that ascribed to Brigit, mother of Bres and goddess of poetry (p. 74), all things being supposed to derive their origin from the powers of the nether world, the arts and sciences included. The story about Elatha introducing himself to her who was to be Bres's mother is, that he came out of the sea, whither he returned, having left her a ring which he had on his hand; and Bres their son, when driven from his throne by Nuada on his return to power with a silver hand (p. 120), was provided with the ring, and enabled by means of it to make his way to the fairy land inhabited by the Fomori, where, he found his father and his people holding a great assembly on Mag Mór, or the Great Plain, one of the names commonly associated with the geography of the nether world. Bres's business was to enlist the Fomori on his side against the Tuatha Dé Danann. This story[1] has been reduced to sober history by Prof. O'Curry and others; but I wish to point out before proceeding further, that as Ogyrven's name came in Welsh to mean a letter of the alphabet and other elements, so that of Elatha is found used as an appellative in the sense of science, art or artistic work, especially literary compositions.[2] Nor did this stand alone in Irish; for one finds that a certain kind of poetic composition was called etan, which is homophonous with the name of the poetess Etan,
- ↑ Given at length in the British Museum MS. Harl. 5280, fol. 53b; for O'Curry's version of it, see the passages in his MS. Mat. pp. 248-9, already referred to at p. 253.
- ↑ For references, see Windisch's Irische Texte, p. 521, s.v. elatha; Stoke's Calendar of Oengus, p. cclvi; also d'A. de Jubainville's Cycle Myth. p. 306. The word seems to have been declined in two ways, Elatha, gen. Elathan, and Elathan, gen. Elathain.
