CLT 2140

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CLT 2140

• All information about the course, dates, books,
  schedule etc is posted on
• www.courseweb.uottawa.ca/CLT2140

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Mythology and Saga

• In Early Irish Society
• (c700-1100AD)

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Early Celtic Literature the Church.

• The development of the Irish church is essential
  to our understanding of early Irish and Welsh
  literature. The church introduced literacy first
  in Latin and soon afterwards this skill was
  adapted to the Irish language (in Welsh in
  Wales).
• The Irish church was very independent, as was
  Christianity throughout the Celtic world.

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Early Celtic Literature
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Early Celtic Literature

• The Irish Celtic church followed a unique
  pattern, revolving around (small) monasteries
  rather than bishoprics, and evolving its own
  customs (its own form of tonsure, and the method
  for calculation of Easter).
• Aspects of the older pagan religion were also
  incorporated to aid conversion.
• Brigid and Anna (Brigitia and Anu).

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Early Celtic Literature

• From our point of view, it is the scholarship and
  writing skills that developed in the Irish church
  which draw our attention.
• Despite its peculiarly local flavour, the Irish
  church blossomed into the leading centre of
  scholarship in northwest Europe with
  internationally renowned centres in Clonmacnois
  and Glendalough. Scholars and students came to
  Ireland from the whole of Europe.

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Early Celtic Literature the church

• Likewise Irish missionaries roamed the British
  Isles and Europe. (Playing an important part in
  the conversion of Germanic- speaking nations).
• One of the cultural achievements of the Irish
  church was the production of a native literature
  in the Irish language.

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Early Celtic Literature

• At the same time we must be aware that that we
  are talking of a written culture. Ireland, like
  most of Europe had its own oral culture which had
  existed since time immemorial.
• The new written culture reflects this oral
  culture, and brings in its own genius.

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The Oral Tradition- Béaloideas

• In the pre-Christian period in Ireland, high
  culture (bardic poetry, the law system, tribal
  traditions) was oral, yet cultivated by a
  high-status cast, the intellectual class who had
  been called druids in antiquity.
• This culture was handed down from one generation
  to another, embellished yet essentially unchanged
  (myth, saga).

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The Oral Tradition- Béaloideas

• At the same time a more popular culture must have
  existed outside of the more aristocratic elements
  in early Irish society.
• Of this we have few indications, but certainly it
  would have also shared some of the storytelling
  features of the high-culture (Tales of Fionn Mac
  Cumhaill, and the Ulster Cycle).

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The Oral Tradition- Béaloideas

• When literacy evolved in Ireland, elements of
  both traditions began to be written down (in an
  ecclesiastical setting most often).

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Early Celtic Literature the church

• The early Irish church was a highly scholastic
  and artistic institution, including the
  production of exquisite religious
  manuscripts.(The Book of Kells)
• But we owe them a special thanks for preserving
  (and adding to) many traditional Irish tales
  (narratives) which is a great treasure since
  these are our only record of the oral literature
  of a Celtic people unconquered by the Romans.

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Early Celtic Literature

• Although early Irish and Welsh literature are
  products of the high medieval period in European
  literature, it will become very obvious that the
  kind of writing that has survived is very
  different to popular concepts of what medieval
  writing is like.
• The medieval writing of France and England have
  their origin in the elitist courts of the
  Anglo-Norman aristocracy.

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Early Celtic Literature

• Early Celtic writing, as has been said, is not a
  new literature created for the élites of the
  court, but the survival or re-creation of
  materials which belong to an earlier time in
  Irish history- the heroic age of Ulster and
  Connacht, and the mythological materials of the
  pre-Christian Irish.

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Early Celtic Literature

• There are various reasons for the preservation of
  this saga material.
• Writing was soon understood as a means of
  conserving traditional sagas about
  semi-mythological or legendary heroes or kings.
  Those who traced their lineage back to such
  figures were the same as those who protected and
  patronised the church.

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Early Celtic Literature

• Provincial history ( the ancient provinces of
  Ireland Ulster, Connacht, Meath, Leinster and
  Munster) was remembered in the form of annals
  (lists of historical events) and saga how
  ancestors had led the men of Ulster, or the
  men of Connacht.
• The church was not independant of the political
  life of Ireland in the early Middle Ages.

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Early Celtic Literature realism

• Unlike the popular preconception of what Celtic
  writing is deemed to be, Irish writing is
  realistic, it is in fact sometimes a kind of
  magical realism, but the realism of the events
  and values presented in these narratives relates
  closely to the social order that existed in the
  early Irish middle ages.
• .

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Early Celtic Literature realism

• The closest parallel in medieval European
  literature is the Icelandic sagas, but here the
  important pre-Christian element is less obvious.
• The Celtic Otherworld plays an important role in
  early Irish literature.

