Old Irish Literature
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Early Irish literature, is commonly dated from the 8th or 9th to the 15th century, a period during which
modern literature in Irish Although Irish has been used as a literary language for more than 1,500 years (see Irish literature), and modern literature in Irish dates – as in most European languages – to the 16th century, modern Irish literature owes much of its popul ...
began to emerge. It stands as one of the oldest
vernacular literature Vernacular literature is literature written in the vernacular—the speech of the "common people". In the European tradition, this effectively means literature not written in Latin or Koine Greek. In this context, vernacular literature appeared ...
in Western Europe, with its roots extending back to
late antiquity Late antiquity marks the period that comes after the end of classical antiquity and stretches into the onset of the Early Middle Ages. Late antiquity as a period was popularized by Peter Brown (historian), Peter Brown in 1971, and this periodiza ...
, as evident from inscriptions utilizing both Irish and Latin found on
Ogham Ogham (also ogam and ogom, , Modern Irish: ; , later ) is an Early Medieval alphabet used primarily to write the early Irish language (in the "orthodox" inscriptions, 4th to 6th centuries AD), and later the Old Irish language ( scholastic ...
stones dating as early as the 4th century. The early Irish literary tradition flourished through the Medieval Irish period, and its literary output showcases a blend of indigenous storytelling, myth, and historical narratives. Notably, this period saw the development of a full-scale vernacular written literature expressed in a diverse range of literary genres. According to Professor Elva Johnston, "the Irish were apparently the first western European people to develop a full-scale vernacular written literature expressed in a range of literary genres." A significant aspect of early Irish literature is the influence of
loan words A loanword (also a loan word, loan-word) is a word at least partly assimilated from one language (the donor language) into another language (the recipient or target language), through the process of borrowing. Borrowing is a metaphorical term t ...
from other Indo-European languages, including but not limited to Latin and Greek. This linguistic exchange is evidenced in texts like
Sanas Cormaic ''Sanas Cormaic'' (; or ''Sanas Chormaic'', Irish for "Cormac's narrative"), also known as ''Cormac's Glossary'', is an early Irish glossary containing etymologies and explanations of over 1,400 Irish words, many of which are difficult or outdat ...
, a glossary dating from the 9th century that illustrates the assimilation of foreign words into the Irish language. Two of the earliest examples of literature from an Irish perspective are
Saint Patrick Saint Patrick (; or ; ) was a fifth-century Romano-British culture, Romano-British Christian missionary and Archbishop of Armagh, bishop in Gaelic Ireland, Ireland. Known as the "Apostle of Ireland", he is the primary patron saint of Irelan ...
's ''Confessio'' and ''Letter to Coroticus'', written in Latin some time in the 5th century, and preserved in the ''
Book of Armagh The ''Book of Armagh'' or Codex Ardmachanus (ar or 61) (), also known as the ''Canon of Patrick'' and the ''Liber Ar(d)machanus'', is a 9th-century Irish art, Irish illuminated manuscript written mainly in Latin. It is held by the Library of Tri ...
''.


The earliest Irish authors

It is unclear when literacy first came to Ireland. The earliest Irish writings are inscriptions, mostly simple memorials, on stone in the Ogham alphabet, the earliest of which date to the 4th century. The Latin alphabet was in use by 431, when the fifth century Gaulish chronicler
Prosper of Aquitaine Prosper of Aquitaine (; – AD), also called ''Prosper Tiro'', was a Christian writer and disciple of Augustine of Hippo, and the first continuator of Jerome's Universal Chronicle. Particularly, Prosper is identified with the (later) axiom '' ...
records that Palladius was sent by
Pope Celestine I Pope Celestine I () (c. 359 – 27 July 432) was the bishop of Rome from 10 September 422 to his death on 27 July 432. Celestine's pontificate was largely spent combatting various teachings deemed heretical. He was instrumental for the condemnati ...
as the first bishop to the Irish believers in Christ.
Pelagius Pelagius (; c. 354–418) was a British (Celtic Britons, Brittonic) theologian known for promoting a system of doctrines (termed Pelagianism by his opponents) which emphasized human choice in salvation and denied original sin. Pelagius was accus ...
, an influential British heretic who taught in Rome in the early 5th century, fragments of whose writings survive, is said by
Jerome Jerome (; ; ; – 30 September 420), also known as Jerome of Stridon, was an early Christian presbyter, priest, Confessor of the Faith, confessor, theologian, translator, and historian; he is commonly known as Saint Jerome. He is best known ...
to have been of Irish descent.
Coelius Sedulius Sedulius (sometimes with the nomen Coelius or Caelius, both of doubtful authenticity) was a Christian poet during the first half of the 5th century. Biography Little is known about his life. The only trustworthy information, contained in his tw ...
, the 5th century author of the ''Carmen Paschale'', who has been called the "Virgil of theological poetry", was probably also Irish: the 9th-century Irish geographer
Dicuil Dicuilus ( Gaelic: ; fl.814-825 A.D.) was an Irish monk, astronomer, geographer and author born during the second half of the 8th century, possibly in the Hebrides. He travelled the Frankia around the turn of the 9th century and was involved ...
calls him ''noster Sedulius'' ("our Sedulius"), and the Latin name Sedulius usually translates to the Irish name Siadal. Two works written by Saint Patrick, his ''Confessio'' ("Declaration", a brief autobiography intended to justify his activities to the church in Britain) and ''Epistola'' ("Letter", condemning the raiding and slaving activities in Ireland of a British king, Coroticus), survive. They were written in Latin some time in the 5th century, and preserved in the ''
Book of Armagh The ''Book of Armagh'' or Codex Ardmachanus (ar or 61) (), also known as the ''Canon of Patrick'' and the ''Liber Ar(d)machanus'', is a 9th-century Irish art, Irish illuminated manuscript written mainly in Latin. It is held by the Library of Tri ...
'', dating to around 812, and a number of later manuscripts. The 6th-century saint
Colum Cille Columba () or Colmcille (7 December 521 – 9 June 597 AD) was an Gaelic Ireland, Irish abbot and missionary evangelist credited with spreading Christianity in what is today Scotland at the start of the Hiberno-Scottish mission. He founded the ...
is known to have written, but only one work which may be his has survived: the psalter known as the ''Cathach'' or "Book of Battles", now in the
Royal Irish Academy The Royal Irish Academy (RIA; ), based in Dublin, is an academic body that promotes study in the natural sciences, arts, literature, and social sciences. It is Ireland's premier List of Irish learned societies, learned society and one of its le ...
. Another important early writer in Latin is
Columbanus Saint Columbanus (; 543 – 23 November 615) was an Irish missionary notable for founding a number of monasteries after 590 in the Frankish and Lombard kingdoms, most notably Luxeuil Abbey in present-day France and Bobbio Abbey in presen ...
(543-615), a missionary from Leinster who founded several monasteries in continental Europe, from whose hand survive sermons, letters and monastic rules, as well as poetry attributed to him whose authenticity is uncertain. The earliest identifiable writer in the Irish language is
Dallán Forgaill Eochaid mac Colla ( 560 – 640), better known as Saint Dallán or Dallán Forgaill (; ; Primitive Irish: ''Dallagnas Worgēllas''), was an early Christian Irish poet and saint known as the writer of the "'' Amra Coluim Chille''" ("Elegy of Sai ...
, who wrote ''
Amra Coluim Chille ''Amra Choluim Chille'' or ''Amra Coluimb Chille'' is an Amra (, ; ) or panegyric relating to Colmcille. According to the traditional account the ''Amra Coluim Chille'' was composed about the year 575 by Dallán Forgaill, the Chief Ollam of Ire ...
'', a poetic elegy to Colum Cille, shortly after the subject's death in 597. The ''Amra'' is written in archaic
Old Irish Old Irish, also called Old Gaelic (, Ogham, Ogham script: ᚌᚑᚔᚇᚓᚂᚉ; ; ; or ), is the oldest form of the Goidelic languages, Goidelic/Gaelic language for which there are extensive written texts. It was used from 600 to 900. The ...
and is not perfectly understood. It is preserved in heavily annotated versions in manuscripts from the 12th century on. Only a little later, in the early 7th century,
Luccreth moccu Chiara Luccreth moccu Chíara (''floruit'' c. 665 AD)Eoin MacNeill, "A Pioneer of Nations: part II", ''Studies: An Irish Quarterly Review'' vol 11, no 43, 1922, pp. 435-446 was a poet from County Kerry, Ireland who wrote in archaic Old Irish. ''Moccu'' i ...
, a Kerryman, wrote poems recording the legendary origins of Munster dynasties, including ''Conailla Medb michuru'' ("Medb enjoined illegal contracts"), which contains the oldest surviving reference to characters and events from the
Ulster Cycle The Ulster Cycle (), formerly known as the Red Branch Cycle, is a body of medieval Irish heroic legends and sagas of the Ulaid. It is set far in the past, in what is now eastern Ulster and northern Leinster, particularly counties Armagh, Do ...
.


