Texts
Toichim na mbuiden
Incoming data
Episode in Táin bó Cúailnge (Recensions I and II), in which Ailill and Medb watch the approaching Ulaid through intermediaries. It employs the so-called ‘watchman device’, in which a watchman with keen sight, here Mac Roth, offers a visually rich if puzzling description of what he sees and in which an interpreter of the description, here Fergus mac Róich, is able to identify the approaching characters.
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.
See Táin bó Cúailnge for the complete list
Secondary sources (select)
OʼConnor, Ralph, “Was classical imitation necessary for the writing of large-scale Irish sagas? Reflections on Táin bó Cúailnge and the ‘watchman device’”, in: Ralph OʼConnor (ed.), Classical literature and learning in medieval Irish narrative, 34, Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2014. 165–195.
Sims-Williams, Patrick, Irish Influence on medieval Welsh literature, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010.
See also the web edition: Patrick Sims-Williams, Irish Influence on medieval Welsh literature (2011).
[‘Narrative techniques in Irish and Welsh, II: the riddling ‘watchman device’’]