Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-q99xh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T16:59:38.509Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Stylistic contrast and narrative function in Cogad Gáedel re Gallaib

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 December 2015

Clare Downham
Clare Downham*
Affiliation:
University of Liverpool*
*
*Institute of Irish Studies, University of Liverpool, [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The Battle of Clontarf was fought in A.D. 1014 by the forces of Brian Boru, over-king of Munster, and his allies against the forces of Viking Dublin, Leinster and their foreign allies. The saga ‘The War of the Irish and the Foreigners’ (Cogad Gáedel re Gallaib) was written about events leading up the conflict and gives a dramatic account of events on the battlefield. It became the archetype for many later legends about Clontarf. This paper explores stylistic contrast in the saga between the terse description of events in the early Viking Age and the florid account of the reign of Brian Boru. This contrast has led some readers to conclude that two separate narratives were conflated in Cogad Gáedel re Gallaib – the first being a summary of annals and the second being a saga. However this paper argues that there is a unity of purpose throughout the work and that its stylistic divisions were deliberately contrived to help glorify Brian’s victory at the Battle of Clontarf.

Type
Research Article
Information
Irish Historical Studies , Volume 39 , Issue 156 , November 2015 , pp. 553 - 572
Copyright
© Irish Historical Studies Publications Ltd 2015 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Adémar de Chabannes, Chronique, ed. J. Chavanon (Paris, 1897), pp 176–8 (chs 53–5); Mariani Scotti Chronicon, ed. G. Waitz, M.G.H. SS 5 (Hannover, 1844), pp 481–562, s.a. 1014.

2 Mhaonaigh, Máire Ní, ‘Cogad Gáedel re Gallaib and the Annals’ in Ériu, xlvii (1996), pp 101–126Google Scholar, at p. 102; Downham, Clare, ‘The “annalistic section” of Cogad Gáedel re Gallaib’ in Peritia, xxiv–xxv (2013), pp 141–172Google Scholar.

3 Candon, Anthony, ‘Muirchertach Ua Briain, politics and naval activity in the Irish Sea, 1075–1119’ in Gearóid Mac Niocaill and P. F. Wallace (eds), Keimelia: studies in medieval archaeology and history in memory of Tom Delaney (Galway, 1988), pp 397–415Google Scholar; Mhaonaigh, Máire Ní, ‘Cogadh Gáedel re Gallaib: some dating considerations’ in Peritia, ix (1995), pp 354–377CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

4 Casey, Denis, ‘A reconsideration of the authorship and transmission of Cogadh Gáedhel re Gallaibh’ in R.I.A. Proc, cxiii C, (2013), pp 1–23Google Scholar.

5 Clare Downham, ‘Scottish affairs and the political context of Cogad Gáedel re Gallaib’ (forthcoming).

6 Mhaonaigh, Ní, ‘Cogadh Gáedel re Gallaib’, pp 368–374Google Scholar; Ní Mhaonaigh, Máire, Brian Boru: Ireland’s greatest king? (Stroud, 2007), pp 45–46Google Scholar.

7 Annala Rioghachta Eireann: Annals of the kingdom of Ireland by the Four Masters from the earliest period to the Year 1616, ed. John O’Donovan (7 vols, Dublin, 1845–51), ii, 974–5 (s.a 1103).

8 Corráin, Donnchadh Ó, ‘Caithréim Cellacháin Chaisil: history or propaganda?’ in Ériu, xxv (1974), pp 1–69Google Scholar, at p. 5; Ghiollamhaith, Aoife Nic, ‘Dynastic warfare and historical writing in north Munster, 1276–1350’ in Camb. Med. Celt. Studies, ii (1981), pp 73–89Google Scholar, at pp 78–80. For the Icelandic perspective, see Power, Rosemary, ‘Njáls saga and the Battle of Clontarf’ in Peritia (forthcoming)Google Scholar.

9 For context cf. Úrdail, Meidhbhín Ní, ‘Two poems attributed to Muireadhach Albanach Ó Dálaigh’ in Ériu, liii (2003), pp 19–52Google Scholar.

10 Simms, Katharine, ‘The Battle of Dysert O’Dea and the Gaelic resurgence in Thomond’ in Dál gCais, v (1979), pp 55–66Google Scholar, at p. 60; Ghiollamhaith, Nic, ‘Dynastic warfare’, p. 80Google Scholar.

