Chapter II

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[147] The Latin literature produced by their descendants in the fourth century is usually good in form, whatever other qualities it lack. This statement applies to the works of the nominally Christian, but really pagan, rhetorician and poet, Ausonius, born in 310, at Bordeaux, of mingled Aquitanian and Aeduan blood; likewise to the poems of Paulinus of Nola, born at the same town, in 353, and to the prose of Sulpicius Severus, also born in Aquitaine a little after. In the fifth century, Avitus, an Auvernian, Bishop of Vienne, and Apollinaris Sidonius continue the Gallo-Latin strain in literature.

[148] Without hazarding a discussion of the origin of the Irish, of their proportion of Celtic blood, or their exact relation to the Celts of the Continent, it may in a general way be said, that Ireland and Great Britain were inhabited by a prehistoric and pre-Celtic people. The Celts came from the Continent, conquered them, and probably intermarried with them. The Celtic inflow may have begun in the sixth century before Christ, and perhaps continued until shortly before Caesar’s time. Evidences of language point to a dual Celtic stock, Goidelic and Brythonic. It may be surmised that the former was the first to arrive. The Celtic dialect spoken by them is now represented by the Gaelic of Ireland, Man, and Scotland. The Brythonic is still represented by the speech of Wales and the Armoric dialects of Brittany. This was the language of the Britons who fought with Caesar, and were subdued by later Roman generals. After the Roman time they were either pressed back into Wales and Cornwall by Angles, Jutes, and Saxons, or were absorbed among these conquering Teutons. Probably Caesar was correct in asserting the close affinity of the Britons with the Belgic tribes of the Continent. See the opening chapters of Rhys and Brynmor-Jones’s _Welsh People_; also Rhys’s _Early Britain_ (London, 1882); Zupitza, “Kelten und Gallier,” _Zeitschrift für keltische Phil._, 1902; T. H. Huxley, “On some Fixed Points in British Ethnology,” _Contemporary Review_ for 1871, reprinted in Essays (Appleton’s, 1894); Ripley, _Races of Europe_, chap. xii. (New York, 1899).

[149] The Irish art of illumination presents analogies to the literature. The finesse of design and execution in the _Book of Kells_ (seventh century) is astonishing. Equally marvellous was the work of Irish goldsmiths. Both arts doubtless made use of designs common upon the Continent, and may even have drawn suggestions from Byzantine or late Roman patterns. Nevertheless, illumination and the goldsmith’s art in Ireland are characteristically Irish and the very climax of barbaric fashions. Their forms pointed to nothing further. These astounding spirals, meanders, and interlacings, combined with utterly fantastic and impossible drawings of the human form, required essential modification before they were suited to form part of that organic development of mediaeval art which followed its earlier imitative periods.

Irish illumination was carried by Columba to Iona, and spread thence through many monasteries in the northern part of Britain. It was imitated in the Anglo-Saxon monasteries of Northumbria, and from them passed with Alcuin to the Court of Charlemagne. Through these transplantings the Irish art was changed, under the hands of men conversant with Byzantine and later Roman art. The influence of the art also worked outward from Irish monasteries upon the Continent, St. Gall, for example. The Irish goldsmith’s art likewise passed into Saxon England, into Carolingian France, and into Scandinavia. See J. H. Middleton, _Illuminated Manuscripts_ (Cambridge Univ. Press, 1892), and the different view as to the sources of Irish illuminating art in Muntz, _Études iconographiques_ (Paris, 1887); also Kraus, _Geschichte der christlichen Kunst_, i. 607-619; Margaret Stokes, _Early Christian Art in Ireland_ (South Kensington Museum Art Hand-Books, 1894), vol. i. p. 32 _sqq._, and vol. ii. pp. 73, 78; Sophus Müller, _Nordische Altertumskunde_, vol. ii. chap. xiv. (Strassburg, 1898).

[150] The classification of ancient Irish literature is largely the work of O’Curry, _Lectures on the Manuscript Materials of Ancient Irish History_ (Dublin, 1861, 2nd ed., 1878). See also D. Hyde, _A Literary History of Ireland_, chaps. xxi.-xxix. (London, 1899); D’Arbois de Jubainville, _Introduction à l’étude de la littérature celtique_, chap. préliminaire (Paris, 1883). The tales of the Ulster Cycle, in the main, antedate the coming of the Norsemen in the eighth century; but the later redactions seem to reflect Norse customs; see Pflugk-Hartung, in _Revue celtique_, t. xiii. (1892), p. 170 _sqq._

[151] This comparison with Homeric society might be extended so as to include the Celts of Britain and Gaul. Close affinities appear between the Gauls and the personages of the Ulster Cycle. Several of its Sagas have to do with the “hero’s portion” awarded to the bravest warrior at the feast, a source of much pleasant trouble. Posidonius, writing in the time of Cicero, mentions the same custom among the Celts of Gaul (Didot-Müller, _Fragmenta hist. Graec._ t. iii. p. 260, col. 1; D’Arbois de Jubainville, _Introduction_, etc., pp. 297, 298).

