Produced by David Edwards, Rory OConor and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive) OLD CELTIC ROMANCES OLD CELTIC ROMANCES translated from the gaelic BY P.W. JOYCE, M.A., LL.D., T.C.D. M.R.I.A. _One of the Commissioners for the Publication of the Ancient Laws of Ireland President of the Royal Society of Antiquaries, Ireland_ Author of "A SOCIAL HISTORY OF ANCIENT IRELAND" "THE STORY OF ANCIENT IRISH CIVILISATION" "A SHORT HISTORY OF IRELAND" "A CHILD'S HISTORY OF IRELAND" "IRISH NAMES OF PLACES" "ANCIENT IRISH MUSIC" AND OTHER WORKS RELATING TO IRELAND "I shall tell you a pretty tale" --Coriolanus. DUBLIN THE EDUCATIONAL CO. OF IRELAND, LIMITED 89 TALBOT STREET LONDON LONGMANS, GREEN, AND COMPANY 39 PATERNOSTER ROW 1920 PREFACE. Among the Celtic people of Ireland and the north-west of Scotland, story-telling has always been a favourite amusement. In the olden time, they had professional story-tellers, variously designated according to rank--ollaves, shanachies, filès, bards, etc.--whose duty it was to know by heart a number of old tales, poems, and historical pieces, and to recite them at festive gatherings, for the entertainment of the chiefs and their guests. These story-tellers were always well received at the houses of princes and chiefs, and treated with much consideration; and on occasions when they acquitted themselves well, so as to draw down the applause of the audience, they were often rewarded with costly presents. To meet the demand for this sort of entertainment, ingenious "men of learning," taking legends or historical events as themes, composed stories from time to time; of which those that struck the popular fancy were caught up and remembered, and handed down from one generation of story-tellers to another. In course of time, a body of romantic literature grew up, consisting chiefly of prose tales, which were classified, according to subject, into Battles, Voyages, Tragedies, Military Expeditions, Cattle-Raids, Courtships, Pursuits, Adventures, Visions, etc.[I.] Some of these tales were historical, _i.e._ founded on historical events, and corresponded closely with what is now called the historical romance; while others were altogether fictitious--pure creations of the imagination. But it is to be observed that even in the fictitious tales, the main characters are always historical, or such as were considered so. The old ollaves wove their fictions round Conor Mac Nessa and his Red Branch Knights, or Finn and his Fena, or Luga of the Long Arms and his Dedannans, or Conn the Hundred-fighter, or Cormac Mac Art; like the Welsh legends of Arthur and his Round Table, or the Arabian romances of Haroun-al-Raschid and his Court.