318 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



the modicum of philosophy which he has thus acquired, would produce a 

 literary composition not unlike that outlined above. 1 



But we have not yet finished with these lists and their syncretisms. One 

 of the commonest ways of identifying . - I gether is by affiliation, making 

 the one the son of the other. To In Dagdae was affiliated in this way one of 

 the greatest of the gods of Pagan Ireland, Oengus in Broga. 



istant tradition associated Oengus in Broga with the colossal monument 

 now called New Grange, the chief sepulchre of the Boyne valley. And there 

 - 11 to suppose that tradition is hei- The very existence 



of the mound moves the historicity of the owner, just as absolutely as any of 

 the Egyptian pyramids would prove the existence of t he king who built it, 

 even if no other record of him survived. The tomb must have been a 

 tuaiy almost from the first, and the deification of Oengus established and 

 fixed his name in tradition, just as the names of river-gods have been fixed in 

 tradition. We find Oengus worshipped in treland down to the seventh 

 century A.D.; in L \ that the jester 1 of 



king Cinaed put his horse under tl I rhile bis Christian 



mastei put I under the protection of St. Colman, with the natural 



It that the hi tolen, while the king's remained safe— 



ther of tl ammunition in the war of creeds. 



Now there is another tradition as to the parentage of Oengus which has 

 never been explained, enshrined in his full nam Ot ■ ■ Oengus 



■f the Two Youths." A first clue as to tin- meaning of this nam< 

 afforded us by tb •. The name ther _ In Dagdae 



n. "Old Gann "; this name is immediately preceded by 

 two ..ther Ganns ntiated slight! an ami Genann, who may be 



tentatively described as the two Young (lanns.*' i 



But we ma] ner.aml find al the end a striking 



Brmation of the views put forward in the foregoing _ rell as a 



traditions on which the epic was based. 



In 1 ' ["volume- mi tiii- I m.seuri. especially 



the above words I have re-read, for a different purpose, M. Salomon - 



Under its influence I am inclined to wonder 



•her it is D OW India — whether, indeed, the inspiration 



did not travel iry direction Bal inl • the mazes of speculation which such a 



would open up I dar.- not venture, and I allow the text to stand as originally 



written. 



• Todd Lectures edition, p. 87. 



1 Doubtless meaning dniid : the Christian historians were not above taking advantage 

 of the similarity between the words druth and drui. 



' In passing we may note a tradition that made Gann and Genann two Fomorian 

 leaders : see Heating's History (ed. I.T S. i, p. 178). 



