Bibliography
Toorians, Lauran, “Das Leben von Muireadhach Albanach Ó Dálaigh: scel 7 arrumainte 7 stair”, in: Helmut Birkhan (ed.), Kelten-Einfälle an der Donau. Akten des Vierten Symposiums deutschsprachiger Keltologinnen und Keltologen ... Linz/Donau, 17.-21. Juli 2005, Denkschriften, Vienna: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 2007. 573–582.
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Article
“Das Leben von Muireadhach Albanach Ó Dálaigh: scel 7 arrumainte 7 stair”
Work
Pages
573–582
Year
2007
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Abstract (cited)
Muireadhach Ó Dálaigh lived around 1200. About twenty of his poems survive and he is the subject of various traditions. The Annals of the Four Masters tell in the year 1213 how, after the killing of a servant of Domhnall Mór Ó Domhnaill, he fled to Scotland. The Scottish bardic family Mac Mhuirich (MacVurich) is believed to descend from him and two of his poems were composed for the earliest Earls of Lennox. From other poems by Muireadhach Ó Dálaigh it is known that he took part in the fifth Crusade, which brought him to Damietta. These biographical “facts” pose various problems, mainly of a chronological nature. Thus, the first Earl of Lennox was long dead by 1213, which led scholars to believe that Muireadhach must have visited Scotland on an earlier occasion, before he went into exile. The Four Masters state that fleeing for Domhnall Mór, our poet sought refuge with Richard de Burgo, but we know that the latter was a powerless boy in 1213, which severely undermines the story in the annals. And Muireadhach’s visit to Damietta must have taken place in a rather narrow time-slot which appears to interfere with his exile in Scotland. Especially the anecdote in the Annals of the Four Masters is considered questionable, but no one seems prepared to do away with it completely. As it stands it is the only piece of historical “evidence” about the poet we have, apart from scanty references in his own poems. It has the attraction of a good story and dismissing it might lead to a complete loss of Muireadhach as a historical figure. In this paper I propose a new chronology for the life and (part of) the works of Muireadhach Ó Dálaigh in which all the available information seems to fall in place without having to give up the 1213 annal completely. This account even plays a key role in my argument, though I do not take it on face value. In my view the homicide was committed much earlier and 1213 is the year in which Muireadhach returned from Scotland to Ireland in an attempt to regain his position there. In the paper I concentrate on the earlier part of the life of the poet, but something will also be said about Damietta and the fifth Crusade. Recent translations of part of Muireadhach Ó Dálaigh’s work, with introductions, can be found in Thomas Owen Clancy (ed.), The Triumph Tree. Scotland’s earliest poetry AD 550–1350 (Edinburgh 1998) 247–283.
(source: via academia.edu)
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Contributors
Dennis Groenewegen
Page created
May 2011, last updated: January 2019
