Irish Bardic History & Standish O' Grady

Irish Bardic History

By George King on Friday, June 28, 2013 at 5:05pm

I have copied just a small part here to offer an easy taste of it Golden Honey. Please download the whole book for more.

P.S. Please let me know if you enjoy it.
TDK / The Druid King

INTRODUCTION OF THE BARDIC
HISTORY OF IRELAND
DAWN.
There is not perhaps in existence a product of the
human mind so extraordinary as the Irish annals. From
a time dating for more than three thousand years before
the birth of Christ, the stream of Hibernian history
flows down unintei-rupted, copious and abounding,
between accurately defined banks, with here and there
picturesque meanderings, here and there flowers lolling
on those delusive waters, but never concealed in mists
or lost in a marsh. As the centuries wend their way, king
succeeds king with a regularity most gratifying, and
fights no battle, marries no wife, begets no children,
does no doughty deed of which a contemporaneous note
was not taken, and which has not been incorporated in
the annals of his country. To think that this mighty
fabric of recorded events, so stupendous in its dimensions,
so clean and accurate in its details, so symmetrical and
elegant, should be after all a mirage and delusion, a gorgeous
bubble, whose glowing rotundity, whose rich
hues, azure, purple, amethyst and gold, vanish at a
touch and are gone, leaving a sorry remnant over
which the patriot disillusionized may grieve.
Early Irish history is the creation mainly of the bards. )(
23
24 STANDISH O GRADY
Romances and poems supplied the great blocks with which
the fabric was reared. These the chroniclers fitted into
their places, into the interstices pouring shot-rubbish,
and grouting. The bardic intellect, revolving round
certain ideas for centuries, and round certain material
facts, namely, the mighty barrows of their ancestors,
produced gradually a vast body of definite historic lore,
life-like -kings and heroes, real-seeming queens. The
mechanical intellect followed with perspicuous arrangement,
with a thirst for accuracy, minuteness, and
verisimilitude. With such quarrymen and such builders
the work went on apace, and anon a fabric huge rose like
an exhalation, and like an exhalation its towers and
pinnacles of empurpled mist are blown asunder and
dislimn.
Doubtless the legendary blends at some point with
the historic narrative. The cloud and mist somewhere
condense into the clear stream of indubitable fact. But
how to discern under the rich and teeming m3rthus of the
bards, the course of that slender and doubtful rivulet,
or beneath the piled rubbish and dust of the chroniclers,
discover the tiny track which elsewhere broadens into
the highway of a nation's history. In this minute, circumstantial,
and most imposing body of history, where
the certain legend exhibits the form of plain and probable
narrative, and the certain fact displays itself with a mythical
flourish, how there to fix upon any one point and say
here is the first truth. It is a task perilous and perplexing.
Descartes commenced his investigations into the
nature of the soul, by assuming the certainty of his
IRISH BARDIC HISTORY 25
I
own existence. Standing upon this adamantine foothold,
he sought around him for ground equally firm,
which should support his first step in the quagmire of
metaphysics. But in the early Irish history, what one
solid and irrefutable fact appears upon which we can
put foot or hand and say, " This, at all events, is certain ;
this that I hold is not mist ; this that I stand on is neither
water nor mire '
' ? Running down the long list of Milesian
kings, chiefs, brehons, and bards, where first shalt we pause,
arrested by some substantial form in this procession
of empty ghosts—how distinguish the man from the
shadow, when over all is diffused the same concealing
mist, and the eyes of the living and the dead look with
the same pale glare ? Eocha of the heavy sighs, how shall
we certify or how deny the existence of that melancholy
man, or of Tiernmas, who introduced the worship of
fire ? , Lara of the ships, did he really cross the sea to
Gaul, and return thence to give her name to Leinster, and
beget Leinster kings ? Ugainey More, did he rule to the
Torrian sea, holding sea-coast towns in fee, or was he a
prehistoric shadow thrown into the past from the stalwart
figure of Niall of the Hostages ? Was Morann a real
Brehon, or fabulous as the collar that threatened to
strangle him in the utterances of unjust judgments ?
Was Ferkeirtney a poet, having flesh and bones and blood,
and did Bricrind, the satirist, really compose those
bitter ranns for the Ultonians ? or were both as ghostly
as the prime druid, Amergin, who came into the island
with the sons of Milesius, and in a manner beyond all
praise, collected the histories of the conquered peoples ?
26 STANDISH O'GRADY
Or do we wrong that venerable man whose high-soundin
name clung for ages around the estuary of the Oboka.
One thing at all events we cannot deny—^that the
national record is at least lively. Clear noble shapes
of kings and queens, chieftains, brehons, and bards
gleam in the large rich light shed abroad over the
triumphant progress of the legendary tale. We see
Ddns snow-white with roofs striped crimson and blue,
chariots cushioned with noble skins, with bright bronze
wheels and silver poles and yokes. The lively-hearted,
resolute steeds gallop past, bearing the warrior and his
charioteer with the loud clangour of rattling spears and
darts. As in some bright young dawn, over the dewy
grass, and in the light of the rising sun, superhuman in
size and beauty, their long, yellow hair curling on their
shoulders, bound around the temples with tores of gold,
clad in white linen tunics, and loose brattas of crimson
silk fastened on the breast with huge wheel brooches of
gold, their long spears musical with running rings ; with
naked knees and bare crown, they cluster round their
kings, the chieftains and knights of the heroic age of
Ireland.
The dawn of history is like the dawn of the day. The
night of the pre-historic epoch grows rare, its dense weight
is relaxed ; flakes of fleeting and uncertain light wander
and vanish' ; vague shapes of floating mist reveal themselves,
gradually assuming form and colour ; faint hues
of crimson, silver, and gold strike here and there, and the
legendary dawn grows on. But the glory of morn though
splendid is unsubstantial ; the glory of changing and
IRISH BARDIC HISTORY 27
empurpled mist—vapours that conceal the solid face of
nature, the hills, trees, streams, and the horizon, holding
between us and the landscape a concealing veil, through
whose close woof the eye cannot penetrate, and over all a
weird strange light.
In the dawn of the history of all nations we see this
deceptive light, those glorious and unearthly shapes ;
before Grecian history, the gods and demigods who
fought around Ilium ; before Roman, the strong legends
of Virginius and Brutus ; in the dawn of Irish history,
the Knights of the Red Branch, and all the glory that
surrounded the Court of Concobar Mac Nessa, High
King of the Ultonians.
But of what use these concealing glories, these cloudy
warriors, and air-built palaces ? Why not pass on at
once to credible history ?
A nation's history is made for it by circumstances,
and the irresistible progress of events ; but their legends,
they make for themselves. In that dim twilight region,
where day meets night, the intellect of man, tired by contact
with the vulgarity of actual things, goes back for
rest and recuperation, and there sleeping, projects its
dreams against the waning night and before the rising of
the sun.
The legends represent the imagination of the country ;
they are that kind of history which a nation desires to
possess. They betray the ambition and ideals of the
people, and, in this respect, have a value far beyond
the tale of actual events and duly recorded deeds, which
are no more history than a skeleton is a man. Nay, too. X
28 STANDISH O'GRADY
they have their own reality. They fill the mind with an
adequate and satisfying pleasure. They present a
rhythmic completeness and a beauty not to be found in
the fragmentary and ragged succession of events in
time. Achilles and Troy appear somehow more real
than Histiaeus and Miletus, Cuculain and Emain Macha
than Brian Borom and Kincorih,
Such is the effect produced by a sympathetic and
imaginative study of the bardic literature, the critical
faculty being for a time held in abeyance, but with its
inevitable reappearance and reassertion of its rights, that
gorgeous world, with all its flashing glories, dissolves
like a dream, or is held together only by a resolute suppression
of all disturbing elements. If we endeavour
to realise, vividly and as a whole, the early ages and
personages of Irish history, piercing below the annals,
studying them in connection with the imaginative literature,
using everywhere a strict and critical eye, and
demanding that verisimilitude and underlying harmony
which we look for in modern historical romance,
imagination itself wavers and fails. Here is a splendid
picture, complete in all its pai-ts, fully satisfying the
imagination ; but yonder is another, and the two will
not harmonize ; or here is a fact stated, and the picture
contradicts the fact. So contemplated, the historic track,
clear and definite in the annals, viewed through the
medium of the bardic literature, is doubtful and elusive
in the extreme. Spite its splendid appearance in the
annals, it is thin, legendary, evasive. Looked at with
the severe eyes of criticism, the broad walled highway
IRISH BARDIC HISTORY Zg
of the old historians, on which pass many noble figures
of kings and queens, brehons, bards, kerds and warriors,
legislators and druids, real-seeming antique shapes of
men and women, marked by many a earn, piled above
heroes, illustrious with battles, elections, conventions,
melts away into thin air. The glare of bardic light flees
away ; the broad, firm highway is torn asunder and
dispersed ; even the narrow, doubtful track is not seen ;
we seem to foot it hesitatingly, anxiously, from steppingstone
to stepping-stone set at long distance in some
quaking Cimmerian waste. But all around, in surging,
tumultuous motion, come and go the gorgeous, unearthly
beings that long ago emanated from bardic minds, a most
weird and mocking world. Faces rush out of the darkness,
and as swiftly retreat again. Heroes expand into giants,
and dwindle into goblins, or fling aside the heroic form
and gambol as buflFoons ; gorgeous palaces are blown
asunder like a smoke-wreath ; kings, with wand of silver
and ard-roth of gold, move with all their state from century
to century ; puissant heroes, whose fame reverberates
through and sheds a glory over epochs, approach and
coalesce ; battles are shifted from place to place and century
to century ; buried monarchs reappear, and run a
new career of glory. The explorer visits an enchanted
land where he is mocked and deluded. Everything
seems blown loose from its fastenings. All that should
be most stable is whirled round and borne away like foam
or dead leaves in a storm.
But with the cessation of this creative bardic energy,
yvhat a deposit and residuum for the annalists. Consider
30 STANDISH O GRADY
the great work of the Four Masters, as it treats of this
period, that strange sarcophagus filled with the imagined
dust of visionary hosts. There lies a vast silent land, a
land of the dead, a vast continent of the dead, lit with
pale phosphoric radiance. The weird light that surges
round us elsewhere has passed away from that land. The
phantasmal energy has ceased there—the transmutation
scenes that mock, the chaos, and the whirlwind. There,
too, at one time, the same phantasmagoria prevailed,
real-seeming warriors thundered, kings glittered, kerds
wrought, harpers harped, chariots rolled. But all that has
passed away. Reverent hands, to whom that phantasmal
world was real, decently composed and laid aside in due
order the relics and anatomies of those airy nations,
building over each hero his tomb, and setting up his
gravestone, piously graving the year of .his death and
birth, and his battles. There they repose in their
multitudes in ordered and exact numbers and relation,
reaching away into the dim past to the edge of the great
deluge, and beyond it ; there the Queen Ceasair and her
comrades, pre-Noachian wanderers ; there Fintann,
who lived on both sides of the great flood, and roamed
the depths when the world was submerged ; there
Partholanus and his ill-starred race—the chroniclers
know them all ; there the children of Nemed in their
own Golgotha, their stones all carefully lettered, these
not so ancient as the rest, only three thousand years
before the birth of Christ ; there the Clan Fomor, a
giant race, and the Firbolgs with their correlatives,
Fir-Domnan and Fir-Gaileen—the Tuatha De Danan,
IRISH BARDIC HISTORY 3!
whom the prudent annalist condemns to a place amongst
the dead—a divine race they will not die—they flee afar,
preferring their phantasmal life ; even the advent of the
Talkend will not slay them, though their glory suffers
eclipse before the new faith. The children of Milith
are there with their long ancestry reaching to Egypt and
the Holy Land—Heber, Heremon, Amergin, Ir, with all
their descendants, each beneath his lettered stone
;
Tiernmas and Moh Corb, Ollav Fohla, their lines descending
through many centuries ; all put away and
decently composed for ever. No confusion now, no
dissolving scenes or aught that shocks and disturbs, no
conflicting events and incredible re-appearances.
Chronology is respected. The critical and historical
intellect has provided that all things shall be done rightly
and in order, that the obits and births and battles should
be natural and imposing, and worthy of the annals of an
ancient people.
And thus, regarding the whole from a point of view
sufiiciently remote, a certain epic completeness and
harmony characterizes that vast panoramic succession
of ages and races.


