The Triumph Tree: Scotland's Earliest Poetry AD 550 - 1350

by Thomas Owen Clancy (Editor), Gilbert Márkus (Contributor), Aneirin (Contributor)

The Triumph Tree brings together for the first time the poetry of five languages—Latin, Welsh, Gaelic, Anglo Saxon and Norse—in an accessible, scholarly anthology of translations that form a spectacular window on Scotland's past. Ranging from war to religion, nature to love, the quality and power of these poems display the riches of a vanished world. Alongside famous works such as The Gododdin (here in its most faithful translation yet) and The Dream of the Road, are poems by and for St. Columbia, the homesick verse of Gaelic poets on crusade, the court skalds of the Orkney earls, poems in praise of strong drinkers, harps, books and islands, and much else besides — many of which have never before appeared in translation.

Genres: Poetry, Scotland, History

374 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1998

About the author

Professor Thomas Owen Clancy is an American academic and historian who specializes in the literature of the Celtic Dark Ages, especially that of Scotland. He did his undergraduate work at New York University, and his Ph.D at the University of Edinburgh. He is currently at the University of Glasgow, where he was appointed Professor of Celtic in 2005.

In 2001, Clancy argued that St. Ninian was a Northumbrian spin-off of the name Uinniau (Irish St. Finnian), the Irish missionary to whom St. Columba was a disciple, who in Great Britain was associated with Whithorn. He argued that the confusion is due to an eighth century scribal spelling error, for which the similarities of "u" and "n" in the Insular script of the period were responsible.

Reviews

[dragonhelmuk · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a good scholarly translation of a significant amount of the extant Scottish literature throughout the early-mid medieval period. "Scottish" is defined very broadly. Y Gododdin and Canu Taliesin counts, as do lots of Old Irish verses set in Scotland. The strength of the collection lies in two things. First the translations are really good, poetic in places but always accurate to a fault. Secondly the scope of the poetry is so wide there will be loads of stuff you've never heard of. Actually if you're not a focussed medievalist you probably won't have heard of most of it.

The weakness of the translation stems from two things. First, the poetry itself is mostly pretty boring. It wasn't written for entertainment, and it probably loses a lot in translation, despite Clancy's best efforts. Secondly, almost none of the poetry is given in its original language. This is a bit of a crushing weakness, so sadly I can only recommend this if you are researching literature of the period or are truly dedicated.

[Katrina · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5

Kudos to the translators and editors who worked on this project. Utterly fascinating and informative look at poetry written during a very early period of history that all too often gets looked over. From early Christian verse to laments for Pictish kings to biting satirical attacks on fellow poets, the book has an unexpectedly wide range of subject matter given the time periods covered.

Oddly enough, I even found some of the love poetry had aged rather well and quite sweet in a way, if not quite emotive.

Thrilled to have come across this gem of a collection. It was far more accessible and interesting than I thought it would be. While I completely get there isn’t a horde of people kicking down a bookshop door for a title on such a specialised subject, I have to say I’m slightly gutted The Triumph Tree is out of print. Really deserves to be available even if only in an ebook format.