Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Note on Texts and Editions
- Abbreviations
- Introduction: Figmenta Poetica and Heroic Saga
- 1 Classical Learning in Medieval Ireland: The State of the Question
- 2 The Irish Classical Tales: Texts and Sources
- 3 Classicism and Togail Troí
- 4 Táin Bó Cúailnge and Latin Epic
- 5 The Rhetorical Set Piece and the Breslech of the Plain of Murthemne
- Afterword: An Invitation to Study
- Bibliography
- Index
- STUDIES IN CELTIC HISTORY
Afterword: An Invitation to Study
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 September 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Note on Texts and Editions
- Abbreviations
- Introduction: Figmenta Poetica and Heroic Saga
- 1 Classical Learning in Medieval Ireland: The State of the Question
- 2 The Irish Classical Tales: Texts and Sources
- 3 Classicism and Togail Troí
- 4 Táin Bó Cúailnge and Latin Epic
- 5 The Rhetorical Set Piece and the Breslech of the Plain of Murthemne
- Afterword: An Invitation to Study
- Bibliography
- Index
- STUDIES IN CELTIC HISTORY
Summary
From the opening chapter of this book I chose to describe medieval Irish interest in classical literature and history as a nascent medieval Irish ‘classical studies’. Medievalists and classicists both may judge this choice of terms odd. Medieval literacy was so imbued with the learning and language of late antiquity that the existence of a ‘classical studies’ distinct from the mainstream medieval curriculum needs defending. Classicists may resist the comparison of what the medieval Irish modestly accomplished to what is done today in departments of Classics. The term has been chosen, however, to bring into relief features of the medieval Irish tradition which have been largely overlooked by modern readers, and hence have not been assimilated into the critical mainstream. In effect, the term is an invitation to readers from outside the world of medieval Irish studies to come in and look around: what they will find will not be wholly alien. Neither, however, will it be Medieval Studies nor Classics exactly as they have grown comfortable with.
I believe that admission of the full evidence of medieval Irish classical studies into the critical mainstream may lead to significant revision of the literary history of Western Europe. ‘Literary history’, of course, is an idea which many today would reject. But there can be no denying that readers generally find their experience of pre-modern literature mediated through something of this sort, whatever its validity.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Heroic Saga and Classical Epic in Medieval Ireland , pp. 245 - 250Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2011