The aim of this site is to bring together a wide range of resources which enable the reader to approach and analyse a text in various ways. When you click on a title from the List of Texts, you will be taken to a webpage centred on the study of that particular text.
On the webpage for each text, you have the option to view the text side-by-side with either the manuscript page on which it is found, or a translation of the text. You can toggle between these two options using the ‘View Translation/Manuscript button’ in the top right-hand corner.
The manuscript image can be explored using zoom and click-and-drag. The relevant manuscript page and column are displayed in the left-hand margin of the text. Click on a page number to view the corresponding manuscript image.
Each word of the text has been linked to the relevant entry in the Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language (where this exists). Each linked word will be highlighted as you hover over it. Certain medieval Irish words contain more than one element: for example, beridseom is the present 3sg. form of the verb beirid + the emphasising particle 3sg. m. som. In these cases, a word will contain several links and each element will be highlighted when you hover over it: beridseom or beridseom. Another example would be compound verbs which have been combined with an infixed pronoun: for example, dagní is the present 3sg. form of the verb do-gní + the infixed pronoun 3sg. m. a. This would be highlighted as dagní or dagní – clicking on either the preverb or the remainder of the verb will take you to that verb’s eDIL entry.
The text may contain footnotes which give information about editorial issues and about characters or places in the text. Hover over the footnote number to view its content, or click to view it at the bottom of the page.
Longer texts are divided into sections. You can navigate through these using the search box in the top left-hand corner. Either type in the section you wish to view, or scroll through the sections using the arrows.
Along the top of the page, there are tabs which can give you further information about the text: ‘About the Text’, ‘About the Manuscript’ and ‘Bibliography’. Click on these to view this information; to return to the text, click on ‘Back to text’ in the bottom right-hand corner.
