Some Specific Features of the Perception of Early Medieval Irish Feasts

7
Some Specific Features of the Perception
of Early Medieval Irish Feasts*
Grigorii V. Bondarenko
To the memory of Viktor Pavlovich Kalygin
In the everyday life of modern European peoples time is usually historical, linear;
however, in the case of medieval Continental and Insular Celts the perception
of time was completely different. If it is possible to speak of any historical
time at all in reference to these peoples, then it was only in the perception of
medieval Irish and Welsh annalists. Usually, in them, one encounters cyclical
time and the so-called “continuous time,” that is, eternity. The first is usually associated
with mortals and their calendar and the second with gods and the world
order they established. Things are not that simple, however; cyclical time can be
seen as a reflection of the divine order, while mortals often enter eternity during
their travels in the Otherworld. In Celtic history, daily life and mythological
time can be homogeneous or heterogeneous. This means that feasts and liminal
periods of time have a different nature in comparison with everyday time.
Cyclical time is typical of pre-literate societies. For them the present is a
repetition of the past. For example, in medieval Ireland famous prehistoric
monuments such as Brug-on-Boyne (New Grange), Emain Macha or Temair
were constantly re-used.1 Cyclical time reckoning continued to exist even after
the Christianisation of Celtic lands; for example, in the ecclesiastical calendar of
the annual feasts which regulated the yearly life of monasteries and laity. As we
know from Gallic material, before Christianisation the Celts had quite a complicated
cyclical calendar. The famous Gallic calendar of Coligny, engraved on
bronze, calculated for a five-year period and was based on solar as well as on
lunar time reckoning. These five-year cycles included sixty normal and two additional
months. To make a comparison with other Celtic systems of time reckoning
it is necessary to bear in mind that the first half of the year in the Coligny
calendar starts with the month samoni(o)s and the second half of the year with
* Originally published as “Некоторые особенности восприятия древнеирландского
праздника,” Одиссей. Человек в истории 2005, 8-22. Translated by Elena Glushko.
1 Nicholas B. Aitchison, Armagh and the Royal Centres in Early Medieval Ireland (Woodbridge,
1994), 26.
8
the month giamoni(o)s.2 The first name corresponds to the medieval Irish
Samain, the feast of the beginning of winter, which was celebrated for three
days from the eve of November 1. Giamoni(o)s is related to the medieval Irish
gem (winter). Supposedly, the Calendar of Coligny was used by Druids and its
five-year cycle corroborates the evidence of Diodorus of Sicily about five-year
cycles of sacrifices among Continental Celts.
Feasts
In the Celtic languages no special word existed for a feast. Thus, when one
speaks about Celtic festive time or festive cycles, the word “feast” can be used
only conventionally, since it has completely different connotations. The closest
would be the Irish word festa, derived from the Latin adjective festus (dies).
This rare word was used mainly to designate ecclesiastical feasts. Medieval Irish
and Middle Welsh texts reveal a wholly different perception of these chronological
breaks in everyday life which we call “feasts.” In Ireland these time
breaks could have different characteristics: óenach (a gathering, a fair) and feis
(a banquet, a night spent somewhere); fled, in Welsh gwledd (a banquet); dail (a
gathering, an assembly); féil (a saint’s feast), in Welsh gwŷl and Breton goel, derived
from Latin vigilia.3 Secular “feasts” of the Insular Celts were, in a way,
sacred; they hallowed secular time rather than opposed it.
The Early Medieval Irish festive cycle was connected with the alternation
of seasons. Traces of this annual cycle can be found in later folklore as well. It
consisted of four main feasts dividing four seasons (one should bear in mind that
they were never called “feasts” in Irish). It becomes clear from some medieval
Irish texts that the feast of Samhain was perceived as the beginning of the New
Year (for example, in the tale “The Adventures of Nera” the main character goes
to síd4 on the eve of Samhain, “at the end of the year”5). Three other feasts are
Imbolc (February 1), Beltain (May 1; it was called also Cetamain – “the beginning
of summer,” in contradiction to Samhain, the end of summer) and Lugnasad
(August 1). Imbolc and Lugnasad emerged later; they were connected with
the agricultural cycle.6 From the point of view of a medieval Irish farmer, however,
Beltain, Lugnasad, and Samhain had special economic importance, since
the cost of livestock increased precisely on these days. For example, a heifer
from birth until Samhain cost two scrupulae, but after Samhain it cost three. On
2 Xavier Delamarre, Dictionnaire de la langue gauloise (Paris, 2003), 179, 267 (hereafter:
Delamarre).
3 Françoise Le Roux, Christian-J. Guyonvarc’h, Les fêtes celtiques (Rennes, 1995), 26-29.
4 Síd in the Medieval Irish tradition is the Otherworld, which can be located differently; a
magic hill, one of the sites of the Otherworld.
5 Kuno Meyer, ed., “Echtra Nerai. The Adventures of Nera,” Revue celtique (hereafter: RC)
10 (1889), 221.
6 Kalygin V. P., “Keltskaia kosmologia” (The Celtic cosmology), in Predstavlenia o smerti i
lokalizatsia Inogo mira u keltov i germantsev, ed. Tatiana A. Mikhailova (Moscow, 2002),
91 (hereafter: Kalygin).
