GAELIC In the absence of a native coinage it is extremely difficult to say when the use of letters was introduced into Ireland. It is probable that the Latin alphabet first came in with Christianity. With the exception of the one bilingual Ogam inscription as yet discovered in Ireland (that at Killeen Cormac) all the inscrip tions in Roman letters are certainly later than 500. With regard to the Ogam inscriptions we cannot make any confident assertions. Owing to the lack of criteria for dating certain Irish sound changes accurately it is impossible to assign chronological limits for the earlier stones, which cannot be later than the 5th century, but there is nothing to show whether they are Christian or not. The Ogam system is certainly based on the Latin and not the Greek alphabet, and was probably invented by some person from the south of Ireland who received his knowledge of the Roman letters from traders from the mouth of the Loire.
The earliest pieces of connected prose in Irish are three : (I) the Cambray Homily, contained in an 8th-century codex at Cambray: the language dates from the second half of the 7th or the beginning of the 8th century; (2) the additions to the notes of Tirechan on the life of St. Patrick in the Book of Armagh; these seem to go back to the early 8th century; (3) the tract on the Mass in the Stowe Missal, which is in all probability nearly as old as the Cambray Homily. Of especial interest are the spells and poems found in the Stowe Missal and two Continental mss. A St. Gall codex has preserved four Irish incantations of the 8th and 9th centuries. The 9th-century codex preserved at the monastery of St. Paul in Carinthia contains several interesting short poems in Irish.
For our knowledge of the older language, however, we have to rely mainly on the numerous glosses scattered about in a large number of mss., which it is impossible to enumerate here. It will be sufficient to mention the three most important codices contain ing Old Irish glosses. These are as f ollows:—( ) The Codex Paulinus at Wiirzburg. The date of this highly important ms. is much disputed ; part of the Irish glosses seem to date from about 700, whilst the rest may be placed a little before 800. (2) The Codex Ambrosianus, formerly at Bobbio, now at Milan; these glosses were copied in the first half of the 9th century. (3) Glosses on Priscian contained in four mss. The other chief texts or authors provided with Irish glosses are Augustine, Bede, the Canons, the Computus, Eutychius, Juvencus, Philargyrius, Pru dentius and Servius. The Milan and the St. Gall codices just men tioned both contain several short poems in Irish.
Two ponderous religious poems have now to be noticed. To Oengus the Culdee is attributed the lengthy Felire or Calendar of Church Festivals, consisting of 365 quatrains in rinnard metre, one for each day in the year. The language of this dry compila tion, which is heavily glossed and annotated, points to Boo as the date of composition, and Oengus, who is stated to have lived about that time, may well have been the author.
It may perhaps be as well to enumerate here the later Irish martyrologies. (I) The Martyrology of Tallaght, founded on an 8th-century calendar, but containing additions down to goo (ed.
D. H. Kelly, 1857). (2) The metrical Martyrology of O'Gorman, c. 1166-74, edited by Stokes for the Bradshaw Society (3) The Martyrology of Donegal, an important compilation in prose made by O'Clery in 1630, edited by J. H. Todd (1864). A composition which is wrongly assigned to Oengus the Culdee is the Saltair na Rann or Psalter in Quatrains, published without a translation by Stokes (1883). The work proper con sists of 150 poems, but 12 poems have been added, and in all it contains 2,098 quatrains. This psalter received additions as late as 998. We should perhaps also mention here the famous Amra or Eulogy of St. Columba, commonly attributed to Dalian For gaill, a contemporary of the saint, but Stokes takes the view that it was written in the 9th century, and is intentionally obscure.
During the 9th and loth centuries Ireland was harassed by the Vikings, and a host of scholars seem to have fled to the Conti nent, carrying with them their precious books, many of which are preserved in Italy, Switzerland, Germany and elsewhere. Hence very few early Irish mss. are preserved in Ireland itself. When the fury of the storm was past, Irish scholars showed increased interest in the old literary documents, and copied all that they could lay hands on into miscellaneous codices. The earliest of these collections, such as the Cin of Druim Snechta, the Yellow Book of Slane, the Book of 144bdaleithe, the Psalter of Cashel, exist no longer, though their names have come down and certain of them were known in the 17th century. However, copies of a goodly portion of the contents of these old books are preserved to us in one form or another, but mainly in a series of huge miscellaneous codices ranging in date from the 12th to the 16th century. The oldest is Lebor na h-uidre, which we shall abbreviate as LU., preserved in the Royal Irish Academy and published in facsimile (1870) by the Academy, which is also publishing the entire text of this codex in Roman letters marking the different handwritings. This ms. was compiled in part in the monastery of Clonmacnoise by Moelmuire Mac Celechair, who was slain in 1106. LU. is almost entirely devoted to romance, the stories which it contains belonging mainly to the Ulster cycle. The next ms. in point of age is the Book of Leinster (abbreviated LL.) now in Trinity college, Dublin, which was transcribed by Finn, son of Gorman, bishop of Kildare (d. 116o), and also contains a large number of romances in addi tion to other important matter bearing more particularly on the affairs of Leinster. The Yellow Book of Lecan (YBL.), also in Trinity college, Dublin, was written at different times by the MacFirbis family, and it also contains a vast amount of romance. The most extensive collection of all is the Book of Ballymote (BB.), now belonging to the Royal Irish Academy, which was compiled about the beginning of the 15th century by various scribes. In 1522 it was purchased by the O'Donnells for 140 milch cows. The contents of the Leabhar Breac (LB.), or Speckled Book, now in the Royal Irish Academy, are chiefly ecclesiastical and religious. All these five codices have been pub lished in facsimile by the Royal Irish Academy with a description of their contents. Two important Mid! Ir. mss. in the Bodleian (Rawlinson B 512 and Laud 610) are also published in facsimile by Henry Frowde.
