Research Objectives:
The production of a modern reliable digital edition of Táin Bó Fliodhaise.
The presentation of a ‘layered’ or ‘stacked’ edition of the text.

Research Objectives:
The production of a modern reliable electronic edition of Táin Bó Fliodhaise, containing comprehensive textual and grammatical notes, a translation, and a discussion of the tale’s literary context.
The presentation of a ‘layered’ or ‘stacked’ edition consisting of (a) my own critical edition divided into segments, (b) my translation of each segment, (c) digital representations of the three manuscripts corresponding to each segment (d) textual notes for each segment (e) indexes of people and places (f) bibliography.

Research Process:
Location and transcription of all manuscript witnesses – this tale, from the Early Modern Irish period, is found in three manuscripts. Having located all witnesses, the text of each manuscript is transcribed, exactly as it appears in the manuscript, except that all scribal contractions are expanded. This process provides the diplomatic manuscript readings.
Production of the critical edition – this is based on a 16th century manuscript, the most extensive manuscript witness. The diplomatic reading of the manuscript is standardized, all punctuation is silently inserted, and spelling is regularized. Where lacunae appear in this principal manuscript, variant readings from the other witnesses are employed. The critical edition is divided into segments, to which all other components of the project correspond.
Translation – a full English translation accompanies the tale.
Textual and grammatical notes – an extensive selection of notes accompanies the tale, in which doubtful or unclear readings are discussed, additional information is provided on characters, grammatical points are explained, and the poetic meters of the lays of the tale are analyzed.
Mark up or encoding of the text – XML (Extensible Markup Language) has been chosen to encode the text. Page and paragraph breaks are marked, in addition to places where sections of prose end and poetry begin, and vice versa. In the diplomatic readings, all expanded contractions are tagged. Personal and place names are tagged, in addition to any word or phrase in the critical edition about which a note has been written.
Acquisition of digital manuscript images –these digital images are segmented to correspond to the sections of text as laid out in the critical edition.
Production of indexes and bibliography – indexes of personal names and place names accompany the text, in addition to an extensive bibliography.

Research Outcomes:
A modern, user-friendly, accessible digital edition of Táin Bó Fliodhaise.
Dual language (Irish and English)
The creation of a process in addition to a product. The template used to produce this digital edition may be used by future scholars engaging in this type of research.
The creation of a useful research and teaching resource.