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History and Salvation in Medieval Ireland

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History and Salvation in Medieval Ireland History and Salvation in Medieval Ireland History and Salvation in Medieval Ireland explores medieval Irish conceptions of salvation history, using Latin and vernacular sources from c. 700 to c. 1200 CE that adapt biblical history for audiences both secular and ecclesiastical. This book examines medieval Irish sources on the cities of Jerusalem and Babylon; reworkings of narratives from the Hebrew Scriptures; literature influ- enced by the psalms; and texts indebted to Late Antique historiography. It argues that the conceptual framework of salvation history, and the related theory of the divinely ordained movement of political power through history, had a formative influence on early Irish culture, society and identity. Primarily through analysis of previously untranslated sources, this study teases out some of the intricate connections between the local and the universal in order to situate medieval Irish historiography within the context of that of the wider world. Using an overar- ching biblical chronology, beginning with the lives of the Jewish Patriarchs and ending with the Christian apostolic missions, this study shows how one culture understood the histories of others and has important implications for issues such as kingship, religion and literary production in medieval Ireland. This book will appeal to scholars and students of medieval Ireland, as well as those interested in religious and cultural history. Elizabeth Boyle is a LecturerPROOF in Early Irish at Maynooth University. Her research focuses on the intellectual, cultural and religious history of Ireland. Studies in Early Medieval Britain and Ireland Series editors: Joanna E. Story, University of Leicester, UK Roy Flechner, University College Dublin, Ireland Studies in Early Medieval Britain and Ireland illuminates the history of Britain and Ireland from the start of the fifth century to the establishment of French- speaking aristocracies in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, for historians, archaeologists, philologists and literary and cultural scholars. It explores the origins of British society, of communities, and political, administrative and ecclesiastical institu- tions. It was in the early middle ages that the English, Welsh, Scots and Irish defined and distinguished themselves in language, customs and territory and the successive conquests and settlements lent distinctive Anglo-Saxon, Scandinavian and Norman elements to the British ethnic mix. Royal dynasties were established and the landscape took a form that can still be recognised today; it was then too that Christian churches were established with lasting results for our cultural, moral, legal and intellectual horizons. Studies in Early Medieval Britain and Ireland reveals these roots and makes them accessible to a wide readership of scholars, students and lay people. Other titles in the series History and Salvation in Medieval Ireland Elizabeth Boyle Bede and the Cosmos Eoghan Ahern Bede and Time Máirín MacCarron PROOF Alfred the Great Edited by Timothy Reuter Early Medieval Studies in Memory of Patrick Wormald Edited by Stephen Baker, Catherine Karkov, Janet L. Nelson and David Pelteret Women’s Names in Old English Elisabeth Okasha Sustaining Belief Francesca Tinti The Long Twelfth-Century View of the Anglo-Saxon Past Edited by Martin Brett and David A. Woodman History and Salvation in Medieval Ireland Elizabeth Boyle PROOF First published 2021 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN and by Routledge 52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2021 Elizabeth Boyle The right of Elizabeth Boyle to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A catalog record has been requested for this book ISBN: 978-1-138-61048-4 (hbk) ISBN: 978-0-429-46576-5 (ebk) Typeset in Times New Roman by SPi Global, India PROOF in memory of my father, Patrick White (1944–2020) PROOF PROOF Contents Acknowledgements viii Note on terminology, biblical quotations and abbreviations x Introduction 1 1 In the Egypt of this our island: Reflections on Jewish history 20 2 Absalom, Absalom!: Rewriting the David story 53 3 More than honey to my mouth: The psalms 84 4 The green-grassed land of the Assyrians: Constructing the history of Babylon 118 5 Twilight of the idols 151 Conclusion 184 Bibliography PROOF 191 Index 201 Acknowledgements I would like to thank the Maynooth University Sabbaticals Board for granting me a semester of research leave in 2017, during which time I did most of the research that underlies this book. I am grateful to all of my colleagues in the Maynooth University Department of Early Irish – especially Prof. David