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Classifying the Irish material.

• The Mythological Cycle.(the gods and goddesses of
  pagan Ireland, tales of the Otherworld)
• The Ulster Cycle. (the stories of Cú Chulainn)
• The Kings Cycle (focusses on historical and
  legendary kings of early Ireland)
• The Finn Cycle. (Adventures of Fionn mac Cumhaill)

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Early Celtic Literature

• In this course we will be studying the first
  three categories.
• Despite this classification, there is a continual
  overlap from one category to the next especially
  where the semi-mythic Otherworld is concerned
  (the world of the pre-Christian deities and other
  supernatural beings).

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Aspects of Early Irish Society reflected in E I
Literature

• Sacred Kingship The Sovereignty goddess
• Festivals in Early Ireland (Samhain)
• The Otherworld ( the Sidh shee)
• The Heroic Age (next class).

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Mythology and Saga

• Sacred kingship in Ireland
• Ireland was never a single kingdom but had many
  regional and provincial monarchs.
• One estimate states that Ireland had some 150
  kings between the 5th and 12th centuries in a
  population of no more than c500,000.
• Chieftain might be a more accurate term.
• The Irish term is ríg.

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Mythology and Saga

• The king or chieftain was not only a political
  figure. He was the embodiment of the prosperity
  of his people.
• Although early Irish tradition speaks of the
  powerful queen-Queen Medb (Meeve), there is no
  reference to queens in early Irish tradition
  (annals). (But we know that the Celtic Britons
  had queens, eg Boudica).

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Mythology and Saga

• The king was sacred because he was called to
  perform religious rituals, that even the priests
  (usually called druids) could not perform.
• There are several prominent kings in early Irish
  tradition
• Niall of the Nine Hostages Conn of the Hundred
  Battles and Brian Boru.

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Mythology and Saga

• Such kings living in an isolated island
  culturally and geographically in the early
  centuries oversaw societies which were often
  radically different from their counterparts in
  continental Europe.
• Their concepts of family, property and law are
  often reflected in the saga material of the
  period which has survived.

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Mythology and Saga

• Where the Romans conquered their law and much of
  their societal structure was introduced. Ireland
  had only trade contacts with the Romans, and
  minimal military contact.
• Despite the introduction of Christianity into
  Ireland by Celtic Britons (Patrick) brought
  writing and primitive monasticism into the
  island.
• But Ireland retained its own Celtic law system
  for centuries (Brehon law until 12th century)

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Mythology and Saga

• Early Irish history is dominated by warring
  dynasties, especially that of the ONeills whose
  original territory was in NE Ireland but spread
  all over the island.
• A major influence on Ireland during 9-11th
  centuries were the Vikings, who founded such
  cities as Dublin, Limerick and Galway.

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Mythology and Saga

• Christianity became well established in Ireland
  in the centuries following its introduction in
  the 5th century. It retained a local form,
  uninfluenced by the Roman
• tendences of continental Christianity.
• This came to an abrupt end in the 12th century
  when Henry II of England brought the Irish church
  closer to European practises.

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Mythology and Saga

• However, in the sagas we shall be reading from
  Ireland (as well as the intermixed mythology), we
  will be in a largely pre-Christian context
  (Ulster Cycle, Kings Cycle, Mythology). Yet the
  writers of these texts lived a life of Christian
  custom and ritual. Hence, one of the ironies of
  this valuable material.

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Mythology and Saga

• Irish law pervades much of this literature, often
  the result of judgments given by the druids who
  play a central role in these narratives.
• Here are some major differences between Irish law
  and contemporary European law (c9-12th
  centuries)

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Mythology and Saga kings

• The early Irish did not practise primogeniture.
• The new Irish king was not necessarily the son of
  the previous king in fact the king might not
  even come from the kings immediate family
  (fine), but rather from a much wider family
  spectrum, the so-called derbfhine (descendants
  from a common great-grandfather).

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Mythology and Saga kings

• The new king should be unblemished
• The son of a principal wife, or if this was not
  possible the son of a legitimate second wife.
• There was nothing to stop a younger son becoming
  king over an older son.
• electing a new king could be quite complicated
  (see Da Dergas Hostel) and highly ritualized.

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Mythology and Saga kings

• The candidate should belong to the same derbfhine
  as the previous king.
• A contest, test or election would follow.
• Any male descendant could be considered.
  Obviously such a system led to internecine
  conflict if not outright war.
• A new king was expected to have certain moral
  qualities

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Mythology and Saga kings

• A good ruler should have fir flathemon (Truth of
  the Ruler). Basically this meant that he would
  have a character above reproach, he would be a
  good judge.
• He should be descended from high ancestry, and
  clearly should be heroic.
• His actions would have a direct impact on the
  fertility of the land (again see Da Dergas
  Hostel).

