Áed Ua Crimthainn (''fl.'' 12th century), also called Áed mac Crimthainn, was

abbot Abbot is an ecclesiastical title given to the male head of a monastery in various Western religious traditions, including Christianity. The office may also be given as an honorary title to a clergyman who is not the head of a monastery. The fem ...

and

coarb A coarb, from the Old Irish ''comarbae'' (Modern Irish ''comharba'', Latin: ''hērēs''), meaning "heir" or "successor", was a distinctive office of the medieval church among the Gaels of Ireland and Scotland. In this period coarb appears intercha ...

Terryglass Terryglass () is a village in County Tipperary, Ireland. The small town is located on the R493 regional road on the north-eastern shore of Lough Derg near where the River Shannon enters the Lough. It is a civil parish in the historical barony ...

(), near Lough Derg in

County Tipperary County Tipperary ( ga, Contae Thiobraid Árann) is a county in Ireland. It is in the province of Munster and the Southern Region. The county is named after the town of Tipperary, and was established in the early 13th century, shortly after th ...

, Ireland. He was the principal scribe of the

Book of Leinster The Book of Leinster ( mga, Lebor Laignech , LL) is a medieval Irish manuscript compiled c. 1160 and now kept in Trinity College, Dublin, under the shelfmark MS H 2.18 (cat. 1339). It was formerly known as the ''Lebor na Nuachongbála'' "Book ...

( mga, Lebar na Núachongbhála), the Book of Oughaval, an important

Middle Irish Middle Irish, sometimes called Middle Gaelic ( ga, An Mheán-Ghaeilge, gd, Meadhan-Ghàidhlig), is the Goidelic language which was spoken in Ireland, most of Scotland and the Isle of Man from AD; it is therefore a contemporary of late Old Engli ...

medieval

illuminated manuscript An illuminated manuscript is a formally prepared document where the text is often supplemented with flourishes such as borders and miniature illustrations. Often used in the Roman Catholic Church for prayers, liturgical services and psalms, the ...

, and is also believed to have been its sole compiler.Breen, Aidan, ''Áed Ua (or Mac) Crimthainn'' in Duffy, Seán, Ailbhe MacShamhráin & James Moynes, ''Medieval Ireland: An Encyclopedia'' (CRC Press, 2005,
pp. 4–5
at books.google.co.ukO'Neill, Timothy, ''The Irish Hand: Scribes and Their Manuscripts from the Earliest Times to the Seventeenth Century with an Exemplar of Irish Scripts'' (Dublin: Dufour Editions, 1984, )Follett, Westley, ''Céli Dé in Ireland: Monastic Writing and Identity in the Early Middle Ages'' (London: Boydell Press, 2006,
pp 129–130
at books.google.co.uk Áed signed himself .

Life and work

Áed was a scholar and a descendant of an old ecclesiastical family of

County Laois County Laois ( ; gle, Contae Laoise) is a county in Ireland. It is part of the Eastern and Midland Region and in the province of Leinster. It was known as Queen's County from 1556 to 1922. The modern county takes its name from Loígis, a medie ...

who were the '' comarbai'' (heirs) of Colum moccu Loigse, the 6th century founder of the religious house of Terryglass and a friend of

Colum Cille Columba or Colmcille; gd, Calum Cille; gv, Colum Keeilley; non, Kolban or at least partly reinterpreted as (7 December 521 – 9 June 597 AD) was an Gaelic Ireland, Irish abbot and missionary evangelist credited with spreading Christianity ...

. He was the temporal, if not the spiritual, head of Terryglass, succeeding Finn mac maic Chélechair Ui Cheinnéidig, who died in 1152. It seems that Áed himself had no successor and was the last coarb, as Terryglass was burned down in 1164 and was then dissolved by reforms later in the century. Áed was a friend of Finn mac Gussáin Ua Gormáin,

bishop of Kildare The Bishop of Kildare was an episcopal title which took its name after the town of Kildare in County Kildare, Ireland. The title is no longer in use by any of the main Christian churches having been united with other bishoprics. In the Roman Cat ...

and abbot of

Newry Newry (; ) is a city in Northern Ireland, divided by the Clanrye river in counties Armagh and Down, from Belfast and from Dublin. It had a population of 26,967 in 2011. Newry was founded in 1144 alongside a Cistercian monastery, althoug ...

