The Myths, Legends, and Lore of Ireland

by Blackwell, Amy Hackney

  This was apparently the first time this problem had ever come up — there weren’t any basic Latin grammars. So the Irish took on the task of producing one (generations of students of Latin have them to thank for their suffering). An obscure scholar named Asper took a grammar by the Latin grammarian Donatus and adapted it for the Irish market. This grammar, called the Ars Asporii, used a question-and-answer format to convey Latin sentence structure and vocabulary, but with an Irish monastic twist. The author removed all pagan terms and substituted the language of monastic life. The book was a huge success (for a Latin textbook); it was established as a key authority by the seventh century.

  33 { Schools and Universities

  One of the most important functions of monasteries was as schools. Monastic schools were well attended (mostly by boys). Some of the students were treated as foster children by the monks, living in the care of another family until they were ready to return to their homes and adult responsibilities. Many noble warrior fathers seem to have thought that their sons would be safer in a monastery than at home. Students had to find and prepare food for the monks and help out with the business of running the monastery. But most of their time was spent studying and working.

  By the sixth century, Irish schools had a firm curriculum. Students studied Latin grammar, biblical exegesis, and the ecclesiastical calendar. A monastery’s library would contain several basic texts, including the Bible (the Latin Vulgate, translated by St. Jerome), various commentaries on Scripture, Jerome’s book on early Church writers called De viris illustribus, and a church history by Eusebius. The computation of the ecclesiastical calendar was of special interest to Irish monks and medieval religious scholars in general, and big monasteries would stock several works on the subject. The seventh-century scholar Columbanus mentioned calendrical problems in several of his letters.

  34 { The Pre-Xerox Age: A Life of Copying

  In the days before photocopiers and scanners, the only way people could copy a book was the hard way — by hand. Every book at a monastery, from the Bible to the textbooks used in the schools, had to be hand-copied. This took up much of the monks’ time. Monasteries lent books to one another for the purpose of copying; often the borrowing monastery would make two copies, one for itself and one for the lending monastery.

  The early monks didn’t write on paper, but on parchment, which is made of dried sheepskin. The most important texts sometimes got transcribed on vellum, which is made from dried calfskin.

  The Irish monks, copying away in their monasteries, didn’t realize that their work would have lasting implications for all of European history. But they did, in fact, preserve classical learning for posterity.

  After the Roman Empire fell, the state of education fell along with it. The Romans and the Greeks were consummate scholars and wrote learned treatises on all manner of topics — history, science, and literature. In the early medieval period, much of that literature was in danger of being lost forever. People on the Continent didn’t know its importance, and many of them were too busy fighting barbarians, or becoming barbarians themselves. In Ireland, though, peace prevailed.

  The Irish monks even transcribed their own local epics in Irish. These texts, including Irish epics such as the Táin Bó Cuailnge, are some of the earliest examples of vernacular literature.

  The Irish monks weren’t content to simply copy texts. They had to embellish them, to make them into works of art. They were fascinated with the shapes of letters and experimented with ways of making them more beautiful. They invented a script called Irish miniscule that was easier to read and write than many other medieval scripts had been; it was so successful that monasteries across Europe adopted it.

  Monks also used color and drawings to decorate their texts, in a technique called illumination. They took their inspiration from ancient Celtic art, the spirals and zigzags that decorated the tombs at Newgrange and myriad metal objects. Using paints made from various pigments, including insects, they applied brilliant colors to their complicated drawings to create books that would dazzle the eye of the reader. Letters themselves became fabulously embellished; sometimes an entire page would be filled with a fabulously decorated single letter. Sometimes artists even decorated their pages with gold leaf that would catch the light and literally “illuminate” the text.

  Ireland is home to several famous illuminated books that survive today:

  The Book of Kells

  The Book of Armagh

  The Book of Durrow

  The Book of Dimma

  Each of these is a masterpiece by the standards of any day, full of illustrations and text painstakingly planned and executed.

  35 { The Book of Kells

  The Book of Kells is probably the most famous illuminated manuscript in the world. Its several volumes contain the four gospels and supplemental texts. The reason for its fame is the extraordinary art that graces almost every one of its pages.

  The history of the Book of Kells is murky and full of legend, but the most common story is that it was written around 800 at St. Columcille’s monastery on Iona, off the coast of Scotland. Vikings started hitting the monastery at about this time, and the monks fled with the book to Kells in Ireland. The first written reference to the book is a report from the year 1007, noting that the great “Gospel of Columkille” had been stolen and found soon after, buried in the ground. At some point, the metal shrine containing the book disappeared, perhaps stolen by Vikings. Along the way, the book lost about thirty of its folios.

  In 1661, the Book of Kells ended up at Trinity College in Dublin. It wasn’t always cared for properly and was occasionally mistreated; in the eighteenth century, a bookbinder actually trimmed its pages, which caused irreparable damage. It was rebound in four volumes in 1953. Its modern keepers have been much more diligent about protecting it from light and moisture, and keep it in strictly controlled conditions. Astonishingly, given all the book has been through, it is still mostly intact, and the colors are still bright.

