Poems MacCarthy, Florence Denis

89
38. "The plains of Aie" (son of Allghuba the Druid), in Roscommon.
Here stood the palace of Cruachain (O'Curry's "Lectures," p. 35; "Battle
of Magh Leana," p. 61).
39. "Fair-brow" (O'Curry, "Exile of the Children of Uisnech," Atlantis,
ii., p. 386).
40. Here in the original there is a sudden change from prose to verse.
"It is generally supposed that these stories were recited by the ancient
Irish poets for the amusement of their chieftains at their public
feasts, and that the portions given in metre were sung" ("Battle of Magh
Rath," p. 12). The prose portions of this tale are represented in the
translation by blank verse, and the lyrical portions by rhymed verse.
41. "Ugaine Mor exacted oaths by the sun and moon, the sea, the dew,
and colours . . . that the sovereignty of Erin should be invested in his
descendants for ever" (Ib. p. 3).
42. The high dignity of Domnal may be inferred from the following
lines, quoted from MacLenini, in the preface to "Cormac's Glossary,"
p. 51:--
"As blackbirds to swans, as an ounce to a mass of gold,
As the forms of peasant women to the forms of queens,
As a king to Domnal . . .
As a taper to a candle, so is a sword to my sword."
43. She was the wife of Ned, the war-god. See O'Donovan's "Annals of
the Four Masters," vol. i., p. 24.
44. Etan is said to have been 'muime na filed,' nurse of the poets
("Three Irish Glossaries," preface, p. 33).
45. At Rathcroghan was the palace of the Kings of Connacht.
46. A name of Ireland ("Battle of Magh Leana," p. 79).
47. So the night before the battle of Magh Rath, "the monarch, grandson
of Ainmire, slept not, in consequence of the weight of the battle and
the anxiety of the conflict pressing on his mind; for he was certain
that his own beloved foster-son would, on the morrow, meet his last