Conall Corc and the Corco Luigde
In 1941 I published and translated in this periodical an early Irish text which I called “The Exile of Conall Corc” because owing to a defective beginning the title had not been preserved. In the introduction to the text I listed among the sources dealing with Conall Corc, who as an early and semi-historical king of Munster supposedly reigned about 400 A.D., an account of him which the editor Kuno Meyer entitled “Conall Corc, and the Corco Luigde,” since, being an extract from a larger work, it lacked a separate heading of its own. Various reasons now prompt me to attempt a translation of it. One of them naturally is the intrinsic interest of the subject matter, for Conall Corc, who is a vivid and picturesque member of “The Royal Cycle” of ancient Ireland, had a varied career which deserves to be better known than it actually is. Another reason is that several scholars, especially in recent years, have urged me to make an English rendering so that those who are not familiar with the Irish language at least may have access to the legendary as well as folkloristic elements that are implicit in “Conall Corc and the Corco Luigde.” And the third reason is that more than a decade ago having received the aid of the late Professor Thurneysen in the elucidation of some of the difficult passages, an aid which I here gratefully acknowledge, I feel that the present translation, now that he is dead, will preserve at least to some extent his interpretation of the text.