Irish Bardic Revolution & Its Letter Changes 1200 CE

Some of the Irish phrases which Christopher Nugent gave to Queen Elizabeth I around 1570. This shows how the Irish letters and thus writing had changed from Druid Akkadian into Irish Celtic.

Transliteration of the Irish

Coner ta tu
Taim go mash
Go po mash agad
In eolor, t gealug
do lauairt
Abair ladden
Dia leriuean
arona

Post Bardic Word Definitions From This List

tu = you (straight from Latin)
go = I ("for" in modern Irish)
in = you? (formal)
do = do ("for" in modern Irish)
gealug = enlighten? ("bright" in modern Irish)
eolor = direct ("direct" in modern Irish)
abair = say (also modern Irish)
lauairt = Irish
ladden = Latin
dia = God (straight from Latin, also modern Irish)
leriuean = lend aid ("lends" in modern Irish)

So a person "does Irish" but "speaks Latin."

Reference

Shane Angland (June 2, 2012) Queen Elizabeth II and the Nugent Primer. Online at: http://anglandicus.blogspot.com/2012/06/queen-elizabeth-ii-and-nugent-primer.html

Anglo-Normans Take Over Ireland And Effectively Suppress Druid Culture

(November 18, 2024, updated December 25, 2024) In May 1169, Anglo-Norman mercenaries landed in Ireland at the request of Diarmait mac Murchada (Dermot MacMurragh) who was the deposed King of Leinster. He sought their help in regaining his kingship. They achieved this within weeks and raided neighboring kingdoms. This military intervention was sanctioned by King Henry II of England. In return, Diarmait had sworn loyalty to Henry and promised land to the Normans.

In October 1171, King Henry landed with a large army to assert control over both the Anglo-Normans and the Irish. This intervention was supported by the Roman Catholic Church who saw it as a means of suppressing Druidry, suppressing the still fairly independent Irish Christian church, and way of gaining tax revenue.

Henry granted Strongbow Leinster as a fiefdom, declared the Norse-Irish towns to be crown land, and arranged the synod of Cashel to take over the Irish church. Many Irish kings also submitted to him, likely in the hope that he would curb Norman expansion, but Henry granted the unconquered kingdom of Meath to Hugh de Lacy. After Henry's departure in 1172, fighting between the Normans and Irish continued.

The 1175 Treaty of Windsor acknowledged Henry as overlord of the conquered territory and Ruaidrí as overlord of the remainder of Ireland, with Ruaidrí also swearing fealty to Henry. The treaty soon collapsed: Norman lords continued to invade Irish kingdoms and the Irish continued to attack the Normans. In 1177, Henry adopted a new policy. He declared his son John to be the "Lord of Ireland" (i.e. claiming the whole island) and authorised the Norman lords to conquer more land. The territory they held became the Lordship of Ireland, part of the Angevin Empire. The Normans' success has been attributed to military superiority and castle-building, the lack of a unified opposition from the Irish and the support of the church for Henry's intervention.

After this takeover of Ireland the Norman lords wanted to secure their lands by appearing Irish. It was then they started supporting local bards and marrying into noble Irish families. But the bards. by using Druid Akkadian phrases as names in their stories helped preserve the old ways in their tales while at the same time providing a deeper level of meaning to these stories to those listeners still familiar with the old ways.

References

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglo-Norman_invasion_of_Ireland

Irish letters after the Bardic Revolution - 1570

Queen Elizabeth I (1533-1603) wanted to learn a few Irish phrases to learn at court. Christopher Nugent, (1544–1602, born into Norman/Irish nobility in Ireland and appointed a Baron by Elizabeth), obliged her and wrote a manuscript outlining the history of the Irish language, its alphabet and a list of phrases with Latin and English translation.
The top row gives the 27 letters of Irish alphabet at the time while the bottom list shows the Norman/English equivalents where they exist. The Irish alphabet is: A B C D E F G H I K L M N O P Q R Š S T U V X Y Z , G2 Th Amen
The top row list has been simplified relative to the Druid Akkadian letters found in the 1100's version of the Lebor na hUidre shown in the Northern Lineage Rune Chart below.
The Akkadian runic letter "ayin" has become an /o/ while all the original /s/ type letters were replaced with the Latin S. The runic letter /p/ has become /f/ while the runic /r/ has become /p/. The runic letter /r/ now has the Latin form.
The runic letter /c/ has now become one of the /c/ sounds while another /c/ sound is represented by /k/ which is written as a Latin capital "B." which is probably mean to represent the sound of a modern /j/.

