Connected with the
events of this saga is the story of the "Tragic Deaths of the Sons of
Tuirenn," which, though mentioned in Cormac's glossary, is not found in
any MS. older than the 18th century. The three sons of Tuirenn have
slain Cian, father of Lug Lamfhada, who lays upon them a huge eric-fine.
They go through terrific ordeals and accomplish their task, but return
home to die. This is the second of the "Three Sorrows of Story-telling."
An old story dealing with Tuatha De Danann personages, but having a
certain bearing on the Cuchulinn cycle, is the "Courtship of Etain,"
who, though of supernatural (_sid_) birth, is wedded to Eochaid Airem, a
mortal king. In her previous existence she was the wife of the
supernatural personage Midir of Bri-leith, who wins back Etain from her
mortal husband in a game of chess and carries her off to his fairy
mound.

For sake of completeness we may add the titles of two other well-known
stories here. The one is the "Story of Baile the Sweet-spoken," which
tells of the deaths of two lovers for grief at the false tidings of each
other's death. The other is the "Fate of the Children of Lir," the third
of the "Three Sorrows of Story-telling," which is only known in a modern
dress. It relates how the four daughters of Lir (father of the sea-god
Manandan and the original of Shakespeare's Lear) were changed into swans
by a cruel stepmother, and how, after 900 years of wandering on the
ocean, they at length regain their human form through the
instrumentality of St Mochaomhog.

A large number of sagas, which claim to be founded on historical events,
present a great similarity to the tales of the Ulster cycle. Most of
them are mentioned in the old catalogues. We can only name the more
important here. The "Destruction of Dind-Rig and Exile of Labraid
Loingsech" relates how the kingdom of Leinster was snatched by one
brother from another in the 6th century B.C., and how the son of the
murdered prince with the aid of a British force sacked Dind-Rig, the
fortress of the usurper. The story of the visit of the pigmies to the
court of Fergus MacLeite, king of Ulster in the 2nd century B.C., is
only contained in a 15th-century MS. This tale is commonly stated to
have given Swift the idea of his _Gulliver's Travels to Lilliput_.
"_Caithreim Chonghail Claringnigh_," which only occurs in a modernized
17th-century version, deals with a revolution in the province of Ulster,
supposed to have taken place