But he lies in the
place where he would be, of which a poet of the Gael in our day has
written:--
"A tranquil spot: a hopeful sound
Comes from the ever-youthful stream,
And still on daisied mead and mound
The dawn delays with tenderer beam.
"Round Cormac, spring renews her buds:
In march perpetual by his side
Down come the earth-fresh April floods,
And up the sea-fresh salmon glide;
"And life and time rejoicing run
From age to age their wonted way;
But still he waits the risen sun,
For still 'tis only dawning day."[39]
[39] These lines are taken from Sir S. Ferguson's noble poem,
_The Burial of King Cormac_, from which I have also borrowed
some of the details of the foregoing narrative.
* * * * *
Notes on the Sources
_The Story of the Children of Lir_ and _The Quest of the Sons of
Turenn_ are two of the three famous and popular tales entitled "The
Three Sorrows of Storytelling." The third is the _Tragedy of the Sons
of Usna_, rendered by Miss Eleanor Hull in her volume CUCHULAIN. I
have taken the two stories which are given here from the versions in
modern Irish published by the Society for the Preservation of the
Irish Language, with notes and translation.
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