The Old Irish glosses

The oldest surviving manuscripts containing examples of the written
Irish language Irish (Standard Irish: ), also known as Irish Gaelic or simply Gaelic ( ), is a Celtic language of the Indo-European language family. It is a member of the Goidelic languages of the Insular Celtic sub branch of the family and is indigenous ...
date to the 8th century. Their Irish contents consist of glosses written between the lines or on the margins of religious works in Latin, most of them preserved in monasteries in Switzerland, Germany, France, and Italy, having been taken there by early Irish missionaries, and where, not being understood, they were rarely consulted and did not wear out, unlike their counterparts in Ireland. They are thus quite different from manuscripts with significant Irish language content preserved in Ireland, the oldest of which is the ''Book of Armagh'' (c. 812). The early glosses, though of little interest outside of
philology Philology () is the study of language in Oral tradition, oral and writing, written historical sources. It is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics with strong ties to etymology. Philology is also de ...
, show the wide learning of the commentators and the extraordinary development, even at that early period, of the language in which they wrote. Their language and style, says
Kuno Meyer Kuno Meyer (20 December 1858 – 11 October 1919) was a German scholar, distinguished in the field of Celtic philology and literature. His pro-German stance at the start of World War I in the United States was a source of controversy. His brothe ...
, stand on a high level in comparison with those of the
Old High German Old High German (OHG; ) is the earliest stage of the German language, conventionally identified as the period from around 500/750 to 1050. Rather than representing a single supra-regional form of German, Old High German encompasses the numerous ...
glosses. "We find here", he writes, "a formed learned prose style which allows even the finest shades of thought to be easily and perfectly expressed, from which we must conclude that there must have been a long previous culture f the languagegoing back at the very least to the beginning of the sixth century". The glosses are to be found in manuscripts from
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, St. Gallen,
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,
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,
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,
Sankt Paul im Lavanttal Sankt Paul im Lavanttal ( or ''Šentpavel'') is a municipality of the Wolfsberg district in the Austrian state of Carinthia. Geography Sankt Paul lies in the Lavant River valley. A large part of the municipality lies in the Granitz River val ...
, and elsewhere. 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 ...
'' and the ''
Stowe Missal The Stowe Missal (sometimes known as the Lorrha Missal), which is, strictly speaking, a sacramentary rather than a missal, is a small Irish illuminated manuscript written mainly in Latin with some Old Irish in the late eighth or early ninth centu ...
'' are, after the glosses and the ''Book of Armagh'', perhaps the most ancient manuscripts in which Irish is written. They date from about 900 to 1050.


Existing manuscript literature

The oldest books of miscellaneous literature are , or "Book of the Dun Cow", transcribed about 1100, and the ''
Book of Leinster The Book of Leinster ( , LL) is a medieval Irish manuscript compiled and now kept in Trinity College Dublin. It was formerly known as the ''Lebor na Nuachongbála'' ("Book of Nuachongbáil"), a monastic site known today as Oughaval. In 2023 ...
'', which dates from about fifty years later. These books are great miscellaneous literary collections. After them come many valuable
vellum Vellum is prepared animal skin or membrane, typically used as writing material. It is often distinguished from parchment, either by being made from calfskin (rather than the skin of other animals), or simply by being of a higher quality. Vellu ...
s. The date at which these manuscripts were penned is no criterion of the date at which their contents were first written, for many of them contain literature which, from the ancient forms of words and other indications, must have been committed to writing at least as early as the 7th century. We cannot carry these pieces further back with firm certainty using linguistic methods, but it is evident from their contents that many of them must have been orally transmitted for centuries before they were committed to writing. A 17th-century manuscript may sometimes give a more correct version of a 7th-century piece than a vellum many centuries older. The exact number of Irish manuscripts still existing has never been accurately determined. The number in the
Royal Irish Academy The Royal Irish Academy (RIA; ), based in Dublin, is an academic body that promotes study in the natural sciences, arts, literature, and social sciences. It is Ireland's premier List of Irish learned societies, learned society and one of its le ...
, Dublin, alone is enormous, estimated to be about fifteen hundred. O'Curry, O'Longan, and O'Beirne catalogued a little more than half the manuscripts in the Academy, and the catalogue filled thirteen volumes containing 3448 pages; to these an alphabetic index of the pieces contained was made in three volumes, and an index of the principal names, in addition to some other material in thirteen volumes more. From an examination of these books one may roughly calculate that the pieces catalogued would number about eight or ten thousand, varying from long epic sagas to single quatrains or stanzas, and yet there remains a great deal more to be indexed, a work which after a delay of very many years is happily now at last in process of accomplishment. The
Library A library is a collection of Book, books, and possibly other Document, materials and Media (communication), media, that is accessible for use by its members and members of allied institutions. Libraries provide physical (hard copies) or electron ...
of
Trinity College, Dublin Trinity College Dublin (), officially titled The College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin, and legally incorporated as Trinity College, the University of Dublin (TCD), is the sole constituent college of the Univ ...
, also contains a great number of valuable manuscripts of all ages, many of them vellums. The
British Museum The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...
, the
Bodleian Library The Bodleian Library () is the main research library of the University of Oxford. Founded in 1602 by Sir Thomas Bodley, it is one of the oldest libraries in Europe. With over 13 million printed items, it is the second-largest library in ...
at
Oxford University The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the second-oldest continuously operating u ...
, the
Advocates Library The Advocates Library, founded in 1682, is the law library of the Faculty of Advocates, in Edinburgh. It served as the national deposit library of Scotland until 1925, at which time through an act of Parliament, the National Library of Scotlan ...
in Edinburgh, and the Bibliothèque Royale in Brussels are all repositories of a large number of valuable manuscripts. From what we know of the contents of the existing manuscripts we may set down as follows a rough classification of the literature contained in them. We may well begin with the ancient epics dating substantially from pagan times, probably first written down in the seventh century or even earlier. These epics generally contain verses of poetry and often whole poems, just as in the case of the French ''chantefable'', ''Aucassin et Nicollet''. After the substantially pagan efforts may come the early Christian literature, especially the lives of the saints, which are both numerous and valuable, visions, homilies, commentaries on the Scriptures, monastic rules, prayers, hymns, and all possible kinds of religious and didactic poetry. After these we may place the many ancient annals, and there exists besides a great mass of genealogical books, tribal histories, and semi-historical romances. After this may come the bardic poetry of Ireland, the poetry of the hereditary poets attached to the great Gaelic families and the provincial kings, from the 9th century down to the 17th. Then follow the
Brehon Laws Early Irish law, also called Brehon law (from the old Irish word breithim meaning judge), comprised the statutes which governed everyday life in Early Medieval Ireland. They were partially eclipsed by the Norman invasion of 1169, but underwe ...
and other legal treaties, and an enormous quantity of writings on Irish and Latin grammar, glossaries of words, metrical tracts, astronomical, geographical, and medical works. Nor is there any lack of free translations from classical and medieval literature, such as
Lucan Marcus Annaeus Lucanus (3 November AD 39 – 30 April AD 65), better known in English as Lucan (), was a Roman poet, born in Corduba, Hispania Baetica (present-day Córdoba, Spain). He is regarded as one of the outstanding figures of the Imper ...
's '' Bellum Civile'',
Bede Bede (; ; 672/326 May 735), also known as Saint Bede, Bede of Jarrow, the Venerable Bede, and Bede the Venerable (), was an English monk, author and scholar. He was one of the most known writers during the Early Middle Ages, and his most f ...
's ''
Historica Ecclesiastica The ''Ecclesiastical History of the English People'' (), written by Bede in about AD 731, is a history of the Christian Churches in England, and of England generally; its main focus is on the growth of Christianity. It was composed in Latin, and ...
'', Mandeville's ''Travels'',
Arthurian romance The Matter of Britain (; ; ; ) is the body of medieval literature and legendary material associated with Great Britain and Brittany and the legendary kings and heroes associated with it, particularly King Arthur. The 12th-century writer Geoffr ...
s and the like. To this catalogue may perhaps be added the unwritten folk-lore of the island both in prose and verse which has only lately begun to be collected, but of which considerable collections have already been made. Such, then, is a brief and bald résumé of what the student will find before him in the Irish language. The 1913
Catholic Encyclopedia ''The'' ''Catholic Encyclopedia: An International Work of Reference on the Constitution, Doctrine, Discipline, and History of the Catholic Church'', also referred to as the ''Old Catholic Encyclopedia'' and the ''Original Catholic Encyclopedi ...
remarks on the lack of epic poetry and of drama in the corpus of early Irish literature.


