glosses. I treat only of such entries as are in the original hand (in H), except that I sometimes use the other entries for purposes of comparison.
In the Rawlinson MS. the entries corresponding to A and C (of the Trinity MS.) are, as a rule, written in one continuous hand, and there are, in addition, a few interlinear and marginal glosses. Some of the marginal and interlinear glosses of H are also written in the body of the text in R.[1] As R contains many old forms[2] not preserved in H, I conclude that R was based on H, with, however, the help of some of the original sources for checking the correctness of the work, although it is possible that the scribe of R may have corrected some of the scribal blunders of H by a comparison of the entries themselves.
§ 4. The text of the Annals is drawn from different sources. Sources actually mentioned are the Book of Cuanu, the Book of Dubdalethe, and a writer, Mochta. To these for the present I shall merely refer.[3] It is clear that these different sources are, in part, responsible for the variation of the language of the entries in the earlier periods. Another source of confusion is the occasional modernization[4] of the entries by the Middle Irish scribe. The Middle Irish scribe who was familiar with a certain form of a name in the language of his own time would be liable to write down inadvertently this late form when copying Old Irish entries. He would, as in the case Amalngado referred to, be less liable to tamper with a name, with the form of which he was not familiar.
- ↑ For instance the entry at the year 752 mil mor dorala dochum tire, which in H is added on the margin in a different hand, is written in R in the same hand as the rest of the entry.
- ↑ For example at 717, 721 (gloss), H has g. Aedha, R has Aedo. Cf. also the writing nares̄ 810.
- ↑ The Book of Cuanu is mentioned at 467, 468, 471 and down to 628. See Zimmer, “Nennius Vindicatus,” p. 250. I shall endeavour to deal more fully with this subject in the next section (v. “Sources of the Annals”).
- ↑ A striking instance of this modernization is the entry Mors Aengusa mic Amalngado at the year 592. Here Aengusa is a very late form (O. Ir. Oengusso, Oingusso), whilst the other part of the name Amalngado might be taken as the correct form of the name at the beginning of the Old Irish period. Such modernization, however, as will be seen, is very rare and seems to occur only in the case of very common names. Cf. further diphthongs oe, ae, and writings such as Ceallach, etc.