Reference

Shane Angland (June 2, 2012) Queen Elizabeth II and the Nugent Primer. Online at: http://anglandicus.blogspot.com/2012/06/queen-elizabeth-ii-and-nugent-primer.html

Lebor na hUidre MS 23 E 25 (Scanned images). Online at Irish Scripts Onscreen: https://www.isos.dias.ie/RIA/RIA_MS_23_E_25.html#2

The 2 Written Irish Language Changes

(November 19, 2024) The letters of the Irish alphabet have undergone 2 major sound reassignments as it morphed from Druid Akkadian into modern Irish. The first was when the letters were adapted to local spoken Irish from Druid Akkadian shortly after the Normans conquered the country around 1175 CE. The second was the government sponsored reform which took place between 1947 and 1958.

The official standard name for Irish is Gaeilge. Before the 1947 t0 1958 spelling reform, this was spelled Gaedhilge. The language of the medieval Irish literature after the Bardic Revolution of was called Gaoidhealg. Old Irish Akkadian was Goídelc (Ga'u-IDu-ELu-Ku meaning in Akkadian "breaking-through the channeling of the high-life-power's involvement." This indicates that when this writing was named it was thought to have magical powers.).

The post-bardic Irish language which survived in rural parts of the country were different from each other (being locally derived) and different from the post-Norman medieval Irish of the literary texts. This modern reform merged the dialects and simplified its spelling and pronunciation. The reformed language was called the Caighdeán Oifigiúil, "the modern standard." The reform removed inter-dialectal silent letters, simplified some letter sequences, and modernized archaic spellings to reflect modern pronunciation. It also removed letters pronounced in some dialects but not in others.

References

Ó Siadhail, M. (1981). Standard Irish Orthography: An Assessment. The Crane Bag, 5(2), 71–75. http://www.jstor.org/stable/30060637

The 18 letters of traditional Irish from one surviving branch before the modern alphabet reform between 1947 and 1958. Compared to the Elizabethan era the alphabet had drastically shrunk indicating that much of the original Druid Akkadian derived Irish language had been lost.

Reference

Joyce, Patrick Weston (1878) A grammar of the Irish language for the use of schools. Online at: https://archive.org/details/grammarofirishla00joycrich/mode/2up?ref=ol

Province of Connaught, Ireland is along the wild and hilly west coast.

Bardic Tale "Tain Bo Fraich" Used For Dating the Group

The oldest manuscript authority for the Tain bo Fraich is the Book of Leinster, written before 1150. There are at least two other manuscripts, one in Egerton, 1782 (published by Professor Kuno Meyer in the Zeitschrift fur Celt Philologie, 1902); the other is in MS. XL., Advocates' Library, Edinburgh (published in the Revue Celtique, Vol. XXIV.).
The tale consists of two parts. The first and longer portion, gives the adventures of Fraech at the court of Ailill and Maev of Connaught, his courtship of their daughter, Finnabar, and closes with a promised betrothal. The second part is an account of an expedition undertaken by Fraech to the Alps " in the north of the land of the Long-Beards," to recover stolen cattle, as well as "his wife." In later bardic tales Fraech was one of the first of the Connaught champions to be killed by Cuchulain in the war of Cualnge.
Except for one short reference at the end of the 2nd part no connection exists between the two parts. The small reference in the 2nd part is that Fraech did, as he had promised in the first part, join Ailill and Maev upon the War of Cualnge. Their style is also much different. The first part has one of the most complicated plot of any Irish romance. It abounds in brilliant descriptions and while being in prose feels highly poetic. The second part is a straight-forward, rapid action adventure story.
Because the second part of the story contain so many references to nations outside Ireland it can be dated. Fraech and his companions go over the sea from Ulster, i.e. to Scotland; then through "north Saxon-land " to the sea of Icht (i.e. the sea of Wight or the Enghsh Channel) ; then to the Alps in the north of the land of the Long-Beards or Lombards. The Long -Beards do not appear in Italy until the end of the sixth century. The mention of North Saxon-Land reaching down to the sea of Wight suggests that there was then a South Saxon-Land also. This dates the story to before the end of the 700's, when both Saxons and Long-Beards were overcome by Charlemagne.