Early Irish epic or saga

In Ireland, the prose epic or saga developed, and kept on developing, for well over a thousand years. In the ''
Book of Leinster The Book of Leinster ( , LL) is a medieval Irish manuscript compiled and now kept in Trinity College Dublin. It was formerly known as the ''Lebor na Nuachongbála'' ("Book of Nuachongbáil"), a monastic site known today as Oughaval. In 2023 ...
'', a manuscript of the middle 12th century, we find a list of the names of 187 epic sagas. The ''
ollam An or ollamh (; anglicised as ollave or ollav), plural ollomain, in early Irish literature, was a master in a particular trade or skill. Bard Generally, ''ollam'' referred to a professional poet or bard of literature and history, and a membe ...
'', or arch-poet, who was the highest dignitary among the poets, and whose training lasted for some twelve years, was obliged to learn two hundred and fifty of these prime sagas and one hundred secondary ones. The manuscripts themselves divide these prime sagas into the following categories, from the very names of which we may get a glance of the genius of the early Gael, and form some conception of the tragic nature of his epic: Destruction of Fortified Places, Cow Spoils (i.e., cattle-raids), Courtships or Wooings, Battles, Stories of Caves, Navigations, Tragical Deaths, Feasts, Sieges, Adventures of Travel, Elopements, Slaughters, Water-eruptions, Expeditions, Progresses, and Visions. "He is no poet", says the ''Book of Leinster'', "who does not synchronize and harmonize all these stories." In addition to the names of 187 sagas in that book, more names occur in the 10th or 11th century tale of MacCoise. All the known ones—except for one added later, and another with a transcription error—refer to events prior to 650 or thereabouts. Apparently then, the list was drawn up in the 7th century. Due to the extended period of oral transmission, the authorship of the sagas is unclear, as is the degree to which they represent real events. It seems certain that—as soon as Christianity pervaded the island and bardic schools and colleges formed alongside the monasteries—no class of learning more popular than studying the great traditional doings, exploits, and tragedies of the various Irish tribes, families, and races. The peregrinations of the bards and communication among their colleges must have propagated throughout Ireland any local traditions worthy of preservation. These stories embodied the essence of the island's national life, but only a few of their enormous number survive—and most of these are mutilated, or preserved in mere digests. Some, however, survive at nearly full length. These ancient vellums, however, probably don't tell the same exact tales as did the professional poet, for the poets didn't write them. Generally, early Christian monks recorded the tales. They took interest and pride in preserving early memorials of their people. They cultivated the native language to such a degree that at an early period it was used alongside Latin, and soon almost displaced it, even in the Church itself. This patriotism of the Irish monks and early cultivation of the vernacular are remarkable, since it was the reverse of what took place in the rest of
Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...
. Elsewhere, the Church used Latin as a principal means of destroying native and pagan tradition. The Northmen inflicted irrevocable losses on the Irish from the end of the 8th to the middle of the 11th century—followed by the ravages of the
Norman invasion of Ireland The Anglo-Norman invasion of Ireland took place during the late 12th century, when Anglo-Normans gradually conquered and acquired large swathes of land in Ireland over which the monarchs of England then claimed sovereignty. The Anglo-Normans ...
, and the later and more ruthless destructions by the
Elizabeth Elizabeth or Elisabeth may refer to: People * Elizabeth (given name), a female given name (including people with that name) * Empress Elisabeth (disambiguation), lists various empresses named ''Elisabeth'' or ''Elizabeth'' * Princess Elizabeth ...
an and
Cromwell Oliver Cromwell (25 April 15993 September 1658) was an English statesman, politician and soldier, widely regarded as one of the most important figures in British history. He came to prominence during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, initially a ...
ian English. Despite those tragic and violent cultural wounds, O'Curry could assert that he knew of 4,000 large quarto pages of strictly historical tales. He computes that tales of the
Ossian Ossian (; Irish Gaelic/Scottish Gaelic: ''Oisean'') is the narrator and purported author of a cycle of epic poems published by the Scottish poet James Macpherson, originally as ''Fingal'' (1761) and ''Temora (poem), Temora'' (1763), and later c ...
ic and
Fenian cycle The Fenian Cycle (), Fianna Cycle or Finn Cycle () is a body of early Irish literature focusing on the exploits of the mythical hero Fionn mac Cumhaill, Finn or Fionn mac Cumhaill and his Kóryos, warrior band the Fianna. Sometimes called the ...
s would fill 3,000 more and that, in addition to these, miscellaneous and imaginative cycles that are neither historical nor Fenian, would fill 5,000.


Pagan literature and Christian sentiment

The bulk of the ancient stories and some of the ancient poems were probably committed to writing by monks of the 7th century, but are substantially pagan in origin, conception, and colouring. Yet there is scarcely one of them in which some Christian allusion to heaven, or hell, or the Deity, or some Biblical subject, does not appear. This is likely because, when Christianity displaced paganism, in a tacit compromise, sympathetic clerics let the
bard In Celtic cultures, a bard is an oral repository and professional story teller, verse-maker, music composer, oral historian and genealogist, employed by a patron (such as a monarch or chieftain) to commemorate one or more of the patron's a ...
, fili (poet), and the representative of the old pagan learning propagate their stories, tales, poems, and genealogies—at the price of a little Christian admixture. So respectful is the dovetailing of the Christian into the pagan in most of the oldest romances, that even casual analysis easily separates the pieces. The pagan substratum stands forth entirely distinct from the Christian addition. For example, in the evidently pagan saga called the '' Wooing of Étaín'', we find the description of the pagan paradise given its literary passport by a cunningly interwoven allusion to Adam's fall.
Étaín Étaín or Édaín (Modern Irish spelling: Éadaoin) is a figure of Irish mythology, best known as the heroine of '' Tochmarc Étaíne'' (''The Wooing of Étaín''), one of the oldest and richest stories of the Mythological Cycle. She also fi ...
was the wife of one of the
Tuatha Dé Danann The Tuatha Dé Danann (, meaning "the folk of the goddess Danu"), also known by the earlier name Tuath Dé ("tribe of the gods"), are a supernatural race in Irish mythology. Many of them are thought to represent deities of pre-Christian Gaelic ...
, who were gods. She is reborn as a mortal—the pagan Irish seem to have believed in
metempsychosis In philosophy and theology, metempsychosis () is the transmigration of the soul, especially its reincarnation after death. The term is derived from ancient Greek philosophy, and has been recontextualized by modern philosophers such as Arthur Sc ...
—and weds the king of Ireland. Her former husband of the Tuatha Dé Danann still loves her, follows her into life as a mortal, and tries to win her back by singing a captivating description of the glowing unseen land to which he would lure her. "O lady fair, wouldst thou come with me," he cries "...to the wondrous land that is ours?" He describes how, "..the crimson of the foxglove is in every brake—a beauty of land the land I speak of. Youth never grows into old age there, warm sweet streams traverse the country..." etc. Then the evidently pagan description of this land of the gods is made passable by an added verse that adroitly tells us that, though the inhabitants of this glorious country saw everyone, nobody saw them, "...because the cloud of Adam's wrongdoing has concealed us." This easy analysis of the early Irish literature into its pre-Christian and post-Christian elements lends an absorbing interest and a great value in the history of European thought. For, when all Christian additions are removed, we find a picture of pagan life in Europe that we can't find elsewhere. "The church adopted
n Ireland Northern Ireland ( ; ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, part of the United Kingdom in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It has been #Descriptions, variously described as a country, province or region. Northern Ireland shares Repub ...
towards Pagan sagas the same position that it adopted toward Pagan law ..I see no reasons for doubting that really genuine pictures of a pre-Christian culture are preserved to us in the individual sagas. "The saga originated in Pagan and was propagated in Christian times, and that too without its seeking fresh nutriment, as a rule, from Christian elements. But we must ascribe it to the influence of Christianity that what is specifically pagan in Irish saga is shifted into the background. And yet there exist many whose contents are plainly mythological. The Christian monks were certainly not the first who reduced the ancient sagas to fixed form. but later on they copied them faithfully and promulgated them after Ireland had been converted to Christianity".