11 Corráin, Donnchadh Ó, ‘Annals, Irish’ in John T. Koch (ed.), Celtic culture: a historical encyclopaedia (5 vols, Oxford, 2006), i, 69–75Google Scholar, at p. 73.

12 It is relevant to note that the Irish word for a foreigner (gall) describes foreigners and people in Ireland who were perceived to be descendants of foreigners: Quin, E. G. (ed.), Dictionary of the Irish Language based mainly on Old and Middle Irish materials: compact edition (Dublin, 1984)Google Scholar, s.v. Gall.

13 Ní Úrdail, Meidhbhín (ed. and trans.), Cath Chluana Tarbh: the Battle of Clontarf (Irish Texts Society, Dublin, 2011)Google Scholar; Foras Feasa ar Éirinn: the history of Ireland by Geoffrey Keating, ed. and trans. David Comyn and Patrick S. Dinneen (4 vols, London, 1902–14), iii,156–7 (ii.16).

14 Leabhar Mór na nGenealach: the great book of genealogies, ed. and trans. Nollaig Ó Muraíle (5 vols, Dublin, 2003–04), iii, 44–51; On the Fomorians and the Norsemen by Duald McFirbis, ed. and trans. Alexander Bugge (Christiana, 1905); The Annals of Clonmacnoise, being annals of Ireland from the earliest period to AD 1408 translated into English A.D. 1627 by Conell Mageoghagan, ed. Denis Murphy (Dublin, 1896), s.a. 830, p. 133.

15 Nineteenth-century examples include: Drummond, W. H., Clontarf, a poem (Dublin, 1822)Google Scholar; Shea, J. Augustus, Clontarf, or the field of the green banner (New York, 1843)Google Scholar; Knowles, J. S., Brian Boroihme [sic] or the maid of Erin (New York, c. 1856)Google Scholar; Hime, R. H., Brian Boru and the Battle of Clontarf, a ballad (London, 1889)Google Scholar; Cudmore, Patrick, The Battle of Clontarf and other poems (New York, 1895)Google Scholar.

16 In 1843 Daniel O’Connell planned a rally at the battle site calling for the repeal of the act of Union, an event considered so inflammatory that it was banned by the British prime minister: Sloan, Robert, ‘O’Connell’s Liberal rivals in 1843’ in I.H.S., xxx (1996), pp 47–65Google Scholar, at p. 63.

17 Néill, Eoin Mac, Phases of Irish history, (Dublin, 1937), p. 273Google Scholar; Green, Alice Stopford, History of the Irish state to 1014 (London, 1925), p. 421Google Scholar. Both authors were cited by Goedheer, A. J., Irish and Norse traditions about the battle of Clontarf (Haarlem, 1938), pp 106–107Google Scholar.

18 T.C.D. MS 1319 (H.2.18); R.I. Best, Bergin, Osborn and O’Brien, M.A. (eds), The Book of Leinster, formerly Lebar na Núachongbála, (6 vols, Dublin 1954–83),v, 1319–1325Google Scholar.

19 Arnott, T. K. and Gwynn, E. J., Catalogue of the Irish manuscripts in the library of Trinity College Dublin (Dublin, 1921), pp 351–397Google Scholar.

20 Bibliothèque Nationale, Brussels, MS 2569–2572, ff 103–35; Gheyn, J. van den, Catalogue des manuscrits de la Bibliothèque Royale de Belgique (13 vols, Brussels, 1901-48), vii, 46–48Google Scholar.

21 Henthorn Todd, James (ed. and tr.), Cogadh Gaedhel re Gallaibh: the war of the Gaedhil with the Gaill (Rolls Series, London, 1867)Google Scholar [hereafter Cog. Gaedhel].

22 Downham, ‘The annalistic section’.

23 Cog. Gaedhel, §lxiii, pp 100–1. This translation is quoted from Ní Mhaonaigh, Brian Boru, p. 44.

24 Mhaonaigh, Máire Ní, ‘Classical compositions in medieval Ireland: the literary context’ in Kevin Murray (ed.), Translations from classical literature: Imtheachta Aenias and Stair Ercail ocus a Bás (Irish Texts Subsidiary Series, London, 2006), pp 1–20Google Scholar, at p. 12.

