Keltologisches Kolloquium: Jasper Kaufhold

Plain of Banbha, Inis Fáil and the Green Fields of Fódla - Comparing Kenningar for Ireland in Classical Irish Bardic Poetry

The strict, and simultaneously elaborate, metres of Classical Irish Bardic Poetry (Dán Díreach) famously did not leave room for change in terms of linguistic features, themes, or expressions. In this paper, I intend to demonstrate that, despite these formal constraints, the historical and political situation within Ireland in the period from
1200 to 1650 is nonetheless reflected in the poems. To this end, formulaic descriptions for Ireland were compared and analysed in approximately 200 poems. I compare the oldest and the latest poems in the period indicated. This investigation, in my opinion, yields interesting results regarding the use of descriptions that utilise mythological references, e. g. “Banbha” or “Fódla”, and other references that name real or imagined kings of Ireland, e. g. “Níall”.