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The Medieval Irish stories about Bricriu's Feast and M a c Datho's Pig 1 This paper is about the literary function and significance of a certain 'archaism' which is to be found in two early-medieval Irish prose nanatives: what is meant by an 'archaism' will be explained presentiy. The two namatives, in the earliest versions of them which w e now have, were written down in monasteries in the twelfth century; and they are parts of the body of heroic fiction known as the Ulster Cycle. They wtil be refened to here as Bricriu's Feast and The Story of Mac Datho's Pig. Both narratives were apparently included in the lists of tales which a qualified story-teller was expected to know and tell.l 'Archaism' in the present context refers to how one can find in Irish documents certain cultural traits and motifs which can be traced in antiquity, but which were still functional—or at least, well-remembered—in early medieval times. For example, the illuminators of the Books of Kells and D u n o w used decorative motifs which had been cunent in the La Tene period; in certain points Irish law resembles the law of ancient India; and Irish poetic metres can be shown to derive directiy from Indo-European patterns.2 Ireland was of course never subject to Roman rule, and hence it is reasonable to suppose that old cultural traits persisted there, in various forms, long after they had been 1 Fled Bricrend: The Feast of Bricriu was edited and translated by George Henderson, Irish Texts Society, 2, London, 1899. (I have not seen the new edition by Proinsias Mac Cana.) Scdla Mucce Meic Dathd ("The Story of Mac Dath6's Pig') was edited by Rudolf Thurneysen, Medieval and Modern Irish Series (MMIS) 6, Dublin, 1935. I have also referred to the edition by N. Kershaw Chadwick in An Early Irish Reader, Cambridge, 1927. All these editions list the manuscript sources. Both narratives are conveniently translated in Ancient Irish Tales, ed. T. P. Cross and C. H. Slover, 2nd edn, N e w York, 1969, pp. 254-80 and 199-207, respectively; the translation of The Story of Mac Dathd's Pig is Kuno Meyer's version of the tale as given in M S Rawlinson B 512; Jeffrey Gantz translates the Book of Leinster version of in Early Irish Myths and Sagas, Harmondsworth, 1981, pp. 179-87. I follow the Henderson and Thurneysen editions for the respective works; and since this paper is mainly intended for readers of medieval literature, discussion of text and textual history is not extensive—The Story of Mac Dathd's Pig is the more fully discussed. For the Irish story-teller and his repertoire, see Proinsias M a c Cana, The Learned Tales of Medieval Ireland, Dublin, 1980. 2 See Myles Dillon, 'The Archaism of Irish Tradition', Proceedings of the British Academy 33 (1947), 245-64; Kenneth H. Jackson, The Oldest Irish Tradition: A Window on the Iron Age, Cambridge, 1964; Myles Dillon and Nora K. Chadwick, The Celtic Realms, 2nd edn, London, 1972, pp. 10-12; and Proinsias Mac Cana, 'Conservation and Innovation in Early Celtic Literature', Etudes Celtiques 13 (1972), 61-119, especially pp. 67-71 and 89-94. 72 B. K. Martin suppressed or superseded elsewhere. Certain traits in medieval Irishfictionalso appear to be 'archaic', and Bricriu's Feast and The Story ofMac Dathd's Pig are often said to be constituted from old Celtic materials. N o w in thefirstcentury B C , the Greek historian Posidonius of Apameia visited Celtic Gaul and recorded things which he saw there; substantial fragments of his observations seem to survive in Diodorus Siculus, Strabo, and Athenaeus. According to this Posidonian tradition, the Gauls were impetuous and warlike people; they drove about in war-chariots, and they took the heads of defeated enemies as trophies. It was a custom at their feasts to award the best portion of meat to the man judged to be the best wanior present. If, however, another warrior at the feast claimed precedence for himself and contested the award of the champion's portion, then the tworivalswould fight the...

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