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Prev | Next | Contents | Main Page INTRODUCTION IN VERSEWhen to an Irish court of old Oft, ere that famous tale began, He'd fell how Maev and Ailill planned
Their mighty hosts might best be fed,
When they towards the Cualgne land How Maev the youthful princes sent How Ailill's guile gained Darla's cows,
How vengeful fairies marked that deed;
How Fergus won his royal spouse How, in a form grotesque and weird,
Cuchulain found a Power Divine; Or how the rowan's guardian snake And though, in greater tales, they chose Speech mired with song, men's hearts to sway, Such themes as these they told in prose, Like speakers at the "Feis" to-day. To men who spake the Irish tongue So we, who now in English dress And, though to Celts the form be strange,
Seek not too much the change to blame;
'Tis but the form alone we change;
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