The Project Gutenberg EBook of Ancient Irish Poetry, by Various

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Title: Ancient Irish Poetry

Author: Various

Translator: Kuno Meyer

Release Date: April 17, 2010 [EBook #32030]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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SELECTIONS FROM
ANCIENT IRISH POETRY

Selections from
Ancient Irish Poetry

TRANSLATED BY

KUNO MEYER

LONDON
CONSTABLE & COMPANY LTD
10 ORANGE STREET LEICESTER SQUARE W.C.
1911

TO
EDMUND KNOWLES MUSPRATT
THE ENLIGHTENED AND GENEROUS PATRON
OF CELTIC STUDIES
IN THE UNIVERSITY OF LIVERPOOL
A SMALL TOKEN
OF AFFECTIONATE REGARD AND GRATITUDE

INTRODUCTION

In offering this collection of translations from early Irish poetry to a
wider public I feel that I am expected to give a brief account of the
literature from which they are taken--a literature so little known that
its very existence has been doubted or denied by some, while others, who
had the misfortune to make its acquaintance in ill-chosen or inadequate
renderings, have refused to recognise any merit in it. The bias and
ignorance of English historians and of many professed students of Irish
history, who continue to write without a first-hand knowledge of its
sources, have also reacted unfavourably upon the study of Irish
literature. Slowly, however, the fact is becoming recognised in ever wider
circles that the vernacular literature of ancient Ireland is the most
primitive and original among the literatures of Western Europe, and that
in its origins and development it affords a most fascinating study.
Whatever may be its intrinsic merit, its importance as the earliest voice
from the dawn of West European civilisation cannot be denied.

Time and agai