Irish Literary Tradition

with Maxim Fomin

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Week 6:

Middle Irish romances & Fenian lays:

The Colloquy of the Ancients (Accalamh na Senorach) and Duanaire Finn

The late medieval heroic store of legends about Finn and his companions (known in Irish as fiannaíocht), the hunter-warrior brotherhood, is the most popular narrative tradition to be found in Ireland and Gaelic Scotland. With the popularity of the Ulster epic tales declining, the Fenian lays used to be part of the repertoire of the Irish and Scottish Gaelic storytellers. The explanation of its popularity and rootedness in the popular folk conscience can be sought in the store of themes that lay in its foundation: those of love and jealousy, friendship and betrayal, e.g. tale of love of Diarmait and Gráinne (the closest affinity to the Continental Tristan and Isolde story). These romances (known in Early Modern Irish as laoithe ‘lays’) supposedly came to the attention of an antiquarian James MacPherson, who claimed that he found some Scottish Gaelic manuscripts and on their basis published various books, starting with The Fragments of Ancient Poetry, Collected in the Highlands of Scotland (1760). His activitity boosted an enormous interest in early Celtic writings which persists to this day. We will be studying the origins of Fenian literature, its dynamics and ethos, and various of the literary atefacts of this narrative tradition.

Select a Week:

Week 1 Introduction go
Week 2Encounters of saints with heroes go
Week 3The Ulster cycle of tales go
Week 4Early Irish native literary tradition go
Week 5Middle Irish satirical wiritngs go
Week 6Middle Irish romances & Fenian lays go
Week 7The penetration of saga material into the folklore tradition go
Week 8Irish historical and pseudo-historical writings go
Week 9The Irish lords on the continent go
Week 10The decline of the bardic tradition go
Week 11Late nineteenth century Irish literary revival go
Week 12Twentieth century Irish literature go