"The Lore Concerning Places"
The dindsenchas are an example of what is called onomastic literature--in this case, relatively short poems which describe how places in Ireland got their name. Often, these "explanations" are made to fit the name, and not the other way around, as the place-name was much older than the Middle Irish spoken at the time of the poems' composition.
Most of the dindsenchas are contained in the Book of Leinster. They were translated at the turn of the 20th century by E. J. Gwyn. Four of the volumes are found at ">CELT.
There were also a series of dindsenchas in a Rennes manuscript; these were translated by Whitley Stokes in the 19th century.
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Mary Jones © 2004