Egerton MS 1782

This volume contains a collection of religious, historical and mythological Irish texts in verse and prose, including the only extant copy of Aislinge Óenguso. The manuscript is the work of several scribes of the Ó Maolconaire, a learned family of lawyers and historians, known as also for compiling Royal Irish Academy MS 23 N 10.

For a detailed catalogue description, see O'Grady and Flower, Catalogue of Irish Manuscripts (1926), II, pp. 259-98.

Contents:

ff. 1r-2v, 5r-14v: Amra Choluim Chille with commentary, incomplete, with a hiatus due to the loss of a leaf after f. 2.

ff. 3r-4v: Obituary for Art Buidhe mac Domhnaill Riabhaigh on small parchment leaves, written in the same hand as the main scribe of the Amra, dated to 1517.

f. 15r-v: Entries from the glossary Dúil Dromma Ceta. The recto is badly stained and almost entirely illegible. The verso is clearer and contains some of I, L and M.

f. 16v: 'Mairg do ní name do charaid', a 16th-century poem on Redemption and duty to God.

ff. 17r-19r: Baile Bricín.

f. 19r: Forfess Fer Fálgae ('The Siege of the Men of Fálgae').

f. 19v: Verba Scáthaige.

ff. 19v-20r: Echtrae Connlai ('The Adventure of Connlae').

ff. 20v-24r: The Chase of Síd na mBan Finn and the death of Finn or The Slaying of the Pig of Formaoíl and the Death of Finn, incomplete.

f. 24v-25r: The first column only contains a few short lines of writing. The second column contains Tesmolta Cormaic [ocus] aided Finn, with a heading written by the Irish historian Charles O'Connor (b. 1710, d. 1791).

ff. 25r-v: Áirem muintire Finn ('The ennumeration of Finn's household').

ff. 26r-30r: Eachtra an Mhadra Mhaeoil ('The adventure of the bald dog'), an Arthurian romance.

ff. 30v-34v: Imthechta Tuaithe Luachra ocus Aided Fergusa.

f. 34v: Obits of various members of the O'Byrne family in the 16th and 17th centuries added in a later hand, much obliterated.

ff. 35r-36v: Extract from Leabhar na gCeart on the prohibitions and privileges of the Kings of Ireland. Various sections of the poem follow the preceding sections of the prose.

f. 36v: Added pencil trials.

ff. 37r-40v: Aided Díarmata meic Cerbaill ('The violent death of Diarmaid mac Cerbaill'), in the 1st Recension.

ff. 40v-44r: Extracts from various sources on Irish and biblical historical and mythological material; f. 43 is a damaged fragment, with most of the leaf lost. It contains a prognostication from the day of the week on which 1 January falls, derived from the prognostics printed among the doubtful works of Bede (Migne, Patrologia Latina, 90, col. 951); f. 43v contains a quatrain on the descendants of Eoghan mór with a note harmonising the quatrain with the genealogies.

f. 44v: Prose version of Section 1 of Saltair na Rann.

ff. 44v-45r: Scéla Cormaic ⁊ Ciarnaite.

f. 45r: The three things that ruin kindoms (liberating thralls, refusing tithe to the Church and setting thralls to free-men's work).

f. 45r: A note on the six necessary functionaries of a monastery and their qualities (printed by Meyer in ZCP 4, p. 234).

f. 45r: A set of moral sayings taken from Apgitir Crábaid (printed by Meyer in ZCP 4, p. 234).

f. 45r: A brief tract on the canonical hours.

f. 45r: A a note on improper use of the Eucharist.

f. 45r: A a note on Adam's creation and sin.

f. 45v: A note on the constituent parts of Adam's body.

ff. 45v-46r: Various texts relating to the disposition of the Tech Midchuarta or banqueting Hall at Tara.

f. 46r: Poem on Mt. Ararat and other subjects, almost entirely obliterated.

f. 46v: Excerpt from the metrical rule of St Mochuda.

ff. 47r-49v: The Colloquy Between Fintan and the Hawk of Achill.

ff. 49v-50v: Dúan in chóicat cest ('The poem of fifty questions'), a poem containing a series of questions on Old Testament history with answers given in interlinear glosses.

f. 50v: 'Hit imdai na haingilisi', a poem on the number of angels and names of archangels, adapted from Saltair na Rann, ll. 733-808.

