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Cuculain and his friends are historical characters, seen as it were
through mists of love and wonder, whom men could not forget, but
for centuries continued to celebrate in countless songs and
stories. They were not literary phantoms, but actual existences;
imaginary and fictitious characters, mere creatures of idle fancy,
do not live and flourish so in the world's memory. And as to the
gigantic stature and superhuman prowess and achievements of those
antique heroes, it must not be forgotten that all art magnifies, as
if in obedience to some strong law; and so, even in our own times,
Grattan, where he stands in artistic bronze, is twice as great as
the real Grattan thundering in the Senate. I will therefore ask the
reader, remembering the large manner of the antique literature from
which our tale is drawn, to forget for a while that there is such a
thing as scientific history, to give his imagination a holiday, and
follow with kindly interest the singular story of the boyhood of
Cuculain, "battle-prop of the valour and torch of the chivalry of
the Ultonians."
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