Page:Kuno Meyer - Cath Finntrága.djvu/14

x ascribed to Gilla in Chomded úa Cormaic (a poet of the twelfth century), and beginning A rí richid, reidig dam, in which, among other motley contents, the whole of the Macgnímrada Finn are told with every particular and detail, even to the quotation of some verses that actually occur in the prose story of the fifteenth century. The passage here referred to runs thus in LL. pp. 144 b and 145 a :

Ra dith Find hua Fidga ic feiss i n-digail Orcbeil eícis tíar oc Cíchib (comal n-grind) di ṡleig Ḟiaclach maic Conchind. Da ṡenrand ra chuala Find i n-dumu Chich uas a chind: Ra gdet hua Fidga fossad,' dun rand díb ba dergthossach. 'Is neim in gae' tossach trén don rund aile ní aithgén.

Compare with this § 25 of the Macgnímartha Finn as published by me in the 'Revue Celtique,' vol. v. p. 203.

Another of the most striking instances of a story originally belonging to the heroic cycle being simply transferred to a favourite hero of the Ossianic cycle is the account of the birth of Cáilte, the nephew of Finn mac Cumaill, given in the same poem by Gilla in Chomded úa Cormaic, and again in the Book of Leinster, p. 379 a. This story, as will be seen, is identical with that of the birth of the emuin Machæ, or twins of Macha, in the Noinden Ulad. This is what Gilla in Chomded says, LL. p. 145 a:

Cailti tacrait lind laidi mac sethar Find findchaemi. Ar bi bruth di echaib ríg Ruis do mnai ra comlund a chuiss. And sin rucad Cailti cáid i n-oenuch corcra Colmain.

In LL. p. 379 a, this sister of Finn's is called Side, and the same adventure is thus told: ''Ocus is i in t-Sidhe sin ingen Cumaill ro choimh-rith fri dha gabhar in righ Eoghain Mhoir i n-einech Colmain, Ro bo torrach tra Sidhe in inbaidh sin ro coimrith fri hechaibh in righ. Ro tusimh Sidhe a toirrchus iar sin for chenn na blai iar forgbhail na n-gabur ⁊ rug mac .i. Cailti, Is de isberar la cach: is luathidhir Sidhe ⁊ móran archena''. Here, then, we have another tale borrowed with all