Reliques was the first substantial anthology of Irish poetry translated into English. A scholarly work, the first edition consisted of a total of 369 pages, including substantial footnotes. The main body of the text consists of seventeen verse-translations with the original Gaelic poems and is divided into five sections: Heroic Poems, Odes, Elegies, Songs and a composition by Brooke called ‘Mäon: An Irish Tale’, inspired by a story from the Gaelic tradition. Seven of the seventeen poems included in the work are syllabic poems taken from the epic cycles. The first two poems, ‘Conloch’ and ‘The Lamentation of Cucullen over the Body of his Son Conloch’, belong to the Ulster cycle, while five are from the Fenian Cycle: ‘Magnus the Great’; ‘The Chase’; ‘Moira Borb’; ‘War Ode to Osgur, the Son of Oisin, in the front of the Battle of Gabhra’ and ‘Ode to Gaul, the Son of Morni’. The volume contains two further syllabic poems, the seventeenth century ‘Ode, by Fitzgerald, written on his setting out on a Voyage to Spain’ (Muiris Mac Dáibidh dhuib Mac Gearalt cct. air na scríobhadh air luing ag dol don Easpáin) and ‘Elegy to the Daughter of Owen’ (Féach orm, a inghean Eóghain), which may also date from the same century. Along with Turlough Carolan’s ‘Song, for Gracey Nugent’ and ‘Song, for Mable Kelly’, a poem by the Armagh poet Pádraig Mac a Liondain and the popular folksongs' Éamonn an Chnoic', 'An Droighneán Donn' and ‘The Maid of the Valley’ (Bean Dubh an Ghleanna) were included in the collection of songs. Each poem in the text is preceded by an advertisement in which Brooke attempted to date the poem in question and to provide as much historical and background information as was necessary to establish its provenance.