Sources

Every paragraph on a case page wears one of five labels.

• From the law What a law-text says, put in our own words.
• Scholars say What scholars make of it.
• Our telling Our own scene or retelling, made up, and said to be.
• From the record What a court of a later age recorded or decided.
• Legend A later story, not law.

Law-texts were written down in the 7th and 8th centuries from older teaching. We use translations and studies, and we do not copy their wording. Books still under copyright are put into our own words, with the book named.

The honest limit. Most of our cases rest on Fergus Kelly’s account of the law, not on the Old Irish text itself. Where a case rests on a single modern author, its page says so.

The books

Editions of the law-texts

• T. M. Charles-Edwards and Fergus Kelly, Bechbretha: an Old Irish law-tract on bee-keeping (Early Irish Law Series 1, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1983). Read directly: the Old Irish edition with translation and notes, for the bee cases. Used in: The Bee That Blinded a King, The Craving, The Neighbour’s Apples, The Swarm in the Green.
• D. A. Binchy, “Bretha Crólige”, Ériu 12 (1938). Not read. We rely on Kelly’s account of it. Used in: Nine Days’ Care.

Records of a later age

• Sir John Davies, Le Case de Tanistry, in Les Reports des Cases (1615). Not yet read. The tanistry case is a draft until we have. Used in: The Case of Tanistry.

Modern studies

• Fergus Kelly, A Guide to Early Irish Law (Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1988). Read directly. It is a modern account, and it is the main basis for most cases. Used in: The Felled Oak, Nine Days’ Care, Fasting upon a Lord, The Smith’s Forge, The Craving, The Poet’s Warning, The King Who Was Satirised and Praised, The Dog on the Neighbour’s Land, The Rooting Pigs, The Woodcutter’s Shout, The Neighbour’s Apples, The Swarm in the Green, The Overloaded Ferry, The Boys’ Games, Distraint on the Physician, The Gap in the Fence, The Pet Wolf, The Cow That Had Just Calved.
• Fergus Kelly, Early Irish Farming (Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1997). Read directly, for trees, bees and farming rules. Used in: The Felled Oak, The Bee That Blinded a King, The Craving, The Pet Wolf.
• Robin Chapman Stacey, Dark Speech: the performance of law in early Ireland (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2007). Not yet read. The poet’s warning case is a draft until we have. Used in: The Poet’s Warning.

