Post by megli on Oct 12, 2010 12:48:19 GMT -1
Two new books....
The first is Muireann Ni Bhrolchain's 'An Introduction to Early Irish Literature' which I have just reviewed for Cambrian Medieval Celtic Studies. (Review draft below.)
The second is Patrick Sims-Williams' 'Irish Influence in Medieval Welsh literature', out imminently from OUP. S-W if you don't know is a professor of Welsh at Aber and Marged Haycock's husband. It should be excellent, but it will be for the specialist whereas Ni Bhrolchain's book is emphatically for the beginner.
Re: the latter, I bought a bloody copy before Patrick asked me to review it, so as soon as he sends me the review copy, I'll have a brand new copy going for £30. (It's £65 new.)
And finally on books, mine is out from OUP if anyone's interested. It doesn't have much relevance to what we talk about on here, but there you go! You can read some of it online, should you want to.
www.amazon.co.uk/Fiery-Shapes-Celestial-Portents-Astrology/dp/0199571848
* * *
Review: AN INTRODUCTION TO EARLY IRISH LITEATURE, Muireann Ní Bhrolcháin (Four Courts, Dublin, 2010), 210pp
A modern one-volume introduction to the vast corpus of medieval Irish literature has long been a desideratum, something which would update Dillon’s 1948 Early Irish Literature with discussion of the revolutionary theoretical developments in the field since the 1970s. This book gestures towards answering this need, but it does, alas, not qualify as the groundbreaking re-assessment for which we had hoped. Instead, it is explicitly and modestly billed as a volume for students, which function it fulfils admirably. As a result, of course, there is not much here to hold the attention of the specialist in search of new thinking---the aim is clearly to provide a vade mecum for those approaching this immensely complex and difficult literature for the first time. Indeed, one of the problems with teaching the literature---and here Ní Bhrolcháin’s experience shows clearly---is the tension between the necessity of small-scale language-learning and the gaining of a wide overview of the material. The linguistic difficulties of medieval Irish are such that the student is unlikely to read more than half a dozen texts of a very large corpus in the original, and therefore can lack a clear sense of the wider panorama.
Ní Bhrolcháin begins with an overview of background issues, including the coming of Christianity, literacy and orality, manuscript culture and ogam, and the nature of storytelling itself. It is a great relief to read so palpably modern a discussion of these issues, in which speculation about the druidical antiquity of Irish storytelling are kept to a minimum and much recent scholarship is straightforwardly distilled---or simplified. Here, as throughout the book, the author presents a digest of the current scholarly consensus in unshowy, attractive prose. The book then proceeds doggedly through the four cycles which have become traditional in Irish scholarship---the Mythological, Heroic, Fenian and King Cycles---before moving on to the Otherworld, Kingship and Sovereignty, and a discussion of both heroes and the ‘Heroic Biography.’ This is, to say the least, a rather conservative way to lay out a survey of this kind, not being substantially different from Dillon’s approach 60 years ago, and that of Thurneysen before him. Thus the student who has begun with this book will therefore experience no confusion when she moves on to the older scholarship, but one wonders restlessly whether an opportunity has been missed here for a fresher and more vigorous approach to classifying the literature. Ní Bhrolcháin draws due attention on p. 6 to the existence of native generic terminology---to togla 7 tána 7 tochmarca [razings & cattle-raids & wooings], etc---but it would have been good had the reader’s attention been drawn to the ways in which the modern ‘cyclic’ categorisation by time-frame (Tuatha Dé before Ulaid, Ulaid before Fíanna, etc) might distort as well as elucidate the medieval material. For instance, the ‘Heroic cycle’ separates the Ulster heroes from the likes of Cormac and Conaire Mór---but is not Conchobor just as much a king as they are!? And what of a ‘Mythological’ tale like Tochmarc Étaíne which extends over thousands of years, effectively making a nonsense of rigid cyclic distinctions? Could we not think in terms of categorizing the stories according to, say, the implied lay or clerical sympathies of their audience, or by regional affiliations of texts? It might have been tremendously revealing had someone of Ní Bhrolcháin’s expertise taken a snapshot of the broad sweep of the literature using, as it were, a different set of lenses.
