--- title: Early Bardic Literature, Ireland., part 5 — Early Bardic Literature, Ireland. · full text with trees description: Early Bardic Literature, Ireland., part 5, «Early Bardic Literature, Ireland.» by Standish O'Grady: the whole chapter, every sentence with its dependency tree and pragmatics. It begins: "Oscar, who never wronged bard or woman." --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg8109/5/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Early Bardic Literature, Ireland.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg8109/) / Early Bardic Literature, Ireland., par… # Early Bardic Literature, Ireland., part 5 Early Bardic Literature, Ireland., part 5 of «Early Bardic Literature, Ireland.» by Standish O'Grady: the whole text, 91 sentences and 2581 words. The small number after every sentence leads to its own page with its syntax tree and pragmatics, parsed by Mova itself. **1** [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg8109/5/page/2/) "Oscar, who never wronged bard or woman."[1](1/ "tree and pragmatics") Strange to say, too, they inculcated chastity (see p. 257; vol. i.), an allusion taken from the "youthful adventures of Cuculain," Leabhar na Huidhre.[2](2/ "tree and pragmatics") The following ancient rann contains the four qualifications of a bard:--[3](3/ "tree and pragmatics") "Purity of hand, bright, without wounding, Purity of mouth, without poisonous satire, Purity of learning, without reproach, Purity, as a husband, in wedlock."[4](4/ "tree and pragmatics") Moreover, through all this literature sounds a high clear note of chivalry, in this contrasting favourably with the Iliad, where no man foregoes an advantage.[5](5/ "tree and pragmatics") Cuculain having slain the sons of Neara, "thought it unworthy of him to take possession of their chariot and horses."[6](6/ "tree and pragmatics") \[Note: P. 155; vol. i.\] Goll Mac Morna, in the Fenian or Ossianic cycle, declares to Conn Cedcathah \[Note: Conn of the hundred battles.\] that from his youth up he never attacked an enemy by night or under any disadvantage, and many times we read of heroes preferring to die rather than outrage their geisa.[7](7/ "tree and pragmatics") \[Note: Certain vows taken with their arms on being knighted.\][8](8/ "tree and pragmatics") A noble literature indeed it is, having too this strange interest, that though mainly characterised by a great plainness and simplicity of thought, and, in the earlier stages, of expression, we feel, oftentimes, a sudden weirdness, a strange glamour shoots across the poem when the tale seems to open for a moment into mysterious depths, druidic secrets veiled by time, unsunned caves of thought, indicating a still deeper range of feeling, a still lower and wider reach of imagination.[9](9/ "tree and pragmatics") A youth came once to the Fianna Eireen encamped at Locha Lein \[Note: The Lakes of Killarney.\], leading a hound dazzling white, like snow.[10](10/ "tree and pragmatics") It was the same, the bard simply states, that was once a yew tree, flourishing fifty summers in the woods of Ioroway.[11](11/ "tree and pragmatics") Elsewhere, he is said to have been more terrible than the sun upon his flaming wheels.[12](12/ "tree and pragmatics") What meant this yew tree and the hound?[13](13/ "tree and pragmatics") Stray allusions I have met, but no history.[14](14/ "tree and pragmatics") The spirit of Coelte, visiting one far removed in time from the great captain of the Fianna, with a different name and different history, cries:--[15](15/ "tree and pragmatics") "I was with thee, with Finn"--[16](16/ "tree and pragmatics") giving no explanation.[17](17/ "tree and pragmatics") To MacPherson, however, I will do this justice, that he had the merit to perceive, even in the debased and floating ballads of the highlands, traces of some past greatness and sublimity of thought, and to understand, he, for the first time, how much more they meant than what met the ear.[18](18/ "tree and pragmatics") But he saw, too, that the historical origin of the ballads, and the position in time and place of the heroes whom they praised, had been lost in that colony removed since the time of St. Columba from its old connection with the mother country.[19](19/ "tree and pragmatics") Thus released from the curb of history, he gave free rein to the imagination, and in the conventional literary language of sublimity, gave full expression to the feelings that arose within him, as to him, pondering over those ballads, their gigantesque element developed into a greatness and solemnity, and their vagueness and indeterminateness into that misty immensity and weird obscurity which, as constituent factors in a poem, not as back-ground, form one of the elements of the false sublime.[20](20/ "tree and pragmatics") Either not seeing the literary necessity of definiteness, or having no such abundant and ordered literature as we possess, upon which to draw for details, and being too conscientious to invent facts, however he might invent language, he published his epics of Ossian--false indeed to the original, but true to himself, and to the feelings excited by meditation upon them.[21](21/ "tree and pragmatics") This done, he had not sufficient courage to publish also the rude, homely, and often vulgar ballads--a step which, in that hard critical age, would have been to expose himself and his country to swift contempt.[22](22/ "tree and pragmatics") The thought of the great lexicographer riding rough-shod over the poor mountain songs which he loved, and the fame which he had already acquired, deterred and dissuaded him, if he had ever any such intention, until the opportunity was past.