The title ''Saltair na Rann'' ("Psalter of Quatrains") refers to a series of 150 early

Middle Irish Middle Irish, sometimes called Middle Gaelic ( ga, An Mheán-Ghaeilge, gd, Meadhan-Ghàidhlig), is the Goidelic language which was spoken in Ireland, most of Scotland and the Isle of Man from AD; it is therefore a contemporary of late Old Engl ...

religious

canto The canto () is a principal form of division in medieval and modern long poetry. Etymology and equivalent terms The word ''canto'' is derived from the Italian word for "song" or "singing", which comes from the Latin ''cantus'', "song", from the ...

s, written in the tenth century—for the most part apparently around 988. The number of the cantos imitates the number of

psalms The Book of Psalms ( or ; he, תְּהִלִּים, , lit. "praises"), also known as the Psalms, or the Psalter, is the first book of the ("Writings"), the third section of the Tanakh, and a book of the Old Testament. The title is derived ...

in the Bible. Together they narrate the

sacred history Sacred history is the parts of the Torah narrative on the boundary of historicity, especially the Moses and Exodus stories which can be argued to have a remote historical nucleus without any positive evidence to the effect. Rabbi Neil Gillman, pr ...

of the world, from its creation down to the last days of humanity. In the principal manuscript,

Rawlinson B 502 Oxford, Bodleian Library, Rawlinson B 502 is a medieval Irish manuscript which presently resides in the Bodleian Library, Oxford. It ranks as one of the three major surviving Irish manuscripts to have been produced in pre-Norman Ireland, the tw ...

(Bodleian, Oxford), it is followed by two poems of devotion and ten ‘Songs of the Resurrection’, which were added in the late tenth century.

Authorship

In the second devotional poem, Poem 152, the author identifies himself as Óengus Céile Dé: ''is me Oengus céle Dé'' (line 8009). Whitley Stokes took this to mean that the work as a whole was ascribed to the famous Óengus mac Óengobann, monk of Tallaght and author of the ''Félire Óengusso'' (Martyrology of Óengus), who since the 17th century also happens to have been nicknamed Céile Dé (

Culdee The Culdees ( ga, Céilí Dé, "Spouses of God") were members of ascetic Christian monastic and eremitical communities of Ireland, Scotland, Wales and England in the Middle Ages. Appearing first in Ireland and subsequently in Scotland, attac ...

). However, since the ascription occurs in appended material and therefore outside the core of ''Saltair na Rann'', it is possible that it refers to the one or two devotional poems, which were either attributed to the earlier Óengus or composed by a late tenth-century namesake.Follett, ''Céli Dé in Ireland''. 162.

Notes

Primary sources

*Stokes, Whitley (ed.). ''Saltair na Rann. A Collection of Early Middle Irish Poems''. Oxford, 1883
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*Greene, David and Kelly, Fergus (eds., tr.). ''The Irish Adam and Eve Story from Saltair na Rann'', Vol. 1 Text and Translation; Vol. II Commentary by Brian Murdoch, Dublin Institute of Advanced Studies, 1976. *Carey, John (tr.). ''King of Mysteries. Early Irish Religious Writings''. 2nd ed. Dublin, 2000. 98-124 (with short introduction at p. 97). Translation of cantos 1-3. Poem 151, beginning "Isam aithrech (febda fecht)" (''c''. 987): *Murphy, Gerard (ed. and tr.). "Prayer for forgiveness." ''Early Irish Lyrics''. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1956. 36-9 (no. 16)
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*Stokes, Whitley (ed.). ''Saltair na Rann''. 114-5. * Kinsella, Thomas (tr.), "The time is ripe and I repent." In ''The New Oxford Book of Irish Verse''. Oxford, 1986. 54-55 (poem no. 54). Sixth stanza left untranslated.

Authorship

See also

Notes

Primary sources

Further reading