PREFACE
THE following translation of The Courtship of Ferb lays no claim to Irish scholarship, though it is, I believe, the first English translation of this very old Irish romance, whose earliest written version is found in the twelfth-century manuscript known as the Book of Leinster. With very few changes the translation follows the German rendering of the tale as given by Professor Windisch in the Irische Texte, III. 2. 462; and some words of explanation are required for the appearance of a version which is a simple translation from the German.
The numerous works which have recently opened up for us the long hidden treasures of Irish literature fall naturally into two groups, one consisting of modern English poems founded on Irish story, such as Sir Samuel Ferguson's poems, Aubrey de Vere's Foray of Queen Maev, The Wanderings of Oisin, by Mr. W. B. Yeats, and Mr. Trench's poem of Deirdre Wed, while in the other group we may place a large number of original Celtic romances, which in their present Irish
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