CONTENTS
STANDISH O’GRADY — A TRIBUTE BY A. E.
CHAPTER II. — THE BOYS OF THE ULTONIANS
CHAPTER III. — DETHCAEN’S NURSLING
CHAPTER IV. — SETANTA RUNS AWAY
CHAPTER VI. — THE SMITH’S SUPPER PARTY
CHAPTER VII. — SETANTA AND THE SMITH’S DOG
CHAPTER VIII. — SETANTA, THE PEACE-MAKER
CHAPTER IX. — THE CHAMPION AND THE KING
CHAPTER XI. — THERE WAS WAR IN ULSTER
CHAPTER XII. — THE SACRED CHARIOT
CHAPTER XIII. — THE WEIRD HORSES
CHAPTER XIV. — THE KNIGHTING OF CUCULAIN
CHAPTER XV. — ACROSS THE MEARINGS AND AWAY
CHAPTER XVI. — THE RETURN OF CUCULAIN
There are three great cycles of Gaelic literature. The first treats of the gods; the second of the Red Branch Knights of Ulster and their contemporaries; the third is the so-called Ossianic. Of the Ossianic, Finn is the chief character; of the Red Branch cycle, Cuculain, the hero of our tale.
Cuculain and his friends are historical characters, seen as it were through mists of love and wonder, whom men could not forget, but for centuries continued to celebrate in countless songs and stories. They were not literary phantoms, but actual existences; imaginary and fictitious characters, mere creatures of idle fancy, do not live and flourish so in the world’s memory. And as to the gigantic stature and superhuman prowess and achievements of those antique heroes, it must not be forgotten that all art magnifies, as if in obedience to some strong law; and so, even in our own times, Grattan, where he stands in artistic bronze, is twice as great as the real Grattan thundering in the Senate. I will therefore ask the reader, remembering the large manner of the antique literature from which our tale is drawn, to forget for a while that there is such a thing