William
Sayers s. xx–xxi
2017
Five newly edited manuscripts reveal that the treatise De tonitruis purports to be adapted from the Irish language. In this essay, possible Irish affinities are explored and are found to lie, in increasing order of importance, in the ornate prose style, the recondite and culturally highly significant vocabulary, and the eulogistic citations of unnamed natural philosophers as authorities for thunder prognostics. In all these respects, De tonitruis differs from conventional European brontologies. Although it is surely not translated from the Irish language, the mark of Irish learning is distinctive.
Five newly edited manuscripts reveal that the treatise De tonitruis purports to be adapted from the Irish language. In this essay, possible Irish affinities are explored and are found to lie, in increasing order of importance, in the ornate prose style, the recondite and culturally highly significant vocabulary, and the eulogistic citations of unnamed natural philosophers as authorities for thunder prognostics. In all these respects, De tonitruis differs from conventional European brontologies. Although it is surely not translated from the Irish language, the mark of Irish learning is distinctive.
2015
2014
[EN] The description of technically clever or complex objects was not a recognized subgenre in early Irish literature but examples of transport means, weaponry, and food procurement and preparation devices illustrate how a touch of fantastic technology could be implicated in the plot, even in dilemmas of heroic ethics, or be a nearly free-standing item in a rich cultural history. The wonderful artifacts are not supernatural, preternatural, or even magical. Yet these fantastic instruments may have more life in literature than they ever had in historical reality. Language is harnessed and exploited in the literate realization of these devices, the potential complexity of the one reflecting the comparable complexity of the invented others.
[EN] The description of technically clever or complex objects was not a recognized subgenre in early Irish literature but examples of transport means, weaponry, and food procurement and preparation devices illustrate how a touch of fantastic technology could be implicated in the plot, even in dilemmas of heroic ethics, or be a nearly free-standing item in a rich cultural history. The wonderful artifacts are not supernatural, preternatural, or even magical. Yet these fantastic instruments may have more life in literature than they ever had in historical reality. Language is harnessed and exploited in the literate realization of these devices, the potential complexity of the one reflecting the comparable complexity of the invented others.
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La description normative du cheval chez Isidore de Séville est proposée comme modèle de l'organisation et du contenu du portrait de l'attelage qui figure dans le topos étendu du guerrier qui s'avance dans le cycle épique des Ultoniens. L'origine des traits stylistiques de la suite d'adjectifs enchaînée, toutefois, est à chercher dans la tradition indigène et, vraisemblablement, orale. L'article se termine par un glossaire de 150 adjectifs recueillis dans 15 textes typiques.
[EN] Isidore of Seville’s normative description of the horse is posited as an antecedent for the organization and content of the portrayal of the team of horses that figures in the larger topos of the approaching warrior in the Ulster cycle of epic texts. Stylistic features of the enchained sequence of adjectives, however, have their origin in the native, most likely oral, tradition. The article concludes with a glossary of 150 adjectives from 15 typical texts.
La description normative du cheval chez Isidore de Séville est proposée comme modèle de l'organisation et du contenu du portrait de l'attelage qui figure dans le topos étendu du guerrier qui s'avance dans le cycle épique des Ultoniens. L'origine des traits stylistiques de la suite d'adjectifs enchaînée, toutefois, est à chercher dans la tradition indigène et, vraisemblablement, orale. L'article se termine par un glossaire de 150 adjectifs recueillis dans 15 textes typiques.
[EN] Isidore of Seville’s normative description of the horse is posited as an antecedent for the organization and content of the portrayal of the team of horses that figures in the larger topos of the approaching warrior in the Ulster cycle of epic texts. Stylistic features of the enchained sequence of adjectives, however, have their origin in the native, most likely oral, tradition. The article concludes with a glossary of 150 adjectives from 15 typical texts.