FRQM THE LIBRARY OF

TRUSTY COLLEGE

Presented A.D. 1992

David & Mary Neelands

HENRY BRADSHAW
SOCIETY

in f#c T^ear of Our &orb 1890
for f0e ebtfing of QRare tfurgtc<xf

VOL. XXIX.

ISSUED TO MEMBERS FOR THE YEAR 1905,

AND

PRINTED FOR THE SOCIETY

BY

HARRISON AND SONS, ST. MARTIN'S LANE,

PRINTERS IN ORDINARY TO HIS MAJESTY.

FELIRE OENGUSSO CELI DE.

THE

MARTYROLOGY OF OENGUS THE

CULDEE

CRITICALLY EDITED

FROM TEN MANUSCRIPTS, WITH A PREFACE,
TRANSLATION, NOTES, AND INDICES.

BY

WHITLEY STOKES, D.C.L.,

FOREIGN ASSOCIATE OF THE INSTITUTE OF FRANCE, AND FELLOW OF
THE BRITISH ACADEMY.

LONDON.

1905.

LONDON :

HARRISON AND SONS, PRINTERS IN ORDINARY TO HIS MAJESTY,
ST. MARTIN'S LANE.

137196
1 1982

CONTENTS.

PAGE

Editor's Preface vii

I. Description of the Manuscripts viii-xxiv

B. The Brussels MS. 5100-4 viii

C. The Cheltenham MS ix

E. Egerton 88, a MS. in the British Museum xii

F. The Franciscan MS xii

H. H. 3. 18, a MS. in Trinity College, Dublin xiii

/>. Laud 610, a MS. in the Bodleian ... ... ... xiv

LB. Lebar Brecc, a MS. in the library of the Royal Irish

Academy xvi

23

P. a MS. in the same library xx

P. 3,

R\ Rawlinson B. 505, a MS. in the Bodleian xx

R 1 . Rawlinson B. 512, a MS. in the same library ... xxii

II. The Author of the Martyrology xxiv

III. The Language of the Martyrology xxviii

IV. The Metre of the Martyrology xxxviii

V. The Contents of the Poem xlii

VI. The Notes xlvii-

(a) Religious practices xlviii

(b) Superstitions and Folklore 1

(c) Legal antiquities li

Irish Prefaces, (i) from the Lebar Brecc, (2) from Laud 6 10 ... 2-14

The Martyrology, Text, Translation and Notes 17-288

Invocation ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 17

Prologue 18-31

January 33-39

Notes 40-57

February 58-63

Notes 64-79

March 80-85

Notes 86-103

vi CONTENTS.

PAGE

April 104-109

Notes 110-121

May 122-127

Notes 128-137

June 138-143

Notes 144-159

July 160-165

Notes 166-173

August ... ... ... 174-179

Notes 180-191

September 192-197

Notes 198-213

October 214-219

Notes ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 220-230

November ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 232-237

Notes 238-248

December ... 249-255

Notes 256-262

Epilogue 263 288

Indexes ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 291-463

List of Abbreviations 291,292

1. Glossarial Index 293-372

2. Index of Places and Tribes 373-397

3. Index of Persons ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 398-448

4. Index of Things ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 449-463

Addenda ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 464-468

Corrigenda 469-474

PREFACE.

THE first edition of the metrical Martyrology called in

Irish Felire Oengusso Ctti D was published in 1880, by the
Royal Irish Academy, in parallel columns, from four corrupt and
uncorrected texts, hereinafter denoted by^? 1 , R 2 , L, and LB. In
the preface I maintained, for reasons which then seemed to me
conclusive, that the poem could not have been composed much
before the end of the tenth century. Further study, and the
arguments of Professors Strachan 1 and Thurneysen, 2 have
convinced me that I was wrong, 3 and that its composition
may, in accordance with the Irish tradition, be safely ascribed
to the year 800 or thereabouts. An Irish metrical martyrology
of such antiquity deserves the attention of all who are interested
in religious history, liturgical books, Celtic philology, or poetic
art ; and the Council of the Henry Bradshaw Society is surely
justified in trying to give to the members a critical text of this
singular poem, with various readings from the ten MSS. in which
it is wholly or partially preserved.

In forming the text, as well as in making the trans
lation and glossary, I have used to the best of my power the
discoveries in Old- Irish grammar and etymology achieved during
the last twelve years by Ascoli, Windisch, Thurneysen, Zimmer,
Zupitza, Osthoff, Sommer, Rozwadowski, Pedersen, Sarauw,
Strachan and Liden. I am far from regarding the present
edition as definitive. I know too well that I have not realised
my ideal ; but, remembering the story told of Thorwaldsen in
his old age, 4 I cannot say that I am therefore despondent.

1 Deponent verb) p. no. 2 ZCP. i. 345.

3 I especially regret that my error should have misled the Rev. F. E.
Warren, Liturgy and Ritual of the Celtic Church, p. xvi, and Professor Bury,
Life of St. Patrick, p. 343, note 4.

4 "A friend found him disconsolate before a finished statue, and inquired
if he was despondent because he had not been able to realize his ideal.
And the sculptor responded that, on the contrary, he had realized his ideal,
and therefore he was downcast ; for the first time his hand had been able to
accomplish all that his mind had planned." North American Review,
June 15, 1905, p. 873.

viii PREFACE.

I now propose, first, to describe the ten MSS. on which the
present edition is founded ; secondly, to notice the author of
the Martyrology, Oengus the Culdee ; thirdly, to consider some
of the characteristics of the language of the poem, especially as
bearing on the date of its composition ; fourthly, to explain the
metre in which it is written ; fifthly, to give some account of its
contents ; and lastly, to notice the passages in the Irish prefaces
and scholia which seem to throw light on early Irish religious
practices, superstitions, folk-lore and legal antiquities.

I. DESCRIPTION OF THE MANUSCRIPTS.

The MSS. on which the present edition is founded will be
respectively denoted by the following signs, here arranged in
alphabetical order : , C, E, F, H, Z, LB, P, R\ R\

B = Brussels MS. 5100-4.

As this codex has been fully described in the preface to the
Martyrology of Gorman, London, 1895, it will be enough here
to say that it is a small paper manuscript in the Royal Library,
Brussels, almost wholly in the handwriting of Michael O'Clery,
one of the Four Masters, who died about 1644. The copy of
the Martyrology of Oengus which it contains is in Michael's
handwriting, and was transcribed from a book written by Siodrach
Ua Maelconaire in the year 1533. It begins on f. 94a, and ends
on f. H9b. It omits 11. 393-396, 11. 543-546 of the epilogue and
the first two lines of the quatrain for Oct. 8 : the latter omission
is supplied in the margin by a recent hand. All its important
readings are, in the present work, marked B, and are given in the
footnotes.

It seems to me on the whole to come closer to the copy in
Lebar Brecc 1 than to those in the other MSS. But there
are often variances, some, such as, in the prologue, rith
roreith 28, n-oidhidh 49, riaghaib 52, gerat 90, a dun 130,
ro sretha 138, bertair 175, dilsiu 185, as nesa 217, slebe 240,
-guidiu 265, sluinnfid 300, trib 328 decidedly better than the
readings of the Speckled Book. So at Jan. 18 B has tasc
while LB has bds : at Feb. 6, B has Mel while LB. has MoeL
See also Feb. 15 (i fell Beraig badhaig): Feb. 28, Ap. 30
(forcennaf) : June 15 (inorgail): July 10 (carcar): 15 (each
n-arim): Aug. 3 (noeibi) : 5 (comarc): 7 (coecdaib]: 19 (rait he) :

1 e.g. noemanim Prol. 99, ainim 123, na betha 156, itaimne 162, uarilius
Jan. 22, da shinchell, March 26. Ambifani Ap. 2, Anterini May 4, pro pace
May 13, dia May 31, do dofarnic June 10, Treofonia Oc. 18.

DESCRIPTION OF THE MANUSCRIPTS. ix

Sep. 1 1 (imbliudi) : Nov. 3 (litJt cain Corcunutari), 7 (fofuair\
22 (immartrai) : Dec. 2(atneocham}, Ep. 32 (riga) 226 (ronnain).
Readings which deserve consideration, though they have not been
adopted in the text, are Ep. 43 (i conair Crist credaif], 70 (thair
tiar\ 129 (roat from ro-fof), 175 (and].

7= The Cheltenham MS.

This is a parchment MS. now containing 48 pages. It
formerly belonged to the lexicographer Edward O'Reilly, by
whom it was sold to the late Sir Thomas Phillips. When I
examined the manuscript, it was in the library of the Rev. John
E. A. Fenwick, Thirlstane House, Cheltenham. The extravagant
date, " as old as the tenth century," which Dr. Petrie (On the
History and Antiquities of Tara Hill, p. 71) ascribed to this
codex, was probably due to the vendor's ignorance or cupidity,
Palaeography, grammar, and spelling show that it can hardly be
older than the fifteenth. As it is now unknown to Celtists, the
following brief list of its contents may be welcome :

P. I. Illegible.

P. 2. Begins : et ni derna failtifriu etc., a passage relating to

the creation of Eve from Adam's seventh rib.
P. 3. Poem beginning :

A. thair caic/i, coimsid nime . in ri uasal ainglighe, * father

of every one, ruler of heaven, the noble, angelic king,' and

ending (p. 4) : rucad Gaoidel ar n-at\h\air, ' Goidel, our

(eponymous) father, was born.' 1

P. 4. Ro aitreph tra Nell mac Feniusa Fairs^^ theas i n-Eigipt.
P. 5. Imtusa cloinde Danaine et cloinne Deirgthinedh et cloinde

Luighdech meic Ithe, ' Adventures of the Children of

Danann and the Children of Dergthene and the Children

of Lugaid, son of Ith.'

P. 9. Imtussa Mog\_d\Nuadat. ' Adventures of Mugh Nuadat.'
P. 12. A scribe's note beginning: Misse in Dubaltach mac

Semuis do graiph in beag sin, etc. ' I am Dubaltach, son

of James, who wrote that little bit.'
P. 13. Story beginning with a description of a combat between

the King of Erin and the King of Ulaid.
Pp. 20-45 contain an imperfect copy of the Martyrology of

Oengus. Lacking are the lines from the quatrain for

March 13 to the second line of the quatrain for Nov. 21 ;

and p. 19, which probably contained a prose preface, is

now illegible.
P. 20. IMrordus in rigraid, Prol. 21.

1 Also in the Book of Lecan, fo. 267 (Plummer).

x PREFACE.

P. 22. Sen a Crist. Beginning of the invocation prefixed to
the prologue.

P. 24. Re sil ddlach dained, first line of the quatrain for Jan. i.

P. 27. Morait kL Febrai, first line of the quatrain for Feb. I.
The poem continues to the end of the quatrain for
March 12. There is then a lacuna down to p. 35, which
begins with mac Co main a hAraind, the third line of
the quatrain for Nov. 21.

P. 36. Sluind Decimbir kalaind, Dec. I.

Pp, 41-45. On kaland cu araile etc. The epilogue.

P. 45. Tri gairi in domain, 'the three cries of the world.' See
Lism. Lives xxxi., where they are said to be the cry of
the Israelites when they entered the Red Sea ; the cry of
Hell when Christ carried off his prey from it ; and the cry
of Doomsday when the righteous separate from the
sinners. See also Egerton 1782, fo. 49 b , cited in Celt.
Zeits. iv. 237.

Poem ascribed to Comghall of Bennchor, beginning :
M'aonuran imm aruclan gan duine imm 1 gnats : * I am
alone in my little oratory, without anyone in my company.' 2

P. 46. De uerbis Colmain macoBeonae 3 .i. de uitiis 4 latentibus in
umbra bonorum operum, etc., see Mart. Gonn. viii. For
this Colman's Apgitir Crdbaid 'Alphabet of Devotion,'
see ZCP. i. 496; 111.447.

1. 25. Dan ecnai* dogni rig do pauper, dogni coairt di
eissirt, dogni gaoth do baoth. ' The gift of knowledge
makes a king of a pauper, a landholder of a landless
man, a sage of a fool.'

1. 28. Legend of saints Secundinus and Patrick
beginning, Feacht n-aile luidh Seachnall do Ardmachce,
7 ni raibi Patric hifus, conaccai dd eck carpuit etc.
* Once upon a time Sechnall went to Armagh, and
Patrick was not there and he saw two chariot-horses,' etc.

P. 46a, 1. 44. Tabradh n^c^ da uidh re n-aithnedaib De do
dibz'rt cinnz^ dechfus ina deccraib ar Dia, 7 c'mdus
guidhfes in Cuimdhe cumac^ach inn airc no a n-eiccin,
7 cindus docluinfi Dia a donuall no a dibregoit.
' Let every one take heed before deserting God's
commandments how in his hardships he will look for
God, and how in want or in need he will pray to the
mighty Lord, and how God will hear his piteous cry or
his iervent prayer.'

1 MS. imn. 2 Other copies are printed in Eriu. I 138 ; II. 55, 56-

3 MS. me. obeonae. 4 MS. uituis. * MS. ecnaig.

DESCRIPTION OF THE MANUSCRIPTS. xi

1. 48. O tri modhaib 1 dlegar soll#;/zain do denam no do
ceileprad .i. 6 decree, 7 do almsanaib do bo^/aib 7
deblenaib De : 6 esteckt bre'thre De gin mirun gin miser's
ac neac// dibh dia cele in cell's in Chumdhed 2 jr. ' In
three ways a festival ought to be held or celebrated,
namely, by charity : by alms to God's poor and needy :
by hearing the word of God without malice or hatred of
one for another in the Church of the Lord.'

P. 46b. 1. 4. Cetheorai trepuire na mac mbeth^^ .i. credhbadh
ina tol, homhan ina pian, scare ina fochaid, credem ina
fochraicce. ' The four sureties of the sons of Life, to wit,
binding of desires : fear of punishments : love of tribula
tions : belief in rewards.'

1. 6. Tri muidh na hirnaighthe, 3 ' The three ways of
prayer.'

1. 10. Colum cille dixit de Scopa .i. in Scop a Fanait.
See as to this ' Besom out of Fanait,' infra, p. 190.

P. 4/a. On the deadly sins. Beginning Luxoria ttra issed ainm in
cetna duailchi marbus anmain duine etc., ' Lust, now, this
is the name of the first vice that kills man's soul.' See.
the copy from Rawl. B. 512, ed. K. Meyer, ZCP. III.
24-28.

P. 48b. Incipw/wt 4 uerba Colmain fili Beognae uiri Dei. 5
Sere De bi fonigh anmain, sasaid menmain, doformaigh
fochraici, inarben anailci, arcoirbi talmain, 4 The love of
the living God purifies the soul, satisfies the mind,
increases rewards, banishes vices, .... the earth.' 6

All the various readings of this fragment, which seem of the
slightest importance, are given in the footnotes marked C.
Very rarely are they of use in establishing the text. We may,
however, cite n-aidid Prol. 49, nagaib, 52, ni feasa 76, ngerat 90,
laa teglach, 95, noebainm 109, in-airiniuch phene 118, a mur
cluime 126, ictliair 226, cobair 243, -guidiu 265, cticnt 280,
docoimnactar Jan. 4, Gluceri Jan. 14, ro-s-fescr Feb. 2, gerat
Feb. 5, non-ale Feb. 7, i feil Beraig bagaig Feb. 15, damair
Feb. 19, retglaind March 3, Brig Nov. 25, -treclung Nov. 28,
faide Nov. 29, Merobus Dec. 4, Buaid n-Ichtbrichtain Dec. 8
(where R l has hichtbrichtain, L ichtbrichtain, LB ichtbrictairi),
darralad Dec. 8. Morgrian inna clandsa Dec. 18, nad labrce
Dec. 22, Lanbendzcht ind rig-so p. 61, dithar 104, salmaib y
marbatb 190, 192, aslaige 198, ardalegfa 216.

1 MS. moghaib. 2 MS. chumdeg.

3 MS. hirnaidhthe. 4 MS.^ncibiunt.

5 MS. seems uni dicitur. 6 cf. Ertu i. 204, and Celt. Zeits. III. 448, 6.

xii PREFACE.

The long vowels are sometimes marked. Here and there,
too, there is a valuable gloss, e.g. immidchuairt Ep. 94, .i.
i medoncuairt, which proves the error of the rendering of Tech
Midchuarda\yy 'mead-circling house,' in O'Curry's Manners and
Customs, III. 600.

Needless to cite many of the Middle-Irish corruptions such
as lithdath Prol. 19, ritroith 28, morrigu 61, rig lad for rigrad 278,
dained for doine Jan. I.

The note at the end (infra p. 288) as to the number of
quatrains in the Martyrology is more accurately given infra,
p. xvii, from LB. 105 marg. sup.

E = Egerton 88.

Egerton 88, hereinafter denoted by E, is a small-folio parch
ment MS. in the British Museum, written by Domnall O Duibh-
da-bhoirenn and his pupils in the latter half of the sixteenth
century. Its contents are catalogued in the introduction to
Three Irish Glossaries, London, 1862, pp. lix-lxii, and much
more elaborately in S. H. O'Grady's Catalogue of Irish MSS.
(in the British Museum), pp. 85-141. The portion containing
parts of our Martyrology is the so-called O'Davoren's Glossary,
(ff. 8o a -93 a ), which has been twice edited, first, in Three Irish
Glossaries above mentioned, and secondly, in the Archiv filr
Celtische Lexicographic II. 198-504. A paper copy of this
glossary (unfortunately imperfect), by Dudley MacFirbis, is
preserved in H. 2. 15 (a MS. in the library of Trinity College,
Dublin) and is here cited as MacF.

The various readings of the fragments of the Martyrology
contained in O'Davoren's Glossary are as a rule not important ;
but there are some worth citing, such as ciabtar, Prol. 74, o luid
\2%,ciatcois 182, ciarbo ligdha 2\A f ,menann 285, dodonfairci\*x\. 26,
Am Jan. 29, armitinnter Sep. 2, atroeris Dec. 16, a lere Dec. 20,
decmaic Ep. 172, ciabdar bailc a mbresa, ' though mighty were
their battles,' Prol. 75, which may be the true reading. We may
also cite Domrairbera Ep. 65, ro drebraing Aug. 26, and cachain
Dec. 8.

F = The Franciscan MS.

