LEBOR BRETNACH COIMISIÚN LÁIMHSCRÍBHINNÍ NA hÈIREANN IRISH MANUSCRIPTS COMMISSION LEBOR BRETNACH THE IRISH VERSION OF THE HISTORIA BRITONUM ASCRIBED TO NENNIUS EDITED FROM ALL. THE MANUSCRIPTS BY A. G. VAN HAMEL Professor of Celtic at the University of Utrecht BAILE ATHA CLIATH : DUBLIN: FOILLSITHE AG OIFIG AN TSOLATHAIR. PUBLISHED BY THE STATIONERY OFFICE. Le ceannach díreach o OIFIG DÍOLTA FOILLSEACHÁIN RIALTAIS, 5, SRÁID THOBAIR PHÁDRAIG, BAILE ATHA CLIATH, C.2, no tré aon díoltóir leabhar. To be purchased directly from the GOVERNMENT PUBLICATIONS SALE OFFICE, 5 NASSAU ST., DUBLIN, C.2. or through any Bookseller. Luach Seachi Stilling agus Raol. Price Seven Shillings and Sixpence. INTRODUCTION § i. The manuscripts. The text of Lebor Bretnach, the Irish version of the Historia Brittonum, often ascribed to Nennius, has come down to us in five MSS., containing six different texts ; in the Book of Lecan two recen­ sions of the Lebor Bretnach are found. Among the MS. texts three groups may be distinguished. The present edition is based on the complete material afforded by the MSS. For each section a MS. has been selected that is regarded as representative of the group or groups in. which the section occurs, while variants from all other MSS. are given in the notes. Thus the complete MS. tradition of Lebor Bretnach will be available in the present edition. We shall divide the complete Lebor Bretnach into twenty-two sections ; it must be borne in mind, however, that these are found combined in none of our MSS. : Section I Apologia (§ i). II Geographia (§§ 2-3). „ III Origin of the Picts, first version (§ 4). ,, IV Pedigree of nations (§ 5). „ V Origin of the Picts, second version (§§ 6-7). ,, VI Origin of the Romans ; Troian origin of the Britons - (§§8-io). ,, VII Early kings of the Romans (§ n). ,, VIII Invasions of Ireland (§§ 12-13). ,, IX Origin of the Gaedels (§ 14). X Roman Britain (§§ 15-23). ,, XI Muircertach mac Erca and St. Cairnech (§§ 24-25). XII Origin of the Saxons (§ 26). „ XIII Saxon invasion : wonders of St. German (§§ 27-28). ,, XIV Saxon invasion : Vortigern and Hengest (§§ 29-32). ,, XV Saxon invasion : Dun Ambrois (§§ 33-38). ,, XVI Saxon invasion : Gorthemir's wars, etc. (§§ 39-41). „ XVII St. Patrick (§ 42). ,, XVIII Saxon invasion : Arthur's battles (§ 43). „ XIX Wonders of Britain (§§ 44-45). XX Wonders of Man (§ 46). XXI Pictish Chronicle (§§.47-53). ,, XXII From Bede's Historia Ecclesiastica (§§ 54-58). The distribution of these sections over the different recensions will be seen from the following survey of the MSS. :— i. Our most important MS. is the Book of Lecan (Lee.). This MS. was compiled at the beginning of the I5th century, for the most part by Gilla-ísu Mor mac Firbisigh. It belonged originally to Trinity vi INTRODUCTION College, but is now preserved in the Royal Irish Academy. 1 The text of Lebor Bretnach begins at the top of leaf 148 (148' a i : Leabhor Bretnach annso sis) and runs on to 149" a 10. This is the first, version of Lee. (L1). Immediately after this another version begins (149'' a n : Do senchus Breatan andso bodeasta) ; this is our L2. It breaks off at the foot of 150' b, owing to the loss of ten leaves. Of these, nine were discovered by O'Curry in the miscellaneous MS. H. 2.17, Pt. 2 (T.C.D.), the first leaf being lost. Thus the text of L2 is continued from page 172 in that MS., after a lacuna of one leaf, up to page 174 b 23. On the next line begins what has been regarded as a third recension (Ego Nemnius Elodugi discipulus : L3) ; it stops in the middle of p. 175 a. Although it will appear in the course of this investigation that L2 and L3 constitute practically one version, we shall for convenience sake continue to distinguish three Book of Lecan versions, indicated as L1 , L2, I,3. L1 (Lee. i_4ST a i-i49r a 10) has the title Leabhor Bretnach annso sis and contains the following sections: II (§§ 2-3), III (§4), IV (§5), VI (§§ 8-10),VII (§ n), IX (§ 14), X (§§ 15-23), XII (§ 26). It concludes with the reference to St. German's missionary activity in Britain at the end of § 26 : Is i n-aimsir Goirthigern tanic German naem do procept i n-Inis Bretan -\ dorigni Dia feria -¡ mirbaileada arin clereach innsin sa Bretain -\ roich sochaidi -\ dosfuc fo baithis baisdi do gres. L2 (Lee. 149* a 11—foot of 150' b, and H. 2. 