"Summons to Cuchulain." From the "Sickbed of Cuchulain" (_Serglige Conculaind_). Original, _ibid._, p. 216. Overcome with fairy spells, the hero lies fast bound in heavy slumber; the song is an appeal to him to throw off the charm and to arise.
"Laegh's Description of Fairy-land." From the same story, _ibid._, p. 218. Laegh is Cuchulain's charioteer, who went into fairy-land instead of his master, and returns to extol its beauty.
"The Lamentation of Fand when she is about to leave Cuchulain." From the dramatic incident in the same story, in which Fand, Queen of Fairy-land, and Emer, Cuchulain's mortal wife, struggle for the affection of the hero, after Cuchulain's return from fairy-land. Each woman fully recognises the nobility of the other; and Fand's parting song, in which she restores him to Emer, is one of lofty renunciation.
"Midir's Call to Fairy-land." From the story called the "Wooing of Etain" (_Tochmarc Etaine_), _ibid._, p. 132.
"Song of the Fairies." From A. H. Leahy's _Heroic Romances of Ireland_ (D. Nutt, 1905), p. 29, taken from the same tale. Etain was wife of Eochad (pron. Yochee), King of Ireland, but Mider, King of Fairy-land, fell in love with her. He won an entry into the palace by playing chess with her husband, who demanded from Mider as the stake for which they played that the fairy hosts should clear away the rocks and stones from the plains of Meath, remove the rushes which made the land barren, build a causeway across the bog of Lamrach, and perform other services useful to his realm. The song is sung by the fairies while they are performing this heavy task. The final stake is won by Mider, who asks Etain as his prize.
"The Lamentation of Deirdre," when her husband and two sons had been slain by King Conchobhar. She recalls the happy days spent with her husband in Alba or Scotland, on Lough Etive, and compares it to her present misery in the house of the King. Original, _Irische Texte_, i. pp. 77-81. In all the above poems there are many difficult and obscure passages.
"Take my Tidings." A ninth century poem, edited and translated by Dr. Kuno Meyer in his _Four Songs of Summer and Winter_ (D. Nutt, 1903), and by Dr. Whitley Stokes in _Rev. Celt._ xx. p. 258. It is ascribed to Fionn in the commentary on the "Amra Coluim Cille." Mr. Graves' poem will be found in his _Irish Poems_, i. p. 1 (Maunsel & Co., Dublin).