[23](23/ "tree and pragmatics") MacPherson feared English public opinion, and fearing lied.[24](24/ "tree and pragmatics") He declared that to be a translation which was original work, thus relegating himself for ever to a dubious renown, and depriving his country of the honest fame of having preserved through centuries, by mere oral transmission, a portion, at least, of the antique Irish literature.[25](25/ "tree and pragmatics") To the magnanimity of his own heroes he could not attain:--[26](26/ "tree and pragmatics") "Oscar, Oscar, who feared not armies-- Oscar, who never lied."[27](27/ "tree and pragmatics") Of some such error as MacPherson's I have myself, with less excuse, been guilty, in chapters xi. and xii., Vol. I., where I attempt to give some conception of the character of the Ossianic cycle.[28](28/ "tree and pragmatics") The age and the heroes around whom that cycle revolves have, in the history of Ireland, a definite position in time; their battles, characters, several achievements, relationships, and pedigrees; their Duns, and trysting-places, and tombs; their wives, musicians, and bards; their tributes, and sufferings, and triumphs; their internecine and other wars--are all fully and clearly described in the Ossianic cycle.[29](29/ "tree and pragmatics") They still remain demanding adequate treatment, when we arrive at the age of Conn \[Note: See page 20.\], Art, and Cormac, kings of Tara in the second and third centuries of the Christian era.[30](30/ "tree and pragmatics") All have been forgotten for the sake of a vague representation of the more sublime aspects of the cycle, and the meretricious seductions of a form of composition easy to write and easy to read, and to which the unwary or unwise often award praise to which it has no claim.[31](31/ "tree and pragmatics") On the other hand, chapter xi. purports only to be a representation of the feelings excited by this literature, and for every assertion there is authority in the cycle.[32](32/ "tree and pragmatics") Chapter xii., however, is a translation from the original.[33](33/ "tree and pragmatics") Every idea which it contains, except one, has been taken from different parts of the Ossianic poems, and all together expressthe graver attitude of the mind of Ossian towards the new faith.[34](34/ "tree and pragmatics") That idea, occurring in a separate paragraph in the middle of the page, though prevalent as a sentiment throughout all the conversations of Ossian with St. Patrick, has been, as it stands, taken from a meditation on life by St. Columbanus, one of the early Irish Saints--a meditation which, for subtle thought, for musical resigned sadness, tender brooding reflection, and exquisite Latin, is one of the masterpieces of mediaeval composition.[35](35/ "tree and pragmatics") To the casual reader of the bardic literature the preservation of an ordered historical sequence, amidst that riotous wealth of imaginative energy, may appear an impossibility.[36](36/ "tree and pragmatics") Can we believe that forestine luxuriance not to have overgrown all highways, that flood of superabundant song not have submerged all landmarks?[37](37/ "tree and pragmatics") Be the cause what it may, the fact remains that they did not.[38](38/ "tree and pragmatics") The landmarks of history stand clear and fixed, each in its own place unremoved; and through that forest-growth the highways of history run on beneath over-arching, not interfering, boughs.[39](39/ "tree and pragmatics") The age of the predominance of Ulster does not clash with the age of the predominance of Tara; the Temairian kings are not mixed with the contemporary Fians.[40](40/ "tree and pragmatics") The chaos of the Nibelungen is not found here, nor the confusion of the Scotch ballads blending all the ages into one.[41](41/ "tree and pragmatics") It is not imaginative strength that produces confusion, but imaginative weakness.[42](42/ "tree and pragmatics") The strong imagination which perceives definitely and realises vividly will not tolerate that obscurity so dear to all those who worship the eidola of the cave.[43](43/ "tree and pragmatics") Of each of these ages, the primary impressions were made in the bardic mind during the life-time of the heroes who gave to the epoch its character; and a strong impression made in such a mind could not have been easily dissipated or obscured.[44](44/ "tree and pragmatics") For it must be remembered, that the bardic literature of Ireland was committed to the custody of guardians whose character we ought not to forget.[45](45/ "tree and pragmatics") The bards were not the people, but a class.[46](46/ "tree and pragmatics") They were not so much a class as an organisation and fraternity acknowledging the authority of one elected chief.[47](47/ "tree and pragmatics") They were not loose wanderers, but a power in the State, having duties and privileges.[48](48/ "tree and pragmatics") The ard-ollav ranked next to the king, and his eric was kingly.[49](49/ "tree and pragmatics") Thus there was an educated body of public opinion entrusted with the preservation of the literature and history of the country, and capable of repressing the aberrations of individuals.[50](50/ "tree and pragmatics") **1** [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg8109/5/page/2/) - ← previous: [Early Bardic Literature, Ireland., part 4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg8109/4/) - next →: [page 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg8109/5/page/2/) - ↑ back to [Early Bardic Literature, Ireland.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg8109/)