I. WHO WERE THE CELTS? II. EARLIEST ALLUSIONS TO IRELAND FROM FOREIGN SOURCES III. EARLY HISTORY DRAWN FROM NATIVE SOURCES IV. HOW FAR CAN NATIVE SOURCES BE RELIED ON? V. THE PRE-MILESIAN FABLE AND EARLY PANTHEON VI. EVIDENCE OF TOPOGRAPHY AND GENEALOGY VII. DOCUMENTARY EVIDENCE VIII. CONFUSION BETWEEN GODS AND MEN IX. DRUIDISM X. THE IRISH ELYSIUM AND BELIEF IN REBIRTH XI. EARLY USE OF LETTERS, OGAM AND ROMAN XII. EARLY IRISH CIVILISATION XIII. ST. PATRICK AND THE EARLY MISSIONARIES XIV. ST. BRIGIT XV. COLUMCILLE XVI. THE FIRST SCHOOLS OF CHRISTIAN IRELAND XVII. THEIR FAME AND TEACHING XVIII. CONFLICTS WITH THE CIVIL POWER XIX. THE BARDIC SCHOOLS XX. THE SUGGESTIVELY PAGAN ELEMENT IN IRISH LITERATURE XXI. THE OLDEST BOOKS AND POEMS XXII. EARLY SAGA AND ROMANCE XXIII. THE MYTHOLOGICAL CYCLE XXIV. THE HEROIC OR RED BRANCH CYCLE--CUCHULAIN XXV. DÉIRDRE XXVI. THE TÁIN BO CHUAILGNE XXVII. THE DEATH OF CUCHULAIN XXVIII. OTHER SAGAS OF THE RED BRANCH XXIX. THE FENIAN CYCLE XXX. MISCELLANEOUS ROMANCE XXXI. PRE-DANISH POETS XXXII. THE DANISH PERIOD XXXIII. FROM CLONTARF TO THE NORMAN CONQUEST XXXIV. SUDDEN ARREST OF IRISH DEVELOPMENT XXXV. FOUR CENTURIES OF DECAY XXXVI. DEVELOPMENT OF IRISH POETRY XXXVII. THE OSSIANIC POEMS XXXVIII. THE LAST OF THE CLASSIC POETS XXXIX. RISE OF A NEW SCHOOL XL. PROSE WRITERS OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY XLI. THE IRISH ANNALS XLII. THE BREHON LAWS XLIII. THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY XLIV. THE HISTORY OF IRISH AS A SPOKEN LANGUAGE INDEX Literary History of Ireland CHAPTER I WHO WERE THE CELTS? Who were those Celts, of whose race the Irish are to-day perhaps the most striking representatives, and upon whose past the ancient literature of Ireland can best throw light? Like the Greeks, like the Romans, like the English, this great people, which once ruled over a fourth of Europe, sprang from a small beginning and from narrow confines. The earliest home of the race from which they spread their conquering arms may be said, roughly speaking, to have lain along both banks of the upper Danube, and in that portion of Europe comprised to-day in the kingdoms of Bavaria and Würtemberg and the Grand Duchy of Baden, with the country drained by the river Maine to the east of the Rhine basin. In other words, the Celtic race and the Celtic language sprang from the heart of what is to-day modern Germany, and issuing thence established for over two centuries a vast empire held together by the ties of political unity and a common language over all North-west and Central Europe.