BachelorDragon.png

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

Texts
  1. Home
  2. Texts
  3. Tromdámh Guaire

Tromdámh Guaire ‘Guaire's burdensome company’

  • Early Modern Irish
  • prose
  • Cycles of the Kings, Medieval Irish literature about poets, Ulster Cycle
Title
Tromdámh Guaire
‘Guaire's burdensome company’
Also called Imtheacht na tromdháimhe in late copies of the text.
Manuscripts
Cork, University College, Book of Lismore = Book of Lismore (Leabhar Leasa Móir) [s. xv]
ff. 144r–151v
Dublin, Royal Irish Academy, MS 23 H 6 (478) [1868]
pp. 186a–193c
A transcript of the Book of Lismore text (wrongly attributed to O'Curry by Joynt)
Dublin, Royal Irish Academy, MS 24 M 31 (613) [s. xix]
Dublin, Royal Irish Academy, MS 23 O 16 (637) [s. xix]
p. 1ff
Dublin, Royal Irish Academy, MS 23 O 34 (652) [s. xix]
Marie-Henri d'Arbois de Jubainville lists a number of additional copies in modern manuscripts:(1)n. 1 Marie-Henri D'Arbois de Jubainville, Essai d'un catalogue de la littérature épique de l'Irlande: précédé d'une étude sur les manuscripts en langue irlandaise conservés dans les Iles Britanniques et sur le continent (1883): 156–157.
London, British Library, MS Additional 18748
p. 1ff
Said to be copied from an older copy, c. 1730
London, British Library, MS Egerton 134 [s. xviii–xix]
f. 25ff
Dublin, Royal Irish Academy, MS 23 O 40 (636) [s. xix]
Dublin, Royal Irish Academy, MS 23 E 11 (528) [s. xix]
pp. 1–37
Language
  • Early Modern Irish
  • “The language is late Mid. Irish in its transition stage into Mod. Irish” (Joynt).(2)n. 2 Maud Joynt, Tromdámh Guaire (1931): xii.
Date
“Tromdám Guaire is substantially a late creation. The linguistic evidence would indicate that the text as it stands belongs to a date in the late thirteenth or early fourteenth century, but this evidence, in so far as it has been examined, is unsatisfactory and even contradictory. On the other hand, the text seems to have been known to Giolla Brighde Mac Con Midhe [c.1210-c.1272] [...] which would indicate that it was in existence by the mid-thirteenth century” (Ó Coileáin).(3)n. 3 Seán Ó Coileáin, ‘The making of Tromdám Guaire’, Ériu 28 (1977): 66.(4)n. 4 See also Ó Coileáin (1977) on James Carney's view that while the “story of Tromdám Guaire is a typical example of the difficulty of dating Irish texts as literary compositions ... [it] could ... be thought of as having taken substantially its present form in the tenth century or earlier”. James P. Carney, Studies in Irish literature and history (1955): 170. “[B]ased on the evidence of a number of Norman-French and English loanwords in the texts as well as certain morphological and syntactic aspects of the author’s language”, Feargal Ó Béarra has suggested that the present text was “composed no earlier than ca. 1300, probably west of the river Shannon”, even if some of the materials used may date from an earlier time.(5)n. 5 Feargal Ó Béarra, ‘Tromdhámh Guaire: a context for laughter and audience in Early Modern Ireland’ in Laughter in the Middle Ages and early modern times... (2010): 415 and 415 n. 9..
Form
prose (primary)
verse (secondary)
Contains poems
‘A Aed suidhcern seig’ • ‘A err ada, a Aedh’ • ‘A Aedh mic Duach duibh’ • ‘Inmhain corp adrocair sunn’ • ‘Dursan dam, a meic mu Dhe’ • ‘Lochaid gidh ger a nguilbne’ • ‘Triallum uait, a Guairi glain’ • ‘A Chonnra Chaeich mheic Dairbre o'n traigh’
Textual relationships
Contains a version of the story of the recovery of the Táin bó Cúailnge by Senchán Torpéist, based on a version of Do faillsigud Tána bó Cúailnge. A similar version of the tale was incorporated into Beatha Cholaim Chille (§ 157), compiled by Manus O'Donnell.
(Possible) sources: Do fhaillsigud Tána bó CúailngeDo fhaillsigud Tána bó Cúailnge
Related: Beatha Cholaim ChilleBeatha Cholaim Chille
Associated items
Dinnshenchas of Lumman Tige SrafáinDinnshenchas of Lumman Tige SrafáinPoem in praise of Aodh’s shield.

