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 as scientific history, to give
his imagination a holiday, and follow with kindly interest the
singular story of the boyhood of Cuculain, "battle-prop of the
valour and torch of the chivalry of the Ultonians."

I have endeavoured so to tell the story as to give a general idea
of the cycle, and of primitive heroic Irish life as reflected in
that literature, laying the cycle, so far as accessible, under
contribution to furnish forth the tale. Within a short compass I
would bring before swift modern readers the more striking aspects
of a literature so vast and archaic as to repel all but students.






STANDISH O'GRADY