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Mythology and Saga kings

• Another form of succession also existed whereby a
  deputy-king was appointed called the tánaise
  (rig).
• His appointment would have entailed testing in
  the same manner as that of the king.

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Mythology and Saga

• The high-king and Tara (Temuin).
• The Hill of Tara in Co Meath close to Navan, the
  ancient capital of the Ulaid (Ulster) people.
• It is possible to see a great distance from the
  site (one third of Ireland).
• Traditionally this site was associated with the
  ard-rí (high-king of Ireland). It was also
  associated with the goddess Medb.

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Mythology and Saga

• Normally a king (or tribal chieftain) would rule
  over a tuath (thus the rí tuaithe).
• Such a king had a small retinue of soldiers (or
  armed clansmen), a following of noble clients,
  and a stewart to collect revenues.
• Clientship.
• Elaborate tests to determine the suitability of a
  king at Tara (rí Temhrach).

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Mythology and Saga

• Driving the chariot through Tara.
• The bull-feast (tarbhfheis).
• (King Conaire in Da Dergas Hostel)
• Tara also features as a magical place in the
  narratives of Fionn Mac Cumhaill. This is also
  implied in the tale of Da Dergas Hostel.

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Mythology and SagaSovereignty

• Kingship in Ireland was closely associated with
  pagan concepts to do with sovereignty.
• Here sovereignty is less a political term, but
  rather one connected with the mythology of early
  Ireland.
• Sovereignty (in Irish flaith)right to rule,
  lordship over territory.

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Sovereignty

• Early Irish records are full of sexual metaphors
  with regard to the initiation of a new king in
  the context of sovereignty.
• The sacral king is the spouse of his tuath.
• In the 6th century this initiation was called the
  wedding feast of kingship (banais righe).
• The new king would be given a libation to drink
  and then would sleep with the goddess of the
  land.

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Sovereignty

• At Tara (the main site of kingship in Ireland),
  the ceremony was called feis Tem(h)rach.
• It is claimed that this was reaffirmed each year
  (Geoffrey Keating 1625-31).
• Possibly this was held at times when fertility
  was needed for the land, and animals.

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Sovereignty goddesses

• kingship is male and sovereignty is female.
• Possibly this explains why the concept of the
  queen seems absent from early laws and annals
  (although there is a major exception in early
  Irish literature queen Medb).

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Sovereignty goddesses

• Most of our knowledge of such concepts are found
  scattered in the early narratives themselves.
• Irish myth is mostly found in the saga material.
• In other words, Irish myths do not occur as
  specific tales.
• Compare a Greek myth.

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Sovereignty goddesses

• This concept of the female embodiment of power
  (and the right to reign) is reflected in the
  various female characters in early Irish
  narrative
• They must be won sexually by any male who aspires
  to be king. Ie the land goddess (the goddess of
  sovereignty gives the authority to rule).

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Sovereignty goddesses

• Such females change in the course of even one
  narrative from being seductive to being
  loathsome.
• Such concepts are not uniquely Irish, but are
  found in antiquity in the eastern Mediteranean
  and areas in modern-day Iraq.

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Sovereignty goddesses

• In Irish mythological tales (usually inserted
  into saga material or pseudo-history) such
  sovereignty characters as the following appear
• Mór Mum(h)an from SW Ireland. She is described as
  being indescribably beautiful.
• She is also described as having been involved
  sexually with known historical figures.
• Her names occurs in many placenames (Tigh Mhoire).

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Sovereignty goddesses

• Other sovereignty goddess are the trio Banba,
  Fodla and Eriu, all of whom represent the island
  of Ireland. We will hear more about them when we
  come to study the Book of Invasions next week.
  The modern name Eire is a version of her name.
• She was especially associated with another sacral
  site in Ireland called Uisnech (known as the
  centre of Ireland).

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Sovereignty goddesses

• Eriu also appears in the 11th century tale Baile
  in Scail in which she is portrayed as the woman
  of sovereignty of Ireland.
• She is obliquely described as the wife of the
  Irish god Lug(h) who presides over a scene in
  which Conn of a Hundred Battles hears that his
  descendants will rule Ireland. (Lugh appears in
  the Ulster Cycle).

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Sovereignty goddesses

• The best known sovereignty goddess in Ireland is
  undoubtedly the Cailleach Bhéire or Hag of Beare.
• She will appear to a hero or warrior as an old
  woman to be loved. When she receives love she
  becomes a beautiful young woman.
• Medb.

