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Irish Minstrelsy ; Or Bardic Remains of Ireland ; English Poetical Translations

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Irish Minstrelsy ; Or Bardic Remains of Ireland ; English Poetical Translations Irish Minstrelsy ; or Bardic Remains of Ireland ; English Poetical Translations. Collected And Edited, By JAMES HARDIMAN, M. R. I. A. 1831 REMAINS OF ANCIENT IRISH LITERATURE.—IMPORTANCE OF OUR OLD DOCUMENTS.—EARLY FILEAS.—IRISH MUSIC.—PRINCIPAL BARDS FROM THE ERA OF CHRISTIANITY TO THE CON- VERSION OF THE IRISH, AND THENCE TO THE LAST CENTURY.—THEIR EDUCATION, CHARAC- TER, AND PRODUCTIONS.—IRISH LANGUAGE WELL ADAPTED FOR LYRICAL COMPOSITION.— METRE AND VERSEFICATION.—TITLE OF THE PRESENT WORK—ITS ORIGIN AND PROGRESS. — CONCLUSION. After ages of neglect and decay, the ancient literature of Ireland seems destined to emerge from ob- scurity. Those memorials which have hitherto lain so long unexplored, now appear to awaken the at- tention of the learned and the curiosity of the public ; and thus, the literary remains of a people once so distinguished in the annals of learning, may be rescued from the oblivion to which they have been so undeservedly consigned. That the ancient Irish possessed ample stores in their native language, capable of captivating the fancy, enlarging the understanding, and improving the heart, is well known to those acquainted with the mouldering membranes which have survived to our times. The historical importance of our annals has been acknowledged by the most learned men of Europe for the last three centuries. They are written in the language of the first inhabitants of Europe ; and, with a simplicity of detail which truth only can confer, they record the primæval state of this island, the origin of its early inhabitants, their history, religion, and laws, and the arts known amongst them for several generations. Former writers have brought discredit on our history by injudiciously blending with it the fictions of romance ; and succeeding authors, unable or unwilling to separate the truth from the fable, became contented copyists, and thus encreased the evil which they pretended to remedy. Eager for temporary applause, which they mistook for permanent fame, they forced on the world their crude essays, which were remarkable only for distortion of fact and boldness of conjecture. The original documents, which would have guided them to truth, were wholly neglected, or but partially explored. Hence, the imper-fect state of our early history, and the erroneous opinions entertained of it by many, even of the learned, at the present day. The difficulty of procuring the documents alluded to, and the still greater difficulty of deciphering them when procured, may be alleged as an excuse for the indolence, or ignorance, of which our countrymen have reason to complain in the generality of their historical writers. But this is a plea that cannot be admitted. Those chroniclers of error ought to have rendered themselves competent, or have remained for ever silent. What is true of the past will apply equally to the future. Until the difficulties alluded to shall be overcome, all attempts to illustrate, with certainty or authority, the earlier parts of our history must prove abortive.— Having judged it necessary to make the few foregoing observations on the most important use to be made of those neglected muniments, it now remains to ascertain what information they afford on the subject at present under consideration—the ancient poetry of Ireland. That this country, from an early period, was famous for the cultivation of the kindred arts of poetry and music, stands universally admitted. The works of the prejudiced Cambrensis, and the annals of Wales and Scotland, might be adduced in evidence of the fact ; but we require not the aid of foreign proof, our domestic records supply abundant information on the subject. Although most of the records of the days of paganism were destroyed by the zeal of the first Christian Missionaries, and much of what then escaped, with many of later times, met with a similar fate from the barbarity of the Danes, and the destructive policy of the English, yet sufficient remains to enable us to trace those arts to a remote period in Ireland. The early settlers, afterwards distinguished by the name of Milesians, der-ived their origin from that part of the earth, where poetry and music appear coeval with the formation of society. Accordingly we find the poet and musician numbered in the train of these celebrated in-vaders. The bards AMERGIN, the son of their leader, and LUGAD,thesonofITH, are particularly named. The latter is called, in old writings, “ The first poet of Ireland,” Cedlaidh- Er., and there still remain, after a lapse of nearly three thousand years, fragments of these ancient bards, some of which will be found included in the following pages, with proofs of their authenticity [1]. After these, but anterior to the Christian era, flourished ROYNE FILE, or the poetic, and FERCEIRTNE, a