9
the next Beltain the price increased to four, on the next Samhain to six. The
heifer acquired its highest value on its sixth Beltain. The price of sheep and pigs
increased likewise during Beltain, Lugnasad, and Samhain.7
Geoffrey Keating, an Irish antiquarian writing in the seventeenth century,
described four main feasts in geographical context and associated them with
four sacred centres of the central part of the island: Usnech, Tlachtgha, Temair,
Taltiu (strangely, he mentions here only three feasts, Beltain, Lugnasad, and
Samhain).8 This observation witnesses the special interdependence in Irish tradition
between time and space. In history, this model has frequently re-appeared,
as in the case of King Diarmaid, son of Fergus Cerbell, who, after a long interval,
re-established the feast in Temair in 560. The perception of time reflected in
these annually repeating festivities was connected partly with the agricultural
cycle, although the fact that the festive cycle started in winter as well as the existence
of night feasts reminds one of the meaning of night and winter in the
Gallic calendar of Coligny. Moreover, medieval Irish literature clearly demonstrates
that mythological events usually occurred during feasts, especially at the
time of the banquet on the eve of Samhain.
The two oldest Irish feasts, Beltain and Samhain, divided the year into
two parts, each containing six months. The dark and cold winter part started
with Samhain and was considered to be the first; the light and warm summer
part began with Beltain and was regarded as the second. During the dark winter,
young people, after returning from pastures to the winter houses of their parents,
spent long nights by the hearth, practicing crafts and listening to skillful storytellers
with their lengthy tales. In summer, starting with Beltain, young people
left their winter dwellings and moved to temporary summer houses; they grazed
cattle and sheep on the hills. The finnians (young unmarried warriors and hunters,
who formed special male communities) spent their year in the same way.
According to “The Colloquy of the Ancients,” from Samhain until Beltain they
lived in settlements, and in the summer they hunted and raided in the woods.9
The feast of Beltain, which opened the light part of the year, also indicated the
beginning of summer grazing. Druids drove livestock, accompanying them with
incantations, between two “good” fires, to prevent disease.10 The twofold division
of year with two main feasts corresponded to the twofold night-and-day
time division; night was the first.
Night and the lunar calendar
Caesar gives the main evidence in favour of such time reckoning. He writes
about the Gauls that “they compute the divisions of every season, not by the
number of days, but of nights; they keep birthdays and the beginnings of months
7 Fergus Kelly, Early Irish Farming (Dublin, 1997), 461.
8 Geoffrey Keating, Forus Feasa ar Éirinn 2 (London, 1902), 247 sqq.
9 Alwyn and Brinley Rees, Celtic Heritage (New York, 1994), 84.
10 Sanas Cormac, ed. Kuno Meyer (Lampeter, 1994), §122 (hereafter: Sanas Cormac).
10
and years in such an order that the day follows the night.”11 Night has the same
meaning in medieval Irish texts, for example, in “Fingen’s Night-Watch,” where
the night when King Conn was born appears to be actually the first night of his
reign and the beginning of a certain secondary cosmogony.12 Moreover, linguistic
evidence also witnesses the special attitude of the Celts towards night. Thus,
Samhain (see below) in medieval Irish texts is most frequently designated as
“the night of Samhain” (adaig Samna). The bronze tablets of the Gallic calendar
of Coligny contain the older name of (seemingly) the same feast: trinoxtion Samoni
sindiu (three nights of Samhain today [start?]).13 Not surprisingly, Samhain,
according to some medieval Irish texts, was celebrated for three days before
the date itself and three days afterwards (compare na trenae Samna –– “triads
of Samhain”14). The Welsh word wythnos (eight nights) means “week,” and
pymthegnos (fifteen nights) are two weeks. In the Breton language antronoz
(tomorrow) literally means “on the other side of night.”
In the Welsh epos “Mabinogi” the time within which a certain feast
should be completed is often indicated quite concretely. It is “a year starting
with tonight” (blwyddyn y heno).15 The Old Irish term innocht (tonight), which
frequently designates the night of a feast or the night of an important event in
human life, is also related to this Welsh concept.
Probably such an attitude towards night is due to the fact that Celts in the
pre-Christian times used a lunar calendar. The Irish division of time into three-,
five- and fifteen-day periods was based on this type of time reckoning, the traces
of which have been preserved in Old Irish legal treatises; in pre-Christian times
the seven-day week was not known. Christian missionaries from the fifth century
onwards introduced the Julian calendar and the seven-day week, which
slowly replaced the earlier practice.
The list of the earliest known Irish names for the days of the week is dated
to this transitional period, when Christian terms and the Christian perception of
time started to take root in Ireland. This list includes Irish as well as Latin
words: dies scrol, diu luna, diu mart, diu iath, diu ethamon, diu triach, diu
satur.16 The first term, which stands for Sunday, is explained in “Cormac’s
Glossary:” Sroll .u. soilssi, unde est aput Scotoss diu srol .i. dies solis (“Sroll,
that is, light, hence among Irishmen diu srol, that is, Sunday”).17 It seems,
11 De Bello Gallico vol. 6, 18; tr. W. A. McDevitte. Druids supposed that all Gauls were
descendants of a certain god, identified by Caesar with the Roman Father Dis (Dis pater).