STANDISH O'GRADY
Selected Essays
and Passages
1905

Reference Link:

The original of this book is in
tine Cornell University Library.
There are no known copyright restrictions in
the United States on the use of the text.

http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924009202007

Seanchaí and Oral Story Telling

Homer and Story Telling Video. (Good Video)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PL628CA125B177BDA4&v=K08vUnVpHcw&index=2&app=desktop


A Really good article !
http://druids.wikispaces.com/Seanchaí

A bit I wrote sometime ago

The Druid King: D.S. or Druid Speak
http://thedruidking.blogspot.com/.../ds-or-druid-speak.html

Bits from one of my  groups.

a: Repertoire: Memorization, reading or outline-improv?


b: Voice and Bearing: Volume, dynamics, characterization

c: Tropes and Tricks: choose a list of such - descriptions, line-length play, rhythmic sections, repetition and motif, etc.

 Memorization takes time. What devices could be used while in the process?

A list of Tropes and Tricks?
>>
Searles O'Dubhain Carve your notes in Ogham on several staves.

 Use them and read them aloud to key your mind and memory to the images and tales associated with the phrase that you have carved.

Go through them in sequence.

If there is something that needs to be embellished use a standard template for the type of embellishment to be done.

 You can customize it to the tale or the subject.

That's why the Briatharogam are studied by Druid students.  <<


The Study of the Orally Transmitted Ballad:  Past Paradigms and a New Poetics
by Teresa Catarella
http://journal.oraltradition.org/files/articles/9ii/14_catarella.pdf

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


THE ART OF THE STORY-TELLER
BY MARIE L. SHEDLOCK

http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/shedlock/story/story.html
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The art of story-telling, with nearly half a hundred stories, by Julia Darrow Cowles
Can only read on-Line
http://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001882670
---------------------------------------------------------------

Princes and Performers: The Evolution of the
 Bardic Oral Tradition, Ancient Times to the Present

http://www.ravensanctuary.com/scratches/essays/bard-paper.pdf
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Eddic Listing Techniques and the Coherence of “Rúnatal”

Listing was a fundamental activity of early poets, having its roots in the need for the efficient organization of information that had to be stored in the memory, as well as in the mnemonic requirements of oral delivery.

http://userpage.fu-berlin.de/~alvismal/5runtal.pdf

Performance and Norse poetry: the hydromel of praise and the effluvia of scorn

https://scholar.google.com/scholar?start=250&q=Poetic+Edda&hl=en&as_sdt=0,11

Oral Poetry and the Germanic Heldenlied

https://scholarship.rice.edu/bitstream/handle/1911/63223/article_RIP622_part4.pdf?sequence=1

 The legend of Perseus: a study of tradition in story, custom and belief

48 Hours of Joseph Campbell Lectures Free Online: The Power of Myth & Storytelling

http://www.openculture.com/2015/08/48-hours-of-joseph-campbell-lectures-free-online.html

Irish titles for poetic grades.

Lisabeth Ryder Partial list of titles for poetic grades (healers and seers not included):

 In Uraicecht na Ríar these are given as fochloc, macfuirmid, dos, cano, clí, ánruth, and 

ollam. But Brehon, Filid, Druid also appears in the literature. 

Ollave or Ollamh: Is relly just the higest level of whatever rofession it is modiying.

 http://www.libraryireland.com/SocialHistoryA.../II-VII-5.php


>>

OLLAMHS (OLLAVES)

From A Smaller Social History of Ancient Ireland 1906

« previous page | contents | start of chapter | next page »

CHAPTER VII....continued

5. The Men of Learning.

Professions Hereditary.—In ancient Ireland, the professions almost invariably ran in families, so that members of the same household devoted themselves to one particular science or art—Poetry, History, Medicine, Building, Law, as the case might be—for generations.

Ollamhs or Doctors and their requirements.—Ollamh [ollav] was the title of the highest degree in any art or profession: thus we read of an ollave poet, an ollave builder, an ollave goldsmith, an ollave physician, an ollave lawyer, and so forth, just as we have in modern times doctors of law, of music, of literature, of philosophy, of medicine, &c. In order to attain the degree of ollave, a candidate had to graduate through all the lower steps: and for this final degree he had to submit his work—whether literary compositions or any other performance—to some eminent ollave who was selected as judge. This ollave made a report to the king, not only on the candidate's work, but also on his general character, whether he was upright, free from unjust dealings, and pure in conduct and word,i.e., free from immorality, bloodshed, and abuse of others. If the report was favourable, the king formally conferred the degree.

Almost every ollave, of whatever profession, kept apprentices, who lived in his house, and who learned their business by the teaching and lectures of the master, by reading, and by actual practice, or seeing the master practise; for they accompanied him on his professional visits. The number under some ollaves was so large as to constitute a little school. There was, of course, a fee; in return for which, as the Brehon Law expresses it:—"Instruction without reservation, and correction without harshness, are due from the master to the pupil, and to feed and clothe him during the time he is at his learning." Moreover the pupil was bound to help the master in oldage if poverty came on him. The same passage in the Brehon Law continues:—"To help him against poverty, and to support him in old age [if necessary], these are due from the pupil to the tutor."

Although there were ollaves of the various professions and crafts, this word "ollave" was commonly understood to mean a doctor of Poetry, or of History, or of both combined: for these two professions overlapped a good deal, and the same individual generally professed both. A literary ollave, as a fili or poet, was expected to be able to compose a quatrain, or some very short poem, extemporaneously, on any subject proposed on the moment. As a Shanachie or Historian, the ollave was understood to be specially learned in the History, Chronology, Antiquities, and Genealogies of Ireland. We have already seen that he should know by heart 350 Historical and Romantic Stories. He was also supposed to know the prerogatives, rights, duties, restrictions, tributes, &c., of the king of Ireland, and of the provincial kings. As a learned man he was expected to answer reasonable questions, and explain difficulties.