MORTAL CHARACTORS IN STORY

Ailill -King of Connaught. (an actual historical figure as confirmed in other records who ruled Connaught from 445–482) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_kings_of_Connacht
Medb or Maev - Queen of Connaught.
Findabar or Finnabar - their daughter.
Froech or Fraecli - pronounced "Fraych," son of a Connaught "man and a fairy mother.
Conall Cernach- meaning "Conall the Victorious," champion of Ulster.
Two Irish Women - in captivity in the Alps, north of Lombardy.
Lothar or Lothnr - a follower of Fraech.
Bicne - a follower of Conall.

SPIRITS IN STORY

Befind, -Fraech's fairy mother.
Boand - pronounced like "owned," sister to Befind; Queen of the Fairies.
Three Fairy Harpers.

Earliest Irish Bardic Tales Involving Morrigan - 800 CE But Involving Earlier Information

(October 7, 2023) "Morrigan" is an Akkadian epithet from Ireland for the Druid Goddess Kate/Hekate. The epithet is the Akkadian phrase M.RaG.N meaning "The Fertility-fluid's.False.Empowerment." Fertility-fluids were the transmission medium for the spiritual life powers. Consequently, this epithet emphasizes Kate/Hekate's association with death.

The earliest set of surviving Irish Bardic Tales involve the movement or flow (Irish word "tain") of cattle which was the main indicator of a chiefdom's wealth. The "Great Tain," (Táin Bó Cúailnge) is the central story of the Irish Heroic Age. This was accompanied by 14 "Lesser Tains," 3 of which are lost. The surviving ones are: the Tain bo Aingen, Dartada, Flidais, Fraich, Munad, Regamon, Regamna, Ros, Ruanadh, Sailin, and Ere. Dating is provided by the Tain Bó Fraich while the goddess Morrigan is mention in the Táin Bó Regamna and the Táin Bó Cúailnge, both which involve the ancient Irish province of Connaught (Connacht) raiding Ulster who fights back with their hero Cúchulainn. Connaught (Connacht) was a hilly, wild and economically poor western province of Ireland.

Táin Bó Regamna

In the Táin Bó Regamna, Cúchulainn encounters Morrígan but does not recognize her as she drives a magical heifer from what he thinks is his territory.

This story is found in the same two manuscripts that also record the Tain bo Dartada and the Tain bo Regamon ; namely the Yellow Book of Lecan, and Egerton 1782. According to traditional scholarship its title of Tain bo Regamna is not connected with anything in the story. Yet "Regamna" is the Akkadian phrase RaG.M.N meaning "The falseness of.fertility-fluid.powers." so it does actually refer to Morrigan.

Here is the core of the story (starting at page 132 of Leahy, 1902):

They went out thereupon till they came to Ath da Ferta. When they were there, straightway they heard the rattle of a chariot from the quarter of the loamy district of Culgaire. Then they saw the chariot come before them, and one chestnut (lit. red) horse in it. The horse was one- footed, and the pole of the chariot passed through the body of the horse, till a wedge went through it, to make it fast on its forehead. A red ^ woman was in the chariot, and a red mantle about her, she had two red eye-brows, and the mantle fell between the two ferta'^ of her chariot behind till it struck upon the ground behind her. A great man was beside her chariot, a red ^ cloak was upon him, and a forked staff of hazel at his back, he drove a cow in front of him.
"That cow is not joyful at being driven by you!" said Cuchulain.
"The cow does not belong to you," said the woman, "she is not the cow of any friend or acquaintance of yours."
" The cows of Ulster," said Cuchulain, " are my proper (care)." ......
I am a female satirist in truth," she said, " and he is Daire mac Fiachna from Cualnge : I have brought the cow as fee for a master-poem."
" Let me hear the poem then," said Cuchulain.
"Only remove thyself from me," said the woman ; " it is none the better for thee that thou shakest it over my head."
Thereon he left her until he was between the two poles of her chariot, and she sang to him. And the song was a song of insult. Again at the car he sprang, But nothing he found before him. As soon as the car he had neared, The woman, the horse, and the chariot, the cow, and the man disappeared.
Then he saw that she had become a black bird upon a branch near to him. "A dangerous ^ (or magical) woman thou art," said Cuchulain. " Henceforward," said the woman, " this clay-land shall be called dollnid (of evil,)" and it has been the Grellach Dolluid ever since.
''If only I had known it was you," said Cuchulain, " not thus should we have separated."
" What thou hast done," said she, " shall be evil to thee from it."
" Thou hast no power against me," said Cuchulain."
I have power indeed," said the woman ; " it is at the guarding of thy death that I am and I shall be," said she. "I brought this cow out of the fairy-mound of Cruachan, that she might breed by the Black Bull of Cualnge, that is the Bull of Daire macFiachna. It is up to that time that thou have to live, so long as the calf which is in this cow's body is a yearling. And it is this that shall lead to the Tain bo Cualnge.

