<center>_Ptolemy’s Map of Ireland – Part 56_</center>
<center>~ [Part 1](https://steemit.com/ireland/@harlotscurse/ptolemy-s-map-of-ireland-part-1)~</center>
<center>https://i.imgur.com/nSlyeGS.jpg</center><center>**Vellaboroi (Vtelabri on the Map)**</center>
In his description of Ireland, _Geography_ 2:2 §§ 1-10, Claudius Ptolemy records the disposition of sixteen Irish tribes. Resuming our voyage around the island, the fourteenth tribe we encounter are the Vellaboroi (Latin: Vellabori). Ptolemy places these people immediately south of the Ganganoi. They are the last tribe enumerated on the west coast.
In his 1883 edition of the _Geography_, Karl Müller notes no less than seven variant readings of this ethnonym in § 4. One of these differs from the critical form only in its application of the Greek accents. As the use of these accents was not regularized until the Byzantine era, they are generally considered to be “without authority” (O’Rahilly 1 fn 2, Gnanadesikan 220-221). In his 1838 edition of the _Geography_, Friedrich Wilberg notes five of Müller’s variants, though his critical choice differs from Müller’s. Wilberg also records a few variants that differ from one another only in their use of accents. In his edition of 1845, Karl Nobbe agrees with Wilberg’s choice of the critical form.
The alternative reading that has been added to three of the manuscripts (**B**, **E** and **Z**) is recorded by both Müller and Wilberg as Ἐλλεβροι [Ellebroi], but the correct reading is clearly Ἐλλαβροι [Ellabroi] in **B** and **E**, which are now available for online viewing:
Source|Greek|English
-|-|-
A|Οὐελλαβοροι|Vellaboroi
B, E, Z|Οὐελλεβοροι|Velleboroi
F|Οὐλλαβοροι|Oullaboroi
D, M, P, W, Δ, Ξ, Π, ב|Οὐελεβοροι|Veleboroi
C, V, R, α|Οὐελιβοροι|Veliboroi
X, Σ, Φ, Ψ|Οὐτελλαβροι|Outellabroi
B, E, Z|Ἐλλαβροι|Ellabroi
Source|Latin|English
-|-|-
4803|Vtelabri|Utelabri
* **A** is one of the _Codices Parisini Graeci_ in the _Bibliothèque nationale de France_ in Paris: [Grec 1401](http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b10538030z).
* **B** is one of the _Codices Parisini Graeci_ in the _Bibliothèque nationale de France_ in Paris: [Grec 1404](https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b11000304t?rk=21459;2). Like **E** and **Z**, this manuscript has the reading Οὐελλεβοροι [Velleboroi], but someone has added the variant Ἐλλαβροι [Ellabroi]: “οἱ καὶ ἐλλαϐροί” [hoi kai ellabroi = and the Ellabroi]
* **C** is **Parisiensis Supplem 119**. Presumably this is one of the _Codices Parisini Graeci_ in the _Bibliothèque nationale de France_ in Paris, though I have not been able to confirm this.
* **D** is another of the _Codices Parisini Graeci_ in the _Bibliothèque nationale de France_ in Paris: [Grec 1402](http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b6000512m/f1.image).
* **E** is another of the _Codices Parisini Graeci_ in the _Bibliothèque nationale de France_ in Paris: [Grec 1403](https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b107237734?rk=21459;2). Like **B** and **Z**, this manuscript has the reading Οὐελλεβοροι [Velleboroi], but someone has added the variant Ἐλλαβροι [Ellabroi]: “οἱ καὶ ἐλλαϐροί” [hoi kai ellabroi = and the Ellabroi]
* **F** is [**Coislin 337**](https://archivesetmanuscrits.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cc25423v), one of the _Codices Parisini Graeci_ in the _Bibliothèque nationale de France_ in Paris. It is believed to date to the 14th or 15th century.
* **M** is **Vindobonensis 1**, a codex in the Austrian National Library in Vienna.
* **P** and **R** are Venetian manuscripts identified by Müller as **Venetus 383** and **Venetus 516**. They are possibly kept in the Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana, though I have not been able to confirm this.
* **V** and **W** are two manuscripts in the Vatican Library, [**Vaticanus Graecus 177**](https://digi.vatlib.it/view/MSS_Vat.gr.177) and **Vaticanus Graecus 178**.
* **X** is [Vaticanus Graecus 191](https://digi.vatlib.it/view/MSS_Vat.gr.191), which dates from about 1296. It is believed that this manuscript preserves a very ancient tradition. Ptolemy’s description of Ireland is on folia 138v–139r.
* **Z** is Vaticanus Palatinus Graecus 314, a Greek manuscript from the old Palatinate Library of Heidelberg, which is now part of the Vatican Library in Rome. Like **B** and **E**, this manuscript has the reading Οὐελλεβοροι [Velleboroi], but someone has added the variant Ἐλλαβροι [Ellabroi]: “οἱ καὶ ἐλλαϐροί” [hoi kai ellabroi = and the Ellabroi]
* **Δ** is **Florentinus Abbatiae 2380**, a codex from the Abbey of St Lawrence in Florence.
