TheBechbretha[a] (Old Irish for "Bee-judgements"[3]: xvi ) is anearly Irish legal text on the law ofbeekeeping. It has been dated to the middle of the 7th century CE. The author ofBechbretha may also have been the author of two other early Irish legal tracts,Coibes Uisci Thairdne andBretha im Fhuillema Gell.
It is the 21st text in theSenchas Már.
The text ofBechbretha is only preserved in a complete form in one manuscript (Dublin, Trinity College, MS 1387).[4]: 1 Five authors (writing between the 14th and 16th century) contributed glosses to this copy of theBechbretha.[4]: 12 Ten other manuscripts (includingBritish Library, MS Egerton 88) andO'Davoren's Glossary offer fragments of or quotations from theBechbretha of varying length.[4]: 8–13 It was edited (with translation) as part of theAncient Laws of Ireland (Vol. 4, 1901). In 1983 it was re-edited with a new translation and commentary byThomas Charles-Edwards andFergus Kelly.[5]: 296
D. A. Binchy proposed that the Irish legal textsBechbretha andCoibes Uisci Thairdne ("Kinship of conducted water", a tract onwatermills) were by the same author. These texts are both written in adorned prose and share a few stylistic devices as well as a common legal outlook. Charles-Edwards and Kelly follow Binchy in this hypothesis, and further propose thatBretha im Fhuillema Gell ("Judgements concerning pledge-interests") was a work from the same school as the author of the above two texts.[4]: 27–29, 32 [6]: 54
Charles-Edwards and Kelly propose that the author ofBechbretha was not a cleric but a legal professional writing a "professional tract designed to instruct actual or prospective judges".[4]: 37–38 However,Kim McCone points out clerics were sometimes judges in early Ireland, so this does not rule out clerical authorship. McCone argues that the subject of bee-keeping would be especially appropriate for a clerical setting, as monasteries possessed special beekeeping rights.[7]: 47–48 [2]: 234
Bechbretha describes the law of beekeeping in early medieval Ireland. It is the 21st text of the collection of legal texts called theSenchas Már, placed in the middle third of that collection.[5]: 296 Bees were an important part of the agricultural economy of medieval Ireland. Irish tradition attributes the introduction of beekeeping to SaintModomnóc in the early 7th century. However the presence of someCommon Celtic technical terms to do with beekeeping in Irish suggest that beekeeping in Ireland predates this.[8]: 108–110
Charles-Edwards and Kelly divide the tract into five sections: a section on the relations between a keeper of a hive and his neighbours (§§1-26); a section on injuries to persons caused by bees (§§27-35); a section on the ownership of swarms (§§36-49); and a section on the theft of bees (§§50-54); ending with a colophon (§55).[4]: 30–31 The author of theBechbretha attempts to justify the rules he presents by analogy with better-known laws. Questions about the swarming of hives onto others' land, which he tries hard to fit into the existing law of animal trespass, concern him much more than injuries to persons by bees.[4]: 31–34
In §31,Bechbretha gives the judgement against the keeper of a bee that blinded the Ulster kingCongal Cáech: one hive awarded to the king. Early Irish law very rarely gives cases involving genuine historical personages (preferring to invoke mythical or Biblical stories). Therefore this case, involving the historical king Congal Cáech, is quite unique. However, the legal case itself is probably mythical, given the unlikely facts and lenient verdict.[2]: 238–239 Bechbretha §12-16 may preserve some information from the lost Irish legal workFidbretha (tree-judgements).[2]: 274
Kelly has suggested that the early Irish law of beekeeping presented inBechbretha is of pre-Christian origin, as it has parallels with Welsh treatments of the same topic, and borrows little from Latin sources.[1]: 231 Brian D. Joseph has gone further to parallel some features bee-law ofBechbretha with theHittite Laws andCode of Lekë Dukagjini, suggesting an Indo-European origin.[9]: 16
Charles-Edwards and Kelly have dated theBechbretha to the middle of the 7th century CE on the basis of its language,[4]: 13 though McCone has expressed scepticism about the validity of this dating method.[7]: 45 Aterminus post quem is established by the reference to Congal Cáech (who reigned from 626 to 637 CE).[4]: 13 The compilation of various Irish law tracts into theSenchas Már, which is thought to have occurred later than their individual composition, is generally dated between the late 7th and early 8th century CE.[3]: 33
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