Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Introduction
- 1 The literature of medieval Ireland to c. 800: St Patrick to the Vikings
- 2 The literature of medieval Ireland, 800–1200: from the Vikings to the Normans
- 3 The literature of later medieval Ireland, 1200–1600: from the Normans to the Tudors
- 4 Literature in English, 1550–1690: from the Elizabethan settlement to the Battle of the Boyne
- 5 Literature in Irish, c.1550–1690: from the Elizabethan settlement to the Battle of the Boyne
- 6 Prose in English, 1690–1800: from the Williamite wars to the Act of Union
- 7 Poetry in English, 1690–1800: from the Williamite wars to the Act of Union
- 8 Literature in Irish, 1690–1800: from the Williamite wars to the Act of Union
- 9 Theatre in Ireland, 1690–1800: from the Williamite wars to the Act of Union
- 10 Irish Romanticism, 1800–1830
- 11 Prose writing and drama in English, 1830–1890: from Catholic emancipation to the fall of Parnell
- 12 Poetry in English, 1830–1890: from Catholic emancipation to the fall of Parnell
- 13 Literature in Irish, 1800–1890: from the Act of Union to the Gaelic League
- 14 Historical writings, 1690–1890
- 15 Literature and the oral tradition
- Guide to major subject areas
- Index
- References
1 - The literature of medieval Ireland to c. 800: St Patrick to the Vikings
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 March 2008
Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Introduction
- 1 The literature of medieval Ireland to c. 800: St Patrick to the Vikings
- 2 The literature of medieval Ireland, 800–1200: from the Vikings to the Normans
- 3 The literature of later medieval Ireland, 1200–1600: from the Normans to the Tudors
- 4 Literature in English, 1550–1690: from the Elizabethan settlement to the Battle of the Boyne
- 5 Literature in Irish, c.1550–1690: from the Elizabethan settlement to the Battle of the Boyne
- 6 Prose in English, 1690–1800: from the Williamite wars to the Act of Union
- 7 Poetry in English, 1690–1800: from the Williamite wars to the Act of Union
- 8 Literature in Irish, 1690–1800: from the Williamite wars to the Act of Union
- 9 Theatre in Ireland, 1690–1800: from the Williamite wars to the Act of Union
- 10 Irish Romanticism, 1800–1830
- 11 Prose writing and drama in English, 1830–1890: from Catholic emancipation to the fall of Parnell
- 12 Poetry in English, 1830–1890: from Catholic emancipation to the fall of Parnell
- 13 Literature in Irish, 1800–1890: from the Act of Union to the Gaelic League
- 14 Historical writings, 1690–1890
- 15 Literature and the oral tradition
- Guide to major subject areas
- Index
- References
Summary
Historical introduction
Literature and scholarship, in Irish and in Latin, were prized and cultivated in early Christian Ireland: what has come down to us from the years ad 600 to 800 is most impressive, in both range and quality. These early texts are the products of an intellectual elite that comprised clerical and secular scholars and authors. There were already some Christians in Ireland early in the fifth century, for in 431 Pope Celestine sent Palladius as first bishop to the Irish who believed in Christ. Since Christianity is a religion of the Book, these Irish Christians must have had individuals among them who were literate in Latin. Some degree of literacy in the Irish language was present even earlier than the fifth century. The oldest surviving records of the Irish language are inscriptions incised in stone in the ogam script. Something under four hundred of these inscriptions survive, and they generally consist of a personal name in the genitive case, accompanied, more often than not, by the name of that person’s father or other ancestor. The earliest inscriptions probably date to the fifth and sixth centuries, and some may belong to the fourth. The invention of the ogam alphabet cannot have occurred later than the fourth century, and it has been suggested that it may date to the end of the second century or the beginning of the third. We know nothing of the identity of the inventor of this alphabet, but we can be sure that he knew Latin and that his invention entailed an analysis of the Irish language.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Cambridge History of Irish Literature , pp. 9 - 31Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2006
