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Aided Bresail meic Díarmata ‘The violent death of Bressal mac Díarmata’

  • Early Irish
  • Cycles of the Kings

A brief, early Irish saga and hagiographical legend, which relates how Díarmait mac Cerbaill had his son Bresal slain for appropriating a nun’s cow and how St Béccán rescued the soul of the king’s son from hell, resuscitating him.

Manuscripts
Independently attested
Dublin, University College, MS Franciscan A 3 = Detached folios from the Book of Leinster [s. xii]
p. 358
Text written in the left margin. The main text is that of the Martyrology of Tallaght.
Dublin, Royal Irish Academy, MS 23 O 48a (476) = Liber Flavus Fergusiorum, part 1 [c. 1435-1440]
f. 20(72)va.i–vb.m
Dublin, Royal Irish Academy, MS 23 P 3 A, ff. 1-19 [c.1467]
f. 11vb
beg. ‘Fecht do rigne Bresal mac Diarmaddo’
Dublin, University College, MS Franciscan A 9 [s. xv (?)]
p. 43b.m–44a.m
Dublin, Royal Irish Academy, MS B iv 2 (1080) [1627-1628]
f. 144ra
Dublin, Trinity College, MS 1382 (H 5. 10) [1703]
? (to be verified)
Version incorporated in the second recension of Aided Díarmata meic Cerbaill.
Cork, University College, Book of Lismore = Book of Lismore (Leabhar Leasa Móir) [s. xv]
f. 136va.1–va.33
Dublin, Royal Irish Academy, MS 23 G 25 (258) [c.1809 × 1813]
Transcript.
Dublin, Royal Irish Academy, MS 3 B 10 (260) [1820]
Dublin, Royal Irish Academy, MS 23 M 7 (287) [1818 × 1819]
Another transcript by Mícheál Óg Ó Longáin, written between 1818 and 1819.
Maynooth, Russell Library, MS M 17 [1817]
Another transcript by Mícheál Óg Ó Longáin.
Transcripts of Mícheál Óg Ó Longáin, possibly one or more of the above.
Dublin, National Library of Ireland, MS G 362
pp. 111–112
rubric: ‘Scéal air Bhreasal mac Diarmada ⁊ air Bhéacán naomh’
Dublin, Royal Irish Academy, MS 23 H 6 (478) [1868]
Another transcript.
Language
  • Early Irish

Classification

Cycles of the Kings
Cycles of the Kings
id. 80

...

Subjects

hellhell
...
resuscitation of the deadmotifs relating to the dead
resuscitation of the dead
id. 26773
Díarmait mac CerbaillDíarmait mac Cerbaill
(supp. d. 565)
In Irish historical tradition, high-king of Ireland, son of Fergus Cerrbél.
See more Bressal mac DíarmataBressal mac Díarmata
(fl. 6th century)
A son of Díarmait mac Cerbaill who is known from an early Irish legend in which his father has him killed as a punishment for theft after which St Beccán (of Emlagh, a church near Kells) brings him back from hell.
See more Béccán of EmlaghBéccán of Emlagh
(supp. fl. 6th century)
Béccán mac Cúla
Béccán/Beccán mac Cúla/Cula, patron saint of Imlech Fiaich (Emlagh, Co. Meath) near Kells.
See more Luchair of ElgraigeLuchair of Elgraige
Entry reserved for but not yet available from the subject index.

See more Colum CilleColum Cille
(fl. 6th century)
Columba
founder and abbot of Iona, Kells (Cenandas) and Derry (Daire).
See more
Cenandas
Cenandas, Cenannas ... Kells
County Meath
See more

Sources

Primary sources

[dipl. ed.] OʼSullivan, Anne [ed.], The Book of Leinster, formerly Lebar na Núachongbála, vol. 6, Dublin: Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1983. xv + pp. 1327-1708.
CELT – pp. 1327–1595 (excl. pp. 1596–1708): <link>
1612 Diplomatic edition of the text in LL
[ed.] Meyer, Kuno [ed.], “Mitteilungen aus irischen Handschriften: Aided Bresail”, Zeitschrift für celtische Philologie 7 (1910): 305–307.  
comments: Aided Bresail, based on Dublin, Royal Irish Academy, MS B iv 2.
TLH – edition: <link> Internet Archive: <link>
based on RIA MS B iv 2.
[ed.] [tr.] Stokes, Whitley [ed. and tr.], Lives of saints from the Book of Lismore, Anecdota Oxoniensia, Mediaeval and Modern Series, 5, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1890.
CELT: <link> Internet Archive: <link> Internet Archive: <link>, <link> Internet Archive: <link>
xxvii–xxviii Book of Lismore version. direct link
Cf. the Martyrology of Donegal, under 5 April:
[ed.] [tr.] OʼDonovan, John, James Henthorn Todd, and William Reeves [ed. and tr.], The martyrology of Donegal: a calendar of the saints of Ireland, Dublin, 1864.
Internet Archive: <link> Internet Archive: <link> Internet Archive: <link>
94–97
[tr.] Jackson, Kenneth Hurlstone [tr.], A Celtic miscellany: translations from the Celtic literatures, Revised ed., Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1971.
316–317

Secondary sources (select)

Wiley, Dan M., “An introduction to the early Irish king tales”, in: Dan M. Wiley (ed.), Essays on the early Irish king tales, Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2008. 13–67.
Plummer, Charles, “A tentative catalogue of Irish hagiography”, in: Charles Plummer, Miscellanea hagiographica Hibernica: vitae adhuc ineditae sanctorum Mac Creiche, Naile, Cranat, 15, Brussels: Société des Bollandistes, 1925. 171–285.
Collection:  Utrecht University Library: <link>
[id. 77.]
web page identifiers
Contributors
C. A., Dennis Groenewegen
Page created
October 2010, last updated: June 2023
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