dinnshenchas

dinnshenchas (lore of prominent places), a term used generally to refer to toponymic lore preserved in early Irish literature, and more specifically to denote the large corpus of this lore which was assembled in the 11th or 12th cent. known as Dinnshenchas Érenn (The Dinnshenchas of Ireland). Three forms of Dinnshenchas Érenn are found in the manuscripts: a metrical collection in the 12th-cent. Book of Leinster; a collection in prose which is also in the Book of Leinster as well as two 16th-cent. manuscripts; and a collection in prose and verse which is found in many manuscripts from the 14th-16th cents. The bulk of the material seems to have been composed in the bardic schools between the 9th and 12th cents. Place-names are explained by reference to legends which are linked to them by means of pseudo-etymological techniques, where sometimes fictitious stories are adduced to explain the existing names, with the result that some of these legends are only to be found in the Dinnshenchas, where they serve their explanatory purpose. It was part of the body of knowledge medieval Irish poets were expected to master.