* **Ξ** is _Barberinus_, a codex from the library of [Cardinal Francesco Barberini](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francesco_Barberini_(1597%E2%80%931679)). It is now housed in the Vatican Library
* **Π** This manuscript of Ptolemy’s _Geography_ was formerly in the [Library of St Gregory](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Gregorio_Magno_al_Celio) on the Caelian Hill in Rome. In 1872 the government of the recently established Kingdom of Italy confiscated the contents of the library, which were subsequently dispersed. Many of the volumes were expropriated by the Vittorio Emanuele II National Library of Rome.
* **Σ**, **Φ** and **Ψ** are three manuscripts from the Laurentian Library in Florence: **Florentinus Laurentianus 28, 9** : **Florentinus Laurentianus 28, 38** : **Florentinus Laurentianus 28, 42**.
* **α** is identified by Müller as the **Codex Ingolstadiensis**. He refers to it as the _Editio princeps_, a term generally reserved for the first printed edition of a work. Today, the _editio princeps_ is usually credited to Erasmus, whose complete Greek edition—based on a manuscript provided by Theobald Fettich of Kaiserslautern—was published by Hieronymus Froben in Basel in 1533. Earlier in the same year, however, Peter Apian of Ingolstadt published an incomplete version of the _Geography_ in Greek and Latin. I can only assume that Müller’s Cod α is a copy of this work.
* **ב** is identified by Müller as **Scorialensis Ω, I, 1**. This is a manuscript in one of the libraries in the royal seat of [El Escorial](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Escorial) in Spain.
* **4803** is one of the _Codices Parisini Latini_ in the _Bibliothèque nationale de France_ in Paris. It is a Latin translation of Ptolemy’s _Geography_ by Jacopo d’Angelo: [**Latin 4803**](https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b60007804/f50.image.r=Latin%204803).
To confuse the issue, Ptolemy refers to the Vellaboroi again in § 6. In this instance, the ethnonym occurs in the accusative plural rather than the nominative plural. Once again, however, there are a plethora of variant readings in the manuscripts. Not only do the manuscripts contradict one another, but in many cases they contradict themselves, having different readings for the same ethnonym in § 4 and § 6. In the following table, the tribal name has been transcribed as the implied nominative plural:
Source|Greek|English
-|-|-
A, D, L, M, N<sup>1</sup>, O, P, R, V, W, Ξ, Π, α|Οὐελλαβοροι|Vellaboroi
D, N<sup>2</sup>|Οὐελλεβοροι|Velleboroi
Σ, Φ, Ψ|Οὐενλαβοροι|Venlaboroi
B, L<sup>2</sup>|Οὐελλαβροσοιι|Vellabrosioi
X, Arg|Οὐτενλαβροι|Outenlabroi
X, Arg|Οὐτελλαβροι|Outellabroi
Source|Latin|English
-|-|-
4803|Vtelabri|Utelabri
* **L** is a manuscript from the library at [Vatopedi](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vatopedi), the ancient monastery on Mount Athos in Greece.
* **N** and **O** are **Oxoniensis Seldanus 2, 46** and **Oxoniensis Seldanus 2, 45**, two of the [Selden Manuscripts](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Selden) in the Bodleian Library at Oxford.
* **Arg** is the **Editio Argentinensis**, which was based on Jacopo d’Angelo’s Latin translation of Ptolemy (1406) and the work of Pico della Mirandola. Many other hands also worked on it—Martin Waldseemüller, Matthias Ringmann, Jacob Eszler and Georg Übel—before it was finally published by Johann Schott in Straßburg in 1513. Argentinensis refers to Straßburg’s ancient Celtic name of Argentorate.
Müller makes a distinction between **N<sup>1</sup>** and **N<sup>2</sup>** and between **L** and **L<sup>2</sup>**, but he never clarifies what these distinctions entail.
One can see why Müller adopted the reading Οὐελλαβοροι [Vellaboroi] as the critical form. It is the commonest reading in § 6, even though it is attested by only a single manuscript in § 4. Wilberg and Nobbe’s choice, Οὐελλεβοροι [Velleboroi], is the commonest reading in § 4, but is found in only two manuscripts in § 6.
So which of the many variant readings is the correct form? The choice, it seems, is between Müller’s Οὐελλαβοροι [Vellaboroi] and Wilberg & Nobbe’s Οὐελλεβοροι [Velleboroi]. The other variants can all be dismissed as transmissional errors that are only found in one or two sources. As it happens, the 5th-century historian [Paulus Orosius](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orosius) refers to a particular Irish tribe as the _Velabri_. Added to the linguistic evidence (see below), this suggests that Müller’s critical form is superior to Wilberg and Nobbe’s.
