and successor with his counsel until he was, according to one account, killed by demons.[1] In any case he is not described in these stories as restored again to his throne; but the blemish incompatible with kingship is brought into relief in his person as in that of Nuada.
A description of Cormac's person on the occasion of his entering a great assembly in state, tells us that the equal of his form had never been seen, except that of Conaire the Great, of Conchobar son of Nessa, or of Aengus son of the Dagda.[2] It is remarkable that the ancient writer should mention these three, as they are adumbrations of the same god as Cormac. Thus I may here say, without anticipating the remarks to be presently made on the Aengus to whom I have alluded, that he was the constant aider and protector of the sun-hero Diarmait,[3] while Conaire was the subject of one of the most famous epic stories in Irish literature. The plot[4] centres in Conaire's tragic death, which is brought about by the fairies of Erinn, through the instrumentality of outlaws coming from the sea and following the lead of a sort of cyclops called Ingcél, said to have been a big, rough, horrid, monster with only one eye, which was, however, wider than an ox-hide, blacker than the back of a beetle, and provided with no less than three pupils.[5] The death of
- ↑ Bk. of the Dun, 50b.
- ↑ O'Curry, from the Bk. of Ballymote, ij. 18.
- ↑ See passim, The Pursuit of Diarmuid and Grainne, now available in an excellent edition published by the Soc. for the Preserv. of the Ir. Language (Dublin, 1881).
- ↑ The oldest version is given in the Bk. of the Dun, 83a—99a, but it is incomplete.
- ↑ Bk. of the Dun, 84b.
