''Dindsenchas'' or ''Dindshenchas'' (modern spellings: ''Dinnseanchas'' or ''Dinnsheanchas'' or ''Dınnṡeanċas''), meaning "lore of places" (the

modern Irish Irish (Standard Irish: ), also known as Gaelic, is a Goidelic language of the Insular Celtic branch of the Celtic language family, which is a part of the Indo-European language family. Irish is indigenous to the island of Ireland and was the ...

word ''dinnseanchas'' means "

topography Topography is the study of the forms and features of land surfaces. The topography of an area may refer to the land forms and features themselves, or a description or depiction in maps. Topography is a field of geoscience and planetary sci ...

"), is a class of

onomastic Onomastics (or, in older texts, onomatology) is the study of the etymology, history, and use of proper names. An ''orthonym'' is the proper name of the object in question, the object of onomastic study. Onomastics can be helpful in data mining, w ...

text in early Irish literature, recounting the origins of place-names and traditions concerning events and characters associated with the places in question. Since many of the legends being related also concern the acts of mythic and legendary figures, the ''dindsenchas'' has been an important source for the study of

Irish mythology Irish mythology is the body of myths native to the island of Ireland. It was originally passed down orally in the prehistoric era, being part of ancient Celtic religion. Many myths were later written down in the early medieval era by C ...

Works

The literary corpus of the ''dindsenchas'' comprises about 176 poems plus a number of prose commentaries and independent prose tales (the so-called "prose ''dindsenchas''" is often distinguished from the "verse", "poetic" or "metrical ''dindsenchas''"). As a compilation the ''dindsenchas'' has survived in two different

recensions Recension is the practice of editing or revising a text based on critical analysis. When referring to manuscripts, this may be a revision by another author. The term is derived from Latin ''recensio'' ("review, analysis"). In textual criticism (as ...

. The first recension is found in the '' Book of Leinster'', a manuscript of the 12th century, with partial survivals in a number of other manuscript sources. The text shows signs of having been compiled from a number of provincial sources and the earliest poems date from at least the 11th century. The second recension survives more or less intact in thirteen different manuscripts, mostly dating from the 14th and 15th centuries. This recension contains a number of poems composed after the Book of Leinster text. ''Dindsenchas'' stories are also incorporated into saga texts such as ''

Táin Bó Cúailnge (Modern ; "the driving-off of the cows of Cooley"), commonly known as ''The Táin'' or less commonly as ''The Cattle Raid of Cooley'', is an epic from Irish mythology. It is often called "The Irish Iliad", although like most other early Iri ...

'' and '' Acallam na Senórach''. Although they are known today from these written sources, the ''dindsenchas'' are clearly a product of

oral literature Oral literature, orature or folk literature is a genre of literature that is spoken or sung as opposed to that which is written, though much oral literature has been transcribed. There is no standard definition, as anthropologists have used vary ...

and are structured so as to be a

mnemonic aid A mnemonic ( ) device, or memory device, is any learning technique that aids information retention or retrieval (remembering) in the human memory for better understanding. Mnemonics make use of elaborative encoding, retrieval cues, and imagery ...

as well as a form of entertainment. They are far from an accurate history of how places came to be named. Many of the explanations given are made to fit the name and not the other way around, especially in the many cases where a place was much older than the

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 ...

spoken at the time of the poems' composition. In other cases, the ''dindsenchas'' poets may have invented names for places when the name of a place, if it had one, was not known to them. A detailed analysis points to a pre-Christian origin for most of the tales. For example, many placenames appear which had fallen out of use by the 5th century A.D., when Irish written records began to appear in quantity. Furthermore County Clare is given as part of Connaught suggesting a date before ~610 AD and the Battle of Knocklong. Christian references, and the Graeco-Roman myths and tales of Pagan atrocity associated with that influence are also mostly absent. Knowledge of the real or putative history of local places formed an important part of the education of the elite in ancient Ireland. This formed part of the training of the military, for whom a knowledge of the landscape was essential. It was also essential knowledge for the bardic caste, who were expected to recite poems answering questions on place name origins as part of their professional duties. An early example of this are the tales about

Mongán mac Fíachnai Mongán mac Fíachnai (died ''ca.'' 625) was an Irish prince of the Cruthin, a son of Fíachnae mac Báetáin. Little is certainly known of Mongán's life as only his death is recorded in the Irish annals. He appears as a character in the Cycle ...

which date from at least as early as 750, where the poet Forgoll is asked to recite the lore of different places. Consequently, the ''dindshenchas'' may well have grown by accretion from local texts compiled in schools as a way of teaching about places in their area. Edward Gwynn compiled and translated ''dindsenchas'' poems from the ''

Lebor na hUidre The manuscript known as Lebor na hUidre (English translation: Book of the Dun Cow) is the oldest extant written in Gaelic (Irish), and the texts included therein recount Irish history through an eschatological lens. The Christian authors who c ...

'', the '' Book of Leinster'', the ''

Rennes Manuscript Rennes (; br, Roazhon ; Gallo: ''Resnn''; ) is a city in the east of Brittany in northwestern France at the confluence of the Ille and the Vilaine. Rennes is the prefecture of the region of Brittany, as well as the Ille-et-Vilaine departmen ...

'', the '' Book of Ballymote'', the ''

Great Book of Lecan The (Great) Book of Lecan (Irish: ''Leabhar (Mór) Leacáin'') (RIA, MS 23 P 2) is a medieval Irish manuscript written between 1397 and 1418 in Castle Forbes, Lecan (Lackan, Leckan; Irish ''Leacán''), in the territory of Tír Fhíacrach, ne ...

'' and the ''

Yellow Book of Lecan The Yellow Book of Lecan (YBL; Irish: ''Leabhar Buidhe Leacáin''), or TCD MS 1318 (''olim'' H 2.16), is a late medieval Irish manuscript. It contains much of the Ulster Cycle of Irish mythology, besides other material. It is held in the Library ...

'' in ''The Metrical Dindshenchas'', published in four parts between 1903 and 1924, with a general introduction and indices published as a fifth part in 1935.

Texts and translations

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Other uses

There was also an Irish- and English-language journal ''Dinnseanchas'', published by An Cumann Logainmeacha between 1964 and 1975 to a sixth volume, which focused on placename research and scholarship.

References

{{Irish mythology (mythological) Early Irish literature Irish texts Irish mythology Mythological cycle Medieval literature by genre Medieval literature Irish books