<center>https://i.imgur.com/zWkemrA.jpg</center><center>**Ptolemy’s Tribes of Ireland (After Marcian)**</center>
# A Note on Ptolemy’s Use of Breathings #
In Celtic, _v_ was pronounced like our modern semivowel [w], as it was in Classical Latin. In later forms of Irish, [v] and [w] are found, depending on the context and the dialect. As we have seen several times before in this series, Ptolemy used the Greek digraph **ου** [ou] to represent the Celtic letter _v_ because the Greek letter digamma, which had formerly represented this sound, had fallen out of use (except as the numeral 6). T F O’Rahilly explained this practice in his _Early Irish History and Mythology_ in connection with the Greek names for Ireland:
<div class="pull-right">
https://i.imgur.com/mmjKdeg.jpg
<center><b>T F O’Rahilly</b></center>
</div>
>The name ’Ιέρνη, “Ireland”, had probably been picked up by the Massaliot Greeks, from merchants and from their Celtic neighbours, as early as the fifth century B.C. ... The digamma had disappeared from Ionic as early as the seventh century B.C.; and when Massaliot Greeks first heard the name _Īvernā_ [Ireland], they presumably had no means of indicating the _-v-_ and simply dropped it. Later the Greeks adopted the expedient of representing _v_ in foreign names by ου ... We may take it that [Pytheas](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pytheas) [believed by O’Rahilly to be Ptolemy’s principal source for information about Ireland] retained the traditional name ’Ιέρνη ... whereas in dealing with other names previously unrecorded, we find him representing Celtic _v_ by Greek ου, as for instance in ... _Bouvinda_ [Βουουινδα] ... Ptolemy, or some near predecessor of his, modernized ’Ιέρνη into ’Ιουερνία [Ivernia] ... (O’Rahilly 41-42)
Once again I quote Amalia Gnanadesikan, the Technical Director for Language Analysis at the University of Maryland’s Center for Advanced Study of Language, on the use of diacritics in ancient Greek. In her book _The Writing Revolution_, she makes the following pertinent comment on the question of smooth and rough breathing in Ptolemy’s Alexandria:
>In the process of accumulating and copying texts, the Alexandrian scholars began to show concern for matters of orthography. They found that at certain points the lack of a written form of [h] made for ambiguity. They noted that the Greeks living in Italy had been more free-thinking than the Athenians. While they had gone along with the adoption of the Ionic alphabet, they continued to write [h] by cutting the _hēta_ in half and using ├. The Alexandrians adopted the Italian Greeks’ half H, but wrote it as a superscript on the following vowel, so that, for example,
<center>https://i.imgur.com/ZHdwc4J.png</center><center>**_ho_**</center>
>was _ho_. Loving symmetry, they made the other half of H stand for the _lack_ of an [h] sound before a vowel:
<center>https://i.imgur.com/xegclwj.png</center><center>**_o_**</center>
>These diacritics came to be termed “rough breathing” (for [h]) and “smooth breathing” (for lack of [h]). Their use was for many centuries largely reserved for cases where ambiguity could arise without them. These marks later became **‘** and **’**, so that ὁ was _ho_ and ὀ plain _o_ ... Only by the ninth century AD (well into the Byzantine period, AD 330–1453) did the use of breathing and accent diacritics become fully regular, with all vowel-initial words marked for “rough” or “smooth” breathing and all words marked for accent. (Gnanadesikan 220 ... 221)
I take these remarks to imply that Ptolemy probably only employed the diacritics for smooth and rough breathings in cases where the correct reading was not already obvious to the reader. In other words, he probably did not include the breathing in common Greek words, as its presence in such words was too well known to require inclusion. In the case of foreign toponyms and ethnonyms, however, he probably did include it. Hence we have Ἰουερνις rather than Ιουερνις.
Unfortunately, Gnanadesikan does not consider the exceptional case where an initial ου- [ou-] represents the Celtic semivowel spelt V and pronounced [w]. Did Ptolemy include the smooth breathing in this case? I have decided to include the smooth breathing, since it is included in the surviving Byzantine manuscripts. Hence, I have Οὐελλαβοροι rather than Ουελλαβοροι.
