The Midnight Court / Cúirt an Mheán Oíche: A Critical Edition

Glossary

99 Glossary Agallamh beirte: A traditional Irish-language oral art in the form of a poetic dialogue in which fluency of language, rhythm, and rhyming structures are paramount. The tone is usually humorous or satirical. Aisling: A “vision poem,” a poetic genre popular in Ireland in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries closely linked with Jacobite politics. Typically the poet encounters a spéirbhean—a beautiful young woman—who promises the return of the exiled Stuart king, restoration of his reign, and a renewal of prosperity for both nation and poet. Aoibheall: Pronounced “evil,” anglicized as Aeval; the fairy queen and protector of the Dál gCais sept in County Clare. She is associated with the province of Munster and with Craglee (County Clare) in particular. “Her name meant ‘sparkling’ or ‘bright’ and reflects a common attribute of goddesses in ancient Irish culture. The twelfth century tract on king Brian Boru states that on the night before the battle of Clontarf, Aoibheall appeared to him and foretold he would be killed in that contest and that the first of his sons whom he would see on that day would succeed him as king. The post-medieval poets numbered Aoibheall as one of the principal otherworld women of Munster” (Ó hÓgáin 1991, 38). See also MacKillop (1998, 5). Aoibheall also appears in Donncha Ruadh mac Conmara’s famous Irish-language poem, Eachtra Ghiolla an Amaráin/ Adventures of a Luckless Fellow. Glossary 100 Bacchanalia: A religious festival honoring the wine god Dionysus/Bacchus and associated with drunken revelry. Initially restricted to women, men were later admitted in Roman times. Alcohol does not feature in Cúirt an Mheán Oíche. Frank O’Connor’s translation was entitled a rhythmical bacchanalia. Barántas: A literary genre framed as a legal warrant, or summons, that was usually humorous and witty. The offender, crime, judge, details of trial, and proposed punishment are discussed in bombastic style. Usually commences with the legalistic term Whereas. For further information see The Oxford Companion to Irish Literature, 1996. See also An Barántas and “The Poetic Warrant” (Ó Fiannachta 1978 and 1991). Burns, Robert (1759–96): The best-known poet to have written in the Scots language. Regarded as a pioneer of the Romantic Movement. Chaplinesque: Referring to British-born silent movie star, Charlie Chaplin (1889–1977) and his innovative comedic style. County Clare: One of the six counties of the province of Munster. The others are Cork, Kerry, Limerick, Tipperary, and Waterford. Court of Love Poetry: Medieval European poetic convention distinguished between erotic love and spiritual attainment. Courtly love poetry viewed women as an ennobling spiritual and moral force, but this view contradicted ecclesiastical sexual attitudes. Such poets praised romantic love as the highest good in contrast to clerics who considered romantic and sexual love as sinful. From 1100 to 1300 A.D., such love poetry prevailed in the courts of England and Europe. Courts of Love: Medieval troubadours describe such courts as deciding affairs of the heart and determining rights and wrongs of lovers’ lives. Tribunals of ten to seventy women heard cases of love and passed judgment Glossary 101 based on the “rules of love.” Nineteenth-century historians accepted their existence, but later historians question this presumption. Courts of Poetry: See Cúirt Éigse. Craglee: Anglicized form of Léithchraig, the reputed home of Aoibheall, the fairy queen of Munster, in folk belief. See MacKillop 1998. Cratloe: Anglicized form of Creatlach, a village and townland in the parish of Kilfintinan, barony of Bunratty Lower, on the road from Feakle to Limerick city. Cúirt(eanna) Éigse (Court[s] of Poetry): As was common in eighteenthcentury Munster, poets convened in a public venue for annual or biannual meetings that often coincided with holy days or fair days. At such gatherings poets performed new compositions and exchanged manuscripts. Established poets received validation while younger poets sought recognition . David Dickson suggests, “Their rituals seem to have been inspired less by the old bardic schools than by the formal procedures of the quarter sessions, the court ‘president’ acting like a presiding magistrate. But what was important about these events was that in the absence of upper-class or institutional patronage and with the fragmentation of the traditional literary families, they conserved a vestigial esprit de corps among the heterogeneous collection of schoolmasters, priests, land agents and well-to-do farmers who participated, helping to maintain standards of...