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
We have been induced somewhat to anticipate the earliest of the Imrama,
and to give the greater part of the description of Manannán’s Elysium
contained in the Voyage of Bran, in order to present in a single view
the different forms in which the Otherworld was conceived by the
ancient Irish. The story goes on to relate how, the maiden’s song
ended, the branch leapt back again into her hand, and she vanished;
but the glamour was on Bran, and he set forth in his curach across
the sea. Here he meets Manannán Mac Lír, traversing the sea in his
chariot like a veritable Poseidon.[127] The god accosts Bran, and
sings to him a song concerning his Elysian realm beyond the sea. His
description adds but little to that contained in the maiden’s song;
one touch, however, we may note, by reason of its frequent occurrence
in subsequent writings. He speaks of a ‘charming delightful game,’ at
which the denizens play over their wine, ‘men and gentle women beneath
a bush, without sin, without transgression.’ This passage has been
accredited to Christian transcribers; however, the remarks previously
offered in relation to such interpolations in general would seem to
apply to the present case. The very poetical description of the Tír
Tairngire contained in this tale, while thoroughly in accord with the
more primitive legends, though amplified and drawn by a more masterly
hand, is marked by a refinement of imagination and execution more than
sufficient to account for the occurrence of the idea in question,
without any air of incongruity with the rest of the description.[128]
We may add that it seems most unlikely that a Christian scribe would,
if he could, introduce a touch of the kind, when he has not found it
necessary, in this and other legends where the old Irish conception
of the Otherworld has undergone an euhemerising and Christianising
process, to delete the episodes of enchanted dúns and islands where the
wayfarer is refreshed with delights akin to those of the Mohammedan
Paradise.[129] Manannán’s song in the present tale contains a palpable
interpolation of the usual kind, in the form of several stanzas
prophetic of the coming of Christ.