<center>https://i.imgur.com/xjiQB45.jpg</center><center>**River Roughty, County Kerry**</center>
# O’Rahilly and Mac Neill #
In his _Early Irish History and Mythology_, T F O’Rahilly had much to say about this ethnonym:
>_Vellabori_. This tribe, dwelling in the south-west of Ireland, is also mentioned by Orosius, who calls them _Velabri_. The River Roughty was formerly known as _Labrann_, which may come from *_Labaronā_ (p. 4), with which compare _Labarā_, the Celtic name of several Continental rivers, Ir. _labar_, ‘talking boastfully, chattering, talkative’, W. _llafar_, ‘loud, vocal’. This suggests that _Vellabori_ is perhaps to be emended to *_Vellabari_, which may be analyzed as = _ver-_ + _labarī_, for the change of _rl_ to _ll_ appears to have occurred in Celtic as in Latin. (O’Rahilly 9)
Another Irish historian, Eoin [John] MacNeill, had previously suggested a different emendation of Ptolemy’s text:
<div class="pull-right">https://i.imgur.com/cbypGIx.jpg
<center><b>Eoin MacNeill</b></center>
</div>
>Vellabori (Ptolemy), Velabri (Orosius) seems to have left a trace in the place-name Luachair Fellubair (LL 23 a 17). This name occurs in a poem which aims at accounting for the distribution of the peoples said to be descendants of Fergus Mac Roig. Wherever Rudraige, the Ulidian king of Ireland, won a battle, his grandson Fergus planted a colony of his own race ... Of these colonies were Ciarraige Luachra (in North Kerry) and Ciarraige Cuirche (Kerrycurrihy barony, co. Cork) ... Ptolemy clearly indicates the Vellabori as inhabiting the south-western corner of Ireland, and Orosius speaks of the Velabri as looking towards Spain. In the verse cited, we should expect gp. Fellabor = *Vellabron, but the word may be used eponymically in gs. (MacNeill 1911:62)
Some decades later, MacNeill returned to this hypothesis:
>In a paper on ‘Early Irish Population Groups’ (Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, xii, C 4, p. 62) I have shown that a reminiscence, and no more, of the Vellabori of Ptolemy, the Velabri of Orosius, is preserved in the single mention of the name _Fellubair_, found in a poem in the book of Leinster (23_a_ 17) ... so, in the poem, _Fīch cath Curchu, cath Luachra, laechdu Fellubair_, ‘He fought the battle of Curchu, the battle of Luachair, hero-home of Fellubar.’ _Fellubair_ rhymes with _Glendamain_ of the same strophe. The phrase _laechdu Fellubair_ means the native place of the hero _Fellubar_ (_-bur_). I have not found the name elsewhere, and particularly not in the ample genealogical account of the Ciarraige kindred, but the verse implies a known story of the hero, and the name must be a traditional reminiscence of the Vellabri, enabling us to correct to this form the names given from Ptolemy and Orosius. (MacNeill 1932:132-133)
O’Rahilly’s comment on this analysis:
>On the other hand, Mac Neill has called attention to some words in a poem in the Book of Leinster L. G. [_Book of Invasions_] (23 a 17), viz. _cath Luachra laechdu Fellubair_ (: _Glendamain_), which he translates ‘the battle of Luachair, hero-home of Fellubar’, taking _Fellubar_ to be the name of some traditional ‘hero’ of whom nothing else is known; and as _Fellubar_ would go back to *_Vellabros_, he suggests that the tribal name was (not _Vellabori_ or _Velabri_ but) *_Vellabri_. This may well be correct, at any rate for Goidelic; for whereas W. _llafar_ can go back only to *_labaro-_, Ir. _labar_, _Labrann_, may equally well go back to *_labro-_, *_Labronā_. In favour of _-br-_ in Irish we have the Ogam gen. LABRIATT[OS], = Mid. Ir. _Labrada_; and we may further compare Gk. λάβρος, ‘boisterous, impetuous’, λαβρεύομαι, ‘I talk boldly, brag’, which can hardly be disassociated from the Celtic words. (O’Rahilly 9-10)
In a footnote, however, O’Rahilly suggests that _Fellubar_ may be a place-name rather than a personal name:
>Or should we for _laechdu_ read _laeccath_, ‘warrior battle’ (which would suit the context better), so that _Fellubar_, like _Luachair_, would be a place or district name? Mac Neill’s interpretation would require _laechdu_ to be emended to _laechdon_ (gen.) (O’Rahilly 9)
For reference, here is the relevant passage in Orosius:
<div class="pull-right">https://i.imgur.com/rKaahKs.jpg
<center><b>Paulus Orosius</b></center>
</div>
>Ireland, an island situated between Britain and Spain, is of greater length from south to north. Its nearer coasts, which border on the Cantabrian Ocean, look out over the broad expanse in a southwesterly direction toward far-off Brigantia, a city of Gallaecia, which lies opposite to it and which faces to the northwest. This city is most clearly visible from that promontory where the mouth of the Scena River is found and where the Velabri and the Luceni are settled. Ireland is quite close to Britain and is smaller in area. It is, however, richer on account of the favorable character of its climate and soil. It is inhabited by tribes of the Scotti. (Orosius 2:2)
As to the precise location of Ptolemy’s Vellaboroi, MacNeill notes:
>In Ptolemy’s description, the Vellabri are the most southward people on the west coast of Ireland, the Iverni the most westward people on the south coast, but this does not show which people is held to occupy the extreme south-western region. His prepositions seem to indicate that the Iverni were to the east of the Vellabri. The Vellabri were ‘under’ (ὑπό), that is, south of the Gangani, but the Iverni were ‘after’ (μετά) the Vellabri. The _ostium Scenae_ of Orosius gives no certain light. It becomes _Inber Scene_ of the Irish migration-legend, having an undefined location in south-western Ireland, and is perhaps no more than an echo of Ptolemy’s Σήνου ποταμοῦ ἐκβολαί [Mouth of the River Sēnos]. If this last, as is likely, means the Shannon ... [the] district of ‘Luachair, laechdu Fellubair’ adjoins the mouth of the Shannon. (Mac Neill 1932:133)
<center>https://i.imgur.com/NLm6OnF.jpg</center><center>**Sliabh Luachra, County Kerry**</center>
Before leaving MacNeill’s and O’Rahilly’s analyses, I might point out that among the numerous variant readings of this ethnonym, there is no Οὐελλαβροι [Latin: Vellabri]. Ἐλλαβροι [Latin: Ellabri] is perhaps the closest.