The cases

• The Felled Oak: Fergus Kelly, Early Irish Farming (Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1997), the chapter on trees and woodland: the tree-list and the fines for damage to trees, citing Bretha Comaithchesa. Fergus Kelly, A Guide to Early Irish Law (1988), on damage to trees; and his paper “The Old Irish Tree-list”, Celtica 11 (1976). We read Kelly’s account, not the Old Irish text itself.
• The Bee That Blinded a King: T. M. Charles-Edwards and Fergus Kelly, Bechbretha (Early Irish Law Series 1, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1983): the Old Irish text, English translation and notes for sections 27 to 34 and the dating. We read their translation, not the Old Irish. Fergus Kelly, Early Irish Farming (1997), on bees.
• Nine Days’ Care: Fergus Kelly, A Guide to Early Irish Law (Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1988), the section on illegal injury and sick-maintenance, which cites Bretha Crólige §§41, 42 and 59 to 61. D. A. Binchy, “Bretha Crólige”, Ériu 12 (1938), the edition. We have not read it ourselves; the rules above come from Kelly’s account of it.
• Fasting upon a Lord: Fergus Kelly, A Guide to Early Irish Law (Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1988), chapter 7, “Distraint and legal entry”, on distraint and fasting. He cites the text at CIH 365.5 to 367.7 and Thurneysen’s edition (Zeitschrift für celtische Philologie 15, 1925) and Binchy in Celtica 10 (1973).
• The Case of Tanistry draft: The Case of Tanistry (Le Case de Tanistry), Davies’s Reports, published in the early 17th century; read through the summary on the Brehon Academy site. The report itself is not yet read by us at first hand.
• The Smith’s Forge: Fergus Kelly, A Guide to Early Irish Law (Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1988), the section on accidents, citing Bretha Étgid at CIH 267.2 (the anvil) and CIH 273.29, 275.1 and 287.1. The Old Irish text we have not read ourselves; the rules above come from Kelly’s account of it.
• The Craving: Fergus Kelly, A Guide to Early Irish Law (1988), the section on stress and necessity, citing CIH 242.17 and the gloss at CIH 387.34. T. M. Charles-Edwards and Fergus Kelly, Bechbretha (1983), the note on the Old Irish phrase mían ngalair, “desire of sickness”. The Old Irish text we have not read ourselves. The rule rests on a short line in Kelly's Guide, with fuller notes on the gloss and commentary in his Early Irish Farming (about p. 350), which we have only used in part.
• The Poet’s Warning draft: Fergus Kelly, A Guide to Early Irish Law (1988), on the poet and satire and on verbal assault, citing Heptads 13, 14 and 33 and Bretha Nemed Déidenach. The Brehon Lawyer, “Early Irish ‘Influencers’? Poets, Speech and Accountability under the Brehon Laws” (2021), which follows John Biggins, for the thirty days. A secondary account. The thirty days and the three periods of ten are still to be checked against Stacey, Dark Speech, or the text itself.
• The King Who Was Satirised and Praised: Fergus Kelly, A Guide to Early Irish Law (1988), on the king and his judge, on satire and praise, and on Gúbretha Caratniad (Appendix 1, no. 5), citing CIH 2199.23–4 = Thurneysen, ZCP 15 (1925) 366, §51. The Old Irish text we have not read ourselves; the rule above comes from Kelly’s account of it.
• The Dog on the Neighbour’s Land: Fergus Kelly, A Guide to Early Irish Law (Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1988), the section on animal trespass, citing Bretha Comaithchesa (CIH 74.26–30, the dog). We have read Kelly’s account, not the Old Irish text.
• The Rooting Pigs: Fergus Kelly, A Guide to Early Irish Law (Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1988), the section on animal trespass, citing Bretha Comaithchesa (CIH 72.1–4, the pigs). We have read Kelly’s account, not the Old Irish text.
• The Woodcutter’s Shout: Fergus Kelly, A Guide to Early Irish Law (1988), the section on accidents, citing Bretha Étgid at CIH 274.17–8 (the falling tree), CIH 267.2 (the anvil line), CIH 273.29 (the kiln flail), CIH 275.1 (carpentry) and CIH 283.32–4 (the cauldron and fork). Kelly, pp. 149 to 151. We have read Kelly’s account, not the Old Irish text.
• The Neighbour’s Apples: Fergus Kelly, A Guide to Early Irish Law (1988), the section on neighbours’ rights, citing Bechbretha §§12–13 for the fruit (Guide p. 109). The half fine and the point on sacred trees come from Bechbretha §§14 to 15, not from Kelly's paragraph. T. M. Charles-Edwards and Fergus Kelly, Bechbretha (1983), §§12 to 16 and the notes.
• The Swarm in the Green: T. M. Charles-Edwards and Fergus Kelly, Bechbretha (Early Irish Law Series 1, 1983): the Old Irish text, translation and notes for sections 45 to 49. We read their translation, not the Old Irish. Fergus Kelly, A Guide to Early Irish Law (1988), on a finder’s rights in unshared land.
• The Overloaded Ferry: Fergus Kelly, A Guide to Early Irish Law (Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1988), the section on accidents, citing Bretha Étgid at CIH 271.14–272.1 (the ferry) and CIH 265.41 and 283.28 (the fair). We have read Kelly’s account, not the Old Irish text.
• The Boys’ Games: Fergus Kelly, A Guide to Early Irish Law (Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1988), the section on accidents, citing Mellbretha (Appendix 1, no. 34, edited by Binchy in Celtica 8, 1968). We have read Kelly’s account, not the Old Irish text.
• Distraint on the Physician: Fergus Kelly, A Guide to Early Irish Law (1988), chapter 7, “Distraint and legal entry”, on distraint of the dóernemid, p. 181, citing the 'text on the forms of distraint' (Appendix 1, no. 67; edited by Binchy in Celtica 10 (1973) 72–86, physician passage at p. 83). Kelly's notes place this text at about CIH 897.30 to 898.32; he gives no CIH line for the physician passage. We have read Kelly’s account, not the Old Irish text.
• The Gap in the Fence: Fergus Kelly, A Guide to Early Irish Law (Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1988), the section on animal trespass, citing Bretha Comaithchesa at CIH 73.11–2 (the fence). We have read Kelly’s account, not the Old Irish text.
• The Pet Wolf: Fergus Kelly, A Guide to Early Irish Law (Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1988), the section on animal trespass, citing Bretha Comaithchesa at CIH 73.19–20 (the pets). Fergus Kelly, Early Irish Farming (Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1997), on the list of pets. We have read Kelly’s account, not the Old Irish text.
• The Cow That Had Just Calved: Fergus Kelly, A Guide to Early Irish Law (1988), chapter 7, “Distraint and legal entry”, pp. 183 to 186, citing CIH 38.19–21 (the cow just calved and the cow due as rent), CIH 897.15 to 897.20 (the shorter text: bull, horse, oxen, pigs) and CIH 359.34 (the fine of five sets in Di Chethairshlicht Athgabálae). We have read Kelly’s account, not the Old Irish text.

Cases marked as drafts still rest partly on secondary summaries. Each is cleared only once the text it relies on has been read. See also the mistakes we have corrected.