''The Song of Dermot and the Earl'' (french: Chanson de Dermot et du comte) is an anonymous

Anglo-Norman Anglo-Norman may refer to: *Anglo-Normans, the medieval ruling class in England following the Norman conquest of 1066 *Anglo-Norman language **Anglo-Norman literature *Anglo-Norman England, or Norman England, the period in English history from 1066 ...

verse

chronicle A chronicle ( la, chronica, from Greek ''chroniká'', from , ''chrónos'' – "time") is a historical account of events arranged in chronological order, as in a timeline. Typically, equal weight is given for historically important events and ...

written in the early 13th century in

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

. It tells of the arrival of

Richard de Clare Richard is a male given name. It originates, via Old French, from Old Frankish and is a compound of the words descending from Proto-Germanic ''*rīk-'' 'ruler, leader, king' and ''*hardu-'' 'strong, brave, hardy', and it therefore means 'stron ...

(Strongbow) in

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel, the Irish Sea, and St George's Channel. Ireland is the s ...

in 1170 (the "earl" in the title), and of the subsequent arrival of

Henry II of England Henry II (5 March 1133 – 6 July 1189), also known as Henry Curtmantle (french: link=no, Court-manteau), Henry FitzEmpress, or Henry Plantagenet, was King of England from 1154 until his death in 1189, and as such, was the first Angevin kin ...

. The poem mentions one Morice Regan, secretary to Dairmaid mac Murchadha, king of Leinster, who was eyewitness to the events and may have provided an account to the author. The chronicle survives only in a single manuscript which was re-discovered in the 17th century in London. The work bears no title in the manuscript, but has been commonly referred to as ''The Song of Dermot and the Earl'' since

Goddard Henry Orpen Goddard Henry Orpen (8 May 1852 – 15 May 1932) was an Irish historian. He attended The Abbey School, Tipperary and graduated from Trinity College, Dublin. Orpen was the son of Dr. John Herbert Orpen (1805–1888) and Ellen Susanna Gertude ...

in 1892 published a

diplomatic edition Diplomatics (in American English, and in most anglophone countries), or diplomatic (in British English), is a scholarly discipline centred on the critical analysis of documents: especially, historical documents. It focuses on the conventions, p ...

under this title. It has also been known as The Conquest of Ireland and The Conquest of Ireland by Henry II; in the most recent edition it was called La Geste des Engleis en Yrlande ("The Deeds of the English in Ireland").

Lines from The Song of (King) Dermot and the Earl (Strongbow)

This section of the poem has been translated from Anglo-Norman French by G.H.C. Orpen (Trinity College, Dublin) from the Carew 596 manuscript and covers lines 3129 - 3161 (see ''Skryne and the Early Normans'' (1994) by

Elizabeth Hickey Elizabeth Hickey (1917–1999) was a Meath historian and author who lived at Skryne Castle near Tara. The ''doyenne'' and best known of Meath historians, she wrote on a variety of topics. According to the Irish Times, she typified the immense co ...

. p. 31).

Editions and translations

* * * Diplomatic edition
Edition at CELT

PDF scan at archive.org
*Anglo-Norman poem on the conquest of Ireland by Henry the Second (1837).Regan, M., Wright, T., Michel, F. (1837)
Anglo-Norman poem on the conquest of Ireland by Henry the Second
from a manuscript preserved in the archiepiscopal library at Lambeth palace. London: W. Pickering. Edited by Francisque Xaview Michel. With an introductory essay on the history of the Anglo-Norman conquest of Ireland, by Thomas Wright.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Song of Dermot and the Earl, The Anglo-Norman literature English chronicles 13th-century poems MacMorrough Kavanagh dynasty

Lines from The Song of (King) Dermot and the Earl (Strongbow)

See also

Editions and translations

Further reading

References