BachelorDragon.png

The bachelor programme Celtic Languages and Culture at Utrecht University is under threat.

Texts
  1. Home
  2. Texts
  3. Tre-gort crand / tre-crand cú

Tre-gort crand / tre-crand cú

  • Early Irish
  • prose

A brief, possibly early Irish text, or versions of a text, on the relative life-lengths of several creatures, trees and other phenomena. Some versions conclude with the observation that God is eternal (bithbeo Dia).

First words (prose)
  • Tre-gort crand / tre-crand cú
Manuscripts
Dublin, National Library of Ireland, MS G 3 = Book of Ádhamh Ó Cianáin [s. xiv-xv]
f. 19v
Dublin, Royal Irish Academy, MS 23 P 12 (536) = Book of Ballymote (Leabhar Bhaile an Mhóta) [1384 x 1406]
p. 14a
Dublin, National Library of Ireland, MS G 1 [s. xvi]
f. 38
Glossed version, of which the main text is capitalised.
Dublin, Trinity College, MS 1337 3, pp. 15-58 [s. xv/xvi?]
p. 35
Dublin, National Library of Ireland, MS G 2 [s. xiv-xv]
f. 34rb
beg. ‘Tra crand . gort . tre gort . cu . tre’
According to Carney, a version “with considerable differences ... written in the style of a charm”.
Dublin, National Library of Ireland, MS G 131 [s. xvii]
p. 83.inf
beg. ‘Tre chual gort. Tre gort cu’
Version with interlinear gloss. The main text is capitalised.
London, British Library, MS Egerton 118
beg. ‘Tre chual gort’
London, British Library, MS Egerton 133 ff. 201?-229 [1720]
f. 229r
beg. ‘Trí geimhre cúaille / Trí chuaile cú’
Language
  • Early Irish
  • Carney suggests that it is “a very archaic piece of lore, and was doubtless committed to writing, perhaps in variant versions, in the Old Irish period”.
Form
prose (primary)
Textual relationships
Carney and Stokes note the existence of a metrical version (10 qq) in the Book of Fermoy (RIA 23 E 29), p. 156.
Related: Bliadhain don cuaille co certBliadhain don cuaille co cert

Classification

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.] Carney, James P., “The Ó Cianáin miscellany”, Ériu 21 (1969): 122–147.
129–130 An inventory of relevant texts, a parallel edition of BB and NLI G 3, with English translation, and a transcription of NLI G 2.
[ed.] Meroney, Howard, “The alphabet of the world”, Journal of Celtic Studies 2 (1953–1958): 173–188.
Version from Egerton 118.
[ed.] Meyer, Kuno, “Miscellen 2. Finguine, 3. Die Lebensalter”, Zeitschrift für celtische Philologie 5 (1905): 184.
Internet Archive: <link>
[‘3. Die Lebensalter’] Version from TCD 1337.

Secondary sources (select)

Meroney, Howard, “The alphabet of the world”, Journal of Celtic Studies 2 (1953–1958): 173–188.
Flower, Robin, Catalogue of Irish manuscripts in the [British Library, formerly the] British Museum, vol. 2, London: British Museum, 1926.
– IIIF Presentation API v2: View in Mirador – IIIF Presentation API v3: View in Mirador
115
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>
xli–xlii

A similar text from the Book of Lismore, with some discussion; notes similar texts in Egerton MSS 118 and 133.

Stokes, Whitley, “Correspondence. The legend of the oldest animals”, The Academy 34 (1888): 241–242.
Internet Archive: <link>
Moore, Norman, W. R. Lethaby, Jul. Claerhout, Adolfo Coelho, and T. W. Rhys Davids, “[Replies to W. Stokes:] The legend of the oldest animals”, The Academy 34 (1888): 258 (Moore); 274; 291; 356.
Internet Archive: <link>
web page identifiers
Contributors
Dennis Groenewegen
Page created
May 2023, last updated: June 2024
Retrieved from ‘https://codecs.vanhamel.nl/index.php?title=Tregort_crand_trecrand_cú&oldid=308159’