of Leinster, a twelfth-century one; three of the others are in the
fourteenth-century Yellow Book of Lecan, which is often, in the case of
texts preserved both in it and the Leabhar na h-Uidhri, regarded as the
better authority of the two; and the remaining one, the second version
of "Etain," is in the fifteenth-century manuscript known as Egerton,
1782, which gives in an accurate form so many texts preserved in the
older manuscripts that it is very nearly as good an authority as they.
The sources used in making the translations are also stated in the
special introductions, but it may be mentioned as a summary that the
four "Preludes," the Tana of Dartaid, Regamon, Flidais, and Regamna,
are taken from the text printed with accompanying German translations
by Windisch in Irische Texte, vol. ii.; Windisch's renderings being
followed in those portions of the text that he translates; for the
"Tain bo Fraich" and the "Combat at the Ford" the Irish as given by
O'Beirne Crowe and by O'Curry, with not very trustworthy English
translations, has been followed; in the case of the fragment of the
Glenn Masain version of "Deirdre" little reference has been made to the
Irish, the literal translation followed being that given by Whitley
Stokes. The remaining five romances, the "Boar of Mac Datho," the
Leinster version of "Deirdre," the "Sick-bed of Cuchulain," the Egerton
version of "Etain," and the greater part of the Leabbar na h-Uidhri
version of the same, are taken from the Irish text printed without
translation in Irische Texte, vol. i., the end of the Leabhar na
h-Uidhri version omitted by Windisch being taken from the facsimile of
the manuscript published by the Royal Irish Academy.

I have to acknowledge with gratitude many corrections to O'Beirne
Crowe's translation of the "Tain bo Fraich" kindly given me by
Professor Kuno Meyer; in the case of O'Curry's translation of the
"Combat at the Ford," similar help kindly given me by Mr. E. J.