# Roman Era Names #
The contributors to the website [Roman Era Names](http://www.romaneranames.uk/) also suggest that Ptolemy’s text is corrupt and should be emended, though they are unsure which emendation to prefer:
>**Ουελλαβοροι** (or Ουτελαβροι) (_Wellaboroi_ 2,2,5) in the very south of Ireland had a name that looks rather like the plant name ἑλλεβορος ‘hellebore’, which raises a suspicion that Ptolemy’s text has been corrupted, perhaps from something closer to the spelling _Velabri_ of Orosius 300 years later. Presumably it was lack of any viable Celtic etymology that prompted De Bernardo Stempel (2000) to suggest that these people were ‘wallflower eaters’, from the roots of Latin/Gaulish _vela_ ‘erysimum’ plus Greek βορα [bora] ‘food’. Better parallels may be Latin _velum_ ‘sail’ plus _boreas_ ‘north wind, northern’, meaning that these people were known for sailing to Iberia, a long voyage but easy to navigate since it was due north-south. (_Roman Era Names_)
It is curious that they do not even consider O’Rahilly’s “talkative” etymology. The less said about Patrizia de Bernardo Stempel’s _wallflower eaters_ the better.
# Martin Counihan #
The independent researcher Martin Counihan follows both MacNeill (unacknowledged) and O’Rahilly:
>About AD 416, Paulus Orosius wrote that the Irish coast looks out to the south-west towards the tower of Brigantia in Spain which is visible, he claimed, from the promontory where the mouth of the Shannon is found and where the Velabri and the Luceni are settled. Brigantia is now A Coruña, and the Irish promontory is presumably Loop Head.
<center>https://i.imgur.com/WHHK4ve.jpg</center><center>**The Tower of Brigantia, A Coruña, Spain**</center>
>The name of the Velabri, or _Vellabori_ as it was written by Ptolemy of Alexandria, crops up in Irish tradition in connection with the Battle of Luachra, a prehistoric conflict recorded as having taken place within a district called _Fellubar_. Almost certainly, the Old Irish _Fellubar_ and the Latin _Vellabori_ are versions of the same name. Luachra is the name of a mountain near the border of Kerry with Cork and Limerick, an area centred some 30 km east of Tralee. This is consistent with the ancient Vellabori having been present in north Kerry.
>
>_Velabri_ may be analysed as _ve-labri_, from an earlier _ver-labri_, with _ver_ = “more”, “above”, or “very”. _Labri_ is from the Old Irish adjective _labar_, meaning “talkative”, “boastful”, or “arrogant”. So, _Velabri_ meant something like “the very boastful people” in a culture where boastfulness and arrogance were regarded as noble virtues. (Counihan 10)
# Earlier Scholarship #
In the 16th century, the English antiquarian William Camden mentioned the Velabri as one of the native tribes of Munster. In his description of Desmonia or [Desmond](https://www.britannica.com/place/Desmond-historical-region-Ireland) he wrote:
>The _Velabri_ seem to derive their name from _Aber_, i. e. [_Æstuaries_](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%C3%A6stuaries); for they dwelt among [Friths](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/frith#Noun_3), on parcels of Land divided from one another by great incursions of the Sea; from which the _Artabri_ and _Cantabri_ in Spain did also take their names. (Camden 1335)
This etymology is not taken seriously today, but a possible connection with the Spanish ethnonyms is worth pursuing. It appears, however, that Artabri is a corrupt form of Arotrebae or Arrotrebae (Martinez 723).
In his Irish history, _Ogygia_ (1685) Roderic O’Flaherty can make no sense of the name _Velabri_, which he declares to be as foreign to him in sound as the names of _the Savage nations of America_ (O’Flaherty 23).
The Welsh scholar William Baxter, writing in the early 18th century, concurred with Camden’s analysis:
>**Vellabori:** In Ptolemy, these are an Irish people next to the Southern Promontory in Munster, on the authority of Camden. From the British _Bêl_ or _Vêl Aber_, ie _Head of an Estuary_. And I am inclined to think that the English name of that promontory **Biar Head** is a hybrid composition for _Aber Head_, which means the same thing. Also, in some sources of Ptolemy Ὀυελλέβοροι [Velleboroi] is written, or Ὀυελίβοροι [Veliboroi]. Each of these is surely corrupt. (Baxter 236)
Biar Head is an old English name for [Mizen Head](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mizen_Head), which has frequently been identified with Ptolemy’s Southern Promontory (Ware & Harris 43).
