An Irish precursor of Dante : $b a study on the Vision of Heaven and Hell ascribed to the eighth-century Irish saint Adamnán, with translation of the Irish text — Dante Alighieri — John Shaqi
An Irish precursor of Dante : $b a study on the Vision of Heaven and Hell ascribed to the eighth-century Irish saint Adamnán, with translation of the Irish text
Dante Alighieri · en
Our author does not fail to include among the delights of Heaven that
bird-music which is so dear to Irish writers of all ages. The birds of
Heaven are here presented in a twofold manner. In the first place, the
‘bird-choirs of the heavenly folk,’ who mingle with the multitudes who
surround the chosen band standing about the Throne, correspond to the
bird-souls whom the legends commonly place upon the Tree of Life, in
attendance on Enoch and Elijah. There are also the three birds perched
upon the Throne, where they sing the hours, after the usual fashion of
their congeners, beginning with the birds of Magh Mell, in the _Voyage
of Bran_, who, by the way, can only be made to discharge their pious
function at the cost of an anachronism. The birds now in question would
seem to occupy a middle place between the bird-choirs, of which we have
just been speaking, and the great sacred bird which appears in the
mythology of every race of mankind.[165] Similar birds are present in
the earliest and latest stages of Irish myth, from the Dagda’s palace
in the Brug na Boinne to the adaptation of the Phœnix legend which
figures in the Voyage of Maelduin. Probably our author’s choice of the
number three conveys another reference to the Trinity; nevertheless,
three was the number alike of the birds of Oengus in the Brug na
Boinne, and of the eagles seen by Maelduin.
Certain features of our author’s description of Paradise represent
the final stage in the before-mentioned process of refining upon that
conception of the happy Otherworld as a Land of Cockayne, which is
the most conspicuous feature in the primitive Elysium of every race.
In the fragrance of the heavenly land, upon which the blessed sate
themselves while hearkening to the music, and in the sweet savour of
the candles which illumine the city--the candles themselves being
angels in that guise--the old materialistic idea appears to be refined
and spiritualised almost beyond recognition; nevertheless every degree
in the descent--or ascent--from the pigs and apple-trees and ale-vat of
the Dagda can be distinctly traced.[166]