Book of the Dun Cow

Book of the Dun Cow, the (Lebor na hUidre), an Irish manuscript collection, probably dating from the late 11th cent. and so called because it was believed to have been written on vellum from the hide of a cow that followed St Ciarán to Clonmacnoise. The main scribe, Eugene O'Curry believed, was Mael Muire of Clonmacnoise. The collection contains an early version of Táin Bó Cuailnge, Tochmarc Emire, and Fled Bricrenn, along with other tales of the Ulster cycle, and a poem attributed to Dallán Forgaill in praise of Colum Cille. The manuscript was acquired by the RIA in 1844.

Irish name, Lebor (or Leabhar) na hUidre; the Irish name is preferred by many learned commentators, who sometimes employ the abbreviation LU. The oldest manuscript written entirely in Irish, compiled before 1106 at the great monastic centre of Clonmacnoise on the Shannon by, among others, a scribe named Máel Muire mac Céileachair. The codex contains texts of the Mythological Cycle and the Ulster Cycle, including a version of the epic Táin Bó Cuailnge. A vignette recorded later in a separate text explains the name of the codex. Fergus mac Róigh is described as being summoned from his grave to recite the Táin to St Ciarán of Clonmacnoise, who copied it down on the hide of a dark cow.

The manuscript disappeared after the Cromwellian conquest and reappeared in a bookshop in 1837; it is housed today in the Royal Irish Academy, Dublin. It has been published twice, first in facsimile, ed. J. T. Gilbert (Dublin, 1870), and second as edited by R. I. Best and Osborn Bergin (Dublin, 1929). Walter Wangerin's popular novel Book of the Dun Cow (New York, 1978) is unrelated to material in the codex.