Mesca Ulad
Encyclopedia
Mesca Ulad is a narrative from the Ulster Cycle
Ulster Cycle
The Ulster Cycle , formerly known as the Red Branch Cycle, one of the four great cycles of Irish mythology, is a body of medieval Irish heroic legends and sagas of the traditional heroes of the Ulaid in what is now eastern Ulster and northern Leinster, particularly counties Armagh, Down and...

 preserved in the 12th century manuscript
Manuscript
A manuscript or handwrite is written information that has been manually created by someone or some people, such as a hand-written letter, as opposed to being printed or reproduced some other way...

s the Book of Leinster
Book of Leinster
The Book of Leinster , is a medieval Irish manuscript compiled ca. 1160 and now kept in Trinity College, Dublin, under the shelfmark MS H 2.18...

 and in the Lebor na hUidre
Lebor na hUidre
Lebor na hUidre or the Book of the Dun Cow is an Irish vellum manuscript dating to the 12th century. It is the oldest extant manuscript in Irish. It is held in the Royal Irish Academy and is badly damaged: only 67 leaves remain and many of the texts are incomplete...

. The title Mesca Ulad occurs only in the Book of Leinster version.

Manuscript sources

  • Book of Leinster
    Book of Leinster
    The Book of Leinster , is a medieval Irish manuscript compiled ca. 1160 and now kept in Trinity College, Dublin, under the shelfmark MS H 2.18...

     (LL): p 261b-268b (RIA). Second part missing. Middle Irish version.
  • Lebor na hUidre
    Lebor na hUidre
    Lebor na hUidre or the Book of the Dun Cow is an Irish vellum manuscript dating to the 12th century. It is the oldest extant manuscript in Irish. It is held in the Royal Irish Academy and is badly damaged: only 67 leaves remain and many of the texts are incomplete...

     (LU): p 19a-20b (TCD). First part missing. Old Irish version.
  • G4 or Yellow Book of Lecan
    Yellow Book of Lecan
    The Yellow Book of Lecan , or TCD MS 1318 , is a medieval Irish manuscript written no later than the dawn of the 15th century. It is currently housed at Trinity College, Dublin and should not be confused with the Great Book of Lecan.-Overview:The manuscript is written on vellum and contains 344...

    (YBL): col. 959-972 (National Library of Ireland).
  • Ed. XL or Adv. 72.1.40: p 49-68 (National Library of Scotland, Edinburgh)

Editions and translations

  • Hennessy, William M. (ed. and tr.). Mesca Ulad: or, the Intoxication of the Ultonians. Todd Lecture Series 1. Dublin, 1889. Based on LU and LL. The translation is reprinted in: Eleanor Hull (ed.), The Cuchullin Saga in Irish literature. London, 1898; and in Ancient Irish tales, ed. T.P. Cross and C.H. Slover. New York, 1936. 215-38.
  • Watson, J. Carmichael (ed.). Mesca Ulad. Mediaeval and Modern Irish Series 13. Dublin, 1941 (reprinted in 1983). Based on LU and LL, with variants from YBL and Ed. XL. Edition available from CELT.
  • Mac Gearailt, Uaitéar (ed.). "The Edinburgh Text of Mesca Ulad." Ériu 37 (1986): 133-80. Based on Ed. XL.
  • Watson, J. Carmichael (tr.). "Mesca Ulad". Scottish Gaelic Studies 5 (1938): 1-34 (LL, LU text). (English)
  • Koch, John T. (tr.). In The Celtic Heroic Age, ed. John T. Koch and John Carey. 3d ed. Andover, 2000. 106-27. Provisional translation based on Watson's edition.
  • Gantz, Jeffrey (tr.). "The Intoxication of the Ulaid." In: Early Irish Myths and Sagas. Harmondsworth, 1981. 188-217. (English)
  • Guyonvarc'h, C.-J.( tr.). "L'ivresse des Ulates." Ogam 12 (1960): 487-506; 13 (1961): 343-60 [also in Celticum 2 (1962) 1-38] (French).

Secondary literature

  • Carey, John. "Vernacular Irish Learning: Three Notes." Éigse 24 (1990): 37-44.
  • de Paor, Áine. "The common authorship of some Book of Leinster texts [III. Mesca Ulad]." Ériu 9 (1923): 118-46.
  • Ó Concheanainn, Tomás. "The manuscript tradition of Mesca Ulad." Celtica 19 (1987): 13-30.
  • Sayers, William. "Three charioteering gifts in Táin Bó Cúailnge and Mesca Ulad: immorchor deland, foscul díriuch, léim dar boilg." Ériu 32 (1981): 163-7.
  • Sayers, William. "Portraits of the Ulster Hero Conall Cernach: A Case for Waardenburg's Syndrome?" Emania 20 (2006): 75-80.
  • Thurneysen, Rudolf. Zu irischen Handschriften und Litteraturdenkmälern. Zweite Serie. Abhandlungen der königlichen Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen 14.3. Berlin, 1913. See no. 17 for Mesca Ulad.
  • Watson, J. Carmichael. "Mesca Ulad: the redactor's contribution to the later version." Ériu 13 (1940): 95-112.
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