contains a collection of poems in Latin (31) and
English (17), written in an Irish Franciscan milieu. The
collection also contains what has been described as the
first Christmas carol in English.
Some of the earliest known English songs written
by Richard Ledrede, Bishop of Ossory (1317–1360),
are preserved in the
Red Book of Ossory
, where there
are sixty Latin verses. The verses were written in about
1324 “for the Vicars Choral of Kilkenny Cathedral, his
priests, and clerics, to be sung on great festivals and
other occasions.” The sixty pieces are in honor of Our
Lord, the Holy Ghost, and the Blessed Virgin Mary,
and the first of them is entitled:
Cantilena de Nativitate
Domini
, a sort of Christmas Carol, followed by three
others “
de eodem festo
.”
A
IDAN
B
REEN
References and Further Reading
Bernard, J.H. and Atkinson, R. ed.
The Irish Liber Hymnorum
(HBS 13, 14), 2 vols. London, 1898.
Colledge, Edmund, ed.
The Latin Poems of Richard Ledrede,
O.F.M., Bishop of Ossory, 1317–1360.
In
The Red Book of
Ossory, Studies and Texts 30
. PIMS, 1974.
Esposito, M. “The Poems of Colmanus ‘nepos Cracavist’; and
Dungalus ‘praecipuus Scottorum.’”
Journal of Theological
Studies
33 (1932): 113–119;
Godman, P.
Poetry of the Carolingian Renaissance
. London,
1985.
Heuser, W.
Die Kildare-Gedichte: die ältesten mittelenglischen
Denkmäler in Anglo-irischer Überlieferung
, xiv. Bonner
Beiträge zur Anglistik, 1904.
Jacobsen, P.C. “Carmina Columbani.” In
Die Iren und Europa
im Früheren Mittelalter
I, edited by H. Löwe, 434–467, at
465–467. Stuttgart, 1982.
Kenney, J.F.
The Sources for the Early History of Ireland: 1
Ecclesiastical
. New York, 1929; reprinted Dublin, 1993.
Lapidge, M. & Sharpe, R.
A Bibliography of Celtic-Latin liter-
ature 400–1200
. Dublin, 1985.
Löwe, H., ed.
Die Iren und Europa im früheren Mittelalter
.
Stuttgart, 1982. (esp. articles by K. Schäferdiek, P.-C.
Jacobsen, and D.Schaller).
Manitius, M.
Geschichte der lateinischen Literatur des Mitte-
lalters
I (1911, repr. 1973), 315–323.
Meyer, K. “Colman’s Farewell to Colman.”
Ériu
3 (1907),
186–189.
Murphy, G. “Scotti Peregrini: The Irish on the Continent in the
Time of Charles the Bald,”
Studies
xvii
(1928): 39–50,
229–244. Seymour, St John D.
Anglo-Irish literature
1200–1582
, 52–57.- Cambridge, 1929.
Stemmler, Theo, ed.
The Latin Hymns of Sir Richard Ledrede.
Gnomon
52 (1980): 58–59.
Traube, L. “O Roma nobilis: Philologische Untersuchungen aus
dem Mittelalter,”
Abhandlungen der phil.-philol. Classe der
königlich bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften
xix,
297–395. 1892.
Waddell, H.
Medieval Latin Lyrics
. London, 1929. Walker,
G.S.M., ed.
Sancti Columbani Opera
. Dublin, 1957.
See also
Columbanus; Lyrics; Metrics; Sedulius
Scotus
POETRY, IRISHBefore Approximately 1200
The earliest datable poetry in Irish Gaelic are poems
of praise and of lament, themes continuing throughout
Gaelic literature. The earliest of these, the
Amra
Coluim Cille
(“The Eulogy of Colum Cille”) (d. 597),
is a lament and praise poem in a meter employing lines
of irregular length, with extensive alliteration. Among
the earliest purely praise poems extant, from the 700s,
concerns Aed, a chief of North Leinster. It is referred
to as “In Praise of Aed,” and employs one of the
dán
díreach
meters.
A dividing line can be made for Irish poetry, and
for Irish history, at circa 1200. It was then that the effects
of the Anglo-Norman Invasion and Church Reforms
were being felt in Ireland. The poetry before this was
different from what came after. Among the character-
istic works of this time are nature poetry, religious
poetry, and poetry of personal comment (including the
Viking Incursions), produced largely, if not exclu-
sively, by monks, and largely found as Glosses in early
manuscripts. It is mainly lyrics, contemplative, spon-
taneous, graceful, which often appeal to modern taste.
This poetry perhaps originated with the Irish hermits
of the 500s and 600s, perhaps in the songs of Pre-
Christian Ireland, perhaps under the influence of some
Latin verse—but it certainly became a distinctive medi-
eval Irish style—and is perhaps the best known today.
In addition to the clerical poets there were other
classes, professional poets of the
Áes Dána
, and ama-
teurs, with education provided by ecclesiastical
schools, native Irish schools (in schools of poetry, law
Schools, and schools of history), and by tutors, in both
Irish and Latin languages for many.
While much of this poetry is anonymous, or of
doubtful authorship, not all of it is. We have such
names as Dallán Forgaill, a professional poet, to whom
the
Amra Coluim Cille
is ascribed; Bláthmac Mac Con
Brettan (
fl.
mid-700s); Feidilmid mac Crimthainn (
fl.
early 900s); Cormac mac Cuileannáin (d. 908); Mac
Liag (
fl. ca. 1014), and his lamentation for Kincora
(upon the death of Brian Boru); and Máel Ísu Ó
Brolcháin (d. 1086).
There are also other genres using verse: larger reli-
gious works, for example, on biblical history, theolog-
ical poetry, rules for monastic life, praises of saints,
and a body of Hagiography. There are didactic works,
such as grammatical treatises, for instruction in lan-
guage and poetry, and the
Félire Oengusso
(“The Mar-
tyrology of Oengus the Culdee”) by a member of the
Céile Dé
, and other such martyrologies and calendrical
works. There are humorous works, and humor within
POETRY, HIBERNO-LATIN