Cadeirydd: Myrzinn Boucher-Durand
This paper examines three medieval Irish legal texts, Aidbred ‘Claiming’, Muirbretha ‘Sea-Judgments’, and heptad 64, all of which deal with how one can get back one’s lost or stolen property after it has been found. While none of the texts deals with every aspect of the process, for example, Muirbretha does not concern itself with livestock, an examination of all three texts provides a complete picture. The texts cover a wide range of legal scenarios, including shipwreck, fencing stolen goods, wandering cattle, and items which wash up on the shore, and taken together further our knowledge of both the early Irish legal system and the workings of medieval Irish society.
TCD MS H 3.18 (1337) is a large composite manuscript containing not only legal texts, but also numerous glossaries and glossed extracts, as well as a selection of poetry and narrative prose. Although the larger glossaries in this manuscript have received scholarly attention, some of the fragmentary glossaries and isolated glossed extracts still require attention, with material still remaining to appear in print. In this paper I will present editions and translations of a brief selection of hitherto unidentified and unnoticed glossed extracts to Bretha Nemed Toísech preserved on p. 87 of this manuscript. I will discuss their content as well as the significance of the manuscript context in which they are found.