lived about that time, may well have been the author. This calendar has been twice edited by W. Stokes with an English translation, the first time for the Royal Irish Academy (Dublin, 1880), and again for the Bradshaw Society (London, 1905).
It may perhaps be as well to enumerate here the later Irish martyrologies. (1) The Martyrology of Tallaght (Tamlacht), founded on an 8th-century calendar, but containing additions down to 900 (ed. D. H. Kelly, Dublin, 1857). (2) The metrical Martyrology of O’Gorman, c. 1166–1174, edited by Stokes for the Bradshaw Society (London, 1895). (3) The Martyrology of Donegal, an important compilation in prose made by Michael O’Clery in 1630, edited by J. H. Todd (Dublin, 1864). A composition which is wrongly assigned to Oengus the Culdee is the Saltair na Rann or Psalter in Quatrains, contained in an Oxford MS. (Rawlinson B 502) and published without a translation by Stokes (Oxford, 1883). The work proper consists of 150 poems corresponding to the number of Psalms in the psalter, but 12 poems have been added, and in all it contains 2098 quatrains, chiefly in deibide metre of seven syllables. The poems are mainly based on biblical (Old Testament) history, but they preserve a large measure of medieval sacred lore and cosmogony. The psalter received additions as late as 998, and the Oxford MS. belongs to the 12th century. We should perhaps also mention here the famous Amra or Eulogy of St Columba, commonly attributed to Dallán Forgaill, a contemporary of the saint, but Stokes takes the view that it was written in the 9th century, and is intentionally obscure. The oldest but not the best copy of the Amra is preserved in the Trinity College, Dublin, MS. of the Liber Hymnorum, but it also occurs in LU. and elsewhere. It invariably appears heavily gloss-laden, and the glosses and commentary added thereto are out of all proportion to the text. This piece, which is not extant in its integrity, was probably intended as artificial alliterative prose, but, as we have it, it is a medley of isolated phrases and irrelevant comment.
During the 9th and 10th centuries Ireland was harassed by the
Vikings, and a host of scholars seem to have fled to the continent,
carrying with them their precious books, many of
which are preserved in Italy, Switzerland, Germany
and elsewhere. Hence very few early Irish MSS. are
Old collectors.
preserved in Ireland itself. When the fury of the storm was past,
Irish scholars showed increased interest in the old literary
documents, and copied all that they could lay hands on into
miscellaneous codices. The earliest of these collections, such as
the Cin of Druim Snechta, the Yellow Book of Slane, the Book of
Dubdaleithe, the Psalter of Cashel, exist no longer, though their
names have come down and certain of them were known in the
17th century. However, copies of a goodly portion of the
contents of these old books are preserved to us in one form or
another, but mainly in a series of huge miscellaneous codices
Book of the
Dun Cow.
ranging in date from the 12th to the 16th century.
The oldest is Lebor na h-uidre, or Book of the Dun
Cow, preserved in the Royal Irish Academy and
published in facsimile (Dublin, 1870). This MS. was
compiled in part in the monastery of Clonmacnoise by Moelmuire
MacCelechair, who was slain in 1106. The Book of the Dun
Cow (where necessary we shall abbreviate as LU.) derives its
name from a legend that Ciaran of Clonmacnoise (d. 544) took
down the story of the Táin Bó Cualnge on a parchment made
from the hide of his favourite cow. The name seems to have
been wrongly applied to the 12th-century MS. in the 15th century.
LU. is almost entirely devoted to romance, the stories which
Book of Leinster.
it contains belonging mainly to the Ulster cycle. The
next MS. in point of age is the Book of Leinster
(abbreviated LL.) now in Trinity College, Dublin. It
was transcribed by Finn, son of Gorman, bishop of Kildare
(d. 1160). LL. also contains a large number of romances in
addition to other important matter, mainly historical and
genealogical, bearing more particularly on the affairs of
Yellow Book of Lecan.
