The Leabhar Gabhala and Carolingian Origin Legends

This chapter considers the story of Fénius Farsaid and his descendants in Tract I of the Leabhar Gabhála as an example of an international genre of pseudohistorical origin legends, in which a nations beginnings are associated with kinslaying and oppression leading to of a westward migration from the heartlands of Classical antiquity. I suggest that the narrative was developed and disseminated through the presence of the Irish peregrini in Carolingian intellectual circles. Versions of the origin legend were included as background material in certain hagiographical texts, from which some materials survive in medieval Scottish chronicles; while a fragment from an extended version survives in the Vita Cathroe composed at Metz in the late tenth century. I will suggest that this extract, which incorporates a complex borrowing from the Roman poet Lucan,  provides a glimpse of an early Latin version of the Leabhar Gabhála narrative, distinct from but related to those witnessed by the Irish-language textual tradition.