Neither of them is found
in any very early MS., but their subject-matter certainly goes back to
very primitive times.
_The Secret of Labra_ is taken from Keating's FORUS FEASA AR EIRINN,
edited with translation by the Rev. P.S. Dineen for the Irish Texts
Society, vol. i. p. 172.
_The Carving of mac Datho's Boar_. This is a clean, fierce, fighting
story, notable both for its intensely dramatic _denouement_, and for
the complete absence from it of the magical or supernatural element
which is so common a feature in Gaelic tales. It has been edited and
translated from one MS. by Dr Kuno Meyer, in _Hibernica Minora_
(ANECDOTA OXONIENSIA), 1894, and translated from THE BOOK OF LEINSTER
(twelfth century) in Leahy's HEROIC ROMANCES.
_The Vengeance of Mesgedra_. This story, as I have given it, is a
combination of two tales, _The Siege of Howth_ and _The Death of King
Conor_. The second really completes the first, though they are not
found united in Irish literature. Both pieces are given in O'Curry's
MS. MATERIALS OF IRISH HISTORY, and Miss Hull has printed translations
of them in her CUCHULLIN SAGA, the translation of the _Siege_ being by
Dr Whitly Stokes and that of the _Death of Conor_ by O'Curry. These
are very ancient tales and contain a strong barbaric element.
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