Iona: The Earliest Poetry of a Celtic Monastery

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

Eight rare poems, written at Iona monastery between 563 AD and the early 8th century, translated from the original Latin and Gaelic and fully annotated with literary commentary.

Genres: Poetry

200 pages, Paperback

First published April 15, 1995

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

[Terence Gallagher · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought this was an outstanding book. It is not a consecutive history, but instead provides editions and translations of eight poems believed to have been written by monks associated closely with Iona. The poems are in Latin and (very difficult) Irish, beginning with the "Altus Prosator" by St. Columba himself and finishing with "Cantemus in omni die" by Cú Chuimne. There is a wealth of excellent supporting material, and the editors are notable for their balance and sober conclusions. To quote from the last page of the text, "Here we find a monastery not out on a limb doing its own 'Celtic' thing, but steeped in the culture of Latin Christianity, participating fully in the literary expression of the faith of the church, the 'People of the Book'."

A special delight is the inclusion of a translation of Colmán Elo's "Apgitir Chrábaid" (Alphabet of Devotion) a sort of Wisdom primer for monks.

[Guto · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rhyfeddol.