References
, The Early Irish Linguist: An Edition of the Canonical Part of the Auraicept na nÉces, Societas Scientiarum Fennica: Commentationes Humanarum Litterarum LXXIII 1982 (Helsinki: Societas Scientarum Fennica, 1983).Google Scholar
, Early Irish Linguist. edition by , Auraicept na n-Éces: The Scholars’ Primer (Edinburgh: John Grant, 1917; reprinted Dublin: Four Courts, 1995).Google Scholar
and , eds. Adomnán’s Life of Columba, revised by (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991).Google Scholar
, ed. The Patrician Texts in the Book of Armagh, Scriptores Latini Hiberniae X (Dublin: Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1979).Google Scholar
, ‘Bretha Nemed’, Ériu 17 (1955), and ‘The Date and Provenance of Uraicecht Becc ’, Ériu 18 (1958).Google Scholar
, Latin Palaeography: Antiquity and the Middle Ages (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, ed. and trans. Uraicecht na Ríar: The Poetic Grades in Early Irish Law, Early Irish Law Series II (Dublin: Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1987).Google Scholar
, ‘Introduction’, in , The Irish Hand: Scribes and their Manuscripts from the Earliest Times to the Seventeenth Century with an Exemplar of Irish Scripts (Portlaoise: Dolmen Press, 1984)Google Scholar
, The Irish National Origin-Legend: Synthetic Pseudohistory, Quiggin Pamphlets on the Sources of Medieval Gaelic History I (Cambridge: Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic, University of Cambridge, 1994).Google Scholar
, ed. The Poems of Blathmac Son of Cú Brettan: Together with The Irish Gospel of Thomas and A Poem on the Virgin Mary, Irish Texts Society XLVII (Dublin:The Educational Company of Ireland, 1964)Google Scholar
, ‘The Context and Uses of Literacy in Early Christian Ireland’, in , ed. Literacy in Medieval Celtic Societies (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998).Google Scholar
, ‘Language and Society among the Insular Celts 400–1000’, in , ed. The Celtic World (London: Routledge, 1995).Google Scholar
and , Iona: The Earliest Poetry of a Celtic Monastery (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1995).Google Scholar
, ‘The Law of Adomnán: A Translation’, in , ed. Adomnán at Birr, ad 697: Essays in Commemoration of the Lawof the Innocents (Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2001).Google Scholar
, ‘Latin Writing in Ireland (c.400–c.1200)’, in , general ed. The Field Day Anthology of Irish Writing, 3 vols. Derry: Field Day, 1991, 1.Google Scholar
, ‘Irish as a Vernacular before the Norman Invasion’, in , ed. A View of the Irish Language (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1969).Google Scholar
and , eds. and trans. A Golden Treasury of Irish Poetry: ad 600 to 1200 (London: Macmillan, 1967).Google Scholar
, ed. ‘Conailla Medb Míchuru and the Tradition of Fiacc Son of Fergus’, in and , eds. Miscellanea Celtica in Memoriam Heinrich Wagner, Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis, Studia Celtica Upsaliensia II (Uppsala: Uppsala University, 1997).Google Scholar
, ed. The Book of Letters of Saint Patrick the Bishop (Dublin: Four Courts Press, 1994).Google Scholar
, The Sources for the Early History of Ireland: Ecclesiastical (1929; reprinted with addenda and corrigenda, New York: Octagon Books, 1966).Google Scholar
, ed. ‘A Poem in Praise of Columb Cille’, Ériu 24 (1973); , ed. ‘Tiughraind Bhécáin’, Ériu 26 (1975).Google Scholar
