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Sanas Cormaic

 
Celtic Mythology: Sanas Cormaic
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Sanas Chormaic

Irish title of the document often known in English as Cormac's Glossary, traditionally ascribed to Cormac mac Cuilennáin (d. 908), king-bishop of Cashel. Entries list a large number of old and rare words, including names from Irish literature. Many of Cormac's judgements are reinterpreted by modern commentators; for example, he places Manannán mac Lir on the Isle of Man instead of on the otherworldly Emain Ablach. In many instances Cormac is an uncritical euhemerist; he readily cites as kings or heroes personages we believe to be of divine origin. None the less, Sanas Cormaic is a constantly cited source for information on the oldest traditions.

Bibliography

  • Three Irish Glossaries, trans. Whitley Stokes (London, 1862)
  • Sanas Chormaic, trans. John O'Donovan, ed. Whitley Stokes (Calcutta, 1868)
  • Sanas Cormaic [from text in the Yellow Book of Lecan], trans. Kuno Meyer (Halle, 1912).
  • also Paul Russell, “‘The Sound of Silence: The Growth of Cormac's Glossary’”, Cambridge Medieval Celtic Studies, 15 (1988), 1–30
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Sanas Cormaic (or Sanas Chormaic, Irish for "Cormac's narrative"),[1] also known as Cormac's Glossary, is an early Irish glossary containing etymologies and explanations of over 1,400 Irish words, many of which are difficult or outdated. The shortest and earliest version of the work is ascribed to Cormac mac Cuilennáin (d. 908), king-bishop of Munster. It is an encyclopedic dictionary containing simple synonymous explanations in Irish or Latin of Irish words. In some cases he attempts to give the etymology of the words and in others he concentrates on an encyclopedic entry. It is held to be the first linguistic dictionary in any of the non-classical languages of Europe.

Contents

Manuscripts and editions (with external links)

The glossary survives, in part or whole, in at least six manuscripts:[2] The work may have been included in the Saltair Chaisil "Psalter of Cashel", a now lost manuscript compilation which is thought to have contained various genealogical and etiological lore relating to Munster. The versions of Sanas Cormaic divide into two groups: the earliest and shortest version represented by Leabhar Breac and the fragment in MS Laud 610, and a longer one represented by the Yellow Book of Lecan, which underwent some expansion in the hands of later redactors.

Manuscripts Editions and translations
  • Leabhar Breac (Stokes’s version A) = Dublin, RIA, MS 1230 (23 P 16), pp. 263-72.
  • MS Laud 610 (Stokes’s version G) = Oxford, Bodleian Library MS Laud 610, f. 79r-84r. Fragment corresponding to YBL, 756-1224.
  • Stokes, Whitley (ed. and tr.). "On the Bodleian Fragment of Cormac's Glossary." Transactions of the Philological Society (1891-94): 149-206.
  • Yellow Book of Lecan (YBL) (Stokes’s version B) = Dublin, TCD MS 1318 (H.2.16), cols. 3-87 (= pp. 255a-283a in facsimile edition).
  • Meyer, Kuno (ed.). "Sanas Cormaic." In Anecdota from Irish Manuscripts 4 (1912): I-XIX, 1-128.
See Early Irish Glossaries.
  • Book of Leinster (Stokes’s version F) = Dublin, TCD MS 1339 (H.2.18), p. 179a-b. Fragment, corresponding to YBL 1224-34 and 1268-75.
  • Best, R.I. and M.A. O’Brien (eds.). Book of Leinster. Vol. 4. Dublin, 1965. pp. 780-1.
  • Stokes, Whitley (ed.). Three Irish Glossaries. London, 1862. pp. 44-5.
  • Book of Uí Maine = Dublin, RIA, MS D II 1 (MS 1225), pp. 177a-184a. Beginning, corresponding to YBL nos. 1-1224.
  • Meyer, Kuno. "Cormacs Glossar nach der Handschrift des Buches der Uí Maine." Abhandlungen der Königlichen Preußischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Phil.-hist. Klasse (1919): 290-319.
  • London, BL, Harleian 5280: f 75r-v. Entries for Mug Éme and Prull.[4]
  • ibidem.

References

  1. ^ It is sometimes called Sanas Chormaic using modern rules of initial consonant mutation.
  2. ^ http://www.ucd.ie/tlh/header/ws.tig.001.header.html; http://www.ucc.ie/celt/MS-OMIT/index.htm; Early Irish Glossaries.
  3. ^ http://www.ucc.ie/celt/MS-OMIT/index.htm.
  4. ^ http://www.ucc.ie/celt/MS-OMIT/index.htm.

Further reading

  • Russell, Paul. "Sanas Chormaic." In Celtic Culture. An Encyclopedia, ed. J.T. Koch. p. 1559.
  • Russell, Paul. "Dúil Dromma Cetta and Cormac's Glossary." Études celtiques 32 (1996): pp. 115-42.
  • Russell, Paul. "The Sound of Silence: The Growth of Cormac's Glossary." Cambridge Medieval Celtic Studies 15 (1988): pp. 1–30.

External links


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Celtic Mythology. A Dictionary of Celtic Mythology. Copyright © James MacKillop 1998, 2004. All rights reserved.  Read more
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