An Introduction to Early Irish Literature

Abstract

This book aims to give an overview of the saga and poetic literature of early Ireland, mainly the pre-Norman period of 600–1200, described as the Dark Ages elsewhere. When Christianity came to Ireland, in the person of St Patrick in the middle of the fifth century, it brought about a quiet revolution. Not only did a new religion arrive in the country but, for the first time, the Bible and Latin literature brought the ability to read and write and access to a new world of written sources. The complicated relationship between the two traditions, pre-Christian and Christian, resulted in what now survives of the early material.