Dursan, a eo oir a Fhirdiad na n-dam a belc bemnig buain ba buadach do lamh.

The last syllable of the third line has no rhyme beyond the echo in the second syllable of the next line; oir, “gold,” has no rhyme till the word is repeated in the third line of the third verse, rhymed in the second line of the fourth, and finally repeated at the end.  The second verse has two final words echoed, brass and maeth; it runs thus

Do barr bude brass ba cass, ba cain set; do chriss duillech maeth immut taeb gu t-ec.

The rhymes in the last two verses are exactly those of the reproduction, they are cain sair, main, laim, chain, the other three end rhymes being oir, choir, and oir.

Line 3 of this poem is “O hero of strong-striking blows.”

Line 4.  “Triumphant was thine arm.”

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Lines 11 and 12 of the poem.  “Go ye all to the swift battle that shall come to you from German the green-terrible” (? of the terrible green spear).

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Line 12.  The Torrian Sea is the Mediterranean.

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Line 15.  Literally:  “Thou in death, I alive and nimble.”

Line 23.  “Wars were gay, &c.”  Cluchi cach, gaine cach, “Each was a game, each was little,” taking gaine as gainne, the known derivative of gand, “scanty.”  O’Curry gives the meaning as “sport,” and has been followed by subsequent translators, but there does not seem any confirmation of this rendering.

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Line 10.  Banba is one of the names of Ireland.

END OF VOL.  I.

VOL.  II

@@{Redactors Note:  In the original book the ‘Literal Translation’ is printed on facing pages to the poetic translation.  In this etext the literal translation portions have been collated after the poetic translation, for the sake of readability.  Hence the page numbers are not sequential—­JBH}

PREFACE TO VOL.  II

It seems to have been customary in ancient Ireland to precede by shorter stories the recital of the Great Tain, the central story of the Irish Heroic Age.  A list of fourteen of these “lesser Tains,” three of which are lost, is given in Miss Hull’s “Cuchullin Saga”; those preserved are the Tain bo Aingen, Dartada, Flidais, Fraich, Munad, Regamon, Regamna, Ros, Ruanadh, Sailin, and Ere.  Of these, five only have been edited, viz. the Tain bo Dartada, Flidais, Fraich, Regamon, and Regamna; all these five are given in this volume.