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Feasts in Early Ireland

• Early Ireland had four major festivals which were
  celebrated by regional assemblies in which
  everyone participated. These are referred to
  quite frequently in the Sagas.
• These festivals were
• Samhain (Samuin)
• Imbolc
• Beltaine
• Lughnasa

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Feasts in Early Ireland

• Samhain
• Without question this is the festival which
  occurs most frequently in Irish narratives of the
  early Middle Ages.
• It marks the beginning of the Celtic new year,
  although it also marks the end of summer.(end of
  October).

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Feasts in Early Ireland

• The root of the word is undoubtedly sam- (meaning
  summer). In the earlier late Iron Age period
  approximately 100BC, the word was samon(ios) as
  attested by the Coligny Calendar.
• The modern world (or parts of it) have inherited
  some small part of the ancient Celtic festival,
  and in English it is better known as Halloween.

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Feasts in Early Ireland

• It is associated with the dead reaching out to
  the living (MacKillop), but in early Irish
  tradition and before the emphasis is not on the
  dead but on the inhabitants of the Celtic
  otherworld (the si(dh) ).
• During this chaotic period, the mortal world and
  the otherworld can overlap leading to magical,
  dreadful and marvellous events taking place.

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Feasts in Early Ireland

• Thus in the many sagas that mention Samhain, this
  festival heralds supernatural events.
• The festival was of supreme importance in early
  Ireland when each province (there were officially
  five) sent delegates every three years.
• The lighting of ritual fires was also a feature.

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Feasts in Early Ireland

• The lighting of fires was a common precedure at
  festivals but in this case at Tlachtga near Tara
  the fires commemorated a very basic and mythic
  event
• The main male deity of the Irish Dagda would mate
  with three divinities (Morrigan, Boand and the
  daughter of Indech).

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Feasts in Early Ireland

• Possibly at an earlier time (ie pre 400AD),
  sacrifices (human?) would take place at this
  time.
• Certainly at this time, certain mythic events
  were deemed to have taken place.
• Both Tara and Emain Macha (the capital of the
  Ulaid) were burned down by a character known as
  Aillen mac Midgna.

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Feasts in Early Ireland

• In the Ulster Cycle of tales, the main character
  Cú Chulaind met two otherworldly women at the
  time of the Samain feast.the love interest theme
  is also found in the mythic tale of Oengus who
  escapes with an otherworldly woman in the form of
  a swan.

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Feasts in Early Ireland

• In their book Celtic Heritage, Alwyn and Brinley
  Rees describe Samhain as being a time of
  confusion, the setting for voyages to the
  Otherworld, sexual relations between mortals and
  others, and gender-ambiguity with cross-dressing.
• The fact of being between two major seasons,
  makes the difference between the real and the
  supernatural seem blurred.

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Feasts in Early Ireland

• The other three major festivals (Imbolc, Beltaine
  and Lughnasa) do not figure largely in the early
  Irish sagas or the mythology.
• Imbolc 1st February
• Beltaine 1st May
• Lughnasa harvest festival.

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The Otherworld

• Another important feature of early Irish
  tradition (and later tradition too) is the belief
  in another parallel world beyond the senses, and
  beyond the rational, everyday world.
• In many ways it is an improvement on the world of
  everyday existence, infinitely more beautiful,
  and peopled by an immortal god-like people called
  the sí(dh).

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The Otherworld

• Voyages to the Otherworld (Imram) otherworld
  islands. Such adventure tales are deamed to be a
  genre largely created by the monastic orders, but
  surely based on shorter accounts of how a hero
  ventures to the Otherworld in search of exploits
  or love. We shall see how Cú Chulaind goes to the
  Otherworld to fight a battle and to meet a woman
  he loves.

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The Otherworld

• Entering the Otherworld can be in a number of
  ways
• By boat (on a lake or on the sea) to an island
• Under the water
• Through an entrance found in the side of a small
  tumulus (also called sí(dh).

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The Inhabitants of the Otherworld

• The otherworld abodes called si(dh) probably
  meant nothing more than seat, or abode.
• It has been suggested that such places were
  imagined to exist as a parallel to the tuath,
  except that the hostility between the mortal
  tuaithe was not found in the Otherworld.

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The Inhabitants of the Otherworld

• Many of the Irish narratives tell how men
  (usually) enter the sidh, by invitation often by
  an otherworld woman.
• It is important to realise that the early Irish
  did not think of such places as the abode of the
  dead (Teach Duinn).
• We shall see soon that many residences that are
  central to specific sagas or myth tales are in
  fact sidh. This will be especially true of the
  narratives located around the river Boyne and the
  great site of Newgrange.

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The Inhabitants of the Otherworld

• Such sidh abodes can be found in tales such as
  The Wooing of Etain, The Dream of Oengus, The
  Birth of Cú Chulaind, and occasionally in The
  Táin.