The Adventure of Laeghaire Mac Crimhthainn

Abstract

THE 'Adventure of Laeghaire son of Crimhthann to Magh Mell,' as it has been called, belongs to the general class of stories about a journey to the Otherworld or the Earthly Paradise (Magh Mell), which are so characteristic of early Irish literature.' This tale seems to have attracted less attention than the others, perhaps because the prose parts have only twice been edited and exactly translated, and the poems only once; in both instances in rather out-of-the-way places.2 O'Grady's edition Silva Gadelica was taken from the Book of Lismore,3 fols 125a 1-125b 1. He seems not to have been aware that there is a much older and better copy in the Book of Leinster, pp. 275b 22-276b 24, which contains in addition to the prose three poems, none of which appear in the Book of Linsmore. T. P. Cross printed the whole Book of Leinster text as it stands, and appended the Book of Lismore version copied by himself from the original Ms. There follows below a critical and annotated edition and translation of the Book of Leinster tale (from the Facsimile), with all the variants of any significance from the Book of Lismore. I have not had access to this Ms. itself, as it is of course in private possession; but luckily Cross's transcript compensates for that, and the readings from the Book of Lismore given below are taken thence (called C in the apparatus criticus; L or LL is the Book of Leinster). Up to the present, no detailed attempt has been made to date this tale (but see note, p. 378). Apart from modernizations, the language of the prose parts is still good Old Irish, probably of the second half of the ninth century. Its state is much the same as that of the Tripartite Life of St. Patrick4 (ca 900), or somewhat earlier. The neuter article is still fully preserved (a hduinad, acc.sg., 11. 67, 68; a ndurn, acc.sg., 1. 76; isa sid, acc.sg., 1. 128); dun is still a neuter o-stem (duiin, g.sg., 1. 13; du'n d.sg., 11. 74, 129; but duine, g.sg., 1. 76); the superlative -em still exists, 1. 7; all of which taken together point to a terminus ante quem hardly much later than about 900. On the other hand, two instances of the perfect for the nar-