Texts
Aided Bresail meic Diarmata
Incoming data
A brief, early Irish saga and hagiographical legend, which relates how Díarmait mac Cerbaill had his son Bresal slain for appropriating a nun’s cow and how St Béccán rescued the soul of the king’s son from hell, resuscitating him.
Manuscript witnesses
Text
Dublin, National Library of Ireland, MS G 362
context: Aided Diarmata meic Cerbaill II rubric: Scéal air Bhreasal mac Diarmada ⁊ air Bhéacán naomh
pp. 111–112
Text
Dublin, Royal Irish Academy, MS 23 G 25
context: Aided Diarmata meic Cerbaill II Transcript.
Text
Dublin, Royal Irish Academy, MS 23 H 6
context: Aided Diarmata meic Cerbaill II Another transcript.
Text
Dublin, Royal Irish Academy, MS 23 M 7
context: Aided Diarmata meic Cerbaill II Another transcript by Mícheál Óg Ó Longáin, written between 1818 and 1819.
Text
Dublin, Royal Irish Academy, MS 23 P 3/ff. 1-19
incipit: Fecht do rigne Bresal mac Diarmaddo
f. 11vb
Text
Dublin, Trinity College, MS 1382
? (to be verified)
Text
Dublin, University College, MS Franciscan A 3
context: Martyrology of Tallaght Text written in the left margin. The main text is that of the Martyrology of Tallaght.
p. 358
Text
Maynooth, Russell Library, MS M 17
context: Aided Diarmata meic Cerbaill II Another transcript by Mícheál Óg Ó Longáin.
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.
[dipl. ed.] OʼSullivan, Anne [ed.], The Book of Leinster, formerly Lebar na Núachongbála, vol. 6, Dublin: Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1983. xv + pp. 1327-1708.
CELT – pp. 1327–1595 (excl. pp. 1596–1708): <link>
1612 Diplomatic edition of the text in LL
[ed.] Meyer, Kuno [ed.], “Mitteilungen aus irischen Handschriften: Aided Bresail”, Zeitschrift für celtische Philologie 7 (1910): 305–307.
comments: Aided Bresail, based on Dublin, Royal Irish Academy, MS B iv 2.
[ed.] [tr.] Stokes, Whitley [ed. and tr.], Lives of saints from the Book of Lismore, Anecdota Oxoniensia, Mediaeval and Modern Series, 5, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1890.
Cf. the Martyrology of Donegal, under 5 April:
Secondary sources (select)
Wiley, Dan M., “An introduction to the early Irish king tales”, in: Dan M. Wiley (ed.), Essays on the early Irish king tales, Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2008. 13–67.
Plummer, Charles, “A tentative catalogue of Irish hagiography”, in: Charles Plummer, Miscellanea hagiographica Hibernica: vitae adhuc ineditae sanctorum Mac Creiche, Naile, Cranat, 15, Brussels: Société des Bollandistes, 1925. 171–285.
