This tale is given by Windisch (Irische Texte, II. pp. 185-205), from
two versions; one, whose translation he gives in full, except for one
doubtful passage, is from the manuscript in the British Museum, known
as Egerton, 1782 (dated 1414); the other is from the Yellow Book of
Lecan (fourteenth century), in the library of Trinity College, Dublin.
The version in the Yellow Book is sometimes hard to read, which seems
to be the reason why Windisch prefers to translate the younger
authority, but though in some places the Egerton version is the fuller,
the Yellow Book version (Y.B.L.) often adds passages, some of which
Windisch has given in notes; some he has left untranslated. In the
following prose version as much of Y.B.L. as adds anything to the
Egerton text has been translated, with marks of interrogation where the
attempted rendering is not certain: variants from the text adopted are
placed below the prose version as footnotes. The insertions from
Y.B.L. are indicated by brackets; but no note is taken of cases where
the Egerton version is fuller than Y.B.L.
The opening of the story (the first five lines in the verse rendering)
is in the eleventh century Book of the Dun Cow: the fragment agrees
closely with the two later texts, differing in fact from Y.B.L. in one
word only. All three texts are given in the original by Windisch.
The story is simple and straightforward, but is a good example of fairy
vengeance, the description of the appearance of the troop recalls
similar descriptions in the Tain bo Fraich, and in the Courtship of
Ferb. The tale is further noticeable from its connection with the
province of Munster: most of the heroic tales are connected with the
other three provinces only. Orlam, the hero of the end of the tale, was
one of Cuchulain's earliest victims in the Tain bo Cualgne.
THE RAID FOR DARTAID'S CATTLE
FROM THE EGERTON MS. 1782 (EARLY FIFTEENTH-CENTURY), AND THE YELLOW
BOOK OF LECAN (FOURTEENTH-CENTURY)
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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