Táin Bó Cúailnge

In the Táin Bó Cúailnge, Queen Medb of Connacht launches an invasion of Ulster to steal the bull Donn Cuailnge. Morrígan appears to the bull in the form of a crow and warns him to flee. Cúchulainn then defends Ulster by fighting a series of single combats at fords against Medb's champions. In between combats, the Morrígan appears to him as a young woman and offers him her love and her aid in the battle, but he rejects her offer. In response, she intervenes in his next combat, first in the form of an eel who trips him, then as a wolf who stampedes cattle across the ford, and finally as a white, red-eared heifer leading the stampede, just as she had warned in their previous encounter. However, Cúchulainn wounds her in each form and defeats his opponent despite her interference. Later, she appears to him as an old woman bearing the same three wounds that her animal forms had sustained, milking a cow. She gives Cúchulainn three drinks of milk. He blesses her with each drink, and her wounds are healed. He regrets blessing her for the three drinks of milk, which is apparent in the exchange between the Morrígan and Cúchulainn: "She gave him milk from the third teat, and her leg was healed. 'You told me once,' she said,'that you would never heal me.' 'Had I known it was you,' said Cúchulainn, 'I never would have.'"As the armies gather for the final battle, she prophesies the bloodshed to come.

Reference

A. H. Leahy, translator (1902) HEROIC ROMANCES OF IRELAND VOL. II Late Fellow of Pembroke College, Cambridge. With Preface, Notes, and Literal Translations. Illustrations by Caroline Watts. Ballantyne Press. Online at: https://archive.org/stream/heroicromancesof02leah/heroicromancesof02leah_djvu.txt

Remarks (Remscela) On the Tain Bo Fraich Found With Various Later Copies.

These are expressly stated in the text to be "remscela" to the Great Tain (Indo-European "Great Flow" with "flow" being an epithet for anything the flows such as cattle, sheep, river water). The word "remscela" is indo-European meaning "remarks on the scheme."

When to an Irish court of old,
Came men who flocked from near and far
To hear the ancient tale that told of
Cuchulain's deeds in Cualgnes War
Often to hear that famous tale for fun
Before their chief bard they would hail.
Amid the throng some lesser man
Arose to tell a lighter tale;
Had to tell how Maev and Ailill planned
Their mighty hosts might best be fed
When they towards the Cualgne land
All Ireland's swarming armies led;
How Maev the youthful princes sent
To harry warlike Regamon,
How they, who trembling from her went,
His daughters and his cattle won;

How Ailill's guile gained Dartas' cattle,
How vengeful fairies marked that deed;
How Fergus won his royal spouse
Whose cattle all Ireland's hosts could be fed;
How in a form grotesque and weird,
Cuchulain found a Power Divine;
On how shapes of beasts appeared
The Magic Men, who kept the Swine;
Or how the rowan's (a tree) guardian snake
Was roused by order of the king;
Or how, from out the water, Fraech
To Finnabar restored her ring.
And though, in greater tales, they chose
Speech mixed with song, men's hearts to sway,
Such themes as these they told in prose,
Like speakers at the festivals to-day.
To men who spoke the Irish tongue
That form of prose was pleasing well.
While other lands in ballads sung
Such tales as these have loved to tell:

So we, who now in English dress
These Irish tales would fain rehearse.
And seek their spirit to express,
Have set them down in ballad verse;
And, though to Celts the form be strange.
Seek not too much the change to blame;
' Tts but the form alone we change ;
The sense, the spirit rest the same.

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