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CONTENTS Page No. Chapter One 3- 32 Introduction The Genesis of the Native Culture of Ireland: Birth of a Civilisation 3 The ‘Dark Ages’ of Irish Culture 12 Celtic Revival: The Phoenix Reborn 18 John Millington Synge and the New Theatre Movement 22 Chapter Two 33- 82 Synge’s Treatment of Christianity and Paganism: Return to the Primitive World of Rituals Pre-Christian Ireland: Celtic Paganism 33 Arrival of Christianity in Ireland 38 “The lord protect us from the saints of god”: Treatment of Christianity and Paganism in Synge’s Plays 49 Chapter Three 83- 157 The ‘Syngean’ World of Mythology and Folklore: Ardour for Irish Myths and Legends Function and Nature of Myth and Folklore: “Darwinism of Words” 83 Celtic Mythology and Folklore 88 The Mythological Cycles in Ireland 90 Nature of Fairy Mythology in Ireland 95 Irish Storytelling Tradition, Legends and Myths 97 Synge’s Penchant for Irish Mythology and Folklore 98 ‘Syngean’ Characters: Not ‘Just’ Simple Rustics 131 Chapter Four 158- 197 Synge’s Role in Shaping the Irish National Consciousness: A Question on the Round Table “J. M. Synge and the Pitfalls of (Irish) National Consciousness” 158 2 Synge’s Plays and the Irish National Identity 161 Playboy and the Irish- Self 171 Representation of Nora Burke— an ‘Irish’ Woman in Synge’s The Shadow of the Glen 204 Chapter Five 198- 220 Synge’s Plays in the Context of Irish Literary Revival: A Conclusion Synge as Playwright: Staging ‘Everything Irish’ 198 Treatment of Christianity, Paganism, Myth and Folklore in Synge’s Plays: Key Ideas of the Study 204 Select Bibliography 221- 234 3 Introduction The Genesis of the Native Culture of Ireland: Birth of a Civilisation The Irish mainland is a large island in the Atlantic Ocean with some smaller islands off each coastline. ‘Eire,’ the name once given to the country as a whole, is now politically divided between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland (which is a part of the United Kingdom). To understand this unusual configuration and its meaning for Irish literature, it is necessary to understand something of the Irish history. Over nine thousand years ago, most of Ireland was covered with ice until the end of the last Ice Age. Earliest settlers, probably hunters in search of deer and elk, must have come to Ireland from Britain and continental Europe around 8000 BC. As the Ice Age ended, water levels rose and left Ireland and Britain isolated as islands. Mesolithic huts have been recovered from the northern part of Ireland and are dated between 7000BC- 6500 BC. Agriculture followed with the Neolithic Age around 4500-2500 BC when sheep, goats, cattle and cereals were imported from the Iberian Peninsula (located in the extreme south-west of Europe and includes the modern-day sovereign states of Spain, Portugal and Andorra, as well as the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar). Hunting and gathering gave way to farming around 3000 BC. Evidence of this Neolithic culture exists in excavations around Lough Gur (south-east of Limerick) and Newgrange (in the Boyne Valley, north-west of Dublin). The chief crops were wheat and barley. The Bronze Age, defined by the use of metal, began around 2500 BC, with technology changing people’s everyday lives during this period through innovations such 4 as the wheel, harnessing oxen, weaving textiles, brewing alcohol, and skilful metalworking, which produced new weapons and tools, along with fine gold decoration and jewellery. Bronze Age people (the Beaker People) probably lived in wattle and daub huts in small settlements with their cattle protected by a stockade. Some lived on artificial islands, called ‘crannógs’. The Iron Age in Ireland is traditionally associated with people known as the ‘Celts’. The Celts were commonly thought to have colonised Ireland in a series of invasions between the eighth and first centuries BC. They were the actual ancestors of present-day Irish, immigrated around 600 BC, followed by a second wave around the 100 BC. This was the period of the La Tène culture. The Gaels, the last wave of Celts, were said to have divided the island into five or more kingdoms after conquering it. They produced the famous gold torques and ornamented scabbards. Their