Kelly (Fergus)

Edited from MS NLI G 50 (25 qq.) with reconstructed text, translation and notes. Ascribed in MS heading to Dallán [Forgaill] but ascribed to Becan mac Luighdech in a gloss. Beg. Fo réir Choluimb céin ad-fías. Includes discussion of metre (MS laoidh imrinn), which is described as ‘transitional’, as it displays both alliteration and regular end-rime.

[1.] Introduction; [2.] Language; [3.] Metre and alliteration; [4.] Manuscript; [5.] Authorship. Discusses attribution to Bécán mac Luigdech (7th cent.), metrical, linguistic and stylistix similarities to Fo réir Choluimb céin ad-fías (see F. Kelly, in Ériu 24 (1973), pp. 1-34). Poem in praise of Columb Cille, beg. Doféd andes andáil fíadhatt (25 qq.). Ed. from Laud misc. 615; with English translation and notes.

Identifies the 28 trees and shrubs listed in the eighth-century legal tract Bretha comaithchesa, which are divided into four groups of seven: 1. airig fedo ‘nobles of the wood’: daur ‘oak’, coll ‘hazel’, cuilenn ‘holly’, ibar ‘yew’, uinnius ‘ash’, ochtach ‘Scots pine?', aball ‘wild apple-tree’; 2. aithig fedo ‘commoners of the wood’: fern ‘alder’, sail ‘willow’, scé ‘whitehorn, hawthorn’, cáerthann ‘rowan, mountain ash’, beithe ‘birch’, lem ‘elm’, idath ‘wild cherry?'; 3. fodla fedo ‘lower divisions of the wood’: draigen ‘blackthorn’, trom ‘elder, bore-tree’, féorus ‘spindle-tree’, findcholl ‘whitebeam?', caithne ‘arbutus, strawberry tree’, crithach ‘aspen’, crann fir ‘juniper?'; 4. losa fedo ‘bushes of the wood’: raith ‘bracken’, rait ‘bog-myrtle’, aiten ‘gorse, furze’, dris ‘bramble, blackberry’, fróech ‘heather’, gilcach ‘broom?', spín ‘wild rose?'. Also includes brief discussion of lecla and aín, variant names for ‘rushes’, and native trees and shrubs not included in the four classes.

An Old Irish speculum principum. Critical edition, restored, of recension B from MSS RIA 23 N 10, Edinburgh Advocates’ Library 72.1.42, Egerton 88, and RIA 23 N 27; with English translation, notes and vocabulary; linguistic analysis. Appendix 1: conflation, with variant readings, of seven later versions; Appendix 2: passages used in a rosc in Senchas fagbála Caisil (cf BILL III: 5108).

Rev. by
Pádraig Ó Riain, in Éigse 16/4 (Geimhreadh 1976), pp. 345-348.

Discusses other PIE parallels of ‘Act of Truth’ and cognate verbal expressions of the following four expressions: 1. Is tre ḟír flathemon ‘it is through the ruler’s truth’; 2. mortlithi (mórslóg no) márlóchet di doínib dingbatar ‘plagues, (a great host, or) great lightnings are warded off men’; 3. gáu ḟlathemon ‘ruler’s falsehood’; 4. ní[n]-aurdallat dána (support for emendation to ní-n-aurdallat anai ‘let not riches blind him’ (see F. Kelly, AM §31); 5. to- aidble éisc i sruthaib -snáither (emends to to- aidbli éisc i sruthaib -snáither ‘with abundance of fish it is swum in streams’, taking to-snáither to be an impersonal passive rather than 2nd sg. deponent (see F. Kelly, AM §20).

Repr. in Watkins selected writings II, pp. 626-643.

pp. 242-248: Notes on the Irish words (with particular reference to dating), by F.K.

Texts: A. Muirchú; B. Tírechán; C. Additamenta: D. Notulae; E. Liber Angeli. With introduction, commentary and English translation.

ad F. O. Lindeman, in Ériu 31 (1980), pp. 165-167. Provides examples of the 3 sg. fem. infixed pronoun -deⁿ- from Audacht Morainn.

