The Children of Adam and Eve in Medieval Irish Literature

Abstract

Numerous traditions concerning the children of Adam and Eve survive in medieval Irish texts, most notably the Irish Sex Aetates Mundi, Lebor Gabála Érenn, the prose and metrical Banshenchas and the poems Cethror cóic [ḟ]ichit iar fír and Dúan in choícat cest. These extra-biblical texts present expanded numbers of children, names of non-biblical children and certain narrative details that are fragmentary and contradictory. No direct connection can be made when comparing these texts to Jewish and Christian apocryphal writings (especially to the secondary Adam literature, e.g. the Cave of treasures), texts which also seek to flesh out the Genesis account. It appears that these Irish medieval literature traditions are the product of Irish scribes, who may have transferred certain features originally attributed to the children of Noah to the children of Adam and Eve, to whom they may be linked typologically.