Chronicles of Eri

The Chronicles of Eri is a collection of purported ancient Irish manuscripts which detail the history of Ireland, translated by Roger O' Connor in 1822.

Contents & Translation

Roger O' Connor claimed to have translated the ancient Irish manuscripts in 1822, from "Original Manuscripts in the Phoenician Dialect of the Scythian Language". The contents (a lengthy 900 pages) are alleged to have been written by a Scythian chief called Eolus which detail the early history of Ireland, treating the Milesian occupation as told in Irish mythology as literal history. According to O'Conner's translation, the Milesians were originally a Mesopotamian tribe of the "Tehgris" (Tigris) and "Affreidgeis" (Euphrates) who were taken captive by the "Eis Soir" (Assyrians) and subsequently became the Scythians. Eolus, a chief of these Scythians is claimed to have written large parts of the Chronicles of Eri, which further describe the continued journey of the Milesian-Scythians to Spain, and eventually Ireland.

Fraud

The Chronicles of Eri are widely now considered to be a literary fraud.^[1] O' Connor never revealed the ancient manuscripts he claimed to have translated and most believe they never existed. The archaeologist R. A. Stewart Macalister reviewed the work in 1941, calling it a clear fraud and its contents "cloud-cuckoo", comparing it to the Book of Mormon.^[2]

References

1. ^ "Remembrance and Imagination", Joseph Theodoor Leerssen, University of Notre Dame Press, 1997, p. 84f.
2. ^ Irish Historical Studies, Vol. 2, No. 7, Mar., 1941, pp. 335-337.