MacNeili, — An Irish Historical Tract dated A.D. 721. 139 



4. The Date and Original of Z. 



Flann did not modernize Z from an Old-Irish original. Had he done so, 



ho would have made no greater changes than would have been necessaiy to 

 make the document intelligible to other Irishmen of learning in his time ; 

 and consequently many of the Old-Irish forms of the original would have 

 been preserved. The tract therefore was originally written in Latin. Some 

 of its Latin phrases ai'e still preserved. 



The date at which the original was compiled is very precisely indicated. 

 The compiler believed himself to be writing in the ninety-fourth year from 

 the accession of Domnall son of Aed, i.e. 721. 



This date is confirmed by further criteria which the tract supplies. Its 

 concluding portion names three kings reigning in Ireland. The king of 

 Ireland was Fergal son of Mael Duin, the king of Leinster was Murchad, 

 and the king of Munster was Cathal son of Finnguine.' 



Fergal reigned from 710 to 722. In the latter year he was defeated and 

 slain in the battle of Almain by Murchad king of Leinster. 



Murchad reigned from 712 to 727. 



Cathal reigned from 712 to 742. 



The contemporary Byzantine emperor is named. He is Leo the Isaurian, 

 who reigned from 718 to 741. 



The only years common to the four reigns are 718-722. 



There remain two textual difficulties : — (1) The final year, the date of 

 writing, or a date previous to writing, is twice indicated as the end ( forba) 

 of the reign of Leo. (2) It is once indicated as the thii'd of Fergal. With 

 regard to the first difficulty, it is to be pointed out that the last year of 

 Leo, 741, was («) 112 years — not 84 years — later than the twentieth of 

 Heraclius ; (h) nineteen years later than the death of Fergal ; (c) fourteen 

 years later than the death of Murchad ; (d) that, if the end of Leo's reign 

 were really in the writer's mind, he would probably have named the 

 succeeding emperor, and would almost certainly have named contemporary 

 kings of Ireland and of Leinster. Hence there can be no doubt that the 

 Middle-Irish translator misread his Latin original. The year 721, the 

 ninety-fourth from Domnall's accession, was the fourth of Leo, and may 

 have been written iu'", and taken to indicate mortem or nltimum. It was 

 the twelfth year of Fergal, and xii may have been read as iii. Tlie Eoman 

 numerals are a continual source of misreadings in Irish iiss., and often 



' Nowhere else in the tract are provincial kings named. This indicates that the kings of 

 Munster and Leinster are named ns contemporary with the writing of the tract. Flann imitates this 

 method of dating in his poem, naming seven kings. 



E.I. A. PROO., VOL. XXVIII,, SECT. 0. [21] 



