Amra is the name of certain ancient
Irish
Irish may refer to:
Common meanings
* Someone or something of, from, or related to:
** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe
***Éire, Irish language name for the isle
** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...
elegies or panegyrics on native
saints. The best known is ''Amra Coluimb Chille'' (the song of
Columbkille
Columba or Colmcille; gd, Calum Cille; gv, Colum Keeilley; non, Kolban or at least partly reinterpreted as (7 December 521 – 9 June 597 AD) was an Irish abbot and missionary evangelist credited with spreading Christianity in what is toda ...
).
''Amra Coluim Chille''
According to the traditional account the ''Amra Coluim Chille'' was composed about the year 575 by
Dallán Forgaill
Eochaid mac Colla ( 560 – 640), better known as Saint Dallán or Dallán Forgaill ( sga, Dallán Forchella; la, Dallanus Forcellius; Primitive Irish: ''Dallagnas Worgēllas''), was an early Christian Irish poet and saint known as the writer of ...
, the
Chief Ollam of Ireland
Chief may refer to:
Title or rank
Military and law enforcement
* Chief master sergeant, the ninth, and highest, enlisted rank in the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Space Force
* Chief of police, the head of a police department
* Chief of the boa ...
of that time, in gratitude for the services of
St. Columba in saving the bards from expulsion at the great assembly of
Druim Cetta in that year.
"The Amra is not", says Stokes, "as Professor Atkinson supposed, a fragment which indicates great antiquity." Strachan, however, on linguistic grounds, assigns it in its present form to about the year 800 (Rev. Celt., XVII, 14).
Stokes, too, seems to favour this view (ibid., XX, 16). But Strachan adds "perhaps something more may be learned from a prolonged study of this and other such as the Amra Senain and the Amra Conroi." Dallan was the author of the former, "held in great repute", says Colgan, "on account of its gracefulness", and also of another Amra on St. Conall Cael of
Inishkeel
Inishkeel () is a small tidal island and a townland off the coast of County Donegal, Ireland. The closest village on the mainland is Narin.
Geography
The island is located in Gweebarra Bay around 250 m from the coast. A sandy tidal bank ...
in
Donegal, with whom he was buried in one grave.
Editions
The ''Amra Coluim Chille'' was printed with a translation by O'Beirne Crowe in 1871 from the imperfect text in the
Lebor na hUidre
The manuscript known as Lebor na hUidre (English translation: Book of the Dun Cow) is the oldest extant written in Gaelic (Irish), and the texts included therein recount Irish history through an eschatological lens. The Christian authors who c ...
; also in his edition of the "
Liber Hymnorum
The term "Celtic Rite" is applied to the various liturgical rites used in Celtic Christianity in Britain, Ireland and Brittany and the monasteries founded by St. Columbanus and Saint Catald in France, Germany, Switzerland, and Italy during the ...
" by Professor Atkinson, and in his "Goidelica" by Whitley Stokes, from an imperfect text in
Trinity College, Dublin.
The Bodleian text (Rawlinson B. 502) was edited, with a translation, for the first time (Rev. Celt., vols. XX-XXI) by Stokes.
The standard modern edition of the Amra is the 2019 work by Jacopo Bisagni.
[ rit. ed. r.Bisagni, Jacopo, Amrae Coluimb Chille: a critical edition, Early Irish Text Series 1, Dublin: Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 2019]
References
External links
Saint Dallán Forgaill (c.560 -c.640), alias Eochaid Éices
Sources
{{Catholic, wstitle=Amra
Christianity in medieval Ireland
Christian hagiography
Christian poetry