Other mss. which require special mention are (I) The Great Book of Lecan, compiled in the. year 1417 by Gilla Isa Mor MacFirbis, in the Royal Irish Academy, for whose checquered history see the Marquis MacSweeny's article R.I.A. (1928). (2) The Book of Lismore, the property of the duke of Devon shire at Lismore castle, whose contents are described in the intro duction to Stokes's Lives of Saints from the Book of Lismore (1890). (3) The Book of Fermoy in the Royal Irish Academy. The contents are described in the introduction to O'Beirne Crowe's edition of the Thin Bó Fraich (1870). (4) The Book of Hy Maine now in the Royal Irish Academy. The scribe who wrote it died in 1372. O'Curry, O'Longan and O'Beirne Crowe drew up a ms. catalogue of the Irish mss. in the Royal Irish Academy, completed by Purton in over 3o ms. volumes. The Academy has since published in 1927-28 three fascisculi of a new catalogue by O'Rahilly, Miss Mulchrone and Miss Byrne. O'Donovan per formed the same service for the Trinity college, Dublin, collection.
A briefer account of the Irish mss. in TCD. will be found in Abbott's and Gwynn's Catalogue of the mss. in that library. O'Curry also drew up a list of the Irish mss. in the British Museum, and S. H. O'Grady printed part i. of a descriptive catalogue of this collection (190 ). Robin Flower completed this catalogue in 1926. The mss. in the Franciscan monastery in Dublin are described by J. T. Gilbert in the Fourth Report of the Royal Commission on Historical MSS. W. F. Skene catalogued the collection of mss. in the Advocates' Library, Edinburgh, a printed catalogue of which has been issued by D. Mackinnon (1909; see also Trans. Gaelic Soc. of Inverness, xvi. 285-309).
O'Curry states that if the five oldest vellum mss. were printed the result would be 9,400 quarto pages. Other mss. ranging in date from 1300 to 1600 would fill 9,00o pages of the same size. D'Arbois de Jubainville, published in 1883 a tentative catalogue of Irish epic literature. He mentions 953 Irish mss. containing epic matter preserved in Irish and English libraries. To these have to be added another 56 in Continental libraries.
The language in which the huge miscellaneous codices enumer ated above are written is called by the general name of Middle Irish, which is a very wide term. Irish scribes often copied their original somewhat mechanically, without being tempted to change the language to that of their own time. Thus in many parts of LU. we find a thin Middle Irish veneer on what is largely Old Irish of the 8th or 9th century, and it may even happen that a 14th or 15th century ms. such as YBL. contains much older forms than a corresponding passage in LL.
We have already stated that the stories which formed the stock-in-trade of the poets were divided into primary and secon dary stories. Of the latter there were 100, but little is known of them. The oldest catalogue (contained in LL.) gives the titles of 187 of the primary tales arranged under the following heads— destructions, cow-spoils, courtships, battles, caves, navigations, violent deaths, expeditions, elopements and conflagrations; to gether with the following, which also reckon as prime-stories irruptions, visions, loves, hostings and migrations. Of these stories 68 have been preserved in a more or less complete form. The tales enumerated in these catalogues in their substance doubt less go back to the 8th or even to the 7th century. It ought to be observed that the church never showed itself hostile to the filid, as it did to the druids. Dubthach, chief fill of Ireland in the time of St. Patrick, is represented as the saint's constant com panion.
Like the official filid, the bards, an inferior class of poets, were divided into grades. There were both patrician and plebeian bards, each subdivided into eight degrees, having their own peculiar metres. In course of time the office of fili became extinct, owing to a variety of causes, and from the 13th to the 16th century we find the hitherto despised family bard stepping into the place of the most influential literary man in Ireland. His importance was fully realized by the English Government, which did its best to suppress the order.