<center>https://i.imgur.com/km4YRrT.jpg</center><center>**Mizen Head, County Cork**</center>
In _The Antiquities of Ireland_ (1654), the Irish antiquary James Ware wrote:
>**Velabri**, a People, in some Copies called _Vellibori_. These People inhabited the northern Parts of _Kerry_; but whether they took their name- from the _Iberi_, a People in _Spain_, is a Point to be doubted. _Orosius_ maxes the _Luceni_ their neighbours on the Mouth of the _Shanon_. (Ware & Harris 44)
Ware’s 18th-century editor Walter Harris added a lengthy note to this summarizing the opinions of Camden and Baxter—his two favourite sources.
In 1789, another Irish scholar, William Beauford, added the following speculative contribution to the debate:
>Ουλιβοροι [Veliboroi]. Edit. of Pal. has οικαι Ἐλλιβροι. Ware thinks them the inhabitants of the northern parts of Kerry; but the Romans here also denominated them from their headland, in Irish _Beal Ibh Eiragh_. They were the inhabitants near Kerry head. In the neighbourhood of which Orosius places the _Lucanos_, the ancient inhabitants of Lixnaw in the barony of Clanmorris in the county of Kerry. (Beauford 60-61)
[Kerry Head](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kerry_Head) is the southern headland at the end of the Shannon Estuary. Beauford’s _Beal Ibh Eiragh_ must refer to the [Iveragh Peninsula](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iveragh_Peninsula). [Lixnaw](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lixnaw) is a village in the north of Kerry, but it is doubtful whether its name is related to Orosius’s Luceni.
In the early 19th century, the Irish historian Fr Charles O’Conor came up with a slightly different etymology for this ethnonym:
>_Velabri_, in other codices _Velibori_—In Irish _Siol-Ebir_, clearly the _Illiberi_ of Iberia, they dwelt in County Kerry. Orosius makes the _Luceni_ their neighbours—“_at the mouth of the river Scena_” (O’Conor lvii)
I think it is safe to set aside this etymology. It is true that many tribes in Gaelic Ireland have names that begin with [_Síol_](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/s%C3%ADol#Irish) or _Síl_, meaning _seed_, _progeny_, _offspring_, _race_. For example, the [_Síl nÁedo Sláine_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%C3%ADl_n%C3%81edo_Sl%C3%A1ine), the branch of the Uí Néill descended from Áed Sláine, High King of Ireland 598-604 CE. But Ptolemy’s Vellaboroi predate the Goidelic colonization of Ireland by several centuries. Their name is Celtic, but not Irish (ie Gaelic). O’Conor is also cavalier in his treatment of the initial sound. Is it _v_, _s_, or non-existent? These things matter.
In the late 19th century, Goddard Orpen of the Royal Irish Academy did not associate the Vellaboroi with any of the historical tribes of Ireland, being more interested in the neighbouring tribe mentioned by Orosius:
>The Οὐελλάβοροι [Vellaboroi] (_v. l._ Οὐτέλλαβροι [Outellabroi]), whom Ptolemy places in the extreme S.W. corner of the island, are mentioned by Orosius (floruit _circa_ 417 A.D.) in the following passage: [see translation above]. From this passage, which seems to have reference to the S.W. extremity of Ireland, thus agreeing with the position clearly assigned by Ptolemy to the Οὐελλάβοροι , I feel inclined to identify the _ostium fluminis Scenæ_ (or in the parallel passage of the Pseudo-Æthicus, _Sacanæ_], not with the Shannon, as is usually done, but with the _inbher Scéne_ of the bardic literature, i.e. with the great estuary now known as the Kenmare River. The Luceni of these writers might represent the later _Luighne_, a tribe-name now surviving in the baronies of Leyney in Sligo, and Lune in Meath. (Orpen 119)
[Pseudo-Æthicus](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aethicus_Ister) refers to the 7th- or 8th-century _Cosmographia_ of uncertain authorship. The manuscript available for online viewing at [Gallica](https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b6000542r/f23.image) has the reading **sacerne**, not Orpen’s **sacanæ**. In my opinion, it is unlikely that Orosius, writing around 417 CE, was referring to the Kenmare River when he wrote _ostium fluminis Scenæ_. As R A S Macalister has shown, it was much later that this expression was misinterpreted as a reference to the Kenmare River. Speaking of the framing story around which _The Book of Invasions_ was constructed, he comments:
>This production was a slavish copy, we might almost say a parody, of the Biblical story of the Children of Israel. The germ which suggested the idea to the writer was undoubtedly the passage in Orosius (I. 2. 81), wrongly understood as meaning that Ireland was first seen from Brigantia in Spain, where (_ibid_., § 71) there was a very lofty watch-tower. This suggested a reminiscence of Moses, overlooking the Land of Promise from Mount Pisgah: and the author set himself to work out the parallel, forward and backward. Incidentally Orosius gave trouble to Irish topographers, ancient and modern, by speaking of an Irish river _Scena_, setting them on a hunt for a non-existent _Inber Scēne_. As _sc_ conventionally represents the sound of _sh_ (compare the Vulgate Judges, xii, 6, where the Hebrew word _shibbōleth_ is rendered _scibboleth_), we must pronounce this word as _Shena_, and it is then easily recognised as Orosius’ version of _Sinann_ (genitive _Sinna_) or “Shannon.” (Macalister xxxi)
<center>https://i.imgur.com/lrn2ofO.jpg</center><center>**Carrauntoohil, County Kerry**</center>
# Conclusions #
I believe that Eoin MacNeill was correct when he hypothesized that the _Book of Leinster’s_ Fellubar is a reminiscence of Ptolemy’s Vellaboroi, and I think O’Rahilly and Counihan were correct when they suggested that Fellubar was a place name rather than a personal name. Counihan’s etymology, that Vellaboroi (or whatever the correct form was) meant ‘the very boastful people’, is perhaps a little too literal. Celtic tribes were usually named after an ancestral deity, so I am inclined to think that if there ever was a boastful speaker, it was this deity.