Irish literature and early Europe

When it is understood that the ancient Irish sagas record, even though it be in a more or less distorted fashion, in some cases reminiscences of a past mythology, and in others real historical events, dating from the pagan times, then it needs only a moment's reflection to realize their value. Zimmer writes that nothing except a spurious criticism that "...takes for original and primitive the most palpable nonsense of which Middle-Irish writers from the Twelfth to the Sixteenth century are guilty with regard to their own antiquity, which is in many respects strange and foreign to them, nothing but such a criticism can on the other hand make the attempt to doubt of the historical character of the chief persons of the saga cycles. For we believe that
Méve Medb (), later spelled Meadhbh (), Méabh(a) () and Méibh (), and often anglicised as Maeve ( ), is Queen regnant, queen of Connacht in the Ulster Cycle of Irish mythology. Her husband in the core stories of the cycle is Ailill mac Máta, alt ...
, Conor MacNessa, Cuchulainn, and
Fionn mac Cumhaill Fionn mac Cumhaill, often anglicised Finn McCool or MacCool, is a hero in Irish mythology, as well as in later Scottish and Manx folklore. He is the leader of the ''Fianna'' bands of young roving hunter-warriors, as well as being a seer a ...
(Cool) are just as much historical personalities as
Arminius Arminius (; 18/17 BC–AD 21) was a chieftain of the Germanic peoples, Germanic Cherusci tribe who is best known for commanding an alliance of Germanic tribes at the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest in AD 9, in which three Roman legions under th ...
or Dietrich of Berne or Etzel, and their date is just as well determined." The first three of these lived in the 1st century BC, and Finn in the 2nd or 3rd century.
D'Arbois de Jubainville Marie Henri d'Arbois de Jubainville (; 5 December 1827 – 26 February 1910) was a French historian, philologist and Celtic scholar. Career He qualified as a lawyer in 1850, and entered a seminary with the intention of becoming a Catholic priest ...
expresses himself to the same effect. "We have no reason", he writes, "to doubt the reality of the principal rôle in this ycle of Cuchulainn; and of the story of the Boru tribute imposed on
Leinster Leinster ( ; or ) is one of the four provinces of Ireland, in the southeast of Ireland. The modern province comprises the ancient Kingdoms of Meath, Leinster and Osraige, which existed during Gaelic Ireland. Following the 12th-century ...
in the 1st century he writes: "The story has real facts for a basis though certain details may have been created by the imagination"; and again, "Irish epic story, barbarous though it be, is, like Irish law, a monument of a civilization far superior to that of the most
ancient Germans The Germanic peoples were tribal groups who lived in Northern Europe in Classical antiquity and the Early Middle Ages. In modern scholarship, they typically include not only the Roman-era ''Germani'' who lived in both ''Germania'' and parts of ...
". "Ireland in fact," writes M. Darmesteter in his ''English Studies'', which summarize conclusions he derives from the works of the great Celtic scholars, "...has the peculiar privilege of a history continuous from the earliest centuries of our era to the present days. She has preserved in the infinite wealth of her literature a complete and faithful picture of the ancient civilization of the Celts. Irish literature is therefore the key which opens the Celtic world." But the Celtic world means a large portion of Europe and the key to its past history can be found at present nowhere else than in the Irish manuscripts. Without them we would have to view the past history of a great part of Europe through that distorting medium, the coloured glasses of the Greeks and Romans, to whom all outer nations were barbarians, into whose social life they had no motive for inquiring. Apart from Irish literature we would have no means of estimating what were the feelings, modes of life, manners, and habits of those great Celtic races who once possessed so large a part of the ancient world, Gaul, Belgium, North Italy, parts of Germany, Spain, Switzerland, and the British Isles, who burnt Rome, plundered Greece, and colonized
Asia Minor Anatolia (), also known as Asia Minor, is a peninsula in West Asia that makes up the majority of the land area of Turkey. It is the westernmost protrusion of Asia and is geographically bounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the south, the Aegean ...
. But in the ancient epics of Ireland we find another standard by which to measure, and through this early Irish medium we get a clear view of the life and manners of the race in one of its strongholds, and we find many characteristic customs of the continental Celts, which are just barely mentioned or alluded to by Greek and Roman writers, reappearing in all the circumstance and expansion of saga-telling. Of such is the custom of the "Hero's Bit"
Posidonius Posidonius (; , "of Poseidon") "of Apameia" (ὁ Ἀπαμεύς) or "of Rhodes" (ὁ Ῥόδιος) (), was a Greeks, Greek politician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, historian, mathematician, and teacher native to Apamea (Syria), Apame ...
mentions, which provides the foundation for one of the most famous Irish sagas, '' Bricriu's Feast''. The Irish sagas repeatedly refer to the
chariot A chariot is a type of vehicle similar to a cart, driven by a charioteer, usually using horses to provide rapid Propulsion, motive power. The oldest known chariots have been found in burials of the Sintashta culture in modern-day Chelyabinsk O ...
, which became obsolete in Gaul a couple of hundred years before Caesar's invasion. In the greatest of the epic cycles, the warriors always fight from chariots. We find, as
Diodorus Siculus Diodorus Siculus or Diodorus of Sicily (;  1st century BC) was an ancient Greece, ancient Greek historian from Sicily. He is known for writing the monumental Universal history (genre), universal history ''Bibliotheca historica'', in forty ...
mentions, that the bards had power to make battles cease by interposing with song between the combatants. Caesar says (
Gallic War The Gallic Wars were waged between 58 and 50 BC by the Roman general Julius Caesar against the peoples of Gaul (present-day France, Belgium, and Switzerland). Gallic, Germanic, and Brittonic tribes fought to defend their homelands ag ...
, 6.14) the Gaulish druids spent twenty years in studying and learned a great number of verses, but Irish literature tells us what the arch-poet, probably the counterpart of the Gaulish druid, actually did learn. "The manners and customs in which the men of the time lived and moved are depicted," writes Windisch, "...with a naive realism which leaves no room for doubt as to the former actuality of the scenes depicted. In matter of costume and weapons, eating and drinking, building and arrangement of the banqueting hall, manners observed at the feasts and much more, we find here the most valuable information." (''Ir. Texte'' I, 252). "I insist," he says elsewhere, "..that Irish saga is the only flowing source of unbroken Celtism." "It is the ancient Irish language," says d'Arbois de Jubainville, "that forms the connecting point between the neo-Celtic languages and the Gaulish of the inscribed stones, coins, and proper names preserved in Greek and Roman literature." It is evident that those of the great Continental nations of today, whose ancestors were mostly Celtic—but whose language, literature, and traditions have completely disappeared—must, to study their own past, turn to Ireland.