17, Pt. 2, pp. 172 a i— 174 b 23) has the heading Do senchus Breatan andso bodeasta, followed immediately by the concluding phrase of section IV (§ 5) : Cid tra acht is amlaid seo adfiadar senchas Breatan, and the sections VI (§§ 8-10), VII (§ il), VIII (§§ 12-13), IX (§ 14), X (§ i5-middle of § 22). Section X is incomplete in this version, owing to the loss of a leaf ; the part preserved in Lee. breaks off in the middle of § 22 : Tucsad leo iartain taisechu . The portion in H. 2. 17, Pt. 2, begins at § 30, and contains the last part of section XIV (§§ 30-32), and sections XV (§§ 33-38), XVI (§§ 39-41), XVII (§ 42), XVIII (§ 43), XIX (§§ 44-45), XX (§ 46). As will be shown presently, the text which comes nearest to L2 is that of the Book of Ballymote, where the gap of L2 is filled by the rest of section X (end of § 22 and § 23), sections XI-XIII (§§ 24-28), and the beginning of section XIV (§ 29). A comparison of the writing of the two MSS. shows that the extent of this portion in the Book of Ballymote corresponds exactly to the contents of one leaf in Lee., so that these sections also must have formed part of the original IA______________ 1 For the history of this MS. see Marquis MacSwiney of Mashanaglass, Notes on the History of the Book of Lecan (R.I.A. Proc. XXXVIII. Sect. C. 21 ff., 1928). 2 According to the oldest numbering of leaves, at the top of the page. There is also a later foliation, at. the foot, which has 138 for 148, ff. Finally, there is a recent pagination, at the foot, which has 299 for 148/ ff. These numerations arc all posterior to the loss of nine leaves, now bound up with the Trinity College MS. H. 2. 17, Pt. 2 ; and which have no numeration but that of the MS. in which they now are, viz., 172 ff. The order of leaves has been disarranged in H. 2. 17, p. 188 coming after p. 171 and p. 172 after p. 193. INTRODUCTION vii L3 (H. 2. 17, Pt. 2, p. 174 b 24—p. 176 a) consists of the sections I (§ i), II (§ 2-3), III (§ 4), IV (§ 5, except the concluding phrase Cid tra achí is amlaid seo adfiadar senchas Breatam), V (§ 6—7). From the above it appears that L2 begins exactly at the point where L3 stops, namely, before the concluding phrase of § 5 : this phrase, however, occurs in L2 as the opening phrase of section VI (§ 8). But no importance is to be attached to this, as it is merely a consequence of the insertion of section V (§§ 6-7) in this version. L3 and L2 con­ stitute in fact but one version. Together they provide a complete text of Lebor Bretnach, which corresponds closely to that of the Book of Ballymote. There are no differences in the language or the spelling that would suggest a different origin for L3 and L2. The obvious conclusion is that L3 and La are parts of one and the same text. If they have not hitherto been recognised as such, it is because the second part of this text (concluding phrase of § 5~§ 46 : L2) precedes the opening paragraphs (§§ 1-5 : L3) ; and the original order has been further obscured by the insertion of the heading Do senclias Breatan andso bodeasia at the beginning of L2. The point where L2 ends and L3 begins in the MS. is in the middle of a page ; so the condition in which the combined text of L3-L2 finds itself, cannot be due to a disarrangement of leaves in the present MS. Probably the leaves had been displaced in the immediate exemplar, and Gilla-tsu copied them in the wrong order. If L3 and L2 are closely connected, there is, however, a great differ­ ence between their combined text and that of L1. Apart from the fact that the title Leabhor Bretnach, which is found at the beginning of L1, does not occur in L3-L2, there is a considerable number of paragraphs of the latter text missing in the former. The sections wanting in LI are : I (§ i), V (§§ 6-7), VIII (§§ 12-13), XI (§§ 24-25), XIII-XX (§§ 27-46), XXI-XXII (§§ 47-58). Of these, XXI-XXII are not found in L3-L2 either, and thus would seem to be an accretion of a version not represented in Lee. Sections V and XI have no equivalent in some of the other MSS., and can be proved to be an addition to the L3-L2 version. But for the remaining sections I, VIII, XIII-XX it is otherwise ; they occur in all versions with the exception only of L1. Moreover, section II (§§ 2-3) has a much shorter text in L1 than in L3-L2 : in § 2 L3 gives the names of British cities with a concluding phrase (i robo diairmithi a ratha -\ a caisdeoil cum- dacha), of which there is no trace in L1, and in § 3 L1 has nothing but the opening phrase of L3 (ceithri cénela aitrebaid Inis Bretan .i.