25 Thurneysen, Rudolf, Die Irische Helden- und Kӧnigsaga (Halle, 1921), pp 96–97Google Scholar.

26 Miles, Brent, Heroic saga and classical epic in medieval Ireland (Woodbridge, 2011)Google Scholar.

27 Miles, , Heroic saga, pp 55–57Google Scholar. These texts were soon followed by Merugud Uilixis meic Leirtis (‘The wandering of Ulysses son of Laertes’), Togail na Tebe from Statius’s Thebaid, and the Irish Achilleid: Poppe, Erich, ‘Imtheachta Aeniasa: Virgil’s Aeneid in medieval Ireland’ in Classics Ireland, xi (2004)Google Scholar, online version (http://www.classicsireland.com/2004/poppe.html) (9 Jan. 2014).

28 Miles, , Heroic saga, pp 57–58Google Scholar.

29 Tristram, Hildegard L. C., ‘Aspects of tradition and innovation in the Táin Bó Cúailnge’, in Richard Matthews and Joachim Schmolze-Rostosky (eds), Papers on language and medieval studies presented to Alfred Schopf (Frankfurt, 1988), pp 19–38Google Scholar, at pp 22–4.

30 Ashe, Laura, Fiction and history in England, 1066–1200 (Cambridge, 2007)Google Scholar.

31 McCone, Kim, Pagan past and Christian present in early Irish Literature (Maynooth, 1990), p. 50Google Scholar.

32 Harris, John R., ‘Aeneas’s treason and narrative consistency in the mediaeval Imtheachta Aeniasa’ in Florigelium, x (1988–91), pp 25–48Google Scholar, at p. 34.

33 Folklore would also continuously draw from imported materials and show common features with tales from other lands through international tale motifs.

34 Tristram, Hildegard, ‘Latin and Latin learning in the Tain Bó Cuailnge’ in Z.C.P., xlix–l (1997), pp 847–877Google Scholar, at p. 872.

35 Mhaonaigh, Ní, ‘Classical compositions’, p. 16Google Scholar.

36 Cf. Poppe, Erich, ‘Favourite expressions, repetition, and variation: observations on Beatha Mhuire Eigiptacdha in Add.30512’ in Erich Poppe and Bianca Ross (eds), The legend of Mary of Egypt in medieval Insular hagiography, (Dublin, 1996), pp 279–299Google Scholar, at p. 281.

37 Rimmon-Kenan, Schlomith, Narrative fiction: contemporary poetics (London, 1983), p. 56CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

38 Mhaonaigh, Ní, ‘Classical compositions’, p. 12Google Scholar.

39 Miles, , Heroic saga, p. 94Google Scholar.

40 Bartlett, Robert, England under the Norman and Angevin kings, 1075–1225 (Oxford, 2000), pp 616–618Google Scholar.

41 More overt expressions of political and cultural unity are hinted at through increasing use of the terms ‘men of Ireland’ and ‘king of Ireland’ in the eleventh century and their intrusion into earlier texts; see Herbert, Máire, ‘Crossing literary and historical boundaries: Irish written culture around the year 1000’ in Camb. Med. Celt. Studies, liii–liv (2007), pp 87–101Google Scholar, at p. 92.

42 Corráin, Donncha Ó, Ireland before the Normans (Dublin, 1972), p. 127Google Scholar.

43 Corráin, Donnchadh Ó, ‘Nationality and kingship in pre-Norman Ireland’, in T. W. Moody (ed.), Historical Studies XI: nationality and the pursuit of national independence (Belfast, 1978), pp 1–35Google Scholar.

44 Gwynn, Aubrey, ‘Ireland and the continent in the eleventh century’, I.H.S., viii (1953), pp 193–216Google Scholar.

45 Carey, John, A new introduction to Lebor Gabála Érenn (Irish Texts Society, Dublin, 1993), pp 2–6Google Scholar; Carey, John, The Irish national origin-legend: synthetic pseudohistory, Quiggin Pamphlet 1 (Cambridge, 1994), pp 1Google Scholar, 24; F. J. Byrne (ed. and trans.), ‘Clann Ollaman Uaisle Emna’ in Studia Hib., iv (1964), pp 54–94.

