[Illustration: FACSIMILE PAGE 55--_from Leabhar na h-Uidhri_.]

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PREFACE


The Gaelic Literature of Ireland is vast in extent and rich in quality. The
inedited manuscript materials, if published, would occupy several hundred
large volumes. Of this mass only a small portion has as yet been explored
by scholars. Nevertheless three saga-cycles stand out from the rest,
distinguished for their compass, age and literary worth, those, namely, of
the gods, of the demigod Cuchulain, and of Finn son of Cumhall. The
Cuchulain cycle, also called the Ulster cycle--from the home of its hero in
the North of Ireland--forms the core of this great mass of epic material.
It is also known as the cycle of Conchobar, the king round whom the Ulster
warriors mustered, and, finally, it has been called the Red Branch Cycle
from the name of the banqueting hall at Emain Macha in Ulster.

Only a few of the hundred or more tales which once belonged to this cycle
have survived. There are some dozen in particular, technically known as
_Remscéla_ or "Foretales," because they lead up to and explain the great
Táin, the Táin Bó Cúalnge, "The Cualnge Cattle-raid," the Iliad of Ireland,
as it has been called, the queen of Irish epic tales, and the wildest and
most fascinating saga-tale, not only of the entire Celtic world, but even
of all western Europe.