Pope Clement VII.
171. Anonymous. 6 lines.
172. Ossianic. The Banners of the Feinn, 76 54 55
174. Do. “Which is the sweetest Music?” 80 58 59
174. Do. Finn’s Feast, 82 60 61
176. Anonymous. A Quatrain on “Ruaraidh Rodasach.”
177. Do. 20 lines. On a Harp.
179. Baron Ewin M’Comie. On Sickness, 133 102 103
179. Ossian. “Here I saw the Feinn,” 15 10 11
181. Fili fuge ebrietatem.
181. Three Quatrains. The authors of two,
Andrew M’Intosh and Gillespick M’Niel.
182. Latin Genealogy of our Lord.
183. Scotch. The divisions of Ireland.
184. Verses in Scotch.
185. Physiological Notes in Latin.
185. Et ego Jacobus Gregorii.
186. Chronicle in Latin, beginning with the death of Malcom Kenmore.
199. Measurements of Noah’s Ark.
199. Domhnull liath M’Dhughaill Mhic Grigoir. 62 lines. Satire.
202. Duncan Campbell, the good knight. 26 lines. On Old Age.
204. Author’s name wanting. To Archibald Earl of Argyle, 134 102 103
208. Dunchadh M’Dhughaill Mhaoil. The M’Gregors, 137 104 105
209. Mac Gille Fhiontaig, the poet. The M’Gregors, 141 108 109
212. Ossianic. Dialogue with St. Patrick, 84 62 63
215. Ossian. “Urnuidh Oisiain,” 17 12 13
216. Finlay, the red-haired bard. On Allan M’Ruarie, 143 110 111
217. Two Quatrains by Finlay M’Nab.
217. Anonymous. On the M’Leods of Lewis, 146 112 113
219. Latin Notes.
220. Ossian. “Fainesoluis,” 20 14 15
223. Dunchadh M’Dhughaill Mhaoil. 29 lines. Satire.
225. Duncan Campbell. 12 lines. Satire on Women.
225. Anonymous. 6 lines.
226. Gillebride beag M’Conmidhe. 85 lines. On M’Eachain.
230. Fergus the bard. “Cath Ghabhra,” 48 32 33
232. Allan M’Rory. “Cath Ghabhra,” 35 24 25
236. Gilliecallum Mac an Ollaimh. “Bàs Chonlaoich,” 50 34 35
239. Duncan Og. The Seven Mortal Sins, 155 128 129
240. Gilliecallum Mac an Ollaimh.
On John Lord of the Isles, 148 112 113
242. Genealogy of Malcom Kenmore.
244. Gilchrist Bruilingeach, bard an Lymin. 48 lines. On Irish Chiefs.
246. Turn O’Meilchonor. 84 lines. On Irish Chiefs.
249. Quatrain by Finlay the red.
250. Fragments. Two lines on St. Patrick.
251. Contissa Ergadien, Isabella. 8 lines.
251. Duncan Campbell, the good knight. On Priests.
252. Teague òg O’Huggin. 63 lines. On the Cross.
255. Muireach Albanach. 111 lines. Do.
260. Teague òg O’Huggin. 92 lines. Religious.
263. Arthur dall M’Gurkich. Attack on Castle Sween, 151 116 117
266. The Bard M’Intyre. A Ship on Loch Rannoch.
267. M’Pherson. 28 lines.
269. O’Meilchonor. 51 lines. On Nial frasach.
271. Gilchrist Taylor. 36 lines. Moral.
271. M’Cailein mòr, _id est_, Cailean maith. An Epigram.
273. Duncan òg Albanach. 37 lines. A Dream.
275. Gilchrist Taylor. 62 lines. On the Host.
278. Gille glas Mac an Tàileir. 48 lines. On M’Gregor.
279. Earl Gerald. 10 lines.
280. Ossianic. The Greatness of the Feinn, 87 64 65
281. Finlay the red. 26 lines. On M’Gregor.
282. The Bard M’Intyre. 26 lines.
284. Muireach Albanach. A Prayer, 159 122 123
285. Isabella Ni vic Cailein. 6 lines.
286. Anonymous. 36 lines. Indistinct.
287. Ossianic, 88 64 65
291. Latin. The Ages of the World.
292. Isabella Ni vic Cailein, 155 118 119
293. Teague òg O’Huggin. 26 lines.
294. Ossian. Eulogy on Finn, 26 18 19
296. Duncan mor O’Daly. 54 lines. To the Virgin.
301. An caoch O’Cluain. “Fraoch,” 54 36 37
303. Earl Gerald. 20 lines.
304. Finlay, the red-haired bard. 39 lines. On M’Diarmad. Illegible.
306. Duncan M’Cailein. 8 lines.
307. Anonymous. 15 lines. Indistinct.
307. Muireach Albanach. A Lament. 98 lines. Indistinct.

THE BOOK OF THE DEAN OF LISMORE.

The author of this is Ossian,[40] the son of Finn:[41]

I’ve seen the household of Finn.
No men were they of coward race.
I saw by my side a vision
Of the hero’s household yesterday.
I’ve seen the household[42] of Art,[43]
He with the brown-haired son of gentle speech;
No better man I ever saw.
I’ve seen the household of Finn.
Who ever saw what I have seen?
I’ve seen Finn armed with Luno’s son.[44]
How sad the mournful memory.
I’ve seen the household of Finn.
Never can I recount the ills
Which now do crown my head.
Do thou free us for ever from pain.
I’ve seen the household of Finn.
I’ve seen, etc.

[40] The name of this poet has given rise to some controversy between the Scotch and Irish Gael. By the latter it is pronounced _Oisìn_, the accent falling on the last syllable; by the former it is pronounced _Ossian_, the accent falling on the first. Dean M’Gregor spells the word sometimes _Ossan_, but usually _Ossin_. It is manifest from the use of the _ss_ that he intends the accent to fall upon the first syllable, according to the Scottish mode. The Scottish pronunciation would appear to have been the same in his days as now. This form of the word we have retained in our translation. We do not mean to institute any comparison between the Irish and Scottish mode. The difference clearly arises from the peculiarity of each dialect, the Irish almost uniformly, in words of two syllables, laying the accent on the last, and the Scottish upon the first syllable.

[41] The Dean’s Finn is the Fingal of some writers. “Fionn,” pronounced “Fiŭghn,” genitive, “Fhinn,” pronounced “Ighn,” is the present Scottish and Irish form of the word, and we have preserved this in M’Gregor’s own orthography. Scottish writers have, however, been unjustly accused of manufacturing the term “Fingal.” It is not, as some Irish scholars have maintained, a modern corruption of Fin mac Cùil, but a word known and in use for centuries. John Barbour, who wrote his metrical life of King Robert Bruce in 1375, uses it as a familiar term:--

“He said, Methinks Martheoke’s son
Right as Gow-mac-Morn was won,
To have from Fingal his menzie.”