Marginalia in the Táin Bó Cúailnge in Lebor na hUidre: teaching aids or a work in progress?

In a recent publication, Donnchádh Ó Corráin comments on the work of the scribe known as M in Lebor na hUidre (LU): ‘Máel Muire’s annotations and marginalia throw more light on his work and deserve very close study’ (2015, 26). Indeed, these are particularly interesting as regards commentary in the margins of Recension I of the Táin Bó Cúailnge (TBC) in LU. Glosses explaining personages and place names, as well as difficult grammatical forms, are not limited to hand M throughout TBC but may be seen also in those hands formerly identified by Best and Bergin (1929, xiii) as A and H. All forms of commentary in hands A, H and M provide additional information about certain narrative details, the narrative itself and once the marginal commentator even refers the reader to a related tale, i.e. Tochmarc Emire ‘The Wooing of Emer’ on p. 58b. In another piece of marginalia in the hand of M (p. 61a), the commentator asserts and corrects the assumption by the reader that Culann’s hound was from the litter found in the skull on Congánchnes. While intertextual references, such as the reference to Tochmarc Emire, appear to be part of the serialisation of TBC as a main narrative to which smaller, complementary tales are attached (i.e. mostly remscéla ‘prefatory tales’), one must question the purpose of the remaining glosses and explanatory commentary in LU’s TBC. By looking at a selection of examples within their codicological context, this paper will investigate the probability that the marginalia to TBC in LU served a pedagogical purpose. I will also discuss whether and/or how the marginalia is transmitted into other manuscripts containing Recension I TBC and mention the contrasting state of affairs in the Book of Leinster copy of Recension II TBC. Ó Corráin, D., 2015: ‘Máel Muire, the scribe: family and background’, in R. Ó hUiginn (ed.) Lebor na hUidre. Codices Hibernenses Eximii 1, 1-28. Dublin. Best, R. I. and Bergin, O., 1929: Lebor na hUidre. Book of the Dun Cow. Dublin