The charming tale, of his marriage with Ethne ni Dunlaing is taken from Keating’s FORUS FEASA.  From this source also I have taken the tales of the Brehon Flahari, of Kiernit and the mill, and of Cormac’s death and burial.  The Instructions of Cormac have been edited and translated by Dr Kuno Meyer in the Todd Lecture Series of the Royal Irish Academy, xiv., April 1909.  They are found in numerous MSS., and their date is fixed by Dr Meyer about the ninth century.  With some other Irish matter of the same description they constitute, says Mr Alfred Nutt, “the oldest body of gnomic wisdom” extant in any European vernacular. (FOLK-LORE, Sept. 30, 1909.)

The story of Cormac’s adventures in Fairyland has been published with a translation by Standish Hayes O’Grady in the TRANSACTIONS OF THE OSSIANIC SOCIETY, vol. iii., and is also given very fully by d’Arbois de Jubainvilie in his CYCLE MYTHOLOGIQUE IRLANDAIS.  The tale is found, among other MSS., in the BOOK OF BALLYMOTE, but is known to have been extant at least as early as the tenth century, since in that year it figures in a list of Gaelic tales drawn up by the historian Tierna.

The ingenious story of the Judgment concerning Cormac’s Sword is found in the BOOK OF BALLYMOTE, and is printed with a translation by Dr Whitly Stokes in IRISCHE TEXTE, iii.  Serie, 7 Heft, 1891.

Pronouncing Index

The correct pronunciation of Gaelic proper names can only be learned from the living voice.  It cannot be accurately represented by any combination of letters from the English alphabet.  I have spared the reader as much trouble as possible on this score by simplifying, as far as I could, the forms of the names occurring in the text, and if the reader will note the following general rules, he will get quite as near to the pronunciation intended as there is any necessity for him to do.  A few names which might present some unusual difficulty are given with their approximate English pronunciations in the Index.

The chief rule to observe is that vowels are pronounced as in the Continental languages, not according to the custom peculiar to England.  Thus a is like a in father, never like a in fate, I(when long) is like ee, u like oo, or like u in put (never like u in tune).  An accent implies length, thus Dun, a fortress or mansion, is pronounced Doon.  The letters ch are never to be pronounced with a t sound, as in the word chip, but like a rough h or a softened k, rather as in German. Gh is silent as in English, and g is always hard, as in give. C is always as k, never as s.

In the following Index an accent placed after a syllable indicates that the stress is to be laid on that syllable.  Only those words are given, the pronunciation of which is not easily ascertainable by attention to the foregoing rules.