F THE FIANNA

Mr Alfred Nutt says in _Ossian and the Ossianic Literature,_ No. 3 of
his excellent series of sixpenny pamphlets, _Popular Studies in
Mythology, Romance, and Folklore_:--

"The body of Gaelic literature connected with the name of Ossian is of
very considerable extent and of respectable antiquity. The oldest texts,
prose for the most part, but also in verse, are preserved in Irish MSS.
of the eleventh and twelfth centuries, and go back to a period from one
hundred and fifty to two hundred and fifty years older at least. The
bulk of Ossianic literature is, however, of later date as far as the
form under which it has come down to us is concerned. A number of
important texts, prose for the most part, are preserved in MSS. of the
fourteenth century, but were probably redacted in the thirteenth and
twelfth centuries. But by far the largest mass consists of narrative
poems, as a rule dramatic in structure. These have come down to us in
MSS. written in Scotland from the end of the fifteenth to the middle of
the seventeenth century, in Ireland from the sixteenth down to the
middle of the nineteenth century. The Gaelic-speaking peasantry, alike
in Ireland and Scotland, have preserved orally a large number of these
ballads, as also a great mass of prose narratives, the heroes of which
are Ossian and his comrades.

"Were all Ossianic texts preserved in MSS. older than the present
century to be printed, they would fill some eight to ten thousand octavo
pages. The mere bulk of the literature, even if we allow for
considerable repetition of incident, arrests attention. If we further
recall that for the last five hundred years this body of romance has
formed the chief imaginative recreation of Gaeldom, alike in Ireland and
Scotland, and that a peasantry unable to read or write has yet preserved
it almost entire, its claims to consideration and study will appear
manifest."

He then goes on to discuss how far the incidents in the stories can be
accepted as they were accepted by Irish historical writers of the
eleventh century as authentic history:--

"Fortunately there is little need for me to discuss the credibility or
otherwise of the historic records concerning Finn, his family, and his
band of warriors. They may be accepted or rejected according to
individual bent of mind without really modifying our view of the
literature. For when we turn to the romances, whether in prose or verse,
we find that, although the h