"Dúan in chóicat cest" ("a poem in fifty questions") is a medieval school
poem in
Middle Irish, also known by its incipit "Iarfaigid lib cóecait cest."
Overview
The poem was sourced from
British Library, MS Egerton 1782 and first published by
Kuno Meyer in ''
Zeitschrift für celtische Philologie'' in 1903.
The text is in the form of fifty questions on
Old Testament
The Old Testament (often abbreviated OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew writings by the Israelites. The ...
history and theology. Notable features include:
*The claim that
Elias and
Enoch are unhappy in Paradise
*the use of the name ''Seiri'' or ''Seiria'' for
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
, derived from Greek
Serica
Serica (, grc, Σηρικά) was one of the easternmost countries of Asia known to the Ancient Greek and Roman geographers. It is generally taken as referring to North China
North China, or Huabei () is a List of regions of China, geogr ...
.
*The claim of
Cain
Cain ''Káïn''; ar, قابيل/قايين, Qābīl/Qāyīn is a Biblical figure in the Book of Genesis within Abrahamic religions. He is the elder brother of Abel, and the firstborn son of Adam and Eve, the first couple within the Bible. He wa ...
as inventor of
agriculture
See also
*
Irish poetry
Irish poetry is poetry written by poets from Ireland. It is mainly written in Irish language, Irish and English, though some is in Scottish Gaelic literature, Scottish Gaelic and some in Hiberno-Latin. The complex interplay between the two mai ...
References
External links
Full text on CELT''Zeitschrift für celtische Philologie'' 4; the Duan in choicet cest is on pages 234–240
{{Irish poetry
Irish literature
Irish poems
Early Irish literature
Medieval poetry