Crundmáel (Cruindmelus)

Crundmáel (Cruindmelus) (fl. 9th cent.), Irish scholar in the Carolingian empire, was a contemporary of Clemens Scottus (qv) and author of a metrical grammar, ‘Ars [or ‘De arte’] metrica’, which in its treatment and use of sources clearly belongs to a well-defined group of Irish grammatical tracts designated the ‘DO/Nanc.–Clm/Clem./Wirc. group’. An inscription in the Freising manuscript of the text mentions a ‘Fulchar’, but it is probable that he is the scribe and not the author. Crundmáel's sources are legion and include the older classical grammars by Donatus, Servius, Sergius, and Pompeius, classical authors such as Virgil and Horace, Bede's ‘De metrica arte’, and Aldhelm. Much more work needs to be carried out on the sources for this body of material before a proper assessment can be made of Crundmáel's scholarship. Crundmáel is also the author of two short poems, which form part of the prefatory matter to his grammar.

The name ‘Crundmáel’ or ‘Crunnmael’ occurs quite commonly in contemporary Irish annals, but the grammarian cannot be identified with certainty. It has been suggested, however, that he can be identified as the person named ‘Chronmal’ in a poem by Walafrid Strabo (carm. 45, 13: MGH, Poet. lat. aevi Carol., ii, 394: ‘Esto iocum reputas quod dixi, sed mihi Chronmal/More abiens vestro tradidit ista loqui’). If this identification is correct, then Crundmáel can be placed within the first half of the ninth century, since Walafrid died in 849.