Page:Kuno Meyer - Cath Finntrága.djvu/13

Rh the people in the South and West of Ireland. No mention, however, is found in the older Irish literature, and it is thus likely that, as in the case of the Toruigheacht Dhiarmuda agus Ghrainne, the oldest MS. copy of which also dates from the fifteenth century, the origin of the story itself must not be referred back to a much earlier date than that of its oldest MS. Indeed the language of the text plainly shows that it cannot have been copied from a much older MS. Nor is internal evidence tending in the same direction wanting. Whether, as in the case of most of the older tales of the Ossianic cycle, there is some historical basis for the story, it is impossible for me to say. As to the romantic accretions, they are the same as in all later Irish compositions. They have come partly from the inexhaustible treasure of Irish popular thought and fancy, and partly from those tales derived from the classics, such as the Togail Troi, the story of Alexander, the Merugud Uiliux, &c., which, since their translation in the twelfth century have passed into Irish literature. As an example of such classical reminiscences I would regard the statement l. 19, that the cause of the invasion of Erinn by the combined kings and armies of the world was the elopement of Finn with the wife and daughter of the king of France, which is clearly a reminiscence of the origin of the Trojan war; or, better still, the invulnerable Daire Donn, and the story of the weapons made by 'Vulcan, the smith of hell,' in the Egerton version.

The question may, however, be asked, though, as just said, I would not allow it in the case of the Cath Finntrága, whether it is not by a mere chance, namely, the accidental loss of older MSS., that most of the Ossianic tales have come down to us in later MSS. only. For the decision of this question I have the following data to offer, without being, as yet, in a position to draw more general conclusions from them.

It is now commonly assumed that many of the most popular tales of the Ossianic cycle were formed on the pattern of the heroic, a practice of which the Macgnímrada Finn offer a good instance. But no attempt has yet been made to fix the time when this adaptation of old features and elements to the favourite figures of the more modern cycle took place.

As I first pointed out in a letter to the 'Academy' of February 21, 1885, there is in the Book of Leinster, pp. 143a-145a, a poem