These were large requirements: but then he spent many years of preparation: and once admitted to the coveted rank, the guerdon was splendid; for he was highly honoured, had many privileges, and received princely rewards and presents. Elsewhere it is shown that a king kept in his household an ollave of each profession, who was well paid for his services. The literary ollave never condescended to exercise his profession—indeed he was forbidden to do so—for any but the most distinguished company—kings and chiefs and such like, with their guests. He left thepoets of the lower grades to attend a lower class of people.

Poets' Visitations and Sale of Poems.—In Ireland the position of the poets constituted perhaps the most singular feature of society. It had its origin in the intense and universal veneration for learning, which, however, as we shall see, sometimes gave rise to unhealthful developments that affected the daily life of all classes, but particularly of the higher. Every ollave filè was entitled to expect and receive presents from those people of the upper classes to whom he presented his poetical compositions: a transaction which the records openly call "selling his poetry." The ollave poet was entitled to go on cuairt [coort]—'circuit' or visitation: i.e. he went through the country at certain intervals with a retinue of twenty-four of his disciples or pupils, and visited the kings and chiefs one after another, who were expected to lodge and entertain them all for some time with lavish hospitality, and on their departure to present the ollave with some valuable present for his poetry; especially one particular prepared poem eulogising the chief himself, which was to be recited and presented immediately on the poet's arrival.

The poet had also a right to entertainment in the houses of public hospitality. Sometimes an ollave poet, instead of going in person, sent round one of his principal pupils as deputy, with his poetry, who brought home to him the rewards. When a poet of one of the six inferior grades went on visitation, he was allowed a retinue, according to his rank, who were to be entertained with him. This remarkable custom of visitation, which is constantly mentioned in Irish writings of all kinds, existed from the most remote pagan times, and continued down to the beginning of the nineteenth century.

The Satire.—The grand weapon of the poets, by which they enforced their demands, was the aer, a sort of satire or lampoon, which—as the people believed—had some baleful preternatural influence for inflicting mischief, physical or mental: so that it was very much dreaded. A poet could compose an aer that would blight crops, dry up milch-cows, raise a ferb or bolg, i.e. an ulcerous blister, on the face, and, what was perhaps worst of all, ruin character and bring disgrace. The dread of these poetical lampoons was as intense in the time of Spenser as it was eight centuries before, as is shown by his words:—"None dare displease them [the poets] for feare to runne into reproach thorough their offence, and to be made infamous in the mouthes of all men."

A poet—it was believed—could kill the lower animals by an aer. A story is told of Senchan Torpest, chief poet of Ireland, who lived in the seventh century, that once when his dinner was eaten in his absence by rats he uttered anaer on them in his ill-humour, beginning, "Rats, though sharp their snouts, are not powerful in battle," which killed ten of them on the spot. Hence it was believed, even down to late times, that the Irish bards could rhyme rats to death; which is often alluded to by Shakespeare and other English writers of the time of Elizabeth. Some poets devoted themselves exclusively to the composition of satires: these were very much dreaded and generally hated.

All people, high and low, had a sincere admiration and respect for these poets, and, so far as their means permitted, willingly entertained them and gave them presents, of which we find instances everywhere in the literature: and the law made careful provision for duly rewarding them and protecting them from injuries. But, as might be expected, they often abused their position and privileges by unreasonable demands, so that many of them, while admired for their learning, came to be feared and hated for their arrogance.

Their oppression became so intolerable that on three several occasions in ancient times—at long intervals—the people of all classes rose up against them and insisted on their suppression. But they were saved each time by the intervention of the men of Ulster. The last occasion of these was at the convention of Drum-Ketta in the year 574, during the reign of Aed mac Ainmirech, when the king himself and the greater part of the kings and chiefs of Ireland determined to have the whole order suppressed, and the worst among them banished the country. But St. Columkille interposed with a more moderate and a better proposal, which was agreed to through his great influence. The poets and their followers were greatly reduced in number: strict rules were laid down for the regulation of their conduct in the future; and those who were fit for it, especially the ollaves, were set to work to teach schools, with land for their maintenance, so as to relieve the people from their exactions.

Much has been said here about the poets that abused their privileges. These were chiefly the satirists, who were mostly men of sinister tendencies. But we should glance at the other side. At all periods of our history poets are found, of noble and dignified character, highly learned, and ever ready to exert their great influence in favour of manliness, truthfulness, and justice. To these we owe a great number of poems containing invaluable information on the history and antiquities of the country: and such men were at all times respected, loved, and honoured, as will be shown in the next section.<<

Lullaby of the Gods.

I come bearing three words on the wind.

Wyrd

Orlog

Hamingja


I speak with the Words of Others.

Some may see the flash of my Teeth.

But only the most Kenning of Eyes.

Will ever see me or my Sisters.

Yet none are made or unmade without me.

I am here before the Born

I  am here from Shore to Shore

I am here when your Hag does Mourn

Before I strike the Banshee Cry

For my tongue is Bérla Féini 

And most hear Dark Speak only to Die.

For I am Charm and I am Arm

Beware of the one with just one Eye

You may call me Mjölnir

Sleep well now Baby and do not Cry.

TDK / The Druid King
Postscript:

 While it may not be clear in the poem what (Hamarr) Mjölnir is sayings is
that Wyrd (fate personified) and Orlog (fundamental law) are her Heads 

while Hamingja (Family Souls or Bloodlines) her fore-haf.  Somehow that the fore-haf is shorter than Master Smith Dwarf  Sindri intended seems also to fit well most Hamingja.

I know this is odd Awen, yet I am but Summerland's humble scroll. 

TDK

Copyright George King September 09, 2014

For more on this whales road

http://howtobeadruid.blogspot.com/2014/09/fate-karma-and-more.html

Bardic Terms

A::

Anruth > In Brehon Law > Poetic grades

Anruth, Noble Stream > By their sixth year the student, if they had stayed the course, was called a Pillar [Cli] and would study a further forty-eight poems and twenty more stories. Over the following three years, they were termed a Noble Stream [Anruth] because 'a stream of pleasing praise issues from him, and a stream of wealth to him'.

 During this time they learnt a further 95 tales, bringing their repertoire up to 175 stories. They studied prosody, glosses, prophetic invocation, the styles of poetic composition, specific poetic forms, and the place-name stories of Ireland.

The most famous of the Anruth was the Welsh Taliesan. Although according to legend he was made the Chief Ollamh and head of the Council by his foster grandfather/father Gwynudd, he did not carry the golden bough but preferred the silver bough.

Thus through the symbolism of the Silver Bough, it's attending cycles of song, poetry, story and mysticism, our company The Silver Bough adopts it's name.

Paralleling the status of the lay grades are the grades of the filid (poets). Each poetic rank corresponds to a particular lay (and ecclesiastical) rank, from Bóaire to king. In Uraicecht na Ríar these are given as fochloc, macfuirmid, dos, cano, clí, ánruth, and ollam.[35]

These are given the same status as and the same honour prices as the lay grades, and hence have effectively the same rights. The qualifications for each grade is where the difference occurs. The qualifications fit into three categories, the status of the poet's parent or grandparent, their skill and their training.

 Particular number of compositions are give for each rank, with the ollam having 350.
In addition to the seven main ranks, variously named ranks below these seem to be names for unskilled poets, the taman, drisiuc, and oblaires.

Their honour prices are no more than a pittance, and their poetry is apparently painful to hear. (Liam Breatnach, Uraicecht na Ríar, p. 113)


B::

Bards > And there are among them composers of verses whom they call Bards; these singing to instruments similar to a lyre, applaud some, while they vituperate others.
Diodorus Siculus Histories 8 BCE


Barhrin >  denominates the mysteries of Bardism, or the gradations of tuition preparative to the confirmation of a novice in the character of an approved Bard.

Bell Branch > As Ollamh, Doctor of Poetry, they were entitled to receive a gold branch. As Anruth, Noble Stream, they had carried a silver branch, and before that - throughout their training - they had carried a bronze branch.

 These branches had bells attached to them, so that as the poet strode into the hall to recite a poem or tell a tale, they would be accompanied by the sound of bells - warning the audience to become silent, and summoning the help of the inner realms to ensoul their poem or story.

Birch > the tree of the Bards


C::

Cantalon >  The Druids and filídh were known for their divination and mysticism. These took many forms, such as the learning and verse forms for composing blessings and curses,and the memorization of old hymns, chants and incantations. The basic song was called a cantalon in Gaulish (cetal in Old and Middle Irish)

Cental >
Cental > The Druids and filídh were known for their divination and mysticism. These took many forms, such as the learning and verse forms for composing blessings and curses,and the memorization of old hymns, chants and incantations. The basic song was called a cantalon in Gaulish (cetal in Old and Middle Irish)

Cli > By their sixth year the student, if they had stayed the course, was called a Pillar [Cli] and would study a further forty-eight poems and twenty more stories

D::

Derwydd > The word that corresponds with the irish "filidh," in Welsh, would be "derwydd," (oak-seer) the word from which "druid" is derived.

Dipthongal combinations >

DIPHTHONGS.
30. The vowels i, u, ou, o, preceding a vowel sound, may coalesce with it and produce a diphthong.
These vowel sounds (i, u, ou, o,) are the only ones that can be initial in a true diphthong; » ». one in which two vowels are heard but coalesce into one syllable.

