Fragment annals of Ireland

The "fragmentary annals of Ireland" are preserved in a single manuscript - MS 5301-5320 (in old catalogs - MS. 7, No. 17), stored in the Royal Library of Belgium in Brussels . This is a copy made by an unknown scribe from a codex made in 1643 by for historian . In turn, Dubaltah Mack Firbisig himself copied this text from a manuscript written in Velen , which belonged to the , who died about 1443, , an expert on ancient Irish laws and bardic creativity . Due to the presence of omissions in the text, it is concluded that the photographer already at the time of Dubaltakh, Mac Firbigiga had significant damage. The scribe himself mentioned that the manuscript he was working with was very dilapidated. Neither Giolla's manuscript on Naoma Mak Aodagaina, nor the manuscript of Dubaltakh Mak Firbisig were preserved. It is not known exactly when the protographer of the annals was lost. It is assumed that in 1517, another copy was made from part of the Giolla manuscript on Naoma Mak Aodagain even before Dubaltakh. This , which contains a text verbatim repeating one of the records of the "Fragmentary Annals of Ireland", is stored in the British Library ^{[1] [2] [3] [4]} .

The Fragment Annals of Ireland are written in Irish: partly in late Mid-Irish , partly in early New Irish . The author hardly used Latin . The vast majority of the text is written in prose, but there are also poetic inserts. Paleographic studies of the "Fragmentary Annals of Ireland" showed that when copying the text of a photograph, scribes worked with the text, including using modern spelling and vocabulary . Probably, in a number of cases, the photographer of the "Fragmentary Annals of Ireland" did not have the dates of the events described. The scribes of the 17th century tried to correct this, in their opinion, lack of source. To do this, they used data from the “ Annals of the Four Masters ”. However, since they themselves contained significant errors in the chronology, this erroneous information was also transferred to the manuscript of the "Fragmentary Annals of Ireland." In 1978, when preparing a new edition of this source, all dating of events was checked and corrected ^{[2] [3] [4] [5]} .

The original name of the manuscript, with which Dubaltach Mac Firbisig worked, is not known. It is supposed that this could be a manuscript mentioned in some Irish catalogs of the 15th – 17th centuries under the name “Clonenach Book” ( Ir. Leabhar Fionntain Chluana hEidhneach , English Book of Cluain Eidnech ). Based on the fact that this manuscript is reported in the works of Jeffrey Keating , some historians conclude that the final text of the "Fragmentary Annals of Ireland" could have been compiled in Clonenach Abbey . It is known that this monastery conducted its own annals , but they did not survive ^{[1] [3] [4]} .

However, the use of a large amount of information about the events in Osraig when compiling the "Fragment Annals of Ireland" also suggests that it was this kingdom that could be the place of creation of the photographer. According to some medievalists , the original version of the "Fragmentary Annals of Ireland" could have been compiled under King Donnhad, who ruled in 1003-1039, . In this case, the place of direct creation of the photographer could be the in Darrow ^{[5] [6]} .

The photograph of the "Fragmentary Annals of Ireland" was not preserved, therefore, it is not known exactly what time period was described in the full version of the annals and what the composition of its parts was. The manuscript that has reached our time contains five fragments telling about the events of 573–914: 1. 573–628 (records No. 1–18), 2. 662–704 (years 19–167), 3. 716–735 (No. 168–232), 4. 851–873 years (No. 233–410), 5. 906–914 years (No. 411–459). In the latest edition of the “Fragmentary Annals of Ireland”, edited in 1978 by J. N. Radner , all fragments were compiled into a single text consisting of 459 records arranged in chronological order ^{[2] [3] [4]} .

The first part of the "Fragmentary Annals of Ireland" describes mainly the events associated with the North Wye Neil . It is assumed that this information was extracted by the author of the "Fragmentary Annals of Ireland" from some Ulster source. It is likely that the texts created in Osraig and Leinster became the basis for the remaining four fragments. This conclusion is made on the basis of special attention paid in the annals to the events in these kingdoms. Thus, most of the author of the “Fragmentary Annals of Ireland” about the second half of the 9th century could be borrowed from the not preserved “Annals of Osraig,” which narrated the activities of the most influential of the local rulers, Karball Mack Dunlinge , one of the ancestors of King Donnhad Mack Gill Patraik. The latest recordings of the “Fragment Annals of Ireland” are probably of Leinster origin (possibly borrowed from the Leinster Chronicle) ^{[4] [5] [6] [7]} .

It is assumed that some of the information was extracted by the creator of the "Fragmentary Annals of Ireland" from the lost " Chronicle of Ireland ", as is supposed, the earliest pan-Irish code of annals. This is evidenced by the almost literal coincidence of the news of the "Fragmentary Annals of Ireland" about a series of events of the 6th-7th centuries with the texts of some other annals (for example, the Annals of Clonmacnois and the Annals of Tigernach ) ^{[6] [8]} . Also, part of the records of the “Fragmentary Annals of Ireland” resembles the texts of the “ Annals of Ulster ” and “ The Chronicles of the Scottes ”. It is likely that the authors of these annals had at their disposal some document that did not survive to this day, describing the same events as the Chronicle of Ireland ^[9] .

Unlike the authors of other Irish annals , the author of “Fragmentary Annals of Ireland” also used literary and epic materials in his work, including sagas and bard poetry. Among such sources are poems about the battles at Almayn (722) and at Bela Mugna (908). Although the same trend is noted by the medievalists in other European annals and chronicles of that time, the Fragmentary Annals of Ireland is the earliest of such works ^{[4] [5] [10]} .

The “fragmentary annals of Ireland” is one of the most important sources on the history of Ireland in the Early Middle Ages . Of particular value to them is a significant amount of unique information not contained in any other Irish annals. According to J. N. Radner, the anonymous author of “Fragmentary Annals of Ireland” was one of the most educated Irishmen of his time, and his work is one of the best historical works in medieval Ireland ^{[5] [11]} .

• Annals of Ireland: Three Fragments / O'Donovan J. - Dublin: Printed at the University Press for the Irish Archaeological and Celtic Society, 1860. - 257 p.
• Fragmentary annals of Ireland / Radner JN - Dublin: Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1978.- 258 p. ( text in Irish ; text in English )

• Evans N. The Present and the Past in Medieval Irish Chronicles. - Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 2010 .-- ISBN 978-1-84383-549-3 .