Before the Tain, pages 1 - 20 Summary

The poets of Ireland gather to a man named Senchan Torpeist, in order to collect and recall the various stories of the "Tain Bo Cuailnge" in its entirety. They find they only know parts of it, so Senchan sends a group of young scholars to find the rest of the story, found in a book called Cuilmenn. One of these scholars was Senchan's son, Muirgen. When the scholars stop for the night on their journey, Muirgen finds the gravestone of Fergus mac Roich (one of the characters in the Tain). He prays over the grave to find the complete Tain and the figure of Fergus appears before him in a mist, who recites the whole Tain. Their mission accomplished, they return to Senchan, who rejoices.

In some ancestral lead-ups to the Tain, young Nes happens...