Matheson Collection > Death-tales of the Ulster heroes

PREFACE vii
kindly supplied me with a transcript of the version contained
in the Liber Flavus Fergusiorum ; and Mr. R I. Best has copied,
and placed at my disposal, the version in 23. N. 10, a MS. in the
library of the Royal Irish Academy.
The tale last mentioned in the list, that of the Death of
Fiamain, seems now lost. At least, so far as I know, no copy
of it has yet been discovered ; nor does Keating give any
account of it. Fiamain mac Forrói is mentioned in Tochmarc
Emire as one of those Irish youths who were learning feats of
arms with Scáthach in Britain when Cúchulinn came there for
the same purpose (see Zeitschr. ill., p. 250, § 67) ; and in the
poem at the end of that tale (ib., p. 262, 1. 8) a Fiamain is
enumerated among the young warriors in the Cráeb Rúad at
Emain Macha. But whether this was Fiamain mac Forrói or
some other Fiamain is doubtful. The only other references to
the former that I can find are — first, one in Cináed húa Harta-
cáin's poem on the deaths of some of the nobles of Erin, which
has been edited and translated by Whitley Stokes in Bevue
Celtique, vol. xxiii., p. 303 ff. Here he is said to have been
slain at Dun mBinne, 1 a fort that has not been identified. A
battle of Duma Beinne is mentioned in Cath Maige Rath, p. 211.
The other reference to Fiamain mac Forrói occurs in a poem
in that tale, p. 213 : ' Seven battles around Cathir Conrói, the
wrecking of Fiamain mac Forói, the wrecking of Cúrói, together
with the seventeen sons of Deda.'
In addition to these Ulster death-tales, the Edinburgh
manuscript contains an account of the death of the redoubt-
able Connaught warrior Cet mac Magach. Of this story, as
it has not hitherto been published, I add an edition and
translation.
K. M.
1 Forbais Báin Binni is the title of a tale mentioned in the list in the Book of
Leinster, p. 189 c ; but no copy of it is known.