McManus (Damian)
- s. xx–xxi
- (agents)
This paper is divided into two sections. In the first, attention is drawn to three categories of rhetorical device described in the commentary to the Amrae Coluimb Chille, all of which involve some form of repetition. This is the starting point for a discussion of the artful use of repetition in Early and Classical Modern Irish literature. Examples of such repetition and parallel phrasing are provided for both periods. In the Classical period this inevitably involves some discussion of breacadh, a metrical and stylistic ornament involving repetition. In the second section, the focus moves to parallel phrases based on antithesis (such as English ‘the Lord giveth, the Lord taketh away’) or contrast. The antonymy may be conveyed lexically (as in the example just quoted, ‘give’ vs ‘take’) or antithesis may be created morphologically (through a contrast of tense and voice, for instance, gonas géntair ‘he who kills will be killed’). The make-up of these antonymous parallel phrases will be described, the types of antithesis encountered discussed and questions of their interpretation addressed. A collection of Early Irish and Classical Modern Irish examples concludes the paper.
This paper investigates identification copula clauses linking substantives of different gender, e.gg., as in OIr. Críst didiu, is sí in chathir ‘Christ, then, is the city’ and CIr. An leabhar, is í an eagna ‘The book is wisdom’; the copula identification clause with pronominal subject, e.gg., MIr. Iss é mo lennán é ‘He is my beloved’ and CIr. Is é an seanadh hé ‘It is the old tradition’; and the Classical Irish type with substantives of different gender and subject pronoun, e.g., Mo theanga, is é m’arm-sa í ‘My tongue is my weapon’. It argues that the pronoun following the copula in such phrases is a mere shoe-horn to the following defined substantive, that the iss é mo lennán é type should not be classified under the rubric ‘repetition of the pronoun’, as is often done, and seeks to explain why the construction Mo theanga, is é m’armsa í, with different gender in the substantives, is more likely to be encountered in Classical verse than the type with just one gender.
This paper analyses binomial phrases in their various collocations in Early-Early Modern Irish and investigates the form and meaning of the most intimate collocations of antonyms, the dvandva compounds. The discussion is book-ended with a survey of the house in which Cú Chulainn was born, the house cen bratt cen biad, ‘with neither food nor shelter’.
This paper investigates the nature of the hunt in Medieval Ireland. It confirms from the evidence of Fianaigecht material backed up by contemporary Classical Irish poetry that the hunt was in the nature of a drive and ambush rather than a chase; that two types of hound were used in the hunt, the gadhair to drive the quarry from its covert and the coin to hem it in by securing the corridor to the ambush site, where the latter were slipped on the quarry; that this practice was common in Scotland as well as in continental Europe at the time; and that the deployment of the hunt was an important part of the training of a young nobleman in Ireland. Crossover material reflecting parallels between hound and hero celebration is also investigated.
This edition of the poem Slán dona saoithibh sealga ‘Farewell to the masters of the hunt’ begins by addressing the question of whether this is the elegy for a Mág Carthaigh hound referred to by Fearghal Óg Mac an Bhaird in his poem, Teasda eascara an fhiadhaigh ‘Dead is the wild game's foe’. The contents of the poem are then summarised and an edition complete with translation and critical apparatus is presented.
This paper is one in a series investigating women in Classical Irish poetry. The subject on this occasion is the patron’s wife. The paper examines how a married woman is addressed and/or referred to in the poetry and surveys the qualities most frequently praised in the iargcomhairc or complimentary verses addressed to the patron’s wife. The interest shown by women in the poets’ work is assessed, as is the question of whether there is a separate discourse for the praise of women. The paper concludes with a brief survey of a small number of poems addressed to married couples.
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