“Dis pater” is the Roman god of the underworld, considered identical with the Greek Pluto.
The so-called secular games with nightly peace offerings were dedicated to him.
12 Airne Fíngein, ed. Joseph Vendryes (Dublin, 1953), 2 (hereafter: Airne Fíngein).
13 Delamarre, 267.
14 Serglige Con Culainn, ed. Myles Dillon (Dublin, 1953), 1 (hereafter: Serglige Con
Culainn).
15 Pwyll pendeuic Dyuet, ed. Robert L. Thomson (Dublin, 1957) 3, 11, 13.
16 Daíbhí Ó Cróinín, “The Oldest Irish Names for the Days of the Week?” Ériu 32 (1981), 95-
114.
17 Sanas Cormaic, § 1134.
11
though, that this is only a pseudo-scholarly etymology, and the word scroll/srol,
after this appearance in the list and the dictionary, does not occur anywhere else.
At the same time three other Irish words from the list (diu iath, diu ethamon, diu
triach) could easily mean this very three-day period of the lunar calendar, especially
if diu triach is the third day of this period.
Samhain
In medieval Irish literature Samhain plays a much more important role than
other seasonal feasts. The action of traditional stories takes place quite frequently
(if not to say as a rule) on the eve of Samhain. As was already mentioned,
Samhain in Early Medieval Irish literature indicated the border point
between the old and new year; it was the time of great gatherings in royal centres
(according to one etymology of the word Samain, suggested by Joseph
Vendryes, it is connected with the Sanscrit word samana: “meeting, festival”).18
The expression “the feast of Samhain” does not appear in Early Medieval Irish
sources; sometimes one can find “the banquet of Samhain” (feiss Samna), “the
gathering of Samhain” (óenach Samna), but most frequently it will be “the night
of Samhain” (adaig Samna). Therefore, one can call Samhain “a feast” only
conditionally. Samhain, as well as Beltain, was a crucial point of the year, first
of all, for stockbreeders. As was noted above, Samhain coincided with the end
of the summer grazing season. Sheep and cattle were driven back from the hills;
they were gathered in a herd and led to slaughter; only some of them were
spared for breeding.19 Thus, to prepare a lavish banquet for a king of Ireland of
the fifth century of Ireland was not such a hard job.
The eve of Samhain was the most significant period of time, dense with
events. In Early Medieval Irish literature the banquet of Samhain (on the eve of
November 1) indicated the limit, the beginning of winter, of the first, dark and
dangerous half of the year. The Otherworld and síds were open at that time, and
the powers of chaos dominated the world. One can find analogous phenomena in
ancient Rome, where on certain days (August 24, October 5, November 6) some
types of activities (warfare, sea travel, and weddings) were prohibited since on
these days the entrance into the otherworld was open (mundus patet).20
It is interesting to mention that in the tale “Fingen’s Night-Watch” wonders
and supernatural things occur in the world on that very night (for example,
the great King Conn was born on that night). All these miracles emerged from
the same “otherworldly” source which opens into our world on the eve of Samhain.
For common people, simply to go outside their dwellings on this night was
dangerous.
18 Joseph Vendryes, Lexique étymologique d’irlandais ancien RS (Dublin, Paris, 1974), 22.
19 Thomas G. E. Powell, The Celts, used in the Russian translation: T. Pauell. Kelty. Tr. O. A.
Pavlovskaia (Moscow, 2003),132.
20 Roger Caillois, L’homme et le sacré (Paris, 1939), 108.
12
On the eve of Samhain people gathered for the royal feast, as is described
in “The Tidings of Conchobar, son of Ness:”
Now Conchobar himself used (to give) them (the feast of) Samhain because
of the assembly of a great host. It was needful to provide for the
great multitude, because every one of the Ulstermen who would not come
to Emain at that night on All Hallow’s-eve lost his senses, and on the
morrow his barrow and his grave and his tombstone were placed.” (Conchobar
immorro fessin no gaibed Samuin dóib fodagin terchomraic in
tshluáig móir. Ba hecen in tsochaide mór do airchill, fobith cech fer do
Ultaib na taircébad aidchi Samna dochum nEmna no gatta ciall de 7 fhocherte
a fhert 7 a lecht 7 a lie arnabarach).21
Even if it is not stated explicitly in the text, Ulstermen were probably forbidden
to stay outside walls of Emain Macha on that night: it was a geis. One can suppose
that everyone would perish who was not present at this “feast of safety.”
In Early Medieval Irish tales, which frequently reflect the world perception
of monks-literati, Samhain is often described as the feast of the common
people, who still preserved pagan rituals somewhere on the periphery. In the
poem “The Gift of Conn” Samhain is called “the feast of western finnians” (féil
na Fian fuineta).22 The Old Irish féil (“a religious feast, saint’s day”) derived
from Latin vigilia (compare with Welsh gwŷl from the same origin). This word
almost always designates Christian feasts, and only in rare cases was used for
secular or pagan feasts. Samhain was defined as féil in at least one more situation.