31. In French diphthongs the first vowel (», w, ou, o) is uttered quick and short and the voice rests upon the second vowel element. The dipthongal combinations are: i-a, i-e (i-ai),— i-o (i-au), i-eu, i-ou, — o-a, o-e, o-i (wa), — ou-a, ou-ai, ou-e, ou-i, — u-a, it-e, u4. The e in these combinations is not the e mute.
By paying attention to the above remark the diphthongs present no difficulty, as each vowel retains its proper sound, the first being very short ; oi is the only exception.
OI. (oy.)
32. Oi is nearly like wa in water; more accurately oi is equivalent to French a preceded by a w sound. The a (ah) is more prolonged in voir, to see; poire, pear; than in roi, king; moi, me.
Or, followed by a vowel, is equivalent to oi-i. Ex. royal.

(http://books.google.com/booksid=XyoBAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA19&lpg=PA19&dq=dipthongal+combinations&source=bl&ots=9QkQ-182HY&sig=_dDxaKQ_QrUFTHaL-gpqafjzx04&hl=en&sa=X&ei=J_wMVLmZG7L68AHw1oDQDw&ved=0CCcQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=dipthongal%20combinations&f=false)

Drisac > In the first year, the student progressed from Principle Beginner [Ollaire] to Poet's Attendant [Tamhan] to Apprentice Satirisist [Drisac]. During this time they had to learn the basics of the bardic arts: grammar, twenty stories and the Ogham tree-alphabet


F::

Fili > In Ireland and Scotland, the use of the word "Bard" apparently fell into some disrepute, as the records we have show that the Bard was simply a minor poet, while the "filidh" (seer) or the "ollave" (master poet) occupied the former status and functions of the Bard.

Filidh > In Ireland and Scotland, the use of the word "Bard" apparently fell into some disrepute, as the records we have show that the Bard was simply a minor poet, while the "filidh" (seer) or the "ollave" (master poet) occupied the former status and functions of the Bard.


G::

Glosses > mid 16th century: alteration of the noun gloze, from Old French glose (see gloze), suggested by medieval Latin glossa 'explanation of a difficult word', from Greek glōssa 'word needing explanation, language, tongue'.

Gogynfeirdd > In Wales, the Bard was not so lucky. There, the traditions ossified, and the Bards, after the advent of Christianity, became Court Poets, known as "Gogynfeirdd," or "Prydydd," limited in subject matter and form, and with rigidly structured rules.


H::

Hedge-Bard > The "hedge-Bards" were the ones that carried on the real traditions of the Bard. These are the people that gave us the "Cad Goddeu" and the "Hanes Taliesin," and who -may- have passed the "Matter of Britain" on to the French troubadors and trouveres, thus giving us Arthur and Camelot

L::

Laedha > Another verse form was called a lay (or laedha, in Old Irish).Words, singing and poetic speech were considered magical in Celtic culture, and certain forms of poetry or verse were used for accomplishing effects. A Druidic spell would thus be accomplished by singing a certain kind of song. References to these songs have been found in ancient Gaulish inscriptions, as well as Irish texts such as the Book of Ballymote, and formed part of the fifteen-year training in the Filídhecht or "Bardic" schools.
Thus certain formsof poetry or verse were used for accomplishing certain effects. Words, singing and poetic speech were considered magical in Celtic culture, and certain forms of Irish filídh also had to learn ogams; numerals, ciphers and codesmade from notches carved along the straight edge of a twig.
Ogams were primarily primitive numerals and mnemonic devices, but were later used for memorizing and spelling out the sounds of the early Irish language, and for divination. There were originally twenty ogam characters, but in medieval times the Filídh invented an extra five, called aicme forfeda, ("group of extra woods [letters]"), for consonant clusters or diphthongs.
Among other natural phenomena, lists of trees, animals, hills, and bodies of water were all part of the ogamic system. Only later did names of trees become associated with the ogam alphabet.)

Law of Privileges > (Law of Privilege) A privilege is a special entitlement to immunity conditional basis.
 It can be revoked in certain circumstances granted by the state or another authority to a restricted group, either by birth or on a


Lay > Another verse form was called a lay (or laedha, in Old Irish).Words, singing and poetic speech were considered magical in Celtic culture, and certain forms of poetry or verse were used for accomplishing effects. A Druidic spell would thus be accomplished by singing a certain kind of song. References to these songs have been found in ancient Gaulish inscriptions, as well as Irish texts such as the Book of Ballymote, and formed part of the fifteen-year training in the Filídhecht or "Bardic" schools.

 Thus certain forms of poetry or verse were used for accomplishing certain effects. Words, singing and poetic speech were considered magical in Celtic culture, and certain forms of Irish filídh also had to learn ogams; numerals, ciphers and codesmade from notches carved along the straight edge of a twig. Ogams were primarily primitive numerals and mnemonic devices, but were later used for memorizing and spelling out the sounds of the early Irish language, and for divination.
There were originally twenty ogam characters, but in medieval times the Filídh invented an extra five, called aicme forfeda, ("group of extra woods [letters]"), for consonant clusters or diphthongs. Among other natural phenomena, lists of trees, animals, hills, and bodies of water were allpart of the ogamic system. Only later did names of trees become associated with the ogam alphabet.)

M::
Magick > The Druids and filídh were known for their divination and mysticism. These took manyforms, such as the learning and verse forms for composing blessings and curses,and the memorization of old hymns, chants and incantations. The basic song was called a cantalon in Gaulish (cetal in Old and Middle Irish).Another verse form was called a lay (or laedha, in Old Irish).Words, singing and poetic speech were considered magical in Celtic culture, and certain forms of poetry or verse were used for accomplishing effects.
 A Druidic spell would thus be accomplished by singing a certain kind of song. References to these songs have been found in ancient Gaulish inscriptions, as well as Irish texts such as the Book of Ballymote, and formed part of the fifteen-year training in the Filídhecht or "Bardic" schools. Thus certain forms of poetry or verse were used for accomplishing certain effects. Words, singing  and poetic speech were considered magical in Celtic culture, and certain forms of Irish filídh also had to learn ogams; numerals, ciphers and codesmade from notches carved along the straight edge of a twig. Ogams were primarily primitive numerals and mnemonic devices, but were later used for memorizing and spelling out the sounds of the early Irish language, and for divination. There were originally twenty ogam characters, but in medieval times he Filídh invented an extra five, called aicme forfeda, ("group of extra woods [letters]"), for consonant clusters or diphthongs. Among other natural phenomena, lists of trees, animals, hills, and bodies of water were all part of the ogamic system. Only later did names of trees become associated with the ogam alphabet.)


O::
Ollave > In Ireland and Scotland, the use of the word "Bard" apparently fell into some disrepute, as the records we have show that the Bard was simply a minor poet, while the "filidh" (seer) or the "ollave" (master poet) occupied the former status and functions of the Bard.

Ollaire > In the first year, the student progressed from Principle Beginner [Ollaire] to Poet's Attendant [Tamhan] to Apprentice Satirisist [Drisac]. During this time they had to learn the basics of the bardic arts: grammar, twenty stories and the Ogham tree-alphabet.

Irish poet-magicians such as the filídh graduated from the Bardic schools, whose highest degree was an ollamh (oll-uv), the medieval Irish equivalent ofa Ph.D. The ollamh ré filídhecht was granted many privileges that only high Druids held in pre-Christian times. They were expected to work as masters of ceremony for all royal occasions and to be advisers to their kings.

There were also specialists, such as the Brehons, whose expertise was in law,and seanchaídhe or shanachies who specialized in history, stories and genealogy. Singers (bards), musicians, physicians and healers also went through similar training

Ollamh > The final three years of their training entitled them to become an Ollamh, or Doctor of Poetry. In their tenth year the student had studied further poetic forms and composition, in their eleventh year 100 poems, and in their twelfth year 120 orations and the four arts of poetry. He or she was now the Master or Mistress of 350 stories in all.

The ollamh (ollav), or arch-poet, who was the highest dignitary among the poets, and whose training lasted for some twelve years, was obliged to learn two hundred and fifty of these prime sagas and one hundred secondary ones.


P::

Pillar >  By their sixth year the student, if they had stayed the course, was called a Pillar [Cli] and would study a further forty-eight poems and twenty more stories

Poetic composition >
Poetic composition > In the countable sense, a verse is formally a single metrical line in a poetic composition. However, verse has come to represent any division or grouping of words in a poetic composition, with groupings traditionally having been referred to as stanzas.
In the uncountable (mass noun) sense verse refers to "poetry" as contrasted to prose.[1]

Where the common unit of verse is based onmeter or rhyme, the common unit of prose is purely grammatical, such as a sentence or paragraph.[2] Verse has had a traditional application in drama, which is therefore known as dramatic poetry, verse drama, or dramatic verse.

Prophetic invocation,  >   Hard to run down but this is close: The practitioners of prophetic prayer believe they are praying the very words of the Gods into the world.  thus acting as conduits for Gods Will and making their prayers “prophetic.”

