Matheson Collection > Early Irish reader

4 THE STORY OF MAC DATHÓ'S PIG
The question of the relationship of the poems 1 to the prose
text of our saga is one of considerable interest owing to the
wide differences shown by the various texts in this respect. In
chs. 1 and 17, Rawl. B. 512 and Ed. XXXVI insert poems not
found in the other versions. These mss. omit the dialogue poem
in ch. 3 which is included in LL., H. 3. 18, and Harl. 5280, quot-
ing however the first line to indicate its existence. The rhetorics
in ch. 15 are included in all texts except Ed. (cf. p. 55); but
a poem which is attached to the saga after ch. 20 in LL. and
H. 3. 18, and which occurs also in Harl. 5280, is not found in Rawl.
B. 512 or Ed. Thurneysen notes 2 that it is by a different author
from the saga and does not really belong to it. It consists of a
catalogue of the heroes who took part in the fight, including the
names of some heroes who have not been mentioned in the saga,
and differing from the latter in some details. Harl. 5280 adds
after this a poem which appears independently of the saga in
at least two other mss., 3 viz. Y.B.L. fo. 259, 2 b (after the Dind-
senchas of Mag Lena; cf. p. 5 below), and Laud 610, fo. 58 v, a.
The Laud text was published by Meyer in the Zeitschrift filr
celtische Philologie, Vol. Ill, p. 36 ; the text in Harl. 5280 by
Windisch in Irische Texte, I, p. 108, immediately after our saga.
This poem is quite short, consisting of only twelve lines. It tells
in summary form the outline of the story, stressing the early
life and remarkable diet of the pig, naming Mesgegra and
Mesroeda as the two Mac Dathó, and representing all the five
provinces of Ireland as taking part in the chase for the hound
Ailbe. The prose note which follows the poem in Laud 610 states
that 300 of the men of Connaught were slain in the hostel of
Mac Dathó, and fifty of the Ulstermen, and that Ailbe was killed
by Ailill's charioteer.
There is evidence that the Scél Mucci Mic Dathó was known
earlier than LL. It is probably the "Destruction of Mac Dathó"
1 For a discussion of metrics and Early Irish rhymed poems the reader is
referred to Kuno Meyer's Primer of Irish Metrics (Dublin, 1909) and his paper on
Learning in Ireland in the Fifth Century and the Transmission of Letters (Dublin,
1913). See also Thurneysen, Zeitschrift fiir celtische Philologie, Vol. xi, p. 34 ff.
2 Helden- und Konigsage, p. 498 f.
3 See Thurneysen, Helden- und Konigsage, p. 498. This poem and the preceding
one are printed by Windisch immediately after the saga, ed. cit. p. 106 ff.