Scandinavian Relations with Ireland During the Viking Period

by A. Walsh

II.

Yet the remarkable fact that this faculty of story-telling was peculiar to the Icelanders alone among the Teutonic peoples still remains to be explained. It can hardly be without significance that the only parallel in Europe for such a form of literature is to be found in Ireland.

From the allusions to this type of composition in old Irish literature it would seem to have existed at a very early period; so early, that its very origin is obscure. There is, for example, mention of a king’s “company of story tellers” in the eight lines of satirical verse, said to have been composed by the poet Cairbre on Bress, the niggardly king of the Formorians.[237]

Story-telling was one of the many attractions of the great aonachs or fairs which played the same part in the national life of Ireland as the things or popular assemblies in Iceland. From the poem on the ancient fair of Carman preserved in the Book of Ballymote, we can form an idea of the entertainment provided by the professional story-teller:—

“The tales of Fianna of Erin, a never-wearying entertainment: stories of destructions, cattle-preys, courtships, rhapsodies, battle-odes, royal precepts and the truthful instructions of Fithil the sage: the wide precepts of Coirfic and Cormac.”[238]

The Book of Leinster states that the poet who had attained the rank of ollamh was bound to know for recital to kings and chieftains two hundred and fifty tales of prime importance (prím-scéla), and one hundred secondary ones.[239] The same source gives the names of one hundred and eighty-seven of these tales, the majority of which have not come down to us. These include stories from the three great cycles of legend, viz., that relating to the gods; to Cuchulain and the warriors of the Red Branch, and to Finn and Fianna. A number of stories relating to the kings of Ireland mentioned in this list have an historical basis; while there are others purporting to deal with kings as far back as 1000 B.C., which are no doubt partly imaginary, and were invented to arouse popular interest in the past history of the country.

We know of several stories and poems about kings and chieftains who played a prominent part in the wars against the Vikings. The list in The Book of Leinster mentions only one, The Love of Gormflaith for Niall i.e., Niall Glundubh (d. 919), a summary of which is contained in the mediæval English translation of The Annals of Clonmacnois. In the case of The Victorious Career of Cellachan of Cashel, it is difficult to say whether this was originally an oral narrative committed to writing for the first time in the fifteenth century, or whether it was copied from an older manuscript, now lost. Brian Borumha and his sons are the principal characters in The Leeching of Cian’s Leg, a tale preserved in a sixteenth century manuscript.[240] It is interesting to note here the presence of a strong folk element which would seem to point towards a popular, not a literary origin.

At the close of the tenth century story-telling was in high favour in Ireland, and the professional story-teller was able not only to recite any one of the great historical tales, but to improvise, if the occasion arose. Mac Coisse, the poet attached to the court of Maelsechnaill II., tells in an interesting prose work how his castle at Clartha (Co. Westmeath) was once plundered by the O’Neills of Ulster. He immediately set out for Aileach in order to obtain compensation from the head of the clan, King Domhnall O’Neill (d. 978). On his arrival, he was received with great honour and brought into the king’s presence. In response to Domhnall’s request for a story, Mac Coisse mentioned the names of a large number of tales including one called The Plunder of the Castle of Maelmilscotach. This was the only one with which the king was unfamiliar, so he asked the story-teller to relate it. In it Mac Coisse described, under the form of an allegory, the plundering of his castle by the king’s kinsmen. When he had finished he confessed that he himself was Maelmilscotach[241], and he begged the king to grant him full restitution of his property. This the king agreed to do, and the grateful poet then recited a poem of eighteen stanzas which he had composed about the king and his family.[242]