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

abbot Abbot is an ecclesiastical title given to the head of an independent monastery for men in various Western Christian traditions. The name is derived from ''abba'', the Aramaic form of the Hebrew ''ab'', and means "father". The female equivale ...

and

coarb A coarb, from the Old Irish ''comarbae'' (Modern Irish: , ), meaning "heir" or "successor", was a distinctive office of the medieval Celtic Church among the Gaels of Ireland and Scotland. In this period coarb appears interchangeable with " erenac ...

Terryglass Terryglass () is a village in County Tipperary, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is on the north-eastern shore of Lough Derg (Shannon), Lough Derg, near where the River Shannon enters the lough, on the R493 road. Terryglass is also a civil parish ...

(), near Lough Derg in

County Tipperary County Tipperary () is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Munster and the Southern Region, Ireland, Southern Region. The county is named after the town of Tipperary (tow ...

, Ireland. He was the principal scribe of the

Book of Leinster The Book of Leinster ( , LL) is a medieval Irish manuscript compiled and now kept in Trinity College Dublin. It was formerly known as the ''Lebor na Nuachongbála'' ("Book of Nuachongbáil"), a monastic site known today as Oughaval. In 2023 ...

(), the Book of Oughaval, an important

Middle Irish Middle Irish, also called Middle Gaelic (, , ), 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 English and Early Middle English. The modern Goideli ...

medieval

illuminated manuscript An illuminated manuscript is a formally prepared manuscript, document where the text is decorated with flourishes such as marginalia, borders and Miniature (illuminated manuscript), miniature illustrations. Often used in the Roman Catholic Churc ...

, 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 ( ; ) 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 medieval kingdom. Hist ...

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 (7 December 521 – 9 June 597 AD) was an Gaelic Ireland, Irish abbot and missionary evangelist credited with spreading Christianity in what is today Scotland at the start of the Hiberno-Scottish mission. He founded the ...

. 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 and abbot of

Newry Newry (; ) is a City status in Ireland, city in Northern Ireland, standing on the Newry River, Clanrye river in counties County Down, Down and County Armagh, Armagh. It is near Republic of Ireland–United Kingdom border, the border with the ...

, 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 (, from , "year") are a concise history, historical record in which events are arranged chronology, chronologically, year by year, although the term is also used loosely for any historical record. Scope The nature of the distinction betw ...

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 (; ; ; ) was a Cambro-Norman priest and historian. As a royal clerk to the king and two archbishops, he travelled widely and wrote extensively. He studied and taught in France and visited Rome several times, meeting the Pope. He ...

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 or Dermot MacMurphy; – c. 1 May 1171), was King of Leinster in Ireland from 1127 to 1171. In 1167, he was deposed by the High King of Ireland ...

. 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 (, ), also known as Diarmuid of the Love Spot, is a hero and demigod in the Fenian Cycle of Irish mythology, traditionally thought to be set in the 2nd to 4th century. He is the son of Donn, son of Duibhne of the Fianna, ...

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

Máel Sechnaill mac Domnaill Máel Sechnaill mac Domnaill (), 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 against Olaf Cuaran in 980 resulted i ...

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'' () 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 ''Mageoghagan's Book'', after its tr ...

'' 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 ( ) 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 was later sometimes assigned anachronously or to leg ...

. 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 publishing house of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world. Its first book was printed in Oxford in 1478, with the Press 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