When Celtic and Classical Meet












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            * When Celtic and Classical Meet
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            On the 19th of March a lecture entitled “Classical Learning and the Insular World” was pre

            Máire Ní Mhaonaigh of Cambridge University in the library of the Centre for Medieval Studi
            University.
            The lecture, also billed as  “Medieval Ireland and Classical Learning” was part of a serie

            currently underway called “Introduction to Medieval Disciplines and Topics” supported by t
            Centre for the Study of Ancient and Medieval Tradition. In it, Dr Ní Mhaonaigh talked abou
            learning and Latin entwined with the Irish vernacular and with Irish tales during the earl

            period, the so-called Dark Ages.
            These interactions occurred very early on, beginning with Ogam, or Ogham as it is spelt in

            in the 4th or 5th centuries. Ogam is Ireland’s earliest alphabet, and consists of a series
            ‘dashes’, and was often carved on stones; on some inscriptions it is combined with crosses
            how the letters are grouped, we can deduce that whoever framed it was familiar with Latin 

            grammatical teaching (Ogam wasn’t restricted to being carved however; scholastic Ogam appe
            Ogam written in manuscripts, alongside the Latin alphabet. The manuscript heritage of Medi
            Dr Ní Mhaonaigh emphasised, show that there was great cultural confidence there: for examp

            written about 799, The Poets’ Primer, Irish is compared directly with Latin, the vernacula
            an equal to its classical counterpart. 
            In this period in Ireland, as Dr Ní Mhaonaigh points out, there was a great Christian Iris

            concerned with a wide range of texts. The Irish authors of this period were undoubtedly hi
            Sonas Cormaic (Cormac’s Glossary), attributed to a king-bishop of Cashel in the southern p
            Cormac mac Cuilennáin (died 908), suggests that its author had knowledge of Greek, Welsh, 

            Textual production itself was an ecclesiastical activity; court literacy was rare, though 
            developed for courts, the works usually being commissioned by nobles. Such texts were ofte
            historical or political works, and were written in the vernacular. However, these pre-12th

            vernacular works only exist in vernacular manuscripts that survive from the 12th century a
            which they were copied from earlier manuscripts that have not survived.
            Contrary to the conventional image amongst people that the Dark Ages/Early Medieval Ages w

            of cultural wasteland, populated by barbaric illiterate people, and that the great works o
            were forgotten till the Renaissance period, many pieces of classical literature were known
            were even adapted, compared and analysed by Irish scholars, a fact that Dr Ní Mhaonaigh st

            much of the lecture. The Etymologiae of Isidore of Seville was revered in Ireland in this 
            Irish, it was In Culmen, “The Summit of Knowledge”. So loved was this text that a story re
            Irish apparently gave away the last copy of their own epic Táin Bó Cúailnge (The Cattle Ra

            to get hold of it.
            Knowledge of the Trojan War who then went on to create parallel historiographical narrativ
            history, associating themselves with the Trojans, and thereby giving themselves a parallel

            their own creation myth. For example, in a 12th-century manuscript, the Book of Leinster, 
            of the Destruction of Troy and The Cattle Raid of Cúailnge appear. In another text in the 
            Cogadh Cáedhel ne Gallaih (The War of the Irish against the Vikings), a hero Murchad is co

            the work even suggesting that he was descended from a line of heroes that began with Hecto
            What Dr Ní Mhaonaigh showed in this lecture was that classical learning permeated deeply i
            a land at a time which has been often traditionally seen as a time of cultural backwardnes

            in the title only refers to insularity in geographical terms; there’s no negative connotat
            more lectures to go in the series, hopefully this was just the first in a series of fascin
                                                                                                      
            William Francis Hannell is an Erasmus student from Britain (home university: Aberystwyth U
            as he wishes to gain useful experience as he considers journalism to be a possible future 
                                                                                                      
            experience whilst staying here at Charles University. He also wishes to contribute more th
            institution.                                                                              
            Email is wfh(zavinac)hannellfamily.plus.com [ MAIL "wfh(zavinac)hannellfamily.plus.com"]