{
Texts
Toichim na mbuiden‘The march of the companies’
- Early Irish
- prose
- Táin bó Cúailnge
Episode in Táin bó Cúailnge (Recensions I and II), in which Ailill and Medb watch the approaching Ulaid through intermediaries. It employs the so-called ‘watchman device’, in which a watchman with keen sight, here Mac Roth, offers a visually rich if puzzling description of what he sees and in which an interpreter of the description, here Fergus mac Róich, is able to identify the approaching characters.
Context(s) The (textual) context(s) to which the present text belongs or in which it is cited in part or in whole.
Language
- Early Irish
Form
prose (primary)
Textual relationships
- Related:
- Dinda na Tána
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.
See Táin bó Cúailnge for the complete list
Secondary sources (select)
O'Connor, Ralph, “Was classical imitation necessary for the writing of large-scale Irish sagas? Reflections on Táin bó Cúailnge and the ‘watchman device’”, in: O'Connor, Ralph [ed.], Classical literature and learning in medieval Irish narrative, Studies in Celtic History 34, Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2014. 165–195.
Sims-Williams, Patrick, Irish Influence on medieval Welsh literature, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010.
See also the web edition: Patrick Sims-Williams, Irish Influence on medieval Welsh literature (2011).
[‘Narrative techniques in Irish and Welsh, II: the riddling ‘watchman device’’]
page name: Toichim na mbuiden
page url: https://www.vanhamel.nl/codecs/Toichim_na_mbuiden
redirect: https://www.vanhamel.nl/codecs/Special:Redirect/page/12275
page ID: 12275
page ID tracker: https://www.vanhamel.nl/vhcodecs/index.php?title=Show:ID&id=12275
Contributors
Dennis Groenewegen