It is a remarkable accident that, except in one instance, so very few copies of the death-tales of the chief warriors attached to King Conchobar's court at Emain Macha should have come down to us. Indeed, if it were not for one comparatively late manuscript now preserved outside Ireland, in the Advocates' Library, Edinburgh, we should have to rely for our knowledge of most of these stories almost entirely on Keating's . Under these circumstances it has seemed to me that I could hardly render a better service to Irish studies than to preserve these stories, by transcribing and publishing them, from the accidents and the natural decay to which they are exposed as long as they exist in a single manuscript copy only.

In the well-known list of Irish tales preserved in the Book of Leinster and elsewhere, under the title oitte, i.e. tragical or violent deaths, eight death-stories of Ulster heroes are enumerated as follows: the deaths of Cúchulinn, of Conall (i.e. Conall Cernach), of Celtchar, of Blái the Hospitaller, of Lóegaire, of Fergus (mac Róich), of King Conchobar himself, and of Fiamain.

The forms an episode in the story called ; and extracts from the version in the Book of Leinster have been edited and translated by Whitley Stokes, in the , vol. III., p. 175 ff. It is curious that, apart from this twelfth-century version, we have no copies older than the eighteenth century. These modern copies are enumerated by Prof. D'Arbois de Jubainville in his , p. 15. The is told in a tale, the full title of which is . It has been edited and translated by me, from the only two existing manuscripts, in the first volume of the , p. 102 ff.

is found in a very fragmentary and illegible condition in the Book of Leinster, p. 118b. Fortunately there exists a second complete copy in the , pp. 9–11.For a full account of the contents of this manuscript, one of the most valuable in the Edinburgh collection, see my article in the for 1887, pp. 208–218. It has not hitherto been edited or translated.

The has been preserved only in the , where it occupies pp. 11–13. It is here for the first time edited and translated.

Of the we have only one ancient copy, again in the , pp. 8–9, hitherto unpublished. There is a shorter and later version, which is practically that of Keating's , contained in two eighteenth-century mss. in the Royal Irish Academy, numbered 23. B. 21, p. 176, and 23. G. 21, p. 142, respectively. Copies of these I owe to the kindness of Mr. R. Irvine Best.

The is also preserved in a single copy only, again to be found in the , p. 5. Our only source hitherto has been Keating's version.

The only tale among those enumerated above which has reached us in fairly numerous copies is that of the . Prof. D'Arbois de Jubainville, l.c., p. 13, enumerates four manuscriptsThe Stowe MS. cited by him is now marked D. 4. 2. The copy of is found on fol. 54a2. in addition to Keating's account, which is also that of 23. G. 21, and 23. B. 21. To these a fifth must be added, the version in the XL, pp. 1–3, which is unfortunately illegible at the beginning.Another copy of this version is in the Stowe MS. C.I. 2. fo. 5b–8a. Mr. Edward Gwynn has kindly supplied me with a transcript of the version contained in the Liber Flavus Fergusiorum; and Mr. R. I. Best has copied, and placed at my disposal, the version in 23. N. 10, a MS. in the library of the Royal Irish Academy. The tale last mentioned in the list, that of the , seems now lost. At least, so far as I know, no copy of it has yet been discovered; nor does Keating give any account of it. Fiamain mac Forrói is mentioned in as one of those Irish youths who were learning feats of arms with Scáthach in Britain when Cúchulinn came there for the same purpose (see III., p. 250, paragraph 67); and in the poem at the end of that tale (ib., p. 262, l. 8) a Fiamain is enumerated among the young warriors in the Cráeb Rúad at Emain Macha. But whether this was Fiamain mac Forrói or some other Fiamain is doubtful. The only other references to the former that I can find are–first, one in Cináed húa Hartacáin's poem on the deaths of some of the nobles of Erin, which has been edited and translated by Whitley Stokes in , vol. xxiii., p. 303 ff. Here he is said to have been slain at Dún mBinne, is the title of a tale mentioned in the list in the Book of Leinster, p. 189c; but no copy of it is known. a fort that has not been identified. A battle of Duma Beinne is mentioned in , p. 211. The other reference to Fiamain mac Forrói occurs in a poem in that tale, p. 213: Seven battles around Cathir Conrói, the wrecking of Fiamain mac Forói, the wrecking of Cúrói, together with the seventeen sons of Deda.

In addition to these Ulster death-tales, the contains an account of the death of the redoubtable Connaught warrior Cet mac Magach. Of this story, as it has not hitherto been published, I add an edition and translation.