Texts
Einecland na trí secht ngrád
Incoming data
The catalogue entry for this text has not been published as yet. Until then, a selection of data is made available below.
Irish poem attributed to Muirgius Ó Duibh Dá Bhoireann, on the honour-price due to the seven lay and ecclesiastical grades.
Manuscript witnesses
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.] Meyer, Kuno [ed.], “Mitteilungen aus irischen Handschriften: Das Wergeld des Klerus und der Laien”, Zeitschrift für celtische Philologie 9 (1913): 171–172, 340 (corrigenda).
Internet Archive: <link>
Secondary sources (select)
Simms, Katharine, “The poetic Brehon lawyers of early sixteenth-century Ireland”, Ériu 57 (2007): 121–132.
abstract:
Many of the most eminent judges of Brehon Law in late medieval and early modern Ireland were proficient poets also, and the poetic art was studied in their law schools. It is argued here that this practice arose on a number of grounds. The poets taught the correct grammar and spelling of classical Irish, used by the lawyers in their pleadings. Irish literature supplied a fund of past mythical judgements customarily cited in the Old Irish law tracts as precedents. Poetic utterance was seen as an invocation of divine judgement, and traditionally the early poets were said to have functioned as judges. The law tracts also refer to a 'judge of poetic speech' (brithem bélrai filedachtae), though the precise meaning of the phrase is open to discussion.
mentions the poem as an example of an attempt at dán díreach, the use of which may be imperfect but is intended to serve a mnemonic purpose.
