Allegory, the áes dána and the liberal arts in Medieval Irish literature
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Elizabeth Boyle
Abstract
The present study briefly considers the vernacular terminology used to describe figurative language in medieval Irish literature, and then offers an analysis of three explicitly allegorical episodes from medieval Irish narrative texts (two in the vernacular and one in Latin) as preliminary groundwork in assessing whether literature which is not explicitly allegorical, but which shares the same images and motifs as explicitly allegorical literature, might also be read as allegory. The three case studies in question provide allegorical depictions of men of learning or of learning itself. This paper suggests that the nature of medieval Irish education, with its focus on grammatica, including enarratio, and, at a more advanced level, exegesis, would have facilitated the exposition of literature on a figurative level, and that this should have significant implications for the way that we read medieval Irish narrative poetry and prose.
Abstract
The present study briefly considers the vernacular terminology used to describe figurative language in medieval Irish literature, and then offers an analysis of three explicitly allegorical episodes from medieval Irish narrative texts (two in the vernacular and one in Latin) as preliminary groundwork in assessing whether literature which is not explicitly allegorical, but which shares the same images and motifs as explicitly allegorical literature, might also be read as allegory. The three case studies in question provide allegorical depictions of men of learning or of learning itself. This paper suggests that the nature of medieval Irish education, with its focus on grammatica, including enarratio, and, at a more advanced level, exegesis, would have facilitated the exposition of literature on a figurative level, and that this should have significant implications for the way that we read medieval Irish narrative poetry and prose.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Foreword & acknowledgements vii
- Abbreviations ix
- List of plates xiii
- Notes on contributors xv
- Editors’ introduction 1
- Allegory, the áes dána and the liberal arts in Medieval Irish literature 11
- Cryptography and the alphabet in the “Book of Ádhamh Ó Cianáin” 35
- Caide Máthair Bréithre “What is the Mother of a Word” 65
- The expression of “sense, meaning, signification” in the Old Irish glosses, and particularly in the Milan and Saint Gall glosses 85
- The verbal paradigms in Auraicept na nÉces 101
- The glossing of the Early Irish law tracts 113
- Teaching between the lines 133
- The Welsh bardic grammars on Litterae 149
- Poetry by numbers 161
- Gramadeg Gwysanau 181
- Master list of references 201
- Index of manuscripts 219
- Index of subjects 221
- Index of terms by language 225
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Foreword & acknowledgements vii
- Abbreviations ix
- List of plates xiii
- Notes on contributors xv
- Editors’ introduction 1
- Allegory, the áes dána and the liberal arts in Medieval Irish literature 11
- Cryptography and the alphabet in the “Book of Ádhamh Ó Cianáin” 35
- Caide Máthair Bréithre “What is the Mother of a Word” 65
- The expression of “sense, meaning, signification” in the Old Irish glosses, and particularly in the Milan and Saint Gall glosses 85
- The verbal paradigms in Auraicept na nÉces 101
- The glossing of the Early Irish law tracts 113
- Teaching between the lines 133
- The Welsh bardic grammars on Litterae 149
- Poetry by numbers 161
- Gramadeg Gwysanau 181
- Master list of references 201
- Index of manuscripts 219
- Index of subjects 221
- Index of terms by language 225
