Early Medieval Resources for Britain, Ireland, and Brittany

St. Adomnan of Iona

September 23 (AD 704)

"To Adamnan of Iona, whose troop is radient, noble Jesus has granted the lasting liberation of women of the Gaels."

Marytrology of Oengus the Culdee (9th century)

 

"Adamnan, abbot of Iona, reposed, in the seventy-seventh year of his age, on the nineth day before the Kalends of October."

Annals of Tigernach, 704

 

"The death of Fland Fina, Oswiu's son, king of Saxons, the renowned scholar and pupil of Adamnan" (705)

Duald Mac-Firbis (fragment copies of the Annals of Ireland)

 

Translations

 

Bibliography

Primary Sources

Sharpe, Richard. Editor and translator. (1995)Adomnan of Iona: Life of St. Columba. Penguin.

Anderson, A.O. and Anderson, M.O. ed. and trans., Revised by M.O. Anderson. (1991) Adomnan's Life of Columba Oxford: Clarendon Press.

Anderson, A.O. (1922) Early Sources in Scottish History Edinburgh: Oliver and Boyd. (Irish Annals etc)

Bede Ecclesiatical History of the English People. (1994) Edited by Judith McClure and Roger Collins. Oxford University Press.

Carey, John (1998) King of Mysteries: Early Irish Religious Writings Dublin: Four Courts Press. (Fis Adomnain: The Vision of Adomnan, 10-11th century)

Herbert, Maire and Padraig O'Riain (1988) Betha Adamnain: The Irish Life of Adamnan Irish Texts Society.

Meyer, Kuno (1905) Cain Adamnain: An Old Irish Treatise on the Law of Adamnan Oxford: Clarendon Press.

Ni Dhonnchadha, Mairin (2001) "The Law of Adomnan: A Translation", p. 53-68 in Adomnan at Birr, AD 697: Essays in Commemoration of the Law of the Innocents. Thomas O'Louglin, editor. Four Courts Press. (partial translation, sections 28-53)

 

Secondary Sources

Broun, Dauvit and Thomas Owen Clancy, Editors. (1999) Spaes Scotorum (Hope of the Scots): Saint Columba, Iona and Scotland. Edinburgh: T & T Clark.

Duncan, Archibald A.M. (1981) "Bede, Iona, and the Picts" p. 1-42 in The Writing of History in the Middle Ages: Essays Presented to Richard William Southern Edited by R.H.C. Davis and J.M. Wallace-Hadrill. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

Fraser, James E. (2002) The Battle of Dunnichen, 685. Tempus. (King Bridei who won the battle was reputed to have been a friend of Adomnan).

Herbert, Maire (1988) Iona, Kells, and Derry. Oxford.

Herbert, Maire (2001) "The World of Adomnan" p. 33-41 in Adomnan at Birr, AD 697: Essays in Commemoration of the Law of the Innocents. Thomas O'Louglin, editor. Four Courts Press.

MacDonald, Aidan (1997) "Adomnan's Monastery of Iona" p. 24-44 in Studies in the Cult of Saint Columba Cormac Bourke, Editor. Dublin: Four Courts Press.

MacQueen, John (1989) "The Saint as a Seer: Adomnan's Account of Columba" p. 37-51 in The Seer in Celtic and Other Traditions. Hilda Ellis Davidson, ed. Edinburgh: John Donald Publishers, Ltd.

Ni Dhonnchadha, Mairin (1982) 'The Guarantor List of Cain Adomnain, 697' Peritia 1: 178-215.

Ni Dhonnchadha, Mairin (2001) "Birr and the Law of the Innocents", p. 13-23 in Adomnan at Birr, AD 697: Essays in Commemoration of the Law of the Innocents. Thomas O'Louglin, editor. Four Courts Press.

O'Loughlin, Thomas. (1992) "The Exegetical Purpose of Adomnan's De Locis Sanctis" Cambridge Medieval Celtic Studies 24: 37-53.

--(1994) "The library of Iona in the late seventh century: the evidence of Adomnan's De locis sanctis" Eriu 45:33-54.

--(1995) "Adomnan the illustrious" Innes Review 46:1-14.

-- (1996) "Adomnan and Mira Rotunditas" Eriu 47: 95-99.

--(1996) "The View for Iona: Adomnan's mental maps" Peritia 10:98-122.

-- (1997) "Adomnan and Arculf: The Case of an Expert Witness" Journal of Medieval Latini 7:127-146.

--(1997) "Adomnan's De Locis Sanctis: A Textual Emendation and an Addition; Source Identification" Eriu 45:37-40.

-- (2001) "Adomnan: A Man of Many Parts" p. 41-52 in Adomnan at Birr, AD 697: Essays in Commemoration of the Law of the Innocents. Thomas O'Louglin, editor. Four Courts Press.

-- editor, (2001) in Adomnan at Birr, AD 697: Essays in Commemoration of the Law of the Innocents. Four Courts Press.

Picard, Jean-Michel (1982) "The Purpose of Adomnan's Vita Columbae" Peritia 1:160-77.

- (1984) "Bede, Adomnan, and the Writing of History" Peritia 3:50-70.

-(1984) "The Metrical Prose of Adomnan's Vita Columbae : an Unusual System", p. 258-271 in Ireland and Europe: The Early Church P. Ni Chathain and M. Richter, eds. Stuttgart: Klett Cotta Verlag.

- editor. (1991) Ireland and Northern France AD 600-850  Dublin: Four Courts Press.

Richter, Michael. (1999) Ireland and her Neighbors in the Seventh Century  New York: St. Martin's Press.

Sayers, William (1993) "Spiritual Navigation in the Western Sea: Sturlunga Saga and Adomnan's Hinba" Scripta Islandica 44:30-42.

Sharpe, Richard (2000) "The Thriving of Dalriada" p. 47-61 in Kings, Clerics, and Chronicles in Scotland 500-1297: Essays in honour of Marjorie Ogilvie Anderson on the occasion of her ninetieth birthday Simon Taylor, Editor. Dublin: Four Courts Press.

Smyth, A. (1984) Warlords and Holymen: Scotland AD 80-1000. Edinburgh University Press.

Skene, William F. (1876, Reprint 1971) Celtic Scotland: A History of Ancient Alban Volume I: History and Ethanology. NewYork: Books for Libraries Press.

- (1877, reprint 1971) Celtic Scotland: A History of Ancient Alban Volume II: Church and Culture. New York: Books for Libraries Press.

Williams, A. , Smyth, A. and Kirby, D.P. (1991) A Biographical Dictionary of Dark Age Britain: England, Scotland, and Wales c500-c1050. London: Seaby Publishers.

Woods, David. (2002) "Arculf's Luggage: The Sources for Adomnán's De Locis Sanctis"
Ériu 52: 25-52.

Woods, David (2002) "Four Notes on Adomnan's Vita Columbae" Peritia 16: 40-67.