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Brislech Mór Maige Muirthemne, also known as Aided Con Culainn

  • Old Irish
  • prose, verse
  • Ulster Cycle

Old Irish saga about the slaying of the Ulster hero Cú Chulainn, Conall Cernach’s revenge, Cú Chulainn’s ‘phantom speech’ (síabur-chobra) delivered after his death and a lament by Emer.

Manuscripts
Dublin, Trinity College, MS 1339 (H 2. 18) = Book of Leinster [s. xii2]
pp. 119a–123b
beg. ‘[...] nad fordamarsa gol ban ⁊ mac cen etráin forru cosindiu’
Acephalous: the beginning of the text, possibly a single leaf, is lost. Roscada are marked with .r. in the margins.
Dublin, Trinity College, MS 1337 19, pp. 565–628 [s. xvi (?)]
pp. 601–603
Glossed extracts from the text, here referred to as ‘In Brislech co sin’. Incl. extracts from the part that is missing in LL.
Language
  • Old Irish

  • Old Irish.

Date
Pokorny (1921) dated the text to the mid-8th century or even earlier, which would make it one of the earliest Irish sagas to survive.(1)n. 1 Julius Pokorny, ‘Germanisch-irisches’, Zeitschrift für celtische Philologie 13 (1921): 123. Kimpton, in a more recent, more detailed analysis, concludes that “instances of early Old Irish features [...], occurring in both poetic and prose portions of the text, suggest an original date of composition for the tale in the early eighth century”, while the simultaneous appearance of Middle Irish verbal forms suggest to her that the “LL text presents a late ninth- or early tenth-century reworking of an early eighth-century composition, with later scribal modernizations”.
Form
prose, verse (primary)
Textual relationships
A version of the text (Aided Con Chulainn) is listed in the Middle Irish tale-lists. The dindsenchas poem beg. Achall ar aicce Temair deals with some of the consequences of Cú Chulainn's death and Conall Cernach's vengeance. See also the Early Modern Irish rendition known sometimes as Oidheadh Con Culainn.
Related: Dinnshenchas of Achall and other placesDinnshenchas of Achall and other placesDinnshenchas poem mostly on Achall, i.e. the Hill of Skreen, Co. Meath, with prose on Duma nEirc and Duma nAichle. Both the poem and the prose text offer the story according to which Achall died of grief for her brother Erc, who was killed in vengeance for Cú Chulainn’s death, and was buried in the mound that would bear her name.Irish glossary from TCD 1337, pp. 623-628Irish glossary from TCD 1337, pp. 623-628Medieval Irish glossary in TCD 1337, pp. 623-628. Many of the entries are known from other works and learned compilations, such as Sanas Cormaic.

Classification

Ulster Cycle
Ulster Cycle
id. 1797

...

Subjects

Cú ChulainnCú Chulainn
Young Ulster hero and chief character of Táin bó Cuailnge and other tales of the Ulster Cycle; son of Súaltam or Lug and Deichtire (sister to Conchobor); husband of Emer (ingen Forgaill)
See more Conall CernachConall Cernach
(time-frame ass. with Ulster Cycle)
Warrior of the Ulaid in the Ulster Cycle; son of Amergin and Findchóem. In Irish genealogies, he is presented as an ancestor of the kings of the Dál nAraidi and the Uí Echach Coba.
See more Erc mac Cairpri Niad FerErc mac Cairpri Niad Fer
Erc, son of Cairpre Nia Fer (king of Tara) and Fedelm ... daughter of Conchobar mac Nessa; eponym of Duma nEirc
See more Lugaid mac Con RoíLugaid mac Con Roí
(time-frame ass. with Ulster Cycle)
Warrior in the Ulster Cycle, son of Cú Roí. In the tale Brislech Mór Maige Muirthemne, he is identified as the one who slew Cú Chulainn after wounding him with a spear.
See more

Sources

Notes

{
1.
Julius Pokorny, ‘Germanisch-irisches’, Zeitschrift für celtische Philologie 13 (1921): 123.

Primary sources Text editions and/or modern translations – in whole or in part – along with publications containing additions and corrections, if known. Diplomatic editions, facsimiles and digital image reproductions of the manuscripts are not always listed here but may be found in entries for the relevant manuscripts. For historical purposes, early editions, transcriptions and translations are not excluded, even if their reliability does not meet modern standards.

[ed.] [tr.] Kimpton, Bettina [ed. and tr.], The death of Cú Chulainn. A critical edition of the earliest version of Brislech Mór Maige Muirthemni, Maynooth Medieval Irish Texts, 6, Maynooth: School of Celtic Studies, National University of Ireland, 2009.
Based on LL and H 3. 18
[ed.] Thurneysen, Rudolf [ed.], Zu irischen Handschriften und Litteraturdenkmälern [I], Abhandlungen der königlichen Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen, Philologisch-Historische Klasse, 14.2, Berlin, 1912.  
comments: Continued by Rudolf Thurneysen, Zu irischen Handschriften und Litteraturdenkmälern II (1913).
13–19 H 3. 18
[ed.] [tr.] Stokes, Whitley [ed. and tr.], “Cuchulainn’s death [abridged from the Book of Leinster, ff. 77, a 1 – 78, b 2]”, Revue Celtique 3 (1876–1878): 175–185, 152.
Internet Archive: <link>, <link>, <link> Internet Archive – originally from Google Books: <link>
Part of the LL text.
[tr.] Tymoczko, Maria [tr.], Two death tales from the Ulster Cycle: The death of Cu Roi and The death of Cu Chulainn, Dolmen Texts, 2, Dublin: Dolmen Press, 1981.
The first complete English translation, including verse sections.
[tr.] Carey, John [tr.], “[Various contributions]”, in: John T. Koch, and John Carey (eds), The Celtic Heroic Age. Literary sources for ancient Celtic Europe and early Ireland & Wales, 4th ed., 1, Aberystwyth: Celtic Studies Publications, 2003. [Various].
§86 LL version
[tr.] d'Arbois de Jubainville, Marie-Henri [tr.], “[Various contributions]”, in: Marie-Henri d'Arbois de Jubainville (ed.), L’épopée celtique en Irlande, 5, Paris: Thorin, 1892. [Various].
Internet Archive: <link>
326–354

Secondary sources (select)

Pokorny, Julius, “Germanisch-irisches [1. Nochmals altir. gildae; 2. Germanische Lehnworte im Irischen]”, Zeitschrift für celtische Philologie 13 (1921): 111–129.
Internet Archive: <link>
Thurneysen, Rudolf, Die irische Helden- und Königsage bis zum siebzehnten Jahrhundert, Halle: Niemeyer, 1921.  

Contents: Part 1 (chapters 1-23): Allgemeines; Part 2 (chapters 1-85): Die Ulter Sage.

Internet Archive: <link>
547–556
web page identifiers
Contributors
Dennis Groenewegen, Patrick Brown
Page created
March 2011, last updated: June 2023
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