The tale “Death of Crimthann” contains a story about how Monginn, a
witch from síd, died on the eve of Samhain. According to the tale, because of
her death “Samhain is called ‘the feast of Monginn,’” among the common people,
and now these unfortunate “common people” together with women “pray to
her on the night of Samhain.”23 Thus, the author or the compiler of the tale perceives
Samhain as a feast of “common,” ignorant people, persisting in their paganism.
That was why, perhaps, the Christian religious term is used here for a
pagan religious feast. Probably it also helped to make the contrast clearer between
the ecclesiastical name and pagan characteristics of the feast. This contrast
was to increase “the liminal nature” of finnians and all other “powers of
Samhain.”
The eve of Samhain was a short period of time which in reality belonged
neither to the end of the year nor to its beginning. At this night, “continuous
time,” the eternity of síd, came into immediate contact with our world. One can
call the night of Samhain “a period of chaotic time.” To leave human time also
meant to leave the area of cosmic order and to enter the region of chaos, the
state of “pre-division.” Thus, the eve of Samhain was the period of collision
21 Whitley Stokes, ed., “Tidings of Conchobar mac Nessa,” Ériu 4 (1910), 26.
22 Grigorii V. Bondarenko, Mifologia prostranstva Drevnei Irlandii (The mythology of space
in Early Medieval Ireland) (Moscow, 2003), 138 (hereafter: Bondarenko).
23 Whitley Stokes, ed., “Death of Crimthann,” RC 24 (1903), 178.
13
between the immeasurable time of síd, which possessed the quality of eternity,24
and human time.
The feast of Samhain, celebrated at Temair, Emain Macha, Cruachan or
other centre on the island, always took place at night. One can recall the original
meaning of the word feis: a night spent somewhere. The connotations are not
necessarily sexual. On one hand, time and space on the night of Samhain acquire
the qualities of dream; double characters appear, logical connections vanish, the
past and future exchange places. On the other hand, during this “feast” one has
to stay awake: sleep and dreams are dangerous for mortals. For example, in
“The Colloquy of the Ancients” Finn mac Cumhall visits Temair when frightened
people are waiting for Allen, a cunning musician from síd, who each Samhain
lulled people to sleep with his music and then set fire to the whole Temair.
Finn is the only one who stays awake and kills the stranger from síd.25 “Fingen’s
Night-Watch” describes how the main character kept awake the whole night,
while young sons of kings from all over Ireland were coming in chariots to the
feast in Temair.26 Probably, the representatives of local nobility truly gathered in
Temair for the royal feast, but they scarcely came from all over Ireland. Ulstermen
certainly celebrated at Emain Macha, the people of Connacht in Cruachan,
and so on. Apparently, people had to gather on the day before Samhain.27
On the other hand, in the tale “The Sickbed of Cuchulainn” the festive
gathering (óenach) of Ulstermen went on for three days before Samhain and
three days after on the coast of dell Muirthemne, to the south of Emain Macha.
On these days there were “only games and welcomes, lustre and joys, banquets
and regales.”28
How to carry a vetala on the eve of Samhain
The tale “The Adventures of Nera” (Echtra Nerai)29 contains the most interesting
description of time in síd and time on the night of Samhain. It is a story
about the adventures of Nera,30 a warrior of Connacht, on two eves of Samhain
(one year apart).
24 Two Celtologists, as far as I know independently of each other, noticed this immeasurable,
eternal time of síd: François Le Roux, “Le rêve d’Oengus, commentaire du texte,” Ogam
18 (1966), 148-149 and John Carey, “Time, Space and the Otherworld,” in Proceedings of
the Harvard Celtic Colloquium 7 (1987), 8.
25 Whitley Stokes, ed., Acallamh na Senórach (Leipzig, 1900), 47.
26 Airne Fíngein, 9-11.
27 Elizabeth A. Gray, ed., Cath Maige Tuired (Naas, 1982), 46.
28 Serglige Con Culain, 1.
29 Kuno Meyer, ed., “The Adventures of Nera,” RC 10 (1889), 212-228 (hereafter: The
Adventures of Nera).
30 The name of Nera corresponds exactly to the Gallic theonym “Nerios.” These Celtic words
derived from the Indo-European root *ner-, to which two meanings are usually ascribed:
“vital force” and “human, man, male.” See V. P. Kalygin, “Keltskaia etnonimika v ‘Geo14
At the night of Samhain people of Connacht cook dinner in a big cauldron
under the supervision of Ailill and Medb. Now, King Ailill recalls the existence
of two hanged captives and asks somebody to go and to tie the feet of one of
them with a withe (or chain?).31 Only Nera obeys the order of king; he goes outside
the walls of Cruachan, the royal centre of Connacht, and, imperceptibly to
himself, he arrives in the Otherworld with the tied half-dead man on his back.32
They search for a hospitable house where the dead man can get some water and
enter the Otherworld further and further. In the third house the dead man is finally
given water, and Nera brings him back to the gallows and torments. When
Nera returns to Cruachan (the first return; a year has passed in the world of
mortals, Nera comes back on the second Samhain), he sees the heap of cut off
heads in front of the burnt out fort (compare with the burnt down Temair). Nera
follows the murderers and enters the cave of Cruachan, the síd. He stays there
and finds a woman who becomes his wife and tells him that the burnt out Cruachan
is not yet true. It is a vision created by an elfin host, but it can become real
if Nera does not warn his people about the attack which is prepared in the síd.