46 Bartlett, , England under the Norman and Angevin kings, p. 629Google Scholar. For other Irish works which drew information from earlier histories but added literary elaboration see Clarke, Michael, ‘An Irish Achilles and a Greek Cu Chulainn’ in Ruairí Ó hUiginn and Brian Ó Catháin (eds), Ulidia 2: Proceedings of the second International Conference on the Ulster Cycle of Tales (Maynooth, 2009), pp 238–251Google Scholar at p. 244.

47 Bartlett, , England under the Norman and Angevin kings, pp 619–624Google Scholar.

48 Mhaonaigh, Ní, Brian Boru, p. 66Google Scholar.

49 Mhaonaigh, Ní, ‘Classical compositions’, pp 16–17Google Scholar.

50 Cog. Gaedhel, §§xcv, cxv, pp 166–7, 204–5, 252.

51 Erich Poppe, ‘Imtheachta Aeniasa’, n. 3; Poppe, Erich, ‘A Virgilian model for lúirech thredúalach?’ in Ériu, liv (2004), pp 171–177CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

52 Judges 3:11.

53 Cog. Gaedhel, §cxv, pp 204–5.

54 Mhaonaigh, Ní, Brian Boru, pp 131–133Google Scholar; Goedheer, , Irish and Norse traditions, pp 30–31Google Scholar, 39.

55 Bartlett, , England under the Norman and Angevin kings, p. 619Google Scholar.

56 Cog. Gaedhel, §§i–iii, pp 1–5; Best et al. (eds.), Book of Leinster, v, 1319 (fol. 309a1–10).

57 Fludernik, Monika, An introduction to narratology (Abingdon, 2009), p. 47Google Scholar.

58 It is possible that sections xxxvii–xxxix which cover events in 948–80 were interpolated into the original text; they overlap chronologically with the account of Mathgamain’s reign which follows. See Mhaonaigh, Ní, ‘Cogad Gaedel re Gallaib and the annals’, p. 103Google Scholar.

59 Goedheer, , Irish and Norse traditions, p. 32Google Scholar.

60 Rimmon-Kenan, , Narrative fiction, p. 56Google Scholar.

61 For the seminal article on this concept within narrative analysis see Labov, William and Waletzky, Joshua, ‘Narrative analysis’, in June Helm (ed.), Essays on the verbal and visual arts (Seattle, 1967), pp 12–44Google Scholar, at pp 32–3.

62 Cog. Gaedhel, §lxix, pp 116–17.

63 Bede, Ecclesiastical history of the English people, trans. Leo Shirley Price (London, rev edn 1995), II, xvi, p. 134; Asser’s Life of King Alfred, ed. W. H. Stevenson (Oxford 1904; rev. imp., by Dorothy Whitelock, 1959) §§91–3, 98–106, pp 76–81, 85–96.

64 Casey, , ‘A reconsideration’, p. 21Google Scholar.

65 Ó Corráin, Ireland, pp 91–2; Corráin, Donnchadh Ó, ‘High kings, vikings and other kings’ in I.H.S., xxi (1977–8), pp 283–323Google Scholar, at p. 295; Mhaonaigh, Ní, ‘Cogad Gáedel re Gallaib and the annals’, pp 105–106Google Scholar; Downham, ‘The annalistic section’.

66 Mhaonaigh, Ní, ‘Cogad Gáedel re Gallaib and the annals’, pp 125–126Google Scholar; Downham, Clare, ‘Viking camps in ninth-century Ireland: sources, locations, and interactions’ in Seán Duffy (ed.), Medieval Dublin X (2010), pp 93–125Google Scholar, at p. 100.

67 Downham, ‘The annalistic section’ explores the chronology in further detail.

68 Annals of Ulster, s.aa. 825, 873; Chronicon Scotorum, s.aa. 825, 873.

69 Ó Corráin, Ireland, pp 91–2.

70 Shippey, T.A., ‘A missing army: some doubts about the Alfredian chronicle’ in In Geardagum, iv (1982), pp 41–55Google Scholar, at p. 50; Downham, Clare, No horns on their helmets? Essays on the insular Viking age (Aberdeen, 2013), p. 33Google Scholar.

71 While two stylistically contrasting parts of Cogad may have been conceived as parts of a unified whole, it is notable that later authors drew selectively from different parts of the narrative.

