Celtic Mythology: History of Celts, Religion, Archeological Finds, Legends & Myths. T. W. Rolleston
(Leahy, ii. 205).
199. See p. 223, infra.
200. D'Arbois, ii. 372.
201. RC xii. 77, 83.
202. LL 11; Atlantis, London, 1858-70, iv. 159.
203. O'Donovan, Grammar, Dublin, 1845, xlvii.
204. RC xii. 77.
205. Lucian, Herakles.
206. RC xii. 89. The name is found in Gaulish Gobannicnos, and in Welsh Abergavenny.
207. IT i. 56; Zimmer, Glossæ Hibernicæ, 1881, 270.
208. Atlantis, 1860, iii. 389.
209. RC xii. 89.
210. LL lla.
211. RC xii. 93.
212. Connac, 56, and Cóir Anmann (IT iii. 357) divide the name as día-na-cecht and explain it as "god of the powers."
213. RC xii. 67. For similar stories of plants springing from graves, see my Childhood of Fiction, 115.
214. RC xii, 89, 95.
215. RC vi. 369; Cormac, 23.
216. Cormac, 47, 144; IT iii. 355, 357.
217. IT iii. 355; D'Arbois, i. 202.
218. LL 246a.
219. Irish MSS. Series, i. 46; D'Arbois, ii. 276. In a MS. edited by Dr. Stirn, Oengus was Dagda's son by Elemar's wife, the amour taking place in her husband's absence. This incident is a parallel to the birth-stories of Mongan and Arthur, and has also the Fatherless Child theme, since Oengus goes in tears to Mider because he has been taunted with having no father or mother. In the same MS. it is the Dagda who instructs Oengus how to obtain Elemar's síd. See RC xxvii. 332, xxviii. 330.
220. LL 245b.
221. IT iii. 355.
222. O'Donovan, Battle of Mag-Rath, Dublin, 1842, 50; LL 246a.
223. D'Arbois, v. 427, 448.
224. The former is Rh^ys's interpretation (HL 201) connecting Cruaich with crúach, "a heap"; the latter is that of D'Arbois (ii. 106), deriving Cruaich from cru, "blood." The idea of the image being bent or crooked may have been due to the fact that it long stood ready to topple over, as a result of S. Patrick's miracle. See p. 286, infra.
225. Vallancey, in Coll. de Rebus Hib. 1786, iv. 495.
226. LL 213b. D'Arbois thinks Cromm was a Fomorian, the equivalent of Taranis (ii. 62). But he is worshipped by Gaels. Crin, "withered," probably refers to the idol's position after S. Patrick's miracle, no longer upright but bent like an old man. Dr. Hyde, Lit. Hist. of Ireland, 87, with exaggerated patriotism, thinks the sacrificial details are copied by a Christian scribe from the Old Testament, and are no part of the old ritual.
227. RC xvi. 35, 163.
228. Fitzgerald, RL iv. 175.
229. RC xxvi. 19.
230. Annals of the Four Masters, A.M. 3450.
231. RC xii. 83, 85; Hyde, op. cit. 288.
232. LU 94.
233. RC xii. 65. Elsewhere three supreme "ignorances" are ascribed to Oengus (RL xxvi. 31).
234. RC iii. 342.
235. LL 11c; LU 129; IT i. 130. Cf. the glass house, placed between sky and moon, to which Tristan conducts the queen. Bedier, Tristan et Iseut, 252. In a fragmentary version of the story Oengus is Etain's wooer, but Mider is preferred by her father, and marries her. In the latter half of the story, Oengus does not appear (see p. 363, infra). Mr. Nutt (RC xxvii. 339) suggests that Oengus, not Mider, was the real hero of the story, but that its Christian redactors gave Mider his place in the second part. The fragments are edited by Stirn (ZCP vol. v.).
236. HL 146.
237. See my Childhood of Fiction, 114, 153. The tale has some unique features, as it alone among Western Märchen and saga variants of the "True Bride" describes the malicious woman as the wife of Mider. In other words, the story implies polygamy, rarely found in European folk-tales.
238. O'Grady, TOS iii.
239. RC i. 41.