Prosody > noun the patterns of rhythm and sound used in poetry.
"the translator is not obliged to reproduce the prosody of the original"
the theory or study of prosody.
the patterns of stress and intonation in a language.
plural noun: prosodies
"the salience of prosody in child language acquisition"


Prydydd > In Wales, the Bard was not so lucky. There, the traditions ossified, and the Bards, after the advent of Christianity, became Court Poets, known as "Gogynfeirdd," or "Prydydd," limited in subject matter and form, and with rigidly structured rules. they had to learn the basics of the bardic arts: grammar, twenty stories and the Ogham tree-alphabet


S::

SCA >  Society for Creative Anachronism

Scops > Bards are found in Celtic cultures (Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Manx and Brittany) and a rough equivalent can be found in Norse culture, too, where they were known as "scops."

T::

Tarbhfeis (tarrvaysh) > Filídh ceremonies such as the tarbhfeis (tarrvaysh), or "bull-dream," involved a type of incubational divination; similarly, the imbas forosnaí (im-viss fo-ros-nee) was an incubation or lucid- dream state induced by an incantation and splashing of animal blood or water on the cheeks.

Many of these incubations involve sleeping or dreaming on the hide of a sacrificial bull or ox. Many other magical techniques of the filídh are found in the Book Of Ballymote, the Book of the Dun Cow, Cor- mac’s Glossary and in the Fenian tales.


Tamhan > In the first year, the student progressed from Principle Beginner [Ollaire] to Poet's Attendant [Tamhan] to Apprentice Satirisist [Drisac]. During this time


Troubadors > The "hedge-Bards" were the ones that carried on the real traditions of the Bard. These are the people that gave us the "Cad Goddeu" and the "Hanes Taliesin," and who -may- have passed the "Matter of Britain" on to the French troubadors and trouveres, thus giving us Arthur and Camelot


V::

Vituperate > verb archaic
blame or insult (someone) in strong or violent language.
synonyms:
scold, revile, upbraid, criticize;
blame, abuse, insult,
vilifiy, denounce, denigrate, disparage
;
formalcastigate


References:

http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/articles/onbards.html

http://www.druidry.org/druid-way/what-druidry/what-druidism/what-bard

http://www.gotquestions.org/prophetic-prayer.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verse_(poetry)

http://www.thesilverbough.com/bough.shtml

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_Irish_law

Some Silver words of others on the Bards

I have found these links to be of interest and use, perhaps you will also.

This blog is a living thing and will grow with time.

TDK

On Bards, And Bardic Circleshttp://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/articles/onbards.html

What is a Bard
http://www.druidry.org/druid-way/what-druidry/what-druidism/what-bard

A bit or Bardic Druid Training
http://www.sacredfire.net/


http://www.ccel.org/ccel/herbermann/cathen08.txt
>>

Irish Poetry. There is no other vernacular poetry in Europe
          which has gone through so long, so unbroken, and so interesting
          a period of development as that of the Irish. The oldest poems
          are ascribed to the early Milesians and are perhaps the most
          ancient pieces of vernacular literature existing. None of the
          early poems rhymed. There is little we can see to distinguish
          them from prose except a strong tendency, as in the Teutonic
          languages, toward alliteration, and a leaning toward
          dissyllables. They are also so ancient as to be unintelligible
          without heavy glosses. It is a tremendous claim to make for the
          Celt that he taught Europe to rhyme, yet it has often been made
          for him, and not by himself, but by such men as Zeuss, the
          father of Celtic learning, Constantine Nigra, and others.
          Certain it is that as early as the seventh century we find the
          Irish had brought the art of rhyming verses to a high pitch of
          perfection, that is, centuries before most of the vernacular
          literatures of Europe knew anything at all about it. Nor are
          their rhymes only such as we are accustomed to in English,
          French, or German poetry, for they delighted not only in full
          rhymes, like these nations, but also in assonances, like the
          Spaniards, and they often thought more of a middle rhyme than of
          an end rhyme. The following Latin verses, written no doubt after
          his native models by Aengus Mac Tipraite some time prior to the
          year 704, will give the reader an idea of the middle or
          interlinear rhyming which the Irish have practiced from the
          earliest times down to the present day:

     Martinus mirus more
     Ore laudavit Deum,
     Puro Corde cantavit
     Atque amavit Eum.

          A very curious and interesting peculiarity of a certain sort of
          Irish verse is a desire to end a second line with a word with a
          syllable more than that which ends the first, the stress of the
          voice being thrown back a syllable in the last word of the
          second line. Thus, if the first line end with an accented
          monosyllable, the second line will end with a dissyllabic word
          accented on its first syllable, or if the first line end with a
          dissyllable accented on its penultimate the second line will end
          with a trisyllable accented on its ante-penultimate. This is
          called aird-rinn in Irish, as:

     Fall'n the land of learned men
     The bardic band is fallen,
     None now learn a song to sing
     For long our fern is fading.

          This metre, which from its popularity must be termed the
          hexameter of the Irish, is named Deibhidhe (D'yevvee), and well
          shows in the last two lines the internal rhyme to which we
          refer. If it be maintained, as Thurneysen maintains, that the
          Irish derived their rhyming verses from the Latins, it seems
          necessary to account for the peculiar forms that so much of this
          verse assumed in Irish, for the merest glance will show that the
          earliest Irish verse is full of tours de force, like this
          "aird-runn", which cannot have been derived from Latin. After
          the seventh century the Irish brought their rhyming system to a
          pitch of perfection undreamt of by any nation in Europe, even at
          the present day, and it is no exaggeration to say that perhaps
          by no people was poetry so cultivated and, better still, so
          remunerated as in Ireland.

          There were two kinds of poets known to the early Gael. the
          principle of those was called the file (filla); there were seven
          grades of files, the most exalted being called an ollamh
          (ollav). These last were so highly esteemed that the annalists
          often give their obituaries, as though they were so many
          princes. It took from twelve to twenty years to arrive at this
          dignity. Some fragments of the old metrical textbooks still
          exist, showing the courses required from the various grades of
          poets, in pre-Norse times. One of these, in elucidation of the
          metric, gives the first lines of three hundred and fifty
          different poems, all no doubt well known at the time of writing,
          but of which only about three have come down entire to our own
          time. If there were seven species of files there were sixteen
          grades of bards, each with a different name, and each had its
          own peculiar metres (of which the Irish had over 300) allotted
          to him. During the wars with the Norsemen the bards suffered
          fearfully, and it must have been at this time, that is during
          the ninth and tenth centuries, that the finely-drawn distinction
          between poets and bards seems to have come to an end. So highly
          esteemed was the poetic art in Ireland that Keating in his
          history tells us that at one time no less than a third of the
          patrician families of Ireland followed that profession. These
          constituted a heavy drain on the resources of the country, and
          at three different periods in Irish history the people tried to
          shake off their incubus. However, Columcille, who was a poet
          himself, befriended them; at the Synod of Drum Ceat, in the
          sixth century, their numbers were reduced and they were shorn of
          many of their prerogatives; but, on the other hand, public lands
          were set apart for their colleges, and these continued until the
          later English conquest, when those who escaped the spear of
          Elizabeth fell beneath the sword of Cromwell.

          Modern Irish Poetry. Much of the ancient poetry in the schools
          was in the nature of a memoria technica, the frame in which
          valuable information was enshrined, but the bards attached to
          the great houses chanted a different strain. So numerous are the
          still-surviving poems from the Battle of Clontarf down to the
          sixteenth century that Meyer has remarked that the history of
          Ireland could be written out of them alone. When the great
          houses fell beneath the sword of Elizabeth, of Cromwell, and of
          William, it is unnecessary to mention that the entire social
          fabric of Gaeldom fell with them, and amongst other things the
          colleges of the bards and brehons, which had existed, often on
          the same spot and in possession of the same land, for over a
          thousand years. The majority of learned men were slain, or
          driven out, or followed their masters into exile. No patrons for
          the native arts remained in Ireland, and, worse still, there was
          no security for the life of the artist. The ancient metres, over
          three hundred of which had at one time been cultivated, and
          which, although reduced to less than a score in the Elizabethan
          period, were still the property only of the learned and highly
          educated, so intricate were the verse forms, now died away
          completely. There was, perhaps, not a single writer living by
          the middle of the eighteenth century who could compose correct
          verses in the classical metres of the schools.

          On the other hand, however, there arose a new kind of poetry, in
          which the consonant rhyming of the old school was replaced by
          vowel chiming or vowel rhyming, and in which only the syllables
          on which the stress of the voice fell were counted; a splendid
          lyrical poetry sprung up amongst the people themselves upon
          these lines. The chief poets in these latter times were in very
          reduced circumstances, mostly school masters or farmers, and
          very different indeed in status from the refined, highly
          educated, and stately poets who had a century or two before sat
          at the right hand of powerful chieftains advising them in peace
          and war. A usual theme of the new poets, who seemed to revel in
          their newly found freedom of expression, was the grievances of
          Ireland sung under a host of allegorical names, the chances of
          the Stuarts returning, and the bitterness of the present
          compared with the glories of the past, or the vision of Ireland
          appearing as a beautiful maiden. The poets of the South used
          even to hold annual bardic sessions, though such attempts must
          always have been attended with great danger, for the possession
          of a manuscript was often a sufficient cause for persecuting or
          imprisoning the possessor; many fine books were on this account
          hidden away or walled up lest they should bring the owner into
          trouble with the authorities. Even as late as 1798, the
          grammarian Neilson of County Down, who was a Protestant
          clergyman of the Established Church and perfectly loyal to the
          Government, was arrested by a dozen dragoons and accused of
          treason because he preached in Irish.

