GAELIC LITERATURE. Although the oldest existing MSS. in Gaelic are of no earlier date than the 7th century, there is ample evi dence that the literature of the Gaels, not only the traditional hut the written literature, is of much greater antiquity. The internal evidence furnished by the ancient sagas, songs and chron ides preserved in medimval manuscripts indi cates a regular development extending from a period antedating by many centuries the be ginning of the Christian era, down to a time well within the compass of authentic history. And both the internal and external evidence point to the existence of a written as well as a traditional literature long before the Gael came into close contact with the civilization of the other nations of western Europe.
The Gaelic, or Gaedhealg, language is an Indo-European tongue, highly inflected, and rich in beautiful forms and euphonious combi nations. It is spoken in Ireland, the Highlands of Scotland and the Isle of Man. Being a Celtic tongue it is akin to the Brythonic group of languages, the Welsh, Cornish and Breton, and to the tongues, now extinct, spoken by the Celtic peoples who occupied central Europe before the extension of the Roman power. The isolation of Ireland ensured the development of the language along lines peculiarly its own, unaffected by outside influences. This is true not only of those centuries before the dawn of history, when the language was in the making, but is true also of the later period when mo mentous changes were stirring the rest of Eu rope and the modern nations were springing into being out of the fragments of the shattered Roman Empire. This isolation made for the development of a unique language and litera ture and it resulted, too, in the preservation and development of those peculiar social condi tions, the record of which is now shedding light on a period which would otherwise be shrouded in darkness. The development of the language is usually assigned by scholars to three periods: Old Gaelic, from the earliest time to about the end of the 10th century, A.D. ; Middle Gaelic, from the 11th to the 17th cen tury; and Modern Gaelic, from the 17th cen tury to the present day.
Though much of the old Gaelic literature came down to mediwval times in the form of oral tradition it must not be supposed that it is on that alone that its history is based. The fact that the earliest writing extant can be traced no further back than the 7th century is far from proving that previous to that time writing was unknown in Ireland. During the
8th, 9th and 10th centuries Ireland, like the other nations of Europe, suffered from the in cursions of the Danes and Northmen. These marauders landed on the coast, established themselves in seaport towns, set up their own government and raided the interior. Monas teries were sacked and burned and, as in Eng land, almost every existing book and manu script was burned at their hands. That such manuscripts and books existed before that time, however, is amply proved. Ireland had at that time been long in touch with the rest of Europe, and her schools had supplied teach ers and missionaries to the western world for centuries. During the Dark Ages, when con tinental Europe was plunged in almost univer sal war, Ireland was the home of the monastic schools, where the learning of the ages was preserved and the arts of writing and illumi nating were generously fostered.
The present alphabet, which is a modifica tion of the Roman, was introduced, it is be lieved, by Saint Patrick when he came in the 5th century to preach Christianity. But the art of writing was known before that. Many inscriptions have been found, especially in the southern counties, in Ogam, a system of writ ing which was peculiar to the early Irish. This script consisted of a series of short lines, drawn either above, below or through a stem line. Each group of short lines represented a letter, the letter being indicated by the number and position, some being at right angles and some being at acute angles with the stem-line. This stem-line was generally the angle between two sides of a long upright rectangular stone. The vowels were indicated by very small cuts on the angle of the stone, but much larger than points. The use of Ogam was not confined to monumental inscriptions, for some small metal articles have been found inscribed with it, and the old sagas and chronicles contain many allusions to Ogam writings on poets' staves, the shields of warriors and other arti cles. With the introduction of the modified Roman alphabet the use of Ogam was practi cally discontinued, although instances of its occasional use have been discovered. In a Saint Gall manuscript of the 9th century eight Ogam sentences were discovered, and others as late have been commented on by Zeuss, Nigra and others. How Ogam was invented is still a pro found mystery, but it is certain that it is pe culiar to the Irish Gad and only found where he settled.