bard and herald ; some of whose remains will also be found with the foregoing. LUGAR and CONGAL lived about the birth of Our Redeemer, and many of their verses, particularly those of the latter, are still extant [2]. The subjects and language of these insular poems afford internal evidence of an antiquity transcending that of any literary monument in the modern languages of Europe. In that remote period the cultivation of music kept pace with the progress of poetry. The Dinn Seanchas [3], compiled by AMERGIN MAC AMALGAID, A. D. 544, relates that in the time of GEIDE, monarch of Ireland, A.M. 3143, “ the people deemed each others voices sweeter than the warblings of a melodious harp, such peace and concord reigned among them, that no music could delight them more than the sound of each others voice : Temur (Tarah) was so called from its celebrity for melody, above the palaces of the world. Tea,orTe, signifying melody or sweet music, and mur,awall. Temur, the wall of music [4].” In the same ancient tract, music is again alluded to, in the relation of a youthful dream or vision of CAHIREMORE, monarch of Ireland, which, amongst other things, des- cribes, “ a delightful hill, surpassing all others in height, whereon stood hosts ; and there grew a most beautiful and stately tree, like gold, whose variegated and luxuriant foliage, when moved by the wind, yielded the most melodious music ever heard, and on it grew delicious fruit, pleasing to every one’s taste [5].” The royal druid Bree, thus interpreted the dream : “ You are the tree who shall rise high to the sover- eignty, over all the nation ; the wind blowing on the leaves, and producing harmony, is the sweetness of your words in giving laws and ordinances to the people ; and the fruit you saw, are the many bless-ings that shall come on your subjects in your reign,” The first of these extracts contains the earliest al-lusion to the harp [6] which I have met with, though it is frequently mentioned in Irish poems ascribed to Columba, and others of the sixth century [7]. It is considered needless to multiply extracts, to shew the early knowledge and progress of music in Ireland. Proved to have existed as far back as the most ancient annals extend, its origin, like that of our round towers, must be sought for in the East [8]. The music of Ireland is better known to the world, at the present day, than its poetry. In the sweetest strains of natural feeling, the former found its ready way to every heart, and became endenizened in every clime, while the latter, wrapped in an ancient and expressive but proscribed and insulated language, has been generally neglected, particularly since the spread of the English tongue amongst us, and the downfall of the Milesians. Men there were, no doubt, who, knowing and valuing its beauties, have protected and cherished it amidst every vicissitude, as a precious depository of the genius of former times. But these generations have passed away. The few who inherit their spirit are gradually disappearing, and thus Irish poetry, with all its charms, may be left to linger awhile, and then sink into oblivion, unless rescued by the timely interposition of those who still retain some re- spect for the ancient honour of their country. The nature and value of this venerable deposit now remain for investigation. Some ancient bards, anterior to the Christian era, have been already noticed. Thence, to a recent period, a numerous host of the principal “ sons of song,” whose names may appear uncouth to our modern ears, will pass in tedious, perhaps, but necessary review, before the reader. These men’s works are stamped with genius and learning, and are preserved in various records of the highest authority. In the second century CIOTHRUADH, the bard, addressed a poem to the monarch CON, which is preserved in the book of Munster [9].FINGIN, in the same reign, produced a poem, on the approaches to Tarah, preserved in the Dinn Seanchas—Lecan, f. 239. Some fragments of LUACHNA, another bard of that period, and of FERGUS FIONNNNBELL, or the “ Sweet-voiced,” who lived in the third century, are found in the same record. The bard OISIN is here omitted, for although there appear some poems ascribed to him in many old manuscripts, yet strong doubts are entertained of their authenticity. In the fourth and fifth centuries flourished the nervous and poetic TORNA, one of whose poems is given in the following collect-ion ; and DUBTHACH,thesonofLUGAR, a bard who embraced the Christian faith in the time of St. Patrick. Two curious poems of the latter, on the privileges and duties of his order, and of the royal rights and duties of the King of Tarah, as monarch of Ireland, are preserved in the Leabhar na Cceart [10]. A hymn to the Redeemer, by Dubthach, after his conversion [11], is found in the Felire Anguis, a poetical calendar, compiled about the end of the eighth century, and pre-served in the Leahhar Breac,or “ Speckled Book” a valuable miscellany, now in the library of the Royal Irish Academy.
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