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Scél in dá lenab
prose
A short medieval Irish story, being an adaptation of the legend known the ‘Jew of Bourges’, which is itself a localised version of the ‘legend of the two infants’. Two children, one Christian and the other Jewish, are visiting a Christian temple together, in the course of which the Jewish boy learns about Jesus, the Crucifixion and the Virgin Mary, and partakes of consecrated bread. When the latter comes home, he is castigated for this by his father, who throws his son into a burning furnace. A miracle is witnessed the following day, when the child proves to be alive and well again, having received Mary’s protection, and declares himself to be a fosterson of hers. The boy’s parents convert to Christianity. Like many of the French versions of this narrative, the Irish story is set in France.
Irish languagetranslations and adaptationsminor Irish prose talesconversion of Jews to ChristianityMary ... mother of Jesusmiracles performed after a saint’s lifetime
Scéla Alaxandair maic Pilip
prose

Middle Irish saga on the career and conquests of Alexander the Great, based on an account in Orosius’ Historiae adversus paganos, Alexander’s letter to Aristotle about India and the correspondences known as the Collatio cum Dindimo.

Middle IrishAlexander the GreatPhilip II of Macedon
Sdair na Lumbardach
prose
A 15th-century Irish translation, probably of chapter 19 (‘De sancto Pelagio papa’) from Jacobus de Voragine’s hagiographic compilation Legenda aurea (1260 x 1270).
Early Modern Irish
Seachrán na Banimpire
prose

Early Modern Irish adaptation of the Middle English Octavian, which is itself based on the late medieval French chanson de geste Florent et Octavien.

Early Modern Irish
Sgél in Mhínaduir
form undefined
Irish language
Sloiged már rucsat Gréic co Hebríb fechtas n-aile
prose
Short Middle Irish prose text preserved in the Book of Leinster.
Middle Irish
Solomon and the power of women
form undefined

Early Irish reworking of I Esdras, III ch. 3-4, with Solomon, king of the Greeks, and Nemiasserus replacing Darius and Zorobabel (Zerubbabel).

Late Old IrishEarly Middle IrishNemiasserusSolomon ... king of the Greeks
Stair Ercuil ocus a bás
prose
Early Middle IrishHercules
Stair Fortibrais
form undefined
Early Modern Irish
Togail na Tebe
form undefined
Middle Irish prose translation of the Thebaid, a Latin poem by Statius about the Seven against Thebes.
Middle Irish
Togail Troí
form undefined
Middle Irish adaptation of the Historia de excidio Troiae (6th century) ascribed to Dares Phrygius.
Middle Irish
Vita sancti Fechini ex MSS Hibernicis (Colgan)
prose
Colgan (John)
Colgan (John)
(d. 1658)
Irish Franciscan at St Anthony’s College, Louvain; scholar, theologian, editor and hagiographer.

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The second vita of St Féchín printed by John Colgan in his Acta sanctorum Hiberniae. Colgan made use of three Irish sources, which he conflated and translated into Latin to produce a composite text. The first life he found in a manuscript associated with Féchín's monastery in the island of Omey (vnam fusam ex Codice Immaciensi in Connacia, quam eius compilator aliàs recentior ... indicat ... desumptam esse ex alia latina); the second life is described as aliam habemus stylo plane uetusto et magnae fidei, sed principio et fine carentem. Plummer suggests that these lives must have corresponded to the vernacular life and homily found in NLI MS G 5. The third source is a metrical version now lost (tertiam uero uetusto et eleganti metro lxxiv distichis constante).

Latin languageFéchín of Fore