The Ulster cycle may be regarded as Ireland's most important contribution to the world's literature. The chief and at the same time the lengthiest romance in which the heroes of this group figure is the great epic, the Tan B6 Cualnge or the Cattle-raid of Cooley (Co. Louth). Here we find ourselves in a world of bar baric splendour, and we are constantly reminded of the Iliad, though the Irish epic from a purely literary point of view cannot bear comparison with the work of Homer. The main actors in the drama are Conchobar, king of Ulster, the great warrior Cachulinn (q.v.), Ailill and Medb, king and queen of Connaught, and Fergus, Conchobar's predecessor as king of Ulster, now in exile in Connaught. These persons may or may not have actually lived, but the Irish annalists and synchronists agree in placing them about the beginning of the Christian era. And there cannot be any doubt as to the antiquity of the state of civilization dis closed in this great saga. It has been repeatedly pointed out that the Irish heroes are equipped and conduct themselves in the same manner as the Gauls described by the Greek traveller Posi donius, and Prof. W. Ridgeway has shown that several articles of dress and armour correspond exactly to the La Tene types of the Continent. To mention a few primitive traits among many—the Irish champions of the Thin still fight in chariots, war-dogs are employed, whilst the heads of the slain are carried off in triumph and slung round the necks of the horses. It may also be mentioned that Emain Macha, Conchobar's residence, is reported by the annalists to have been destroyed in A.D. 323, and that portions of Meath, which is stated to have been made into a separate province in the and century A.D., are in the Thin regarded as forming part of Ulster. Noteworthy is the exalted position occupied by the druid in the Ulster sagas, showing how little the romances were influenced by Christianity. No Roman soldier ever set foot in Ireland, and this early epic literature is of supreme value as a monument of primitive Celtic civilization. The YBL. version of this epic preserves a number of forms as old as the O.Ir. glosses (i.e., 8th century or earlier), and a curious story contained in LL. seems to point to the fact that the Tain was first committed to writing in the 7th century.
At this point it will be well to say a few words about the form of the Thin. The old Irish epic is invariably in prose with poems of varying length interspersed. The narrative and descriptive portions are in prose and are frequently followed by a brief epi tome in verse. Dialogues, eulogies and laments also appear in metrical form. The oldest poems, termed rhetoric, which are best represented in LU., seem to be declamatory passages in rhyth mical prose, not unlike the poetical passages in the Old Testament, and the original Thin may have consisted of such rhetorics bound together with short connecting pieces of prose. At a later date poems were inserted in the metres of the filid. The genesis of the Thin may thus be briefly summarized as follows. The story was first committed to writing in the 7th or 8th century, after which it was worked up by the filid. Extended versions existing in the ioth or iith century form the basis of the copies we now possess.
Though the sagas of the Ulster cycle are eminently Irish and pagan in character and origin, it cannot be denied that traces of foreign influence are to be observed. A number of Latin and Norse loan-words occur in them, and there can be little doubt that the monkish scribes consciously thrust the supernatural element into the background.
From what we have already said it will be plain that the Irish epic is in a fluid state. The Thin is of interest in the history of literature as representing the preliminary stage through which the great verse epics of other nations have had to pass, but its value as a work of art is limited by its form. As already stated, the atmosphere is frankly pagan and barbaric, with none of that courtly element which we find in the Adhurian epics. The two features which strike one most forcibly in the mediaeval Irish romances are dramatic force and humour. The unexpected and weird is always happening, the effect of which is considerably heightened by the grim nature of the actors. In particular the dialogues are remarkably brilliant and clever, and it is a matter for surprise that this gifted race never developed a drama of its own. This is doubtless partly due to the political conditions of the island. And, moreover, we are constantly struck by the lack of sustained effort which prevented the filid from producing great epics in verse. Dramatic material is abundantly present in the old epics, but it has never been utilized. Perhaps the most serious defect of most Irish literary products is the lack of any sense of proportion, which naturally goes hand in hand with the love of the grotesque.
Four other stories in connection with the Ulster cycle remain to be mentioned. The first is Sce/ mucci Maic Datho ("The Story of MacDatho's Pig"). In this savage but picturesque Irish story we find the Ulstermen vaunting their achievements against the Connaughtmen. Nowhere, perhaps, is the dramatic element better brought out. Apart from the Tdin the greatest and at the same time the longest saga in which Cachulinn figures is Fled Bricrend (Bricriu's Feast). Bricriu is the mischief-maker among the Ulstermen, and he in turn incites the three chief heroes, Cuchulinn, Conall Cernach and Loigaire Buadach, to claim the champion's portion in a feast which he prepared. In order to decide the dispute, visits are paid to Medb at Rath Cruachan and to Curoi in Kerry, and the story ends with the "beheading incident," which occurs in the romance of "Sir Gawayne and the Green Knight." But the story of the Ulster cycle which is better known than any other, is the story of the "Tragical Death of the Sons of Usnech, or the Life and Death of Deirdre," one of the "Three Sorrows of Story-telling." This is almost the only tale of the group which has survived in the minds of the common people down to the present day. It is foretold of Deirdre, a girl-child of great beauty, that she will be the cause of great misfortunes, but Conchobar, having lost his wife, determines to have her brought up in solitude and marry her himself. The oldest version of the story is found in LL., and the characters are as rugged and unsophisticated as those of the Thin. But in the later versions the savage features are toned down.
