The forefront of Irish History we find filled with great heroic personages of a dignity and power more than human. The age in which these heroes lived was that which almost alone absorbed the attention of the Irish bards. Century after century the mind of the country was inflamed by the contemplation of those mighty beings whom, too, men believed to be their own ancestors.

All the imaginative literature of the country revolved round this period, was devoted to the glorification of the gigantic figures with whom it was filled. Naturally then, this heroic age was as it were a huge bright mirror, in which were reflected the magnified images of the bards themselves, and of the contemporary kings and heroes for whom they sang. The value Introduction. vii of any, even the slightest characteristic of the heroic age, is, therefore, of the highest historic importance.

The vastness and populousness of this age, which have been employed for the purpose of pointing derision at this country are really the best proof of the value of Irish antiquarian research; they indicate the enormous fecundity and force of the imagination of a people whose Pantheon was so great.