{"id":2501,"date":"2014-02-06T06:46:42","date_gmt":"2014-02-06T06:46:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/snipemedia.com\/?p=2501"},"modified":"2021-12-01T18:59:54","modified_gmt":"2021-12-01T18:59:54","slug":"the-quiet-land","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/weberika.net\/e25-final\/the-quiet-land\/","title":{"rendered":"The Quiet Land"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Quiet Land<\/strong><\/p>\n

The title of this book was inspired by a poem that I quote at the end of the novel.<\/p>\n

In a quiet water\u2019d land, a land of roses,<\/em><\/p>\n

Stands Saint Ciar\u00e1n\u2019s city fair;<\/em><\/p>\n

And the warriors of Erin in their famous generations<\/em><\/p>\n

Slumber there.<\/em><\/p>\n

Written in the fourteenth century, about a hundred years after the novel is set, it captures a sense of the peace that you feel today at Clonmacnoise: \u201cA quiet water\u2019d land, a land of roses.\u201d But beneath that quiet, literally beneath your feet, lie the bones of the great and ferocious warriors of Irish history and legend: \u201cBattle-banners of the Gael that in Kieran\u2019s plain of crosses \/ Now their final hosting keep.\u201d It struck me that this had actually been a most UNquiet Land.<\/em><\/p>\n

The original poem was written in Irish by Angus O\u2019Gillan (also called Aongus \u00d3 Gioll\u00e1in, Enoch O\u2019Gillain, and Enoch o\u2019Gillan), but it is best known from a brilliant late-19th<\/sup> century translation by T.W. (Thomas William Hazen) Rolleston (1857-1920).<\/p>\n

Rolleston\u2019s translation first appeared in William Butler Yeats compilation A Book of Irish Verse,<\/em> published in London in 1895, where Yeats said the poem was \u201cso purely emotional that it must stand an example of the Gaelic lyric come close to perfection.\u201d (Rolleston and Yeats had a complicated relationship; in his memoirs, Yeats called Rolleston his \u201cintimate enemy.\u201d The two would meet at gatherings of Yeats\u2019s London-based \u201cRhymer\u2019s Club,\u201d at \u201cYe Olde Cheshire Cheese\u201d pub in the 1890s.)<\/p>\n

The poem, in the translation by Rolleston, first became widely known when it was included in the 1919 edition of The Oxford Book of English Verse: 1250-1900,<\/em> edited by Arthur Quiller-Couch. This important anthology sold almost a half-million copies in its first edition and was extremely influential in introducing poetry to a new audience at the turn of the twentieth century.<\/p>\n

Rolleston\u2019s source was almost certainly a 19-stanza version of the poem, in Irish and English, which was included in the 1897 Christian Inscriptions in the Irish Language,<\/em> \u201cChiefly Collected and Drawn by George Petrie, and Edited by M. Stokes.\u201d (There is a link below where you can read the complete poem in this version.)<\/p>\n

The antiquarian Petrie found the poem in \u201cthe Rev. Dr. Todd\u2019s list of Irish manuscripts preserved in the Bodleian Library (Rawlinson, B. 486. fol. 29),\u201d which describes the \u201ctribes and persons interred at Clonmacnoise, written by Enoch O\u2019Gillan, who lived on the borders of the River Suck, in the county of Galway.\u201d (The author identifies himself in the last stanza.)*<\/p>\n

Petrie thanked \u201cMr. Wm. M. Hennessy for the translation and notes with which he has enriched it.\u201d I am including an illustration of the first six stanzas with Hennessy\u2019s notes.<\/p>\n

My favorite stanza here, which Rolleston didn\u2019t incorporate into his version is the last one shown on this page:<\/p>\n

\n

Numerous in the secret stronghold<\/em><\/p>\n

Are men of the race of Niall of the Nine Hostages;<\/em><\/p>\n

Men whose fame deserved a bed like the Brugh,<\/em><\/p>\n

Sleeping under the flags of Cluain.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

In his note \u201cg\u201d Hennessy tells us that \u201cmen of the race of Niall of the Nine Hostages\u201d (the famous ancestor of the O\u2019Neil clan), were important enough to have been buried in the great Paleolithic tombs like New Grange, but still chose Clonmacnoise, for the nearness to the relics of St. Ciar\u00e1n. (The word \u201cCluain\u201d is used here as an abbreviation for Clonmacnoise, which is spelled Cluain Mhic N\u00f3is<\/em> in Irish.)<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll let Prof. Gregory A. Schirmer have the last word before I conclude this blog with the complete text of Rolleston\u2019s translation. In his excellent book Out of What Began: A History of Irish Poetry in English, <\/em>Schirmer gives us a perfect context for the Celtic\/Romantic poetry which appeared in the world of Yeats, Lady Gregory, and Douglas Hyde.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat is most striking about this poem, especially in the context of the literary revival\u2019s construction of an Irish past, is the way in which it reads this landscape generally associated with Ireland\u2019s Christian past\u2014Clonmacnoise was once one of the centers of European Christianity\u2014in almost exclusively pagan terms, nearly displacing the monastic community founded by St. Kiernan in the sixth century with the pagan culture that lies buried beneath it. The Dead of Clonmacnoise<\/em> exemplifies the general tendency of the revival to celebrate Ireland\u2019s pagan past at the expense of its Christian one, a strategy of obvious political advantage to a movement directed for the most part by a class alienated from contemporary Irish Catholicism.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is the O\u2019Gillan\/Rolleston poem as it appears in the Oxford Book of English Verse:<\/em><\/p>\n

