The evolution of poetical texts in Táin bó Cúailnge

Abstract

This paper is an attempt at ascertaining the evolution of poetical fragments in two recensions of Táin bó Cúailnge, a medieval Irish epic. Contemporary theories of its development postulate that this process was driven by conscious efforts of several editors working in succession and that it took place in an exclusively written milieu. However, analysis of the discrepancies between poetic fragments in the frst and second recensions of TBC shows that most probably they have been separated by a period of oral transmission.