The Gaelic Background of Old English Poetry before Bede

Colin A. Ireland

Published by Medieval Institute Publications 2022

The Gaelic Background of Old English Poetry before Bede

Colin A. Ireland

In the series Publications of the Richard Rawlinson Center

https://doi.org/10.1515/9781501513879

Overview
Contents

About this book

Now in Paperback

Seventh-century Gaelic law-tracts delineate professional poets (filid) who earned high social status through formal training. These poets cooperated with the Church to create an innovative bilingual intellectual culture in Old Gaelic and Latin. Bede described Anglo-Saxon students who availed themselves of free education in Ireland at this culturally dynamic time. Gaelic scholars called sapientes (“wise ones”) produced texts in Old Gaelic and Latin that demonstrate how Anglo-Saxon students were influenced by contact with Gaelic ecclesiastical and secular scholarship. Seventh-century Northumbria was ruled for over 50 years by Gaelic-speaking kings who could access Gaelic traditions. Gaelic literary traditions provide the closest analogues for Bede’s description of Cædmon’s production of Old English poetry. This ground-breaking study displays the transformations created by the growth of vernacular literatures and bilingual intellectual cultures. Gaelic missionaries and educational opportunities helped shape the Northumbrian “Golden Age”, its manuscripts, hagiography, and writings of Aldhelm and Bede.

Author / Editor information

Colin A. Ireland, Arcadia University, PA, USA, and University College Dublin, Ireland.

Reviews

"This is an immensely learned book to which it is impossible to do justice even in a lengthy review. […] With its wealth of reference to early Irish and Hiberno-Latin literature, [it] is a veritable treasure trove for readers in search of the Irish Gaelic background to Old English literature." (Rory McTurk, University of Leeds, in: Dublin Review of Books 147/2, Sept. 2022)

"This capacious and meticulously referenced book is a valuable addition to the ever-growing body of scholarship on the cultural interplay between early Ireland and England. […] The Gaelic Background of Old English Poetry before Bede succeeds admirably in its endeavor to "encourage ... a more informed understanding of the nature of insular vernacular literature" (371) and deserves a welcome place among scholarship on the early medieval North Atlantic." (A. Joseph McMullen, Indiana University, in: Speculum 98/4, Oct. 2023, 1262-1263.)

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	I
Acknowledgements Publicly Available Download PDF	VII
Preface Publicly Available Download PDF	IX
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	XI
List of Figures Publicly Available Download PDF	XIII
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Chapter One Early Vernacular Poetic Practice Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	7
Chapter Two Early Historical Poets before Bede Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	49
Chapter Three Professional Poets and Vernacular Narratives Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	105
Chapter Four The Church and the Spread of Bilingual Learning Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	163
Chapter Five The Ethnic Mix of Anglo-Saxon Empire Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	245
Chapter Six The Long Century of Anglo-Saxon Conversion Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	299
Chapter Seven Cædmon’s World at Whitby Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	353
Afterword Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	371
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	375
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	425

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: Medieval Institute Publications
Audience: Medievalists, Scholars of Literary Studies and Historical Linguistics
Pages
- Front matter: 10
- Main content: 450
Illustrations
- Illustrations: 22
Keywords: Poetry; Vernacular; Fili; Scop; Insular

eBook

Published: January 19, 2022
ISBN: 9781501513879

Hardcover

Published: January 31, 2022
ISBN: 9781501520280

Paperback

Published: October 24, 2023
ISBN: 9781501522147