Resumen
Resumen de Selecciones de la poesía irlandesa antigua
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This book will delight lovers of nature poetry, Celtic myth and early Christian prayer, and anyone who enjoys short pieces to read aloud.
De qué trata este libro
A woman in strange clothes stands inside a closed fort. No one saw her come in, because the ramparts are shut. She holds a silver apple branch and sings to Bran of an island where there is no grief, no sickness and no death. Then she tells him to put to sea, and the next morning he goes.
This is how Selections from Ancient Irish Poetry begins. Kuno Meyer, a scholar of Celtic languages, gathered these short poems for readers new to this literature. Hermits, saints, queens, bards and a monk with his cat all speak here.
En este resumen
- 1Irish poetry grew outside the reach of RomeFree
- 2The other world sits just beyond the sea
- 3Heroes and lovers face death with open eyes
- 4Prayer in Irish is close, personal and bold
- 5Nature is watched closely and loved lightly
- 6Love and loss are told in a woman's voice
- 7Bards mourn kings and praise their gifts
- 8Scholars, exiles and sayings give the book its warmth
Idea clave 1 de 8
Irish poetry grew outside the reach of Rome
Meyer opens with a bold claim. He says the old Irish language holds the earliest voice of Western European civilization, and that it kept its own literature because Rome never ruled the island. Gaul fell to Rome, and by the fifth century the Gaulish tongue had vanished, leaving no record of its poetry. Britain kept only a little. Ireland kept its words.
Christianity reached Ireland far from the centre of Roman power, so the Church there grew along local lines. Monks wrote in Irish as well as Latin, for teaching, for prayer and even for scholarship. Meyer calls the sixth century and those after it the Golden Age of Irish civilization.
The poems were first spoken by bards and storytellers, then written down in monasteries. Almost every early manuscript perished in the Viking raids at the end of the eighth century. What survives was gathered from the eleventh century onward.
The Irish told their tales in prose and saved verse for songs spoken by heroes at moments of strong feeling. These poems survive because Ireland kept its own language and its monks wrote it down.
That’s 1 of 8 key points.
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About this edition
Every format is free to start, and print and large print are at cost.
- LengthAbout 16,700 words
- Reading timeAbout 1 h 10 min
Questions about Selecciones de la poesía irlandesa antigua
What is Selections from Ancient Irish Poetry about?
It is a collection of short Irish poems and prose pieces gathered from early manuscripts. They cover myth, saints and hermits, nature, love, bards and wise sayings, and each piece is a small voice from early Ireland.
Who wrote the poems in Selections from Ancient Irish Poetry?
Most are anonymous. Some are credited by tradition to saints such as Patrick and Colum Cille, or to named bards. Kuno Meyer is the scholar who collected them and wrote the preface explaining their background.
When were these Irish poems written?
Meyer says many were first composed in the eighth century and a few perhaps in the seventh. Most survive in manuscripts copied from the eleventh century onward, after early manuscripts were lost in Viking raids.
Is The Deer's Cry a real prayer?
Tradition links it to Saint Patrick and says he sang it when ambushers waited on the road to Tara. It calls on the Trinity and on creation for protection, and is a famous Irish hymn.
Is Selections from Ancient Irish Poetry easy to read?
Yes, in the sense of approachable. The poems are short, the English is plain and each piece stands alone, so you can read one poem at a time in any order and still enjoy the book.
Cite this edition
Meyer, Kuno. Selections from Ancient Irish Poetry. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/selections-from-ancient-irish-poetry.
Meyer, K. (2026). Selections from ancient Irish poetry. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/selections-from-ancient-irish-poetry
Meyer, Kuno. Selections from Ancient Irish Poetry. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/selections-from-ancient-irish-poetry.
@book{meyer2026selections,
author = {Meyer, Kuno},
title = {Selections from Ancient Irish Poetry},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/selections-from-ancient-irish-poetry}
}
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Get the full summary of Selecciones de la poesía irlandesa antigua, free
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