A Variant of the Gaelic "Ballad of the Mantle"

Abstract

preserved in the of the Dean of Lismore, and was edited, along with other selections from that manuscript, by Rev. Thomas McLauchlan in 1862.' McLauchlan's text, with his translation, was reprinted by Thomas Wright in 1867,2 and the text alone was once more published by J. F. Campbell in 1872.' An improved edition of many of the pieces in the Dean's Book was begun by the late Alexander Cameron and published after his death by Alexander Macbain and John Kennedy. The Ballad of the Mantle is among them, and the Reliquiae Celticae' (the posthumous collection of Cameron's works) contains, besides the Dean's version of the poem, a very similar Irish ballad from Edinburgh MS 54. Finally, in 1896, the ballad was re-edited and discussed in a masterly article by Ludwig Christian Stern,5 who called it, however, by some strange oversight, eine bisher unbeachtet gebliebene Version of the story. As a matter of fact the connection between the Gaelic ballad and the similar Arthurian tales was long ago noted by Thomas Wright in the article already cited,6 and the whole body of related material was analyzed at length by Professor Child in