Irish pedigrees, which are here quite in point, as they make both Conchobars grandsons of one and the same Ross the Red.[1] Conchobar was doubtless not a man; his sister Dechtere, the mother of Cúchulainn, is called a goddess;[2] and the scribe of an old story in the Book of the Dun is obliged, in spite of his Euhemerism, to remark in passing that Conchobar was a día talmaide,[3] or terrestrial god, of the Ultonians of his time. He is, in short, to be regarded as holding, in the Ultonian cycle, a place analogous to that of Nuada and Llûᵭ in the cycles to which they belong.
The Mac Óc and Merlin.
In respect of his partially acknowledged divinity, Conchobar differs from Cormac mac Airt, who is treated throughout as a mere man. The next to be mentioned is Aengus,[4] who, on the other hand, is never treated as a historical character: he is described as son of the god called Dagda the Great, and the goddess Boann,[5] from
- ↑ The Four Masters had not the courage to make Conchobar mac Nessa a historical character, but they call the other Conchobar the son of Finn File, 'Finn the Poet or Seer' (A. M. 5192), in whom we seem to have the same son of Ross the Red that is called Fachtna the Poetic, as the reputed father of Conchobar mac Nessa.
- ↑ Bk. of Leinster, 123b, where Cúchulainn is called mc dea dechtiri, 'of (the) son of (the) goddess Dechtire.'
- ↑ Bk. of the Dun, 101b; Fled Bricrenn, in Windisch's Ir. Texte, p. 259.
- ↑ Here, as elsewhere, there is some difficulty as to which form of the name to choose: the modern Irish spelling is Aonghus, while Aengus is older; but older still is Oengus, while Oingus, or Oinguss, would be the oldest to be found in manuscripts.
- ↑ Boann, also Boand, genitive Boinne or Boinde, was the name of the lady pursued by the Boyne: see p. 123.
