Texts

verse beg. Atberim frib lith saine

  • Early Irish
  • verse
  • Early Irish poetry
A short poem (4 qq) on the foods that are proper for Beltaine, Lugnasad, Samain and Imbolc.
First words (verse)
  • Atberim frib lith saine
Author
Anonymous
Language
  • Early Irish
  • ?
Form
verse (primary)
Length
Number of stanzas: 4

Classification

Early Irish poetryEarly Irish poetry
...

Early Irish poetryEarly Irish poetry
...

Subjects

Beltainecalendrical events
Beltaine
id. 27680
Lugnasadcalendrical events
Lugnasad
id. 27679
Samaincalendrical events
Samain
id. 27678
Imbolccalendrical events
Imbolc
id. 27647

One of the four quarter days of pre-Christian origin (together with Beltaine, Lugnasad and Samain) which are attested in early Irish sources. “The spring festival of Imbolc was celebrated early in February. It is likely that this festival was originally associated with the earth goddess Brigit ‘The exalted one’, but was taken over by the Church early in the Christian period. The goddess was transformed into a saint, whose mythical career is described in Bethu Brigte and other texts, and whose feast is celebrated on 1st February.”, Fergus Kelly, Early Irish farming: a study based mainly on the law-texts of the 7th and 8th centuries AD (1997): 460.

Sources

Primary sources Text editions and/or modern translations – in whole or in part – along with publications containing additions and corrections, if known. Diplomatic editions, facsimiles and digital image reproductions of the manuscripts are not always listed here but may be found in entries for the relevant manuscripts. For historical purposes, early editions, transcriptions and translations are not excluded, even if their reliability does not meet modern standards.

[ed.] [tr.] Meyer, Kuno [ed. and tr.], Hibernica minora, being a fragment of an Old-Irish treatise on the Psalter, Anecdota Oxoniensia, Mediaeval and Modern Series, 8, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1894.
Internet Archive: <link> TLH – Erchoitmed ingine Gulidi (ed. and tr.): <link>
48–49 Edition, with English translation, from the version in Harleian MS 5280, with variants from Rawlinson B 512 in footnotes. direct link
Contributors
Dennis Groenewegen
Page created
January 2014, last updated: January 2024