Few of the old romances deal directly with what we may call Irish mythology. The "Battle of Moytura" tells of the tre mendous struggle between the Tuatha De Danann and their enemies, the Fomorian pirates. Connected with the events of this saga is the story of the "Tragic Deaths of the Sons of Tuirenn," which, though mentioned in Cormac's glossary, is not found in any ms. older than the 18th century. This is the second of the "Three Sorrows of Story-Telling." An old story dealing with Tuatha De Danann personages, but having a certain bearing on the Cuchulinn cycle, is the "Courtship of Etain," who, though of supernatural (sid) birth, is wedded to a mortal king. Her former husband wins back Etain from her mortal husband in a game of chess and carries her off to his fairy mound. For sake of completeness we may add the titles of two other well-known stories here. The one is the "Story of Baile the Sweet-Spoken." The other is the "Fate of the Children of Lir," the third of the "Three Sorrows of Story-telling," which is only known in a modern dress.
A large number of sagas, which claim to be founded on his torical events, present a great similarity to the tales of the Ulster cycle. The "Destruction of Dind-Rig and Exile of Labraid Loing sech" relates how the kingdom of Leinster was snatched by one brother from another in the 6th century B.C. The story of the visit of the pigmies to the court of Fergus MacLeite, king of Ulster in the 2nd century B.C., contained in a 15th-century ms., is commonly stated to have given Swift the idea of his Gulliver's Travels to Lilliput. Caithreim Chonghail Claringnigh, which only occurs in a modernized 17th-century version, deals with a revolution in the province of Ulster, supposed to have taken place before the Christian era. The most important Old Irish saga after the Min is beyond doubt the Destruction of Dci Derga's Hostel, contained in LU. It deals with events in the reign of the High-King Conaire Mor, who is said by the annalists to have been slain in 43 B.C. after a reign of 7o years.
We can do no more than enumerate the titles of other historical tales: The "Destruction of the Hostel of MacDareo," describing the insurrection of the Aithech-Tuatha (1st century A.D.), "The Expulsion of the Deisi" and the "Battle of Mag Lemna" (2nd century A.D.), "Battle of Mag Mucrime" (A.D. 195 or A.D. 218), "Siege of Drom Damgaire" (3rd century), "Adventures of the Sons of Eochaid Muigmed6in, father of Niall Nolgiallach" (4th century), "Death of Crimthann" (reigned 366-378), "Death of Dathi" (d. 428), "Death of Murchertach, son of Erc," and "Death of Diarmait, son of Cerball" (6th century) "Wooing of Becf ola, who became the wife of Diarmait, son of Aed Slane" (reigned 657-664), "Battle of Mag Rath" (637), "Battle of Carn Conaill" (c. 648), "Death of Maelfothartaig MacRonain" (7th century), who was a kind of Irish Hippolytus, "Battle of Allen" (722).
The visits of mortals to the Irish Elysium form the subject of three romances, and the whole question has been exhaustively dealt with by Kuno Meyer and Alfred Nutt in the Voyage of Bran (1895-97). Condla Caem, son of Conn Cetchathach, was one day seated by his father on the hill of Usnech, when he saw a lady in strange attire approaching invisible to all but himself. She describes herself as coming from the "land of the living," a place of eternal delight, and invites the prince to return with her. This is the Imram or Adventure of Condla Caem, the oldest text of which is found in LU. A similar story is entitled Imram Brain maic Febail, contained in YBL. and Rawlinson B 512 (the end also occurs in LU.). A later story preserved in BB., YBL. and the Book of Fermoy, tells of the visit of Cormac, grandson of Conn Cetchathach, to Tir Tairngiri. The romances we have just mentioned are almost entirely pagan in character, but a kindred class of story shows us how the old ideas were transformed under the influence of Christianity. A typical instance is Imram curaig Maelduin, contained in YBL. and in part in LU. Imram ua Corra (Book of Fermoy) and Imram Snedgusa ocus Mac Riagla (YBL.) resemble this, but in these cases, the voyage is undertaken as an expiation for crime. In the I I th century an unknown monkish writer compiled the Navigatio S. Brendani, drawing the material for his episodes from Imram curaig Mael duin.