, who sometimes collaborated with him.O'Sullivan, William, 'Notes on the scripts and make-up of the Book of Leinster', in ''Celtica'' 7 (1966) pp. 1–31Kelleher, Margaret, and Philip O'Leary (eds.) ''The Cambridge History of Irish literature – Volume 1 to 1890'' (Cambridge University Press, 2006), pp. 33 & 36 Both Finn and Gilla na Náem Úa Duinn assisted Áed with compiling the Book of Leinster. Bhreathnach, Edel, 'Two contributors to the Book of Leinster: Bishop Finn of Kildare and Gilla na Náem Úa Duinn' in Michael Richter and Jean-Michel Picard (eds.) ''Ogma: essays in Celtic studies in honour of Próinséas Ní Chatháin'' (Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2002) pp. 105–111 According to a note in the Book of Leinster "Áed Ua Crimthainn wrote the book and collected it from many books". It is a literary compendium of stories, poetry, and history, and it appears from

annals Annals ( la, annāles, from , "year") are a concise historical record in which events are arranged chronologically, year by year, although the term is also used loosely for any historical record. Scope The nature of the distinction between ann ...

included in it that it was written between 1151 and 1201, although largely completed by the 1160s. The last entry in the manuscript in Áed's hand which can be dated appears to belong to the year 1166.

Gerald of Wales Gerald of Wales ( la, Giraldus Cambrensis; cy, Gerallt Gymro; french: Gerald de Barri; ) was a Cambro-Norman priest and English historians in the Middle Ages, historian. As a royal clerk to the king and two archbishops, he travelled widely and w ...

saw the book when he accompanied his cousin Strongbow on his invasion of Ireland and said of its illuminations that they were "the work of Angels". Áed was probably the court historian of

Diarmait Mac Murchada Diarmait Mac Murchada (Modern Irish: Diarmaid Mac Murchadha), anglicised as Dermot MacMurrough, Dermod MacMurrough, or Dermot MacMorrogh (c. 1110 – c. 1 May 1171), was a King of Leinster in Ireland. In 1167, he was deposed by the High King ...

. In the Book of Leinster he was apparently the first scholar to create the concept of the , the "king of Ireland with opposition", later more widely adopted. This described Diarmait's ambitions and the achievements of his great-grandfather

Diarmait mac Maíl na mBó Diarmuid Ua Duibhne (Irish pronunciation: ) or Diarmid O'Dyna, also known as Diarmuid of the Love Spot, was a demigod, son of Donn and one of the Fianna in the Fenian Cycle of Irish mythology (traditionally set in the 2nd to 4th century). He ...

. Áed's description of the period between the death of

Máel Sechnaill mac Domnaill Máel Sechnaill mac Domnaill ( ga, Maolsheachlann mac Domhnaill), also called Máel Sechnaill Mór or Máel Sechnaill II (949 – 2 September 1022), was a King of Mide and High King of Ireland. His great victory at the Battle of Tara agai ...

and the rise of Diarmait mac Maíl na mBó was misread by Conall Macgeoghegan when he compiled the so-called ''

Annals of Clonmacnoise The ''Annals of Clonmacnoise'' ( ga, Annála Chluain Mhic Nóis) are an early 17th-century Early Modern English translation of a lost Irish chronicle, which covered events in Ireland from prehistory to 1408. The work is sometimes known as ''Mag ...

'' in the 17th century, leading to the inclusion of poet Cuán Ua Lothcháin and abbot Corcrán Clérech in some old lists of

High Kings of Ireland High King of Ireland ( ga, Ardrí na hÉireann ) was a royal title in Gaelic Ireland held by those who had, or who are claimed to have had, lordship over all of Ireland. The title was held by historical kings and later sometimes assigned ana ...

. at pp. 869–870. A letter from Bishop Finn to Áed was copied into the Book of Leinster, at folio 206, by one of the other hands of the manuscript. This has been called the oldest surviving personal letter to have been written in Ireland,Forste-Gruppe, S., 'The Earliest Irish Personal Letter', Proceedings of the Harvard Celtic Colloquium ( 27–30 April 1995), 15 (1995) pp. 1–11 although this ignores earlier correspondence between Irish bishops and the archbishops of Canterbury.Flanagan, Marie Therese, ''Irish Royal Charters'' (

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...

, 2005, ) p. 122 & footnote 71 The letter reads: Áed respected Irish tradition, even when it offended his religious beliefs or his educated sense of reason.Lydon, James F., ''The Making of Ireland: From Ancient Times to the Present'' (London: Routledge, 1998,
pp. 42–43
at google.co.uk However, at the end of the Book of Leinster, the writer added this reservation:

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ua Crimthainn, Aed 12th-century Irish abbots 12th-century Irish historians Medieval European scribes Irish scribes 12th-century Irish poets People from County Laois People from County Tipperary Irish male poets Irish-language writers