The following tale is here edited and translated for the first time from the only two MSS in which it has come down to us, the Edinburgh codex XL, pp. 3–5 and H. 2, 17, pp. 475b–476b. As the two MSS do not agree so closely as to allow the construction of a critical text, they are both printed in extenso.
The Edinburgh version has an introduction containing what is sometimes referred to as the Gaire Conaill (LL 211b, 8 in the versified dindshenchas of Mag Luirg), or the Goire Conaill Cernaig i Crúachain 'The Cherishing of Conall Cernach in Crúachu' (Rev. Celt. 15, p. 473, line 2). It is illegible in several places.
The story here told belongs to the heroic cycle of Irish Legend. It is mentioned in the list of tales of that cycle in the Book of Leinster, p. 189c, 36. But the oldest form of the tale has not reached us; for the versions here printed were evidently rewritten from older materials at a later age (13th century?), a fact apparent both from the language and from the general tenor of the narrative. Still there is no reason to assume that the older version differed materially in its contents from these later ones.