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9 - Medieval Irish literary theory and criticism

from IV - VERNACULAR CRITICAL TRADITIONS: THE EARLY MIDDLE AGES

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 March 2008

By
Patrick Sims-Williams  and
Erich Poppe
Edited by
Alastair Minnis  and
Ian Johnson
Alastair Minnis
Affiliation:
Ohio State University
Ian Johnson
Affiliation:
University of St Andrews, Scotland
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Summary

Poetic theory

Medieval Irish vernacular poetics were hierarchical, reflecting a prescriptive and idealised vision of Irish society. The various metres and poetic forms were held to correspond to the status and functions of various types of poets (filid and baird) and their appropriate patrons. Poetry with a social function – praise and satire – was of paramount importance, at the expense of the now much-anthologised informal lyrics. This emphasis no doubt reflects some degree of institutional continuity from the ancient Celtic world, for the old Celtic term for poet, bardos, pl. bardi, survived in Old Irish as bard, baird (and in Welsh as bardd, beirdd). Three Celtic learned classes held in exceptional honour were generally noted by the classical writers: bards who were singers and poets, given to singing praise and satire to the accompaniment of lyre-like instruments, vates (oυατεις) or diviners (μαντεις), and druids. These correspond to Old Irish bard ‘poet (of a lower grade)’, fáith ‘prophet (pagan or biblical)’, and druí ‘druid’, although the fact that the Irish terms occur alongside a plethora of other terms and not as a discrete triad discourages speculation about the possible survival of a tripartite system.

The Old Irish laws, which were mostly written in the seventh and eighth centuries, give us a generalised and probably rather idealised picture of early Irish society, as seen by the writers of the laws, who were either professional lawyers or legally minded churchmen (or both). The laws are obsessed with rank and status and are careful to specify the exact rank of poets and other professional persons in a hierarchy ranging from the ‘free/noble’ (sóer) down to the ‘unfree/base’ (dóer).

Type
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Information
The Cambridge History of Literary Criticism , pp. 289 - 309
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2005

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