[152] Probably first written down in the seventh century. Some of the Cuchulain Sagas are rendered by D’Arbois de Jubainville, _Épopée celtique_; they are given popularly in E. Hull’s Cuchulain Saga (D. Nutt, London, 1898). Also to some extent in Hyde’s _Lit. Hist., etc._

[153] See the famous Battle of the Ford between Cuchulain and Ferdiad (Hyde, _Lit. Hist. of Ireland_, pp. 328-334). A more burlesque hyperbole is that of the three caldrons of cold water prepared for Cuchulain to cool his battle-heat: when he was plunged in the first, it boiled; plunged into the second, no one could hold his hand in it; but in the third, the water became tepid (D’Arbois de Jubainville, _Épopée celtique_, p. 204).

[154] Certain interpolated Christian chapters at the end tell how Mældun is led to forgive the murderers--an idea certainly foreign to the original pagan story, which may perhaps have had its own ending. The tale is translated in P. W. Joyce’s _Old Celtic Romances_ (London, 1894), and by F. Lot in D’Arbois de Jubainville’s _Épopée celtique_, pp. 449-500.

[155] Perhaps no one of the Ulster Sagas exhibits these qualities more amusingly than _The Feast of Bricriu_, a tale in which contention for the “hero’s portion” is the leading motive. Its _personae_ are the men and women who constantly appear and reappear throughout this cycle. In this Saga they act and speak admirably in character, and some of the descriptions bring the very man before our eyes. It is translated by George Henderson, Vol. II. Irish Texts Society (London, 1899), and also by D’Arbois de Jubainville in his _Épopée celtique_ (Paris, 1892).

[156] For example, in a historical Saga the great King Brian speaks, fighting against the Norsemen: “O God ... retreat becomes us not, and I myself know I shall not leave this place alive; and what would it profit me if I did? For Aibhell of Grey Crag came to me last night, and told me that I should be killed this day.”

[157] “Deirdre, or the Fate of the Sons of Usnach,” is rendered in E. Hull’s Cuchulain Saga; Hyde, _Lit. Hist._, chap, xxv., and D’Arbois de Jubainville, _Épopée celtique_, pp. 217-319. _The Pursuit of Diarmuid and Grainne_ was edited by O’Duffy for the Society for the Preservation of the Irish Language (Dublin, Gill and Son, 1895), and less completely in Joyce’s _Old Celtic Romances_ (London, 1894).

[158] Cf. Hyde, _o.c._, chaps. xxi. xxxvi.

[159] _The Voyage of Bran_, edited and translated by Kuno Meyer, with essays on the _Celtic Otherworld_, by Alfred Nutt (2 vols., David Nutt, London, 1895). A Saga usually is prose interspersed with lyric verses at critical points of the story.

[160] On Tara, see Index in O’Curry’s _Manners and Customs of the Ancient Irish_; also Hyde, _Literary History_, pp. 126-130. For this story, see O’Grady, _Silva Gaedelica_, pp. 77-88 (London, 1892); Hyde, pp. 226-232.

[161] See D’Arbois de Jubainville, _Introduction à la lit. celtique_, pp. 259-271 (Paris, 1883).

[162] See D’Arbois de Jubainville, _Introduction_, etc., p. 129 _sqq._; Bertrand, _La Religion des Gaulois_, chap. xx. (Paris, 1897). Also O’Curry, _o.c._ _passim_.

[163] For this whole story see H. Zimmer, “Über die frühesten Berührungen der Iren mit den Nordgermanen,” _Sitzungsbericht der Preussischen Akad._, 1891 (1), pp. 279-317.

[164] For the life of Saint Columba the chief source is the _Vita_ by Adamnan, his eighth successor as abbot of Iona. It contains well-drawn sketches of the saint and much that is marvellous and incredible. It was edited with elaborate notes by Dr. W. Reeves, for the Irish Archaeological Society, in 1857. His work, rearranged and with a translation of the _Vita_, was republished as Vol. VI. of _The Historians of Scotland_ (Edinburgh, 1874). The _Vita_ may also be found in Migne, _Patrologia Latina_, 88, col. 725-776. Bede, _Ecc. Hist._ iii. 4, refers to Columba. The Gaelic life from the _Book of Lismore_ is published, with a translation by M. Stokes, _Anecdota Oxoniensia_ (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1890). The Bodleian Eulogy, _i.e._ the _Amra Choluim chille_, was published, with translation by M. Stokes, in _Revue celtique_, t. xx. (1899); as to its date, see _Rev. celtique_, t. xvii. p. 41. Another (later) Gaelic life has been published by R. Henebry in the _Zeitschrift für celtische Philologie_, 1901, and later. There is an interesting article on the hymns ascribed to Columba in _Blackwood’s Magazine_ for September 1899. See also Cuissard, _Rev. celtique_, t. v. p. 207. The hymns themselves are in Dr. Todd’s _Liber Hymnorum_. Montalembert’s _Monks of the West_, book ix. (vol. iii. Eng. trans.), gives a long, readable, and uncritical account of “St. Columba, the Apostle of Caledonia.”

