Texts

Aided Chon Roí ‘The death of Cú Roí’

  • Old Irish
  • prose
  • Ulster Cycle
Scope
multiple versions
Manuscripts
Version 1:
f. 10ra
Corrupt version, followed by version 3.
Version 2: prose fragment and the poem Brinna Ferchertne (q.v.):
Version 3 (later, expanded version = Thurneysen’s ACR II)
YBL =
cols 776–780 (123a–125a in facsimile)
Includes a version of Amrae Chon Roí
ff. 10va–11ra
found together with version 1 above
Language
  • Old Irish
Form
prose (primary)
Textual relationships
See also Amrae Chon Roí, which is included in the Yellow Book of Lecan copy of Version 3, and preserved independently in [[Dublin, Trinity College, MS 1337 |H 3. 18]]. The dindsenchas of Finnglais tells much the same story, and a version of Aided Chon Roí is included in Keating (Geoffrey)'s Foras feasa ar Éirinn (I 36). Cú Roí's death is also referred to in the poem beginning 'Innid scél scaílter n-airich'.
Related: Coimétor liph cend an ríghCoimétor liph cend an rígh

Medieval Irish poem attributed in the final stanza to Aífe ingen Shogain, a síd-woman from Carn Treóin, and addressed by her to the Érainn, asking them to preserve the head of Cú Roí and recite his deeds.

He amae fet gae geirHe amae fet gae geir

An Irish quatrain said to have been uttered by Cú Roí before he was slain: CuRu[í] ro chan in so in la ro marbad [attribution]: He amae fet gae geir / Osnad mór mórmaic Neill: / Muin ar mug, run do mnai, / mairg dogni cechtar n-ai (transcription by Meyer), “CuRui had dieses gesungen, da er getötet wurde: O weh! Sausen des scharfen Speers! / Heftiges Aufstöhnen von Niall’s grossem Sohn! / Ein Juwel einem Knecht (anvertrauen), ein Geheimnis einer Frau – / Wehe dem, der beides tut!” (German translation by Thurneysen).

Associated items
Amrae Chon RoíAmrae Chon Roí

Classification

Ulster Cycle
Ulster Cycle
id. 1797

Subjects

Cú Roí
Cú Roí (mac Dáiri)
(time-frame ass. with Ulster Cycle)
Warrior and king of Munster in tales of the Ulster Cycle.

See more
Cú Chulainn
Cú Chulainn
Young Ulster hero and chief character of Táin bó Cuailnge and other tales of the Ulster Cycle; son of Súaltam or Lug and Deichtire (sister to Conchobor); husband of Emer (ingen Forgaill)

See more

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.

Version 1 (Egerton 88)
[ed.] [tr.] Thurneysen, Rudolf [ed. and tr.], “Die Sage von CuRoi”, Zeitschrift für celtische Philologie 9 (1913): 189–234.
CELT – edition of Aided Chon Roí I: <link> CELT – German translation of Aided Chon Roí I: <link> Internet Archive: <link>
190–198
[ed.] Best, R. I. [ed.], “The tragic death of Cúrói mac Dári”, Ériu 2 (1905): 18–35.
Internet Archive: <link>
32–34
Version 2
[ed.] Meyer, Kuno [ed.], “Irish miscellanies: Addenda to M. de Jubainville’s Catalogue de la littérature épique de l’Irlande”, Revue Celtique 6 (1883–1885): 187–191.  
Addenda.
Internet Archive: <link>
The text of ACR 2 in Laud Misc. 610, largely without the poem.
[tr.] Thurneysen, Rudolf [ed. and tr.], “Die Sage von CuRoi”, Zeitschrift für celtische Philologie 9 (1913): 189–234.
CELT – edition of Aided Chon Roí I: <link> CELT – German translation of Aided Chon Roí I: <link> Internet Archive: <link>
202–214 A number of passages are given in translation
[ed.] [tr.] Meyer, Kuno [ed. and tr.], “Brinna Ferchertne”, Zeitschrift für celtische Philologie 3 (1901): 40–46.
CELT – edition: <link> CELT – translation: <link> Internet Archive: <link>
The poem Brinna Ferchertne only.
Version 3
[ed.] [tr.] Best, R. I. [ed.], “The tragic death of Cúrói mac Dári”, Ériu 2 (1905): 18–35.
Internet Archive: <link>
Based on YBL (20–31), with part of the text and variants from Egerton 88 given in the appendix (34–35)
[ed.] Stokes, Whitley [ed.], “The eulogy of Cúrói (Amra Chonrói)”, Ériu 2 (1905): 1–14.
Internet Archive: <link>
[tr.] Tymoczko, Maria [tr.], Two death tales from the Ulster Cycle: The death of Cu Roi and The death of Cu Chulainn, Dolmen Texts, 2, Dublin: Dolmen Press, 1981.
Based on YBL, with variants

Secondary sources (select)

Hellmuth, Petra S., “The Dindshenchas and Irish literary tradition”, in: John Carey, Máire Herbert, and Kevin Murray (eds), Cín Chille Cúile: texts, saints and places. Essays in honour of Pádraig Ó Riain, 9, Aberystwyth: Celtic Studies Publications, 2004. 116–126.
Thurneysen, Rudolf [ed. and tr.], “Die Sage von CuRoi”, Zeitschrift für celtische Philologie 9 (1913): 189–234.
CELT – edition of Aided Chon Roí I: <link> CELT – German translation of Aided Chon Roí I: <link> Internet Archive: <link>
includes discussion and notes, together with related texts such as the dinnshenchas tale of Finnglais from LL and BB and Keating’s version.
Thurneysen, Rudolf, “Nachträge zur Sage von CuRoi”, Zeitschrift für celtische Philologie 9 (1913): 336.
Internet Archive: <link>
Thurneysen, Rudolf, Die irische Helden- und Königsage bis zum siebzehnten Jahrhundert, Halle: Niemeyer, 1921.  

Contents: Part 1 (chapters 1-23): Allgemeines; Part 2 (chapters 1-85): Die Ulter Sage.

Internet Archive: <link>
431–444.
Contributors
Dennis Groenewegen, Patrick Brown
Page created
March 2011, last updated: January 2024