Fragmentary Annals of Ireland

The Fragmentary Annals of Ireland or Three Fragments are a

Little is known of the lost exemplar from which Mac Fhirbhisigh worked. He appears to have modernized the orthography of the original text as he copied it. There are lacunae in places where the exemplar could no longer be read due to its poor condition. Mac Fhirbhisigh's copyist added dates, which he took from the Annals of the Four Masters without troubling to confirm their accuracy or correct them where they were clearly in error.

The first fragment relates mainly to the Northern Uí Néill and may have been compiled in Ulster, but the remaining fragments were evidently compiled in Osraige (Ossory), a kingdom which corresponded approximately to the later County Kilkenny and western County Laois. The original compiler evidently drew upon a variety of sources, some of which (e.g. annals) were probably more accurate and trustworthy than others (e.g. long bardic works). The fragments combine cold annalistic records with romantic tales and extravagant flights of fancy in a manner that is unique among the Irish annals.

Two modern editions of the Fragmentary Annals have been published:

• John O'Donovan (editor & translator) Annals of Ireland: three fragments. (Dublin 1860)
• Joan N. Radner (editor & translator) Fragmentary annals of Ireland (Dublin 1978)

See also

• Irish annals
• Chronicle of Ireland

References

• Radner, Joan N., "Writing history: Early Irish historiography and the significance of form", Celtica, volume 23, pp. 312–325. (etext (pdf))
• Downham, Clare, "The good, the bad, and the ugly: portrayals of Vikings in The Fragmentary Annals of Ireland", The Medieval Chronicle, 3 (2004): 27–39.

External links

• The Fragmentary Annals of Ireland (Radner's edition) (translation) at University College Cork's CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts.
• The Fragmentary Annals of Ireland (O'Donovan's edition)