[165] The Irish monastery was ordered as an Irish clan, and indeed might be a clan monastically ordered. At the head was an abbot, not elected by the monks, but usually appointed by the preceding abbot from his own family; as an Irish king appointed his successor. The monks ordinarily belonged to the abbot’s clan. They lived in an assemblage of huts. Some devoted themselves to contemplation, prayer, and writing; more to manual labour. There were recluses among them. Besides the monks, other members of the clan living near the “monastery” owed it duties and were entitled to its protection and spiritual ministration. The abbot might be an ordained priest; he rarely was a bishop, though he had bishops under him who at his bidding performed such episcopal functions as that of ordination. But he was the ruler, lay as well as spiritual. Not infrequently he also was a king. Although there was no common ordering of Irish monasteries, a head monastery might bear rule over its daughter foundations, as did Columba’s primal monastery of Iona over those in Ireland or Northern Britain which owed their origin to him. Irish monasteries might march with their clan on military expeditions, or carry on a war of monastery against monastery. “A.D. 763. A battle was fought at Argamoyn, between the fraternities of Clonmacnois and Durrow, where Dermod Duff, son of Donnell, was killed with 200 men of the fraternity of Durrow. Bresal, son of Murchadh, with the fraternity of Clonmacnois, was victor” (_Ancient Annals_). This entry is not alone, for there is another one of the year 816, in which a “fraternity of Colum-cille” seems to have been worsted in battle, and then to have gone “to Tara to curse” the reigning king. See Reeve’s _Adamnan’s Life of Columba_, p. 255. Of course Irish armies felt no qualms at sacking the monasteries and slaying the monks of another kingdom. The sanctuaries of Clonmacnois, Kildare, Clonard, Armagh were plundered as readily by “Christian” Irishmen as by heathen Danes. In the ninth century, Phelim, King of Munster, was an abbot and a bishop too; but he sacked the sacred places of Ulster and killed their monks and clergy. See G. T. Stokes, _Ireland and the Celtic Church_; Killen, _Eccl. Hist. of Ireland_, vol. i. p. 145 _sqq._

[166] The title of saint is regularly given to the higher clergy of this period in Ireland.

[167] _“The History of Ireland by Geoffrey Keating” in the original Gaelic with an English translation, by Comyn and Dineen_ (Irish Texts Society. David Nutt, London, 1902-1908).

[168] This means that he copied a manuscript belonging to Finnian.

[169] The Life of Colomb Cille from the _Book of Lismore_.

[170] Adamnan.

[171] _B.G._ iv. 1-3; vi. 21-28. For convenience I use the word _Teuton_ as the general term and _German_ as relating to the Teutons of the lands still known as German. But with reference to the times of Caesar and Tacitus the latter word must be taken generally.

[172] These views are set forth brilliantly, but with exaggeration, by Fustel de Coulanges, in _L’Invasion germanique_, vol. ii. of his _Institutions politiques_, etc. (revised edition, Paris, 1891).

[173] Apoll. Sid. _Epist._ viii. 6 (Migne, _Pat. Lat._ 58, col. 697).

[174] See Pollock and Maitland, _History of English Law_; and Pollock, _English Law before the Norman Conquest_, _Law Quarterly Review_.

[175] The ancient Anglo-Saxon version is Anglo-Saxon through and through. The considerable store of Latin (or Greek) words retained by the “authorized” English version (for example, Scripture, Testament, Genesis, Exodus, etc., prophet, evangelist, religion, conversion, adoption, temptation, redemption, salvation, and damnation) were all translated into sheer Anglo-Saxon. See Toller, _Outlines of the History of the English Language_ (Macmillan & Co., 1900), pp. 90-101. Some hundreds of years before, Ulfilas’s fourth century Gothic translation had shown a Teutonic tongue capable of rendering the thought of the Pauline epistles.

[176] See the “Beowulf” translated in Gummere’s _Oldest English Epic_ (Macmillan & Co., 1909).

[177] This is the closing sentence of Alfred’s _Blossoms_, culled from divers sources. Hereafter (