ff. 50v-52r 'A Fhir thall tríallus in scél', a poem containing a series of questions on Irish history and from Fenius Farsaid to Diarmait mac Cerbaill (d. 565), with interlaced answers, the last of which gives the cause of the battle of Cúil Dremne.

f. 52r: A note on the three trees of Athlone; Brón, Dubai and Daurdibeoil (see Sanas Cormaic, Y.1159).

f. 52r: A quatrain, beginning, 'A Fhlaind line nadamluaid' taken from the poem 'Uar in lathe do Lumlaine'.

f. 52r: A quatrain on the seven sons of Mágach slain by Conall Cernach.

ff. 52r-53v: Fianna bátar i nEmain, with an explanatory gloss. The most complete copy both for the poem and accompanying glosses.

ff. 53v-54r: Dúan in cethrachat cest ('The poem of forty questions), a poem containing a series of questions on the early history of Ireland with answers given in prose as interlinear glosses.

ff. 54r-56r: 'Adham athuir sruith ar slúagh', a poem on mythical and Biblical history. It begins with an account of the Biblical history up to the Flood, then relates the gabála of Cessair, Parrtholán, Nemed, Firbolg, and Tuatha Dé Danann, then an account of the Ark and its passengers and concludes with a list of the Six Ages of the World.

f. 56r: Two quatrains on national characters, comparing provinces of Ireland to various foreign peoples, beginning, 'Fritha gach da chosmuilius' (a different version from Harley MS 5280).

f. 56r: Four quatrains on national characteristics, beginning, 'Cumtach na n-Iudaide n-ard'.

f. 56v: A poem on the qualities of the various parts of Ireland, beginning, 'Roddet a haircc moir mide'; incorrectly attributed here to Flann Fino mac Ossa (Aldfrid of Northumbria).

f. 56v: A poem on emotions, beginning, 'Intlecht i ndreich sech cach raind'.

ff. 57r-66r: Mionannála.

f. 66r: A poem on the duties of a file, beginning, 'Ni dhlig cuairt no cennaigheacht'.

ff. 66v: A poem on the Nativity written in a 16th- or 17th-century hand on a previously blank page. Some words are too faded to be legible.

ff. 67r-69v: Longes mac nUislenn (The Exile of the sons of Uisliu).

ff. 69v-70r: Tochmarc Fe(i)rbe (The Wooing of Ferb), a short prose account.

ff. 70r-71v: Aislinge Óenguso ('The Dream of Óengus').

ff. 21v-73v: Echtra Nerai ('The Adventure of Nera').

ff. 73v-76v: De chophur in dá muccida ('On the Quarrel of the two Swineherds').

ff. 76v-77v: Táin Bó Regamna.

ff. 77v-78v: Compert Conchobuir, the second version of the birth tale of Conchobor.

ff. 78v-80r: Compert Con Culainn. Both versions of the birth tale of Cú Chulainn, headed here 'Coimpert Conculaind inso' (f. 78v) and 'Coimpert Conculaind innisi sios secundum alios .i. feis tigi for aithed' (f. 79r).

ff. 80r-81r: Táin bó Dartada.

ff. 81r-82r: Táin bó Regamain.

ff. 82r-82v: Táin bó Flidais.

ff. 82v-87v: Táin bó Fraích. To be read 83r, 84r, 83v, 84v.

f. 87v: Do fhaillsigud Tána bó Cúailnge, Recension 3 of 'On the Recovery of the Táin Bó Cúailnge').

ff. 88r-105v: Táin bó Cuailnge, aninterpolation of Recension 1.

ff. 106r-123v: Togail Bruidne Da Dergae ('The destruction of Da Derga's hostel'), a composite recension, imperfect.

ff. 124r-125v: Two fragments from Immram curaig Mail Dúin ('The voyage of Maeldúin's curach').

f. 125v: A fragment of the section on the wonder of Ireland from Lebor Breatnach, a Middle Irish adaptation of the Historia Brittonum.

Decoration:

1 large interlace initial in brown with animal heads (f. 88r).

Initials in brown, some with highlighting or penwork decoration in red and/or green, or with penwork decoration. Small initials in red and/or green with penwork decoration (ff. 17r-35v).

Line-fillers and drawings of cooking spits and a square device with rings at the corners and lines extending from each corner and the centre of each side towards of a circle in the middle (possibly another cooking instrument?) (f. 46r).