Cóir Anmann: A Late Middle Irish Treatise On Personal Names Part 1

Sharon Arbuthnot (2005)

VII + 248 pp. ISBN 1 870 16659 0

This volume is the first part of a new critical edition of the Middle Irish text Cóir Anmann , ‘Fitness of Names’. The only previous edition of this fascinating text, which is full of lore on the origin of the names of famous people, was by Whitley Stokes in 1897. The text, which is characteristic of medieval Irish interest in names, has been variously described as a handbook and as a storehouse of personal name and epithet explanations. Dr Arbuthnot’s comprehensive edition contains much new material, which adds to the importance of the volume. The second part, which contains an edition of the latest version of the text, described by the editor as a ‘greater Cóir Anmann ‘ is published as Vol. 60 of the Main Series.