ed. & transl.: Charles Plummer
Lives of Irish Saints vol. 1-2
Oxford Univ. Press 1997
750 s. (vol. 1 & 2), tw., 20 cm
stan dobry
PREFACE
The present volumes of Irish Lives of Irish Saints are intended as a supplement to the two volumes of Latin Lives published by the Clarendon Press in 1910; and throughout the present work the results arrived at in the earlier work are taken for granted, and I have been content as a rule to
refer to them, merely making such additions and corrections as have been suggested by more than ten years of additional study. The most important of these relate to the Lives of St. Brendan and St. Coemgen. Hence the Introduction to the present work is concerned mainly with the manuscript
sources of the texts, with the relations of these texts to the corresponding Latin Lives, and (where there is more than one Life of the same saint) with the relations of the texts to one another. With the exception of the Life of St. Bairre of Cork and the second Brendan document, none of these Lives
have, to my knowledge, been previously printed. For the sake of students who are interested in Irish Hagiology and ecclesiastical antiquities, but are not acquainted with Irish, I have translated all the documents here printed; and I have tried to make the translation as readable as is consistent with fidelity. In the case of the numerous poems inserted in the Lives (one Life is entirely metrical) I have, where possible, translated line by line. It is in the translation of these poems that the difficulty of producing a readable result is greatest. The artificial character of much of Irish poetry, and the numerous ' chevilles' in which it abounds, cause any translation which adheres at all closely to the original to sound intolerably bald and prosaic. For the solution of many cruxes, especially in the poetry, I am indebted to Dr. Osborn Bergin, Professor of Irish. Language and Literature in the National University of Ireland, who spent more time and trouble over the proof-sheets than I like to remember. Wherever possible this help is specifically acknowledged in Translation, Notes, or Glossary. But it has not been possible to do this in all cases, and my readers will accept my assurance that the book owes more to Dr. Bergin than appears on the surface. To Mr. R. I. Best, Assistant Librarian of the National Library of Ireland, I am also indebted for much kind help and several valuable suggestions.
The issue of the book has been delayed, like many more important matters, by the outbreak of the great war, and the difficulties resulting from it. I can only record my gratitude to the Delegates of the Clarendon Press, firstly for their liberality in undertaking the work, and secondly for persevering with it in the face of many obstacles. Their printers have shown their accustomed patience and skill in executing a rather complicated task.
Complete Indexes are given of all names of persons and places, and a Subject Index to the Introduction and Notes. The Glossary only professes to give the less common words occurring in the texts; and, using a practical test of rareness, I have included all words which are not to be found in Windisch's Irische Texle mit Worterbuch, the Glossary to Atkinson's Passions and Homilies from the Leabhar Breac, or Meyer's Contributiotis to Irish Lexicography. My transcripts and collations of the MSS. of the Bibliotheque Royale at Brussels, which furnish such a large proportion of my
texts, were fortunately completed before the outbreak of the war. To the authorities of that Library, of the British Museum, of the Bodleian, of Trinity College, Dublin, and the Royal Irish Academy, I have once more to acknowledge my indebtedness for unfailing courtesy and help.
CHARLES PLUMMER.
Corpus Christi College, Oxford, IIth September, 1922.
CONTENTS OF VOL. I
EDITOR'S PREFACE........v
INTRODUCTION.........xi
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AND WORKS CITED ............. xli
BETHA ABAIN.......... 3
BETHA BAIRRE O CHORCAIG...... 11
BETHA BERAIG......... 23
BETHA BRENAINN CLUANA FERTA ................. 44
DA APSTOL DECC NA HERENN...... 96
BETHA CIARAIN SAIGRE I....... 103
BETHA CIARAIN SAIGRE II...... 113
BETHA COEMGIN I......... 125
BETHA COEMGIN II........ 131
BETHA COEMGIN III........ 155
BETHA COLMAIN ELA........ 168
BETHA MAEDOC FERNA I....... 183
BETHA MAEDOC FERNA II....... 191
BETHA MOCHUDA......... 291
INDARBA MOCHUDA A RRAITHIN..... 300
DO MACUIB UA SUANAIG....... 312
BETHA RUADAIN......... 317
GLOSSARY........... 330
CONTENTS OF VOL. II
TRANSLATIONS:
LIFE OF ABBAN.........3
LIFE OF BAIRRE OF CORK......11
LIFE OF BERACH.........22
LIFE OF BRENDAN OF CLONFERT ...................... 44
THE TWELVE APOSTLES OF IRELAND (Brendan II) 93 LIFE OF CIARAN OF SAIGIR I .................... 99
LIFE OF CIARAN OF SAIGIR II..... ..................109
LIFE OF COEMGEN I........121
LIFE OF COEMGEN II........127
LIFE OF COEMGEN III........151
LIFE OF COLMAN ELA.......162
LIFE OF MAEDOC OF FERNS I.....177
LIFE OF MAEDOC OF FERNS II.....184
LIFE OF MOCHUDA (Carthach)...... 282
THE EXPULSION OF MOCHUDA FROM RAHEN
(Mochuda ii).......... 291
OF THE SONS OF UA SUANAIG..... 303
LIFE OF RUADAN......... 308
GENERAL NOTES........323
INDEX OF PLACES, TRIBES, AND FAMILIES .............. 365
PERSONS........382
SUBJECTS........398
ADDENDA ET CORRIGENDA ............... 403
