Texts

Lebor gabála Érenn 2B. The Antediluvians

prose
Lebor gabála Érenn

An account of the first people to set foot on Ireland before the Deluge, namely Banba, later followed by Partholón, or three certain fishermen from Spain, although they navigated the waters of Ireland without setting foot on land.

Scope

part of text • multiple versions

Context(s)The (textual) context(s) to which the present text belongs or in which it is cited in part or in whole.

Lebor gabála Érenn/2. De gabálaib Érenn

Manuscripts

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Form

prose (primary)

Classification

Lebor gabála Érenn
Lebor gabála Érenn

id. 4019

Subjects

Banba

Banba

(time-frame ass. with Irish legendary history)

Banba is a designation for Ireland as a whole, though “[o]rig. name of north Leinster = mag mBreg, hence from British compound *Banno-Magos [...] or from *ban-w-yā as a theonym” (eDIL s.v. Banba), as well as an eponymous character or personification who is said to have given her name to the island; sometimes mentioned along with two sisters, Ériu and Fódla, who did likewise.

See more Partholón

Partholón

Partholón mac Sera (son of Sera)

Ireland

Ireland

No short description available

Keywords

DelugeDeluge
...
FloodFlood
...

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.

[ed.] [tr.] Macalister, R. A. Stewart [ed.], Lebor gabála Érenn: The book of the taking of Ireland, 5 vols, vol. 2, Irish Texts Society, 35, Dublin: Irish Texts Society, 1933.

Concerning this section in the recensions which he calls R¹, Min, R² and R³, Macalister writes that it “has suffered modification in translation from the original Latin and in subsequent transmission [...] and in consequence two versions R¹ and R², differing widely, have come into being. [...] The version [of this section] in Min need not detain us: it does not differ essentially from R¹. We turn now to R³, which in this section is very clumsy and awkward patchwork, based upon the two earlier versions, with the addition of some extraneous matter. [...] The close relationship of his [the compiler's] MS of R¹ (*Q), to F, observed in the preceding section is here maintained.”