Authors and Textual Sources

English translation of short extracts and occasional single stanzas: 1. Mór mo thnúth-sa lem Thoil féin; 2. Adeir léireólach léightheóra sgríbheann; 3. Ag ríoghraidh cé bhínn-se, do bharr ar chéad; 4. A aicme ar ar dhoirt mo thoil-se a tionnghrádh dil; 5. A fhir mh’éilighthe i ndéanamh na rann do-ním; 6. A chara 's a chnú chroidhe dhlúthaigheas rann cluthar; 7. Ar chomhrannaibh cóirighthe i n-eagar 's i n-am; 8. Oileán Carrún laglúb líomhtha léir; 9. Acht clann mhillteach ar a máthair; 10. Innis ar dtós mar sgeól dom thiagharna.

Discusses the direct influence of English literature on Irish love poetry of the period 1550-1650. Study based on an analysis of the following eight poems: chap 2. Mairg adeir olc ris na mnáibh (Gearóid Iarla); chap. 3. A mhacalla dheas (Cearbhall Ó Dálaigh), Dála an nóinín (Pádraigín Haicéad), A bhean lán de stuaim (Geoffrey Keating), Fir na Fódla ar ndul d’éag (Riocard do Búrc); chap. 4. Fuar dó féin an croidhe tinn, A fhir éadmhair 'gá mbí bean; chap. 5. Féach orm, a inghean Eóghain (Ó Géaráin).

Rev. by
Breandán Ó Conaire, in StH 29 (1995), pp. 231-237.

Ed. from MS London, PROL SP 63/207/6. I, beg. Créad í in cead aithne; II, beg. Chréad í suim an rachta go hiomslán. Dated to 1600 (?) and preserved by Dr Meredith Hanmer (†1604).

Examines the life and work of an Irish translator and imitator of James Macpherson, and discusses his role in the reception of Ossian by German writers.

Ed. from MSS RIA 23 N 10 and RIA 23 O 48 (Liber flavus Fergusiorum), with transl. and notes.

1. The Harrowing of Hell (see W. Gillies, in Celtica 13 (1980), 32-55. There is a third copy in the earlier (fourteenth-century) manuscript Rawlinson B 486.); 2. Etymology of étáil (Support for the author’s suggestion that étáil is a secondary form of the vn of ad-cota; see B. Ó Cuív, in Celtica 13 (1980), pp. 125-145 (esp. 142 ff.).).

An Irish account of Christ’s descent into hell, beg. Ar n-eiseirghi Crist a carcair corcraa. From RIA 23 O 48 (Liber flavus); semi-diplomatic text and English translation.

Argues on metrical grounds that hymn beg. Deus Domine meus was composed in Ireland during the seventh century. Ed. (46 ll.) from J. Heerwagen, Opera Bedae Venerabilis III (Basel, 1536).

Texts include: (chap. 2) An Old Irish tract on satire [beg. Cis lir fodlai aíre, reconstructed from Book of Ballymote, Book of Uí Maine and NLS Gaelic 1; with English translation, manuscript readings and notes, and including the text of a shorter version found in TCD H 3. 18]; (chap. 3) The Old Irish heptad on satire [no. 33, beg. A-táat secht cenéla aíre le Féniu; restored text based on Rawl. B 487 and TCD H 3. 18, followed by diplomatic text of the glosses and commentary in Rawl. B 487; with English translation and notes]; (chap. 4) A miscellany of medieval Irish satires [an edition of the satires cited in Mittelirische Verslehren III (ed. by R. Thurneysen 1891 [Best¹, p. 53]); 86 poems, normalized from the six extant witnesses, with linguistic and metrical analysis, manuscript readings, English translation and notes].

Rev. by
Johan Corthals, in Éigse 37 (2010), pp 174-178.
G. R. Isaac, in JGAHS 62 (2010), pp. 215-216.
Riita Latvio, in SCF 6 (2009), pp. 83-86.
Gerald Manning, in StH 36 (2009-2010), pp. 211-215.
Feargal Ó Béarra, in Béaloideas 77 (2009), pp. 132-134.
S. Ó D., in Clogher record 20/1 (2009), pp. 160-164.
Simon Rodway, in CMCS 62 (Winter, 2011), pp. 94-97.
Paul Russell, in ÉtC 38 (2012), pp. 324-326.
Robin Chapman Stacey, in Speculum 86/3 (Jul., 2011), pp. 785-786.

Studies the A and B versions of the story found under the heading De gesta re, and argues that they are composition exercises of Irish origin which show the influence of Irish secular narratives.

Argues (vs. A. Breen, in Celtica 21 (1990), pp. 40-50) it is a Hebraism and its original form is idama.

Concludes that the Lorica, attributed by some scholars to Gildas, was written by Laidcenn before ad 661 in imitation of the Hisperica famina.

Rev. by
Pádraig A. Breatnach, in Celtica 15 (1983), pp. 158-163.
Charles Witke, in 52/3 (Jul., 1977), pp. 690-693.