The principal saga cycles

There are four great cycles in Irish story-telling, not all of which fully survive. Professor John Th. Honti stated that many of these Irish sagas show "a nucleus" that appear in "some later European folk-tale".


Mythological Cycle

The Mythological Cycle dealt with the
Tuatha Dé Danann The Tuatha Dé Danann (, meaning "the folk of the goddess Danu"), also known by the earlier name Tuath Dé ("tribe of the gods"), are a supernatural race in Irish mythology. Many of them are thought to represent deities of pre-Christian Gaelic ...
, the gods of good, and the
Fomorians The Fomorians or Fomori (, Modern ) are a supernatural race in Irish mythology, who are often portrayed as hostile and monstrous beings. Originally they were said to come from under the sea or the earth. Later, they were portrayed as sea raider ...
, gods of darkness and evil, and giving us, under the apparently early history of the various races that colonised Ireland, really a distorted early Celtic pantheon. According to these accounts, the
Nemedians Nemed or Nimeth () is a character in medieval Irish legend. According to the ''Lebor Gabála Érenn'' (compiled in the 11th century), he was the leader of the third group of people to settle in Ireland: the ''Muintir Nemid'' (or ''Muintir Neimh ...
first seized upon the islands and were oppressed by the Fomorians, who are described as African sea-robbers; these races nearly exterminated each other at the fight round Conand's Tower on
Tory Island Tory Island, or simply Tory, is an island 14.5 kilometres (7+3⁄4 nautical miles) off the north-west coast of County Donegal in the north-west of Ulster, the northern Provinces of Ireland, province in Ireland. It is officially known by its Iris ...
. Some of the Nemedians escaped to Greece and came back a couple of hundred years later calling themselves
Fir Bolg In medieval Irish myth, the Fir Bolg (also spelt Firbolg and Fir Bholg) are the fourth group of people to settle in Ireland. They are descended from the Muintir Nemid, an earlier group who abandoned Ireland and went to different parts of Europe. ...
. Others of the Nemedians who escaped came back later, calling themselves the Tuatha Dé Danann. These last fought the battle of North
Moytura ''Cath Maige Tuired'' (modern spelling: ''Cath Maighe Tuireadh''; ) is the name of two saga texts of the Mythological Cycle of Irish mythology. It refers to two separate battles in Connacht: the first in the territory of Conmhaícne Cúile Tui ...
and beat the Fir Bolg. They fought the battle of South Moytura later and beat the Fomorians. They held the island until the Gaels, also called Milesians or
Scoti ''Scoti'' or ''Scotti'' is a Latin name for the Gaels,Duffy, Seán. ''Medieval Ireland: An Encyclopedia''. Routledge, 2005. p.698 first attested in the late 3rd century. It originally referred to all Gaels, first those in Ireland and then those ...
, came in and vanquished them. Good sagas about both of these battles are preserved, each existing in only a single copy. Nearly all the rest of this most interesting cycle has been lost or is to be found merely in condensed summaries. These mythological pieces dealt with people, dynasties, and probably the struggle between good and evil principles. There is over it all a sense of vagueness and uncertainty.


Ulster Cycle

The Ulster Cycle (), formerly known as the Red Branch Cycle, one of the four great cycles of
Irish mythology Irish mythology is the body of myths indigenous to the island of Ireland. It was originally Oral tradition, passed down orally in the Prehistoric Ireland, prehistoric era. In the History of Ireland (795–1169), early medieval era, myths were ...
, is a body of medieval Irish heroic legends and sagas of the traditional heroes of the
Ulaid (Old Irish, ) or (Irish language, Modern Irish, ) was a Gaelic Ireland, Gaelic Provinces of Ireland, over-kingdom in north-eastern Ireland during the Middle Ages made up of a confederation of dynastic groups. Alternative names include , which ...
in what is now eastern
Ulster Ulster (; or ; or ''Ulster'') is one of the four traditional or historic provinces of Ireland, Irish provinces. It is made up of nine Counties of Ireland, counties: six of these constitute Northern Ireland (a part of the United Kingdom); t ...
and northern
Leinster Leinster ( ; or ) is one of the four provinces of Ireland, in the southeast of Ireland. The modern province comprises the ancient Kingdoms of Meath, Leinster and Osraige, which existed during Gaelic Ireland. Following the 12th-century ...
, particularly counties
Armagh Armagh ( ; , , " Macha's height") is a city and the county town of County Armagh, in Northern Ireland, as well as a civil parish. It is the ecclesiastical capital of Ireland – the seat of the Archbishops of Armagh, the Primates of All ...
, Down and
Louth Louth may refer to: Australia *Hundred of Louth, a cadastral unit in South Australia * Louth, New South Wales, a town * Louth Bay, a bay in South Australia ** Louth Bay, South Australia, a town and locality Canada * Louth, Ontario Ireland * Cou ...
. The Ulster Cycle stories are set in and around the reign of King
Conchobar mac Nessa Conchobar mac Nessa (son of Ness) is the king of Ulster in the Ulster Cycle of Irish mythology. He rules from Emain Macha (Navan Fort, near Armagh). He is usually said to be the son of the High King Fachtna Fáthach, although in some stories ...
, who rules the Ulaid from
Emain Macha Navan Fort ( ; ) is an ancient ceremonial monument near Armagh, Northern Ireland. According to tradition it was one of the great royal sites of pre-Christian Gaelic Ireland and the capital of the Ulaidh. It is a large circular hilltop enclos ...
(now Navan Fort near
Armagh Armagh ( ; , , " Macha's height") is a city and the county town of County Armagh, in Northern Ireland, as well as a civil parish. It is the ecclesiastical capital of Ireland – the seat of the Archbishops of Armagh, the Primates of All ...
). The most prominent hero of the cycle is Conchobar's nephew,
Cú Chulainn Cú Chulainn ( ), is an Irish warrior hero and demigod in the Ulster Cycle of Irish mythology, as well as in Scottish and Manx folklore. He is believed to be an incarnation of the Irish god Lugh, who is also his father. His mother is the ...
. The Ulaid are most often in conflict with the
Connachta The Connachta are a group of medieval Irish dynasty, dynasties who claimed descent from the legendary High King of Ireland, High King Conn of the Hundred Battles, Conn Cétchathach (Conn of the Hundred Battles). The modern western Provinces of ...
, led by their queen,
Medb Medb (), later spelled Meadhbh (), Méabh(a) () and Méibh (), and often anglicised as Maeve ( ), is queen of Connacht in the Ulster Cycle of Irish mythology. Her husband in the core stories of the cycle is Ailill mac Máta, although she had ...
, her husband,
Ailill Ailill (Ailell, Oilioll) is a male name in Old Irish. It is a prominent name in Irish mythology, as for Ailill mac Máta, King of Connacht and husband of Queen Medb, on whom Shakespeare based the Fairy Queen Mab. Ailill was a popular given name in ...
, and their ally
Fergus mac Róich Fergus mac Róich/Róigh (literally "Virility, manliness, son of great stallion") is an Irish hero and a character in the Ulster Cycle of Irish mythology. Formerly the king of Ulaid, Ulster, he is tricked out of the kingship and betrayed by Conc ...
, a former king of the Ulaid in exile. The longest and most important story of the cycle is the ''
Táin Bó Cúailnge (Modern ; "the driving-off of the cows of Cooley"), commonly known as ''The Táin'' or less commonly as ''The Cattle Raid of Cooley'', is an epic from Irish mythology. It is often called "the Irish ''Iliad''", although like most other earl ...
'' or ''Cattle Raid of Cooley'', in which Medb raises an enormous army to invade the
Cooley peninsula The Cooley Peninsula (, older ''Cúalṅge'') is a hilly peninsula in the north of County Louth on the east coast of Ireland; the peninsula includes the small town of Carlingford, the port of Greenore and the village of Omeath. Geography ...
and steal the Ulaid's prize bull,
Donn Cúailnge In the Ulster Cycle of Irish mythology Donn Cúailnge, the Brown Bull of Cooley, was an extremely fertile stud bull over whom the Táin Bó Cúailnge (Cattle Raid of Cooley) was fought. Prologue A ninth century ''rémscéla'' or foretale recou ...
, opposed only by the seventeen-year-old Cú Chulainn. In the Mayo Táin, the
Táin Bó Flidhais ''Táin Bó Flidhais'', also known as the ''Mayo Táin'', is a tale from the Ulster Cycle of early Irish literature. It is one of a group of works known as Táin Bó, or "cattle raid" stories, the best known of which is ''Táin Bó Cúailnge''. ...
it is a white cow known as the 'Maol' that is the object of desire, for she can give enough milk at one milking to feed an army. Perhaps the best known story is the tragedy of
Deirdre Deirdre ( , ; ) is a tragic heroine in the Ulster Cycle of Irish mythology. She is also known by the epithet "Deirdre of the Sorrows" (). Deirdre is a prominent figure in Irish legend. American scholar James MacKillop (author), James MacKil ...
, source of plays by
W. B. Yeats William Butler Yeats (, 13 June 186528 January 1939), popularly known as W. B. Yeats, was an Irish poet, dramatist, writer, and literary critic who was one of the foremost figures of 20th-century literature. He was a driving force behind the ...
and
J. M. Synge Edmund John Millington Synge (; 16 April 1871 – 24 March 1909), popularly known as J. M. Synge, was an Irish playwright, poet, writer, essayist, and collector of folklores. As an important driving force behind the Irish Literary Renaissanc ...
. Other stories tell of the births, courtships and deaths of the characters and of the conflicts between them.


