Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 28, 1917.djvu/466

 COLLECTANEA.

A Study in the Legends of the Connacht Coast, Ireland. Part II.

{Continued from Vol. XXVIII., p. iSo ct sqq.)

Mediceval and Later Events.

The Danes. — It is surprising and disappointing to find in so many places in Ireland, after so rich a mass of folk-tales relating to heroes and saints, a barren tract in which rarely a stunted version of some later historic event is found by careful seekers. Who that has read The Wars of the Gaedhil with the Gaill would fancy that the devastations of the Danes could hardly be found to have left a trace in modern stories ? The names of the Norse (Lochlannach) and Danes are widely known. The curious green tracks on the heathery flanks of Slievemore on Achill, between the earns and dolmens are " Danes' tracks," " Danes' Ditches," " An cloidhe Lochlannach," and such-like names. Souterrains in certain earthworks near Killala and sea caves, notably one on the Mullet at Broadhaven, are " Danes' Cellars," or (as Otway gives it) " Cellair na Lochlannach." ^ They were reputedly the places where the Danes hid their trea- sures, whence the name and legend of " Victory " near Killala. The Danish origin of certain forts near the last was strongly asserted—" the Danes were mighty strong in Ireland when they put together this place (rath) who else could do them } " said one peasant to Otway, and the man went on to tell how a Danish ship came from Norway and he saw a man aboard 1 Sketches in Erris and Tyrawly, p. 71.