A Woman's Words: Emer and Female Speech in the Ulster Cycle

by Joanne Findon

A Woman's Words is the first in-depth analysis of Middle Irish literature from a feminist standpoint, and the first formal critical discussion of the representation of female speech in medieval Irish literature. Joanne Findon analyses the representation of Emer, the wife of the great Irish hero Cu Chulainn, in four linked medieval Irish tales, and discusses Emer's ability to use powerful, effective words to change her fictional world and the audience's reading of that fictional world. A Woman's Words considers Emer as a literary figure rather than a mythic archetype or a reflection of a pre-Christian Celtic goddess. Emer and the narratives she inhabits are discussed as literary constructs, and are considered within the historical and legal milieu in which these tales were told, recorded, and read. Findon places Emer within the wider context of medieval literature in general as an unusual and compelling example of a heroic secular woman, married and fully integrated into her aristocratic society and yet capable of speaking out against its abuses. Her freedom to speak and be heard is remarkable in the light of prevalent later medieval impulses to silence women. By employing speech act theory to analyse Emer's discourse, and by viewing and interpreting the texts through the lens of current feminist criticism, Joanne Findon seeks to bring Middle Irish literature into the arena of current debates, particularly among feminist medievalists, and to offer a new approach to reading female characters in medieval Irish literature.

Genres: Mythology

224 pages, Hardcover

First published August 23, 1997

Reviews

[Lanea · Rating 4 out of 5]

You have to be well versed in Irish mythology for this book to appeal, and even then I'm guessing feminist scholars within the Celtic Studies community will be Findon's fans. In her work, Findon highlights Emer as an unusually influential female speaker in the mythos. I think Findon did a great job explaining her thesis and selecting sections from the texts to support it. She includes both the original Old and Middle Irish and English translations each time she quotes source material, and that made my nerdy little heart sing. This is a strong scholarly showing from Findon.

[Raven · Rating 4 out of 5]

A useful review of Emer's appearances in the Ulster Cycle tales, with the original Old Irish texts thoughtfully included. I particularly appreciated this for the side-by-side comparisons of the rosc sections in Fled Bricrend, where even if you don't speak any Old Irish at all, Emer's verbal loquacity shines through. For a culture which values alliteration and assonance in its poetry, that section is basically just Emer dunking on everybody in a way that's apparent even to readers who don't have the original language. I knew she won, having read Fled Bricrend in translation, but damn, girl. I also appreciated the careful layout of what texts were taken from what manuscripts, allowing the reader to form a picture in time of the viewpoints of scribes and revisers. I agree with the author that Emer is a valuable figure to study, being consistently represented positively while also not being an Otherworld figure -- it gives the reader a nuanced picture of what excellence looked like in an Irish woman of the time, and some insight into what the culture valued and what Emer herself valued.