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Celtic literature
- What is Celtic literature?
- Which peoples or countries are known for creating Celtic literature?
- Which languages are used in Celtic literature?
- What kinds of stories or themes are common in Celtic literature?
- Who are some famous authors or poets in Celtic literature?
- How has Celtic literature influenced modern books or culture?
Celtic literature, the body of writings composed inIrish and the languages derived from it,Scottish Gaelic andManx, and inWelsh and its sister languages,Breton andCornish. For writings inEnglish by Irish, Scottish, and Welsh authors, seeIrish literature,Scottish literature, andWelsh literature, respectively.French-language works by Breton authors are covered inFrench literature. See alsoBreton literature andCornish literature.
Irish
The introduction ofCeltic intoIreland has not been authoritatively dated, but it cannot be later than the arrival there of the first settlers of theLa Tèneculture in the 3rd centurybce. The Irish language is often described in its earliest form as Goídelic, named after theCelts (Goídil; singular, Goídel) who spoke it. The modern form is known in English asIrish and in Irish as Gaeilge or Gaedhilge.
The earliest evidence of Irish consists ofarchaic sepulchral inscriptions inogham, an alphabeticscript based on a system of strokes and notches cut on the edges of stone or wood. These inscriptions have been ascribed to the 4th and 5th centuriesce. Writings in theRoman alphabet date from 8th-century glosses in Old Irish, but 7th- and even 6th-centurycompositions are preserved in much later manuscripts.
Four distinct periods are recognizable in Irish-languageliterature. The early literature (linguistically, Archaic, Old, and Early Middle Irish) was composed by a professional class known asfilid (singular,fili) and by clergy. Themedieval literature (linguistically, late Middle and Classical Modern Irish) was composed predominantly by laypeople and the hereditarybardic orders. In the late literature (17th century to the end of the 19th) authorship passed into the hands of individuals among thepeasantry—the class to which most Irish speakers had been reduced after the collapse of the ancient Gaelic order and the imposition of English rule—using thedialects into which the language had been broken up. The subsequent revival of the language has continued to the present day, in particular through compulsory education in schools, theconstitutionaldesignation of Irish as Ireland’s first official language, the proliferation of Irish-language media, and its recognition as an official and working language of theEuropean Union.
Early period
Irish literature was originallyaristocratic and wascultivated by thefilid, who inherited the role of the learned priestly order represented inJulius Caesar’sGaul by theDruids,vates (“seers”), andbards. Thefilid are believed to have served as judges, historians, and official poets responsible for all traditional lore and for the performance of all rites and ceremonies. The arrival ofChristianity and the gradual disappearance ofCeltic religious beliefs led to the abandonment of the priestly functions of thefilid. Nevertheless, thefilid are believed to have retained responsibility for theoral transmission of native lore and learning, which was in marked contrast to the newbook and manuscript learning of the Christian Church. Fortunately, theecclesiastical scholars were not hostile to the native lore, and they appear to have been eager to commit it to writing. As a result, Ireland’s oral culture was extensively recorded in writing long before it could have evolved that art itself. The record consisted mainly of history, both legendary and factual; laws;genealogies; and poems, but prose was the predominant vehicle.
Thefilid were powerful in early Irish society and were oftenarrogant, enforcing their demands by the threat of alampoon (áer), a poet’s curse that could ruin reputations and, so it was believed, even kill those unfortunate enough to have offended afili. The laws set out penalties for abuse of theáer, and belief in its powers continued long after the decline of thefilid. The official work of thefilid has been preserved in fragments of annals andtreatises.
Verse
The earliest verse has been preserved mainly in passages incorporated into later documents, both literary and legal; most have suffered in transmission and are very obscure. One of the earliest poems is a eulogy onSt. Columba (c. 521–597) inrhetorical short sentences linked byalliteration, ascribed toDallán Forgaill, chief poet of Ireland. This device of alliterative rhythmical prose was used again in thesagas. Probably the oldest actualmeter was that in which two half lines were linked by alliteration—a system reminiscent of earlyGermanic verse. Rhyme was used from the 7th century; the requirement was only that there should be identity of vowel and syllabic length and that consonants should belong to the same phonetic class—a system also found in early Welsh. Thequatrain (seven or eightsyllables to a line and rhyme between the second and fourth lines) was derived from Latinhymn meters. The quatrains of the later popular meter, thedebide (literally, “cut in two”), consisted of twocouplets with the two lines of each couplet rhyming.
- Robin Flower
Much early verse was of an official nature, but that of the church was hardly more lively than that of thefilid, who often affected a deliberately obscure style. More interesting was the 10th-centuryPsalter, a biblical history in 150 poems. But the real glory of Irish verse lay in anonymous poets who composed poems such as “Pangur Bán” (also known as “The Scholar and His Cat”), a famous ode to Pangur, a white cat. These poets avoided complicated meters and used a language that had been cultivated for centuries, with a freshness of insight denied to thefilid. That thefilid could, however, adapt their technique was shown by an 11th-century poem about the sea, where preface, choice of theme, and metaphorical expressions all suggestScandinavian influence. This and other naturepoetry carried on a tradition of native lyrics, sagas, and seasonal songs that showed remarkable sensitivity. The monastic andhermitic movement in theCeltic Church also provided a strongimpetus to nature poetry. This poetry, almostFranciscan in spirit and tone, had an especial appeal to monastic scribes, so that much of it has been preserved.
Historical verse arose partly because recording of the past was an important part of the work of thefilid; some of the earliest poems were metrical genealogy. As time went on the necessity for compendiums of information grew, and these were again often in metrical form. In a long poem,Fianna bátar in Emain (“The Warriors Who Were in Emain”),Cináed ua hArtacáin summed up thesaga material, whileFland Mainistrech collected the work of generations offilid who had labored to synchronize Ireland’s history with that of the outside world. Equally important is a great collection of place lore, written in prose and verse, called theDindshenchas, which gave appropriatelegends to famous sites of Ireland between the 9th and 11th centuries. Indeed, the development of a loosedebide form made rhyming easy and helped encourage thecomposition ofmnemonic verse on numerous subjects.