Normalised edition with variants based mainly on MS TCD H 2. 15A (also TCD H 3. 18, H 3. 17, H 2.12 (8iii); Egerton 88; RIA 23 Q 6; Rawlinson B 502, Rawlinson B 487); with English translations and notes. Commentaries from MSS TCD H 2. 15A, H 3. 17, H 3. 18 and Egerton 88 printed with English translations in Apps. 1–4. App. 5 contains restored text with English translations of an Old Irish passage on Caithchi Bech ‘trespass-penalties of bees’, based on MSS TCD E 3. 5 and H 3. 18. App. 6 contains a normalised version of an Old Irish passage on Athgabál Bech ‘distraint of bees’, based on D. A Binchy's edition, in Celtica 10 (1973), pp. 72–86 (§11), from MS TCD H 3. 18. App. 7 contains some of the Welsh material relating to bees.

Rev. by
Pádraig Ó Riain, in Éigse 21 (1986), pp. 241-243.

1. Greene’s ‘Tmesis II’ and ‘Tmesis III’; 2. Tmesis I in Audacht Morainn; cf. D. Greene, ‘Archaic Irish’, in Indogermanisch und Keltisch (Wiesbaden 1977), pp. 11-33.

Beg. Cis lir cenela airechta dochusin la Féniu, from TCD MS H 3. 18 (= CIH ii 601.20-602.4); with English translation and notes.

On ScG creacair.

Appendix 1: List of law-texts; 2: List of wisdom-texts; 3: Bibliography. Samples from the law-texts.

Rev. by
A. J. Hughes, in SAM 13/2 (1989), pp. 328-330.
K[arl] H[orst] S[chmidt], in ZCP 44 (1991), pp. 325–326.
F. W. Harris, in The American journal of legal history 34/4 (Oct., 1990), pp. 420-422.
Morfydd E. Owen, in StC 24–25 (1989/1990), pp. 206-210.
Pierre-Yves Lambert, in ÉtC 27 (1990), pp. 384-385.
Alain J. Stoclet, in Le Moyen-Âge 97/2 (1991), 287-288.
K. W. Nicholls, in Éigse 26 (1992), pp. 173-177.
Richard Firth Green, in Medium Ævum 62/1 (1993), pp. 118-120.
Neil McLeod, in IJ 22 (1987), pp. 304-305.

ad F. Kelly, in Peritia 5 (1986), 74-106. Senchae derives from a compound *seno-k^wois(y?)os, meaning ‘old witness’. Senchas represents senchae + abstract suffix -as.

Repr. 1998, 2000 (with addenda & corrigenda). 9 plates, 22 figures.

Appendix A [edition of seven legal passages on topics connected with farming; with English translation and discussion]: 1. Defects of cows and sheep [CIH ii 674.37-675.17]; 2. Livestock not to be distrained [CIH iii 897.10-29]; 3. Value of cattle, sheep and pigs [CIH iii 845.22-846.14]; 4. Roads and tracks [CIH iii 893.22-35]; 5. Calves with two mothers [CIH iii 967.35-968.15 and iv 1267.17-31]; 6. Land-values [CIH iii 972.24-9]; 7. Horse-qualities [CIH iv 1235.19-27].
Appendix B: Units of measurement.

Rev. by
J. Beverley Smith, in StC 35 (2001), pp. 363-364.
Nerys Patterson, in Speculum 74/2 (Apr., 1999), pp. 440-442.
K[arl] H[orst] S[chmidt], in ZCP 51 (1999), pp. 290-294.

Repr. in Irish journal of medical science 170/1 (Jan.-Mar., 2001), pp. 73-76.

Part I (pp. 1-33) by J.B.: Early Irish examples of the evil eye: 1. The destructive eye [súil miledach, Birugderc, súil milltech, súil neimnech, possibly túathcháech]; 2. The angry eye [déccain aindíaraid, súil (fhéig) andíaraid]; 3. Casting the evil eye [millid, aidmillid; corrguinecht also discussed]; 4. Envy and the evil eye [for-moinethar, drochrosc, drochshúil]; 5. Protection against the evil eye. Part II (pp. 34-39) by F.K.: ‘The evil eye’ in early Irish law: a section of legal commentary (dating from around the twelfth century) attached to a four-word quotation from an Old Irish law text (No etlod tri ormath ‘Or stealing away through envy’), ed. with transl. and notes from MSS Rawlinson B 506 and TCD H 3. 18; cf. CIH i 144.34-145.5; ii 673.3-10; iii 955.1-8, 1051.17-23.

= Rhŷs lecture, 2003.

Discusses the use of 24 interjections, presented in alphabetical order.

From Egerton 88; edition, with English translation and linguistic discussion (particulary of the terms tellach, grísach, æal, drolam, innber).