Putting such disappointments aside, Ní Bhrolcháin strikes an useful balance between overview and detail in her discussions (a typical aid to the floundering student is the handy discussion of mythographic theory that is appended to the section on the Mythological Cycle), and a final, rather sketchy, section on Poets and Poetry---including useful insights into the use of prosimetrum in Irish literature---rounds the book off. Throughout, it would have been good to have seen a little more discussion; passages are quoted, we are told the opinion of this or that scholar, but we miss a real sense of either the vigour or the detail of the early literature. Sometimes this avoidance of controversy is no bad thing---the discussion of the differences between echtraí, 'otherworld adventures', and immrama, 'wonder-voyages', for example, simply places the difficulties before the reader and leaves them to follow up the various pugilistics on the matter in due course. On the other hand, the absence of any extended discussion of either law-texts or the annals in the context of socio-literary practice is puzzling, as one of the most productive avenues in recent exploration of the literature is thus not given due weight. A substantial discussion of feminist approaches to the material would also have been welcome.
In terms of presentation, there are some minor typographical errors in the book (such as ‘imaginery’ on p. 16) and I have to question whether ‘interview’, for example, is really the most elegant translation of acallam, 'colloquy, dialogue'. That said, the book is handsomely produced and benefits from some very fine colour plates, though---and this is mere personal prejudice---I would rather have seen a picture of Brú na Boinne or the Dá Chích than Jim Fitzpatrick’s hideous image of Diarmait and Gráinne, which looks like it has been lifted from a 70s album cover.
An Introduction to Early Irish Literature will do several things: the beginning student is provided with a sensible overview of the material, and is introduced to the major scholars who have worked on it (bibliographical references throughout are clear and useful), and as a result will be able to find their way the more confidently in the morass of scholarship. Whilst the specialist will be disappointed to find nothing that is new to them here, that is not the book’s purpose; however, it does make An Introduction seem a tad dowdy beside other more groundbreaking volumes published by Four Courts. One hopes that a future paperback version might make An Introduction available more widely to the audience who would benefit from it most: that is, the general public, school students thinking of applying for a medieval degree with an Irish element, beginning university students of Irish and Celtic Studies, and scholars of Irish literature in English in need of a clear and up-to-date introduction to the heritage of medieval storytelling*. Useful as it is, Ní Bhrolcháin’s book has left considerable room for a more radical and thorough-going re-analysis of the literary riches of medieval Ireland.
* Note for CF: AND PAGANS!!
The first is Muireann Ni Bhrolchain's 'An Introduction to Early Irish Literature' which I have just reviewed for Cambrian Medieval Celtic Studies. (Review draft below.)
The second is Patrick Sims-Williams' 'Irish Influence in Medieval Welsh literature', out imminently from OUP. S-W if you don't know is a professor of Welsh at Aber and Marged Haycock's husband. It should be excellent, but it will be for the specialist whereas Ni Bhrolchain's book is emphatically for the beginner.
Re: the latter, I bought a bloody copy before Patrick asked me to review it, so as soon as he sends me the review copy, I'll have a brand new copy going for £30. (It's £65 new.)
And finally on books, mine is out from OUP if anyone's interested. It doesn't have much relevance to what we talk about on here, but there you go! You can read some of it online, should you want to.
www.amazon.co.uk/Fiery-Shapes-Celestial-Portents-Astrology/dp/0199571848
* * *
Review: AN INTRODUCTION TO EARLY IRISH LITEATURE, Muireann Ní Bhrolcháin (Four Courts, Dublin, 2010), 210pp
A modern one-volume introduction to the vast corpus of medieval Irish literature has long been a desideratum, something which would update Dillon’s 1948 Early Irish Literature with discussion of the revolutionary theoretical developments in the field since the 1970s. This book gestures towards answering this need, but it does, alas, not qualify as the groundbreaking re-assessment for which we had hoped. Instead, it is explicitly and modestly billed as a volume for students, which function it fulfils admirably. As a result, of course, there is not much here to hold the attention of the specialist in search of new thinking---the aim is clearly to provide a vade mecum for those approaching this immensely complex and difficult literature for the first time. Indeed, one of the problems with teaching the literature---and here Ní Bhrolcháin’s experience shows clearly---is the tension between the necessity of small-scale language-learning and the gaining of a wide overview of the material. The linguistic difficulties of medieval Irish are such that the student is unlikely to read more than half a dozen texts of a very large corpus in the original, and therefore can lack a clear sense of the wider panorama.
