The title ''Fianṡruth (Find)'' refers to two alphabetically arranged
Middle Irish
Middle Irish, sometimes called Middle Gaelic ( ga, An Mheán-Ghaeilge, gd, Meadhan-Ghàidhlig), is the Goidelic language which was spoken in Ireland, most of Scotland and the Isle of Man from AD; it is therefore a contemporary of late Old Eng ...
lists of names associated with the
Finn Cycle, preserved only in the
Yellow Book of Lecan
The Yellow Book of Lecan (YBL; Irish: ''Leabhar Buidhe Leacáin''), or TCD MS 1318 (''olim'' H 2.16), is a late medieval Irish manuscript.
It contains much of the Ulster Cycle of Irish mythology, besides other material. It is held in the Librar ...
and probably datable to the twelfth century.
[Meyer, ''Fianaigecht'', p. xxx. Gerard Murphy suggests that the compilation may have started as early as the eleventh century. ''Duanaire Finn. The Book of the Lays of Finn''. Vol 3. ITS. London, 1953. xli and lx.] The lists ''A'' and ''B'' are preceded by almost identical introductions. Many of the approximately 170 names do not occur elsewhere in the attested sources, while a number of familiar faces from later tales in the
Finn Cycle, such as
Fergus finnbél, are missing.
Manuscript sources
*List A: YBL (p. 119a ff), headed “It e annso anmann muntire Find .i. fiandsroth fian Find u(i) Baiscne”
*List B: YBL (p. 325a), headed “Fianruth Fiand inso”
Title
The title ''fian-ṡruth'' literally means ‘
fian-stream’, which one may render as ‘fían-lore’. As observed by Stern, the word recurs in the
Metrical Dindshenchas
''Dindsenchas'' or ''Dindshenchas'' (modern spellings: ''Dinnseanchas'' or ''Dinnsheanchas'' or ''Dınnṡeanċas''), meaning "lore of places" (the modern Irish word ''dinnseanchas'' means " topography"), is a class of onomastic text in early I ...
of
Carmun as one of the literary genres to be recited at the Fair of
Carmun:
Introduction from List ''B''
Except in facsimile, the actual name-lists have not yet seen publication. Ludwig Stern's edition and German translation of the introduction are as follows (deviations in List ''A'' are indicated where necessary):
Notes
Sources
*
Atkinson, Robert. ''Yellow Book of Lecan''. Dublin, 1896. Facsimile edition, pp. 119, 325.
*Gwynn, Edward (ed. and tr.). ''The Metrical Dindshenchas''. Vol. 3. Dublin:
DIAS, 1906. Available online from CELT.
*Meyer, Kuno (intro, ed. and tr.). ''Fíanaigecht, being a Collection of Hitherto Unedited Irish Poems and Tales Relating to Finn and his Fiana, with an English Translation''. Todd Lecture Series 16. Dublin: Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1910.
*Stern, Ludwig Christian. “Fiannshruth.” ''
Zeitschrift für celtische Philologie
The ''Zeitschrift für celtische Philologie'' is an academic journal of Celtic studies, which was established in 1897 by the German scholars Kuno Meyer and Ludwig Christian Stern.Busse, Peter E. "''Zeitschrift für celtische Philologie''." In ''C ...
'' 1 (1897): 471–3.
Fenian Cycle
Early Irish literature
Irish language
Irish-language literature
Irish texts
Medieval literature
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