Texts

Manuscript witnesses

Text
pp. 49–55   
Text
pp. 1–13   
Text
Dublin, Royal Irish Academy, MS 23 G 20 
11 quatrains. Scribe: Mícheál Ó Longáin.
p. 181  
Text
p. 85 ff  
Text
f. 48 ff  
Text
Dublin, Royal Irish Academy, MS B iv 2 
Not mentioned by Todd.(2)n. 2 T. K. Abbott • E. J. Gwynn, Catalogue of Irish MSS in TCD (1921).
pp. 116–119   
Text
Dublin, Royal Irish Academy, MS D i 3 
[14th, 17th and 18th century], 88 quatrains, with variants given from second copy.
f. 7r m. ff  
Text
ff. 149va52–150r  
Text
Dublin, Trinity College, MS 1289 
In the hand of Tadhg Ó Neachtain, possibly copied by him from the Book of Leinster, as Todd suggests.
p. 28 ff  
MS
Dublin, Trinity College, MS 1339 
rubric: Mael Muru Othna cecinit.   incipit: CAn a mbunadas na nGaedel   Poem. 84 stanzas.
p. 133b–p. 135a
Text
ff. 133b–135a  

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.] Todd, James Henthorn, Leabhar Breathnach annso sis: the Irish version of the Historia Britonum of Nennius, Dublin: Irish Archaeological Society, 1848.
CELT – edition: <link> CELT – translation: <link> Internet Archive: <link> Internet Archive: <link> Digitale-sammlungen.de: <link> Digitale-sammlungen.de: View in Mirador
220–271 (Appendix 4). Based on LL and variants from TCD 1289 and TCD 1319.
[dipl. ed.] Best, Richard Irvine, Osborn Bergin, M. A. OʼBrien, and Anne OʼSullivan [eds.], The Book of Leinster, formerly Lebar na Núachongbála, 6 vols, Dublin: Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1954–1983.
CELT – 1-260: <link> CELT – 400-470 (excl. Táin bó Cúailnge): <link> CELT – 471-638 and 663 (excl. Dinnshenchas Érenn): <link> CELT – 761-781 and 785-841 (excl. Dinnshenchas Érenn and Togail Troí): <link> CELT – 1119-1192 and 1202-1325 (excl. Esnada tige Buchet and Fingal Rónáin ): <link>
Vol. 3: 516–524. Diplomatic edition.
The first lines of the poem are cited in Ruaidhrí Ó Flaithbheartaigh's Ogygia (1685): 349 (part III, ch. 72).

Secondary sources (select)

McLaughlin, Roisin, “Fénius Farsaid and the alphabets”, Ériu 59 (2009): 1–24.  
abstract:
This paper examines evidence for the existence of an alternative tradition to that found in Auraicept na nÉces concerning the role played by Fénius Farsaid in the invention of the alphabet of Irish and those of the three sacred languages—Hebrew, Greek and Latin. The sources to be considered are Auraicept na nÉces, In Lebor Ollaman, a Middle Irish text in Oxford, Bodleian Library MS Laud 610, glosses on the copy of Auraicept na nÉces in TCD MS E 3.3 (1432) and the Etymologiae of Isidore of Seville.
Jaski, Bart, “Aeneas and Fénius: a classical case of mistaken identity”, in: Rob Meens, Richard Corradini, Christina Pössel, and Philip Shaw (eds), Texts and identities in the early Middle Ages, Vienna: Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, 2006. 17–33.
Jaski, Bart, “‘We are of the Greeks in our origin’: new perspectives on the Irish origin legend”, Cambrian Medieval Celtic Studies 46 (Winter, 2003): 1–53.
Carey, John, “The uses of tradition in Serglige Con Culainn”, in: James P. Mallory, and Gearóid Stockman (eds), Ulidia: proceedings of the First International Conference on the Ulster Cycle of Tales, Belfast and Emain Macha, 8–12 April 1994, Belfast: December, 1994. 77–84.
Carey, John, A new introduction to Lebor gabála Érenn: The book of the taking of Ireland, edited and translated by R. A. Stewart Macalister, D.Litt., Irish Texts Society, Subsidiary Series, 1, London: Irish Texts Society, 1993.
Carey, John, “The ancestry of Fénius Farsaid”, Celtica 21 (1990): 104–112.
Celtica – PDF: <link>
Scowcroft, R. Mark, “Leabhar Gabhála. Part II: the growth of the tradition”, Ériu 39 (1988): 1–66.