  Today, the people of Kells want their book back. The librarians at Trinity College aren’t sure that it would be cared for properly, but they have considered the possibility of returning the book to its medieval home. Meanwhile, it still resides in Dublin.

  Medieval Ireland became known as the Island of Saints and Scholars. Irish monasteries such as Glendalough and Clonmacnoise were famous all over Europe, luring students from England and the Continent. Clonmacnoise was known as the University of the West. But it didn’t last.

  Beginning in 795, Viking raiders started coming to Ireland. They weren’t interested in learning or art, but they knew where to find riches — in monasteries. Over the next 200 years, Vikings attacked and burned hundreds of monasteries and killed countless monks. Ireland’s Golden Age was coming to an end.

  Still, the Irish remember their medieval Christian forebears and their glorious heyday. They have carefully preserved the relics of that day, the exuberant decorated texts and works in metal. People travel from all over the world to visit Irish shrines and holy sites. And the world still has access to classical texts, which would not have been possible if Ireland had not created a group of joyful, imaginative scholars and an age of peace.

  36 { The Rise and Fall of Irish Dynasties

  Early medieval Ireland was a site of battles, deadly rivalries, and relentless invaders. While monks led secluded lives in their monasteries, Irish lords were vying for rule of the island. When the Vikings arrived, some Irish lords fought against them, but others took the Vikings’ side. It was in the midst of this complicated situation that the great hero Brian Boru emerged.

  Ireland in its early days of Christianity was still ruled by the same Celtic noble families as before; the difference was that now they were Christian. Their new religion, however, didn’t stop the old traditions of tribal warfare and cattle stealing. Irish historians used to claim that the tribal societies of pre-Viking Ireland had strict rules for warfare that limited the damage of conflicts, and that
the Vikings ruined this state of relative peace. Historical evidence, though, indicates that the Irish were at least as violent and prone to ravage the countryside as their invaders.

  The most powerful family during this period was the Eóghanacht, who had occupied the plain of Munster by the seventh century. Their home base was at the Rock of Cashel, in County Tipperary. “Cashel” is an Anglicized version of the Irish caiseal, which means fortress; it got this name because Cashel is a high hill covered with fortifications. (Cashel rivaled Tara as a seat of power during the medieval period.)

  To the east of Munster lay Laigin, which became the modern province of Leinster. To the north lay the kingdom of Ulaid, which became Ulster. In the center was Meath, which was overtaken by members of the Uí Néill clan, the ancestors of the modern O’Neills. To the west was Connacht, named after a relative of the Uí Néills named Conn Cétchatchach; this province was dominated by the Uí Briúin clan. The Uí Néills were particularly prolific; they eventually laid claim to all of Ireland and called their king the “high king.”

  Irish genealogy was anything but simple and clear. Kings took several wives and had many sons, thereby splitting royal families into several branches. These branches fought with one another and with outside enemies. Families rose and fell in power and there was no clear sense of national unity, whatever the Uí Néills might try to claim; there was no “Ireland” as such, only small kingdoms fighting and stealing one another’s cattle.

  37 { Anglo-Saxons in Britain

  After the Celts spread across central and western Europe, another group of people came in their wake. These were the Germanic people, who spoke a completely different language. They spread into the Baltic region, through northern Germany, Denmark, the Netherlands, and north into Norway and Sweden.

  The people who lived in the southern part of that area spoke the Germanic languages, which eventually evolved into modern German dialects; the ones who lived in Scandinavia spoke Norse tongues, ancestors of modern Norwegian, Danish, and Swedish.

  Around the time the Romans left Britain, the Germanic peoples started to cast longing gazes at the fertile island to their west. In 449 C.E., a whole passel of them got into their boats and sailed across the North Sea to Britain. Old English chronicles name them as the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes. They were fearsome people, eager for violence, and the native Britons (who were Celts) fled before their swords and fires. As they established themselves, people in Britain began to refer to them collectively as the Angles, or the English; this time in British history is known as the Anglo-Saxon period.

  The Celts retreated to Wales, Cornwall, and Scotland, which, along with Ireland, are the few places that Celtic languages are left today. The invaders took over everything else, the most fertile parts of Britain. The extent to which they overwhelmed the natives is evident in the scarcity of Celtic words in the English language.

  38 { Bring On the Vikings

  Once the Anglo-Saxons had settled in England, they calmed down somewhat. They built towns, converted to Christianity, stopped raiding, and behaved like “civilized” people. But in the eighth century, they were attacked by another group of invaders: the Vikings.

  The Vikings were Scandinavian people from Norway, Sweden, and Denmark, basically a northern version of the earlier Germanic invaders. Between 750 and 1050, Scandinavians spread all over northern Europe and into the Atlantic, establishing colonies in faraway Iceland, Greenland, and even Labrador. They were collectively called Vikings, which either comes from the Norse word vik, meaning “bay,” or the Old English word wic, meaning “camp.” Either is possible: Viking boats were often found in bays, and they set up camps across Western Europe.

