Baile Chuinn Chétchathaig

Baile Chuind Chétchathaig ([ˈbalʲe xunʲ xʲeːdxaθəɣʲ], "The Vision of Conn of the Hundred Battles") is an Old Irish list of Kings of Tara or High Kings of Ireland which survives in two 16th-century manuscripts, 23 N 10 and Egerton 88. It is the earliest such king-list known, probably dating from around 700 AD. The later Baile In Scáil is closely related.

Date

Baile Chuind Chétchathaig was first edited by Rudolf Thurneysen who dated it to about 700 AD and believed it to have been included in the lost Cín Dromma Snechtai manuscript. Thurneysen later revised this opinion on the basis of the content of the poem, supposing that the poem's "Glúnshalach" represented 10th-century king Niall Glúndub. Later editors and writers have generally preferred Thurneysen's first estimate, taking the work to have been begun in the lifetime of Fínsnechta Fledach (died 695).[1]

In recent studies Edel Bhreathnach has suggested that the current form of the poem may be somewhat later: while the kings who follow Fínsnechta were previously interpreted as imagined future kings, he suggests that these are in fact historical figures from the first quarter of the eighth century disguised by kennings. If this is correct, the poem as a whole dates from around 720 or was revised at about that time.[2]

Content and context

Notes
  1. Murray, "Manuscript Tradition", p. 69; Bhreathnach & Murray, "Edition", p. 73; Bhreathnach, "Political Context", pp. 49 & 61–62; Byrne, Irish Kings, p. 54; Charles-Edwards, Early Christian Ireland, p. 483.
  2. Bhreathnach, "Political Context", p. 50; Murray, "Manuscript Tradition", p. 70; Mac Shamhráin & Byrne, "Prosopography", pp. 159 & 204–212.

References
  • Bhreathnach, Edel (2005), "Níell cáich úa Néill nasctar géill: The Political Context of Baile Chuinn Chétchathaig", in Bhreathnach, Edel (ed.), The Kingship and Landscape of Tara, Dublin: Four Courts Press, pp. 49–68, ISBN 1-85182-954-7
  • Bhreathnach, Edel; Murray, Kevin (2005), "Baile Chuinn Chétchathaig: Edition", in Bhreathnach, Edel (ed.), The Kingship and Landscape of Tara, Dublin: Four Courts Press, pp. 73–94, ISBN 1-85182-954-7
  • Byrne, Francis John (1973), Irish Kings and High-Kings, London: Batsford, ISBN 0-7134-5882-8
  • Charles-Edwards, T. M. (2000), Early Christian Ireland, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-36395-0
  • Mac Shamhráin, Ailbhe; Byrne, Paul (2005), "Kings named in Baile Chuinn Chétchathaig and the Airgíalla Charter Poem", in Bhreathnach, Edel (ed.), The Kingship and Landscape of Tara, Dublin: Four Courts Press, pp. 159–224, ISBN 1-85182-954-7
  • Gerard Murphy, "On the Dates of Two Sources Used in Thurneysen's Heldensage: I. Baile Chuind and the date of Cín Dromma Snechtai", in Ériu 16 (1952): 145-51. includes edition and translation.
  • Murray, Kevin (2005), "The Manuscript Tradition of Baile Chuinn Chétchathaig and its Relationship with Baile in Scáil", in Bhreathnach, Edel (ed.), The Kingship and Landscape of Tara, Dublin: Four Courts Press, pp. 69–72, ISBN 1-85182-954-7
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