Page:The courtship of Ferb (Leahy).djvu/17

 romances, such as the story of Deirdre, or The Courtship of Ferb, are notable examples of cante fable; although these tales, preserved for us in manuscripts of the eleventh and twelfth centuries, were certainly composed long before the actual dates of the manuscripts, and are literally centuries older than any other European examples of this style of writing.

Now, although several of these Irish instances of blended story and song have been translated, no attempt has yet been made to reproduce their form in an English version. The literal translations of the poetry found in