Note: This poem was first published in The Savoy, April 1896, as the second of "Two Poems concerning Peasant Visionaries" (the first was "The Unappeasable Host"). It was accompanied by the following note: "The Irish peasantry have for generations comforted themselves, in their misfortunes, with visions of a great battle, to be fought in a mysterious valley called, 'The Valley of the Black Pig,' and to break at last the power of their enemies. A few years ago, in the barony of Lisadell, in County Sligo, an old man would fall entranced upon the ground from time to time, and rave out a description of the battle; and I have myself heard said that the girths shall rot from the bellies of the horses, because of the few men that shall come alive out of the valley."