Gaelic Version A

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The Gaelic version of the Seven Sages, surviving in only one manuscript in the National Library of Scotland and dating from c. 1690, is incomplete. Only the final four stories remain - but according to Greene (1944), they accord closely with the details and pattern expected of the Version A tradition. This prose text differs sufficiently in style and detail from the Middle English Version A (which is a verse redaction) to preclude the English from being its source. Greene has instead proposed a Latin text of Version A, found in an Irish manuscript (Dublin Trinity College Library Ms 667), as a possible original source for the Gaelic text. However, Greene also opperates on the assumption that the seventeenth-century Scots Gaelic manuscript that survives was a copy of an earlier Gaelic text. Though no earlier Irish/Gaelic translations of the Seven Sages narrative survive, there is a reference to one from the library of the Fitzgerald Earls of Kildare at Maynooth. In her study of this medieval inventories of this library, Aisling Byrne has identified a text designated [51a] with the title 'Foilfylmurey / The VII sages', one of the Irish text from the collection that is sadly no longer extant.

The National Library of Scotland's catalogue indicates that this text may be associated with an 'Alexander MacDonald' - who may potentially be identified as the famous Jacobite Gaelic poet Alasdair MacDhòmhnaill, also known as Alasdair Mac Mhaighstir Alasdair.

General Information

Parent Versions

A (Seven Sages)

Title

Seven Wise Masters

Siglum of the version of the Seven Sages

A (Seven Sages)

Branch of the tradition

West

Language & Composition

Translated into (languages)

Scots Gaelic

Date of Composition

1690 - 1700

Source for date of composition

Greene (1944)

Literature & Editions

Modern research literature

Greene (1944), Byrne (2013)

Modern Editions

Greene, A Gaelic Version of "The Seven Wise Masters" (1944)

Recorded Branch of This Secondary Version

• A (Seven Sages)
  • Dutch Version A
  • French Version A: Roman des Sept Sages
    • Group U
    • Group V
    • Group W
    • Group X
    • Group Y
    • Group Z
  • Gaelic Version A
  • German Version A: Allegatio/Libellus
  • Italian Version A
    • Italian Prose (V)
    • Libro dei Sette Savj (A)
    • Storia favolosa di Stefano (S)
  • Latin Version A
    • Latin Version A: Allegatio / Libellus
    • Latin Version A: De Septem Sapientibus
  • Middle English Version A
    • Midland Version
    • Y Group
      • Northern English
      • Southern English
  • Old Swedish Version A: Sju vise mästare
    • Old Swedish Redaction A
    • Old Swedish Redaction B
  • Older Scots Version A: Buke of the Sevyne Sagis
  • Welsh Version A: Chwedleu Seith Doethon Rufein
    • Early Modern and Modern Welsh Version A
    • Middle Welsh Version A

Adaptations

Adapted from (version)

Latin Version A

Source for composition and adaptation information

Greene (1944)

Languages in Use

Regional or specific language of version

Scots Gaelic

Pattern of Embedded Stories in This Version

Has Short Title	Has Sequence Number	Has Narrator	Has Name Variation
Vidua – The Widow	12	Sixth Master
Roma – Rome Besieged	13	Empress
Inclusa – The Imprisoned Wife	14	Seventh Master

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	Has Language	Has Location	Has Date Range Of Production