glossing continued well into the twelfth century, though
after the ninth century it was expressed mainly in Latin.
PÁDRAIG Ó NÉILL
References and Further Reading
Contreni, John J., and Pádraig P. Ó Néill , eds. Glossae Divinae
Historiae: The Biblical Glosses of John Scottus Eriugena.
Florence: SISMEL, 1997.
Draak, M. “Construe Marks in Hiberno-Latin Manuscripts.”
Mededelingen der Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van
Wetenschappen, afd. Letterkunde. new series 20 (1947):
261–282.
Hofman, Rijcklof. The Sankt Gall Priscian Commentary, Part 1.
2 vols. Münster: Nodus Publications, 1996.
Stokes, Whitley, and John Strachan. Thesaurus Palaeohiberni-
cus: A Collection of Old-Irish Glosses, Scholia, Prose and
Ve r s e. 2 vols. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
1901–1903. Reprinted with supplement, Dublin: Dublin
Institute for Advanced Studies, 1975.
See also Biblical and Church Fathers Scholarship;
Etymology; Grammatical Treatises; Hiberno-Latin
GORMLAITH (d. 948)
Daughter of a southern Uí Néill king of Tara, it is
alleged that she was successively queen-consort of
Munster, Leinster, and Tara, and also a poetess. Her
part as thrice-married queen has prompted much dis-
cussion in relation to sovereignty symbolism. Histor-
ically, there is perhaps a stronger case, as Ó Cróinín
argues, for viewing her as party to dynastic intrigues
in early-tenth-century Leinster. The political priorities
of her father, Flann Sinna (d. 916) of Clann Cholmáin,
make her role in a marriage-alliance with the Uí
Fáeláin dynasty of Leinster understandable. More dif-
ficult to justify is the assertion of the Middle Irish
poem “Éirigh [a] ingen an rígh” that she was previ-
ously married to the bishop-king of Cashel, Cormac
mac Cuilennáin. The latter, it is stressed, was celibate—
making their marriage merely a symbolic union.
Record of Cormac’s death in 908—he was killed in
the battle of Belach Mugna—implies that her marriage
to the victor of that battle, Cerball (d. 909) mac
Muireccáin, Uí Fáeláin over king of Leinster, lasted
no more than a year. A text in the Book of Leinster,
which claims that Cerball spent this year recovering
from wounds sustained at Belach Mugna, portrays him
as a violent bully who mocked the memory of Cormac
and treated Gormlaith so badly that, at least once, she
felt the need to return to her father. She subsequently
married Niall Glúndubh, the Cenél nÉogain king of
Tara, who fell at the battle of Islandbridge in 919.
Gormlaith’s reputation as a poetess was enlarged by
early-modern tradition, related in the Annals of
Clonmacnoise and repeated by several modern com-
mentators, that she was left in want by her royal husbands
and became a wandering rhymer, reliant on the support
of common folk. It may be noted that her obit in the
more-sober Annals of Ulster says nothing of this.
Leaving aside very late ascriptions to Gormlaith of
miscellaneous verses, which range in date of compo-
sition, Middle Irish sources assign to her laments for
Cerball and Niall but, perhaps significantly, not Cormac.
Difficulties relating to this marriage leave it probable
that it is a fiction—created when memory of Gormlaith
became assimilated to the “sovereignty goddess” who
had three husbands. In contrast, the case for accepting
as historical her marriage to Cerball is strengthened
by a dindshenchas poem in the Book of Leinster, which
also presents a different view of their relationship,
implying that she was involved in intrigue on his
behalf. She is blamed for the deaths of Cellach Carmain,
who was an Uí Muiredaig dynast, and his wife Aillenn—
apparently rivals of her husband. This circumstance,
along with the fact that Cerball had the support of
Flann Sinna at Belach Mugna, fits well with a Clann
Cholmáin–Uí Fáeláin alliance in the years prior to that
battle. Gormlaith outlived her last husband by almost
thirty years, which suggests that she reached quite an
advanced age. Record of her death in penitence sug-
gests that she ended her days in a convent.
AILBHE MACSHAMHRÁINReferences and Further Reading
Bergin, Osborn, ed. “Poems Attributed to Gormlaith,” In Mis-
cellany Presented to Kuno Meyer, edited by Osborn Bergin
and Carl Marstrander, 343–369. Halle a.S.: M. Niemeyer,
1912.
Best, R. I., et al., eds. The Book of Leinster Vols. 1 and 4. Dublin:
Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1954–1983.
Ní Dhonnchadha, Máirín, ed. “Éirigh [a] ingen an rígh; (Biblio-
theque Royale, Brussels, MS 20978-9, f. 54v).” In Seanchas:
Studies in Early and Medieval Irish Archaeology, History,
and Literature in Honour of Francis J. Byrne, edited by
Alfred P. Smyth, 234–237. Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2000.
———. “On Gormlaith, Daughter of Flann Sinna.” In Seanchas,
edited by A. P. Smyth, 225–233. Dublin: Four Courts Press,
2000.
Ó Cróinín, Dáibhí. “Rewriting Irish Political History in the
Tenth Century.” In Seanchas, edited by A. P. Smyth,
212–225. Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2000.
Trindade, W. Ann. “Irish Gormlaith as a Soverignty Figure.”
Études Celtiques 23 (1986): 143–156.
See also Uí Néill, southern; Cerball mac
Muireccáin; Cormac mac CuilennáinGORMLAITH (d. 1030)
This Gormlaith was the daughter of Murchad mac Finn
of the Uí Fáeláin branch of Uí Dúnlainge, king of
Leinster from 966 to 972. The last of three royal women
of that name to become the center of a considerableGORMLAITH (d. 1030)