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*Immacallam Cormaic 7
Fíthil
*"The Dialogue between Cormac and Fíthel"
Editions
- K. Meyer (ed & tr), Hibernica
Minor (Oxford 1894) 82-83.
Manuscripts
- Oxford, Bodleian Library, Rawlinson B. 512
- The Book of Leinster, 149a
- H. 3. 18 (40b)
Date
- No earlier than the eleventh century
Characters
- Cormac mac Airt, king of Tara from Dál Cuinn
(prehistoric ancestors of the Connachta and Uí Néill)
- Fíthel, a famous judge associated with Cormac's
court. He rarely appears in the Cycles of the Kings but crops up
now and again in the Fenian Cycle. He also appears in a famous
anecdote involving his son Flaithrí in Keating's Foras Feasa.
Notes
- This text is part of the Cycle Cormac mac Airt.
- The original composition of this text is difficult to
determine. Rawlinson B. 512 contains a prose introduction
followed by two quatrains, one by Fíthel and the other by
Cormac. However, the Book of Leinster and H. 3. 18 versions
consist of a nine-quatrain poem (none of which is duplicated in the
Rawlinson copy) and no prose introduction.
Summary
(Rawlinson B. 512) When Fíthel is not invited to an
ale-feast thrown by Cormac, the judge complains to the king the next
morning, saying that Art (Cormac's father) never drank without
Finngaine (Fíthel's foster-father). Cormac responds by
claiming that he is wiser than Art and renders judgment better.
Here the Rawlinson text ends.
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