Nera returns to our world (the second return on the first Samhain) on the same
night when he was ordered to bind the captive. Taking his wife’s advice, Nera
takes the fruits of summer from the síd – wild garlic, primrose, and golden fern
– to make the people of Connacht believe his story. He informs them about what
is going to happen and spends one more year with them. On the next Samhain he
returns to the síd for his wife and son, but something happens again, and his
grafii’ Ptolemeia” (Celtic ethnonyms in the Geography of Ptolemy), in Colloquia classica
et indogermanica vol. 3, ed. N. N. Kazanskii (St. Petersburg, 2002), 368-369.
31 According to the legal literature, one of the ways of execution in Early Medieval Ireland
was hanging (croichad, from croich – “cross”). A criminal was hanged and died slowly, so
that he could arrive in the Otherworld step by step. See Fergus Kelly, A Guide to Early
Irish Law (Dublin, 1995), 216; T. A. Mikhailova, “Znamenia smerti v keltskoi epicheskoi i
folklornoi traditsii” (The signs of death in Celtic epic and folk tradition), in Kalygin, 264-
265. One has to mention that the bonds with which their feet were tied are preserved on the
bodies of people sacrificed in Britain and Ireland.
32 Alwyn and Brinley Rees noticed the similarity between this story and the ancient Indian
text “The Five-and-Twenty Tales of the Genie,” where at night King Vikramaditya takes a
hanged corpse from a tree where an evil spirit (vetala) dwelt and then carried the vetala into
his palace on his back. The point is that a certain sorcerer needs the vetala for acquiring
magical power (Dvadtsat’ piat’ rasskazov Vetaly, tr. I. Serebryakov, Moscow, 1958, 24-
26). Moreover, in the síd of Cruachan we again find the same pair: a cripple on the back of
a blind man, a counterpart to Nera with the hanged man. One who sees (knows) and one
who walks (acts) make a pair on the night of Samhain, when the visible and invisible
worlds meet. As Myles Dillon has pointed out, such a pair also exists in ancient Indian
philosophy. According to the school of sankhya, the physical and spiritual elements of nature
are called prakriti and purusha. The prakriti is independent and active, but it lacks
consciousness, it is “blind,” and the purusha is passive, but it possesses consciousness, it is
“disabled.” Together they can carry out their mission in the same way as a cripple on the
back of a blind person is able to reach his goal. This image was used by the school of
nyaya; it is known as andhā-khanjā-nyāya (“the example of a blind man and a cripple”).
See Myles Dillon, Celts and Aryans (Simla, 1975), 84.
15
wise wife allows him and the warriors from Cruachan to lead a quiet life for one
more year. Nera comes again back to the same fire and the same people at the
same cauldron (the third return on the first Samhain). Finally, on the second
Samhain Nera goes to the síd with an army. It is destroyed, but Nera with his
family stay there; he “has not come out until now nor will he come till Doom.”33
In the world of mortals the events take one year, although the time spent
by Nera in the síd of Cruachan is much longer and is somehow heterogeneous:
even Nera’s son became a grown-up man during this period. Interestingly, Nera,
while returning from the síd to the world of humans, enters three different versions
of the present and future. Thus, the continuous time of síd can play the role
of a starting point for a journey into different versions of human time. Depending
on the situation, “the sacred time” of síd can be equal to a day, a year, or
eternity. The events happening over several days can last from one feast until
another or can occur during several consequent feasts.34
The story ends with eternal imprisonment of Nera in the síd, and such an
ending corresponds well to the beginning – to the meeting of Nera with the halfdead
captive. The time of Samhain is not described as a kind of blessed eternity.
Evil signs accompany Nera during his adventures, and even his supernatural
wife and son appear before him as a threatening sign: “the appearance which
Nera saw on them was the same as that which Cuchulain saw in the Tain Bo Regamna.”
35 Cuchulain saw: “A red woman was in the chariot, and a red mantle
about her, she had two red eye-brows… A great man was beside her chariot, a
red cloak was upon him.”36
These red persons mark the transition from one perception of time to another
and are reminiscent of the red knights from “The Destruction of Dá
Derga’s Hostel,” who fulfill the same function.
The Feast of Temair
The feast of Temair (Feis Temro), the celebration of royal “inauguration,” most
likely also happened on the night of Samhain. Early Medieval Irish tales confirm
that here this banquet is perceived as protection from evil power, necessary on
the eve of Samhain. According to the annals, in the fifth century AD, after the
Christianisation of Ireland had started, kings from the Ui Neill dynasty celebrated
their successful rule by organising the habitual “Feast of Temair.”37 In
pre-Christian times kings probably celebrated “the Feast of Temair” not in the
beginning, but in the glorious middle of their rule; this feast could have perhaps
33 The Adventures of Nera, 212-228.
34 Françoise Le Roux, Christian-J. Guyonvarc’h, La civilisation celtique (Rennes, 1998), 161.
35 The Adventures of Nera, 224.
36 Whitley Stokes, Ernst Windisch, ed., Irische Texte, vol. 2, 2 (Leipzig, 1887), 242-243. Tr.
A. H. Leahy.
37 Francis J. Byrne, Irish Kings and High-Kings (London, 1973), 80 (hereafter: Byrne).
16
also marked the acquisition of sacred dominance over Temair by an important
king.