Lorica of Laidcenn; Leiden lorica; Rubisca; Adelphus adelpha meter (or “St.-Omer hymn” ).

Rev. by
Jane Stevenson, in CMCS 16 (Winter, 1988), pp. 100-103.
Michael Winterbottom, in Peritia 6-7 (1987-1988), pp. 331-332.

Earliest two references from Hisperica famina.

Repr. in Latin letters in early christian Ireland, nº XIV.

Origin and meaning of iduma ‘hand (of Almighty God)' as used in Altus prosator, Hisperica famina, etc. Cf. D. Howlett, in Peritia 9 (1995), pp. 72–80.

Discusses the various methods used by the Hispericists to coin new, artificial Latin words (incl. discussion of Hisp. Lat. besus and belua, arguably modelled on OIr. bés and bél).

Identifies literary borrowings in the B text of Hisperica famina from the Carmen Paschale of Caelius Sedulius.

Argues that Isidore was not influential in Irish scholarly circles until the end of the seventh century. [1.] De Mirabilibus Sacrae Scripturae; [2.] De Ordine Creaturarum; [3.] Hisperica famina; [4.] Virgilius Maro Grammaticus; [4.] Some other texts; [5.] Conclusion.

Discusses chain symbolism in early Irish texts.

Repr. in Style and scholarship, pp. 35-40.

Shows how Hisperica famina can be used as a source of information about aspects of early Irish culture, e.g. fences, clothing, book satchels, architecture, hospitality, washing (of hair), vessels, etc.

ad J. Stevenson, rev. of Hisperica famina, II, CMCS 16 (Winter, 1988), pp. 100-103.

Traces the influence of Orosius’s Historia aduersum paganos on Gildas’s De excidio Britanniae.

In Chartres recension of Historia Brittonum, Lat fregit bellum ante […] super […], based on Ir. maidid in cath re n- […] for […], was added by a tenth-century Irish scholar.

ad D. N. Dumville, in Éigse 16 (1976), pp. 183-86.

Part II (pp. 381-387) deals with the influence of the vernacular epic style on the Irish adaptations of latin texts. Appendix contains a study of the opening section of the Irish version of Historia Brittonum.

Discusses the use of this short genealogical tract by the authors and redactors of Historia Brittonum, and its subsequent transmission to Ireland. §2. The Frankish Table of Nations in Gaelic texts.

Compares Bede’s Historia ecclesiastica with the Middle Irish version found in Laud Misc. 610.

SR 21-280 is based on a lost eighth-century cosmological tract drawing on: De ordine creaturarum (Pseudo-Isidore); Pliny’s Historia naturalis, ii; Isidore of Seville; etc.

On St. Peter battling for the soul of an Irish galloglass.

The angelology of Pseudo-Dionysius, as transmitted by Gregory the Great (Homiliae in evangelium); fantastic names with distant origin in 1 Enoch; a counting system based on Latin military nomenclature.

Analyses the sources and style of the narrative known as ‘How Samson slew the Gesteda’ (ed. by C. Marstrander in Ériu 5, pp. 145-159).

Provides the original Latin text (Hugh of St. Victor’s Didascalicon) on which the treatise in NLS Advocates’ Library 72.1.27 is based. See Éigse 19/2 (1983), pp. 399-407.

Argues that Drimmendoo in Tobias Smollett’s The Expedition of Humphry Clinker (1771) represents the Irish song An druimfhionn dubh.

1. Seon Carsuel; 2. Seán Ó Cearnaigh; 3. Uilliam Ó Domhnaill agus a chúntóirí; 4. William Bedell; 5. Gofraidh Mac Domhnaill; 6. Dhá chaiticiosma Albanacha [Adtimchiol an chreidimh and Foirceadul aithghearr]; 7. Robert Boyle agus clóbhualadh an Bhíobla; 8. Bíobla Bedell in Albain; 9. John Richardson; 10. Francis Hutchinson.

Contains various rules and other texts in English translation. 1. Rules: The Rule of Ailbe; The Rule of Comgall; The Rule of Colum Cille; The Rule of Ciarán; The Rule of the Grey Monks; The Rule of Cormac Mac Cuilennáin; The Rule of Carthage; An incomplete fragment [= Cid is dech do clerech, from An Leabhar Breac 260b); The Rule of the Céli Dé; The Rule of Tallaght, or The teaching of Maelruain. 2. Writings, litanies and hymns: Testimony to the Monastery of Sinchell The Younger; The Homily of Cambrai Fragment; A treatise on The Eucharist; The Alphabet of Devotion [= Apgitir chrábaid]; Litany of the Trinity; Litany of Jesus Christ [= Scúap chrábaid]; Litany of Our Lady; Invocation of Saint Michael; Poems [Engl. transls. repr. from various sources]; Latin Hymns.

Rev. by
Réamonn Ó Muirí, in SAM 17/2 (1998), pp. 221-222.

Latin; derived from Vita Tigernaci. Text from MS 405, Parker Library, Corpus Christi College, Cambridge; with Engl. transl.