THE MYTHOLOGICAL CYCLE.

The literature of ancient Ireland has been called "the earliest voice from the dawn of western European civilisation".

In his remarkable and inspirational book The White Goddess (Faber and Faber. London. 1961) Robert Graves said, "English poetic education should, really, begin not with the Canterbury Tales, nor with The Odyssey not even with Genesis, but with The Song of Amergin."

The Song of Amergin, which Graves tentatively but brilliantly restores in the White Goddess, is not the earliest poetic incantation in Irish literature but it is certainly outstanding for its evocative power. It holds, as well, great fascination for the scholar since variants hide the ancient Celtic calendar-alphabet of the learned caste, the Druids.

Unfortunately much of that Early Irish Literature has been lost; what remains is contained in the few priceless manuscripts that have survived centuries of warfare and invasion.