Might not the Gaedhilic druid, as well as the Pythian priestess, have received even from the powers of darkness, though despite their will, an oracle[134] which prophesied truth?
There is a strange, wild old legend preserved in the Book of Leinster, which indicates that even in ancient Erinn the awful throes of nature were felt which were manifested in so many places, and in such various ways, during those dark hours when the Son of God hung upon the accursed tree for the redemption of His guilty creatures.
This tale or legend is called the _Aideadh Chonchobair_.

It is one of that class of narratives known under the generic title of Historical Tragedies, or Deaths.

The hero, Conor Mac Nessa, was King of Ulster at the period of the Incarnation of our Lord.

His succession to the throne was rather a fortuity than the result of hereditary claim.

Fergus Mac Nessa was rightfully king at the time; but Conor's father having died while he was yet an infant, Fergus, then the reigning monarch, proposed marriage to his mother when the youth was about fifteen, and only obtained the consent of the celebrated beauty on the strange condition that he should hand over the sovereignty of Ulster to her son for a year.