Fenian Cycle

After the Red Branch or heroic cycle we find a very comprehensive and even more popular body of romance woven round
Fionn Mac Cumhaill Fionn mac Cumhaill, often anglicised Finn McCool or MacCool, is a hero in Irish mythology, as well as in later Scottish and Manx folklore. He is the leader of the ''Fianna'' bands of young roving hunter-warriors, as well as being a seer a ...
, his son
Oisín Oisín (), Osian, Ossian ( ), or anglicized as Osheen ( ) was regarded in legend as the greatest poet of Ireland, a warrior of the Fianna in the Ossianic or Fenian Cycle of Irish mythology. He is the demigod son of Fionn mac Cumhaill and ...
, his grandson
Oscar Oscar, OSCAR, or The Oscar may refer to: People and fictional and mythical characters * Oscar (given name), including lists of people and fictional characters named Oscar, Óscar or Oskar * Oscar (footballer, born 1954), Brazilian footballer ...
, in the reigns of the High Kings
Conn of the Hundred Battles Conn Cétchathach (), or Conn of the Hundred Battles, son of Fedlimid Rechtmar, was a legendary High King of Ireland who is claimed to be the ancestor of the Connachta, and through his descendant Niall Noígiallach, the Uí Néill dynasties, w ...
, his son Art Oénfer, and his grandson
Cormac mac Airt Cormac mac Airt, also known as Cormac ua Cuinn (grandson of Conn) or Cormac Ulfada (long beard), was, according to medieval Irish legend and historical tradition, a High King of Ireland. He is probably the most famous of the ancient High Kings ...
, in the second and third centuries. This cycle of romance is usually called the
Fenian cycle The Fenian Cycle (), Fianna Cycle or Finn Cycle () is a body of early Irish literature focusing on the exploits of the mythical hero Fionn mac Cumhaill, Finn or Fionn mac Cumhaill and his Kóryos, warrior band the Fianna. Sometimes called the ...
because it deals so largely with Fionn Mac Cumhaill and his ''
fianna ''Fianna'' ( , ; singular ''Fian''; ) were small warrior-hunter bands in Gaelic Ireland during the Iron Age and early Middle Ages. A ''fian'' was made up of freeborn young men, often from the Gaelic nobility of Ireland, "who had left fosterage ...
'' (militia). These, according to Irish historians, were a body of Irish janissaries maintained by the Irish kings for the purpose of guarding their coasts and fighting their battles, but they ended by fighting the king himself and were destroyed by the famous Battle of Gabhra. As the heroic cycle is often called the Ulster cycle, so this is also known as the Leinster cycle of sagas, because it may have had its origin, as MacNeill has suggested, amongst the Galeoin, a non-Milesian tribe and subject race, who dwelt around the Hill of Allen in Leinster. This whole body of romance is of later growth or rather expresses a much later state of civilization than the Cúchulainn stories. There is no mention of fighting in chariots, of the Hero's Bit, or of many other characteristics that mark the antiquity of the Ulster cycle. Very few pieces belonging to the Fionn story occur in Old Irish, and the great mass of texts is of Middle and Late Irish growth. The extension of the story to all the Gaelic-speaking parts of the kingdom is placed by MacNeill between the years 400 and 700; up to this time it was (as the product of a vassal race) propagated only orally. Various parts of the Fionn saga seem to have developed in different quarters of the country, that about
Diarmuid Ua Duibhne Diarmuid Ua Duibhne (, ), also known as Diarmuid of the Love Spot, is a hero and demigod in the Fenian Cycle of Irish mythology, traditionally thought to be set in the 2nd to 4th century. He is the son of Donn, son of Duibhne of the Fiann ...
in South Munster, and that about
Goll mac Morna Goll mac Morna (or Goal mac Morn) was a member of the fianna and an uneasy ally of Fionn mac Cumhail in the Fenian Cycle of Irish mythology. He had killed Fionn's father, Cumhal, and taken over the leadership of the fianna, but when Fionn grew up ...
in Connacht. Certain it is that this cycle was by far the most popular and widely spread of the three, being familiarly known in every part of Ireland and of Gaelic-speaking Scotland even to the present day. It developed also in a direction of its own, for though none of the heroic tales are wholly in verse, yet the number of Ossianic epopees, ballads, and poems is enormous, amounting to probably some 50,000 lines, mostly in the more modern language.


Historical cycle

It was part of the duty of the medieval Irish bards, or court
poets A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator (thought, thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral t ...
, to record the history of the family and the genealogy of the king they served. This they did in poems that blended the mythological and the historical to a greater or lesser degree. The resulting stories form what has come to be known as the Historical Cycle, or more correctly Cycles, as there are a number of independent groupings. The kings that are included range from the almost entirely mythological
Labraid Loingsech Labraid Loingsech (), also known as Labraid Lorc, son of Ailill Áine, son of Lóegaire Lorc, was, according to medieval Irish legend and historical tradition, a High King of Ireland. He was an ancestor of the Laigin, who gave their name to the pr ...
, who allegedly became High King of Ireland around 431 BC, to the entirely historical
Brian Boru Brian Boru (; modern ; 23 April 1014) was the High King of Ireland from 1002 to 1014. He ended the domination of the High King of Ireland, High Kingship of Ireland by the Uí Néill, and is likely responsible for ending Vikings, Viking invasio ...
. However, the greatest glory of the Historical Cycle is the ''
Buile Shuibhne ''Buile Shuibhne'' or ''Buile Suibne'' (, ''The Madness of Suibhne'' or ''Suibhne's Frenzy'') is a medieval Irish tale about Suibhne mac Colmáin, king of the Dál nAraidi, who was driven insane by the curse of Saint Rónán Finn. The insanity ...
'' (''The Frenzy of Sweeney''), a 12th-century tale told in verse and prose. Suibhne, king of
Dál nAraidi Dál nAraidi (; "Araide's part") or Dál Araide, sometimes List of Latinised names, latinised as Dalaradia or Anglicisation, anglicised as Dalaray,Boyd, Hugh AlexanderIrish Dalriada ''The Glynns: Journal of The Glens of Antrim Historical Societ ...
, was cursed by St Ronan and became a kind of half man, half bird, condemned to live out his life in the woods, fleeing from his human companions. The story has captured the imaginations of contemporary Irish poets and has been translated by
Trevor Joyce Trevor Joyce (born 26 October 1947) is an Irish poet, born in Dublin. He co-founded New Writers' Press (NWP) in Dublin in 1967 and was a founding editor of NWP's ''The Lace Curtain; A Magazine of Poetry and Criticism'' in 1968. Joyce was the ...
and
Seamus Heaney Seamus Justin Heaney (13 April 1939 – 30 August 2013) was an Irish Irish poetry, poet, playwright and translator. He received the 1995 Nobel Prize in Literature. Among his best-known works is ''Death of a Naturalist'' (1966), his first m ...
.