T. W. Rolleston. b. 1857<\/strong><\/p>\n

849. The Dead at Clonmacnoise<\/strong><\/p>\n

FROM THE IRISH OF ANGUS O’GILLAN<\/strong><\/p>\n

IN a quiet water’d land, a land of roses,
\nStands Saint Kieran’s city fair;
\nAnd the warriors of Erin in their famous generations
\nSlumber there.<\/p>\n

There beneath the dewy hillside sleep the noblest
\nOf the clan of Conn,
\nEach below his stone with name in branching Ogham
\nAnd the sacred knot thereon.<\/p>\n

There they laid to rest the seven Kings of Tara,
\nThere the sons of Cairbr\u00e8 sleep\u2014
\nBattle-banners of the Gael that in Kieran’s plain of crosses
\nNow their final hosting keep.<\/p>\n

And in Clonmacnois they laid the men of Teffia,
\nAnd right many a lord of Breagh;
\nDeep the sod above Clan Creid\u00e8 and Clan Conaill,
\nKind in hall and fierce in fray.<\/p>\n

Many and many a son of Conn the Hundred-Fighter
\nIn the red earth lies at rest;
\nMany a blue eye of Clan Colman the turf covers,
\nMany a swan-white breast.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Note:<\/em><\/strong> O\u2019Gillan and Rolleston each lived for a time within a relatively short distance of Clonmacnoise. O\u2019Gillan identifies himself as originating \u201cby the stream of the Suck,\u201d the river that forms the border between Rosscommon and Galway counties today, and runs into the Shannon just below Clonmacnoise. Rolleston was born in Shinrone, County Offaly, about 25 miles southeast of the monastic ruins.<\/p>\n

Sources:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Christian Inscriptions in the Irish Language,<\/em> \u201cChiefly Collected and Drawn by George Petrie, and Edited by M. Stokes\u201d (Dublin: The University Press for the Royal Historical and Archaeological Association, 1872). This book is now available online at: https:\/\/archive.org\/details\/ChristianInscriptionsInIrishV1\/page\/n9\/mode\/2up<\/a><\/p>\n