---
## References ##
* [William Baxter](https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_3go2AAAAMAAJ/page/n264), _Glossarium Antiquitatum Britannicarum, sive Syllabus Etymologicus Antiquitatum Veteris Britanniae atque Iberniae temporibus Romanorum_, Second Edition, London (1733)
* [William Beauford](https://www.jstor.org/stable/30078934), _Letter from Mr. William Beauford, A.B. to the Rev. George Graydon, LL.B. Secretary to the Committee of Antiquities, Royal Irish Academy_, _**The Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy**_, Volume 3, pp 51-73, Royal Irish Academy, Dublin (1789)
* [William Camden](https://archive.org/stream/gri_britanniaora02camd#page/n407/mode/1up), _Britannia: Or A Chorographical Description of Great Britain and Ireland, Together with the Adjacent Islands_, Second Edition, Volume 2, Edmund Gibson, London (1722)
* [Martin Counihan](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/331488283_Ptolemy's_Tribes_of_Ireland_revised), Researchgate (2019)
* [Patrick S Dinneen](https://archive.org/details/irishenglishdict011837mbp/page/n5), _Foclóir Gaedhilge agus Béarla: An Irish-English Dictionary_, Irish Texts Society, M H Gill & Son, Ltd, Dublin (1904)
* [Amalia E Gnanadesikan](https://docslide.com.br/download/link/the-writing-revolution-cuneiform-to-the-internet-the-language-library), _The Writing Revolution: Cuneiform to the Internet_, Blackwell Publishing, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, Chichester (2009)
* [Robert Alexander Stewart Macalister](https://archive.org/details/leborgablare01macauoft/page/n34), _Lebor Gabála Érenn: The Book of the Taking of Ireland_, Part 1, Irish Texts Society, Volume 34, The Educational Company of Ireland, Ltd, Dublin (1938)
* [John [Eoin] Mac Neill](https://www.jstor.org/stable/25502794), _Early Irish Population-Groups: Their Nomenclature, Classification, and Chronology_, **_Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy: Archaeology, Culture, History, Literature_**, Volume 29 (1911/12), pp 59-114, Royal Irish Academy, Dublin (1911-12)
* [Eoin Mac Neill](https://www.jstor.org/stable/30008094), _Varia. I_, **_Ériu_**, Volume 11, pp 130-135, Royal Irish Academy, Dublin (1932)
* [Eugenio R Luján Martinez](https://dc.uwm.edu/ekeltoi/vol6/iss1/16/), _The Language(s) of the Callaeci_, **_e-Keltoi: Journal of Interdisciplinary Celtic Studies_**, Volume 6, Issue 1, Article 16, pp 714-748, The Center for Celtic Studies at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (2006)
* [Karl Wilhelm Ludwig Müller](https://archive.org/stream/bub_gb_i_JfAAAAMAAJ#page/n0/mode/2up) (editor & translator), _Klaudiou Ptolemaiou Geographike Hyphegesis_ (_Claudii Ptolemæi Geographia_), Volume 1, Alfredo Firmin Didot, Paris (1883)
* [Karl Friedrich August Nobbe](https://archive.org/details/claudiiptolemae03ptolgoog/page/n94), _Claudii Ptolemaei Geographia_, Volume 1, Karl Tauchnitz, Leipzig (1845)
* [Karl Friedrich August Nobbe](https://archive.org/stream/claudiiptolemae06ptolgoog#page/n6/mode/2up), _Claudii Ptolemaei Geographia_, Volume 2, Karl Tauchnitz, Leipzig (1845)
* [Charles O’Conor](https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=wu.89095854790&view=1up&seq=67), _Rerum Hibernicarum Scriptores Veteres_, Volume 1, _Prolegomena, Pars I_, John Seeley, Buckingham (1814)
* [Roderic O’Flaherty, James Hely (translator)](https://archive.org/details/ogygiaorchronolo01oflaiala/page/22), _Ogygia, Or, A Chronological Account of Irish Events_, Volume 2, W McKenzie, Dublin (1793)
* [Thomas F O’Rahilly](https://www.vanhamel.nl/codecs/O'Rahilly_(T._F.)_1946a), _Early Irish History and Mythology_, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, Dublin (1946, 1984)
* [Paulus Orosius](https://sites.google.com/site/demontortoise2000/orosius_book1), _Seven Books of History Against the Pagans_, R P Pryne, Toronto (2015)