Leinster. The Yellow Book of Lecan (YBL.), also in
Trinity College, Dublin, was written at different times
by the MacFirbis family, but chiefly by Gilla Isa, son of
Donnchad Mór MacFirbis about 1391. The MacFirbises were
hereditary scribes and genealogists to the O’Dowds, chiefs of
the Hy Fiachrach (Co. Sligo). YBL. contains a vast amount of
romance, and is indispensable as supplementing and checking
the contents of LU. and LL. The most extensive
Book of Ballymote.
collection of all is the Book of Ballymote (BB.), now
belonging to the Royal Irish Academy, which was
compiled about the beginning of the 15th century by various
scribes. The book was in the possession of the chiefs of Ballymote
for more than a century. In 1522 it was purchased by the
O’Donnells for 140 milch cows. BB. only contains little romantic
matter, but it has preserved much valuable historical and
genealogical material. The contents of the Leabhar
Breac (LB.), or Speckled Book, now in the Royal Irish
Speckled Book.
Academy, are chiefly ecclesiastical and religious. LB.
seems to have been compiled in large measure before 1544. All
these five codices have been published in facsimile by the Royal
Irish Academy with a description of their contents. Two important
Mid. Ir. MSS. in the Bodleian (Rawlinson B 512 and
Laud 610), containing a good deal of romantic material, are also
published in facsimile by Henry Frowde.
Other MSS. which require special mention are (1) The Great Book of Lecan, compiled in the year 1417 by Gilla Isa Mór MacFirbis, in the Royal Irish Academy; (2) The Book of Lismore, the property of the duke of Devonshire at Lismore Castle. This codex was compiled in the latter half of Other MSS. material. the 15th century from the lost book of Monasterboice and other MSS. Its contents are described in the introduction to Stokes’s Lives of Saints from the Book of Lismore (Oxford, 1890). (3) The Book of Fermoy in the Royal Irish Academy. The contents are described in the introduction to O’Beirne Crowe’s edition of the Táin Bó Fraich (Dublin, 1870). (4) The Book of Hy Maine recently acquired by the Royal Irish Academy. The scribe who wrote it died in 1372. O’Curry, O’Longan and O’Beirne Crowe drew up a MS. catalogue of the Irish MSS. in the Royal Irish Academy, and O’Donovan performed the same service for the Trinity College, Dublin, collection. A briefer account of the Irish MSS. in TCD. will be found in Abbott’s Catalogue of the MSS. in that library. O’Curry also drew up a list of the Irish MSS. in the British Museum, and S. H. O’Grady has printed part i. of a descriptive catalogue of this collection (London, 1901), part ii. by T. O’Maille. The twenty-six MSS. in the Franciscan monastery in Dublin are described by J. T. Gilbert in the Fourth Report of the Royal Commission on Historical MSS. W. F. Skene catalogued the collection of MSS. in the Advocates’ Library, Edinburgh, a printed catalogue of which has been issued by D. Mackinnon (Edinburgh, 1909; see also Trans. Gaelic Soc. of Inverness, xvi. 285-309).
In order to give some idea of the enormous extent of Irish MS. material we may quote some calculations made by O’Curry, who states that if the five oldest vellum MSS. were printed the result would be 9400 quarto pages. Other vellum MSS. ranging in date from 1300 to 1600 would fill 9000 pages of the same size, whilst the innumerable paper MSS. belonging chiefly to the early 18th century would cover no less than 30,000 pages. The well-known French scholar, D’Arbois de Jubainville, published in 1883 a tentative catalogue of Irish epic literature. His work is by no means complete, but his figures are instructive. He mentions 953 Irish MSS. containing epic matter preserved in Irish and English libraries. To these have to be added another 56 in continental libraries. Of this mass of material 133 Irish and British MSS. and 35 continental MSS. were written before 1600. It should, however, be stated that the same subject is treated over and over again, and much of the later material is absolutely valueless.
Before we pass on to the consideration of the literature itself,
it will be well to make a few preliminary observations on the
nature of the language in which the pieces are written
and on the status of the poet in medieval Ireland.
The language in which the huge miscellaneous codices
Character of
Middle Irish.
enumerated above are contained is called by the general
name of Middle Irish, which is a very wide term. Irish scribes
often copied their original somewhat mechanically, without