Early Christian literature

Perhaps no country that ever adopted Christianity was so thoroughly and rapidly permeated and perhaps saturated with its language and concepts as was Ireland. It adopted and made its own in secular life scores and hundreds of words originally used by the Church for ecclesiastical purposes. Even to the present day we find in Irish words like ''póg'', borrowed from the Latin for "
he kiss He or HE may refer to: Language * He (letter), the fifth letter of the Semitic abjads * He (pronoun), a pronoun in Modern English * He (kana), one of the Japanese kana (へ in hiragana and ヘ in katakana) * Ge (Cyrillic), a Cyrillic letter call ...
of peace", ''pac s', Old Irish ''póc''. From the same root comes ''baitheas'', "the crown of the head", i.e. the baptized part. A common word for warrior, or hero, ''laich'', now ''laoch'', is simply from ''laicus'', a layman. The Latin language was, of course, the one used for religious purposes, both in prose and verse, for some time after the introduction of Christianity. In it were written the earliest hymns:
Saint Patrick Saint Patrick (; or ; ) was a fifth-century Romano-British culture, Romano-British Christian missionary and Archbishop of Armagh, bishop in Gaelic Ireland, Ireland. Known as the "Apostle of Ireland", he is the primary patron saint of Irelan ...
used it in his ''Confession'', as did
Adomnán Adomnán or Adamnán of Iona (; , ''Adomnanus''; 624 – 704), also known as Eunan ( ; from ), was an abbot of Iona Abbey ( 679–704), hagiographer, statesman, canon jurist, and Christian saint, saint. He was the author of the ''Life ...
in his "Life of
Columcille Columba () or Colmcille (7 December 521 – 9 June 597 AD) was an Irish abbot and missionary evangelist credited with spreading Christianity in what is today Scotland at the start of the Hiberno-Scottish mission. He founded the important abbey ...
". But already by the middle of the 8th century the native language had largely displaced it all over Ireland as a medium for religious thought, for homilies, for litanies, books of devotion, and the lives of saints. We find the Irish language used in a large religious literature, much of which is native, some of which represents lost Latin originals now known to us only in Irish translations. One interesting development in this class of literature is the visions-literature beginning with the vision of St. Fursa, which is given at some length by Bede, and of which Sir Francis Palgrave states that, "Tracing the course of thought upwards we have no difficulty in deducing the poetic genealogy of
Dante Dante Alighieri (; most likely baptized Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri; – September 14, 1321), widely known mononymously as Dante, was an Italian Italian poetry, poet, writer, and philosopher. His ''Divine Comedy'', originally called ...
's ''Inferno'' to the Milesian ''Fursæus''." These "visions" were very popular in Ireland, and so numerous they gave rise to the parody, the 12th century ''
Aislinge Meic Con Glinne "Aislinge Meic Con Glinne" (Middle Irish: " Vision-poem of the son of Conglinne") is a Middle Irish tale of anonymous authorship, generally believed to have been written in the late 11th/early 12th century. A parody of the "Vision" genre of rel ...
''. More important than these, however, are the lives of the saints, because many of them, dating back to a very remote period, throw a great deal of light on the manners of the early Irish. In the first half of the 17th century Brother Michael O'Cleary, a Franciscan, travelled round Ireland and made copies of between thirty and forty lives of Irish saints, which are still preserved in the Burgundian library at Brussels. Nine, at least, exist elsewhere in ancient vellums. A part of one of them, the voyage of
St. Brendan Brendan of Clonfert (c. AD 484 – c. 577) is one of the early Irish monastic saints and one of the Twelve Apostles of Ireland. He is also referred to as Brendan the Navigator, Brendan the Voyager, Brendan the Anchorite, and Brendan the Bold ...
, spread all through Europe, but the Latin version is much more complete than any existing Irish one, the original having likely been lost.


Irish historical literature

Owing to the nature of the case, and considering the isolation of Ireland, it is extremely difficult, or rather impossible, to procure independent foreign testimony, to the truth of Irish annals. But, although such testimony is denied us, yet there happily exists another kind of evidence to which we may appeal with comparative confidence. This is nothing less than the records of natural phenomena reported in the annals, for if it can be shown by calculating backwards, as modern science has enabled us to do, that such natural phenomena as the appearance of comets or the occurrence of eclipses are recorded to the day and hour by the annalists, then we can also say with something like certainty that these phenomena were recorded at their appearance by writers who personally observed them, and whose writings must have been actually consulted and seen by these later annalists whose books we now possess. If we take, let us say, the ''
Annals of Ulster The ''Annals of Ulster'' () are annals of History of Ireland, medieval Ireland. The entries span the years from 431 AD to 1540 AD. The entries up to 1489 AD were compiled in the late 15th century by the scribe Ruaidhrí Ó Luin ...
'', which treat of Ireland and Irish history from about the year 444, but of which the written copy dates only from the 15th century, we see from the years 496 to 884 as many as eighteen records of
eclipse An eclipse is an astronomical event which occurs when an astronomical object or spacecraft is temporarily obscured, by passing into the shadow of another body or by having another body pass between it and the viewer. This alignment of three ...
s and
comet A comet is an icy, small Solar System body that warms and begins to release gases when passing close to the Sun, a process called outgassing. This produces an extended, gravitationally unbound atmosphere or Coma (cometary), coma surrounding ...
s, and all these agree exactly with modern astronomy. How impossible it is to keep such records unless written memoranda are made at the time by eyewitnesses is shown by the fact that Bede, born in 675, in recording the great solar eclipse that took place only eleven years before his own birth, is yet two days astray in his date; while on the other hand the ''Annals of Ulster'' give, not only the correct day, but the correct hour, thus showing that their compiler,
Cathal Maguire Cathal is a common given name in Ireland. The name is derived from two Celtic elements: the first, ''cath'', means "battle"; the second element, ''val'', means "rule". There is no feminine form of ''Cathal''. The Gaelic name has several anglicis ...
, had access either to the original, or a copy of an original, account by an eyewitness. Whenever any side-lights have been thrown from an external quarter on the Irish annals, either from Cymric, Saxon, or Continental sources, they have always tended to show their accuracy. We may take it then without any credulity on our part, that Irish history as recorded in the annals may be pretty well relied upon from the 4th century onward. The first scholar whom we know to have written connected annals was Tighearnach, Abbott of Clonmacnoise, who died in 1088. He began in Latin with the founding of Rome; later on he makes occasional mention of Irish affairs, and lays it down that Irish history is not to be trusted before the reign of Cimbaed, that is, prior to about the year 300 BC, ''Omnia monimeta Scotorum''
he Irish were always called Scotti till into the late Middle Ages He or HE may refer to: Language * He (letter), the fifth letter of the Semitic abjads * He (pronoun), a pronoun in Modern English * He (kana), one of the Japanese kana (へ in hiragana and ヘ in katakana) * Ge (Cyrillic), a Cyrillic letter cal ...
''usque Cimbaed incerta erant.'' In the 4th century BC the references to Ireland become fuller and more numerous, they are partly in Latin, partly in Irish, but towards the end of the work Latin gives way to the native speech. The greatest book of annals, with a few trifling exceptions also the latest, is known under the title of the " Four Masters". It is evident from the entries that the compilers of the "annals of Ulster" and the rest copied from ancient originals. In the "Annals of Ulster" for instance, we read under the year 439 ''Chronicon magnum scriptum est'', at the years 467 and 468 the compiler writes ''sic in libro Cuanach inveni'', at 482 ''ut Cuana scriptsit'', at 507 ''secundum librum Mochod'', at 628 ''sicut in libro Dubhdaleithe narratur'', etc. No nation in Europe can boast of so continuous and voluminous a history preserved in a vernacular literature. The only surviving history of Ireland as distinguished from annals was written by
Geoffrey Keating Geoffrey Keating (; – ) was an Irish historian. He was born in County Tipperary, Ireland, and is buried in Tubrid Graveyard in the parish of Ballylooby-Duhill. He became a Catholic priest and a poet. Biography It was generally believed unt ...
, a learned priest, in the first half of the 17th century. It also is taken, almost exclusively, from the old vellum manuscripts then surviving, but that mostly perished, as Keating no doubt foresaw they would, in the cataclysm of the Cromwellian wars.


