Page:Kuno Meyer - Cath Finntrága.djvu/12

viii of the story of Gelges seeking the body of her husband among the slain, as well as her lament. To give an idea of the variants of these later versions, and at the same time to supply the gaps in Rawl. mentioned above, I have selected the copy contained in the British Museum MS. Egerton 149, pp. 109 seqq., which, though written as late as 1821, yet on the whole gives the best text among these later copies.

Beside these prose versions there exists, in the Book of the Dean of Lismore, also a poetic account of the Battle of Ventry in the form of a dialogue between Ossian and Patrick; see M'Lauchlan's edition, pp. 7 seqq. The chief discrepancies with our version are the following. Daire Donn is introduced as king of Lochlann (Daor Done reith Lochlin) though later on he is also called King of the World. Conn, and not Cormac mac Airt, is mentioned as monarch of Erinn at the time. There is no mention of the Túatha Dé Danand, though the line hanyth ith chawr zar wane twoa dey hug ass gi knok, which M'Lauchlan thus gives in modern Gaelic: thainig de chabhar do'r Feinn sluagh do thugas gach cnoc, seems to be a reminiscence of the old tradition. Cairbre Lifechair (Carbryth Loaechr) comes to the rescue with four 'bands;' Conncrithir (Cownkrer) 'slays the men of India, and raises their king's head on the mountain-side ' (ruk sloyg nyn hynea zeive, is di hog ea kenni reith er knok). The son of the king of Ulster is called Conn (Cown m' reith Wllith). While none of the men of the world escape from the slaughter, except the king of France, who flees before Oscur like a swallow to Glen Baltan, there survive two 'ordered bands' of the Fenians, one band of the clanna Baiscne (cath di clanni Bisskyni) and one of the clanna Morna (cath di clanni Mornyth).

The numerous copies of our tale as well as frequent references to it in modern Irish literature show that it was one of the favourite romantic compositions of the Irish, and indeed its memory still lingers on among