II. TALIESSIN

The Taliessin legend in its late form cannot be traced back beyond the
end of the sixteenth century, but the account of the transformation is to
be found in the "Book of Taliessin," a manuscript of the thirteenth
century, preserved in the Hengwt Collection at Peniarth. The Welsh bard
himself is supposed to have flourished in the sixth century. See Alfred
Nutt in "The Voyage of Bram" (London, 1897), II. 86. The traditions may be
found in Lady Charlotte Guest's translation of the "Mabinogion," 2d ed.,
London, 1877, p. 471. The poems may be found in the original Welsh in
Skene's "Four Ancient Books of Wales," 2 vols., Edinburgh, 1868; and he
also gives a facsimile of the manuscript.


III. CHILDREN OF LIR

The lovely legend of the children of Lir or Lear forms one of those three
tales of the old Irish Bards which are known traditionally in Ireland as
"The Three Sorrows of Story Telling." It has been told in verse by Aubrey
de Vere ("The Foray of Queen Meave, and Other Legends," London, 1882), by
John Todhunter ("Three Irish Bardic Tales," London, 1896); and also in
prose by various writers, among whom are Professor Eugene O'Curry, whose
version with the Gaelic original was published in "Atlantis," Nos. vii.
and viii.; Gerald Griffin in "The Tales of a Jury Room"; and Dr. Patrick
Weston Joyce in "Ancient Celtic Romances" (London, 1879). The oldest
manuscript copy of the tale in Gaelic is one in the British Museum, made
in 1718; but there are more modern ones in different English and Irish
libraries, and the legend itself is of much older origin. Professor
O'Curry, the highest authority, places its date before the year 1000.