One should, however, begin with the statement that “the feast of Temair”
as depicted in many Early Medieval Irish texts is a mythologically reiterated
event; it was revived as such by King Diarmaid mac Cearbhaill in 560. In the
“Annals of Tigernach” under this year one reads about cena postrema Temrach
la Diarmuit mac Cerbaill (“The last feast in Temair during the time of Diarmaid
mac Cerbaill”). Clearly, memories of the Ui Neills’ celebrations in the fifth
century were still alive during Diarmaid’s lifetime, but I would rather think that
this “last feast” was only an imitation, its new meaning hidden under the old
name.
As is known from different sources, Diarmaid’s sins evoked the anger of
Irish clerics. Influential abbots, Ruadan of Lothra, Brendan of Birr, and others
(altogether “twelve apostles of Ireland”) decided to fast against the king, came
to Temair and cursed this ancient royal centre.38 In spite of an obvious legendary
character in this story, from that time kings and warriors definitively left Temair,
and kings with the official title “the King of Temair” no longer organised sacred
feasts. The concept of the “feast of Temair” as the political enterprise of a centralised
monarchy emerged quite late, when the reminiscences of the last feast of
Temair faded away under the pressure of the urgent need to develop the Ui Neill
dynasty.
Let us now turn to the meaning of the pre-Christian “feast of Temair.”
Daniel A. Binchy, in his article about medieval Irish feasts, based on annals and
the etymology of the word feis (the substantive derived from the verb foaid: “to
spent a night, to sleep, to sleep with a woman”), comes to the conclusion that
Kings of Temair used to organise a banquet in their sacred centre only once
during their rule; they marked the culmination of their governing by a symbolic
copulation with the goddess of royal power.39 Binchy doubts the connection
traditionally drawn between the feast of Temair and Samhain, since the historical
“feast of Temair” as a ritual of fertility could not have been celebrated on the
cold night of Samhain, the beginning of winter. The problem is that not every
ίερος γάμος can be called a fertility ritual. Here the sacred marriage symbolised
rather the union between the royal masculine order and the feminine chaos of
the goddess, which was embodied in the forces of Samhain and its temporal disorder.
Moreover, as Nerys Patterson has pointed out, the “royal marriage” (banais
ríg) probably implied reinforcement of the king’s power: the goddess confirmed
the virile power of the king. Thus, Samhain, the time of greatest political
disorder, seems to have been quite an appropriate period for celebrating the
Feast of Temair.40 Generally speaking, it is impossible to ignore all the literary
38 John O’Donovan, ed., The Banquet of Dun na n-Gedh and the Battle of Mag Rath (Dublin,
1842), 4; see also Byrne, 95.
39 Daniel A. Binchy, “The Fair of Tailtiu and the Feast of Tara,” Ériu 17 (1958), 134-135.
40 Nerys Th. Patterson, Cattle-Lords and Clansmen (Notre-Dame, London, 1994), 148, note 6.
John Carey also underlines the connection between the feasts of Temair and Samhain; he
17
evidence which connects the feast of Temair with the night of Samhain; it
should reflect a certain historical reality.
In an Irish legal treatise from the seventh century, “The Order of Right
Behaviour” (Córus Béschai), three types of banquets are distinguished: the divine
banquet (fled déoda), the human banquet (fled doena), and the demonic
banquet (fled demanda).41 The banquet of Temair is described as “human” in the
poem “The Gift of Conn.”42 The treatise depicts a “human banquet” as a feast of
hospitability: “What is a human banquet? The banquet in everyone’s ale-house
for his master according to his duty…” The parallel with winter hospitality (cóe)
is obvious. Another kind of banquet, the demonic, is described in the text as the
regale offered to “sons of death,” that is, to the finnians. In other words, the feast
of Temair as represented in “The Order of Right Behaviour” and in “The Gift of
Conn” has human as well as demonic features; it is at the same time “the part of
man,” to be acquired by mortals, and “the feast of Finnians.” Such a combination
is not too surprising, if one bears in mind that Early Medieval Irish legal
treatises often presented an idealised image of daily life, while real Irish social
life was much more complicated. The same with banquets; it would be quite unrealistic
to suppose that any clear division between the so-called “human” and
“demonic” feasts existed in actuality.
In sources the so-called “bull’s feast” (tarbfheis)43 on the eve of Samhain
is also associated with Temair. It is difficult to say whether it is the same traditional
royal Feast of Temair or whether it can be considered as a separate ritual
of election and enthroning a king. A bull’s feast was organised in Temair during
the period of interregnum after the death of a king. The main aim of the ritual
was to find out who should become the next ruler. Both tales which describe a
bull’s feast (“The Destruction of Dá Derga’s Hostel” and “The Sick-bed of
Cuchulainn”) characterise it as an important ceremony for the whole of Ireland.
One cannot tell whether it was true or not. If one thinks that Temair from the
Neolithic age had a special meaning for the entire island, then it is possible that
the nobility from all five kingdoms of Ireland gathered for this feast.
