^  Keating,  434-442.  [K.  has  antedated  this  king  by  some  seventy  years,
if  the  ordinary  annalistic  chronology  be  follovs^ed,  a  mistake  of  the  same
kind  as  that  in  the  text,  entitled  Mongan's  Frenzy,  siipi-a,  p.  57,  which
antedates  Mongan  in  the  same  way.  The  mistake  has  arisen  apparently
by  confusion  between  Diarmait,  son  of  Cerball,  whose  death  is  assigned
by  the  annals  to  the  year  588,  and  Diarmait,  son  of  Aed  Slane,  who
reigned  according  to  the  Four  Masters  from  657  to  664.  This  Diarmait,
with  the  nickname  ruanaidh,  figures  as  Guaire's  contemporary  and
antagonist  in  the  fragmentary  annals,  translated,  Silva  Gad.,  424  et
seg.,  from  a  late  fifteenth  century  MS.  The  confusion  noted  above  was
facilitated  by  the  fact  that  Ireland  was  desolated  by  the  yellow  plague  at
an  interval  of  a  little  over  a  hundred  years,  each  time  in  the  reign  of  a
Diarmait].  Silva  Gad.,  the  fragmentary  annals  just  cited;  these  are
probably  a  product  of  the  twelfth  century.  A  fairly  good  summary  of  the
stories  about  Guaire  may  be  found  in  Kennedy,  Bardic  Stories  of  Ireland,
188  et  seq.  Kennedy  follows  Keating  in  placing  him  in  the  sixth,
instead  of  in  the  seventh  century.
^  Silva  Gadelica,  the  already  cited  fragmentary  annals.  R.  is  the  hero
of  as  early  an  example  of  the  folk-tale  theme  of  the  father  who  wished  to
marry  his  daughter  as  any  known  in  post-classic  European  literature.  I
have  cited  and  briefly  commented  upon  this  story  in  Miss  Cox's  Cinderella.