This is a beautifully-written parchment MS. in small folio,
formerly at Louvain, where it was used by Father John Colgan,
author of the Ada Sanctoriun Hiberniae, Lovanii, 1645,
afterwards in the Irish monastery in Rome, and now in the
Franciscan monastery, Merchants' Quay, Dublin. It contains
ninety-nine pages in double columns. Long vowels are rarely
marked ; but infected g> a 7 , b are often furnished with the sign

DESCRIPTION OF THE MANUSCRIPTS. xiii

of aspiration. The scribe's note at the end of the epilogue is
obscure, but seems to run as follows :

Finit amen finit. Misi Ruaidhri hua Luinin .i. mac Mata male
S...h. Luinin do sgrib in feilire si do mac Magnusa(?) Meguidir
.i. do Chathal occ, mac Cathail maic G\\\ai Patraic .i. do biatach
in tsenaigh.

Hence the MS. appears to have been written by Ruaidri
O'Luinin for Cathal Maguire, a canon of Armagh and Dean of
Clogher, who died in 1470*, and is here styled the ' victualler of
the synod.'

F yields some good readings, e.g., andorogbus Prol. 18, a
ngrethce 154, bertair 175, Noois 184, tathunn 217, thuirter 230,
dome 340, estecht Jan. 8, 19, nad cumscaigset Feb. 6, retglaind
March 3, airdirc March 2i,feil in tSincill 26, Pollionis, rindnim
May 29, dodafamaic June 10, Oendruim 23, Albbae 25, noib
Aug. 12, dorime Sep. 5, arsil 29, f rent Oc. 10, coatr 26, rerta Dec.
20 (leg. rerthae\ atnecham Dec. 26,fomruirmius Ep. 38. But it has
some exceedingly bad ones, e.g. righaib, Prol. 52, sluinnfet 320,
rochaemJinacar Jan. 4, snaithsium Jan. 30, Pauli Feb. 19, cinn
indis 27, crick 28, lighaib March 30, bladach Ap. 7, Epectini May
23, toirm July 7, Aplenoir 22, Lmnbus 29, concatail Aug. 8,
Agatha 30, sotbotha Nov. 15, diruirmisem Ep. 6, riagail 32,
r orach 129, roguide 364, coisced 59$,firt 5 34, promsat, lobsat y Ep.
219, 220.

F is heavily glossed, and contains numerous scholia, most
of which agree in substance with those in the other MSS.,
while others, added with the formula ' in hoc die ' at the end of
the notes on each day, give the names of certain saints omitted
by Oengus. 2 Hence this copy is called by Colgan Aengusius
auctus, and it seems to have been freely used by the compilers
of the Martyrology of Donegal.

#=H. 3. 1 8.

This is a collection of MSS. in the library of Trinity College
Dublin, where it is (or was lately) marked H. 3. 18. These
manuscripts are of various dates and sizes, and are now divided
into two parts, part I. containing pp. 1-457, part II. containing
pp. 458-875. It formerly belonged to Edward Lhuyd, the
author of the Archaeologia Britannica, Oxford, 1707 : the paging
numbers are in his handwriting ; and two Welsh notes by him,
in pp. 459 and 585, record the dates of his purchase of parts of

1 Martyrology of Donegal, Introduction, p. xiv.

- See, for example, the notes in the present work on Jan. 17, 21, 29,
Feb. 3, March 7, Ap. i, 2, 3, 6, 13, etc.

xiv PREFACE.

the collection. The following pages of H are occupied either
with glosses or glossed extracts :

P. 5i b . A slip containing unprinted glosses.

Pp. 61-83. These glosses are printed in the Transactions of the

Philological Society for 1859, PP- 168-215.
Pp. 245-260. Law-glosses, not printed.
Pp. 284-289, 415, 416, 466-468. Miscellaneous glosses, not

printed.
Pp. 520-528. Glossed extracts from the Tripartite Life of

S. Patrick, printed in Archiv fur Celtische LexicograpJiie,

III., 8-32, and p. 56.
Pp, 533539. Unprinted glosses.
Pp. 603-616. Glosses on Cophur in da Muccida (printed in

Ir. Texte III. 276), etc.
Pp. 616-622. Glossed extracts from the Martyrology of Oengus ;

printed in Three IrisJi Glossaries, pp. 124-140.
Pp. 623-628, 633-640, 649-654, 661, 663, and lastly, 666-668.

The number of quatrains cited in H is 112. Long vowels
are seldom marked : infected g, d, b have the sign of aspiration.

The most remarkable readings in H are : hi for a(n), Prol.
75, ngerat 90, arrochiuir 127, na ba 294, balcdu Jan. 4, chesais Jan.
17, dodonfairci Jan. 26, seel a annaigh Feb. 16, nit mordai March
i, Moissi March I, adfet March 23, doreith A p. 16, drebhraing
Ap. 17, canaid Ap. 26, uaitne Ap. 29, Cliar Urbain it glana, May
19, a toebain it gela May 19, cliar ngelda, nad char June 22,
Eutaic July 2, doforcat July \^, feil DarbiledJi baini Aug 3, Sax-
san Aug. 5, roleir Aug. 26, asrort Oc. ^ocrighan Oc. 13, lagin (?)
Lucais Oc. \%,gabais Oc. 29, noaib in domain dalaigh ('the saints
of the multitudinous world') Nov. I, donarlaidh Nov. 8 (donar-
laid R 1 , LB.} ; tuathrnaigh let/lain Dec. 1 1, rofersam .i. doronsam,
Ep. 2, ceptar 14, ndirmand 143, dubart 153, In rigraidh doruirmes
229.

L = Laud 610.

This is a double-columned parchment folio in the Bodleian.
It contains 146 leaves, and was transcribed in 1453 from the
Saltair Caisil and three other old MSS. by Seaan Buidhe
O'Cleirigh and others for Edmund Butler mac Richard, then
chief of one of the septs of the Butlers. The copy of the
Martyrology preserved in it begins on fo. 59, and ends on the
recto of fo. 75. There is a bad facsimile of the first quatrain
of the prologue in O'Conor's Rerum Hibernicarum Script ores
veieres, torn. I. Prolegomena, opposite p. clxxiv : there is a
photolithograph of a page of genealogies in the National
MSS. of Ireland, Part III, Plate "XLVII.; and the

DESCRIPTION OF THE MANUSCRIPTS. xv

heterogeneous contents of the codex are described by Dr. Todd
(Progs. R.L Academy II. 336) and Dr. O'Donovan (Book of
Rights, Dublin, 1847, pp. xxviii-xxxiii). The date (1453) and
one of the scribes' names are thus mentioned in the colophon
to the fragment of Cormads Glossary contained in ff. 79 a -86 a :

IS he annalfl in Tigmia inuair do scribad in sanasan so na Saltrach .L
mile bliadan 7 ceithri c<?7 bliadan 7 tn bliadna dec 7 da fichit, in cuiced
la do mi Febra 7 in t-o^/mad la don esca, misi Seaan Buidhi 6 Cl&rig
do scrib, 7 d'Emann Bvillter mac Risterd do scribal sanasan Saltrach
Cormmc so.

'This is the year of the Lord when this little glossary of the Psalter
[of Cashel] has been written, to wit, a thousand years and four hundred
years, and thirteen years, and two score, the fifth day of the month of
February and the eighth day of the moon. I am Yellow John O'Clery
who wrote, and for Edmund Butler mac Richard this little glossary of
Cormac's Psalter hath been written.'

The history of the MS. is continued by the following entry
on the lower margin of fo. I io b :

Salttair maic Ruisdml Buitikr .i. ILmonn Buiti/<?r, in tsalttair seo no-
go dt//ca[d] maidm Bail* in fPoill ar iarkz Urmuman 7 ar mac Ruisdml
la iarla Desmuman .i. Tom as, 7 do bainedh in leab/zr so 7 Leabar na
Carruigi as fuasg/<&/ meic Ruisdml, 7 isse Mac HHmsderd sin do chm'r
na leaba/'r sin da scnbad do fein no gur' bain Tomas iarl# Desmuman
amach iad.

'This Psalter (was) the Psalter of Mac Richard Butler, to wit,.
Edmund Butler, until the defeat at Baile in Phoill 1 was inflicted on the
Earl of Ormond and on Mac Richard by the Earl of Desmond, 2 to wit,.
Thomas. And this book and the Book of the Rock were taken in
ransom for Mac Richard ; and it is that Mac Richard who caused'
these books to be written for himself, (and kept them) until Thomas
Earl of Desmond wrested them away.'

" Thus," says Dr. Todd (Proceedings of the Royal Irish
Academy, Dublin, 1841, p. 338), "it appears that this book and
the book of Carrick (now unknown), were in the fifteenth
century considered as a sufficient ransom for the person of a great
chieftain a remarkable proof of the preservation of a love
of literature amongst the native Irish nobles in the midst of
all their war and faction at that period."

1 Now Piltown in the county of Kilkenny. The battle was fought in
1462, and there is an account of it, by Dubhaltach Mac Firbisigh, in the
Miscellany of the Irish Archaeological Society, p. 247.

- The eighth Earl, who was beheaded at Drogheda in 1467. He was
according to the O'Clerys, 'learned in Latin, English, and ancient Irish
writings.'

xvi PREFACE.

The following corruptions in the prologue were probably due
to a fifteenth century scribe :

Prol. 28, ra reith ; 87, fororcnait ; 38, ro tinmit\ 47, sonnad;
^Q.forthren ; 52,330, rig\ 54, na sluaig; 57, m/^Tz ort-sam; 67,
arrochur ; 80, meinbraid\ 91, dorossa\ 143, diafromam \ 186,
madaronaib ; 194, mairit ; 201, decais ', 231, bithtrogaid ; 241,
dochingecht', 247, atuelat\ 262 #%; 315, nondlomaim\ 336,
/?//. The blunders membraid, Prol. 80, and ;;z# daronaib, Prol.
1 86, seem to show that the scribe here copied from a MS. in
which and <^ were nearly alike.

So in the body of the poem and in the epilogue, we have
Middle-Irish corruptions in snadug Jan. 21 (O. Ir. snddud),
rofortad May 27 (O. Ir. dorortad), da primfeil May 31, rosdail
July 15, arslaig Sep. 29, adorthair Nov. 23, rusfuc Dec. 14, #/#;;z
Ep. 165, r# herais Ep. 474.

On the other hand in andorogbus,ro>\. 18 ; inirordus, 20;
biasta, 41 ; ro uctha, 45 ; morrig, 61 ; dorogra, 112; ro scdich, 121 ;
/>/z, 153 ; ^rf, 185 ; tathund, 217 ; collece, 239 ; fris'reith, 302 ;
the scribe has preserved old and sound readings. So in estecht
Jan. 19, 22, damair Feb. 16, # (gen. sg.) Feb. 26, forcennal
Feb. 28, Ap. 30, *# (leg. ^/) March 3, ronn-ain Ap. 22, Oc. 29,
Trifonice Oc. 18, lasn-ort Oc. 22, geguin Oc. 23, troethsus Nov. 1 6,
geisi (leg. gessi] Dec. 2, dosruimdemar Ep. 6, dodigset 24,
conidnaicert 105, doragat 115, nogessed 217, adodpart 269,
atomididmcz 494. Note, too, the preservation of the distinction
between the non-relative infixed pronoun in fo-m-giuaissi
and the relative \\\ fo-dom-gluaissi, Ep. 376, 377.

Z.5 = Lebar Brecc.

The Lebar Brecc, or * Speckled Book/ a huge manuscript,
now in the library of the Royal Irish Academy, was compiled in
the fourteenth century by the Mac Egans of Dun Doighre, now
Duniry, in the co. Galway. Some account of its contents
(deformed by mistakes both in Latin and in Irish), 1 is prefixed
to the lithographic facsimile published in 1876, and a brief but
better catalogue is found in pp. 36-40 of Dr. Atkinson's Passions
and Homilies, Dublin, 1887. The copy of the Martyrology which
it contains begins at p. 75 of the facsimile, and ends at p. 106;
and there is a photolithograph of the page containing the
commencement of the prologue in the National MSS. of
Ireland, Part III. No. xxviii. Long vowels are rarely marked, and
infected g, d, b are never denoted. The Dominical letter and the
day of the month (in the Roman notation) are written in the
margin opposite the first line of each quatrain (see Prol. 305, 335),

1 See Revue Celtique, III. 274.

DESCRIPTION OF THE MANUSCRIPTS. xvii

and in the upper margin of p. 105 is the following note as to the
number of quatrains 1 in the Martyrology of Oengus :

A coic .lx. ar .ccc.aib hi curp in fhelire feisin ocus a se 7
oenfiche dec ina da brolaig, conid a hoen dec 7 cethri fichit 7 .u.
ce't in sin uile .71-!.,

1 Three hundred and sixty-five in the body of the Martyrology
itself and six and eleven score (226) in the two prologues, so that
all that is eleven and fourscore and five hundred (365 + 226 = 591).'

LB is enriched with copious glosses and scholia, which are
printed in the first edition of this Martyrology ; but though
oldest in date, of all the MSS. it deviates most from the archetype.
Thus in the prologue we find :

line t^romberthar fordomberthar ; 28, ritroich for ro rdith ; 57
afirlhuillem for ar firthuillem ; 60, cenes marsium for cen aes
muirsium: 61, Morrigu nangennti for Morrig inna ngente\ 90,
gerait tet gtrat \ 99, 109, noemainim\ Ncemainim for noebainm\
130, andi'm for a dim ; 135, nocon for nicon ; 146, dianit for dia
mbi (or dianidT)\ 156, na betha for na tnbethae\ 157, 161, hi
tainme for hi tdam\ 164, ro pritcha for ro phraidcJii ; 176, ni treb-
ihair for ni trebtar ; 188, ni bet for ni beth ; 201, dechaid for dec-
caid\ 206, imaroraidto* immaroerad \ 210, co ndessib is tririb for
dessib ocus tririb ; 217, Tathum for Tdthunn ; 228, icthar for ictkair
or iccthair\ 230, 232, thretha, gertlia for threta, gre'ta ; 240, slebti
for j//^ ; 243, comb air for cobair\ 251, Muire for Mairi\ 271,
robeosa for r0 bithbeo\ 282, */ cluinter for ^ ro-clunter \ 285,
rimther for rimter ; 297, /"^r crindither for /i?r crinniur ; 300,
slninnfet for slcindfith ; 302, frisraith for fris'reith.

Corruptions in the body of the poem are : duinlesce Jan. 3
(for Duin Blesce) : as runaid rindaig, 12, ^j 18, etsecht 22,
Cebriani 23, ^^ 25, dodotfairci 26, gerait Feb. 5, J/^/ 6; </<?^
oig luliani 16, aditcialla 2$, forcendait 28 : <afo retlaind t March 3 :
oengus itir flaithib n, salualtur 14, #.?/#/ 17, </ sinchell 26;
ambifani Ap. 2,fiadait6, canaid 2$, forcendait 30, etsecht May 2,
/w^/ ^<3:<r// 7, rotcarsat %,propaci 13, noemdai 27, ^^ (for dz) 31, ^/^
June \,anglind ^dotojarnaic 10, w^r 13, natcar 22 : -ostuirius 26,
notnaile July 9, conrualaid 12, ateocham 14, airem 1 5, noil redlainne
29, noemgerait Aug. 4, cormac 5, /<& mochua 6, /w^ ^?2^^ I \,fedbdai
31, la teor Sep. i.atrendai 6, a n-imliuch n, afo 14, aieocham
20, ^r</ igerait 27, arslig 29, imradem Oc. II, atatiam 26: la
lith...corcnutan Nov. ^fosfuair 7, fuilge 9, cotaromuir n, ^ 13,
/?;ra 14 : conligbail Dec. 3, donarlaid 8, /z^? 9.

Corruptions in the epilogue: dosrimemar 5, ardricheg 18, ^
conrualai 25, riagail 32, notcaraim 50, r^//^ 63, j;//'^ 81,

1 Not * saints commemorated,' as absurdly stated in the Contents prefixed
to the facsimile.

OENGUS.

xviii PREFACE.

forirglem g8,foruasna 102, conitcocert 105, etsecht 107, tengtha
(for tengaid] 125, fuidbe 147, nodosnaidfea 160, dogenatair 176,
atalegfa 2i6,promsat 219, lobsat 220, reraig 237, ra (for /^') 266,
r0fo/z 289, atateocha 304, laigniu 324, osnadu 326, roguidet 364,
tuirem teckta 390, frismbu dentu 392, conicsid 393, amrcs 462,
64, susadna afij.firt ^^ginach 538.

On the other hand, Z^ comes close 10 the archetype in
arrochiidr Prol. 127, mairde 193, razV/z 200, madgenair 251,
docoemnactar Jan. 4, carsait March 15, z;;z<fo /;z#z A p. 7, <? donanic
Ap. 14, tarmbreiih June 4, r<? drebraing Aug. 26, /^JzV Oc. 8,
geguin 23, adorthar Nov. 23, /&#.$ Dec. 28, fortselba Ep. 4,
dorimiub 232, adroipred 346.

Prefixed to the quatrains for each month are the following
notes, compiled apparently from Baeda's Zte Tentporum Ratione,
Opera, ed. Giles, vol. vi, pp. 169, 177, 180 :

[January, p. 79.]

Dea'mus m^^sis 'Ebreorum Thebeth. primus secundum

Latinos, secundus secundum Graecos.
Sol .xxxi. luna .xxx.
Principium lani 1 sancit tropicus Capncornz/j.

[February, p. 81.]
Tertius m^^sis secundum Graecos nomine Pmtios

Mense Numae in medio solidi stat sidus Aq&ari.
Undecimus m^/zsis Ebreorum Sabath.

[March, p. 83.]

Quartus mensis a.pud Graecos Bistros [Aucrr/jo?].
Pra:edunt duplices in Martia tempora Pisces.
D2iodec\mus mensis Ebreorum Adar. 3

[April, p. 85.]

Quintus 4 m^^sis zptid Gr^^cos Xanthicos 5 \jiav6t,Ko<i\.

.i. Sol .xxx. luna .xxix.

Respicis Apriles Aries Frix[ae]e kalendas.

INitium est anni Ebreor;/z ubi cu^qz^ fuerit pnma luna

Aprilis primum m^sem Nisan uocantes et suos menses

ad cursum lune

1 Facsimile iam.

2 This and the other * Greek' months here cited are Macedonian.

3 Facs. adas.. * Facs. Qwinti.
Facs. xanth.

DESCRIPTION OF THE MANUSCRIPTS.

