Texts

Comrac Liadaine ocus Cuirithir

Incoming data

Prosimetric story about the tragic love relationship between two professional poets, Líadain, a poetess of the Corcu Duibne, and Cuirithir, a Connachtman.

Manuscript witnesses

Text

Dublin, Trinity College, MS 1337/22c-23a (pp. 708-776, 792-809)

p. 759

MS

Dublin, Trinity College, MS 1337/22c-23a (pp. 708-776, 792-809)

p. 759

Text

London, British Library, MS Harley 5280

f. 26a-b

MS

London, British Library, MS Harley 5280

f. 26r–f. 26v

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.

For editions of individual poems, see also the contents description.

[ed.] [tr.] Meyer, Kuno [ed. and tr.], Liadain and Curithir: an Irish love-story of the ninth century, London: Nutt, 1902.

CELT – edition: <link> CELT – translation: <link> Celtic Digital Initiative: <link> Internet Archive: <link>

[ed.] [tr.] Greene, David, and Frank OʼConnor [Michael O'Donovan], A golden treasury of Irish poetry, A.D. 600 to 1200, London: Macmillan, 1967.

Edition of three poems

[ed.] [tr.] Murphy, Gerard [ed. and tr.], “Anonymous: Líadan tells of her love for Cuirithir”, in: Gerard Murphy [ed. and tr.], Early Irish lyrics: eighth to twelfth century, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1956. 82–85, 208–211.

CELT – edition: <link>

Edition, with translation, of the last poem, beginning Cen áinius direct link

[tr.] Henry, P. L., Dánta ban: poems of Irish women, early and modern, Cork: Mercier Press, 1991.

52–59 English translation

[tr.] Draak, Maartje, and Frida de Jong [trs.], Van helden, elfen en dichters: de oudste verhalen uit Ierland, Amsterdam: Meulenhoff, 1979.

212–218 Dutch translation

Secondary sources (select)

Larson, Heather Feldmeth, “The veiled poet: Líadain and Cuirithir and the role of the woman-poet”, in: Joseph Falaky Nagy, and Leslie Ellen Jones (eds), Heroic poets and poetic heroes in Celtic tradition: a Festschrift for Patrick K. Ford, 3, 4, Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2005. 263–268.

Clancy, Thomas Owen, “Women poets in early medieval Ireland”, in: Christine Meek, and Katharine Simms (eds), ‘The fragility of her sex’? Medieval Irishwomen in their European context, Dublin: Four Courts Press, 1996. 43–72.

Clancy, Thomas Owen, “Fools and adultery in some early Irish texts”, Ériu 44 (1993): 105–124.

Clancy, Thomas Owen, “Saint and fool: the image and function of Cummíne Fota and Comgán Mac Da Cherda in early Irish literature”, PhD thesis, University of Edinburgh, 1991.

Edinburgh Research Archive: <link>

195–210

Ahlqvist, Anders, “Note: A line in Líadan and Cuirithir”, Peritia 1 (1982): 334.

Henry, P. L., “Líadan and Guðrún: an Irish-Icelandic correspondence”, Zeitschrift für celtische Philologie 27 (1958–1959): 221–222.

Carney, James P., Studies in Irish literature and history, Dublin: Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1955.

189–242 [‘The Irish affinities of Tristan’]

Savage, John J., “An Old Irish version of Laodamia and Protesilaus”, in: Leslie Webber Jones (ed.), Classical and mediaeval studies in honor of Edward Kennard Rand, presented upon the completion of his fortieth year of teaching, New York City: Leslie Webber Jones, 1938. 265–272.