  The Vikings called themselves Ostmen, or “men from the east.” They were excellent sailors, and they had a reputation for raiding, stealing, and burning whatever they found in their way.

  The Vikings first hit Ireland in 795, landing their technologically advanced warships at Lambay Island near the site of modern Dublin. From there they launched attacks up and down the coast, first concentrating their raids on the northern and western seaboards. Between 820 and 840, they ventured down rivers into the interior of the island, attacking churches for booty and captives.

  The Vikings developed a quick and efficient style of hit-and-run attack. Although the Irish fought back, the Vikings were at least as ferocious as the Celts and much better armed. Also, the Irish were never unified against the Vikings; the wealth of the monasteries attracted the attention of several Irish lords, and sometimes monks found themselves under attack by their own countrymen.

  The monks responded by fortifying their monasteries, reinforcing wooden walls with stone and adding other defensive structures. The most famous of these fortifications were round towers, tapering stone cylinders 100 feet high that doubled as bell towers and watchtowers; a five-story staircase led up to the top.

  The entrances to these towers were raised off the ground and could only be entered by climbing a ladder. When the monks were under attack, they could all climb into the tower and then pull up the ladder after themselves. Then they could climb up to the top and watch their monastery burn as they themselves slowly starved; the hope was always that the invaders would leave before that happened.

  39 { Dublin Is Founded

  Eventually the Vikings stopped raiding and started settling down. They built settlements called longphorts, which were similar to naval camps. They used these encampments as bases for further attacks, but also as foundations for towns. The Vikings founded Dublin around 840, when they spent the winter moored there. The city’s name comes from the words “Dubh Linn,” which means “Black Pool.” Dublin became the Vikings’ chief base in Ireland, the place from which they launched raids on unconquered lands.

  One of the things that prevented the Irish natives from defending themselves against the Vikings’ earliest onslaughts was the endless state of mild to severe warfare that they maintained against one another. They couldn’t stop arguing among themselves long enough to join forces against their common invaders, nor did they have any sense of a single Irish nation.

  As the Vikings became more settled, though, they became more vulnerable to attack; people without property have nothing to defend, but someone with a house and farm has to keep watch over them. Norse Vikings and Danish Vikings fought over the same Irish territory. Starting in about 850, Irish kings began to launch their own raids on the Vikings with some success. A funny thing happened around that time; Irish kings and Vikings started to form alliances to fight other Irish kings, who had their own Viking allies.

  By 900, the Vikings’ Irish administration (such as it was) was in complete disarray, and the invaders had turned their attention to new raids in Iceland and northern Britain. This gave the Irish a window of opportunity, and they expelled the Vikings from Dublin in 902. Many Vikings left Ireland and bothered Britain instead for a few years.

  Unfortunately, it was only a brief respite for the Irish. The Vikings came back in 914, took back Dublin, Munster, and Leinster, and spent another twenty years in power. After 950 they ceased to be much of a military threat, but they stayed on in the parts of Ireland that had become their home.

  Despite the constant warfare, the reality is that most Irish people lived most of their lives just as they had before the Vikings arrived. In fact, some people lived better; the Vikings brought with them a number of valuable ideas from the mainland. They built the first Irish towns, they brought fancy boat-building techniques, and they could coin money. They used these things to help increase trade to and from Ireland, which brought in artistic influences from the outside.

  When the Vikings returned to Ireland in 914, they built a new stronghold at Dublin two miles closer to the sea than their earlier settlement; apparently, they wanted to be able to escape more quickly if necessary. They planned the city carefully, laying out streets and houses with great attention to detail. There was even a rudimentary drainage system, which suggests the presence of a strong
leader in charge of urban development. By the late tenth century, the Kingdom of Dublin was one of the most important political units in western Europe.

  40 { Life with Vikings

  Thousands of people lived in Viking Dublin. There were merchants and craftsmen of all types — carpenters, shipwrights, blacksmiths, weavers, leather-workers, and others. Dublin’s location put it right on the trade routes from Scandinavia down to England, and the Vikings traded vigorously with the people of England and continental Europe. They got wine, silver, and wool from England and Europe, which they sent on up to Scandinavia; from Scandinavia they received amber, ivory, furs, and slaves, which they moved on to European markets.

  The Vikings also traded with the Irish people. This brought them into close contact with their new neighbors, and it appears that the two groups coexisted in relative harmony. (Some of those slaves traded by the Vikings did happen to be Irish, but the sad fates of a few individuals didn’t necessarily hurt Viking–Irish relations on the whole; the Irish didn’t all love one another.) The Irish taught the Vikings about Christianity. Members of the two groups married one another and sent their children to be fostered in one another’s homes. Scandinavian artistic styles appear in Irish art around this time, and some of Ireland’s most “characteristic” metalwork patterns of interlaced spirals with free-flowing tendrils, sometimes incorporating the shapes of animals, date from this period.