[May, p. 87.]

Sexto mensis apud Graecos Arthimisios
Maius Agenore[i] mirat^r cornua Tauri.

[June, p. 89.]

Septimus secundum Graecos Deseos
Sol .xxx. luna xx.ix.
lunius aequatos 1 celo uidet ire Laconas.
Tertius Ebreorum mensis Siban.

[July, p. 91.]

Octauwj zpzid Graecos Panemos 2 [Ha
Sol .xxxi. luna .xxx.

Solstitio ardentis Cancri fert lulius astrum.
Mensis Ebreon/;/z q&artus Thamul.

[August, p. 93.]

Nonz/j secundtim Gr^^cos Los [Awo?],

Sol .xxxi. luna .xx.ix.

AugzAftum mensem Leo feruidus igne perurit

Qmntus Ebreorum m^wsis Thamni (sic).

[September, p. 95.]

imz^ m^^sis ap?/</ Graecos Sgorpeos [leg.
Cen ktflne cen nona cen idu ic Gra:aib 7 ic Egeptacdaib.
Sol .xxx. lu;^ .xxx.

Sidere Virgo [tuo] Bacchum 4 Septimb^r opimat.
Ebreorum m^^sis Elul.

[October, p. 97.]

Undecimus apud Graecos Yp^Hbmteos
Eqz^at et Octimp^r sem^^tis tempore Libram.
Septim?/5- Ebreon/;;z m^^sis Theseri.
Sol .xxxi. luna .xx.ix.

[November, p. 99.]

Duodecimus mensis apud Graecos Dios [Ato?]. Nouimb^r.
Sol .xxx. lu^^: .xxx.

Scorpi?/^ hib^mum 6 pr^eceps iubet ire Nouimbrem.
Octauus m^sis Ebreor^;^ Mare suan.

1 Facs. equatas. 2 Facs. Octauiw>r...paremos.

3 This is a translation of Baeda's * Graeci et Aegyptii . . . nullam in suis
mensibus calendarum, nonarum, iduum distinctionem obseruant,' De Temp.
Ratione, c. 14. 4 Facs. bachum.

5 Facs. opinat. (i Facs. hib<?rnium.

b 2

xx PREFACE.

[December, p. 101.]

Hie est primus mensis anni apz^ Graecos nomine Apilios
['AvreXXato?], com(puta)ntes menses suos ad cursum
solis.

Nonus mensis Ebreomm Casleu.

Tmninat Arcitinens medio sua 2 signa Decimbri.

/>=_!.

P- 3

This is a small folio parchment MS. in the library of the
Royal Irish Academy, now containing eleven leaves. The
epilogue is in double columns. In the rest of the poem each
quatrain runs, as a rule, in a single line across the page. The
Martyrology is followed by a copy of the legend telling how
Becan mace Cula, St. Patrick's first convert, rescued Bresal's soul
from hell (Lismore Lives, xxvii-xxviii). Then comes the
colophon :

ISsed is ais don Tig^rna .i. secht mbliadna 7 tri .xx. G an
liter dom\maigh j a \\ocht in nuimir oir. Uilliam mac an legha
qz/i scribsit [ut] bona morte pmbit.

Hence it appears that the MS. was written by William mac
an legha 3 (' the son of the leech ') in the year 1467, the Dominical
letter being G, and the golden number eight. Prose-preface and
prologue are missing in this MS., and also the quatrains for the
months of May, September and December. The glosses are
interlinear; the scholia for the most part on the lower margins.
Long vowels are often marked.

Characteristic of P is the tendency of the scribe to put tdfor
U t as in holdmuir Feb. 17, Teilde June 25, nold Aug. 8, celd
Oct. 12 note, and nd or nn for n, as in ind-air Feb. 13, Seirnd
March 15, ind amsir Ep. 116, cpnd-aile Feb. 18, cond huaige
June 1 8, Conningin March 8, ind n-airnecht Aug. 3. He
sometimes has oi for at, as in coin March 13, Oct. 10, moinich
Oct. 27 = cdin L. He writes d for t in Padraicc, Pedair, adfed;
d Tor gin. blod: th for h in ingina thuage, June 5. Custatin (for
Constantiri] March n, is noticeable. So are Faleran, Aug. n,
for Valeran, in for an * their ' July 17, ir-rtiamson (for ar-niamsom}
Oc. 28, landlech (for landrecli) July 28.

Good readings in P are tar Feb. 13, dobeir March 31, nad
Ap. 9, Ronnain Ap. 22, Aug. 28, cimbith Ap. 26, Aug. 14 :

1 Facs. suo

2 He was the scribe of parts of an Irish MS. in the Bibliotheque
Nationale, Rev. Celt. xi. 391, 395.

DESCRIPTION OF THE MANUSCRIPTS. xxi

dodafarnaicc June 10, huainn June 13, Apollnair July 22:
na retglanncs July 29, Agappa Aug. 30, molmce Aug. 31,
atasnia\i\m Oc. 26, crochthce Oc. 31, cobraith Oc. 18, senaidh
Nov. 30, .Afo &z*T^ Nov. 30, ligflatha Ep. 22, arpeti Ep. 79,
conidnacert Ep. 105, delmaimm Ep. 127, z mbuidnib Ep. 295.

The saints Abundius Aug. 26, and Dalbach Oc. 24, are
mentioned only in /*. In the former case the fifteenth-century
scribe seems to have been influenced by the Roman Martyr-
ology. The other MSS. have (I now think, rightly) Quinti,
which accords with the Epternach copy of Mart. Hier.

7? 1 = Ravvlinson B. 505.

R l . This is a parchment MS. in folio of the beginning of the
fifteenth century, preserved in the Bodleian, and marked
Rawlinson B. 505. It contains 220 leaves. Its chief contents
are an imperfect copy of Jocelin's life of S. Patrick and the
Latin lives of thirty-eight other saints, one Welsh (S. David,
fo. 196), the rest Irish. 1 The body of the Martyrology begins
at fo. 2 1 1, and ends at fo. 220. There is a bad facsimile of
part of the quatrain for Jan. I in O'Conor's Rer. Hib. Scriptores y
vol. i. prolegg., part. 2, p. cxliv, tab, 6, no. 4. Though prose-
preface, prologue, and epilogue are lacking, this copy is, so
far as it goes, by far the best that has come down to us.
Thus the names of foreign saints are generally given with
exceptional correctness. For example :

Jan. 14. Gluceri (rectius Gfyceri) : Luceri LB. F.

Jan. 22. Valerius: Valeus L. Varilius LB. Valarius E.

Jan. 23. Severiani : Cebriani LB. Semuniani Jf.

April 2. Amphiani : Ambiaine L. Ambifani LB.

May 2. Saturnin : Saturni L. LB.

May 12. Cyriacus : Ciriacus L. LB.

May 13. Teraci Probique : Cirari is Propi L. Teraci Propaci

LB.

May 23. Epecthiti (rectius Epictetfy : Epectini L. LB. F.

June 24. lohain : Eoin H. P. loin L. LB.

June 28. Fabiani: Faluiani L. Flauiani F. P. Fhuiani

LB.B.

July 22. Apolnair : Appolloin LB.

July 29. Lupus: Lumbus LB. F.

July 26. Simp lice : Simplex LB. Semplix L.

Aug. 20. Diascorus : Diarscorus L. LB.

Aug. 25. Bartholom : Parrtalon L. Parrthalon LB.

1 They are enumerated in Macray's Catalogues of the Bodleian MSS.
part 5, fasc. i, coll. 724-726.

xxii PREFACE,

Oct. 2. Eleuther : luliter L. LB. F. E liter P.
Dec. 4. Merobus : Meropus L. Morepus LB.

So R^ often excels other MSS. in preserving older
grammatical forms. Take, for example, the following verbs :

Jan. i. toided, where other MSS. have taidhet^ toted.

Jan. 4. decoemnagtar : docoemnacair L.

Jan. 10. Almini : Ailme LB. Ailmne C.

Jan. 12. as-runa-rinnaid : as-runaid-rindaig LB.

Jan. 20. conuagu : conuaige LB. conduaige P.

Feb. 23. adidngialla : anithgialla Z, aritgialla F. aditdalia LB.

Feb. 28. forcennat : forctndait LB,forcengat F.forcennait H.

Mar. 27. asreracht : asraracht L. F.

Ap. 2. drebraing: dreblaing L.

Ap. 17. drebraing: trebraing F. drebring P.

Ap. 26. cachaind (leg. cachain) : canait L. P. canaid LB.

Ap. 27. Immacurtis : Imacurdis L. Himocuirtis LB. IMcuirtes P.

Jim. 10. dodafarnaic : do donfairnic L, dotofarnaic LB.

Jun. 19. batir : batar L. P. LB. F.

Sep. 8. Foraithmentar : Foraithinter L. Foraithmenar H.

Sep. 29. arsil : arslaig L, arslig LB.

Oc. 19. aschomart : ascomart P. L. LB.

Nov. 22. raith: luid L. LB. F.

Dec. 9. *M/&'. *#/>fc B. L. deithe F. dithi LB.

Dec. 29. donnecrai : donnecna L. dondecrai LB. dondectnai F.

A less admirable characteristic of R l is the fondness of its
scribe for irrational vowels. Thus ad^bal June 26, aidbzle
March 26, Ap^ril March 27, c^rann March 10, Lib^ren March n,
respectively for adbul, aidble, April, crann, Libren. He rarely
marks long vowels, and never denotes infected g, d or b. He
writes / for r in damail Feb. 16, and coclait Dec. 24, and r for /
in creir Aug. 16, and tempuir Dec. 15.

Each quatrain in R 1 is, as a rule, contained in a single line
extending across the page. The glosses are, as usual, interlinear :
the scholia are for the most part put together at the end
of each month. They are rarely in the margins or above the
lines.

R* = Rawlinson B. 512.

R 2 is a parchment manuscript, also in the Bodleian, marked
Rawlinson B. 512. It is a double-columned quarto containing
ff. 154, and written by various hands in the fourteenth or
fifteenth century. Ff. 5-30 contain the elder copy of the
Tripartite Life of St. Patrick, and the other contents of the codex
are catalogued in the introduction to the Rolls edition of that
Life, pp. xiv-xlv. The prose preface to the Martyrology begins

DESCRIPTION OF THE MANUSCRIPTS. xxiii

at fo. 59 a I. The poem commences at fo. 53 b , but breaks off at
line 60 of the prologue. At fo. 54 a begins the epilogue, 1 and it
ends at fo. 56 b . This is followed by a quatrain in the rinnard
metre, which, when correctly spelt, runs thus :

Bendacht rig do ne"laib
ro genair 6 Mairi
for anmain cen rnire
Oengusso co riglaini.

' The blessing of the King of Clouds, who has been born of
Mary, on the soul without madness of Oengus the pure.'

The seven succeeding folios from 57 a to 64 a are filled with
notes on the body of the Martyrology, which unfortunately is
missing in this MS.

The scribe's name was Dubthach Ua Duibgennan, as appears
from the following notes, which are in the same handwriting :

Fo. 64b. . . . annso do Geroid an Fani mac Seoirsea dar'
sgribus an [rem]foo//sa in Feliri j a r'airim Oengus do naemaib
sund co mbet ag ar cab#z> araen. Misi 7 Geroid easbarta feil
Maire na Saiwdsi ag breth fo/oi 7 Muire 7 naim in libuir-si d'
fagbtf// a cnama<fo</ dvin orfiada arni fuaramarni re fochreic
ane a mBaili Atha Buide, 7 tabr#</ gach aen legfes bennac/it ar
anmain in sgribneda (a)nno D.M aeis Tigerui.

4 .... here for Gerald an Fani son of George, for
whom I J have written this preface to the Martyrology. And
may all the saints that Oengus has enumerated here be helping
us both ! I and Gerald, the vespertide of the festival of Mary
of the Salutation 2 overtaking us. And Mary and the Saints of
this book to leave us their ration of delight, for we have not
found . . . reward ... in Baile Atha Buidi. And let
everyone who shall read (this book) bestow a blessing on the
soul of the scribe. In the year 1500 of the Lord's age.'

fo. 73 a I : Misi Dubthach 6 Duibgennan do scrib an rann do
7/0#cobar 6 Mailchonaire dia brathair a lebar Geroid a[n] Fane
(?), 7 sinn ag feithim ar athchuingid d'iarrazd ar ingen mic
B . . nan, ar mnai i C/ionchobatr Ruaidh, 7 co tuca Dia disi
sin do tabairt duin !

* I (am) Dubthach O'Duibgennan who have copied the
stave for Conchobar O Maelchonairi, for his cousin, out of
Gerald an Fane's book, and we awaiting to ask a boon of
Mac B . . an's daughter, O'Conor Roe's wife. And may God
grant to her to give that to us ! '

The spelling of this copy is often quite modern. Thus we

1 lines 101-104, 181-184 are omitted.
1 Ladyday in spring, March 25.

xxiv PREFACE.

have ea for e : seacht Prol. 2, sealgatar Prol. 29, <7^ sealba Ep. 4,
ceacha Ep. t^ronseart Ep. n, rofeas Ep. 17, beavnacht Ep. 66,
leathna Ep. 82, teacht Prol. 31 : # for & : surna (for O. Ir.
surnu) Prol. 44, z'fl^ra dindgna (for 2gr# dindgnu] Ep. 119,
/vta (for lechtu} Ep. 146, #0&& for w^ Ep. 470: # for z : #;;/
(for w) Ep. 126, #;z for z Ep. 130: <^ for/: corned Prol. 6,
fodaimdis Prol. 51, ada-n Ep. 34. Pedar 535. Long vowels
are rarely marked ; infected ^ only once.

Corruptions like diultadach Ep. 371, frisioirg Ep. 444,
doragsat Ep. 115 are found in this copy. But old forms are
occasionally preserved, e.g. (a]slaige Ep. 198, no molur Prol. 13,
r(o}raith, Prol. 28, where other MSS. have the corrupt aslaigi,
romolur, ra reith. So in laigne Ep. 324, geinech Ep. 538,
frisailiur Ep. 560, R 2 comes nearer than the other MSS. to the
archetype, which here must have had laignea, genech, frisailiur.

II. THE AUTHOR OF THE MARTYROLOGY.

Little that can fairly be called historical is known about
the author of our Martyrology. The sources of the traditions
concerning him are the Irish prefaces (of which two are printed
and translated infra, pp. 2-14) : the Book of Leinster, p. 37S
where he is mentioned as one of the fraternity of Maelruain ot
Tallaght: the Martyrology of Tallaght, at March 11, where
he is called a bishop, grandson of Oiblen ; and the following poem
in the Lebar Brecc, p. io6 b , which comes immediately after the
epilogue to the Martyrology of Oengus :

1. Aibind suide sund amne * re taeb Eoire uarglaine,

cersat cuanach nir' choi crech hi nDisert buadach Bethech.

2. Dfsert Bethech a mboi in fer gus ticdis airrdi [leg. airbri] aingel,
cathair credlach iar cuairt cross a mbid mc Oiblen Aengar.

a haenach nime * sund ata a lecht 'sa lige
is a sund dochuaid ar ceal isin aine co naemneam.

4. IS a Cluain Eidnech ro alt hi Q\Aain Eidnech ro adnacht,
hi ClAain Eidnech ilar cross ro leg a salmu ar tuoss. 1

5. Aeng&s a carcair chachta do deoin Mate De hi Tamla^/a,
nocharbii in betha brigach isin aith oc urthirad.

6. Miach cruaid leis la tuarcain sil re n-ergi do neoch is tir,
tri cdecait salm, comall ngle, * tri cet slechtain cech n-aidche.

1 This and the preceding stanza, when separated from their context,
Matthew Arnold mistook for an epitaph, and said of them, with kindly
exaggeration, " a Greek epitaph could not show a finer perception of what
constitutes propriety and felicity of style in compositions of this nature,"
On the Study of Celtic Literature, London, 1867, p. 146.

THE AUTHOR OF THE MARTYROLOGY. xxr

7. Fochan foglas trena folt tuigd d'findfad trena chorp,

secht mbliadna do, deoda in cacht, can cheol is can chumsanad.

8. Noctkzr ib-sium a cuach cuirm Aengz^y fa toichthe in tuirnd,
menic ro chloi dath a drech \\.ir gaeth ocus caithlech.

9. Luid laithe do buain feda Aengus in breo for Brega,
oca scathad, seel col-lii, ' benais de in laim soscelii.

10. lArsin caiset co hetla na hethaide oirrderca,

imon uasal, immon abb mo cech gair gair ro gairset.

11. Tic-sium a laim re rigid * Aenga/j cen oib n-indligid,
ca firt rob aidble fo nim slainte cen on, cen ainim.

12. Guided se in laim sin liumsa nacham-tair olc na hindsa,
guided se i n-aentaid anma hi comair a chomanma.

13. Doriacht siind fer fegtha 1 rand grian iartha/> d6main Domnand,
alt ros ngab galar in chind alt re n-abar [alt] aibind.

Aibind suide sund 70.

Translation.

1. Delightful to sit here thus, by the side of the cold-pure Nore :
though it was troopful, there was not a path of raids in gifted Disert
Bethech ('the Birchen Hermitage').

2. Disert Bethech wherein dwelt the man whom hosts of angels
used to visit, a pious cloister behind a circle of crosses, wherein
Oengus son of Oiblen used to be.

3. Oengus from the assembly of heaven, here are his tomb and his
bed : and hence he went to death on a Friday unto holy heaven.

4. 'Tis in Cluain Eidnech he was reared : in Cluain Eidnech he was
buried : in Cluain Eidnech of many crosses he studied his psalms at
first.

5. Oengus in a prison of bondage, by the will of God's Son, in
Tallaght : that was not vigorous life in the kiln a-drying (corn).

6. Before anyone arose in the country a hard sack he had, for
grinding seeds : thrice fifty psalms, clear fulfilment three hundred
genuflexions every night.

7. Greenish cornblades (grew) through the hair of his head, a
covering of hair through his body : seven years for him godly the
fasting, without music, without repose.

8. He drank no ale out of a cup, Oengus choice was the wheat : 2
often his face changed colour, between wind and winnowing chaff.

9. He went one day to cut wood, Oengus the flame on Bregia :
while lopping it tale with beauty he struck off his gospel-hand. 3

1 leg. figthea ' of weaving ' : cf. Feb. 24, Ap. 28, Ep. 270, when crochtha^
cesta are genitives sg.