72 On the Fomorians, ed. and trans. Bugge; Foras feasa ar Éirinn, eds and trans. Comyn and Dinneen, iii, 156–7 (ii.16).

73 Leech, Roger H., ‘Cogadh Gaedhel re Gallaibh and the Annals of Inisfallen’, N. Munster Antiq. Jn., xi (1968), pp 13–21Google Scholar, at p. 20, note 28.

74 Downham, ‘The annalistic section’.

75 Morse, Ruth, Truth and convention in the Middle Ages, rhetoric, representation and reality (Cambridge, 1991), p. 6Google Scholar.

76 Bartlett, , England under the Norman and Angevin kings, p. 627Google Scholar.

77 For a discussion of primary effect, see Rimmon-Kenan, , Narrative fiction, p. 120Google Scholar.

78 Mhaonaigh, Ní, Brian Boru, p. 45Google Scholar.

79 Whitley Stokes (ed. and trans.), In Cath Catharda: the Civil war of the Romans. An Irish version of Lucan’s Pharsalia, in Ernst Windisch and Whitley Stokes (eds), Irische Texte (4 vols, Leipzig, 1880–1909), iv, part 2. online version (http://www.ucc.ie/celt/published/G305001/) (9 Jan. 2014).

80 Seven books of history against the pagans by Paulus Orosius, trans. Andrew T. Fear (Liverpool. 2010); ‘The Chronica Maiora of Isidore of Seville’, trans. Sam Kwoon and Jamie Wood, in e-Spania, vi (2008) (http://e-spania.revues.org/15552#text) (9 Jan. 2014); Ní Mhaonaigh, ‘Classical Compositions’, p. 6.

81 Bede, , Ecclesiastical history of the English people, trans. Leo Shirley Price (London, rev. edn 1995), I. ii, p. 47Google Scholar.

82 The idea of adding a historical prologue to provide context is seen in some other classical adaptations. For example Imtheachta Aeniasa (an Irish adaptation of Virgil’s Æneid) opens with material based on pseudo-Dares account of the destruction of Troy: George Calder (ed. and trans.) Imtheachta Aeniasa (Irish Texts Society, London, 1907), lines 1–52; Poppe, Erich, A new introduction to Imtheachta Aeniasa: the Irish Aeneid (Irish Texts Society, Dublin, 1995), pp 6–7Google Scholar, 20. Stylistic contrast and function maybe perceived within Táin bó Cuailnge (‘The Cattle Raid of Cooley’) in the Book of Leinster. ‘The Boyhood Deeds’ of the hero Cú Chulainn (Macgnímrada Con Culainn) are written with brevity, using repetitive formulae and the historic present to describe events in a narrative flashback. This contrasts with the verbose style and present tense in the surrounding prose: Cecile O’Rahilly (ed. and trans.), Táin Bó Cúalnge from the Book of Leinster (Dublin, 1967), pp 21–33, 158–71.The stylistic contrast may not simply be explained by the ‘The Boyhood Deeds’, being an older or newer text slotted in to the Táin. The stylistic contrast maybe intended to signal the narrative purpose of ‘The Boyhood Deeds’ as a background narrative in relation to the surrounding text. See Melia, Daniel F., ‘Parallel versions of the Boyhood Deeds of Cuchulainn’ in Forum for Modern Language Studies, x (1974) pp 211–226CrossRefGoogle Scholar, at p. 214; Gearailt, Uáitéar Mac, ‘The language of some late Middle Irish texts in the Book of Leinster’ in Studia Hib., xxvi (1991–2), pp 167–216Google Scholar; Dillon, Myles, Early Irish literature (Chicago, 1948), p. 3Google Scholar; O’Nolan, Kevin, ‘Homer, Virgil and oral tradition’ in Béaloideas, xxxvii–xxxviii (1969–70), pp 123–130CrossRefGoogle Scholar, at p. 127, n. 7; Miles, Heroic saga, pp 164–74.

83 Ashe, , Fiction, p. 208Google Scholar.

84 Corráin, Ó, ‘Nationality and kingship’, pp 31–32Google Scholar.

85 I should like to thank David Dumville for providing access to bibliographic items I could not otherwise obtain. I would also like to thank the I.H.S. reviewers for their feedback and recommendations.