Lebor Gabála Érenn

Lebor Gabála Érenn is a medieval Irish compilation that recounts successive settlements of Ireland, linking its origins to biblical history and ending with the arrival of the Milesians.

Milesians (Irish tradition): In Irish origin legend, the Milesians are the final people to settle Ireland and ancestors of the Gaels. Their arrival concludes the compilation’s sequence of settlements.
Irish annals: Irish annals are chronological records of events, often compiled by medieval monastic writers. Their dating practices help explain how the compilation situates legendary events in time.
Cessair: Cessair is a legendary woman said in Irish tradition to have led the first settlement of Ireland before the Flood. Her story opens one version of the work’s settlement sequence.
Irish origin legends: Irish origin legends are narratives explaining the beginnings of Ireland and its peoples through myth, genealogy, and history. The compilation became the fullest medieval synthesis of these traditions.
Tuatha Dé Danann: The Tuatha Dé Danann are a supernatural people in Irish mythology, associated with Ireland before the Milesians. Their defeat and retreat precede the Milesian settlement in the narrative.
Medieval Irish literature: Medieval Irish literature comprises texts written in Ireland from roughly the fifth through the sixteenth centuries. The compilation belongs to a literary culture that preserved and reshaped older traditions.
Partholón’s settlement: Partholón’s settlement is a legendary episode in which a group arrives in Ireland and transforms its landscape. The episode combines settlement history with accounts of Ireland’s physical features.
Euhemerism: Euhemerism interprets mythological gods as transformed memories of historical people or rulers. The work’s genealogies and settlement accounts often recast supernatural traditions as human history.
Partholón: Partholón is a legendary leader who brings an early group of settlers to Ireland in medieval Irish tradition. His people form one of the compilation’s earliest settlement episodes.
Christianization of Ireland: The Christianization of Ireland was the gradual adoption of Christianity on the island, beginning in late antiquity. Christian learning supplied the biblical framework used to organize Irish origins.

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