2 tuirnd seems an abridgment of tuirenn, here, as in the Martyrology,
denoting God's wheat, i.e. a saint.

3 /.<?., his right hand : cf. in ferand ardo la"im soscela, Charter vii. in Book
of Kells. One may infer that he was left-handed.

xxvi PREFACE.

10. Then the noble birds wailed sorrowfully : around the noble one,
around the abbot, they cried a cry greater than any cry.

11. His (left) hand comes to his forearm, Oengus without semblance 1
of illegality what miracle was mightier under heaven? (there was)
healing without defect, without blemish.

1 2 . Let him pray for me with that (right) hand that neither evil nor hard
ship befall me : let him pray in unity of name, along with his namesake.-

13. The man who wove quatrains has come here, the sun of the west
of the world, 3 of Meath : a bank (whereon) the headache attacked him, a
bank which is called the bank delightful.

Hence the kernel of fact in the traditional biography of
Oengus may be shortly stated as follows : He was son of
Oengoba and a grandson of Oible"n. He was a contemporary of
Aed Ordnigthe, overking of Ireland from the year 793 to 817,
of Fothuth of the Canon (flor. 804), and of Connmach bishop of
Armagh (ob. 806). He became a monk in the monastery of
Clonenagh on the banks of the Nore in the Queen's county.
He afterwards joined the fraternity of Tallaght near Dublin, then
presided over by S. Maelruain, who died in 787, and whom
Oengus commemorates at Aug. n. 4 Out of humility he
concealed his name, orders and attainments, 5 and was for some
time employed in kiln-drying, grinding corn, and cutting wood.
He began his Martyrology at Clonenagh, finished it in Tallaght,
and showed it to Fothuth in 804. He afterwards became an
abbot and a bishop, of course without a see. He died on a
Friday, and was buried at Clonenagh. His obitual day is
March 1 1 ; but the year of his death is unknown. It may have
been 819, 824, or 830, in each of which years the eleventh of
March fell on a Friday. 6

i oib=.aib .i. cosmailis, Archiv fur celtische Lexicographic, i. 59, 67, ' aibh
or rather aoibh .i. cosamhlacht,' P. O'Connell. Cognate with Goth, ibns,
(a //^-participle from a root ibh\ Germ. eben.

* Probably one of the four other saints named Oengus commemorated in
the Martyrology of Gorman at Jan. 20, Feb. 16, Feb. 18, and Nov. 17.

3 cf. the gen. sg. Domnann in Indber Domnann, infra, p. 72, and Irrus
Domnann,

4 Maelruain's devotion to S. Michael (infra p. 12) seems evidenced by an
addition, half- Latin, half- Irish, to a Hibe.rno-latin hymn to that arch
angel, printed by Mone, Hymni Latini Medii Aevi, 1853, i. 447-449, and
now at Karlsruhe, viz. 'benedicat De[us] te et Michael for Mortmain ('says
Moelruain ') amen,' where for for Mortmain the MS. (in a Frankish hand of
the eighth century) has/<?r moilruWi.

5 Similar stories are told of Fergil of Salzburg, Cronan and Disibod. See
Olden, The Church of Ireland, pp. 103-105, and as to Cronan, Adamnan's
Vita Columbtz, ed. Reeves, p. 87.

6 Lanigan, Ecclesiastical History of Ireland, III. 249.

THE AUTHOR OF THE MARTYROLOGY. xxvii

Whether Oengus son of Oengoba was a culdee is a little
doubtful. He certainly speaks of himself as bochtdn ' a pauper '
{Ep. 392), and in pauperdn triiagsa ' this wretched mendicant/
{Ep. 408), which points to membership of a society bound by
obligations of poverty. Moreover 'the title/ says Dr. Reeves,
4 by which he is invariably designated is that of Ctte Del But
he is not so styled in the Irish prefaces to the Marty rologies of
Oengus and Gorman. In the Book of Leinster 354 22 and the
Lebar Brecc 23 a 34 (where two lines of the Martyrology of
Oengus are cited), the author is simply called Oengus hua
Oibleain, Aengus hua Oibleni. So in Rawlinson B. 512, fo. 94 a ,
he is called merely Oengus mac Oiblen. So in the title to the
Brussels copy of the Martyrology of Tallaght : Incipit Martira
Oenghw/j maze Oiblein 7 Maelruain (h)ic. In the body of that
martyrology he is called a bishop. In fact, down to the seven
teenth century, when the Martyrology of Donegal was compiled,
our Oengus is never described as a Cle De, for the 'Oengus
Celi-de/ to whom the Saltair na Rann a poem of the end of
the tenth century is ascribed in a MS. of the twelfth cannot
possibly have been our Oengus grandson of Oiblen. Since the
seventeenth century he has, no doubt, been called by Colgan, 1
Lanigan, 2 and others, a cele DC or culdee. This perhaps is all
that Dr. Reeves meant to say, and, in accordance with the current
practice, Oengus is so styled in the title-page of the present work.

What, then, is a culdee? The earliest instances of the
employment of the term cele De? literally ' servus Dei/ are
in the Vita S. Findani, and in the Milan gloss 30 3, where
it has no ecclesiastical significance. In Middle-Irish MSS. it
is applied to foreign monks, 5 to religious Irishmen practising
poverty, 6 to the ascetic Indian Brahmans. 7 Ultimately the
plural cell De denoted a kind of secular canons, who occupied

1 Acta Sanctorum . . . Hiberniae, Lovanii, 1645.

- Ecclesiastical History of Ireland, III. 248. Lanigan calls cele De 1 a
surname peculiar to himself (i.e. to Oengus hua Oiblein). He must have
overlooked Comgan cele De", Mart. Taml. and Mart. Gorm. at Aug. 2.

3 Latinised calledeus, keledeus, colideus, culdeus, whence the Scoto-
English culdee.

4 This phrase is used in the Book of Armagh, Thes.paL hib. II. 265 :
episcopus Bronus, filius Icni, seruus Dei.

6 e.g. Malach Brit, Trip. Life, p. 198, 1. 10, and see the Annals of the Four
Masters, A.D. 806, 819, 947, 1031, 1372, 1076, 1132, 1170, 1200, 1479, 1595
and the Annals of Ulster A.D. 1164.

6 Laws v. 126, 1. 2 ; and see the story of Guaire the Generous (LU. H7 b
5), whose right arm was lengthened from reaching out alms to the culdees.
See also YBL. col. 796, 1. 35.

7 Lebar Brecc 2ii b 62. They told Alexander ; ni gabamforba nach diles
isin bith ' we take neither land nor property in this world. 5

xxviii PREFACE.

an intermediate position between the monks and the secular
clergy. 1 They had a rule of their own, 2 regulating their food,
drink, communions, confessions, sleeping, fasting, tonsuring,
labour, etc. ; their head was called cenn ' chief,' or prioir
' prior/ not abb ' abbot ' : they were sometimes married ; and at
Armagh they looked after the sick, 3 had charge of the repairs
of the church, and helped in the service of the choir and altar.

III. THE LANGUAGE OF THE MARTYROLOGY.

We have now to consider the characteristics of the language
of the Martyrology, especially as bearing on the date of its
composition. In the first edition, the following forms were
cited as proving that the language was Early Middle-Irish, and
that the Martyrology could not have been composed " much
before the end of the tenth century."

nair Jan. 8, was taken to be the O. Ir. adverb anair with a Middle-
Irish aphaeresis of a. But it is for ndir, gen. sg. msc. of the adj.
ndr 'high,' 'noble.'

na mbuidnib Ep. 295 was taken to be for O. Ir. inna m-buidnib 'in
their bands.' But the true reading, preserved by P, is hi mbuidnib ' in
bands.'

in gdir Oc. 20, in togu, Prol. 123, were supposed to be instances of
the Middle-Irish disuse of the neuter article. But the true readings are
a ngdir and a togu, the substitution of which leaves the metre intact.

inna, na for the nom. pi. msc. of the article, were regarded as
exclusively Middle-Irish. But they occur in the Old-Irish MSS.
Ml. 38 9, 38 9, 8o a 10, and Wb. 29 a i6 a : see infra p. 338, s.v. ind.

hua June 21, is monosyllabic in the line hua Liathain in ligach.
But the line should be emended thus, haue Liathain ligach, where haue is,
as in Old-Irish, disyllabic.

cethri cMt, ceithri deich, Sep. i, Oc. 16, 24, probably mere corrup
tions of the Old-Irish cethir chit (Thes. II. 29), cethir deich. So the ace. pi.
used for the nom. pi. in na ret(g]lanna July 29, and tengtha Ep. 125
might have been quoted as Middle-Irishisms ; but the corrections inna
retglainn and tengaid are obvious.

The proleptic use of the possessive pronoun at July 17 (a n-itge)

1 See Dr. Reeves' masterly essay, The Culdees of the British Islands,
Dublin, 1864, p. 10.

2 Lebar Brecc 9 b . This is in prose. Their metrical rule is in the same
MS. p. 261, and in H. 2. 16, cols. 224, 225.

3 See the interesting entry in the Annals of Ulster, A.D. 920 : ' the raid
on Armagh on the loth of November by the Danes of Dublin, i.e. by
Godfred, son of I mar . . . and the prayer-houses with their company of
culdees (de cheilibh De} and of sick were protected by him.' Professor
Alexander Bugge, Vesterlandenes Indflydelse paa Nordboernes Samfundsfor-
holdi Vikingetiden, Christiania, 1905, p. 5, has not quite seized the force of
ceilidh De in this passage.

THE LANGUAGE OF THE MARTYROLOGY. xxix

which I supposed to be only Middle-Irish, is found in Wb. 8 d 22 (a
gairte] and i8 e 6 (a threte}.

The occurrence of the following verbal forms was also
regarded as pointing to the tenth or eleventh century :

bebais ' obiit,' Prol. 95, Feb. 18, Ap. 23, was taken to be a Middle-
Irish formation from the O. Ir. redupl. pret. bebe. But it is a regular
s-pret. from a reduplicated verb corresponding with Gr. fiifiaw, ftift^/^i
and Skr. jigati, and here used euphemistically.

dorimemar, Ep. 6, taken to be a Middle-Irish i pi. pret. of the verb
dorimiu, which, in Old-Irish, would be doruirmisem. But the true
reading is preserved in L and P, viz. do-ruimdemar, a regular formation
from the deponent do-midiur.

conicsid Ep. 393, is obviously a scribal corruption of the O.-Ir. conissid.

berthair, -trebthair Prol. 175, 176, for the Old-Irish plurals bertair,
-trebtar. The correction is easy, and in Prol. 176 B and F have bertair.

asa 'whose is,' Prol. 50, 98 etc., ata 'whose are' March 14 etc.
were supposed to be only Middle-Irish formations. But as a occurs in
Ml. 2 C 3, issa in Ml. 90 3, and ata-n in Wb. i2 a n, Ml. i2 b , and many
other Old-Irish documents.

In syntax the government of the dative by the prep, itir,
March n, Nov. 23, and the accusative by the prep, iar
(iarsin mbaigse), Ep. 315, are clearly Middle-Irish corruptions
which may be removed without injuring the metre. At
March 11, the line containing iter (or eter) is found only in
three MSS. (L>, P, and C) and is apparently a comparatively
recent substitute for isind flaith uas flaithib, the reading of R^ y
L, and F. In Nov. 23, though all the MSS. have tonnaib in
line 2 of the quatrain, this seems a scribal error due to the
presence of thonnaib in line 4. In Ep. 315 C and B have
preserved the true reading, viz. iarsin baigse.

The linguistic arguments against the antiquity of the
Martyrology having thus been disposed of, let us now consider
some archaic forms which point to the Old-Irish period, i.e. the
seventh, eighth, and 'ninth centuries.

Disyllabism.

The following words, monosyllables in Middle-Irish, are still
disyllabic in our Martyrology: aue Feb. 8, Ap. n, June 2I, 1 gen.
haui May 16, Oct. 27, -bia, Jan. 13, Ep. 168 \-gliad t criad Ap. 19 :
dead 2 ' July 15, Sep. 22, deud, Prol. 220, df/wSept. 13, dia July 16,
Ep. 1 66, lia (lie} Ap. 15 : luam Dec. 3 : No'is Prol. 84: 6ac Sep.

1 So in Fiacc's hymn 4 (haue, corruptly hoa, deochain], and in the St. Paul
codex aue Muredaich, Thes. pal. hib. II. 295.

So in Fiacc's hymn, 1. 2, of which Prof. Bury (Life of St. Patrick, p. 264
note) says, "there is a metrical anomaly (daec [leg. deac\ a disyllabic)."
This is no anomaly. In Old- Irish deac is always disyllabic.

xxx PREFACE.

22, siur, July 6, Dec. 14, triur Jan. 24, Dec. 14, #?#*> Oc. 26, Ep.
432, 433, dfowtf Prol. 17, /rzW Ep. 438.

In LB and ^ disyllabism is sometimes marked by doubling
a vowel, e.g. cooir, Noois, siuur, triuur.

Declension.

As a rule, the Old-Irish paradigms are followed. But
Oengus tends to make oblique cases resemble the nom. sg.
Thus the msc. 0-stems Findach and Ndrach have their genitives
sg. Findach May 22, and Ndrach March 8 : so bordgal Prol.
275, baslic Nov. 19, and possibly trethan June 5. At Feb. 12,
crochthae is dat. sg. fern., and in Ep. 458 the voc. sg. msc.
of rathmar is identical with the nom. sg. of that adjective.
The gen. pi. of der = Sd/cpv is dtr, Ep. 400. The ;z-stems bn'i
Heriu, iriu and dile makes their dat. sg. bru Ep. 464, Here July 31,
ire, Ep. 25, 450, dile, Ep. 452. The dat. sg. of the /-stem is
bethu, Ep. 201. The ace. sg. felt\ Oc. 2, Dec. 30, seems from a
fern, f-stem. Stems in u make their gen. sg. in -o : locho, Feb. 7,
R, geno Oc. 3, R l , or a : gena, Ap. 13, Sep. 16 ; betha, Prol. 140,
195, June 29, catha, datha.

Traces of a locative singular are : grian mdr des-maig Midi,
Prol. 226, Senoc Mugnai tuathmaig let/tain, Dec. II : ni mair
in drong uabair rdith Becce, Prol. 197-8 : rdid a paiss cinn
bliadnae, Sep. 17: dogne init chorgaiss, Nov. 13.

The adjectival z-stems make their gen. pi. in -e, even when
not used substantially. Thus aille, Ep. 83, mathe July 23.

The nom. of the fern, numeral teoir ' three ' occurs in Sep. i ,
where it is disyllabic, like teuir (from *tisores\ Thes. II, p. 291.

Comparison.

The superlative in m survives : amram Sep. 24 : ardam
March 23, Dec. 27, Ep. 207 : deodam Ep. 498 : nbibem July 14.
But the Middle-Irish use of the comparative for the superlative
is already beginning : amru Aug. 20 : cddu March 20 : ddnu,
daingniu May 23: dilsiu Prol. 262; dixu Jan. 18 : ferdu
Aug. 2Q\ glainiu Prol. 246, isliu Prol. 153, ndebu Jan. 20,
May 27 ; uagu Nov. 30, tiaisliu Prol. 263, Jan. 18.

Infixed Pronouns.
The infixed pronouns in the Martyrology are as follows :

Non-relative forms. Dental forms.

Sg. i . m: before a vowel mm ... ... -dom-

Sg. 2. t - ... -dat-

Sg. 3. msc. an : after do and ni, n ... ... -dn-,-d-,-idn-?-id

fern, a, s(ii) ... ... ... ... -da-

THE LANGUAGE OF THE MARTYROLOGY. xxxi

neut. a, and after ni a cryptic pron.

which aspirates ... ... ... -d-, id, -did-

Pl. i. 11, before a vowel, nn ... ... ... -don-

2. b : before t,p ... ... ... ... (-dab-)

3. a, s (n) ... ... ... ... ... -da-

The dental forms are regularly relative : see for instance
ar-don-sela, ' what escapes us/ June 23, and Ep. 376, 377, where
fo-m-gluassi means * disquiets me,' but fo-dom-ghiassi, ' what
disquiets me/ but dental forms are used after ad- and some other
preps. Thus in atateoch-sa (ad-dat-t.\ ' I entreat thee ' Ep. 304,
there is no relativity.

It is unnecessary to quote examples of the first and second
persons, which are easily recognisable. The multiform pronouns
of the third person are as follows :

Sg. 3 msc. an: n-an-dle Feb. 7, 6 dondnic Ap. 14, should
perhaps be 6 d-an-dnic, imm-a-curtis Ap. 27, f-a-rith Ep. 407.
Dental form : no-dn-dle July 9, atnechani (ex ad-dn-techani]
July 14, Dec. 21,26, fortnedae (ex for-dn-edae) May 3 1 , fortniada

July 31-

d : fo-d-ruair (lebran) *E.p.67,fo-d-fuasna(or&) Ep. iO2,fo-d-
lugai (cessad) June 6, mani-d-chuala (Bartholom) June 13, no-d-
dlomaim (ord) Prol. 315, no-d-geba (lebran?) Ep. 113. After
the prefix ad- the two dentals become t\ at-gab (ad-d-gab]
(Hiruath) Prol. 107 : at-co'is (Ciaran) Prol. 182: at-roiriss
(Valentinus) Dec. 16. After n and before another consonant
the </is lost : dian proinam (from dian-d-promam) Prol. 143, dian
ftsser (from dian-d-f&ser) Oc. 24.
n : ro-n-noebat t ro-n-morat, Ep. 59>
dn : nodndli July 9. ?Jan. 19.

idn : con-neuch ad-idn-gialla Feb. 23, in sluag con-idn-aicert
Ep. 105, mad noeb ar-id-lega Ep. 178. So in Fiacc's
hymn 10, 47, con-id-farcaib, ar-id-rdlastar.
Sg. 3 fern, a : d-a-ronaid Prol. 186.

s(n) : ni-s-tarcai June 29, do-s-ruimdemar Ep. 6.
Sg. 3 neut. a and the cryptic pron. do not occur in the Martyr-
ology : ro-n-fethis (gein) June 24, is for ro-n-d-fethis :
atsLuindi for ad-d-sluindi (ainm) Prol. 1 10.
PI. 3 a after do- and nach : d-a-ruirmisem Ep. 228.

s: no-s-molammar Jan. 17, ro-s-fcsser Feb. 4, ro-s-taurus

1 The pronouns -didn-, -did-, -idn-, -id- occur only after ndch, the
conjunction con, the relative in- ' in which,' and the prepositions ad-, as-,
con-, for-, fri, iuiui- and in-, They are apparently cognate with the
pronominal affix ide'm a n-icc-ide 'their salvation' Wb. 4 39, dat. inna
diud-idi 'after it,' Thes. pal. hib. II. 251'.

xxxii PREFACE.

