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Críth gablach‘Forked purchase’

  • Old Irish
  • prose
  • Early Irish law texts

Old Irish legal tract which offers a systematic examination of the principles of legal rank and status in early Irish society, focusing on the free and noble classes. Its composition has been dated to the first half of the eighth century.

Manuscripts
Language
  • Old Irish
Date
“the opening years of the 8th century” (Binchy).(1)n. 1 D. A. Binchy, Críth gablach (1941): xiv.
Form
prose (primary)
verse (secondary)
Textual relationships
Related: Ma be rí rofesser recht flathoMa be rí rofesser recht flatho

Legal poem cited at the end of Críth gablach. It numbers 104 lines in Binchy’s edition. 

Bretha nemed toísechBretha nemed toísechOld Irish legal tract on the law of privileged persons (nemed), with particular attention being paid towards churchmen, poets and judges.
Associated items
Ma be rí rofesser recht flathoMa be rí rofesser recht flatho

Legal poem cited at the end of Críth gablach. It numbers 104 lines in Binchy’s edition. 

Classification

Early Irish law textsEarly Irish law texts
...

Sources

Notes

1.
D. A. Binchy, Críth gablach (1941): xiv.

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.] Binchy, D. A. [ed.], Críth gablach, Mediaeval and Modern Irish Series, 11, Dublin: Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1941.
[ed.] Binchy, D. A. [ed.], Corpus iuris Hibernici, 7 vols, vol. 2, Dublin: Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1978.  
comments: numbered pp. 339–744; diplomatic edition of legal material from: London, British Library, MS Harley 432; Dublin, Trinity College, MS 1316; Dublin, Trinity College, MS 1337.
563.1–32 Diplomatic edition of the first text from TCD 1337.
[ed.] Binchy, D. A. [ed.], Corpus iuris Hibernici, 7 vols, vol. 2, Dublin: Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1978.  
comments: numbered pp. 339–744; diplomatic edition of legal material from: London, British Library, MS Harley 432; Dublin, Trinity College, MS 1316; Dublin, Trinity College, MS 1337.
777.6–783.38 Diplomatic edition of the second text from TCD 1337.
[tr.] MacNeill, Eoin, “Ancient Irish law. The law of status or franchise”, Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy 36 C (1923, 1921–1924): 265–316.
Internet Archive: <link> Internet Archive – offprints: <link>
281–306 direct link
[ed.] [tr.] Hancock, W. Neilson, Thaddeus OʼMahony, Alexander George Richey, and Robert Atkinson [ed. and tr.], Ancient laws of Ireland, 6 vols, vol. 4: Din Techtugad and certain other selected Brehon law tracts, Stationery Office: Dublin, 1879.
Internet Archive: <link> Internet Archive: <link>, <link>, <link>
297–341 An early attempt at editing and translating the text. direct link

Secondary sources (select)

Breatnach, Liam, A companion to the Corpus iuris Hibernici, Early Irish Law Series, 5, Dublin: DIAS, 2005.  

A companion to D. A. Binchy, CIH (1978). Review article: Neil McLeod, ‘Review,A true companion to the Corpus iuris Hibernici’, Peritia 19 (2005).

Charles-Edwards, T. M., “Críth Gablach and the law of status”, Peritia 5 (1986): 53–73.  
abstract:
This paper presents a detailed study of the determinants of social status as set out in Críth Gablach (c. AD 700), an Irish law tract on social classification which attempts a systematic analysis of the status of the free and noble classes (excluding the church and the professions) in early medieval Irish society. The nature and determinants of status are considered and the ranks of society set out in detail. To be a noble was to be hereditarily a lord of freemen in clientship – lordship rather than actual income ennobled, though other factors were relevant. For the non-noble freeman, a house, land and material assets are the basis of status. Lordship, however, appears to be economically central to the condition of the non-noble grades. Críth Gablach is one of the few outstanding pieces of social analysis from early medieval Europe.
Charles-Edwards, T. M., “A contract between king and people in early medieval Ireland? Críth gablach on kingship”, Peritia 8 (1994): 107–119.  
abstract:

The early eighth-century Irish legal tract, Críth Gablach (a text on status), ends with a discussion of kingship. It is particularly interesting for its perception of the relationship between a king and his people as a contract. It is argued that the background to this view is to be found within Ireland, especially in the relationship between client kings and their overlords and between the church and the laity. Críth Gablach’s account of kingship also includes a section on the proper arrangement of the king’s household. Some elements of this section are clearly artificial, but they can be explained in terms of a desire on the part of the author to include a christian interpretation of kingship.

Gerriets, Marilyn, “Economy and society. Clientship according to the Irish laws”, Cambridge Medieval Celtic Studies 6 (1983): 43–61.
Kelly, Patricia, “Two relative clauses in Críth Gablach”, Zeitschrift für celtische Philologie 49–50 (1997): 373–377.
McLeod, Neil, “The two fer midboth and their evidence in court”, Ériu 33 (1982): 59–63.
McLeod, Neil, “Interpreting early Irish law: status and currency (part 1)”, Zeitschrift für celtische Philologie 41 (1986): 46–65.
McLeod, Neil, “Interpreting early Irish law: status and currency (part 2)”, Zeitschrift für celtische Philologie 42 (1987): 41–115.
Ó Corráin, Donnchadh, “Some cruxes in Críth gablach”, Peritia 15 (2001): 311–320.  
abstract:
In the legal tract, Críth gablach, some technical terms that have to do with early medieval farming and wood-working—eipit, dias fidchrann—and with the slaughtering of pigs paid in render to lords—cuts called tarr and tinne—are difficult to define exactly. Here an attempt is made to explain them more precisely.
Quin, E. G., “Textual notes”, Éigse 18:1 (1980): 93–98.
web page identifiers
Contributors
C. A., Dennis Groenewegen
Page created
October 2010, last updated: March 2022
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