, The Sources for the Early History of Ireland: Ecclesiastical, first printed 1929; reprinted with addenda and corrigenda, New York: Octagon Books, 1966.Google Scholar
, ‘Early and Middle Irish Literature (c.600–1600)’, in , general ed. The Field Day Anthology of Irish Writing, 3 vols. Derry: Field Day, 1991, 1.Google Scholar
, The Learned Tales of Medieval Ireland, Dublin: Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1980.Google Scholar
, Learned Tales, and , ‘Reconstructing the Earliest Irish Tales Lists’, Éigse 32 (2000).Google Scholar
in , , , , , , and , eds. Apocrypha Hiberniae I. Evangelia Infantiae, 2 vols. Corpus Christianorum Series Apocryphorum XIII and XIV (Turnhout: Brepols Publishers, 2001), xiii.Google Scholar
and , eds. Ulidia, Proceedings of the First International Conference on the Ulster Cycle of Tales, Belfast: December Publications, 1994.Google Scholar
, ‘The Würzburg and Milan Glosses: Our Earliest Sources of “Middle Irish”’, Ériu 36 (1985).Google Scholar
, Echtrae Chonnlai and the Beginnings of Vernacular Narrative Writing in Ireland: A Critical Edition with Introduction, Notes, Bibliography and Vocabulary, Maynooth Medieval Irish Texts I (Maynooth: Department of Old and Middle Irish, National University of Ireland Maynooth, 2000).Google Scholar
, Pagan Past and Christian Present in Early Irish Literature, Maynooth Monographs III (Maynooth: An Sagart, 1990).Google Scholar
, ed. Cáin Adamnáin: An Old-Irish Treatise on the Law of Adamnán, Andecdota Oxoniensia, Mediaeval and Modern Series 12 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1905);Google Scholar
, ed. The Death-Tales of the Ulster Heroes, Todd Lecture Series XIV (Dublin: Royal Irish Academy, 1906).Google Scholar
, ‘Mary, Eve and the Church, c.600–1800’ and ‘Eve and her Sisters, c.550–1800’, in , , , , , , and , eds. The Field Day Anthology of Irish Writing, vol. IV and V: Irish Women’s Writing and Traditions, Cork: Cork University Press in association with Field Day, 2002, IV.Google Scholar
, ‘Reflections on Compert Conchobuir and Serglige Con Culainn’, in and , eds. Ulidia, Proceedings of the First International Conference on the Ulster Cycle of Tales (Belfast: December Publications, 1994).Google Scholar
, ‘Early Medieval Law, c.700–1200’, in et al. eds. The Field Day Anthology of Irish Writing, vol. IV and V: Irish Women’s Writing and Traditions, Cork: Cork University Press in association with Field Day, 2002, IV.Google Scholar
, ‘The Date and Authorship of Apgitir Chrábaid: Some Internal Evidence’, in and , eds. Irland und die Christenheit. Ireland and Christendom (Stuttgart: Klett-Cotta, 1987).Google Scholar
, Corpus Genealogiarum Hiberniae, vol. I (Dublin: Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1962).Google Scholar
, ‘“Audite Omnes Amantes”: A Hymn in Patrick’s Praise’, in with , , , , and , Saint Patrick, ad 493–1993 (Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, 1993).Google Scholar
, ed. Félire Óengusso Céli Dé: The Martyrology of Oengus the Culdee (London: Henry Bradshaw Society, 1905).Google Scholar
and , eds. Thesaurus Palaeohibernicus: A Collection of Old-Irish Glosses Scholia Prose and Verse, 2 vols. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1901–3), II.Google Scholar
, Thesaurus, 11; , King of Mysteries: Early Irish Religious Writings (Dublin: Four Courts Press, 1998).Google Scholar
and , Thesaurus, II; see , ed. Die Irische Kanonensammlung, 2nd edn (Leipzig: Bernard Tauchnitz, 1885).Google Scholar
, ‘Colmán mac Lénéni und Senchán Torpéist’, Zeitschrift für celtische Philologie 19 (1933).Google Scholar
, The Heroic Biography of Cormac mac Airt (Dublin: Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1977).Google Scholar
, ed. Sanctae Columbanae Opera, Scriptores Latini Hiberniae II (Dublin: Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1970).Google Scholar
- 2
- Cited by