June 26. no-s-tuirfem Prol. 289, ni-s-gegnetar May
\^fo-s-dail July 15.

d# : ar-da-legfa Ep. 216: no-da- sndidfea Ep. 160,
ro-da-ortsam Prol. 57> ro-da-crochsat Prol. 73,
ata-sniaim Oc. 26 (ad-da-s).

Verbal Particles.

The verbal particles are #*/-, ^w/z-, ;/<?, r# and /w, of which
#<^, r<?;/z and ro are used as perfective prefixes :

ad- : conatuil (com-ad-t.}. ' he has slept ' Aug. 7, con-idn-
aicert (com-idn-ad-cert} ( has corrected it.'

coin-: as-chom-art 'who has been slain,' Oc. 19, do-
coemnagtar (^ to-com-nenigtar} 'they have washed,' Jan. 4.

no is here used (a) with the imperfect indicative of simple
verbs, (&) to infix a personal pronoun cr relative //, and (c) to
express relativity. 1 Examples of (c) are no molur Prol. \^\no
rdidiu, Ep. 358: no guidiu Ep. 387, no charim Ep. 50: no rddi
Feb. r 8.

ro : Most of the occurrences of this common particle are
collected in the glossarial index. In compound verbs it stands
after the first, or only preposition : do-ro-dbad Prol. 96 ; imma-
roerad Prol. 206 : fris-rocaib Oc. 24, fris-rocabsat Jan. 16: con-
ruala July 12, as-r-indaid Jan. 12 : do-rosat Prol. 91, do-r-indnacht
Nov. 12, do-s-rui-mdemar Ep. 6. When the compound contains
only one preposition : do-rignius ini-ro-rdus Prol. 20 ; do-rui-
rmius Ep. 40, ad-r-annad Ap. 5, ad-r-eth Prol. 120, do-r-ortad
May 27, ad-roe-thach Ep. 300. It is omitted in atbath Ep. 318,
tinscann May I, fo-s-dail July 15, fo-raith Jan. \$> fo-truicset
May 8, fris-indled May 23, and nad chumscaigset Feb. 6. It is
prefixed to an originally compound verb in ro-s-tuirius Jan. 26
(cf. r& tuirset Ml. 44, 23).

ror \ fo-ror-bairt Prol. 172 : fo-ror-cennta Prol. 87: dom-ror-
bae Prol. 25 ; and, with assimilation of rto the /of the root, rol-eb-
laing March 5.

Conjugation.

In the verb, the Old-Irish distinction between the absolute
and the conjunct forms is invariably preserved. Thus in the 3d
sg. pres. ind. active we find the following absolute forms :

maraid Prol. 168, 204, 244, 252, bith-maraid 232, 255. moraith
1 1 6, bith-trdgaith 231 ; and with affixed pronouns, berth-i Ep. 196,
mdrth-us Prol. 132,
and the following conjunct forms :

I. o-verbs : ni mair Prol. 199, 203 ; ni dlig]zx\. 6, na dlig March 7,

: For other cases in which it is used in Old-Irish, see Strachan,
Selections from the Old- Irish Glosses, 1904, p. 112.

THE LANGUAGE OF THE MARTYROLOGY. xxxiii

Ap. 25, ar-dlig June i, Aug. 5, ni beir Prol. 223 do-beir March 31,
Nov. 30, con-gaib Ap. i, Ep. 76, 279, tuar-gaib March 9, ar-fick
March 15, do-for-maig Ep. 195, 206, do-n-for-maig Oc. 18, mos~
t-ic July 9, to-t-ic May 25, t-ar-ic^ July 19, fris'reith Prol. 302, fris-
oirg Ep. 444, do-reith Ap. 16.

II. a-verbs : ad-idn-gialla Feb. 23, ar-don-sela June 23, for-tn-iada
July 31, fo-t-botha Nov. 15, ar-id-Uga Ep. 178, fo-d-fuasna Ep. 102,
for-cenna Ep. 282, -bruchta June 21, Nov. 29.

III. i-verbs : at-sluindi, Prol. no, do-don-fard Jan. 26, don-ascnai
May 12, Oc. 25, ni-s-tarcai June 29, nond-dli July 9, ar-dom-ttiassi
Ep. 374, fo-dom-ghiassi Ep. 376, fo-m-ghiaissi Ep. 377, -dibdai Ap. 9,
donn-ecrai Dec. 29.

The conjunct form of the 1st sg. of the same tense is
exemplified by ad-sluindiu Ep. 320 etc., at-biur Ep. 103,
atateoch-sa (* ad-dat-teoch} Ep. 304, no-t-guidiu Prol. 265, Ep. 37,
312, ^i^, con-uagu Jan. 20, con-sddu Jan. 23, no-t-caru Ep. 311,
rtra mbdigiu Ep. 360, do-rimu Ep. 317, no-n-diliu Ep. 559.

Relative forms : sg. i, #0 &* w Nov. 30, no guidiu Ep. 337, #0
rdidiu Ep. 358, ?/<? charint Ep. 50 : sg. 3, beres,linas, crothas^guires,
file\ pi. i. dilute Aug. 5, canmae Ep. 242, guidme Ep. 243,
molmae Aug. 31 : pi. 3. cantae Dec. 2^ y mairte Prol. 194.

Relativity is expressed by aspiration in ad-chissiu, Prol. 150,
and as-chomart Oc. 19.

Reduplicated Future.
Sg. 2, lile-su (sic leg.) Prol. 309, 311, atom-didmae Ep. 494.

E-Future.

Sg. 3. absolute : gebaid Dec. 12, meraid Prol. 174 :
conjunct: at-bela Ep. 116, no-t-geba Ep. 114, 166.
PI. i. -^7^w Ep. 86.
PI. 3. atf-^tf Prol. 247.

Reduplicated S-Future.

Sg. 2. at-roiriss Dec. 16.

Sg. 3. ar-sil Sept. 29 (j/V ex *>/..., from sliginh, -foir
(= fo-rir) fromfo-rigim Prol. 326.

A-Subjunctive.

Sg. i. doronsa Prol. 268, 269 : Sg. 2. tuicce,fortn~edae, dogne:
Sg. 3. dorogra, ron-soera, ron-glea : PI. 2. daronaid Prol. 186:
PI 3. don-r-emat, cotom-rocbat.

1 In to-t-ic and t-ar-ic^ as often in ro-icc^ the orthotonic (or ' deuterotonic ')
form is replaced by the enclitic (or ' prototonic ')

OENGUS. 6-

xxxiv PREFACE.

doriga Prol. 298, regmi Prol. 291, and do-ragat Ep. 115, are
present subjunctives with the meaning of futures.

S-Subjunctive.

Absolute forms : Sg. 3, ainsium (ex *ainis-uiri) Jan. 31 : PI. i
resme (resmi?) Prol. 257.

Conjunct forms : Sg. 2, at-chois Prol. 182, ro-'is Ep. 146,
conetis July 1 6, com-eir Aug. 26. Sg. 3, -tecma Jan. 10, ronn-ain
Dec. 22, r0 Ep. 364. PL i, risam Dec. 17. PL 2,con-issid Ep.
393. PL 3, dodigset Ep. 24, domm-isat Ep. 36, -//jdtf Ep. 295,
do-airset Sep. 20, -tairset Dec. 13.

Secondary forms: Sg. 3: fete*/ Ap. 27, no-gessed Ep. 217,
nachat-rised Prol. 284. PL 3 relative : tiastae Ep. 470, a ngestae
Ep. 432, 433.

S-Preterite.

Sg. 2. sberais Ep. 486 : relative, amail soersai Ep. 441, 445, etc.

Sg. 3. absolute : bebais Prol. 95, Feb. 18, Ap. 2^,breuis Ap. 4,
carats Jan. 15, cessais Jan. 17, crocJiats March 8, ddlais Ap. 12,
gabais July 6, mdrais Aug. 18, soerais Sep. 25 ; with affixed
pronoun: troeths-us Nov. 1 6, mors-us Jan. 30, June 5. In
June 15 and July 9, carats seems a third sg. relative, like carts
in the Cambray Homily, Thes. II. 247, 1. 4. So soerais Sep. 25.
But in March 24 we have car.

PL 3. conjunct : -crochsat Prol. 73, -carsat May 8 : absolute :
carsait, March 15, May 7, Itcsit Oc. 8.

T-Preterite and Perfect.

This tense occurs in the Martyrology only in sg. 3 and
pi. 3. Sg. 3. ro-da-ort Prol. 57, as-ort Ap. 23, as-r-cracht Prol.
92, March 27, dorosat (*to-ro-fo-ess-sem-t) Prol. 91, birt Jan. 27,
June 2 ; do-bert Ap. 14, Oc. 18, Nov. 2, adropart Ep. 269.

PL 3 n? siachtatar Prol. 70.

Reduplicated Preterite and Perfect.

The reduplicated preterite and perfect are still in constant
use. Thus :

Sg. i. adroithach Ep. 300, 301 (^ ad-ro-tethadi), -cuala June 13.

Sg. 3. cachain Ap. 26, Dec. 8 (leg. cechain ?), cechaing Jan. 25,
May 22, geguin Oc. 23, r0 selaig (from *seslaig) Prol, 101,
senaig (from *sesnaig) May 15, ar-ro-cJiiuir (from *-cecri\ ro ir
July 5, TV ////# Prol. 193 (pres. ind. tinim), t-dnic Jan. n, Ap. 14,
r-dnic May 2, Ep. 17, immerdnic May 2, do-da- farnaic June 10.

PL 3. -gegnetar May 19, docoemiiachtar (* to-com-ne-nigtar}
Jan. 4, r0 selgatar ProL 29, tdncatar Ep. 88, rdncatar Prol. 78.

THE LANGUAGE OF THE MARTYROLOGY. xxxv

Unreduplicated Preterites and Perfects.

Of these, beside the s- and t- preterites, there are two classes,
(a) those with a long vowel before a single consonant : (b) those
with a short vowel :

(a] Sg. i. ro gdd-sa Ep. 412, ro-n-gddsa, 421.

Sg. 3. rdith Jan. 6, Sep. ig,fo-rdit/i Jan. 5, ro scdich Nov. 22 ;
Prol. 121, ro fir-scdich Prol. 84; (with affixed pron. ro scdic/i-i
Prol. 177), do-cuaid Ep. 267 (from *to-co-fditJi)\ PL 3. rdthatar
Sep. 28, rel. dochuatar Prol. 279.

(^) Sg. 3. rol-eb-laing March 5 (from Imgini), dr-eb-raing
Ap. 2, 17 ; do-ro-chair, -to-r-chair March 26, Ep. 361 (which
serves as perfect to dotuit ' falls '), -sceith Feb. 16, frisnaig
March 24, /bo/Prol. 128, Jan. I etc. mad tulnid July 12 : PI. 3.
/tftar May 5.

In ro era Ep. 474, ro pJiraidcJii Prol. 164 (= ropritchai, Trip.
40, 1. 4) and n? chruidi Ep. 136, we seem to have presents made
preterites by the prefix ro. See KSB. vii. 4 ; Strachan, Verbal
System of the Saltair na Rann, p. 32, and cf. the passive form
ro gabthar ' it \vas sung,' Ml. 24 d 14.

Deponents.

The deponential forms in the Martyrology are :

Pres. ind. sg. \,frisdiliur Ep. 560. no molur Prol. 13, and
perhaps conruidiur, Prol. 277 : sg. 2 armuinter Oc. 2, mem-
raigther, March 2, r# clunter Prol. 282: pi. i. no-s-molamar
Jan. 17 ^.

Imperative sg. 2, cluinte Ep. 314, 365, 425, molthae Sep. 2,
(where the MSS. have molatha, molothd}.

Subjunctive sg. 2 : foraithmentar Sep. 8. r# fesser Feb. 4,
afoz;/ fesser Oc. 24 :

Pret. sg. 3 genair, Dec. 25, mad-genair Prol. 251, ddmair
Feb. 9, 1 6. Perf. sg. 3 ro genair Sep. 24. pi. i, do- s-ruimdemar
Ep. 6. pi. 3, ro damnatar Prol. 53.

Passage from deponential to active forms is shown, I think,
only in one verb, viz. molmae Aug. 31, the relative form of the
pres. ind. pi. i of molur ^ and that such passage had commenced
in the Old- Irish period is proved by the b- future molfait Ml.
69 b i. The deponential inflexion seems to prove that our
Martyrology is at the latest not later than the ninth century. 1

Passive.

In the passive, the pres. ind. 3 sg. and 3 pi. still observe the
difference between the absolute and the relative (identical with
the conjunct) forms. Thus bertar Prol. 175, ' who are carried

1 Strachan, The Deponent Verb in Irish, pp. no, m.

c 2

xxxvi PREFACE.

off,' rimter Prol. 286, Ep. 46 * who are numbered ; ' but icthair ( is
healed/ Prol. 228, tuirtir 'are scrutinised ' 230.

In the preterite sg. 3 the absolute forms end in -tae, -thae, the
conjunct in -/, -th : absolute brelhae Jan. 25, June 11, carthae
May 9, crochthae Feb. 12, ortae Jan. 26, March 6, Sep. 7;
stntae Prol. 100 : slechtae Feb. 12 : conjunct : -airecht Aug. 3,
-<?r/ Oc. 22, as-ort Oc. 7, as-chom-art Oc. 9, do-rindnacht Nov. 12,
-slecht Feb. 20, June 16, ra jr^ Aug. 25, -/rzV// March 10,
June 16, July 30, (so as-breth, do-breth). In -doss Oc. 15 (from
*klusto) the ^ has been assimilated to the s of the root klus ' to
hear' (cf. Zend, a-srusta, OHG. hloseri}. In -fess Prol. 135, ss is
from </-

In a-verbs the perfect sg. 3 ends in -a-d : ro crochad Prol. 89,
doro-dbadg6 : romorad, ro rigad 103, 104, ro mudiad 169, roerad
206, ro lenad 253. In 1-verbs it ends in -ed, ro milled Prol. 213.

In the 3rd pi., the manuscripts of our Martyrology point to
-ta, -tha for o- and a-verbs, and to -tea, -thea for I-verbs. This is
the rule in the Old-Irish glosses : see GC. 2 478.

Reduplicated future pi. 3. do-genatar^p. 176 (gen- fcomgign-).

Participle of necessity : rdti Ap. 9, gessi Dec. 2, Sep. 28,
clitki Dec. 9, Ep. $o6,Jissi Ep. 335, denti Ep. 392.

Verb Substantive and Copula.

The forms which in the Martyrology make up the verb
substantive and copula are collected in the glossarial index, s.vv.
am, ata, biuu, dianda, dodiuissin^feil, nim-tha and tdu. Of these
the atonic am is from *em y Goth, im, Gr. et/u, Lith. estnl, Skr.
dsmi : tdu, atd (ad-ta), dian-da and nim-tha are cognate with
Lat. sto : biuu with Lat. vivo ; and feil (originally meaning
void 1 ) with the Irish fili ' poet ' (seer), Cymr. gweled ' to see/ and
Old Norse vb'lva ' seeress.' Nimtha ' not so is ' is from ni-imtha,
and im-tha ('so is') is a compound of td ( = Lat. stat) and im,
cognate with Lat. imitor, imago, aeimilor.

Syntax.

So much for the ancient grammatical forms of the
Martyrology. Its syntax is also highly archaic. Thus the dat. pi.
is often used as an instrumental, without a governing preposition :
for instance :

iarna fbebraib fennad 'after flaying them with sword-edges/ Prol. 48.
ind locdin rogabtha deissib ocus tririb 'the little places that have been
taken by pairs and by trios,' Prol. 209.

Agnetis deich n-iiagaib 'Agnes with ten virgins,' Jan. 27.

1 Sarauw, Rev. celt. xvii. 278 : cf. the Algerian Arabic ra-h 'he is/
literally ' le voici.'

THE LANGUAGE OF THE MARTYROLOGY. xxxvii

asrola sdeth setaib ' has escaped by ways of tribulations,' Ap. 3.
Cyriacus crochthae trib cetaib don-ascnai ' Cyriacus who was crucified
comes to us with three hundreds,' May 12.

Ciar trib cetaib cdinib ' Ciar with three fair hundreds,' Oc. 16.

The dative pi. is used without a preposition also in is
dallcheilliu doinib ''tis a blind direction to men,' Prol. 316, and
in luaidfidir Idedib limmsa ' it will be sung in lays by me,' Thes.
pal. hib. y 295. An instance of a similar use of the dative sg. is
foisitin oendatad ' through confession of the oneness,' ibid. 354,
and cf. cunn, ceill, curp Ep. 52, colbu Ep. 74.

Again, the genitive, singular or plural, often precedes the
governing noun. For instance :

la fege frithgnam ' with diligence of keenness,' Prol. 331.

martrae mdrsus dorus 'martyrdom's door magnified them,' Jan. 30

Locho Uair ard dige ' Loch Uar's high pillar,' Feb. 7.

nil co himbel 'unto the clouds' rim,' Feb. 16.

lir dar doe 'over the sea's rampart,' March 22.

Marta for sliiaig saithiu 'on the swarm of March's host,' March 31.

asrola sdeth setaib ' has escaped by ways of tribulations,' Ap. 3.

hi Fiadat find fini 'in the vine of the white Lord,' Ap. 6.

ddlais . . . fri cruiche cretair ' he allotted to the relic of the Cross,'
Ap. 12.

ctssais roe rindi ' he suffered spearpoints of battle,' Ap. 26, tre roe
rindi, Aug. 27.

i nEchdromma dairiu 'in Echdruim's oakwood,' May 7.

mbrdrem De de thuirind 'a great company of God's wheat,' May 21.

bdtir Erenn ardae ' they were Erin's heights,' June 25.

Itiil i calaind mirbuil 'on the marvellous calends of June,' July i.

mdrais Fiadat fairinn 'magnified the Lord's company,' Aug. 18.

for Septimbir calaind ' on September's calends,' Sep. i.

