INTR OD UC TION. i x 



the people in the South aiid West of Ireland. No mention, however, is 

 found in the older Irish hterature, and it is thus Hkely that, as in the 

 case of the Toruigheacht DJiianmida agiis GJirainne^ the oldest MS. copy 

 of which also dates from the fifteenth century, the origin of the story 

 itself must not be referred back to a much earher date than that of 

 its oldest MS. Indeed the language of the text plainly shows that it 

 cannot have been copied from a much older MS. Nor is internal 

 evidence tending in the same direction wanting. Whether, as in the 

 case of most of the older tales of the Ossianic cycle, there is some 

 historical basis for the story, it is impossible for me to say. As to the 

 romantic accretions, they are the same as in all later Irish compositions. 

 They have come partly from the inexhaustible treasure of Irish popular 

 thought and fancy, and partly from those tales derived from the classics, 

 such as the Togail Troi, the story of Alexander, the Merugud Uiliux, &c., 

 which, since their translation in the twelfth century have passed into Irish 

 hterature. As an example of such classical reminiscences I would regard 

 the statement L 19, that the cause of the invasion of Erinn by the com- 

 bined kings and armies of the world was the elopement of Finn with 

 the wife and daughter of the king of France, which is clearly a reminis- 

 cence of the origin of the Trojan war ; or, better still, the invulnerable 

 Daire Donn, and the story of the weapons made by ' Vulcan, the smith 

 of hell,' in the Egerton version. 



The question may, however, be asked, though, as just said, I would 

 not allow it in the case of the Cath Finntrdga, whether it is not by 

 a mere chance, namely, the accidental loss of older MSS., that most of 

 the Ossianic tales have come down to us in later MSS. only. For the 

 decision of this question I have the following data to offer, without being, 

 as yet, in a position to draw more general conclusions from them. 



It is now commonly assumed that many of the most popular tales of 

 the Ossianic cycle were formed on the pattern of thc heroic, a practice 

 of which the Macgnimrada Finn offer a good instance. But no attempt 

 has yet been made to fix the time when this adaptation of old features 

 and elements to the favourite figures 6f the more modern cycle took 

 place. 



As I first pointed out in a letter to the 'Academy' of Fcbruary 

 21, 1885, there is in the Book of Leinster, pp. 143^-145^, a poem 



b 



