Page:English Historical Review Volume 35.djvu/80

 72 THE SOURCES OF CONCHUBRANUS' January transference had become firmly established. Conchubran, there- fore, made use of a document written after about 950. We have him thus restricted to the period c. 950-1120. It is even possible to get a bit closer. In copying out a second earlier source where Scottia, Scotti, &c., applied only to Ireland, our author has not changed these terms into Hibemia, &c., as was the practice of later compilers of lives of Irish saints. Perhaps we may infer from this fact that he was writing during the transition period, say c. 1000 to 1100, when Scottia was still at times applied to Ireland,^ and Conchubran's ftoruit may be placed c. 1000-1050. The only reference to his personal history occurs in ii. 7 (p. 222), where he tells us that he had frequently made the journey between the monastery of St. Monenna (at Killeevy, near Newry, CO. Armagh) and that of St. Brigid (at Kildare) : Inter mona- sterium sancte Monenne et sancte Brigide est iter quinque ud sex dierum,^ etiam his qui per ierram recto itinere pergunt sine mari, sicwt nos frequenter prohamus. Possibly he was connected with some monastery situated in this part of Ireland.^ The monastery of Killeevy had in his time been repaired, and he had seen a number of Monenna's relics most carefully preserved there (iii. 1, 11, 12, pp. 228, 237). The Vita is a clumsy compilation from several previous sources put together without any regard for chronology or historical probability. Thus a saint who died in 517 or 519 is brought into contact with Alfred (or Aldfrith), king of Northum- bria (who died in 705), and at her death St. Columba (who was born not earlier than 519) is represented as arbitrating between the Irish, English, and Scotch as to the disposal of her body. The confusion can, I think, be cleared up by a careful study of the sources, but in the first place we must enter into some details as to the history of the saint. The Martyrology of Oengus (c. 800) commemorates * at 6 July entry found in the manuscripts are thus translated by Whitley Stokes : ^ Moninne of Sliab Cuilinn, who was previously named Darerca. Or Sdrbile was her name previously. But a certain dumb poet fasted at her which tends to show that in his day that was the more common designation. all point to this district. TaUagh, ed Kelly [1857], p. xxviii ; Mart. Donegal, ed. Todd and Reeves, 18(>4, p. 187. We find Darerca introduced into the * Life of St. Enda ' (cap. ix, ed. Plummer, Vitne as. Hib. ii. 63). » /bid. p. 167.
 * Moninne of the Mountain of Cuilenn ', and the notes on this
 * In i. 1, where he is not copying from any other source, he uses Scotia = Scotland,
 * In a straight line the distance would be seventy miles.
 * The topographical additions which he makes to his source at i. 2, 3, and ii. 7,
 * Ed. Stokes, 1905, p. 161 ; cf. also Mart. Gorman, ed. Stokes, 1895, p. 131 ; Mart.