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Joseph Falaky Nagy

Conversing with Angels and Ancients: Literary Myths of Medieval Ireland Hardcover – August 14, 1997

by Joseph Falaky Nagy (Author)

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How does a written literature come into being within an oral culture, and how does such a literature achieve and maintain its authority? Joseph Falaky Nagy addresses those issues in his wide-ranging reading of the medieval literature of Ireland, from the writings of St. Patrick to the epic tales about the warrior Cú Chulainn. These texts, written in both Latin and Irish, constitute an adventurous and productive experiment in staging confrontations between the written and the spoken, the Christian and the pagan. The early Irish literati, primarily clerics living within a monastic milieu, produced literature that included saints' lives, heroic sagas, law tracts, and other genres. They sought to invest their literature with an authority different from that of the traditions from which they borrowed, native and foreign. To achieve this goal, they cast many of their texts as the outcome of momentous dialogues between saints and angelic messengers or remarkable interviews with the dead, who could reveal some insight from the past that needed to be rediscovered by forgetful contemporaries. Conversing with angels and ancients, medieval Irish writers boldly inscribed their visions of the past onto the new Christian order and its literature. Nagy includes portions of the original Latin and Irish texts that are not readily available to scholars, along with full translations.

Print length

376 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Cornell University Press
Publication date

August 14, 1997
Reading age

18 years and up
Dimensions

6.12 x 1.08 x 9.25 inches
ISBN-10

0801433002
ISBN-13

978-0801433009
Lexile measure

1500L
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"A convincing, absorbing, and challenging analysis.... This book is an essential book for all those involved in the interpretation of Old Irish texts, but it is also a book designed to encourage fresh dialogue, both between scholars and texts, and among scholars themselves. For a work that explores the theme of conversation, there can be no higher recommendation."

― The Medieval Review

"Many interesting points are raised throughout."

― Medium Aevum

About the Author

Joseph Falaky Nagy is Henry L. Shattuck Professor of Irish Studies at Harvard University. He was the founder and first editor of The Celtic Studies of North America Yearbook.

Product details

Publisher : Cornell University Press; Text is Free of Markings edition (August 14, 1997)
Language : English
Hardcover : 376 pages
ISBN-10 : 0801433002
ISBN-13 : 978-0801433009
Reading age : 18 years and up
Lexile measure : 1500L
Item Weight : 0.988 ounces
Dimensions : 6.12 x 1.08 x 9.25 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #6,124,560 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1,225 in Fairy Tales, Folk Tales, Legends & Mythology Literary Criticism
- #3,526 in Mythology (Books)
- #5,757 in Renaissance Literary Criticism (Books)

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4 ratings

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Francine Nicholson

Nagy's insights shine brightly over a sea of controversy

Reviewed in the United States on February 15, 2000

Today, scholars debate the question: what was the real source of the tales about pagan heroes and pre-Christian deities that Irish monks recorded in medieval times? Was the primary source the pre-Christian oral tradition with its Celtic culture and Indo-European roots? Or were the monastic scribes primarily influenced by the Latin sources they acquired from the Continent and Mideast, such as Biblical apocrypha and works of philosophy and nature by authors like Isidore of Seville? Professor Nagy brings to the controversy his careful study of the imagery and motifs used by the monks, showing how the same motifs and treatments were used to recount both saints' lives and hero tales. There are no final answers to the controversy here, but Nagy's insights and scholarship bring clarity to the discussion. NOTE: Readers should have at least some familiarity with the Irish stories.

12 people found this helpful

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Billy Thomas Sullivan

Recommended

Reviewed in the United States on November 25, 2011

Received this book from another priest. It's a truly facinating look at the written Irish Tradition of the middle ages, a fascinating look at the interweaving of Celtic Christian and pagan lore, which is Irish and Scottish Tradition.

2 people found this helpful