Page:Kuno Meyer - Cath Finntrága.djvu/17

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INTRODUCTION.
xiii

dam in brug lá ⁊ adhaigh’ ar Aenghus. ‘Dober-sa dono duit-si in chomha sin’ ar in Daghdha. Is ann sin dono ro ḟacaib in Daghdha in brug do Aenghus .i. lá ⁊ adhaigh. O dorumult Aengus in ré sin atbert in Daghdha fria hAenguss: [fo. 50 b. i] ‘Facaib in brugh fodhesta, daigh atai lá cona aidhchi ann.’ ‘Ni fuiceab dono,’ ar Aengus ‘daigh ni fil ann acht lá ⁊ adhaigh o tosach domuin có a deredh ⁊ is é sin cairdi ro iarusa.’ Conidh ann sin ro ḟacaib in Dagdha in brugh ⁊ Aengus and o sin cóssanniugh. Finit.

In the third cycle, that of Finn and the fíann, the different notions and traditions about the Túatha Dé Dánand of the older cycles are completely thrown together and now found side by side. They and the men of Erinn (or maic Miled) are the sole occupants of Erinn: ní fuil acht da airecht cudruma a n-Erinn .i. mic Miled ⁊ Túatha Dé Danand, Agall. na Senórach, Rawl. 487 fo. 14 b, 1. They are still considered to live under ground, but hills and mountains are now generally imagined to be the proper abode of all kinds of ‘demons,’ as is shown e.g. by a passage in the Agallam na Senórach, where Patrick, when Oisín and Cáilte first approached him, seizes the holy water stick and throws water over them, ‘for there were legions of demons over their heads; and the demons went into the hills and to the borders of the country from them.’ Mur do conncadur na cleirig íad-som dá n-innsaiged ro gabh graín ⁊ egla mór resna feruibh mora cona conaibh com mora léo, óir nirbás coimré na comaimsiri dóibh iad. Is ann sin ro eirig in t-eo flaitheamnus ⁊ in t-uaithne oireachus ⁊ in t-aingel talmande ⁊ esbog na n-Gaigel ⁊ gabhais in deisréta do crothad in uisci ar na feraibh mora, úair do bí mile leighighon do demnaibh os a cennuibh conici in la sin ⁊ do chuadur na demhna a cnocuibh ⁊ a n-imlibh na criche uatha. Rawl. 487, fo. 12 b. 2. Or again, they are imagined to reside in the Tír Tairngire (‘The Land of Promise’), where, according to LL. p. 168 b, 3, Mag Mell (‘the Pleasant Plain’) is situate. This is the case e.g. in the Tóruigheacht Dhiarmuda agus Ghrainne (ed. O'Grady, p. 118), where the Túatha Dé Danand come to Erinn for a goaling-match with the fíanna. They still preserve their original divine character, being able to do good or evil to man, and being respected or feared accordingly. Cf. Tor. Dh. pp. 172, 194. They intermarry freely with the men of Erinn, see Tor. Dh. p. 110: ‘Is dias bhan do Thuathaib Dé Danann do bhi ’na maithreachaibh againn,’ ibid. p.