Page:The language of the annals of Ulster - Ó Máille.pdf/25

§ 10.] Armagh, etc. After this the gradual and regular changes of the forms from time to time show by abundant examples that we are dealing with the language of contemporary chronicles. This is further borne out by a comparison of the entries with various Old Irish documents whose forms show them to be written at different periods, and which have already been approximately dated. To make this clearer I shall deal in full with the forms from 700 onwards. During the seventh century we have occasional entries which possibly go back to the time at which they are inserted, i.e. about the middle of the seventh century. I give a list of these, and shall deal with them later. Only in one case (viz., §§ 128, 129) do they serve to give an approximate date for a change. Outside this they are too rare to be of much value and cannot serve to fix an inferior limit.

§ 9. Up to the end of the Old Irish period, with the exception of the verse quotations, the great bulk of the Annals are in Latin. The names, as in the case of the Vita Columbae and the Book of Armagh, preserve in most cases the Irish declension. The Annals are dated according to the Anno Domini system. This points to the first compilation as being later than the time of Beda who was the first to use this system in Western Europe. This does not prevent the record of the events themselves belonging to a much older period written according to Anno Mundi and transferred according to some well-known landmark to the new system.

§ 10. Among the books and writings made use of in the compilation of the Annals are the following: those of a writer, Maucteus or Mochta, who is also mentioned in Adamnán's Vita Columbae: “quidam proselytus Brito, homo sanctus, sancti Patricii discipulus Maucteus nomine”. His death is mentioned at 534 which seems late.

Foreign works mentioned are the histories of Isidorus, Marcellinus and Beda. These are all quoted in reference to foreign events except the coming of St. Patrick to Ireland. Isidorus is mentioned at 432, 583, 616, Marcellinus at 432, 449, 456, 536. Beda’s “Chronicle” is mentioned at 432, 440, 460, and he is quoted at 565, 583, 605, a reference to his “great book” at 711 and his death is