Early Irish poetry

Early Irish poetry is one of the oldest vernacular poetic traditions. The oldest poems were written down from an oral tradition that was very strong in early Irish culture. It was during the 4th century that the oral literature was first written down in the monasteries. Most of those texts have not been preserved and were destroyed in the
Viking invasions Viking expansion was the historical movement which led Norse explorers, traders and warriors, the latter known in modern scholarship as Vikings, to sail most of the North Atlantic, reaching south as far as North Africa and east as far as Russ ...
. The surviving poetic texts date from c. 650 AD and end in the 12th century, when a new literary order emerged. The poetry of this time may be roughly divided into two categories – that of the professional bard attached to the court and person of a chief; and that of the unattached poet, whether monk or itinerant bard. The poetry was written in
Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...
and
Old Irish Old Irish, also called Old Gaelic (, Ogham, Ogham script: ᚌᚑᚔᚇᚓᚂᚉ; ; ; or ), is the oldest form of the Goidelic languages, Goidelic/Gaelic language for which there are extensive written texts. It was used from 600 to 900. The ...
. Among the few surviving Old Irish poems is ''
Pangur Bán "" is an Old Irish poem written in about the 9th century at or near Reichenau Abbey, in what is now Germany, by an Irish monk about his cat. , 'White Pangur', is the cat's name, possibly meaning 'a fuller'. Although the poem is anonymous, it ...
'', written by a monk probably in
Reichenau Abbey Reichenau Abbey was a Benedictine monastery on Reichenau Island (known in Latin as Augia Dives) in southern Germany. It was founded in 724 by the itinerant Saint Pirmin, who is said to have fled Visigothic Spain ahead of the Moorish invaders, w ...
shortly after the year 800. The earliest Irish poetry was unrhymed. Little distinguishes it from prose, except for a strong tendency, as in the
Germanic languages The Germanic languages are a branch of the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family spoken natively by a population of about 515 million people mainly in Europe, North America, Oceania, and Southern Africa. The most widely spoke ...
, towards
alliteration Alliteration is the repetition of syllable-initial consonant sounds between nearby words, or of syllable-initial vowels if the syllables in question do not start with a consonant. It is often used as a literary device. A common example is " Pe ...
and
syllabic verse Syllabic verse is a poetic form having a fixed or constrained number of syllables per line, while stress, quantity, or tone play a distinctly secondary role—or no role at all—in the verse structure. It is common in languages that are syllable ...
. They are also so ancient as to be unintelligible without heavy glosses. By the 7th century, Irish poetry had developed rhyming verses, centuries before most of the vernacular literatures of Europe. Irish poetry did not emphasise only full rhymes, but also
assonance Assonance is the repetition of identical or similar phonemes in words or syllables that occur close together, either in terms of their vowel phonemes (e.g., ''lean green meat'') or their consonant phonemes (e.g., ''Kip keeps capes ''). However, in ...
, and
internal rhyme In poetry, internal rhyme, or middle rhyme, is rhyme that occurs within a single line of verse, or between internal phrases across multiple lines. By contrast, rhyme between line endings is known as end rhyme. Internal rhyme schemes can be denote ...
was seen as of possibly greater importance than
end rhyme A rhyme is a repetition of similar sounds (usually the exact same phonemes) in the final stressed syllables and any following syllables of two or more words. Most often, this kind of rhyming (''perfect rhyming'') is consciously used for a musica ...
. The following Latin verses, written some time prior to the year 704, demonstrate internal rhyming: : ''Martinus mirus more'' : ''Ore laudavit Deum,'' : ''Puro Corde cantavit'' : ''Atque amavit Eum.'' An interesting peculiarity of certain Old Irish verse is a desire to end a second line with a word that is one syllable more than that which ends the first, the stress of the voice being thrown back a syllable in the last word of the second line. Thus, if the first line ends with an stressed monosyllable, the second line will end with a disyllabic word stressed on its first syllable, or if the first line ends with a disyllable stressed on its penultimate the second line will end with a trisyllable stressed on its ante-penultimate. This is called ''airdrinn'' in Irish, as: : ''Fall'n the land of learned mén'' : ''The bardic band is fállen,'' : ''None now learn a song to síng'' : ''For long our fern is fáding.'' This metre is named ''Deibhidhe'', and illustrates in the last two lines the internal rhyme to which is referred. Linguist
Rudolf Thurneysen Eduard Rudolf Thurneysen (14 March 1857 – 9 August 1940) was a Swiss linguist and Celticist. Biography Born in Basel, Thurneysen studied classical philology in Basel, Leipzig, Berlin and Paris. His teachers included Ernst Windisch and ...
maintains that if the Irish rhyming verses were derived from the Latins, it seems necessary to account for the peculiar forms that so much of this verse assumed in Irish, for early Irish verse has many unique qualities , like this ''airdrinn'', which cannot have been derived from Latin. There were two kinds of poets of ancient Irish society. the highest of those was called the filè; the lowest the bard. There were seven grades of filès, the most exalted being called an
ollamh An or ollamh (; anglicised as ollave or ollav), plural ollomain, in early Irish literature, was a master in a particular trade or skill. Bard Generally, ''ollam'' referred to a professional poet or bard of literature and history, and a membe ...
. These last were so highly esteemed that the annals often give their obituaries, as though they were princes. It took from twelve to twenty years to arrive at this dignity. Some fragments of the old metrical textbooks still exist, showing the courses required from the various grades of poets, in pre-Norse times. By contrast, only one thing was required of a bard; natural ability. There were sixteen grades of
bard In Celtic cultures, a bard is an oral repository and professional story teller, verse-maker, music composer, oral historian and genealogist, employed by a patron (such as a monarch or chieftain) to commemorate one or more of the patron's a ...
s, each with a different name, and each had its own unique metres (of which the Irish had over 300).


See also

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Irish literature Irish literature is literature written in the Irish, Latin, English and Scots ( Ulster Scots) languages on the island of Ireland. The earliest recorded Irish writing dates from back in the 7th century and was produced by monks writing in ...
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Irish mythology Irish mythology is the body of myths indigenous to the island of Ireland. It was originally Oral tradition, passed down orally in the Prehistoric Ireland, prehistoric era. In the History of Ireland (795–1169), early medieval era, myths were ...
*
Ogham Ogham (also ogam and ogom, , Modern Irish: ; , later ) is an Early Medieval alphabet used primarily to write the early Irish language (in the "orthodox" inscriptions, 4th to 6th centuries AD), and later the Old Irish language ( scholastic ...


References


Further reading

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External links


Irish Script on ScreenCorpus of Electronic Texts (CELT)Celtic Digital InitiativeElectronic ''Dictionary of the Irish Language''(eDil)Early Irish Glossaries
{{DEFAULTSORT:Early Irish Literature Irish-language literature