          It is very difficult to convey in the English language any idea
          of the beautifully artistic and recondite measures in which the
          poets of the last two or three centuries have rejoiced, both in
          Ireland and in the Highlands of Scotland, where also they
          produced a splendid lyrical outburst, about the same time as in
          Ireland, and on the same lines. Suffice it to say that most of
          their modern poetry was written and is being written to this
          very day upon a wonderful scheme of vowel sounds, arranged in
          such a manner that first one and then another vowel will strike
          the ear at skillfully recurring intervals. Some poems are
          written entirely on the ae sound, others on the u (oo), i (ee)
          or a (au) sounds, but most upon a delightful intermingling of
          two or more of them. Here is a typical verse of Tadhg Gaelach
          O'Sullivan, who died in 1800 and who consecrated his muse, which
          had first led him astray, to the service of religion, his poems
          producing a sound effect for good all over the South of Ireland.
          The entire poem was made upon the sounds of e (ae) and o, but,
          while the arrangement in the first half of the verse is o/e,
          e/o, o, the arrangement in the second half is o, e/o, e/o, e/e.
          To understand the effect that this vowel rhyming should produce,
          we must remember that the vowels are dwelt upon in Irish, and
          not passed over quickly as they are in English:

     The p oets we pra ise are up-ra ising the n otes
     Of their l ays, and they kn ow how their t ones will delight,
     For the g olden-haired l ady so gr aceful so p oseful
     So Ga elic so gl orious enthroned in our sight.
     Unf olding a t ale how the so ul of a f ay
     Must be cl othed in the fr ame of a l ady so bright,
     Unt old are her gr aces, a r ose in her f ace is,
     And n o man so sta id is but fa ints at her sight.

          Owen Roe O'Sullivan, the witty and facetious namesake of the
          pious Tadhg Gaelach, is the best know of the southern poets, and
          Raftery, who, like his famous Scottish contemporary Donnchadh
          Ban Mackintyre, was completely illiterate, but who composed some
          admirable religious as well as secular pieces, is best known in
          Connacht.

<<

Metrical Dindshenchas

When I first started Breath of Barhrin, I did not intend to tackle the real Bardic Poetic training as who has twelve years to spare anyway.

 But just a few old and new fun Poems and Songs we could all learn and perform.

Yet the Sisters of Fate seem to be pushing me into sharing more detailed resources or access to them so our Bards of How to be a Druid Woods can pick and chose what they need. 

As these resources are being upturned do to other study, I shall share them as I can. If nothing else they make great reading and general Druic Study materials.

TDK.
Dindshenchas (‘placename lore’) — DIN-shen-eh-chas
Dindsenchas or Dindshenchas Modern spellings: 
 Since many of the legends related concern the acts of mythic and legendary figures, the dindsenchas is an important source for the study ofIrish mythology.

 The first recension is found in the Book of Leinster, a manuscript of the 12th century, with partial survivals in a number of other manuscript sources. The text shows signs of having been compiled from a number of provincial sources and the earliest poems date from at least the 11th century.
The second recension survives more or less intact in thirteen different manuscripts, mostly dating from the 14th and 15th centuries. This recension contains a number of poems composed after the Book of Leinster text. Dindsenchas stories are also incorporated into saga texts such asTáin Bó Cúailnge and Acallam na Senórach.
They are far from an accurate history of how places came to be named. Many of the explanations given are made to fit the name and not the other way around, especially in the many cases where a place was much older than the Middle Irish spoken at the time of the poems' composition.^[3] In other cases, the dindsenchas poets may have invented names for places when the name of a place, if it had one, was not known to them. 
For example many placenames appear which had fallen out of use by the 5th century A.D., when Irish written records began to appear in quantity.
References

1. Jump up

1. ^ dind "notable place"; senchas "old tales, ancient history, tradition" - Dictionary of the Irish Language, Compact Edition, 1990, pp. 215, 537

1. Jump up

1. ^ Collins Pocket Irish Dictionary p. 452

1. Jump up

1. ^ Jones Celtic Encyclopedia: Dindsenchas

Jump up^ Hughes, Kathleen (1972). Early Christian Ireland: An introduction to the sources. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. pp. 166–167
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
So here is a Large Cauldron Full, enjoy !!!
From: http://www.ucc.ie/celt/published/T106500A/index.html
>>
Corpus of Electronic Texts Edition: T106500A
The Metrical Dindshenchas
Author: [unknown]
Background details and bibliographic information
File Description
Edward Gwynn
The Connacht Project, the Centre for the Study of Human Settlement and Political Change, NUI Galway and
the HEA via the LDT Project
Publication
CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts: a project of University College, Cork
College Road, Cork, Ireland—http://www.ucc.ie/celt
(2004) (2008)
Text ID Number: T106500A
[RESTRICTED]
Series
Todd Lecture Series
Text ID Number: 8
Sources

Manuscript sources

1. Dublin, Royal Irish Academy, MS 1229, olim 23 E 25, al. Leabhar na hUidhre.

1. Dublin, Trinity College Library, MS 1339 olim H. 2. 18, al. the Book of Leinster, pp. 151–170 and 191–216 of facsimile.

1. Rennes, Bibliothèque Municipale, The Rennes MS, ff. 90–125.

1. Dublin, Royal Irish Academy, MS 23 P 12, The Book of Ballymote, pp. 349–410.

1. Dublin, Royal Irish Academy, MS 23 P 2, al. the Book of Lecan, pp. 461–525.

1. Trinity College Dublin, The Yellow Book of Lecan, H 2 16, pp. 438–455 of facsimile.

1. Trinity College Dublin, MS H 3 3 (1322).

1. Trinity College Dublin, MS H 2 15 b (1317), pp. 157–end (a copy of H).

1. Trinity College Dublin, MS E 4 1 (1436).

1. Trinity College Dublin, MS H 2 4, pp. 462–590 (an 18th cent copy of B).

1. Trinity College Dublin, MS H 1 15 (1289), pp. 409–532 (an 18th cent copy of B).

1. Dublin, Royal Irish Academy, The Book of Huí Maine, Stowe, D II 1, ff. 143–169.

1. Dublin, Royal Irish Academy, Stowe, D II 2.

1. Dublin, Royal Irish Academy, Stowe, B II 2. A fragment.

1. Dublin, Royal Irish Academy, Stowe, B III 1.

1. Dublin, Royal Irish Academy, Reeves, 832, pp. 61–197.

Editions/Translations

1. The Poems on Tara (Tara I–IV) were first edited by George Petrie, On the history and antiquities of Tara Hill. A memoir published in the Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy, Vol. XVIII, pt. 2and obtained the Cunningham Medal, June 1839. Dublin 1839); translated by John O'Donovan.

1. The Poems on Tara (Tara I–IV) were afterwards edited by J. O'Beirne Crowe, in vol. 2, ser. 4, of the Kilkenny Archaeological Journal.

1. The poem on Achall was edited by O'Curry, Lectures on the Materials of Irish History, New York 1861.

Secondary literature: a selection

1. Journals devoted to the study of names and place names such as BUPNS, 1st and 2nd series, and Ainm have their own webpages at http://www.ulsterplacenames.org.

1. James Norris Brewer, The beauties of Ireland: being original delineations, topographical, historical, and biographical of each county. 2 vols. 1823–26. [Contains only the province of Leinster and the county of Cork with general introduction. No more published.]

1. G. H. Orpen, 'Ptolemy's map of Ireland'. Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, 4th series 24 (1894) 115–28.

1. Alexander Bugge, Caithreim Chellachain Chaisil. The victorious career of Cellachan of Cashel or the Wars between the Irishmen and the Norsemen in the middle of the tenth century. With translation and notes. Christiana, 1905.

1. H. Cameron Gillies, The place-names of Argyll, London 1906.

1. Patrick Power, The place names of Decies, London 1907.

1. Edmund Ignatius Hogan, Onomasticon Goedelicum, Locorum et tribuum hiberniae et scotiae. An index, with identifications, to the Gaelic names of places and tribes. Dublin and London 1910. An electronic edition which was compiled by the Locus Project, na Ranna Gaeilge, University College Cork, is available online at http://minerva.ucc.ie:6336/dynaweb/locus/

1. Patrick Power, Place-names and antiquities of South East Cork, Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, vol. 34, section C, nos. 1 and 9, 1917–18.

1. Rudolf Thurneysen, Die irische Helden- und Königsage bis zum siebzehnten Jahrhundert (Halle a. S. 1921), reprinted Hildesheim (Olms) 1980, 36–45.

1. Paul Walsh, 'The earliest records of Fermanagh', Irish Ecclesiastical Record, 5th series 34 (1924) 344–55.

1. Liam Price, Place names of County Wicklow: the Irish form and meaning of parish, townland, and local names, Wexford 1935.

1. Éamonn O'Tuathail, 'Notes on some Irish place names'. Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, 67:1 (1937) 77–88.

1. C. Ó Lochlainn, 'Roadways in ancient Ireland', in: Féil-sgríbhinn Eóin Mhic Néill, ed. J. Ryan (Dublin 1940) 465–74.

1. Liam Price, The place-names of County Wicklow. 7 pts. Dublin 1945–67.

1. Thomas F. O'Rahilly, On Ptolemy's geography of Ireland, in: Early Irish History and Mythology, Dublin 1946 (repr. 1999) 1–42; 453–66.