Information on Clonmacnoise and this poem are discussed in the very first pages.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Quiet Land The title of this book was inspired by a poem that I quote at the end of the novel. In a quiet water\u2019d land, a land of roses, Stands Saint Ciar\u00e1n\u2019s city fair; And the warriors of Erin in their famous generations Slumber there. Written in the fourteenth century, about a hundred years after the novel is set, it captures a sense of the peace that you feel today at Clonmacnoise: \u201cA quiet water\u2019d land, a land of roses.\u201d But beneath that quiet, literally beneath your feet, lie the bones of the great and ferocious warriors of Irish history and legend: \u201cBattle-banners of the Gael that in Kieran\u2019s plain of crosses \/ Now their final hosting keep.\u201d It struck me that this had actually been a most UNquiet Land. The original poem was written in Irish by Angus O\u2019Gillan (also called Aongus \u00d3 Gioll\u00e1in, Enoch O\u2019Gillain, and Enoch o\u2019Gillan), but it is best known from a brilliant late-19th century translation by T.W. (Thomas William Hazen) Rolleston (1857-1920). Rolleston\u2019s translation first appeared in William Butler Yeats compilation A Book of Irish Verse, published in London in 1895, where Yeats said the poem was \u201cso purely emotional that it must stand an example of the Gaelic lyric come close to perfection.\u201d (Rolleston and Yeats had a complicated relationship; in his memoirs, Yeats called Rolleston his \u201cintimate enemy.\u201d The two would meet at gatherings of Yeats\u2019s London-based \u201cRhymer\u2019s Club,\u201d at \u201cYe Olde Cheshire Cheese\u201d pub in the 1890s.) The poem, in the translation by Rolleston, first became widely known when it was included in the 1919 edition of The Oxford Book of English Verse: 1250-1900, edited by Arthur Quiller-Couch. This important anthology sold almost a half-million copies in its first edition and was extremely influential in introducing poetry to a new audience at the turn of the twentieth century. Rolleston\u2019s source was almost certainly a 19-stanza version of the poem, in Irish and English, which was included in the 1897 Christian Inscriptions in the Irish Language, \u201cChiefly Collected and Drawn by George Petrie, and Edited by M. Stokes.\u201d (There is a link below where you can read the complete poem in this version.) The antiquarian Petrie found the poem in \u201cthe Rev. Dr. Todd\u2019s list of Irish manuscripts preserved in the Bodleian Library (Rawlinson, B. 486. fol. 29),\u201d which describes the \u201ctribes and persons interred at Clonmacnoise, written by Enoch O\u2019Gillan, who lived on the borders of the River Suck, in the county of Galway.\u201d (The author identifies himself in the last stanza.)* Petrie thanked \u201cMr. Wm. M. Hennessy for the translation and notes with which he has enriched it.\u201d I am including an illustration of the first six stanzas with Hennessy\u2019s notes. My favorite stanza here, which Rolleston didn\u2019t incorporate into his version is the last one shown on this page: Numerous in the secret stronghold Are men of the race of Niall of the Nine Hostages; Men whose fame deserved a bed like the Brugh, Sleeping under the flags of Cluain. In his note \u201cg\u201d Hennessy tells us that \u201cmen of the race of Niall of the Nine Hostages\u201d (the famous ancestor of the O\u2019Neil clan), were important enough to have been buried in the great Paleolithic tombs like New Grange, but still chose Clonmacnoise, for the nearness to the relics of St. Ciar\u00e1n. (The word \u201cCluain\u201d is used here as an abbreviation for Clonmacnoise, which is spelled Cluain Mhic N\u00f3is in Irish.) I\u2019ll let Prof. Gregory A. Schirmer have the last word before I conclude this blog with the complete text of Rolleston\u2019s translation. In his excellent book Out of What Began: A History of Irish Poetry in English, Schirmer gives us a perfect context for the Celtic\/Romantic poetry which appeared in the world of Yeats, Lady Gregory, and Douglas Hyde. \u201cWhat is most striking about this poem, especially in the context of the literary revival\u2019s construction of an Irish past, is the way in which it reads this landscape generally associated with Ireland\u2019s Christian past\u2014Clonmacnoise was once one of the centers of European Christianity\u2014in almost exclusively pagan terms, nearly displacing the monastic community founded by St. Kiernan in the sixth century with the pagan culture that lies buried beneath it. The Dead of Clonmacnoise exemplifies the general tendency of the revival to celebrate Ireland\u2019s pagan past at the expense of its Christian one, a strategy of obvious political advantage to a movement directed for the most part by a class alienated from contemporary Irish Catholicism.\u201d This is the O\u2019Gillan\/Rolleston poem as it appears in the Oxford Book of English Verse: T. W. Rolleston. b. 1857 849. The Dead at Clonmacnoise FROM THE IRISH OF ANGUS O’GILLAN IN a quiet water’d land, a land of roses, Stands Saint Kieran’s city fair; And the warriors of Erin in their famous generations Slumber there. There beneath the dewy hillside sleep the noblest Of the clan of Conn, Each below his stone with name in branching Ogham And the sacred knot thereon. There they laid to rest the seven Kings of Tara, There the sons of Cairbr\u00e8 sleep\u2014 Battle-banners of the Gael that in Kieran’s plain of crosses Now their final hosting keep. And in Clonmacnois they laid the men of Teffia, And right many a lord of Breagh; Deep the sod above Clan Creid\u00e8 and Clan Conaill, Kind in hall and fierce in fray. Many and many a son of Conn the Hundred-Fighter In the red earth lies at rest; Many a blue eye of Clan Colman the turf covers, Many a swan-white breast. Note: O\u2019Gillan and Rolleston each lived for a time within a relatively short distance of Clonmacnoise. O\u2019Gillan identifies himself as originating \u201cby the stream of the Suck,\u201d the river that forms the border between Rosscommon and Galway counties today, and runs into the Shannon just below Clonmacnoise. Rolleston was born in Shinrone, County Offaly, about 25 miles southeast of the monastic ruins. Sources: Christian Inscriptions in the Irish Language, \u201cChiefly Collected and Drawn by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6650,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2,84],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/weberika.net\/e25-final\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2501"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/weberika.net\/e25-final\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/weberika.net\/e25-final\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/weberika.net\/e25-final\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/weberika.net\/e25-final\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2501"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/weberika.net\/e25-final\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2501\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6655,"href":"http:\/\/weberika.net\/e25-final\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2501\/revisions\/6655"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/weberika.net\/e25-final\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6650"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/weberika.net\/e25-final\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/weberika.net\/e25-final\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/weberika.net\/e25-final\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}