The court · Heptads 34, 51 and 52, with Cáin Lánamna, “The Law of Couples”, as Kelly sets them out, law-texts of the 7th and 8th centuries
The Wife’s Grounds
A husband strikes his wife to correct her. When may she divorce him?
Basis. Rests on Kelly’s account of the law, not on the Old Irish text itself. Open questions are set out below.
The scene Our telling
Neassa had spilled the milk twice in a morning, and her husband Dubthach struck her once across the cheek in the byre, as he thought a husband might. By evening the mark had darkened, and she wound her shawl over it before she went to the well.
Her brother saw it at the fair on the third day and said nothing, but he walked home beside her. She had her bride-price to think of. She also knew what folk said about a woman who left a man and could not say why.
The law
From the lawDivorce was allowed for many reasons. Heptads 34 and 52 list the circumstances in which a wife could leave her husband and keep her bride-price, the coibche. They include his leaving her for another woman, though she could then stay on in the house if she wished. They also include his failing to support her, spreading a false story about her, circulating a satire about her, or tricking her into marriage by sorcery. Several sexual failings of the husband, and his entering holy orders, were also grounds.
GlossThe law gave a wife a list of reasons she could rely on.
From the lawA husband could strike his wife to correct her, but she could divorce him if his blow caused a blemish.
GlossThe law allowed correction and fixed a limit at a blemish.
From the lawA wife who left without just cause was “an absconder from the law of marriage” in Heptad 51. She had no rights, and no one of any rank could shelter her. Even a wife with good grounds lost her bride-price if she left before a recognised period of time.
GlossThe law was hard on a wife who left with no ground, so the grounds mattered.
From the lawAt a divorce the property was divided according to the standing of the marriage, what each partner had brought into it, and the share of the household work each had done. Cáin Lánamna deals with this.
GlossNeither partner simply took what they had brought. Work counted too.
Weigh it
When could the wife divorce her husband because he had struck her?
The commentary
Scholars sayThe law-texts allowed a husband to strike his wife to correct her. We tell it as the law has it.
Scholars sayKelly notes the severe line the law takes towards a wife who leaves without just cause, against the many grounds it allows a wife who has them. We do not know how often wives used them.
Where we are not sure
Scholars sayKelly does not say what counts as a blemish here, or how a court would decide that a blow had caused one.
Scholars sayThe lists of grounds contain obscure items. Kelly leaves out one of them, a kind of husband whose name is unclear, and so do we.
Where this comes from
- Fergus Kelly, A Guide to Early Irish Law (1988), the section on divorce, citing Heptads 34, 51 and 52 and Cáin Lánamna §§26 to 33.
- We have read Kelly’s account, not the Old Irish text.
Last checked against these books: 2026-10-05. How we read our sources · Corrections