In 1911 Kuno Meyer, the great German scholar of Old and Middle Irish, gathered his finest verse translations into a single small book and dedicated it to his Liverpool patron. The result is one of the most important slim volumes in Celtic studies: the lyric voice of early Christian Ireland rendered into plain, exact English.

These are not epics. They are the quiet, sharp, perfect utterances of seventh, eighth, ninth, tenth, and eleventh century Irish poets, monks, scribes, hermits, and bards. A scholar praises his white cat Pangur. A hermit in a wooded shieling lists the birds and berries that attend him. An old woman on the Beara peninsula remembers her seven youths. Deirdre bids farewell to Scotland; Liadin laments Curithir; Eve remembers the apple. Colum Cille, exiled in Iona, names every beloved place in Ireland. The Mothers of Bethlehem mourn the slaughter of their babies. A ninth-century monk complains his pen is worn out.

Meyer’s own Introduction, preserved here in full, sets out why the vernacular literature of ancient Ireland matters. His source notes at the back of the book identify every manuscript. The Editors, Rosmerta Publishing, have added a short modern orientation for readers coming from Lady Gregory or Rolleston.

Also included are the Triads of Ireland (the three worst welcomes, the three sparks that kindle love) and selections from the Instructions of King Cormac, the wisdom of the wise High King set out in sharp little list-poems.

Selections from Ancient Irish Poetry

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