LGE/Pseudonym The Book of Invasions was supposed to contain the (fictional) history of Ireland. The Book of Invasions form the major part of the Mythological Cycle. The cycle was written in the book titled Leabhar Gabhála or Lebor Gabala Erren - the "Book of Conquests" or the "Book of Invasions of Ireland". One of the poems in LGE, for instance, recounts how goddesses from among the Tuatha De Danann took Gaelic husbands when the Gael invaded and colonised Ireland.
The pre-Christian elements, however, were never entirely effaced. It was the stories of successive invasions and settlement of the Celtic people on Ireland. Five or six different people settled on the Isle. It was late in the eleventh century that an anonymous scholar brought together more than one hundred of these poems and fitted them into an elaborate prose framework - partly of his own composition and partly drawn from older, no longer extant sources - which paraphrased and enlarged upon the verse. The result was the earliest version of LGE. It was written in Middle Irish such as the Book of Deer, a form of Irish Gaelic used between 800 and 1200. These two stories continued to be enriched and elaborated upon by Irish bards throughout the ninth century. It was believed longer than it was proscribed. The manner in which Celtic-speaking peoples came to be in possession of the island of Ireland is still a matter of conjecture. However, four separate invasions or migrations can be distinguished (the dates given below are highly doubtful): And the first two "takings" of Ireland - those of Cessair and Partholón, both taking place before the Flood. If the Cruthin had an invasion myth, no trace of it remains in LGE

 

  • the pattern of successive invasions
  • Timagenes of Alexandria's -the origins of another Celtic people, the Gauls of continental Europe.
  • Ammianus Marcellinus (the fourth century historian) Timagenes (first century BCE) describes how the ancestors of the Gauls were driven from their native lands in eastern Europe by a succession of wars and floods 

 

829-830 the Welsh priest Nennius' earliest extant account is to be found in the Historia Brittonum or "History of the Britons," . Nennius gives two separate accounts of early Irish history.
  • The first consists of a series of successive colonisations from Spain or Celtiberia by the pre-Gaelic races of Ireland, all of which found their way into LGE.
  • The second recounts the origins of the Gael themselves, and tells how they in turn came to be the masters of the country and the ancestors of all the Irish. 

9th century--elaborated upon by Irish bards

These two stories continued to be enriched and elaborated upon by Irish bards throughout the ninth century. In the tenth and eleventh centuries, several long historical poems were written that were later incorporated into the scheme of LGE. Among the many authors of these important sources, four poets stand out:

    Eochaid ua Flainn (936-1004) from Armagh, Flann Mainistrech mac Echthigrin (died 1056), lector and historian of Monasterboice Abbey Tanaide (died circa 1075) Gilla Coemáin mac Gilla Shamthainne (flourished 1072)

 

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Four Christian works in particular had a significant bearing on the formation of LGE:

    St Augustine's De Civitate Dei, "The City of God," (413-426 CE) Orosius's Historiae adversum paganos, "Histories," (417) Eusebius's Chronicle, translated into Latin by St Jerome (379) Isidore of Seville's Etymologiae or Origines, "Etymologies" or "Origins" (early 7th century)

 

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