Bibliography

Simms, Katharine, “The poetic Brehon lawyers of early sixteenth-century Ireland”, Ériu 57 (2007): 121–132.

journal article

Citation details

Contributors

Simms (Katharine)

Article

“The poetic Brehon lawyers of early sixteenth-century Ireland”

Periodical

Ériu 57 (2007)

Breatnach, Liam, Rolf Baumgarten, and Damian McManus (eds), Ériu 57 (2007), Royal Irish Academy.

Volume

57

Pages

121–132

BibTeX

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Description

Abstract (cited)

Many of the most eminent judges of Brehon Law in late medieval and early modern Ireland were proficient poets also, and the poetic art was studied in their law schools. It is argued here that this practice arose on a number of grounds. The poets taught the correct grammar and spelling of classical Irish, used by the lawyers in their pleadings. Irish literature supplied a fund of past mythical judgements customarily cited in the Old Irish law tracts as precedents. Poetic utterance was seen as an invocation of divine judgement, and traditionally the early poets were said to have functioned as judges. The law tracts also refer to a 'judge of poetic speech' (brithem bélrai filedachtae), though the precise meaning of the phrase is open to discussion.

Subjects and topics

Headings

early Irish law Irish bardic poetry 16th century

Sources

Texts

Language

Lexical itemSingle words, morphemes or phrases.

Irish brithem bélrai filedachtae

web page identifiers

page name: Simms (Katharine) 2007a

page url: https://codecs.vanhamel.nl/Simms_(Katharine)_2007a
redirect: https://codecs.vanhamel.nl/Special:Redirect/page/17428
numerical alternative: https://codecs.vanhamel.nl/index.php?curid=17428
page ID: 17428
page ID tracker: https://codecs.vanhamel.nl/index.php?title=Show:ID&id=17428

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