Wandering cows and obscure words: A rimeless poem from legal manuscripts and beyond
Keywords:
Early Irish law, rimeless poem, Fachtna, Amra Coluim Chille, Sanas CormaicAbstract
An Old Irish rimeless poem recording a verdict by the legendary judge Fachtna is found in manuscripts that represent various textual traditions. It is cited in a gloss to early Irish laws and commentary to Amra Coluim Chille, and in two lemmata in Sanas Cormaic. This paper provides a critical edition of the poem, and considers it together with the accompanying narrative prose and verses in the textual environments, in order to illustrate the complex relationship between these textual traditions. The discussion may further our understanding of the intellectual background of the medieval literati and the growth of medieval Irish law tracts.