1. Edward O'Toole, Place names of County Carlow, Carlow 1947.

1. Hugh Shearman, Ulster (The County Books series), 1950.

1. Julius Pokorny, Die Geographie Irlands bei Ptolemaios, Zeitschrift für Celtische Philologie 24 (1954) 94–120.

1. Paul Walsh, The place-names of Westmeath, Dublin 1957.

1. James J. Tierney, Ptolemy's map of Scotland, Journal of Hellenic studies 79 (1959) 132–148.

1. Liam Ó Buachalla, 'An early 14th century placename list for Anglo-Norman Cork', Dinnseanchas 2 (1966) 1–12.

1. K. W. Nicholls, 'Some place-names from 'The Red Book of the earls of Kildare''. Dinnseanchas 3 (1968–69) 25–37, 61–62.

1. K. W. Nicholls, 'Some place-names from Pontificia Hibernica'. Dinnseanchas 3:4 (1969) 85–98.

1. T. J. Hughes, 'Town and baile in Irish place-names'. In: Irish geographical studies in honour of E. Estyn Evans, eds. N. Stephens, R.E. Glasscock (Belfast 1970) 244–58.

1. Margaret Gelling, 'The Place-Names of the Isle of Man', Journal of the Manx Museum, 7:87 (1971) 168–75.

1. Charles Thomas, 'The Irish settlements in post-Roman western Britain: A survey of the evidence', Journal of the Royal Institution of Cornwall, ns, 6:4 (1972) 251–74.

1. Éamonn de Hóir, 'The anglicisation of Irish place-names', Onoma, 17 (1972) 192–204.

1. Deirdre Flanagan, 'Settlement terms in Irish place-names', Onoma, 17 (1972) 157–72.

1. Magne Oftedal, 'Scandinavian place-names in Ireland', in: Bo Almquist, David Greene (eds.), Proceedings of the Seventh Viking Congress, Dublin, 15–21 August 1973 (Dublin 1976) 125–33.

1. C. Bowen, 'A historical inventory of the Dindshenchas', Studia Celtica 10 (1975–76) 113–137.

1. Myles Dillon, 'The Irish Settlements in Wales'. Celtica, 12 (1977) 1–11.

1. Breandán Ó Ciobháin, Toponomia Hiberniae 1, Barúntacht Dhún Thuaidh (Barony of Dunkerron North). Dublin 1978.

1. John Field, Place-names of Great Britain and Ireland, Newton Abbot 1980.

1. Tomás Ó Concheanainn, 'The three forms of Dinnshenchas Érenn', Journal of Celtic Studies 3 (1981) 88–131.

1. Thomas Fanning, 'Early Christian sites in the barony of Corkaguiney', in: Donnchadh Ó Corráin, (ed.), Irish antiquity: essays and studies presented to Professor M.J. O'Kelly (Cork 1981) 241–46.

1. Nollaig Ó Muraíle, 'The barony names of Fermanagh and Monaghan', Clogher Record: Journal of the Clogher Historical Society 9 (1984), 387–402; 11:3 (1982–5) 387–402.

1. Deirdre Flanagan, 'The Christian impact on early Ireland: place-names evidence', in: Próinséas Ní Chatháin & Michael Richter (eds.), Irland und Europa–Ireland and Europe. Die Kirche im Frühmittelalter–the early Church (Stuttgart 1984) 25–51.

1. Nollaig Ó Muraíle, Mayo Places: Their Names and Origins. 1985.

1. K. W. Nicholls, 'Medieval Leinster dynasties and families: three topographical notes', Peritia 5 (1986) 409–15.

1. Breandán S. Mac Aodha, 'The element áth/ford in Irish place-names'. Nomina 11 (1987) 115–22.

1. Proinseas Mac Cana, Place-names and mythology in Irish tradition', in: G. W. MacLennan (ed.), Proceedings of the first North-American Congress of Celtic Studies, Ottawa 1988, 319–341.

1. Helmut Jäger, 'Medieval landscape terms of Ireland: the evidence of Latin and English documents', in: John Bradley (ed.), Settlement and society in medieval Ireland: studies presented to F. X. Martin, OSA (Kilkenny 1988) 277–90.

1. Liam Mac Mathúna, 'The topographical vocabulary of Irish: patterns and implications'. Ainm 4 (1989–90) 144–164.

1. Breandán S. Mac Aodha, 'Lake-names on Mercator's map of Ireland'. Nomina, 12 (1989 for 1988/9), 11–16.

1. Dónall Mac Giolla Easpaig, 'The place-names of Rathlin Island'. Ainm 4 (1989–90) 3–89.

1. T. S. Ó Máille, 'Irish place-names in -as, -es, -is, -os, -us'. Ainm 4 (1989–90) 125–143.

1. Diarmuid Ó Murchadha, 'A reconsideration of some place-names from miscellaneous Irish annals', Ainm 4 (1989–90) 180–193.

1. Jeffrey Spittal, John Field, A reader's guide to the place-names of the United Kingdom: a bibliography of publications, 1920-1989, on the place-names of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, The Isle of Man, and the Channel Islands. Stamford, 1990.

1. A. J. Hughes, 'Irish place-names: some perspectives, pitfalls, procedures and potential'. Seanchas Ardmhacha: Journal of the Armagh Diocesan Historical Society, 14:2 (1991) 116–148.

1. Cathal Dallat, 'Townlands: their origin and significance', in: Tony Canavan (ed.), Every stoney acre has a name: a celebration of the townland in Ulster (Belfast 1991) 3–10.

1. A. S. MacShamhrain, 'Placenames as indicators of settlement', Archaeology Ireland, 5:3 (1991) 19-21.

1. Alan Mac An Bhaird, 'Ptolemy revisited', Ainm 5 (1991–93) 1–20.

1. Diarmuid Ó Murchadha, 'A reconsideration of some placenames from 'The Annals of Innishfallen'', Ainm 5 (1991–93) 21–32.

1. Place-names of Northern Ireland, general editor Gerard Stockman. 6 Vols. [v. 1. County Down I, Newry and South-West Down, eds. Gregory Toner and Mícheál B. Ó Mainnín; v. 2. County Down II, The Ards, eds. A.J. Hughes and R.J. Hannan; v. 3. County Down III, The Mournes, ed. Mícheál B. Ó Mainnín; v. 4. County Antrim I, The baronies of Toome, ed. Patrick McKay; v. 5. County Derry I, The Moyola Valley, ed. Gregory Toner; v. 6. County Down IV, North-West Down, Iveagh, ed. Kay Muhr;.] Belfast: Institute of Irish Studies, The Queen's University of Belfast, 1992–1996.

1. Place-names of Northern Ireland, general editor Nollaig Ó Muraíle. Vol. 7: County Antrim II, Ballycastle and North-East Antrim, ed. Fiachra Mac Gabhann. Belfast: Institute of Irish Studies, The Queen's University of Belfast, 1997.

1. Art Ó Maolfabhail, 'The role of toponymy in the Ordnance Survey of Ireland', Études celtiques 29 (1992) 319–325.

1. Gillian Fellows Jensen, 'Scandinavian place-names of the Irish sea province', in: J. A. Graham-Campbell (ed.), Viking treasure from the north-west: the Cuerdale hoard in its context (National Museums and Galleries on Merseyside Occasional Papers 5) (Liverpool 1992) 31–42.

1. Tomás G. Ó Canann, 'Áth Uí Chanannáin and the toponomy of medieval Mide'. Ríocht na Mídhe [Journal of the County Meath Historical Society] 8:4 (1992–93) 78–83.

1. Michael B. Ó Mainnin, 'The mountain names of County Down'. Nomina 17 (1994) 31–53.

1. Deirdre & Laurence Flanagan, Irish place-names. Dublin 1994.

1. Adrian Room, A dictionary of Irish place-names. Revised edition. Belfast 1994.

1. Dónall Mac Giolla Easpaig, 'Placenames and early settlement in County Donegal', in: William Nolan, Liam Ronayne, Mairead Dunlevy (eds.), Donegal: history & society. Interdisciplinary essays on the history of an Irish county (Dublin 1995) 149–182.

1. Nollaig Ó Muraíle, 'Recent publications relating to Irish place-names', Ainm 6 (1994–95) 115–122.

1. Micheál Ó Braonáin, Príomhshruth Éireann. Luimneach 1994. [A poem by a Roscommon poet on the River Shannon (1794) listing 30 tributaries and over 300 place-names.]

1. Diarmuid Ó Murchadha, 'A reconsideration of some place-names from 'The annals of Connacht'' Ainm 6 (1994–95) 1–31.

1. Dónall Mac Giolla Easpaig, 'Early ecclesiastical settlement names of county Galway', In: Gerard Moran, (ed.) Galway: history & society: interdisciplinary essays on the history of an Irish county (Dublin 1996) 795–815.

1. Simon Taylor, 'Place-names and the early church in eastern Scotland', in: Barbara Elizabeth Crawford, (ed.), Scotland in dark age Britain, (Aberdeen 1996) 93–110.

