Bibliography
David
Woods s. xx–xxi
Contributions to journals
Woods, David, “Adomnán, Arculf and the mosque on the Temple Mount”, Ériu 66 (2016): 179–190.
abstract:
Adomnán preserves the earliest surviving account in Latin of a mosque on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, but his account poses a number of problems to students of Umayyad Jerusalem. This paper reviews two recent discussions of the historical value of his description of this mosque before concluding that he probably describes its appearance as it was being repaired c.660, following a great earthquake in 659.
abstract:
Adomnán preserves the earliest surviving account in Latin of a mosque on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, but his account poses a number of problems to students of Umayyad Jerusalem. This paper reviews two recent discussions of the historical value of his description of this mosque before concluding that he probably describes its appearance as it was being repaired c.660, following a great earthquake in 659.
abstract:
The recent arguments that the writings of Proclus of Constantinople (434-46) were well known and influential in Ireland in the seventh century and later are here refuted.
Woods, David, “Adomnán, plague and the Easter controversy”, Anglo-Saxon England 40 (2011): 1–13.
abstract:
Adomnán's description (Vita Columbae II.46) of how the intercession of St. Columba preserved the Picts and the Irish in Britain alone among the peoples of western Europe against two great epidemics of bubonic plague is a coded defence of their use of the traditional Irish 84-year Easter table against the Dionysian Easter table as used throughout the rest of western Europe. His implication is that God sent the plagues to punish those who used the Dionysian table. Hence Adomnán still adhered to the 84-year table by the time that he composed the Vita Columbae c. 697. It probably took a third epidemic 700–c. 702 to persuade Adomnán that his interpretation of the earlier epidemics was incorrect, so that Bede (HE V.15) is correct to date his conversion to the Dionysian table to a third visit to Northumbria c. 702.
abstract:
Adomnán's description (Vita Columbae II.46) of how the intercession of St. Columba preserved the Picts and the Irish in Britain alone among the peoples of western Europe against two great epidemics of bubonic plague is a coded defence of their use of the traditional Irish 84-year Easter table against the Dionysian Easter table as used throughout the rest of western Europe. His implication is that God sent the plagues to punish those who used the Dionysian table. Hence Adomnán still adhered to the 84-year table by the time that he composed the Vita Columbae c. 697. It probably took a third epidemic 700–c. 702 to persuade Adomnán that his interpretation of the earlier epidemics was incorrect, so that Bede (HE V.15) is correct to date his conversion to the Dionysian table to a third visit to Northumbria c. 702.
Woods, David, “Crowd-control in sixth-century Clonmacnoise (Adomnán, VC 1.3)”, Ériu 60 (2010): 131–136.
This article considers Adomnán's account in Vita Columbae 1.3 of how St Columba was protected from being crushed by enthusiastic monks during a visit to the monastery at Clomacnoise, and offers a new interpretation of his description of the means used to protect the saint from the crowd.
This article considers Adomnán's account in Vita Columbae 1.3 of how St Columba was protected from being crushed by enthusiastic monks during a visit to the monastery at Clomacnoise, and offers a new interpretation of his description of the means used to protect the saint from the crowd.
Woods, David, “Gildas and the mystery cloud of 536–7”, The Journal of Theological Studies NS 61:1 (April, 2010): 226–234.
abstract:
The De Excidio Britonum by Gildas is conventionally dated to the second quarter of the sixth century. An apparent allusion at DEB 93.3 to the mysterious cloud which obscured the sun and moon for a year or more in Europe in 536-7 suggests that he probably wrote in 536, while the occurrence of such a phenomenon may well explain what finally drove him to publish such a fierce call to repentance.
abstract:
The De Excidio Britonum by Gildas is conventionally dated to the second quarter of the sixth century. An apparent allusion at DEB 93.3 to the mysterious cloud which obscured the sun and moon for a year or more in Europe in 536-7 suggests that he probably wrote in 536, while the occurrence of such a phenomenon may well explain what finally drove him to publish such a fierce call to repentance.
Woods, David, “Arculf’s luggage: the sources for Adomnán’s De locis sanctis”, Ériu 52 (2002): 25–52.
abstract:
Adomnán's information concerning the situation and foundation of Constantinople derives from a Latin translation of an anonymous Byzantine life of Constantine I. His information concerning seventh-century Palestine derives from a poor translation of a collection of miracle-stories. He discovered excerpts from these texts in a florilegium attributed to a source whose name he misread as Arculf. Arnulf, as he should be called, had collected these texts in support of a collection of relics obtained at Constantinople. He lost the relics in a storm in the English Channel, but made land with these texts.
abstract:
Adomnán's information concerning the situation and foundation of Constantinople derives from a Latin translation of an anonymous Byzantine life of Constantine I. His information concerning seventh-century Palestine derives from a poor translation of a collection of miracle-stories. He discovered excerpts from these texts in a florilegium attributed to a source whose name he misread as Arculf. Arnulf, as he should be called, had collected these texts in support of a collection of relics obtained at Constantinople. He lost the relics in a storm in the English Channel, but made land with these texts.
Woods, David, “Four notes on Adomnán’s Vita Columbae”, Peritia 16 (2002): 40–67.
This paper argues that the difficulty surrounding the correct interpretation of certain passages in Adomnán’s Vita Columbae is due to his misunderstanding of his main written source for these passages, Cumméne Ailbe. In particular, it argues (1) that the earthquake whose location is given as Italy at VC 1.28 is that which occurred at Constantinople on 14 December 557, and that this mistake is due to the confusion of the suburb of Constantinople entitled Rhegium with the Italian town of the same name; (2) that Guaire mac Aidáin was cleaning the wooden hull of his boat when he had the accident described at VC 1.47, so that the vexed term cristilia refers to the encrustation on the hull; (3) that the ‘sea-monsters’ whose attack upon Cormac Ua Liatháin's craft is described at VC 2.42 are identifiable as dolphins; (4) that the book borne by the angel whose alleged appearance to Columba is described at VC 3.5 had originally been described as ‘the book of the succession of the kings of Dál Riata’, not ‘the glass book of the ordination of kings’, so that Columba had merely blessed Aidán mac Gabráin in the knowledge that he would be king one day and had not actually ordained him such.
Source: Brepols
This paper argues that the difficulty surrounding the correct interpretation of certain passages in Adomnán’s Vita Columbae is due to his misunderstanding of his main written source for these passages, Cumméne Ailbe. In particular, it argues (1) that the earthquake whose location is given as Italy at VC 1.28 is that which occurred at Constantinople on 14 December 557, and that this mistake is due to the confusion of the suburb of Constantinople entitled Rhegium with the Italian town of the same name; (2) that Guaire mac Aidáin was cleaning the wooden hull of his boat when he had the accident described at VC 1.47, so that the vexed term cristilia refers to the encrustation on the hull; (3) that the ‘sea-monsters’ whose attack upon Cormac Ua Liatháin's craft is described at VC 2.42 are identifiable as dolphins; (4) that the book borne by the angel whose alleged appearance to Columba is described at VC 3.5 had originally been described as ‘the book of the succession of the kings of Dál Riata’, not ‘the glass book of the ordination of kings’, so that Columba had merely blessed Aidán mac Gabráin in the knowledge that he would be king one day and had not actually ordained him such.
Source: Brepols