* [Goddard H Orpen](https://archive.org/stream/journalofroyalso24royauoft#page/119/mode/1up), _Ptolemy’s Map of Ireland_, _The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland_, Volume 4 (Fifth Series), Volume 24 (Consecutive Series), pp 115-128, Dublin (1894)
* [Pseudo-Æthicus](https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b6000542r/f23.image), _The Cosmography of Aethicus Ister_, _Bibliothèque nationale de France_, _Département des manuscrits_, Latin 9661
* [Claudius Ptolemaeus](https://digi.vatlib.it/view/MSS_Vat.gr.191), _Geography_, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Vat Gr 191, fol 127-172 (Ireland: 138v–139r)
* [Patrizia de Bernardo Stempel](https://books.google.com/books?id=lMkRAQAAIAAJ), _Ptolemy’s Celtic Italy and Ireland: A Linguistic Analysis_, in David N Parsons & Patrick P Sims-Williams (editors) _**Ptolemy: Towards a Linguistic Atlas of the Earliest Celtic Placenames of Europe**_, University of Wales, CMCS Publications, Aberystwyth (2000)
* [Rudolf Thurneysen, Osborn Bergin (translator), D A Binchy (translator)](https://books.dias.ie/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=8_19&products_id=64), _A Grammar of Old Irish_, Translated from [_Handbuch des Altirischen_](https://archive.org/stream/handbuchdesaltir01thuruoft#page/n5/mode/2up) (1909), Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, Dublin (1946, 1998)
* [James Ware, Walter Harris (editor)](http://www.askaboutireland.ie/reading-room/digital-book-collection/digital-books-by-subject/history-of-ireland/harris-the-whole-works-of/), _The Whole Works of Sir James Ware_, Volume 2, Walter Harris, Dublin (1745)
* [Friedrich Wilhelm Wilberg](https://archive.org/stream/claudiiptolemae00ptol#page/n3/mode/2up), _Claudii Ptolemaei Geographiae, Libri Octo: Graece et Latine ad Codicum Manu Scriptorum Fidem Edidit Frid. Guil. Wilberg_, Essendiae Sumptibus et Typis G.D. Baedeker, Essen (1838)
## Image Credits ##
* [Ptolemy’s Map of Ireland](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Prima_Europe_tabula.jpg): Wikimedia Commons, Nicholaus Germanus (cartographer), Public Domain
* [Greek Letters](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_numerals): Wikimedia Commons, [Future Perfect at Sunrise](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Future_Perfect_at_Sunrise) (artist), Public Domain
* [T F O’Rahilly](https://www.uni-due.de/DI/DI_Portraits.htm): Copyright Unknown, Fair Use
* [River Roughty, County Kerry](https://www.google.ie/maps/@51.8862174,-9.5474762,3a,75y,205.67h,98.69t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sViNxjh_zlD7n25nzKrpi8g!2e0!7i13312!8i6656?hl=en): © 2019 Google Maps, Fair Use
* [Eoin MacNeill](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Eoin_MacNeill_Portrait.jpg): Wikipedia, Public Domain
* [Paulus Orosius](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Paulo_Orosio_-_Detalle.jpg): Anonymous Engraving, Codex of Saint-Epure (11th Century), Public Domain
* [Sliabh Luachra, County Kerry](https://carrigmanblog.wordpress.com/tag/sliabh-luachra/): © John Finn, Fair Use
* [The Tower of Brigantia, A Coruña, Spain](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Torre_de_H%C3%A9rcules,_La_Coru%C3%B1a,_Espa%C3%B1a,_2015-09-24,_DD_11.jpg): © [Diego Delso](https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q28147777), Creative Commons License
* [Mizen head, County Cork](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mizen_Head.JPG): Wikimedia Commons, © Ent-ente, Creative Commons License
* [Carrauntoohil, County Kerry](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Carrauntoohil_Group_from_Cruach_Mhor.jpg): © [Jim Barton](https://www.geograph.ie/profile/26362), [Geograph](https://www.geograph.ie/photo/3431906), Creative Commons License
