Dindsenchas orDindshenchas (modern spellings:Dinnseanchas orDinnsheanchas orDınnṡeanċas), meaning "lore of places"[1] (themodern Irish worddinnseanchas means "topography"),[2] is a class ofonomastic text inearly 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, thedindsenchas has been an important source for the study ofIrish mythology.
The literary corpus of thedindsenchas comprises about 176 poems plus a number of prose commentaries and independent prose tales (the so-called "prosedindsenchas" is often distinguished from the "verse", "poetic" or "metricaldindsenchas"). As a compilation thedindsenchas has survived in two differentrecensions. The first recension is found in theBook 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 asTáin Bó Cúailnge andAcallam na Senórach.
Although they are known today from these written sources, thedindsenchas are clearly a product oforal literature and are structured so as to be amnemonic aid 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 theMiddle Irish spoken at the time of the poems' composition.[3] In other cases, thedindsenchas 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. FurthermoreCounty Clare is given as part ofConnaught suggesting a date before ~610 AD and the Battle of Knocklong.[citation needed] Christian references, and the Graeco-Roman myths and tales of Pagan atrocity associated with that influence are also mostly absent.[4]
Knowledge of the real or putative history of local places formed an important part of the education of the elite in ancient Ireland.[5] 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 aboutMongán mac Fíachnai which date from at least as early as 750, where the poet Forgoll is asked to recite the lore of different places.[6] Consequently, thedindshenchas 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 translateddindsenchas poems from theLebor na hUidre, theBook of Leinster, theRennes Manuscript, theBook of Ballymote, theGreat Book of Lecan and theYellow Book of Lecan inThe Metrical Dindshenchas, published in four parts between 1903 and 1924, with a general introduction and indices published as a fifth part in 1935.
There was also an Irish- and English-language journalDinnseanchas, published by An Cumann Logainmeacha between 1964 and 1975 to a sixth volume, which focused on placename research and scholarship.[12]
