The Berchan Prophecy is a relatively extensive historical poem written in Middle Irish. The manuscript is kept in the Royal Irish Academy, (MS 679 (23 / G / 4)), along with some early copies. It was probably written in the twelfth century, perhaps even later, but collects what is supposed to be a prophecy of the early Middle Ages.
The text consists of 204 stanzas, two of which (128 and 168) are incomplete. It is divided into two parts: the alleged author of the first of them (verses 1-96) is an Irish abbot named Berchan, from which the poem takes its name. This first part consists of the description of the monastery itself, the narration of the Viking attacks, and the presentation of nineteen Irish kings.
The second part of the poem (verses 97-206) is an anonymous prophecy built around the death of St. Patrick in the fifth century, in which the life of Columba of Iona and King Aedan of the Dalriadas , as well as twenty-four other kings of Scotland, from Kenneth I to Donald III. The poem is very vague in its identification of kings, and employs a large number of obscure poetic and symbolic images. Unlike what happens in the first part, there are no glosses that accompany the poem indicating the name of the kings. However, it is relatively easy to identify them with the data provided by the poem, so this text is one of the most important sources of information regarding the period of history of Scotland that narrates. Bibliography
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