per MS. in the British Museum, giving substantially the same
version as LL. This work contains also a map of ancient Ireland,
showing the route of the Connaught forces; but a careful working-out
of the topography of the _Tain_ is much needed, many names being
still unidentified. Several of the small introductory _Tana_ have
been published in Windisch and Stokes's _Irische Texte_; and
separate episodes from the great _Tain_ have been printed and
translated from time to time. The Fight with Fer Diad (LL) was
printed with translation by O'Curry in the _Manners and Customs of
the Ancient Irish_. The story of the Two Swineherds, with their
successive reincarnations until they became the Dun Bull and the
White-horned (an introductory story to the _Tain_ ), is edited with
translation in _Irische Texte_, and Mr. Nutt printed an abridged
English version in the _Voyage of Bran_.

The Leinster version seems to have been the favourite with modern
workers, probably because it is complete and consistent; possibly
its more sentimental style has also served to commend it.

AIM OF THIS TRANSLATION

It is perhaps unnecessary to say that the present version is
intended for those who cannot read the tale in the original; it is
therefore inadvisable to overload the volume with notes, variant
readings, or explanations of the readings adopted, which might
repel the readers to whom it is offered.

At the present time, an enthusiasm for Irish literature is not
always accompanied by a knowledge of the Irish language. It seems
therefore to be the translator's duty, if any true estimate of this
literature is to be formed, to keep fairly close to the original,
since nothing is to be gained by attributing beauties which it does
not possess, while obscuring its true merits, which are not few.
For the same reason, while keeping the Irish second person singular
in verses and formal speech, I have in ordinary dialogue
substituted the pronoun _you_, which suggests the colloquial style
of the original better than the obsolete _thou_.

The so-called rhetorics are omitted in translating; they are
passages known in Irish as _rosc_, often partly alliterative, but
not measured. They are usually meaningless strings of words, with
occasional intelligible phrases. In all probability the passages
aimed at sound, with only a general suggestion of the drift. Any
other omissions are marked where they occur; many obscure words in
the long descriptive passages