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The Old Irish Life of St. Brigit
Part I. Translation
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 July 2016
Extract
Ms. Rawlinson B 512, in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, contains a life of St. Brigit in Irish with numerous Latin phrases and passages interspersed. Some sections of this were edited and translated by Stokes in Lives of the Saints from the Book of Lismore, and the whole has been printed without translation, in Irish Texts, fasciculus i (ed. J. Fraser, P. Grosjean and J. G. O'Keeffe, 1931), under the title ‘Vita Brigitae’. I have preferred to call it the ‘Old Irish Life of St. Brigit’, as it is clear from the language of the text that it must have been compiled in the Old Irish period. The edition in Irish Texts is unfortunately disfigured by numerous mistranscriptions, faulty divisions of words and unnecessary conjectural emendations. My translation—a literal one—is based on this edition, corrected by reference to an excellent facsimile of the MS. which I owe to the kindness of the Oxford University Press. For convenience of reference, I have followed the division into sections of the printed text, though, as I shall point out in my notes, this is sometimes misleading.
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- Copyright © Irish Historical Studies Publications Ltd 1938
References
page no 122 note 1 Literally, ‘ was faithful ’.
page no 122 note 2 Or, ‘ the household saw her ’.
page no 122 note 3 The practice of standing erect or lying on the ground for a long period with the arms extended in the form of a cross.
page no 122 note 4 ‘ Meum erit hoc, meum erit hoc’.
page no 122 note 5 Or, ’ a certain ’.
page no 123 note 1 The plain of the Liffey.
page no 123 note 2 Literally, ‘ entrusted ’.
page no 125 note 1 For ‘ moccu ’ the MS. has ‘ mac ui ’, a common Middle Irish spelling of the older ‘ moccu ’.
page no 125 note 2 i.e., ‘ this is how you will recognise it ’.
page no 126 note 1 i.e., ‘ from Easter Sunday to Low Sunday ’.
page no 127 note 1 i.e., ‘ between Easter Sunday and Low Sunday ’.
page no 128 note 1 The flat district about the Inny, and extending into Longford.
page no 128 note 2 i.e., of the sept of Eochaid Find Fuath Airt, the ruling family of the Fotharta, to which Brigit belonged.
page no 128 note 3 In Irish, ‘ little Easter ’.
page no 128 note 4 Or perhaps, ‘ because ’.
page no 129 note 1 ‘ loc ’, ‘ a place ’, is the usual term for a religious settlement.
page no 129 note 2 Here several words, probably a whole sentence, have dropped out.
page no 130 note 1 Literally, ‘ a question indeed ’.
page no 131 note 1 Or, ‘ a paralytic one ’.
page no 132 note 1 Irish ‘ Mag mBreg ’, the hilly plain, surrounding Tara.
page no 132 note 2 i.e. Patrick.
page no 132 note 3 Teltown, county Meath.
page no 133 note 1 Or ‘ the borders ’.
page no 134 note 1 ‘ and their followers ’ is understood.
page no 134 note 2 Literally, ‘ Brigit is venerated there.’
page no 134 note 3 Or, ‘ a kingly youth ’.