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Texts

Bruidne Érenn (prose)

  • Old Irish, Middle Irish
  • prose
  • Medieval Irish literature, Ulster Cycle, Pentad, Hexad

A brief prose account of the five or six hostels of Ireland (bruidne Érenn) and their owners occurs in a number of early Irish literary compositions and as an independent anecdote in the Book of Lismore.

Title
Bruidne Érenn (prose)
No title occurs in the manuscripts. See note below.
Context(s)The (textual) context(s) to which the present text belongs or in which it is cited in part or in whole.
  • independentThe text comes down in a relatively independent form as opposed to being embedded within a larger textual framework.
  • Book of Lismore version
Manuscripts

At least four versions of the prose account are known.

Scéla mucce Meic Da Thó § 1 (...in chóiced bruden ro-boí i nhÉrinn)
Bruiden Da Choca § 31 (... in sesiod rígbruiden Érenn)
t.b.a.
Fled Dúin na nGéd
t.b.a.
Independent version
Language
  • Old Irish Middle Irish
Form
prose (primary)
Textual relationships

Classification

Medieval Irish literatureMedieval Irish literature
...

Ulster Cycle
Ulster Cycle
id. 1797
PentadPentad
...

HexadHexad
...

Sources

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.

Scéla mucce Meic Da Thó
[ed.] Thurneysen, Rudolf [ed.], Scéla mucce Meic Dathó, Mediaeval and Modern Irish Series, 6, Dublin: Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1935.
Internet Archive: <link>
1
Bruiden Da Choca
[ed.] [tr.] Toner, Gregory [ed. and tr.], Bruiden Da Choca, Irish Texts Society, 61, London: Irish Texts Society, 2007.
§ 31
[ed.] [tr.] Stokes, Whitley [ed. and tr.], “Da Choca’s hostel”, Revue Celtique 21 (1900): 149–165, 312–327, 388–402.
Internet Archive: <link> Internet Archive: <link> Internet Archive: <link>
Fled Dúin na nGéd
[ed.] Lehmann, Ruth P. M. [ed.], Fled Dúin na nGéd, Mediaeval and Modern Irish Series, 21, Dublin: Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1964.
CELT – edition: <link>
16
Book of Lismore version
[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>

Secondary sources (select)

McCone, Kim, “Aided Cheltchair maic Uthechair: hounds, heroes and hospitallers in early Irish myth and story”, Ériu 35 (1984): 1–30.
OʼRahilly, T. F., Early Irish history and mythology, Dublin: Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1946.
121ff
Thurneysen, Rudolf [ed.], Scéla mucce Meic Dathó, Mediaeval and Modern Irish Series, 6, Dublin: Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1935.
Internet Archive: <link>
ii–iii
Contributors
Dennis Groenewegen
Page created
September 2012, last updated: December 2022