About MsOmit

MsOmit, that is 'Manuscript Sources to Old and Middle Irish Tales', is meant to be a tool for facilitating research on Early Irish prose and prose-and-verse tales. What has been preserved from the Early Middle Ages and how has this come down to us? What has been edited in the context of modern scholarship and what editorial policies have thereby been applied? What could still be done in the way of grouping and editing this material? This version of 2017 replaces former versions, which appeared 1998, 2004, 2007 and 2010.

Although some effort has been made to cover the subject as completely as possible, it is realized that the choice of texts will be debatable at several places. This is due to the fact that the very concept of 'Early Irish Tales', although still very popular, is somehow artificial. In this area of research there is really no clear and tangible borderline between early and modern, between tale and legend, between prose-tale and verse-tale.

Suggestions for improvement and information on additional material are welcome (corthals@uni-hamburg.de). A printed text is available at the Amazon website under the title MsOmit 2017: Manuscript Sources to Old and Middle Irish Tales.

Contents of MsOmit

1. A list of Early Medieval narrative texts in Irish language until approximately 1150 with (a) references to their medieval and early modern manuscript sources (with a few exceptions until the 17th c.) and (b) information about their availability in print (with a few exceptions from ca. 1870).

2. A list of abbreviated manuscript names which appear in the list of narrative texts together with a short explanation and a reference mostly to the corresponding library catalogues and, as the case may be, to facsimiles and diplomatic editions.

Using MsOmit

Acknowledgment

The basic research for this catalogue was greatly advanced by a grant from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft towards two short visits to Dublin in 1996 and 1997.