At the beginning of the banquet a white bull was sacrificed (according to
“The Destruction of Dá Derga’s Hostel,” the bull was killed by the assembly,
the function of druids is not defined), and one of the men ate his fill of its flesh
and drank the water in which it was cooked. On the basis of relatively late historical
and ethnographic descriptions one can suppose, together with Thomas
O’Rahilly, that this man also covered himself in the skin of the newly killed bull
disagrees with Binchy’s sceptical position. See Dzh. Keri, “Vremia, prostranstvo i Inoi
mir” (Time, space, and the Otherworld), in Predstavlenia o smerti i lokalizatsia Inogo mira
u drevnikh keltov i germantsev, ed. Tatiana A. Mikhailova (Moscow, 2002), 148.
41 Corpus iuris hibernici vol. 2, ed. Daniel A. Binchy (London, 1978), 524.
42 Bondarenko, 130.
43 It can be also translated as “bull’s feast.”
18
or lay on it.44 Then he fell asleep with satiety, and four druids sang the spell of
truth (ór fírindi) above him. The person about whom he dreamt would become
the new king. After the oracle woke up, he had to describe the appearance of the
future king. If he dared to lie, his lips would grow stiff.45
Pliny the Elder in his Natural History already mentions sacrifices of white
bulls by druids. At night, when the moon was waxing, Gallic druids prepared the
offerings and a banquet in an oak grove; but according to Pliny, the main sacred
object of the ritual was mistletoe rather than the bulls. After cutting the mistletoe
two young white bulls were sacrificed (Natural History 16, 249). Probably this
Gallic festive custom was connected neither with prophecies nor royal power.
One has to bear in mind, however, that in this period kings in Gaul had already
ceased to exist, and originally these rituals could easily have been associated
with inauguration.
The significant role of the white bull in Celtic (more precisely, in Irish)
cosmogony justifies its function in these magic rituals. It is enough to recall the
final scene of “The Cattle Raid of Cooley,” where the great brown bull of Cualnge
bests his old rival the white-horned bull (Finnbennach) and scatters parts of
his body about the whole island, from which Ireland was reborn.46 Thus, the
land is born from the body of a god after the god was sacrificed.
There is also no doubt about the miraculous qualities of a white bull at the
bull’s banquet on Temair. As Viktor P. Kalygin justly pointed out, the consumption
of a divine animal signifies a mystical union with the god and the acquisition
of divine qualities, including divine knowledge.47 The oracle acquired the
bull’s characteristics; the actions of covering with bull’s skin or sleeping on it
are especially meaningful in this case. Moreover, the king could also take on the
features of a bull, as is clear from such an epithet of the ruler as “the bull ruler”
(tarbflaith). This term has been preserved in “The Testament of Morann” (Audacht
Morainn, seventh century) and is related to a cruel aggressive king: “The
bull ruler strikes [and] is struck, wards off [and] is warded off, roots out [and] is
rooted out, pursues [and] is pursued.”48 Such a person seems to be an ideal pagan
king, and this epithet should be connected with the ritual of election.
44 Thomas F. O’ Rahilly, Early Irish History and Mythology (Dublin, 1984), 324. Compare
with similar prophetic rituals on bull’s skins as known among druids: Stories from
Keating’s History of Ireland, ed. Osborn Bergin (Dublin, 1996), 24-25.
45 See the description of the bull’s banquet (or bull’s sleep) in two tales which complement
each other: Togail Bruidne Da Derga, ed. Eleanor Knott (Dublin, 1975), §11 and Serglige
Con Culainn, §22-23.
46 Táin Bó Cúalnge from the Book of Leinster, ed. Cecile O’Rahilly (Dublin, 1961), 135-136.
The plot of Scottish tale, “The Black Bull of Norroway,” is of the same origin, where the
black bull wins over his rival in the last battle. See Folk-Tales of the British Isles, ed. James
Riordan (Moscow, 1987), 213.
47 Kalygin, 109. Compare with the medieval Russian Veles-Volos: the god of poetic wisdom
and, at the same time, “the cattle god.”
48 Audacht Morainn, ed. Fergus Kelly (Dublin, 1976), 143-155.
19
The bull’s feast (tarbfheis) and the feast of Temair (feis Temro) were
probably two different festive ceremonies with different functions, but both of
them were related to the power of High Kings of Temair. The bull’s feast was
clearly connected with the election of a king from among several noble candidates,
and it is known in many details; on the other hand, the feast of Temair,
functionally the ritual of inauguration (?), is not known in any detail except from
the above-mentioned sacred marriage of the king and the goddess. In any case,
the association of these “festive” events (including the custom described by
Pliny) with night and sleep is quite important for the present subject. Bearing in
mind the special attitude of the Celts towards night, one will not be surprised
that they regarded this moment of original universal unity as an appropriate time
for prophecies and inaugurations.
