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Which types of poems were collected in The Book of the Dean of Lismore?
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Celtic literature
Britannica editor Jeff Wallenfeldt provides an overview of the Irish language.
The Book of the Dean of Lismore is a significant miscellany of Scottish and Irish poetry, serving as the oldest extant collection of Gaelic verse from Scotland.1
The collection features a diverse range of poetic and narrative works, including:
- Heroic Tales and Ballads: The manuscript concludes with a series of narratives drawn from the Ulster (Ulaid) cycle and the Fenian cycle of Irish legend.1
- Miscellaneous Poems: The volume contains a wide array of poems attributed to 44 Scottish and 21 Irish authors.1
Compiled between 1512 and 1526 by Sir James MacGregor and his brother Duncan, the poems are notable for being written in literary Gaelic using a phonetic spelling system based on vernacular usage in the Scottish Highlands.1