Stifter and Dr Deb- orah Hayden – and to those across the university more widely for making it such a wonderfully supportive and intellectually satisfying place to work. I am enor- mously grateful to my students, past and present, who have allowed me to test my ideas and who have challenged me to refine my interpretations. Everything contained within this book has received an experimental outing of some sort or another, and I am very grateful to the various organisers and audi- ences of events where I have been able to subject my arguments to constructive criticism and debate. The material in the Introduction became a seminar and post- graduate workshop in the ‘Restructuring Late and Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages’ series at Durham University, organised by Dr Helen Foxhall Forbes. Some of Chapter 1 was delivered as a Celtic Seminar at Jesus College, Oxford, hosted by Dr Mark Williams. Part of Chapter 2 was a lecture to the Centre for Antique, Medieval and Pre-Modern Studies at NUI Galway, and other sections were deliv- ered as a paper at a Tionól of the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies. Sections of Chapter 3 were given as a paper to the conference on ‘Defining the Boundaries of Celtic Hagiography: Sources Outside Lives and Martyrologies’ at the Dublin Institute for Advanced PROOFStudies, organised by Dr Sarah Waidler. Chapter 4 was a lecture to a joint meeting of the Irish Historical Society and the James Lydon Research Seminar in Medieval History, Trinity College, Dublin; a reworked ver- sion was subsequently given to the History Research Seminar in the Department of History & Welsh History at Aberystwyth University, hosted by Prof. Björn Weiler, and to the 42nd California Celtic Conference at UCLA, hosted by Prof. Joseph Falaky Nagy. Chapter 5 was presented at an ASNC Research Seminar at the Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse & Celtic, University of Cambridge. I am thankful for the feedback, collegiality and hospitality I received on all of these occasions. I am indebted to many libraries and librarians for their help and for access to resources, especially the librarians of the Celtic Studies Library at the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies; the John Paul II Library and the Russell Library (both at Maynooth); Cambridge University Library; the English Faculty Library Acknowledgements ix at the University of Cambridge; and the library of the Royal Irish Academy. The work presented here would also have been much more difficult to complete had it not been for the Irish Script on Screen website, hosted by the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies. Indeed, I finished writing this book during the 2020 coro- navirus pandemic lockdown, and it would have been impossible without a host of online resources, for which I am tremendously grateful. Occasionally, due to these circumstances, I have not been able to access the most up-to-date sources, and I apologise sincerely for omissions. Finally, I owe a huge debt to all those who have supported me over the years: these are too many to enumerate, but I must express my particular academic and personal gratitude (in roughly autobiographical order) to Prof. Thomas O. Clancy, the late Prof. Cathair Ó Dochartaigh, Prof. David N. Dumville, Dr Oliver Padel, Dr Clodagh Downey, Prof. Thomas Charles-Edwards, Prof. Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, Prof. Paul Russell, Prof. Máire Herbert, Prof. John Carey and Prof. Ruairí Ó hUiginn. The late Prof. Donnchadh Ó Corráin and Prof. Richard Sharpe were both hugely supportive at crucial stages in this project and they are both greatly missed. My writing buddies – Dr Lindy Brady, Dr Elva Johnston and Dr Patrick Wadden – helped me to bring the project to completion with collegial support and encouragement (and a lot of beer), and I am particularly grateful to Dr Brady for her incisive comments on draft chapters. Fr Conor McDonough OP has also read draft chapters and offered valuable comments and unwavering friendship in the face of my terminal godlessness. Prof. Liam Breatnach has lis- tened to endless iterations of my ideas, has read and commented on draft chapters and has greatly improved this book (and my brain) through his generous input and unrivalled knowledge of Old and Middle Irish. Outside of academia, friends and family have kept me grounded and mostly upright and I owe them debts beyond words. Thank you to my beloved daughter, Nora Boyle; to Andrew ‘Baz’ Jones; to my parents (especially Antimo), my siblings (half- and step-siblings included, of course!) and my absolutely wonderful nieces and nephews. Thank you to all my friends, in particular Liz Chapman, Anton Reisenegger, Paul Smith and Bettina Talbot.
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