Luscai la Mace cuilinn ' with Mace Cuilinn of Lusk,' Sep. 6.

Septimbir iar saithib 'after September's swarms,' Sep. 30.

i nOchtimbir etun 'in October's front,' Oc. i.

Dromma Ingaird age ' Druimm Ingaird's pillar,' Oc. 10.

la Tdimthene tdlgud 'at Taimthene's quieting,' Oc. 29.

Ochtimbir ard ethre 'October's lofty end,' Oc. 31.

ar Bledma bailc btlaib ' in front of strong (Slieve) Bloom,' Nov. 20.

Nouimbirfor shiagu ' on November's hosts,' Nov. 30.

Sluind Decimbir calaind ' declare December's calends,' Dec. i.

il-ligflatha lestur 'in the beautiful realm's vessel,' Ep. 22.
flatha Crist is colbu ' is for (through) love of Christ's kingdom,' Ep 74.
tar sdlmuire sreiha ' over ranges of main-seas,' Ep. 238.

For other Old-Irish examples see Z. 2 915 : fidbaidce fdl, Thes.
II. 291, 1. 7,fregafdl, ib. 293, 1. 22 : fu thocaid tugaib, ib. 295,
1. 4 : di Moisten mine mrugaib, ib. 295, 1. 5 : robbet inna lobrdn leith

PREFACE.

ib. 348, 1. 5 ; and see Rev. Celt. v. 35 1. 1 For a like construction in
Old-Welsh poetry, see Rhys Lectures 1 1 5 3 (Kenetyl noted ' the
nation's refuge/ Kimerev trin ' Cymmerau's conflict,' riein gared
1 delight of women ';. To these we may perhaps add the ogham
Trenaccat lo ' Tringad's grave/ and part of the Gaulish
bilingual of Todi : Ategnati Drutikni karnidu logan Koisis
Drutiknos " Coisis son of Drutos heaped up the tomb of
Ategnatos son of Drutos.'

A third archaism in our Martyrology is the frequent position
of the adjective before the substantive with which it agrees.
Thus crdibdig i fell Fursa, Jan. 16, ard dige Prol. 119, 243,
ard imbel 131, etrocht age, Feb. io,cdin cathar, Aug. 15.

A fourth archaism is the occasional position of the accusative
before the governing verb. Thus :

ar Christ cech mbdis breuis ' for Christ's sake he vanquished every
lust,' Ap. 4.

re Notlaicc aird aurgaiss dogne ' before high Christmas thou shouldst
make great prayer,' Nov. 13.

lucht fris' fdilti feraim ' the folk to whom I make welcome,' Ep. 49.
felire ro scrtitus ' I have searched out martyrologies,' Ep. 109.

d Issu, mdrfertae dorignis ' O Jesus, who hast wrought great miracles,'
Ep. 506.

The result is that, with one exception, the grammar and
syntax of our Martyrology maybe regarded as strict Old-Irish.
The exception is the occasional use of the comparative for the
superlative. It now seems to me that it is easier to believe
that this Middle-Irishism existed as early as A.D. 800 than to
cast aside the traditional evidence that Oengus wrote about that
date. This belief is confirmed by the facts that the author has
only one vigil (Aug. 15) ; that he has only five festivals of the
B.V. Mary (there are in the Roman calendar fourteen 'of
universal obligation ') ; and that no saint or other person who
certainly died in the ninth century is mentioned in his
Martyrology. Paulus Diaconus (Ap. 13), who died before
A.D. 800, and Aireran of the Wisdom (Aug. n), who succeeded
Maelruain A.D. 792, are the most modern saints here com
memorated ; and it is possible that here the scholiast erred, and
that this Aireran was meant by Oengus for the Aileran ind ecni,
who died in the year 604. That our Martyrology was not
written before the ninth century is proved by the mention of
S. Joseph at March 19.*

See The Irish Liber Hymnorum II. 118, per Dr Bernard.

THE METRE OF THE MARTYROLOGY.

IV. THE METRE OF THE MARTYROLOGY.

Only five metrical martyrologies are known to me, viz. :
Baeda's Martyrologium Poeticum 1 (which at March 17 contains
the line Patricius 2 Domini servus conscendit ad aulam), the
Martyrologium Wandalberti, 3 the Anglo-Saxon Menologium
Poeticum, 4 the Martyrology of Gorman, 5 and the Martyrology
of Oerigus. The first two are in Latin hexameters. The
Martyrology of Gorman is in the Irish metre called rinnard
mor, 'great rinnard/ in which the stanzas may consist of 4,
6, 8, 10, 12, or even 14 lines. The Martyrology of Oengus
consists of 591 quatrains, each of which is independent
in sense. The elaborate metre (rinnard) in which they are
written is described, not quite completely, in the prose prefaces.
Its chief characteristics are as follows :

1. Each line of the quatrain contains six syllables. The
solitary exception is Ep. 459, where Loth should perhaps be
corrected to Lothus.

2. Each line must end (like the Ovidian pentameter) in a
disyllabic. To this rule there are exceptions in the case of
alaile, araile and of foreign proper names/' And Irish verbs
compounded with prepositional prefixes are, for metrical
purposes, regarded as being in tmesi. So the proclitics the
article, possessive pronouns, verbal prefixes, copula, preposi
tions, negative particles, are not regarded as part of the words
with which they are written in the MSS. On the other hand,
the pronominal suffixes -ni, -sa, -se, -si, -sin, -su, -som, are deemed
(for metrical purposes) to convert the monosyllables to which
they are annexed into disyllables.

3. Each end-word must be accented on the penult. Take,
for example, the quatrains for Jan. I and Jan. 10 :

Re sil dalach d6ine Almini a n-itge

t6ided in ri remain, nachan tecma drochrann,

luid fo recht ard erail Milit caid cain cathbarr,

Crist i callaind enair. Diarmait Inse Clothrann.

1 Migne's Patrologia Latina, t. xciv., coll. 603-606.

- So in Baeda's prose Martyrology, at March 17, in Scotia S. Patricii
confessoris. And yet a writer who ought to know better, asserts that Baeda
' studiously ignored S. Patrick.'

3 Migne's Patrologia Latina, t. cxxi., coll. 585-623. Wandalbert, a monk
in the diocese of Treves, wrote about 50 years after Oengus.

4 Cotton, Tiberius B. i, last printed in the Bibliothek der angelsachsichen
Poesie, 1894, Bd. II. 282-293.

5 Edited by W. S. and issued by the Henry Bradshaw Society in 1895.

6 In Stephdni Dec. 26, Oengus (metri gratia) has not only accented,
but lengthened the penult. Cf. Stephd.no, Merchant of Venice, v. i.

xl PREFACE.

Here the four end-words happen to be nouns ; but the rule
is the same in the case of paroxyton verbs. Thus in the prologue
233-236 and 141-144:

In gormrig ro miichtha, Bid ar menmae uile

in Domnaill ro plagtha, ar thiiaith De nad celam,

in Chiarain ro rigtha, is torbe dian promam

in Chronain ro martha. in prolach do-beram.

Here in one quatrain the four end-words, and in the other the
last three end-words, are verbs accented on the penult. Many
more such instances will be found in the Revue Celtique. vi.
283-285, where all the verbal line-endings in our Martyrology
are collected.

4. The end-words of the second and fourth lines must
assonate, z>., the vowels must be the same and the consonants
must be of the same class.

The consonantal classes are as follows :

(1) c,t,p y and uninfected g, d, b.

(2) Ch}th,ph,ff*

(3) >&, dh, bh, mh, n, r, I.

(4) mm y nnf ng> rr, //.

(5) '. 4

5. Final -e in the first and third lines may assonate with
final ae in the second and fourth lines, and final i in the first and
third lines may assonate with final -ai in the second and fourth
lines. Thus ae in togae Jan. 6 assonates with nglain^ and Maire,
and ai in Tiamdtfz Aug. 22 assonates with nan i and Emilianz :
see further Strachan, Rev. Celt, xx, 191, 295.

6. The end-word of the third line may assonate with a
disyllabic in the interior of the fourth line. But where such
assonance is absent, the final syllable of the third line must
assonate with the final syllables of the second and fourth lines :
see Prol. 25-28, where -sa in the third line assonates with -sa
in the second and fourth : 5 or the final syllable of the third line
must assonate with the final syllable of a word in the interior of

1 cht may rhyme with / (Ep. 72).

2 Thus fethis, cathlaic, dithi respectively rhyme with Effis, Affraic,
Liffi, a proof, if such were wanted, that in Old-Irish th was pronounced
somewhat like the English dental spirant in thing. See Rev. Celt. III.
1 86, and Celt. Zeits. I. 454.

3 nn rhymes with nnt at July 30, with nt at Nov. 21.

4 See Prol. 17-10; 57-60; 62-64; 74-76; 150-152; 182, 184, etc.
Exceptions to the rules as to classes, in other words faulty consonantal
rhymes, will be found in the Prologue 170, 172, and at Feb., 15
namai/), Sept. 19 (taithle^, aithme/), and Ep. 394, 396 (tic/^/u,

5 Thurneysen, Rev. Celt. VII. 88.

THE METRE OF THE MARTYROLOGY. xli

the fourth. See Prol. 5-8, and 157-160, where the final syllable
of aingliu assonates with the final syllable of ckoimmdiu, and
Prol. 42-44, 281-284, 329-332, and Feb. 4, 13, 14, 19, where the
final consonants of cala<^, altar, frithgna;;/, uasa/, nuala^^,
clanda^/, maine^ assonate with the final consonants of lines
2 and 4.

When the final syllables of lines I, 2, 3, and 4 assonate the
metre is called rinnard cethir n-ard ' rinnard of four rhyming
final syllables.' For example, at March 17 and June 17 :

Lassar grene an^ In doss oir 6s chricho2$,

apstal Herenn h6g in grian an lias tuathtf/^,

Patraic co meit mile congreit rig, bale brathaz>,

rop ditiu ar tr6g caid mil, Moling Liiacha/r.

When the final syllables of lines 2, 3, and 4 assonate the
metre is called rinnard tri n-ard 'rinnard of three rhyming
final syllables.' For example, at Jan. 4 and June 14:

Bas caid Aquilini Conrecat dib linib

co mbuidin ba balcu for oenlith ler sluagac/i,

hi fuil Christ trea curp^ Nem maccu Birn

docdemnachtar tlacht^ la Benedicht

and so in the quatrain for Jan. I, where -ain, -ail, -air are the
three assonating ards, and in that for Jan. 27, where lines 2, 3,
and 4 end in -aib.

When the final syllables of only lines 2 and 4 assonate the
metre is called rinnard da n-ard ' rinnard of two rhyming final
syllables.' Thus at Jan. 24 and June 22 :

Domm anmain, domm chorpan La hlac6b nAlphaei

rop mur ar cech merbl/, da nocht cet, cliar ngelda^,

Babill, bruth oir forlan feil fir nad char corplen

cona thriur dedblen. Cronan fortren Fern#.

In the Irish prefaces the quatrain for March I is given as
an example of rinnard da n-ard. If this be not a mistake,
Moysi in line 3 should be Moyse, and then the two ards are the
final syllables of rigudz' and Mum.

/. In each quatrain there must be alliteration (tiaini), that is
to say, two, three or more accented syllables must begin with
the same letter all the vowels being, for this purpose, deemed
identical, and /t, infected f and transported nasals being dis
regarded. For example, in the quatrain for Jan. 7, -dni,
(}\)uaisliu and Issu alliterate, and in the quatrain for Jan. 4,
mbuidin and alcu are regarded as beginning with the same
letter. Needless to quote other examples of consonantal
alliteration.

xlii PREFACE,

8. The last characteristic of rinnard is what the Irish preface
in R 2 (supra p. 14) ca\\sfidrad cubaid etir tosaichib na rann ocus
deridib na rann ele 'an harmonious juncture between the
beginnings of the quatrains and the ends of the other (i.e. the
last preceding) quatrains,' and what modern Irish scholars
call conachlann. 1 This agreement is not obligatory. It may be
either complete, as in the case of the third quatrain of the in
vocation prefixed to the prologue the first line of which is
identical with the last line of the second quatrain or partial, as
when the first accented word in the second quatrain gelgrian
alliterates with gile, the final word of the first. So rigrad y
the first accented word in the fourth quatrain, alliterates with
rlgraid. So in the f quatrains for the first seven days of
February, the pairs Erenn and Airitiu, airi and Andreas each
begin with a vowei, and each of the pairs Sim/roni and /nonius,
<:resen and <:rochthae, wi'li and J/ellan, begin with the same
consonant The object of this device is, of course, to aid the
memory. There is, I believe, in Welsh verse a similar device
called adgymmeriad ' anadiplosis/ and there is something like
it in a French poem quoted in Isaac Disraeli's Curiosities of
Literature, London, 1838, p. 1 08, where the last word of every
line is identical with the first word of the following line.

I have dwelt at some length on the characteristics of this
metre, partly because nothing is more important for correcting
the corrupt text of a poem (and every copy of the Martyrology
is full of scribal corruptions) than a right understanding of the
rules by which the author was guided ; partly because observa
tion of the technical skill of the maker of the poem now printed
is almost the only source of pleasure derivable from his work ;
and partly because Ezzardi's suggestion 2 that the metre of the
Martyrology of Oengus appears to have been the model of the
Skaldic drottkvcett, especially the hattlausa, makes the Irish rin
nard matter of interest for Teutonic, as well as for Celtic, scholars.

V. THE CONTENTS OF THE POEM. 3

After an invocation of Christ, who is called ' Lord of the seven
heavens,' * King of the bright sun,' and a reference to the saints

1 An old example of this is in Amergin's poem, Ailini iath n-Erenn, etc.,
Book of Ballymote, 4o b 20, where the end-words mothach, srethach, lindmar
are identical with the first words of the following lines.

- In Paul u. Braune's Beitraege zur Geschichte der deutschen Sprache u.
Literatur^ 1878, ss. 583,^584. Ezzardi cites from O'Donovan's Irish
Grammar the quatrain for March 17, and says Dies versmass scheint das
vorbild des drottkv. zunachst der hattlausa, gewesen zu sein. For a specimen
of drottkvsett see Ker, The Dark Ages, p. 302.

3 In this and the preceding section I have drawn on the preface to the
first edition of the Martyrology of Oengus.

THE CONTENTS OF THE POEM. xliii

mentioned in the Martyrology, the poet begins his prologue
(11. 21-340). He describes (11. 29-48) the various modes of
martyrdom which the warriors of Jesus (inilid Isii} suffered with
cheerful heroism. They now, unlike the great pagan kings, enjoy
their eternal reward with Mary's Son, while their relics are
enshrined in sparkling gold (11. 49-84). Herod and Pilate are
then contrasted with Christ, Nebudchadnezzar with Paul the
Monk, Herod and his queen with John the Baptist, Nero
with Peter and Paul, Pilate's queen with Mary the Virgin.
Then come some reflections on the nothingness of earthly
power and mundane potentates as compared with the love of
Mary's Son and with the lowly soldiers (amsdin) of Jesus. In
Ireland, for example, Tara, the seat of the heathen high-kings,
has perished, 1 while Armagh remains with her crowd of Christian
champions. King Loiguire's glory has departed, but St.
Patrick's name lives on. Various ruined strongholds of the
pagan Irish Rathcroghan, Allen, Emain and others are then
contrasted with the monasteries Clonmacnois, Kildare,
Glendalough, Ferns which flourished in the ninth century.
The forgotten renown of pagan chieftains, like Donnchad, Bran
and Domnall, is contrasted with the abiding glory of Christ and
the Irish saints, Mael-ruain, Ciaran, Cronan. The poet then
breaks out into a laudation of Jesus, prays for success in the work
in hand, and concludes his prologue by describing the nature of
the Martyrology.

Then comes the Martyrology, which consists of 365 quatrains
(or 366, if we include the one for bisextus in the note on
Feb. 23). Unlike the Martyrology of Tallaght and the Anglo-
Saxon Menologium, which begin with Dec. 25, Oengus
commences with the feast of the Circumcision, and ends
with that of S. Sylvester. The Crucifixion and Conception
of Christ are commemorated on the same day (March 25). As
in the Hieronymian Martyrology, and the Martyrology of Tours, 2
the Resurrection of our Lord is fixed at March 27. His first
Ascension is at May 5 (so in Galba A. xviii. fo. 7 a , and Harl. 863,
f- 3 a ) J tne mission of the Apostles is at July 15 : the nativity
of Mary Magdalen, at July 22. In associating (Jan. 6) the
Kpiphany with Christ's Baptism, and not with the visit of the
Magi, Oengus follows the tradition of the Eastern, rather than
that of the Western Church; 5 So he follows the Greek, not the
Roman, church in celebrating S. Euphemiaat July 1 1. Probably
there are other like instances obvious to anyone more familiar

1 It was abandoned A.D. 561.

- See the abridgment in Gregory of Tours' Histotia Francorum^ ed.
Arndt, pars i, p. 445.

3 See Plummer's Baeda, II. 237

xliv PREFACE.

than I with Christian hagiology. S. John the Baptist's nativity is
at June 24 : his conception at Sep. 24. Gallican influence appears
in the commemoration of the Circumcision (not the octave of the
Nativity) on Jan. I : of the Assumption of the Virgin and the
Cathedra S. Petri on Jan. 18 : of the Passion on March 25 : of the
Resurrection on March 27 : of St. John and St. James on Dec. 2/. 1

Oengus mentions (p. 270) as his foreign sources the ' vast
tome (pairt) of Ambrose, the Sensus of Hilary, the Antigraph
of Jerome, and the Martyrology of Eusebius.' 2 What work of
Ambrose (or Ambrosiaster) is meant, I cannot imagine. Hilary's
* Sensus ' is equally obscure, whether the Hilary referred to was
Hilary of Poitou or Hilary of Aries. 3 Jerome's Antigraph
(avrLypafyov) is doubtless the Pseudo-Jerome, the so-called
Martyrologium Hieronymianuni, so carefully edited by De Rossi
and Duchesne, and so often cited in this book as Mart.
Hier. The MS. used by Oengus resembled the Epternach copy,
which is said to represent a British form of the Martyrology. 3
The ' Martyrology of Eusebius ' may be the lost work of
Eusebius on which the Martyrologium Hieronymianum is said
to be based. Or it may be the ap^aLwv fjbaprvpwv crvva<ya)<yr],
of which, according to Herzfeld, one part, entitled De Martyribus
Palaestinae, has been preserved.

