Notes
reasons, considers that Fergus, Donnell, Corpre, and Angus belonged to Ulster, the rest to Connaught. This does not, however, agree with the Egerton version (p. 60), where Donnell and Angus are, as pointed out by Windisch, immediate followers of Gerg. All the men in each group of thirty appear to have had the same name; this is shown in the literal translation placed at the end of the book; but in the verse translation I have merely represented the thirty Donnells, &c., as surrounding a chief called Donnell to whose clan they may be supposed to belong, and no other indication is given that the thirty had the same name. As there seems to be some doubt as to the respective sides of the warriors, nothing is said in either translation to indicate any difference.
Page 58.—Shall the White One lay waste all the land.—The White One and the Dark One are the two bulls; the White Bull of Connaught, and the Dark Bull of Cualgne, whose capture was the ostensible cause of the Raid. The two bulls were supernatural—two rival magicians called Friuch and Rucht of prehistoric times being incarnated in their bodies; and in one of the mythological explanations of the story of the Raid of Cualgne these bulls are supposed to signify the powers of Day and Night. A full account of the two magicians and of their numerous transformations is given in the Chophur in da muccida, the Begetting of the two Swineherds.
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