[Then the young men go away with the cows in the midst, and the maiden was with them; but Corp Liath, the son of Tassach, met them with seven times twenty warriors to oppose their march.  A battle was fought], and in that place fell the sons of the kings of Connaught, together with the warriors who had gone with them, all except Orlam and eight others,[FN#61] who carried away with them the kine, even the forty milch-cows, and fifty heifers, [so that they came into the land of Connaught]; but the maiden fell at the beginning of the fight.

[FN#61] Y.B.L. inserts Dartaid’s death at this point:  “and Dartaid fell at the beginning of the fight, together with the stately sons of Connaught.”

Hence is that place called Imlech Dartaid, (the Lake Shore of Darta), in the land of Cliu, [where Dartaid, the daughter of Eocho, the son of Corpre, fell:  and for this reason this story is called the Tain bo Dartae, it is one of the preludes to the Tain bo Cualnge].

THE RAID FOR THE CATTLE OF REGAMON

INTRODUCTION

The two versions of this tale, given by Windisch in the Irische Texte, II. pp. 224-238, are from the same manuscripts as the two versions of the Raid of the Cattle of Dartaid; namely the Yellow Book of Lecan, and the Egerton Ms. 1782.  In the case of this tale, the Yellow Book version is more legible, and, being not only the older, but a little more full than the other version, Windisch has translated this text alone:  the prose version, as given here, follows this manuscript, nearly as given by Windisch, with only one addition from the Egerton Ms.; the omissions in the Egerton Ms. are not mentioned, but one or two changes in words adopted from this Ms. are mentioned in the foot-notes to the prose rendering.

The whole tone of the tale is very unlike the tragic character of those romances, which have been sometimes supposed to represent the general character of old Irish literature:  there is not even a hint of the super-natural; the story contains no slaughter; the youthful raiders seem to be regarded as quite irresponsible persons, and the whole is an excellent example of an old Celtic:  romance with what is to-day called a “good ending.”

THE RAID FOR THE CATTLE OF REGAMON

FROM THE YELLOW BOOK OF LECAN

(A manuscript of the fourteenth century)

When Ailill and Maev in the Connaught land abode, and the lordship held, A chief who many a field possessed in the land of Connaught dwelled:  A great, and a fair, and a goodly herd of kine had the chieftain won:  And his fame in the fight was in all men’s word; his name was Regamon.  Now seven daughters had Regamon; they dwelt at home with their sire:  Yet the seven sons of King Ailill and Maev their beauty