176 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 
of the Wallenstadt valley, existed in Ireland previous to the date of 
the Uidhre glosses. 
A vast anachronism, however, would be committed in making 
Dathi cotemporary with the St. Pirmin of Swiss history, who is cre- 
dited with the foundation of Fabaria, a.p. 717.*" If there were any- 
thing in the life of this eminent ecclesiastic” at all corresponding 
to the adventures of the Formenus of the text, it would be difficult 
to avoid the conclusion that the achievements of some Frankish free- 
booter of the eighth century had been ascribed to the Irish king of 
the fifth, and that the list of localities inscribed in Urdhre has been 
the fruit of some medieval traveller's observation, picked up at 
Pfeffers, and contributed as an embellishment to the bardic ro- 
mance. But there are few medizeval saints whose lives exhibit less of 
the marvellous than does that of Permin of Metz. He was not a 
king. He never seems to have led a heremetical life. Thunder or 
lightning find no place in any of the incidents related of his active 
evangelical career. He died at Fulda, in the abbey of his friend the 
great Boniface, whence his remains were transferred to Hornbach, 
and afterwards to Innsbruck, where they are still preserved.* Were 
there then two Firmins—the hermit of St. Perminsberg and the evan- 
gelizing bishop of Fabaria? And is it to the former of these persons 
and places the gloss-writer refers when he says, Formenus ‘‘is”’ 
there ; and Mac Firbis refers, when he says Formenius, after leaving 
his tower, went a thousand paces down the mountain, and there 
dwelt in another habitation ? 
It is a singular circumstance that Eichorn,* in his history of the 
diocese of Coire, writing in 1797, in ignorance of the Irish tradition, 
should have been led to question whether, previous to the arrival of 
Permin of Metz, there were not already certain Christian anchorites 
residents of St. Perminsberg. What raised that question in his mind 
was a tradition which, curiously enough, is conversant with a shift of 
the site of the original dwelling, purporting that Pirmin began the 
first construction of his monastery at Marschlins, but that, following 
31 Bucelin puts it at a.pv. 717; Eichorn at or after 724. 
32 The Benedictine Acta, vol. iv. p. 152 last edited by Mone (Quallensammlung 
der Badeschen Landesgeschicte, vol. i. p. 31). The original ms. is in the library at 
Einsiedeln. 
33 Mone, ibid., p. 36. a 
34 Originem suam debet Fabaria 8. Pirminio sicut et Augia dives. Legi in 
veteri dissertatione quadam prima monasterii fundamenta cirea annum 713 vel 717 
posita fuisse et in Martislinio seu Marschlins, ubi modo cum arce pagus est ; sed, 
opere vix ceepto, columba, ut fertur, locum monstrante (que, eapropter, Fabarien- 
sium insigne est) trans Rhenum in monte super Ragatiam cella extructa perhibetur, 
ubi hodiedum monasterium prominet. Quae, si vera sint, quosdam vel anachoretas 
vel monachos ante Pirminii adventum Fabariam inhabitasse necessum est; nam 
presul iste demum anno 724 in Germaniam venit. (Episcopatus Curiensis, 4°, 1797, 
p- 266). I fail to follow the reasoning of Eichorn, and must either suppose that 
some language importing that the memory of another holy person of the same name 
was venerated at the place, has been dropped out of his printed work, or conclude 
that his argument rests on no substantial basis. 
