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Talland Étair ‘The siege of Howth’

  • Late Old Irish, Early Middle Irish
  • prose
  • Ulster Cycle
Language
  • Late Old Irish Early Middle Irish
Form
prose (primary)
verse (secondary)
Textual relationships
Contains the réitóiric A ingen a lúath, a láeb, a Leborcham, cía Ultu ána acca. The dinnshenchas poem beg. Étar étan ri dílind relates the same story. The killing of Mes Gegra by Conall Cernach leads to events in Aided Chonchobair.
Related: Aided Chonchobair (versions A–C)Aided Chonchobair (versions A–C)Dinnshenchas of Benn Étair IDinnshenchas of Benn Étair IPoem on the Hill of Howth, Co. Dublin.Dinnshenchas of Benn Étair IIDinnshenchas of Benn Étair IIPoem on the dinnshenchas of Benn Étair (Hill of Howth, Co. Dublin)
Associated items
Agallamh LeborchaimAgallamh Leborchaim

A prose introduction, including a list of Ulster women, and passage of rosc that are found as part of the early Irish tale Talland Étair. According to the tale, Leborcham is sent north to warn the wives of Ulster heroes and notables of the impending misfortunes of their husbands in battle. Her warning is uttered in the form of a rosc in which she presents a vision of the bloody outcome of the fight. Scholars like Dobbs have regarded the text as an interpolation, although this view may be open to debate.

Classification

Ulster Cycle
Ulster Cycle
id. 1797

The term ‘Ulster Cycle’ is used in modern scholarship to refer to a body of Irish narrative literature set in the heroic age of the Ulaid around the time of Conchobar mac Nessa.

Subjects

ail-geisail-geis
...

geisgeis
...

Athirne
Athirne
(time-frame ass. with Ulster Cycle)
Chief poet and satirist of the Ulstermen in the Ulster Cycle.

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Conall Cernach
Conall 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.

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Cú Chulainn
Cú 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)

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LeborchamLeborcham
Entry reserved for but not yet available from the subject index.

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Benn Étair
Benn Étair ... Hill of Howth
County Dublin
No short description available

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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.] Ó Dónaill, Caoimhín [ed. and tr.], Talland Étair, Maynooth Medieval Irish Texts, 4, Maynooth: Department of Old and Middle Irish, National University of Ireland, 2005.
[ed.] [tr.] Stokes, Whitley [ed. and tr.], “The siege of Howth”, Revue Celtique 8 (1887): 47–64.
Internet Archive: <link> Internet Archive: <link>
Stokes omits the interpolation in LL which was later edited by Dobbs.
[tr.] Hull, Eleanor (ed.), The Cuchullin saga in Irish literature: being a collection of stories relating to the hero Cuchullin, Grimm Library, 8, London, 1898.
Internet Archive: <link>, <link>
[id. 6.] A revised version of the translation by Stokes
[ed.] [tr.] Dobbs, Margaret E. [ed.], “Agallamh Leborchaim”, Études Celtiques 5 (1949): 154–161.
Part of the text, which Dobbs entitled Agallamh Leborchaim.
Contributors
Dennis Groenewegen, Patrick Brown
Page created
April 2011, last updated: January 2024