capital was probably Armagh (near Dublin). The Celts came from Central Europe and crossed Italy, Spain, France and Britain. The peasantry supported pastoral farming, hunting and raiding. The Irish land was thickly wooded, stony but at the same time, fertile. The Celts established small states in which families owned their lands and herds but gave allegiance to a local king or chief who increased his land by war. The kingdoms or ‘Tuathas’ (tribes) comprised five provinces or ‘fifths’ consisting of Ulster, Meath, Leinster, Munster, and Connaught. There was no single ruler of the country, though chieftains such as Brian Boru sometimes claimed the position of ‘High King’. 5 The word ‘Celt’ does not define a single race or a tribe; similarly, ‘Celtic’ also does not signify a centralised term that all Celts everywhere had the same feeling for nature, worshipped same gods and performed same rituals. The Celts were neither a people related by blood nor just fair-skinned, freckled and red haired tribe, but, . it is presumed they share an inborn mystical inclination. They see in ways that others do not or cannot. They acknowledge a world beyond the world of senses. Some even have the second sight, the ability to see fairies and other spirits dancing through the soft evening. The image is a charming one; it has drawn many to the study of Celtic culture. But it is also incorrect. No ancient people called themselves “the Celts.” They called themselves Belgae, Cantii, Icini, Brigantes, Voconces, Arveni, or by any one of scores of other tribal names. The word Celt may originally have been one of these tribal names, used by other Europeans as a generic term for the whole people. (Monaghan iv) The earliest written records of Ireland come from classical Greco-Roman geographers. The Romans never considered Ireland worth conquering. They called it ‘Hibernia’ (Latin name for the island of Ireland) or ‘the winter place’ and therefore, ‘civilizing’ influences of Rome never reached Ireland as they did England. The political structure of Ireland comprised around 150 ‘Tuatha’ or ‘Kingdoms’. Each kingdom was being controlled by a minor ‘King’ or ‘Ri Tuaithe’ who was subject to a more powerful King or ‘Ruiri’. Tribes fought for supremacy. Some provincial kings claimed to be ‘Ard Ri’ or ‘High King’ at Tara, but probably most other Irish did not pay attention to them. This tradition of isolated settlements (we have evidence of as many as 60,000 circle forts and crannógs) may be the reason that monastery-form religion took such a foothold in Ireland, rather than the Episcopal, town-oriented form—common to continental Europe. Christianity 6 was brought to Ireland in the fifth century, first, by St. Palladius and then, most importantly, by St. Patrick. St. Patrick served as a cattle herder on Slemish Mountain (in Antrim, north-east Ireland) for six years. Although he escaped on a ship carrying wolfhounds to Gaul, his visions of the Irish pleading with him made him return to Ireland as a missionary, several years later. Legend has it that he baptized the first Christian convert on the site of the present-day St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Dublin. However, he did most of his work in the north of Ireland, headquartering at Armagh. With the coming of Christianity, writing was introduced and the Celts began to write down their mythological manuscripts. The earliest of these histories is the Lebor Gabála (Book of Invasions). They also wrote down great epics of the oral tradition, Such as the Táin Bó Cuailgne (The Cattle Raid of Cooley). Monasteries became the important centres of learning; the main ones were at Kildare—controlled by St. Brigid, Clonfert—by St. Brendan, the ‘Navigator,’ Glendalough—by St. Kevin, and Clonmacnoise—by St. Kieran. These monks were responsible for copying thousands of manuscripts, among them were the famous Book of Durrow and Book of Kells. Viking (Norsemen belonging to the North Germanic branch of Indo-European languages, especially Norwegian, Icelandic, Faroese, Swedish and Danish in their earlier forms) raids began in Ireland in AD 795 (took them about a hundred after they started raiding England’s coasts). Brian Boru, member of a minor tuath, became High King in 1002, based at Cashel, because he successfully held