1. Brian Ó Cuív, 'Dinnshenchas: the literary exploitation of Irish place-names', Ainm 4 (1989–90) 90–106.

1. Tomás Ua Ciarrbhaic, 'North Kerry placenames', The Kerry Magazine 7 (1996) 33–34.

1. Diarmuid Ó Murchadha, 'A reconsideration of some place-names from the Annals of Tigernach', Ainm 7 (1996–97) 1–27.

1. Gregory Toner, 'A reassessment of the element Cuilleann', Ainm 7 (1996–97) 94–101.

1. Gregory Toner, 'The backward nook: Cúil and Cúl in Irish placenames', Ainm 7 (1996–97) 113–117.

1. Kay Muhr, 'The Northern Ireland Placename Project 1987–97', Ainm 7 (1996–97) 118–119.

1. Conleth Manning, 'Daire Mór identified'. Peritia 11 (1997) 359–69.

1. Roibeard Ó Maolalaigh, 'Place-names as a resource for the historical linguist', in Simon Taylor, The uses of place-names (St. John's House Papers, 7) (Edinburgh: Scottish Cultural, 1998) 12–53.

1. Seosamh Ó Dufaigh, 'Medieval Monaghan: the evidence of the placenames'. Clogher Record: Journal of the Clogher Historical Society, 16:3 (1999) 7–28.

1. Patrick McKay, A dictionary of Ulster place-names. Belfast: Queen's University of Belfast, Institute of Irish Studies, 1999.

1. Nollaig Ó Muraíle, 'The place-names of Clare Island', in: Críostóir Mac Cárthaigh, Kevin Whelan, (eds.), New survey of Clare Island, volume I: history and cultural landscape (Dublin 1999) 99–141.

1. Gregory Toner, 'The definite article in Irish place-names'. Nomina, 22 (1999) 5–24.

1. Sharon Arbuthnot, Short cuts to etymology: placenames in Cóir Anmann, Ériu 50 (1999) 79–86.

1. Patrick McKay, A dictionary of Ulster place-names, Belfast 1999.

1. Kevin Murray, 'Fr Edmund Hogan's 'Onomasticon Goedelicum', ninety years on: reviewers and users', Ainm 8 (1998–2000) 65–75.

1. Art Ó Maolfabhail,'Ar lorg na Breatnaise in Éirinn', Ainm 8 (1998–2000) 76–92.

1. Diarmuid Ó Murchadha, 'A reconsideration of some place-names from 'Fragmentary Annals of Ireland'', Ainm 8 (1998–2000) 41–51.

1. Gregory Toner, 'Settlement and settlement terms in medieval Ireland: Ráth and Lios'. Ainm 8 (1998–2000) 1–40.

1. Michael J. Bowman, Place names and antiquities of the Barony of Duhallow, ed. by Jean J. MacCarthy, Tralee 2000.

1. Eoghan Ó Mórdha, 'The placenames in the Book of Cuanu', in: Alfred P. Smyth (ed.), Seanchas: studies in early and medieval Irish archaeology, history and literature in honour of Francis J. Byrne (Dublin 2000) 189–91.

1. Kay Muhr, 'Territories, people and place names in Co. Armagh', in: A. J. Hughes, William Nolan (eds.), Armagh: history & society: interdisciplinary essays on the history of an Irish county (Dublin: Geography Publications, 2001) 295–332.

1. Kay Muhr, 'The early place-names of County Armagh'. Seanchas Ardmhacha: Journal of the Armagh Diocesan Historical Society, 19:1 (2002) 1–54.

1. Historical Dictionary of Gaelic Placenames/Foclóir Stairiúil Áitainmneacha na Gaeilge, London: Irish Texts Society 2003. [Volume 1 of Hogan's revised Onomasticon.]

1. Petra S. Hellmuth, 'The Dindshenchas and Irish literary tradition', in: John Carey, Máire Herbert and Kevin Murray (eds.), Cín Chille Chúile, Texts, Saints and Places, Essays in honour of Pádraig Ó Riain, Aberystwyth 2004.

1. Pádraig Ó Riain, Diarmuid Ó Murchadha and Kevin Murray, Historical Dictionary of Gaelic Placenames, Fascicle 3 [C-Ceall Fhursa] (London: Irish Texts Society 2008).

1. Rudolf Thurneysen, Die irische Helden- und Königsage bis zum siebzehnten Jahrhundert (Halle 1921; reprinted Hildesheim: Olms 1980) passim.

1. Whitley Stokes (ed. & tr.), 'The prose tales in the Rennes dindshenchas', Revue Celtique 15 (1894) 272–336, 418–84; 16 (1895) 31–83, 135–67, 269–312.

The edition used in the digital edition

The Metrical Dindshenchas. in Volume 1Edward Gwynn (ed), Second reprint [xi + 82 pp.] Dublin Institute for Advanced StudiesDublin (1991) (first published 1906) (reprinted 1941)<<
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And just to show they are easy to read here is the first one. If one left hand side of  page you select  (The CELT edition as a single file )  you may see / save all poems in one file.
Temair I

1. Temair Breg, whence is it named? 

1. declare O sages! 

1. when did it separate from the country-side? 

1. when did Temair become Temair?

2. 5] Was it under Partholan of the battles? 

2. or at the first conquest by Cesair? 

2. or under Nemed of the fresh valour? 

2. or under Cigal of the knocking knees?

3. Was it under the Firbolgs of the boats? 

3. 10] or from the line of the Lupracans? 

3. tell which conquest of these it was 

3. from which the name Temair was set on Temair?

4. O Duban, O generous Findchad, 

4. O Bran, O quick Cualad, 

4. 15] O Tuain, ye devout five! 

4. what is the cause whence Temair is named?

5. There was a time when it was a pleasant hazel-wood 

5. in the days of the noble son of Ollcan, 

5. until the tangled wood was cut down 

5. 20] by Liath son of Laigne Lethan-glas.

6. Thenceforward it was called Druim Leith— 

6. its corn was rich corn— 

6. until there came Cain free from sorrow, 

6. the son of Fiachu Cendfindan.

---

7. 25] Thenceforward it was called Druim Cain, 

7. the hill whither chieftains used to go, 

7. until Crofhind the chaste came, 

7. the daughter of all-famous Allod.

8. Cathair Crofhind ('twas not amiss) 

8. 30] was its name under the Tuatha De Danand, 

8. till there came Tea, never unjust, 

8. the wife of Erimon lofty of mien.

9. Round her house was built a rampart 

9. by Tea daughter of Lugaid; 

9. 35] she was buried beyond the wall without, 

9. so that from her is Temair named.

10. The Seat of the Kings was its name: 

10. the kingly line of the Milesians reigned in it: 

10. five names accordingly were given it 

10. 40] from the time when it was Fordruim till it was Temair.

11. I am Fintan the poet, 

11. I am a salmon not of one stream; 

11. it is there I was exalted with fame, 

11. on the sod-built stead, over Temair.

Well enjoy a be sure and bring your Bell Branch with you when performing. If you do not have one we sell them at Cosmic Salamander Inc. Bronze Silver or Gold colored (Wood Branch with three bells) S40.00 usd including shipping in USA.
Just PM me or leave a note at https://www.facebook.com/cosmicsalamander.
And last but not least the Corpus of Irish Bardic Poetry ( http://www.ucc.ie/celt/bardic.html )


TDK / The Druid King

From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dindsenchas

Dinnseanchas or Dinnsheanchas), meaning "lore of places"^[1]  (the modern Irish word dinnseanchas means "topography")^[2] is a class of onomastic text in early Irish literature, recounting the origins of place-names and traditions concerning events and characters associated with the places in question.

The literary corpus of the dindsenchas comprises about 176 poems plus a number of prose commentaries and independent prose tales (the so-called "prose dindsenchas" is often distinguished from the "verse", "poetic" or "metrical dindsenchas"). As a compilation the dindsenchas has survived in two different recensions.

Although they are known today from these written sources, the dindsenchas are clearly a product of the pre-literary tradition and are structured so as to be a mnemonic aid as well as a form of entertainment.

 A detailed analysis points to a pre-Christian origin for most of the tales (http://www.jstor.org/pss/25508581).

Knowledge of the real or putative history of local places formed an important part of the education of the elite in ancient Ireland.^[4] This formed part of the training of the military, for whom a knowledge of the landscape was essential. It was also essential knowledge for the bardic caste, who were expected to recite poems answering questions on place name origins as part of their professional duties. Consequently, the dindshenchas may well have grown by accretion from local texts compiled in schools as a way of teaching about places in their area.

Edward J. Gwynn compiled and translated dindsenchas poems from the Book of the Dun Cow, the Book of Leinster, the Rennes Manuscript, the Book of Ballymote, the Great Book of Lecan and the Yellow Book of Lecan in The Metrical Dindshenchas, published in four volumes between 1903 and 1906, with a general introduction and indices published as a fifth volume in 1935.

translated by Edward Gwynn

Electronic edition compiled by Beatrix Färber, Saorla Ó Corráin

Funded by University College, Cork and

2. Second draft.

Extent of text: 8100 words

Distributed by CELT online at University College, Cork, Ireland.

Availability [RESTRICTED]

Available with prior consent of the CELT programme for purposes of academic research and teaching only.

Copyright for the printed edition lies with the School of Celtic Studies (Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies).

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