Classification

Cycles of the Kings
Cycles of the Kings
id. 80
Medieval Irish literature about poetsMedieval Irish literature about poets
...
Ulster Cycle
Ulster Cycle
id. 1797

Subjects

Cycle of Gúaire Aidne mac ColmáinCycles of the Kings
Cycle of Gúaire Aidne mac Colmáin
id. 47958
Gúaire Aidne mac Colmáin
Gúaire Aidne mac Colmáin
(d. 663)
Gúaire Aidne (‘of Aidne’) mac Colmáin, king of Connacht from the Uí Fhiachrach; son of Colmán mac Cobthaig (d. 622)
See more Senchán Torpéist
Senchán Torpéist
(fl. 6th–7th century)
Irish poet associated with Gúaire Aidne, king of Connacht; popular figure in Irish literary tradition, notably as one credited for having retrieved the Táin and, especially in Tromdám Gúaire, as the leader of a band of poets seeking to test the limits of Gúaire’s hospitality.
See more

Sources

Notes

1.
Marie-Henri D'Arbois de Jubainville, Essai d'un catalogue de la littérature épique de l'Irlande: précédé d'une étude sur les manuscripts en langue irlandaise conservés dans les Iles Britanniques et sur le continent (1883): 156–157.
2.
Maud Joynt, Tromdámh Guaire (1931): xii.
3.
Seán Ó Coileáin, ‘The making of Tromdám Guaire’, Ériu 28 (1977): 66.
4.
See also Ó Coileáin (1977) on James Carney's view that while the “story of Tromdám Guaire is a typical example of the difficulty of dating Irish texts as literary compositions ... [it] could ... be thought of as having taken substantially its present form in the tenth century or earlier”. James P. Carney, Studies in Irish literature and history (1955): 170.
5.
Feargal Ó Béarra, ‘Tromdhámh Guaire: a context for laughter and audience in Early Modern Ireland’ in Laughter in the Middle Ages and early modern times... (2010): 415 and 415 n. 9..

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.

Edition wanted
A new edition is wanted.
[ed.] Joynt, Maud [ed.], Tromdámh Guaire, Mediaeval and Modern Irish Series, 2, Dublin, 1931.
CELT – edition: <link> Internet Archive: <link>
Text from 23 H 6, collated with variants from 24 M 31, 23 O 16 and 23 O 34.
[ed.] [tr.] Connellan, Owen, Imtheacht na Tromdháimhe; or, the proceedings of the great bardic institution, Transactions of the Ossianic Society, 5, Dublin: John O'Daly, 1860.
Internet Archive: <link> Internet Archive: <link> Internet Archive: <link>
Text from the Book of Lismore, collated with a version from “a valuable MS. on paper belonging to the late Rev. Mr. Lamb of Newtownhamilton” (xxxiv). Joynt supra: “Connellan took a good many liberties with his text and his translation is not always reliable.”
[tr.] Ford, Patrick K. [tr.], The Celtic poets: songs and tales from early Ireland and Wales, Belmont, Massachusetts: Ford & Bailie, 1999.
77–111
[tr.] Draak, Maartje, and Frida de Jong, De lastige schare, gevolgd door vijf anekdoten over dichtergeleerden, Amsterdam: Meulenhoff, 1990.  
Dutch translations of: Tromdámh Guaire, based on the edition of Maud Joynt (1931) -- three entries from Sanas Chormaic (Mug Eme, Lethec and Gaire) -- Passages from Immacallam in dá Thúarad (Colloquy of the two sages) -- Passages from Scéla Mongáin ⁊ Echdach Rígéicis (Why Mongán was deprived of noble issue).
[tr.] [adapt.] Ua Laoghaire, Peadar, Guaire, Dublin, 1915.  
comments: Modernised version, in Irish, of the tale Tromdámh Guaire
Internet Archive: <link> Internet Archive: <link>
Modernised version in Irish.

Secondary sources (select)

Ó Coileáin, Seán, “The making of Tromdám Guaire”, Ériu 28 (1977): 32–70.
Carney, James P., Studies in Irish literature and history, Dublin: Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1955.
170–189
Dillon, Myles, The cycles of the kings, London: Oxford University Press, 1946.
90–98 Brief introduction and summary.
Thurneysen, Rudolf, Die irische Helden- und Königsage bis zum siebzehnten Jahrhundert, Halle: Niemeyer, 1921.  

Contents: Part 1 (chapters 1-23): Allgemeines; Part 2 (chapters 1-85): Die Ulter Sage.

Internet Archive: <link>
254–267 Brief introduction and summary. direct link
web page identifiers
Contributors
Dennis Groenewegen, Patrick Brown
Page created
October 2010, last updated: January 2024
Retrieved from ‘https://codecs.vanhamel.nl/index.php?title=Tromdámh_Guaire&oldid=301473’