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Luccreth moccu Chiara

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Luccreth moccu Chíara[1](floruitc. 665 AD)[2]was a poet fromCounty Kerry,Irelandwho wrote in archaicOld Irish.Moccuis an archaic form marking affiliation to an ancestral population group orgens,[3]in this case theCíarraige.James Carneyidentifies the poet in genealogies of the Cíarraige as the last of six sons of a certain Áine, a descendant of Mug Airt, also known as Cíar, son of the legendaryUlaidheroFergus mac Róichand supposed founder of the Cíarraige. The genealogies add that Luccreth had no children, and that "His dwelling-place faces the church of Cluain on the south".[4]

Works[edit]

Three poems attributed to Luccreth are preserved, all on genealogical themes.Eoin MacNeilldescribes him as "an experimenter in the production of new metres", blending older syllabic and alliterative verse forms with newer, accentual and rhyming verse forms.[2]

Conailla Medb míchuru[edit]

The 73-line poemConailla Medb Míchuru( "Medb enjoined evil contracts" ) is preserved, along with a later prose introduction, in a genealogical tract in the 15th-century manuscript Laud Misc 610 in theBodleian Library,[5]and has been edited and translated by P. L. Henry.[6]It contains one of the earliest references in Irish literature to events and characters of theUlster Cycle,telling of theUlaidheroFergus mac Róich's exile from his king,Conchobar,to queenMedband kingAilill,and his involvement in their war over the Ulaid's cattle. However, his exile is not inConnacht,as in the extant versions ofTáin Bó Cúailngeand related stories, but inTara.Cú Chulainndoes not appear, his role taken by Fergus' son Fiacc, who defends the Ulaid against his father's battalions. The poem goes on to tell how the descendants of the Ulaid heroCethernsettled in the midlands, and later migrated toMunsterin the time ofÓengus mac Nad Froích(d. 490).[6]Luccreth refers to the material he presents assen-eolas( "old knowledge" ), traditional material passed down from his ancestors.[7]

Ba mol Mídend midlaige[edit]

Another poem ascribed to Luccreth isBa mol Mídend midlaige( "It was the prophetic utterance of Midend, the fool" ),[4]also found in the Laud genealogical tract.[5]It tells how the ancestors of the Corcu Óchae, a people of Munster who traced their ancestry to an Ulster Cycle character,Dubthach Dóeltenga,[8]migrated from Ulster to Munster following the eruption ofLough Neagh.[6]

Cú-cen-máthair[edit]

The third work attributed to Luccreth isCú-cen-máthair( "hound without a mother" ), a poem on the genealogy of theEóganachtakingCathal Cú-cen-máthair(d. 665).[6]It includes an early account of the 72 peoples said to have been dispersed from the plain ofShinar,each with their own language, following theTower of Babel.However, their names, arranged in Irish metre, have been shown to derive not fromGenesis,but rather from the roster of nations, former Roman provinces and other places mentioned in St.Isidore'sEtymologiae(Books IX and XIV):

This listing, in several variants, seems to have become well known in medieval Ireland, as forms of it appear in bothAuraicept na n-Éces[9]and the laterLebor Gabála Érenn.

References[edit]

  1. ^alternative spellings: Luccrad, Luccraid, Lucrith; mocu; Cíara, Chérrai, Cheri, Cerai, Gerai
  2. ^abEoin MacNeill,"A Pioneer of Nations: part II",Studies: An Irish Quarterly Reviewvol 11, no 43, 1922, pp. 435-446
  3. ^T. M. Charles-Edwards,Early Irish and Welsh Kinship,Oxford University Press, 1993, p. 149
  4. ^abJames Carney,"Three Old Irish Accentual Poems",Ériuvol 22, 1971, pp. 23-80
  5. ^abKuno Meyer,"The Laud Genealogies and Tribal Histories",Zeitschrift für celtische Philologie8, 1912, pp. 291-338
  6. ^abcdP. L. Henry, "Conailla Medb Míchuruand the Tradition of Fiacc Son of Fergus ", in Séamus Mac Mathúna and Ailbhe Ó Corráin (eds.),Miscellanea Celtica in memoriam Heinrich Wagner,Uppsala, 1997, pp. 53-70
  7. ^James Carney, "Language and literature in 1169", inDáibhí Ó Cróinín(ed.),A New History of Ireland 1: Prehistoric and Early Ireland,Oxford University Press, 2005, pp. 451-510
  8. ^Dáibhí Ó Cróinín, "Prosopographical Analysis ofTáin Bó Cúailngein a Historical Setting ", in Hildegard L. C. Tristram (ed.),New Methods in the Research of Epic,Gunter Narr Verlag, 1998, pp. 153-160
  9. ^George Calder,Auraicept na n-éces: the scholars' primer,1917: Introduction, p. xxxii.

External links[edit]

  • Meyer, Kuno(1913). "Luccreth mocu Chiara".Uber die Alteste Irische Dichtung(in German) (Internet Archive ed.). Berlin: Verlag der Königl. Akademie der Wissenschaft. p. 51.Retrieved2 May2024.
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