Blair Collection > Celtic magazine > Volume 5

288 tHE CELTIC MAGAZINE.
story-teller never chose his own words — he always had the story by heart, j i
and recited the words from memory, often gliding into a sort of recitative j i
in poetical passages, or when he came to some favourite grandiose descrip- I j
tiou abounding in high-sounding alliterative adjectives. And very in- 1 1
teresting it was to mark the rapt attention of the audience, and to hear j ■■'.
their excited exclamations when the speaker came to relate some mighty U
combat, some great exploit of the hero, or some other striking incident.' ii
Three years ago, I met a man in Kilkee, who had a great number of these |
stories by heart, and who actually repeated for me, without the slightest I '",
hitch or hesitation, more than half — and if I had not stopped him would \ i
have given me the whole — of ' Ciiirt an Mheadhon-Oidhche ' (' The Mid- ' j
night Court'), a poem about six times as long as Gray's 'Elegy.'" j
It is not only " within our memory " to see taking place, in the West ' ;
Highlands of Scotland, the thing here described ; but we have within the 1 1
last 30 years actually taken part in them in our " Highland Ceilidhs," of ; >
which we have given some accounts and specimens in the earlier volumes ' i
of the Celtic Magazine. They are, however, now fast becoming things of j \
the past even in the Higlilands of Scotland ; and it would not be difficult ! i
to prove that the modern and more, fashionable amusements which are ! !
taking their place is a long way short, in many respects, of being an ini- \ i
provement. We can, however, enjoy our ceilidhs over again in such • i
Avorks as the one before us ; and all those who wish to joossess specimens ' '
of our Celtic romances, recited on such occasions, should place themselves i i
in possession of Professor Joyce's most interesting and amusing work. i
The stories given are two of '' The Three Tragic Stories of Erin," ; ,
namely, " The fate of the Children of Lir," taken from a copy of about j i
1680-1700, but it is understood that older copies exist in some of the ;c
public libraries; and "The Fate of the Children of Tureun," mainly jl
taken from the Book of Leccan, compiled about 1416; but there are [i
references to the principal characters in it in Cormac's Glossary, writ- ■ i
ten about the year 900 ; and in an old poem by Flann of Monasterboice, ' :
who died in 1066, and a copy of which is in the Book of Leinster, written, li
about 1130. " The Overflowing of Loch Neagh," " Connla of the Golden ; !
Hair," and " The Fairy Maiden," and " The Voyage of Maildun," are i f
taken from the Book of the Dun Cow, the oldest manuscript of Gaelic It
literature possessed by the Irish, and which was transcribed from an older ! i
book by Maelmuire Mac Ceilechair, who died in 1106. These are capital U
stories — the second illustrating fairy pranks and superstition in the Green i !
Isle, while figuring in it we find the famous Conn of the Hundred Battles, i
a well-known historical character of the second century. The third — j
" The Voyage of Maildun," "The Fairy Palace ol the Quicken Trees," j,
and " The Pursuit of the Gilla Backer and his Horse," we have revelled j i
in with peculiar and intense delight — the latter being especially beautiful, j;
and a marvel of creative fancy. " The Pursuit of Dermat and Grania " | i
can hardly be surpassed, in this class of literature, in some of its principal i i
episodes for pathos and power ; while the last three in the book — " The j ;
Chase of Slieve Cullinn," " The Chase of Slieve Fuad," and " Oisin in \ 1
Tii'uauoge," are ijerfect gems of their kind. ■ |
The value of the book is much enhanced by the addition at the end, i 1
as well as in the body, of learned " notes," and a list of the proper names \\
occurring iu the text, with their Gaelic and English meanings. I !