The Rhetorical Arts in Late Antique and Early Medieval Ireland

This book represents the first study of the art of rhetoric in medieval Ireland, a culture often neglected by medieval rhetorical studies. In a series of three case studies, Brian Stone traces the textual transmission of rhetorical theories and practices from the late Roman period to those early Irish monastic communities who would not only preserve and pass on the light of learning, but adapt an ancient tradition to their own cultural needs, contributing to the history of rhetoric in important ways. The manuscript tradition of early Ireland, which gave us the largest body of vernacular literature in the medieval period and is already appreciated for its literary contributions, is also a site of rhetorical innovation and creative practice.

Vocal music in medieval Ireland

This chapter considers the evidence of medieval Irish vocal music which can be found in surviving Old and Middle Irish texts. The texts contain many references to public singing in secular contexts and indicate that the normal practice was for songs to be sung by a single man or woman or by groups of either men or women. A prestigious type of chant or song called aidbsiu ‘poetic recitation’ is distinguished from a martial singing mode described as dord (or andord), the basic meaning of which is ‘humming, buzzing’ and which has the capacity to mesmerize those who hear it. In the Fenian tales, the phrase dord fiansa ‘the hum of the war-band’ is used of a type of singing practised by young warriors, accompanied by the rhythmic banging of the shafts of their spears. Extempore group-singing by women is described as cepóc; another category of singing is coíniud ‘keening of the dead’, which regularly incurred the disapproval of the Church, but continued to be practised into modern times.

Myth as a Historical Resource : The Case of Orgain Denna Ríg (The Destruction of Dinn Ríg)

This article examines how mythology and fictional narratives in medieval Irish literature were used to communicate important societal ideas and to encode political messages. It is a commonplace that stories about the past were re-used, re-cycled and re-interpreted in order to justify the present. These sources were utilized by the ruling classes in medieval Ireland to help explain the status quo on the one hand and to justify emerging change on the other. As the preference of the medieval Irish was ‘to take their history in the form of fiction’, many stories like Orgain Denna Ríg (The Destruction of Dinn Ríg) are extant from this period, stories which provide us with an important perspective on the growth and articulation of a significant facet of medieval Irish historiography.