Bishop Forbes has remarked that nearly all the Irish saints
commemorated by Oengus are the same as those in the [twelfth
century ?] kalendar contained in the Drummond Missal, but
that the selection of non-Irish saints is very different. 4

How little the Irish Church of the early Middle Ages
knew of foreign saints is evidenced by the facts that Oengus,
at May 28, mistakes Germanus of Paris, who died A.D. 576, for
Germanus of Auxerre (ob. A.D. 448) the tutor of S. Patrick :
at Aug. 1 6, he puts Adrio for Orion an Alexandrian martyr: at
June 4, Apollinaris for the Egyptian Apollonius. At July 21 he
treats the Roman virgin Praxides as if she was a male saint ;
and at Feb. 3 and 4, he has made imaginary saints, ' Simfronius '
and 4 Fronius,' out of the latter part of a place-name, Forum
Semproni, now Fossornbrone, in Umbria. The mediaeval
glossators are equally ignorant. Thus Siric, Nov. 26, said
to be an Irish bishop of Mag Bolg, is certainly the pope
Siricius, who died on Nov. 26, A.D. 398. St. Oswald, Aug. 5, is
confounded with Aldfrid (Flann Fina) : Constantine, the

1 See Warren's Liturgy and Ritual of the Celtic Church, p. 273, note 5,
and d'Arbois de Jubainville, Revue Celtique, ix. 118.

2 It is just possible that Oengus referred to a lost work of the latter saint,
Homiliae in totius anni Festivitates.

3 See Dictionary of Christian Antiquities, II. 1136.

4 See Kalendar of Scottish Saints, 1872, pp. xvii. xviii.

THE CONTENTS OF THE POEM. xlv

successor of Mochutu, abbot of Rathen (p. 92), with Constantine
son of Fergus : Isidorus of Antioch with Isidorus of Seville :
Lupus the martyr with Lupus, bishop of Troyes : Publius, an
African martyr, with a Paulus unknown at Feb. 19: Apollinaris
the Christian writer with Apollinaris of Ravenna, the martyr.

As is the case with the oldest martyrologies, the entries in
our Felire are generally of the most meagre description. Here
they consist of the name of the Irish or foreign saint com
memorated, with some stock epithet or standing phrase tacked
on, so as to comply with the exigencies of metre, rhyme, and
alliteration. But sometimes brief reference is made to a
tradition, a tale, or a legend. Thus in the Prologue 2, and
in the Epilogue 120, 401, Oerigus speaks of the seven heavens, a
number which seems ultimately derived from the Babylonian
seven tubukdti? whence the seven heavens of Judaism, of Islam,
and of the apocryphal Revelation of Peter, 2 chap. 27. At Jan. 27,.
the poet mentions the wild story of Li-ban or Muirgein, the
mermaid, told in Lebor na huidre, pp. 40, 41 : 3 at Feb. 6 the
legend of Lucia, who could not be dragged to martyrdom : at
Feb. 6 the tradition of the introduction of bees into Ireland : at
Feb. 16 the legend of Juliana and the Devil : 4 at March 9 the
legend of the forty Cappadocian soldiers to whom the sun shone
at the bottom of a lake : at April 9 the belief that the blood of
the martyr Quadratus still remains. This belief is paralleled, and
perhaps explained, by one still held in Ireland. In the S.W.
corner of Tech Molaisse on Inismurray is a dark red appearance
caused by the growth of a small fungus. The natives say that it is
caused by the blood of the martyred saint, and that however often
it is scraped away, it will always come again. 5 Then at April 5
\ve have the kindling (i.e., the commencement) of baptism by
S. Patrick : at April 14 the tradition (mentioned also in Fiacc's
hymn) that bishop Tassach houseled the dying apostle of the
Irish : at April 17 the pathetic tale of the martyrdom of Donnan
of Eig : at Aug. 16 the story of the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus 6 r

1 See Schrader, Die Keilinschriften u. das Alte Testament, 1903, ss. 615,
617.

* See Sale's Koran, p. 83. It is 'arabice scripta,' Tischendorf,
Apocalypses Apocryphae, pp. xx, xxii. The Anglo-Saxons had the same
number : cf. Solomon and Saturn, ed. Kemble, p. 148 : His heorte is xii
Susendum siSa beorhtre Sonne ealle Sas seofon heofonas Se us sindon
ofergesette.

3 The senchaid quoted in LU. 4o b cites the very words of Oengus :
Muirgein is gein co mbuadaib.

4 His name, lafer (or lofer) Niger is a corruption of lupiter Niger..
i.e. Pluto.

5 Rev. C. Plummer in The Guardian for Dec. 23, 1903.

6 Greg. Turon. Mirac. I. 94, edd. Arndt et Krusch.

xlvi PREFACE.

at Aug. 24, the mention of Patrick senior, as the fosterer of
St. Patrick : l at Aug. 25, the tradition of St. Bartholomew's
death : at Sep. 4 the legend of the orphans playing round Ultan,
who had saved them from dying of hunger : at Sep. 23, the story
of Adamnan's liberation of Irishwomen from military service : at
Sep. 29 the legend of S. Michael the Archangel and Antichrist:
at Oct. 23 the wounding of Christ by Longinus : at Nov. 23
the legend of Clement and the sea : at Dec. 8 that of Egbert
and his skinless coracle; and at Dec. 21 the traditional death of
St. Thomas in India. Here we have traces of that tendency
to give a fuller form to the primitive martyrologies, which was
first displayed by Baeda (ob. 735), and then developed by Florus
(about 830), Rabanus Maurus (about 840), Usuard (about 875)
and Notker (about 912).

The body of our Martyrology is followed by the Epilogue,
or, as the Irish oddly call it, the final Prologue. After referring
generally to the Martyrology, and acknowledging Christ's
help in composing it, Oengus prays for eternal life along
with the saints whom he has commemorated. He declares that
they have blessed whomsoever shall sing it, and that they will
come to attend him when he dies, The poet then enumerates
his sources, the four works already mentioned, and ' Ireland's
host of books, the martyrologies of the men of the Gaels.' He
again refers to the blessings bestowed on the reciter of his poem,
the last mentioned (11. 221-224) being :

" His soul without conflict
in heaven with brightness,
after him when he has attained it,
the dew of his grave will heal. " 3

The poet then classifies the persons commemorated the
nine ranks of angels, prophets, apostles, martyrs, bishops, saints,
priests, monks and virgins of Ireland, who will all, he says,
befriend him. After praying the saints to beseech Christ on his
behalf, he adjures Jesus by the sufferings t)f saints and penitents,
by the offerings of His Body arid Blood, by His Manhood and
His Godhead, to grant him what he is contending for. The rest
of the Epilogue resembles the commendatio animae quando
infirmus est in extremis, 4 and is occupied with longings to pass

1 See F face's hymn, 65, and Ann. Ult. 457. His remains are said to be
at Glastonbury, Thes. pal. hib. II. 321.

- Like curative powers were ascribed to the dew or the mould of Columb
cille's grave, Amra Choluimb chille, Rev. Celt, xx, and see Grimm's Deutsche
Mythologie, 2te ausg. 1129 'rasen und thau auf dem grab heilen,' Greg.
Turon. Vitae patr., 6, 7.

3 H. Gaidoz, Rev. Celt. v. 101.

THE NOTES. xlvii

from the afflictions of the world, and prayers to be saved like
Elijah and Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Lot, Jonah, Isaac, Jacob,
the Children of Israel, Job, Samson, David, Susannah, the three
children, Tobit, the people of Nineveh, Daniel, Moses, Paul and
Peter, John ' from the vat of fire/ Martin ' from the priest of
the idol,' Patrick ' from the poisonous drink at Tara,' Coemgin
' from the falling of the mountain.'

The poem concludes with another prayer to be saved, and
an entreaty that the saints commemorated in the Martyrology
may convoy us to our solace.

It must be confessed that in all this long composition there
is not a trace of imaginative power or of observation of nature
and human life as they really are. Here, as in the Martyrology
of Gorman, the language is, as Wordsworth said of the English
verse of the eighteenth century, the language of men composing
without their eye on the object. Here, as in most of the Irish
verse that has come down to us, substance is ruthlessly sacrificed
to form, and the observance of the rigorous rules of metre seems
regarded as an end in itself. Touches characteristic of the
poet's time and country are here almost wholly absent. The
quatrain for May 17, in which Oengus treats three saints as if
they were three Irish chieftains making a raid into heaven in
their war-chariots, is about the only passage that can be quoted
as racy of the soil. 1 It is perhaps an adaptation of a formula
inherited from earlier bardic poetry. The frequent metaphorical
use in the Martyrology of words meaning sun, moon, star,
diadem, flame, gold, housepost, pillar, town, rampart, bush and
mountain may also be due to secular song. Compare, for
instance, the poem in praise of King Crimthan, attributed
to Dubthach ua Lugair (LL. 45 a ), where, in the course of the
first five verses, that monarch is called drumne d'or ' house-
ridge of gold,' in breo bdgach ' the warlike flame,' in sliab
dergoir 'the mountain of red gold,' and lastly, in doss ditnes
dronga Domnann ' the bush that protects the troops of Meath.'

VI. THE NOTES.

Every copy of the Martyrology contains, besides interlinear
or marginal glosses, bodies of notes in Irish, or mediaeval Latin,
or a mixture of both, written between the lines, or on the

1 As to using the technical language of plundering for the expression of
religious sentiment, see Miscellany of the Celtic Society, Dublin, 1849, p. 338,
where an Irish poet exclaims : A Christ, is cned oruinne in chreach tigh
dorindisi ' O Christ it is (cause of) ?noan to us the royal prey [a dead O'Driscoll]
thou hast taken.' So in an Anglo-Saxon hymn cited by Bosworth : He of
helle hifye gefette sdwla manega ' He from hell fetched spoils, many souls.'

xlviii PREFACE.

margins, or after the quatrain or month referred to. Of the
sources of these notes nothing certain is known. But from the
statement in Laud 610 at June 15 (infra p. 140), we may fairly
infer that a commentary (trachtad) on the Martyrology, existed
in Armagh, if not * from the time of the saints/ at least from an
early period ; and that some, at all events, of the entries in the
notes were derived from this commentary.

For the entries relating to the constitution and discipline
of the Irish church, to Irish architecture, metal-work, calligraphy,
embroidery, music and verse, to the food, homes, morals, laws and
amusements of the Gaels, reference may be made to the first
edition of our Martyrology, pp. 24, 25, and to the Index of
Things in the present volume. Here I shall only notice the
scholia that throw some light on early Irish religious practices,
superstitions, folklore, and legal antiquities.

(a) Religious Practices.

Of these the most frequently mentioned is fasting (troscud],
a practice belonging in ancient Ireland to the sphere of law 1 as
well as to that of religion. Here it is used for the fall of a tree
worshipped by the heathen (p. 118), for the cure of dumbness,
p. 1 66, for the restoration of an eye, p. 244, to procure the death
of a hated saint, p. 204. It sometimes lasted for three days,
and was then called tredan (pp. 36, 69, 235), a loan from the
Latin triduana. The lenten fasts of Moses and Jesus, each lasting
for forty nights, are mentioned in pp. 3?, 42, 234. For the
benefits of fasting coupled with prayer, see Adamndris Second
Vision, Revue Celtique xii. 432-438.

Prayer\ for this there are no less than six native Irish vocables,
attach, aurgaiss, dubart, ernaigthe, guide, itge, and one loanword,
diprecoit. Prayer is addressed to God, p. 271, to Christ, pp. 279,
282, 283, to the saints, pp. 17, 35, 80, and is made on our behalf
by them and the martyrs, pp. 163, 274. The prayer of a
hundred believers is said to be equivalent to a recitation of the
Martyrology, p. 273. The Irish used at least three postures in
their worship, viz., kneeling on both knees, kneeling with the arms
stretched out in a cross, and prostration. Ere Nascai (p. 130)
prayed (standing upright ?) in water 2 with a tie round his neck.
Prayers, as well as curses, were most effective when the right
hand was employed. See p. xxiv supra, and p. 200 infra.
Genuflexion is twice mentioned, pp. 12, 154, and in the poem
printed supra, p. xxiv, Oengus is said to have made three
hundred every night.

1 See Maine's Early History of Institutions, pp. 39, 297.

2 So S. CuSberht, bishop of Lindisfarne, in the sea, Vita c. 10.

THE NOTES. xlix

Austerities. It is hard to say whether Irish saints or Indian
yogis practised the cruelest austerities. Many of them are
described in Lives of Saints from the Book of Lismore, p. cviii,
and in Cuimmin's poem, Zeitschr. fur celtische Philologie, i.
62-66. In the present work the strangest are ascribed to
Findchu, who used to lie the first night with every corpse that
was brought to his church for burial, and at other times sat
suspended by a sickle in each of his armpits (p. 246). Ciaran of
Saiger's bolster was of stone (p. 88). Columb cille's broth was
made of nettles (p. 146). Flagellation is mentioned in p. 280,
as practised by Oengus himself. Ite kept a stag-beetle to
pierce her side (p. 42), and Fursa transferred to his own stomach
the devouring reptile which Maignenn had entertained in his
belly (p. 44). The story of Scothme sleeping with two maidens
(p. 40) tends to prove the existence in Ireland of an ascetic
practice favoured by an early Christian sect and by Robert
d'Arbrissel the founder of Fontevrault. 1

Pilgrimage. The Irish passion for pilgrimage lasted from
the sixth to at least the ninth century. The subject is well dealt
with in the Gaelic Life of St. Columba, Lismore Lives^ 11. 698-720,
and in Plummer's Baeda II. 170. In the present work we read
not only of pilgrimages to Glastonbury and Rome, but to places
in Ireland, such as Ferns and Rathen. Pilgrimage to Mael-
ruain's grave is suggested in p. 26. But the great religious
migration from Ireland to the Continent, which prevailed in the
eighth and following centuries, was viewed with disfavour by
Maelruain and the sages (sruithi) whom he consulted. 2

Collection and ivorsJiip of Relics. Relics were not only worn
on the person, but were essential to the consecration of churches,
and the practice of gathering them is here illustrated by the
story of Onchu and Maedoc (p. 70), the tale of Patrick's leper,
Comlach, p. 204, and the account of Adamnan's collection
(p. 210). They were sometimes enshrined in gold (p. 20).
Special notice is taken of the relics of Saints Peter and Paul
(pp. 46, 220), Thomas (p. 166), Martin (p. 144), Patrick (p. 204),
Columb cille (p. 1 56), and the reciter of the Martyrology (p. 274).
A special feast of holy relics is fixed at Oct. I ; but it is not clear
from the scholium in p. 220, where this feast was celebrated.
The relics 'consecrated to Michael ' (p. 12), may have been the
contents of a reliquary in the monastery of Tallaght.

Worship of Crosses. This seems implied in the story about
Hua Suanaig's cross (p. 466), and in the poem cited supra,
p. xxiv, 2, 4. With the 'cloister behind the circle of crosses'

1 See further H. Achelis, Virgines subintrodtictae, Leipzig, 1902.
- See the Rule, cited by Reeves, Cttldees, p. 91.
OENGUS. d

\ v PREFACE.

compare the circular device in H. J. Lawlor's Chapters on the
Book of Mulling, p. 167. Signing a banquet ' with the cross of
God and Eusebius ' is mentioned in p. 210.

(b) Superstitions and Folklore.

Idolatry (idoladrad) is referred to in p. 74, in the case of the
Roman virgin Juliana ; and the Gaulish idol from whose priest
S. Martin was saved is mentioned in p. 288, But these are
foreign instances. The oldest evidence that the Irish wor
shipped idols (iduld) is contained in S. Patrick's Confession, Book
of Armagh, fo. 24 b . In the curious passage cited from F t infra
p. 1 86, an Irish idol, Cermand Cestach, worshipped at Clogher,.
is described as being a gilded stone. Compare the accounts of
Cenn (or Crom) Cruaich, in the Tripartite Life, p. 90, and the
Dindsenchas, nos. 85, 149. His twelve sub-gods were probably
fetish-stones, and the persistence of stone- worship in Ireland is
proved by the expression ail adrada ' rock of adoration ' in the
Brehon Laws, iv. 146, 1. I6. 1 Other superstitions, which obviously
originated in the times of savage heathenism, are exemplified
by the three stories of impregnation the birth of Ciaran of
Saiger from a star (p. 86) ; that of Finan Camm from a golden
salmon 2 (p. 112): that of Baithin from a sprig of cress, semine
virili cooperta (p. 134). As to the origin of such stories from an
early theory of conception, see Dr. J. G. Frazer, in the Fortnightly
Review for September, 1905, pp. 455-457. Here, too, may be
mentioned the cure of leprosy by the blood of innocent children
(p. 46) : the tale of Fuinche the Rough and her miraculous
dive under Lough Erne (p. 50) when she emerged, like Glaucus,
covered with shells and seaweed : 3 the story of Li-ban (or
Muirgein) the mermaid (p. 52) caught in a fisherman's net : the
legends about S. Brigit 4 (pp. 64, 66), especially the incident of
the column of fire flaming from her head : the legend of Sillan
of the deadly Hair (p. 206) : the prevention of decay by healing
(*>., magical) herbs (p. 246) : the exchange of diseases (p. 4) :

1 As to the worship of stones (generally conical) in Greece, Phoenicia,
etc., see Frazer, Pausanias, V. 318, 319. As to stone-worship by the pagan
Arabs, see Sale's Koran, p. 15. Rock-worship in Iceland, Landn. 2, 12.

2 The Norsemen also had tales of men born of fishes, see S. Bugge, The
Home of the Eddie Poems, p. 113, note i. The Irish story is slightly toned
down in Cod. Salmant. col. 305 : Conceptio autem illius ita facta est. Vidit
enim mater ejus piscem de auro rubicundo volantem ab ortu solis, et quod
intravit per os ejus in ventrem, et de illo Concepit.

3 See The Republic of Plato, Bk. x, c. 1 1 : a'XXa Se 7jy>os7re$v jccVat, oVrpea
re KOI <f)vKia KOI Trerpas, /c.r.X.

* The incidents in the Lives of S. Brigit, which tend to show that she
took the place of an ancient goddess of fire, are collected in the preface to
Three Middle-Irish Homilies, Calcutta, 1877.

