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Cóir Anmann is a late medieval Irish tract made up of numerous 'entries', each of which purports to explain the meaning of a particular epithet associated with a character in early history or mythology. Two separate recensions of this tract have long been known to exist, but in the course of the present study a third recension was identified. One of the main purposes of this thesis is to provide diplomatic editions of these three recensions based on all extant manuscript copies. On the way to producing these editions the manuscript tradition of the tract is reviewed, and a stemma is drawn up for each of the recensions preserved in more than one MS text. English translations have also been made available. In the introductory discussion linguistic and stylistic evidence is used to establish a chronology in which the recensions can be placed relative to one another. To this end verbal systems for the recensions have been prepared. Since the entries in <I>Cóir Anmann </I>are founded on borrowings from pre-existing sources, extracts from independent tracts corresponding to material contained in it have been identified, and suggestions on how these were handled and adapted for use in <I>Cóir Anmann</I> have been advanced. Together with the conclusions reached as to the chronology of the recensions, this study enables the way in which the tract was compiled from disparate sources and 'grew' through the extant recensions to be discerned. The dates of works quoted in <I>Cóir Anmann,</I> internal references and certain aspects of the language are then reviewed to determine the approximate compilation period for each recension. In a final consideration of the development of the tract, this thesis examines histories and genealogies written in the Early Modern period and after for which <I>Cóir Anmann </I>itself served as a source of material.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Catholic University of America, 1938. / Vita. "Corrections" leaf inserted facing p. 27. Author's name is incorrectly spelled Gaulterus, due to faulty copying of the title of Diepgen's edition of his "Summa medicinalis." Photoprinted. Irish and English on opposite pages. On half-title: Translated into Irish by Cormac MacDuinnthshlebi. "Abbreviations": p. 17-19; Bibliography: p. 181-183.

The thesis compares the depictions of paganism found in the Middle Irish Togail Troí ('The Destruction of Troy'; first half of the twelfth century) and the Old Norse Trójumanna saga ('The Story of the Trojans'; first half of the thirteenth century), which are both based on Dares Phrygius's Late Antique De excidio Troiae historia. The two vernacular adaptations are presented in the wider context of the medieval popularity of Dares's text. The in-depth analysis of the pagan references (most of which relate to mythology and ritual), reveals Togail Troí's and Trójumanna saga's general source-based approach and their shared reliance on Latin mythographic scholarship, but also a different approach concerning the literary presentation of paganism. The Irish text's 'Christian' approach to the issue (as seen through authorial comments and historical contextualisation) is shown to be in contrast to the Norse text's 'classicising' approach (i.e. paganism presented as in the classical sources themselves). The findings of this analysis are then compared with the literary attitudes towards paganism encountered in medieval Irish and Norse texts more widely (especially in those set in Ireland or Nordic countries). This comparison reveals a general sympathy for many pagan characters that finds some parallels in the Trojan texts as well, but also a different representation of pagan deities in the two traditions. Indeed, the Irish tendency to avoid depicting the gods as such and the opposite Norse tendency, to portray them in an explicit way (often from a pagan point of view), mirror the evidence furnished by Togail Troí and Trójumanna saga. The literary attitudes to paganism and particularly towards mythology, which are encountered in the two texts, are further explored from the point of view of authorship. It is shown that the Irish author is writing in a historiographical mould, while the Norse author is writing in what could be described as a mythographical mould. Two complementary lines of interpretation are sketched for this phenomenon. The first one emphasises the existence of two different cultures of dealing with paganism in Irish and Norse literature respectively. The second line of interpretation draws to the fore two different approaches to the author-text relationship, examined through the framework of medieval literary theory. The final chapters highlight the importance of the research both for our understanding of the unique and complex literary cultures of medieval Ireland and Iceland and for the light that can be shed on the multifaceted relationship between authors and texts in medieval literature through the prism of paganism.

This dissertation contains a critical edition of the early Irish tale Aided Derbforgaill “the violent death of Derbforgaill”. It includes an introduction discussing the main thematic components of the tale as well as intertextuality, transmission and manuscript relationship. The edition is accompanied by transcripts from the three manuscript copies of the tale and textual notes. Aided Derbforgaill is an Ulster Cycle tale and belongs to a category of tales describing the death of prominent heroes, rarely heroines, in early Irish literature. Arriving in the shape of a bird to mate with the greatest of all heroes, Cú Chulainn, Derbforgaill is refused by Cú Chulainn on account of him having sucked her blood. Forced to enter a urination competition between women, and upon winning this, Derbforgaill is mutilated by the other competitors. The tale ends with two poems lamenting the death of Derbforgaill. This very short tale is complex, not only in its subject matter, but in the elliptical language of the poetry. Thematically the tale is a combination of very common motifs found elsewhere in early Irish literature, such as the Otherworld, metamorphosis and the love of someone unseen, and some rare motifs that are almost unique to this tale, such as blood sucking and the urination competition. The text also have clear sexual overtones.