This essay considers a combination of trivial and quadruvial techniques, a fusion of literary with computistic mnemonics in the Collectanea Ps-Bedae, in which words for numbers are made to exhibit their values by their placement in the text and words for objects and names are made to exhibit by their placement their alphanumeric values.

This essay considers a range of linguistic and literary phenomena that suggest an historical basis for the Irish foundation legend.

This is a review of Liam Breatnach’s A companion to the Corpus iuris hibernici (Dublin 2005). His book provides a survey of the content of Binchy’s Corpus iuris hibernici (Dublin 1978). It identifies the surviving materials for individual Brehon law tracts, including the tracts of the Senchas már. It also provides diplomatic transcriptions of texts from legal manuscripts absent from the Corpus. The present article argues that the Senchas már consisted of three tiers of tracts and that these three tiers are so aligned that they form eight groups of six tracts each. Each group focuses on a particular section of the law.

This is an examination of Aldhelm’s use of sources and his links to a literary tradition, focusing on one of his Enigmata as a case study. I explore the theory proposed by M. L. Cameron that Aldhelm observed some of his subjects from nature, and also consider some of his methods of poetic composition and how this might affect other aspects of his creative output.

The kingship of Tara alternated strictly between two Uí Néill dynasties, Cenél nEógain and Clann Cholmáin, between 734 and 944. This is an examination of how it was possible to exclude the other two main Uí Néill dynasties, Cenél Conaill and Síl nÁedo Sláine, from this kingship, how this alternation came into being, and how it was maintained. The main question is whether this strict alternation was at any time confirmed by treaties or whether it was merely the result of the power-politics of the day.