Ní Bhrolcháin begins with an overview of background issues, including the coming of Christianity, literacy and orality, manuscript culture and ogam, and the nature of storytelling itself. It is a great relief to read so palpably modern a discussion of these issues, in which speculation about the druidical antiquity of Irish storytelling are kept to a minimum and much recent scholarship is straightforwardly distilled---or simplified. Here, as throughout the book, the author presents a digest of the current scholarly consensus in unshowy, attractive prose. The book then proceeds doggedly through the four cycles which have become traditional in Irish scholarship---the Mythological, Heroic, Fenian and King Cycles---before moving on to the Otherworld, Kingship and Sovereignty, and a discussion of both heroes and the ‘Heroic Biography.’ This is, to say the least, a rather conservative way to lay out a survey of this kind, not being substantially different from Dillon’s approach 60 years ago, and that of Thurneysen before him. Thus the student who has begun with this book will therefore experience no confusion when she moves on to the older scholarship, but one wonders restlessly whether an opportunity has been missed here for a fresher and more vigorous approach to classifying the literature. Ní Bhrolcháin draws due attention on p. 6 to the existence of native generic terminology---to togla 7 tána 7 tochmarca [razings & cattle-raids & wooings], etc---but it would have been good had the reader’s attention been drawn to the ways in which the modern ‘cyclic’ categorisation by time-frame (Tuatha Dé before Ulaid, Ulaid before Fíanna, etc) might distort as well as elucidate the medieval material. For instance, the ‘Heroic cycle’ separates the Ulster heroes from the likes of Cormac and Conaire Mór---but is not Conchobor just as much a king as they are!? And what of a ‘Mythological’ tale like Tochmarc Étaíne which extends over thousands of years, effectively making a nonsense of rigid cyclic distinctions? Could we not think in terms of categorizing the stories according to, say, the implied lay or clerical sympathies of their audience, or by regional affiliations of texts? It might have been tremendously revealing had someone of Ní Bhrolcháin’s expertise taken a snapshot of the broad sweep of the literature using, as it were, a different set of lenses.
Putting such disappointments aside, Ní Bhrolcháin strikes an useful balance between overview and detail in her discussions (a typical aid to the floundering student is the handy discussion of mythographic theory that is appended to the section on the Mythological Cycle), and a final, rather sketchy, section on Poets and Poetry---including useful insights into the use of prosimetrum in Irish literature---rounds the book off. Throughout, it would have been good to have seen a little more discussion; passages are quoted, we are told the opinion of this or that scholar, but we miss a real sense of either the vigour or the detail of the early literature. Sometimes this avoidance of controversy is no bad thing---the discussion of the differences between echtraí, 'otherworld adventures', and immrama, 'wonder-voyages', for example, simply places the difficulties before the reader and leaves them to follow up the various pugilistics on the matter in due course. On the other hand, the absence of any extended discussion of either law-texts or the annals in the context of socio-literary practice is puzzling, as one of the most productive avenues in recent exploration of the literature is thus not given due weight. A substantial discussion of feminist approaches to the material would also have been welcome.
In terms of presentation, there are some minor typographical errors in the book (such as ‘imaginery’ on p. 16) and I have to question whether ‘interview’, for example, is really the most elegant translation of acallam, 'colloquy, dialogue'. That said, the book is handsomely produced and benefits from some very fine colour plates, though---and this is mere personal prejudice---I would rather have seen a picture of Brú na Boinne or the Dá Chích than Jim Fitzpatrick’s hideous image of Diarmait and Gráinne, which looks like it has been lifted from a 70s album cover.
An Introduction to Early Irish Literature will do several things: the beginning student is provided with a sensible overview of the material, and is introduced to the major scholars who have worked on it (bibliographical references throughout are clear and useful), and as a result will be able to find their way the more confidently in the morass of scholarship. Whilst the specialist will be disappointed to find nothing that is new to them here, that is not the book’s purpose; however, it does make An Introduction seem a tad dowdy beside other more groundbreaking volumes published by Four Courts. One hopes that a future paperback version might make An Introduction available more widely to the audience who would benefit from it most: that is, the general public, school students thinking of applying for a medieval degree with an Irish element, beginning university students of Irish and Celtic Studies, and scholars of Irish literature in English in need of a clear and up-to-date introduction to the heritage of medieval storytelling*. Useful as it is, Ní Bhrolcháin’s book has left considerable room for a more radical and thorough-going re-analysis of the literary riches of medieval Ireland.
* Note for CF: AND PAGANS!!
