Blair Collection > Beside the fire

PREFACE. Xxiii
lease of its life, and gone forth to conquer ; for while it
continued to be constantly copied in Irish manuscripts,
thus proving its popularity as a written tale, it continued
to be recited verbally in Scotland in something like the
same bardic and inflated language made use of by the
Irish writer, and with pretty nearly the same sequence
of incidents, the three adventurers, whose Irish names
are Ur, Artuir, and lollann, having become transmog-
rified into Ur, Athairt, and lullar, in the mouth of the
Highland reciter. I think it highly improbable, however,
that at the time of this story being composed — largely
out of folk-tale incidents — it was also committed to
paper. I think it much more likely that the story was
committed to writing by some Irish scribe, only after
it had gained so great a vogue as to spread through
both Ireland and Scotland. This would account for the
fact that all the existing MSS. of this story, and of
many others like it, are, as far as I am aware, compara-
tively modern.* Another argument in favour of this
* The manuscript in which I first read this story is a typical one of a class
very numerous all over the country, until O'Connell and the Parliamentarians,
with the aid of the Catholic prelates, gained the ear and the leadership of the
nation, and by their more than indifference to things Gaelic put an end to all
that was really Irish, and taught the people to speak English, to look to London,
and to read newspapers. This particular MS, was written by one Seorsa
MacEineircineadh, whoever he was, and it is black with dirt, reeking with turf
smoke, and worn away at the corners by repeated reading. Besides this story it
contains a number of others, such as " The Rearing of Cuchulain," " The Death
of Conlaoch," "The King of Spain's Son," etc., with many Ossianic and elegiac
poems. The people used to gather in at night to hear these read, and, I am
sure, nobody who understands the contents of these MSS., and the beautiful