* * * * *
So ends the lay Turoldus sung.
THE DESTRUCTION OF DA DERGA'S HOSTEL
TRANSLATED BY
WHITLEY STOKES, D.C.L.
INTRODUCTORY NOTE
_The vast and interesting epic literature of Ireland remained
practically inaccessible to English readers till within the last sixty
years. In 1853, Nicholas O'Kearney published the Irish text and an
English translation of "The Battle of Gabra," and since that date the
volume of printed texts and English versions has steadily increased,
until now there lies open to the ordinary reader a very considerable
mass of material illustrating the imaginative life of medieval Ireland.
Of these Irish epic tales, "The Destruction of Da Derga's Hostel" is a
specimen of remarkable beauty and power. The primitive nature of the
story is shown by the fact that the plot turns upon the disasters that
follow on the violation of tabus or prohibitions often with a
supernatural sanction, by the monstrous nature of many of the warriors,
and by the utter absence of any attempt to rationalise or explain the
beliefs implied or the marvels related in it.
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