THE NOTES. li

the exchange of names in token of brotherly union (p. 224), a
practice which Captain Cook found in Tahiti, and which was also
common among North-American Indians : the belief in shape-
shifting evidenced by the tale of Rfoc and Drusticc, p. 238n. 1

Such superstitions may well have existed in a society where
infants were exposed (p. 180), children sacrificed, 2 and women
driven to battle 3 (p. 210). The strange thing is that they have
been recorded in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries,
by scribes who presumably believed what they wrote down.
The raids of the Vikings, the Anglo-Norman invasion, arid the
constant inter-tribal wars account for some, but not for all of the
deterioration of the mediaeval Gaels. Christiani nomine^ re
pagani, as S. Bernard, without much exaggeration, says of the
contemporary Irish in his life of Malachi O'Morgair.

Six or seven other bits of folklore may now be briefly
mentioned. The weekdays on which the earth, sun, moon, and
man were respectively created (p. 2), derived of course from
Genesis, c. I : the introduction of wheat, rye and bees into
Ireland (p. 112): the church and tree which could not be
found, though from the plain the tree was seen and the bell
was heard (p. 130) : the wondrous yew of Mughna (p. 258) : the
bird bewailing one saint and singing to another for a hundred
and fifty years (pp. 56, 158) : the unboilable ducks of St. Colman's
church (p. 228): the effect of an undeserved curse (p. 154) : the
Devil's knees a rebours (p. 154;: the road-demon (p. 222): the
nurse of the Fians (p. 112): the practice of giving names to a child
from words that were uttered or events which occurred on or
about its birthday (Fechin, p. 48, Mo-ling, p. 150, Gillan, p. 220,
Molua mac ochae, p. 180, Cuimmin, p. 242). Examples in the
Mabinogion of names so given are Pryderi, Math vab Mathonwy,
Dylan Eilton, Llew law gyffes, Taliesin. And every scholar will
remember the origin ascribed to the name 'O&vcrev? ' man of
wrath,' in the Odyssey xix. 406-409.*

(c) Legal Antiquities.

The symbolical sod. Sods, like branches, are used as symbols
in the transfer of land, 5 and in p. 13, the archangel Michael casts
a sod from heaven to Maelruain as a sign that he might acquire

1 See further Coir Anmann, in Irische Texte III. 354, 372, 376.

2 Secern/ II. 86.

3 See as to Germanic women, even in the Viking era, S. Bugge. The
Home of the Eddie Poems, p. 189.

1 So Euripides took his name from his birth on the day that the battle of
Salamis was fought on the Euripus, Thes. Pal. hib. II. 83.
5 See J. Grimm, Deutsche Rechtsalterthiimer, 1854, s. 112.

lii PREFACE.

property at Tallaght Compare the seagod Triton's gift to the
Argonaut Euphemos of a clod of Lybian earth.

The four chief laws (cana) of Ireland : said (p. 210) to be:
not to kill clerics, not to kill women, not to steal kine, not to
work on Sunday. The sanctions are not mentioned.

The honour-price of a provincial king, p. 88. The Irish word
enedand, rendered by ' honour-price,' literally means ' face-plate,'
and is a compound of enech ' face,' ' honour,' and eland borrowed
from the Low-Latin planta * tabula plana, asser,' Ducange.
That a gold plate the size of the face was anciently given
as compensation for insult to a king has been proved by Zimmer
in Kuhn's Zeitschr. xxxvi. 426.

The punishment of expulsion from the tribe is inflicted (p. 466)
for murdering persons under a saint's protection. A man so
expelled was called ecland ' clanless,' from the negative prefix an-
and eland, borrowed (like Cymr. plant) from Lat. planta}

The punishment of death by a hill-fire. This, according to the
legend in p. 98, was inflicted upon a perjured harlot. Her
unchastity, rather than her perjury, was the crime. Thus in the
Battle of Cnucha, LU. 4i b , Murni's father, finding her pregnant,
told his people to burn her (asberlfria muntir a breoad], and in
the tale of Core mac Lugdach (LL. 287^7) it is said of the Gaels
of Alba : ' it was (their) custom at first that any damsel who
indulged in lust contrary to her compact should be burnt.' 2

Having thus described the manuscripts on which the present
edition of the Martyrology is founded : noticed its author :
considered the characteristics of the language as bearing on the
date of its composition : explained the metre in which it is
written : given some account of its contents ; and indicated the
passages in the Irish prefaces and scholia which throw light on
mediaeval religious practices, superstitions, folklore, and legal
antiquities, I have now to express my thanks to the Council of
the Henry Bradshaw Society for printing so costly and trouble
some a book, and thus helping the young School of Irish
Learning in its effort to promote the study of the ancient Irish
language and literature. Lastly, my heartiest thanks are due to
Professor Strachan and the Rev. Charles Plummer, for reading
proofs and making corrections and valuable suggestions.

W. S.

15, GRENVILLE PLACE, LONDON, S.W.
October 16, 1905.

1 As to the Arabian kholcta, see Robertson Smith, Kinship and Marriage,
1893, p. 49.

- Cf. Brunner, Deutsche Rechtsgeschichte, II. 660, 663.

FELIRE OENGUSSO CELI DE.

MARTYROLOGY OF OENGUS THE CULDEE.

OENGUS,

DA REMFOCUL.

I.

LEBAR BRECC.

P. 75 a .. Cethardai condagar da cech elathain .i. locc 7 aimser 7
persa 7 fath airicc.

T S fisid 1 cid armad locc conesta artus, 7 aimser isin luce thanaisi,
* 7 persa. isin tres luce, 7 fath airicc in fine.

T S aire is locc artus, ar is fri c
* .1. primluic, 7 cadus doibside.

cathardu 7 edatsi domiditer luicc

Fri rfgu 7 tuathu d\du domiditer aimsera. Locc tanaisse do
suidib.

Persa. immorro isin tress luce, ar is a heclazs no a tuaith
aircthid ca^a helathan.

Tucait post, ara frith fath remtechtais dona filedaib archena
meretrix. 2

No d\du sechim na fellsam fil and .i. locc artus, ar is corpdai
locc. Aimsear isfn locc tanaisse, ar is nemchorpdai. P^sa isin
tress luce,, ar fs 6 churp 7 nemchurp doairis. Fath airic di<
drit..

No is ord airic chrutai na ndul fil and .i. Locc artus, ar is dia
mairt dorignead talum. Aimser isin luce ihanatsz, ar is dia
cetain dorfgned grian 7 escai, 7 is friu-side domiditer aimsera.
P^fsa isin tress luce, ar is dia haine dorigned in duine. Tucait
immorro- fo dera,. ar is dia sathazVn ros-bendach Dia na duile 7
ro faillsig fath a n-airicc.

T S hi immorro aimser i ndernai Oengus 3 in Felire .i. aimser
** Aeda Ordnige mate Neill Frassaig, ar is e ro gab rige n-Erenn

1 leg..fissi.

2 This passage is corrupt and obscure. Possibly it is a mutilated allusion
to Boethius' Consolation, where Philosophia calls the Muses scenicas
meretriculas.

* In marg. Aengus immorro M yEngoband, M Oiblein, M Fidrui,
M Diarmuta, M Ainmirech, M Cellair, M Oengw^a, M Natsluaig, M Coelbuid,
M Cruindbad^ai,. M Ech^<r/4 Cobai.

( 3 )

TWO IRISH PREFACES.

I.

THE SPECKLED BOOK.

Four things are required by every work of art, to wit, a Place
and a Time, an Author and a Cause of invention.

It is worth knowing why Place should be required at the
beginning, and Time in the second place, and Author in the
third place, and Cause of invention in fine.

This is why Place is foremost, because it is by cities and
churches that places (i.e. chief places) are estimated ; and there
is reverence to them.

By kings and peoples, then, Times are estimated. The second
place is to these.

Author, however, in the third place, for of the Church or of
the laity is the inventor of every work of art.

Cause afterwards, for cause of precedence has been found by
the poets . . .

Or then it is the following of the philosophers that is there,
to wit, Place foremost, for Place is corporeal. Time in the
second place, for it is incorporeal. Author in the third place,
for he consists of body and non-body. Cause of invention, then,
sicut dixit.

Or it is the order of inventing the creation of the elements
that is there. Place foremost, for 'tis on a Tuesday that the
earth was made. Time in the second place, for 'tis on a
Wednesday that sun and moon were made, and by them times
are estimated. Author in the third place, for 'tis on a Friday
that man was made. Cause, however, at the end, for 'tis on a
Saturday that God blessed the elements and manifested the
cause of their invention.

Now this is the time at which Oengus 1 composed the
Martyrology, to wit, the time of Aed the Dignified, son of Niall

1 Oengus, now, son of Oengoba, son of Oiblen, son of Fidrue, son of
Diarmait, son of Ainmire, son of Cellar, son of Oengus, son of Natsluaig.
son of Crundbadrai, son of Eochaid Coba.

B 2

4 FELIRE OENGUSSO. REMFOCUL.

i ndiaid Dondchuda m^zc Domnaill, uair ticc Oeng&s isin broluch
thoisiuch in FelzVi le bas Dondchuda.

Do Fothud na Canoine immorro ro taispen Qcngus artus in
Felire dia ndechaid Aed [for] sluaiged Duin Chuair hi cocrich
Mide 7 Laigen, 7 dia ndechutar clerig Erenn lais im Chonnmach
comorba Patraicc. Ocus is for in sluagad sin ro saertha clerig
Erenn ar fecht 7 sluagad, ar is e Fothad na Canoine rue in
mbreith dia ro saertha eculsa Erenn, am^zY atbert :

Eclas 1 De bif, leic 2 dii anas 3 n-ai,

bid 4 a cert for leth, 5 feib as dech 6 ro bai, 7

Cech firmanach fil 8 for a chubus glon, 9
dond 10 eclat's dian dir 11 gnid 12 amat cech mog.

Cech dilmain iar sin fll cen rzcht, cen reir, 13
cet 14 cia theis 15 fri baig Aeda nair 16 mate N^ill. 17

Is hi ind riaguil 18 chert sech ni m6r 19 ni becc, 20
fognad each D6 mog 21 cen on is cen ecc. 22

Eclas De bii.

Ro saer tra Aed Ordnige eculsa Erenn j a clerchiu for
sluaiged osin immach. Ro thaispen di^ Fothud cetul na
canoine 7 cetul na cosaite do Oengz/j, 7 daronsat a n-6entaid 23
annsin, 7 ros-bennach each dib elathain aroile 7 forfacsat ratha
imda for intii nos-gebad cu menic in Felire. Hit e em inso
ratha in Felire, am*?/ ata isin broluch deghdinach don Felire
fessin.

TS fissid &\du cia aiste triasin ridernad in Felire. Ni anse:
^ Rindard. Caide em aichne rinnairde ? Ni anse : se sillaeba
in each cethrumthain 7 .xii. isin lethrand .xx.iiii. immorro isin
rand chomlan, et si sit plus minusue 24 error est (is pudar).
Recomarc immorro .i. desilltf^ach ina rennaib, is fuire side

daroine 6eng^^ in Felire, 7 for tri gneib didu .i. for reid rindaird
(.i. for rinnai[r]d dd n-ard) 7 for rinnaird tri n-ard 7 for rinnaird
.iiii. n-ard.

1 Eclas LB. Eglas R 2 .
inas R*. * bid LB.

2 leic Z#. leig T? 2 . 3 V ZZ., nas Z.5.
leath LB. deach Z^. 7 robui Z^.

8 fil LB. L.

fial ^. fail ZZ.

nglan LB. glan T? 2 .

10 don LB.

dind ZZ.

11 dir LB.

12 gnid LB.

13 reV LB.

'< ceat Z^.

15 theis LB.

dig ZZ.

16 mair LB.R 1 .

nair ZZ.

17 neill LB.

ne"il R*.

18 in riaguil ZZ.

in riagail Z^

. ind riaghuil

R 2 . 19 mor

LB. *

bee LB. LL.

21 a mod ZZ.

a mhog Z.5.

a mogh T? 2 . dia

mogh Z.

22 ec Z.

28 oentaig ^

r ^B. 24 /<

^/ mmus ue Z^.

MARTYROLOGY OF OENGUS. PREFACE I. 5

the Showery, for 'tis he that got the kingship of Ireland
after Donnchad, son of Domnall, since Oengus enters on the
first prologue of the Martyrology at Donnchad's death.

Now unto Fothuth of the Canon Oengus first showed the
Martyrology, when Aed had gone on the hosting of Dun Cuair
in the border of Meath and Leinster, and when the clerics of
Ireland had gone with him, including Conmach, St. Patrick's
successor. And 'tis on that hosting that the clerics of Ireland
were freed from expedition and hosting, for 'tis Fothuth of the
Canon that delivered the judgment by which Ireland's churches
were freed, as he said :

" The Church of living God, leave to her what is hers, let her
right be apart as best it (ever) has been.

" Every true monk that is, be it on his pure conscience, for the
Church to which it is due, let him work like any slave.

" Every freeman then, who is without (monastic) rule, without
obedience, is allowed to go to the battle of noble Aed son of Niall.

" This is the right regulation, neither great nor small, let
every slave of God 1 serve without fault and without sin." 2

So Aed the Dignified freed the Churches of Ireland and her
clergy from hosting thenceforward. Fothuth then showed to
Oengus the Song of the Canon and the Song of the Complaint ;
and they made their union there, and each of them blest the
other's work of art, and they left many graces on him who
should recite the Martyrology often. These truly are the graces
of the Martyrology, as is (set forth) in the final prologue (the
epilogue) of the Martyrology itself. 1 "'

It is worth knowing, then, in what metre the Martyrology has
been composed. Easy (to say). Rindard. What is the
characteristic of rinnard ? Easy (to say). Six syllables in
every fourth part and twelve in the half-quatrain, twenty-
four in the complete quatrain, and if there be more or less it
is an error. Recomarc, now, that is, disyllabic in its line-
endings. 'Tis in this (metre) that Oengus composed the Martyr
ology, and in three kinds, namely, in smooth Rinnard (i.e. in
Rinnard with two end-rhymes), and in Rinnard with three end-
rhymes, and in Rinnard with four end-rhyrnes.

1 De mog = mug De = Cymr. meudwy. " Other copies of this poem

are in LL. 149% L. and R-.\ 3 See infra, epilogue 11. 113-120, 149-224.

6 FELIRE OENGUSSO. REMFOCUL.

Rinnard da n-ard cetamus inso, ut Beccan mac Cula dz'xz/, no
is e Erurach Indse Moire :

Diarmait maith mac Cerbaill, * can aige 1 cen laice, 2
ni ro chluine meirlech * a eirlech, a traite.

Ocus amtf/Y atbert Oeng?/j beos :

For \ta\aind mis Marta * nid mordai fna nguide,
Senan, Moinend, Myse, Dabid Chille muine.

Rinnard immorro tri n-ard inso :

Fland tendalach Temrach, tendrig Fotla feraind,
otha anall do menaimm 3 isi a chland do-gegaind. 4

Ocus amait atbeft Oengus beos :

Re sil dalach doine toided in ri remain,
luid fo recht, ard rail, Crist i \ta\aind enair.

Rindard .iiii. n-ard inso, ut Fothz///z na Canoine dz'xz/ :

Aed ordnige Obaig 5 for 6 flaith Banba bledig,
coich is ferr im falaig 7 * ina Ectoir Ailig. 8

Ocus zmail atbert Oengus :

Lassar greine aine, * apstol 9 }Lrenn uaige,
Patraic cu meit mile, * rop di'tiu diar truaige.

Loccus hums artis 10 Cuil Bendchuir a Muig Reicheat, hi Crich
Hua Failge arai thin^scetail, hi Cluain Eidnech immorro a
ermor, hi Tamlachtu Libren a forbu uile, ut alii.

P^rsa d6 6engj m^c Oengoband mate Oeiblen, do muintir
Clz^z/za fiidnech.

I N-amsir Chobthaig Choeilbreag.

T S he in fochund : fecht dolluid Oengj do Chuil Bennch?/^> a
* Muig Rechet, 11 con^j-facca lige and, 7 ba Ian do ainglib \\.er
neam 7 lar uasin lige. co ro iarfaig-sium de sacurt na cille, cia
ro adnocht isin lige ucut ? Senoir 12 truag ro bui isin baile, ol in
sacurt. Cia maith dognid, ol Oeng^. Nis-faicinnse a maith
sunnraid, 13 ol in sacurt.

1 can aide LB. - laige LB. 3 domuinim LB.

4 .i. doga (leg. dogaind ?) 5 obaid (.i. o Liss Obaig agaid inagaid

fri hOilech) LB. G or LB. 1 leg. folaid. 8 oilig LB.

9 aspo/ LB. 10 Loc em c\tus dond ^lathain si, R 2 .

11 Isi immorro a tuc^zV. Fecht dorala Oengus ona disert im-Mumain do
Chuil Bennchuir i cnch Hua Failgi do gabail Maelruain o Tamlachtain do
anmcharait, R 2 . 12 Araile athlaech R 2 . 13 Ni faicinnse nach

maith do denam do, R 2 .

MARTYROLOGY OF OENGUS. PREFACE L ^

Rinnard with two end-rhymes, in the first place, is this, as
Beccan son of Cula said or it is Erurach (?) of Inis M6r :

" Good Diarmait son of Cairell : sing a chief without slack
ness ; no robber would turn aside 1 his slaughter, his quickness."

And Oengus also said :

" On the calends of March, not haughty are they at prayer to
them Senan, Moinenn, Moses, David of Cell Muine."

Now Rinnard of three end-rhymes is this :

" Fland the fiery of Tara, stern king of the land of Fotla,
henceforward I opine his is the clan I would choose."

And as Oengus also said :

" Before men's multitudinous race let the preeminent King
lead : Christ on the calends of January underwent the Law
high requirement ! "

Rinnard of four end-rhymes is this, as Fothuth of the Canon
said :

" Aed the Dignified of Obach, on the monsterful realm of
Banba, who is better about quarrel (?) than the Hector of Ailech ? "

And as Oengus said :

" Flame of a splendid sun, apostle of virginal Erin, may Patrick,
with many thousands, be a shelter to our wretchedness ! "

The Place of this work of art is Cuil Bennchuir in Mag
Rechet, in the territory of Hui Failgi, as regards its commence
ment : in Cluain Eidnech, however, the greater part of it : in
Tamlachtu Libren the completion of it all, as some say.

Its Auth