Texts

Mittelirische Verslehren I

  • prose, verse
  • Irish texts, Irish texts on language and literature
Irish tract on the poetic metres that the seven grades of the noble bards (sóerbaird) had to master. Every type of metre is illustrated by a stanza from a bardic poem. Many of the poems cited in this way are no longer extant in their complete form.
Title
Mittelirische Verslehren I
The tract may be best known by Thurneysen's editorial title. It is also called Córus bard cona bairdni ‘The hierarchy of bards (baird) with its bardic composition/craft (bairdne)’, after the title heading which occurs in TCD MS 1308.
Form
prose, verse (primary)
Associated items
Clocán binnClocán binnInt én gaires asin tshailInt én gaires asin tshail

Classification

Irish textsIrish texts
...

Irish texts on language and literatureIrish texts on language and literature
...

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.] Thurneysen, Rudolf [ed.], “Mittelirische Verslehren”, in: Ernst Windisch, and Whitley Stokes [eds.], Irische Texte mit Wörterbuch, 4 vols, vol. 3, Leipzig, 1891. 1–182.  
comments: An index of verse metries and initial lines of verse is provided at the end of this contribution.
Internet Archive: <link>
5–29

Secondary sources (select)

Ó hAodha, Donncha, “The first Middle Irish metrical tract”, in: Hildegard L. C. Tristram (ed.), Metrik und Medienwechsel / Metrics and media, 35, Tübingen: Narr, 1991. 207–244.
Ó hAodha, Donncha, “The first Middle-Irish metrical tract: two notes”, Peritia 16 (2002): 232–241.
Breatnach, Pádraig A., “The metres of citations in the Irish grammatical tracts”, Éigse 32 (2000): 7–22.
Breatnach, Liam [ed. and tr.], Uraicecht na ríar: the poetic grades in early Irish law, Early Irish Law Series, 2, Dublin: Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1987.
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Contributors
Dennis Groenewegen
Page created
June 2011, last updated: January 2024