When one wants to outline certain problems or special characteristics of
the perception of feasts in Early Medieval Ireland, the main obstacle is the fact
that the sources are scarce and contradictory. Moreover, the basic texts for such
research describe a kind of mythological reality. The absence in Celtic languages
and cultures of a strict term for “feast” is also quite significant. It is important
that even the word which stands more or less close to it, namely, feis, reveals
to us its new, double and triple hidden meanings. These can be “banquet,”
“a night with a woman or a goddess” and “sleep,” depending on the context and
on the preference of each scholar. We started with the feast of Samhain and
moved to regale and, finally, to ritual. But the ritual of royal election, which has
to be accomplished in a strictly defined time span, brings us again to the feast of
inauguration: if not to an annual feast, then to a repeated one, the one which is
essentially important for the entire society.
M E D I U M A E V U M
Q U O T I D I A N U M
54
KREMS 2006
HERAUSGEGEBEN
VON GERHARD JARITZ
GEDRUCKT MIT UNTERSTÜTZUNG DER KULTURABTEILUNG
DES AMTES DER NIEDERÖSTERREICHISCHEN LANDESREGIERUNG
Titelgraphik: Stephan J. Tramèr
Copy editor: Judith Rasson
Herausgeber: Medium Aevum Quotidianum. Gesellschaft zur Erforschung der
materiellen Kultur des Mittelalters, Körnermarkt 13, 3500 Krems, Österreich.
Für den Inhalt verantwortlich zeichnen die Autoren, ohne deren ausdrückliche
Zustimmung jeglicher Nachdruck, auch in Auszügen, nicht gestattet ist. –
Druck: Grafisches Zentrum an der Technischen Universität Wien, Wiedner
Hauptstraße 8-10, 1040 Wien.
Inhaltsverzeichnis
Vorwort ……………………………………………………..…………….…… 5
Grigorii V. Bondarenko, Some Specific Features of the Perception
of Early Medieval Irish Feasts ……………..………..………….……… 7
Vladimir Ia. Petrukhin, The “Feast” in Medieval Russia:
On the Question of Its Specific Historical Features ………………….. 20
Besprechung…….……………………………………………………….…….. 29
Verzeichnis der Veröffentlichungen des
‚Instituts für Realienkunde des Mittelalters und der frühen Neuzeit‛
der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften …………………. 31
5
Vorwort
Der vorliegende schmale Band von Medium Aevum Quotidianum konzentriert
sich, wie angekündigt, auf zwei Studien aus der russischen Forschung, die sich
der Untersuchung mittelalterlicher Festkultur widmen. Wieder ist die Möglichkeit
dieser Veröffentlichung unserer Kooperation mit den Herausgebern der am
Institut für Universalgeschichte der Russischen Akademie der Wissenschaften
erscheinenden Jahresschrift Одиссей. Человек в истории, und dabei im Besonderen
mit Frau Professor Svetlana Luchitskaya, zu verdanken. Der Band des
Jahres 2005 setzte sich zentral mit dem Thema „Fest: Zeit und Raum“ auseinander,
und die zwei hier vorliegenden Beiträge stellen die Übersetzungen von für
unser Forschungsfeld relevanten Forschungsansätzen dar.
Die Vereinbarung zur Publikation der zwei Aufsätze geschah zu einem
Zeitpunkt, als Professor Aron Ja. Gurevich, der auch als leitender Redakteur von
Одиссей fungierte, noch unter uns weilte. Herr Gurevich, einer der weltweit bedeutendsten
Repräsentanten einer Geschichte mittelalterlicher Kultur und Mentalität
ist im August 2006 seinem Leiden erlegen. Seine Methoden und Forschungen
haben international die heutigen kulturhistorischen Fragestellungen
und Ansätze entscheidend beeinflusst und geprägt. Dafür sind wir ihm sehr
dankbar.
Die für das Jahr 2007 vorgesehenen Hefte und Sonderbände von Medium
Aevum Quotidianum werden sich einerseits wieder neuen Untersuchungen zu
Alltag und Sachkultur des Mittelalters widmen, welche im nächsten Jahr bei den
wichtigen internationalen Mittelalter-Kongressen von Kalamazoo und Leeds
präsentiert werden. Ein Sonderband wird sich mit dem Aussagegehalt von Testamenten
für eine Geschichte der materiellen Kultur im kleinstädtischen Raum
des Spätmittelalters beschäftigen. Darüber hinaus wird wiederum ein Schwerpunkt
auf die Funktion, Perzeption, Repräsentation und Symbolik von Tieren in
der mittelalterlichen Gesellschaft gelegt werden. Gerade diese Fragestellungen
finden sich augenblicklich häufig in der internationalen kultur- und alltagsgeschichtlichen
Forschung und werden auch in einigen länder- und fächerübergreifenden
Forschungsprojekten kontextualisierend und mit komparativen Methoden
analysiert.
Wieder möchten wir allen Mitgliedern und Freunden von Medium Aevum
Quotidianum für das fortgesetzte Interesse, für die gute Zusammenarbeit und
vielfältige Unterstützung herzlich danken. Wir hoffen, auch im nächsten Jahr
und in weiterer Zukunft dazu beitragen zu können, dass die Geschichte von
6
Alltag und materieller Kultur des Mittelalters mit Hilfe interdisziplinärer Ansätze
und im Rahmen verstärkter internationaler Zusammenarbeit eine anerkannte
Rolle im Rahmen der kritisch analysierenden historischen Wissenschaften
einzunehmen imstande sein wird.
Gerhard Jaritz, Herausgeber