Burial in Medieval Ireland 900-1500: A Review of the Written Sources.

EDWARDS, NANCY

Susan Leigh Fry, Burial in Medieval Ireland 900-1500: A Review of the Written Sources (Dublin: Four Courts Press, 1999). 224 pp. ISBN 1-85182-309-3. 35.00 [pounds sterling].

In The Sacred Isle: Belief and Religion in Pre-Christian Ireland, Daithi O hOgain has set himself a formidable task. He aims to reconstruct the changing religious beliefs of the inhabitants of Ireland from the dawn of time to the coming of Christianity using a variety of sources: archaeology and the writings of classical authors such as Caesar, but principally the stories, legends, and folklore set down by later Christian authors and often adapted to suit the new religion. He begins by giving a traditional view of the archaeological evidence for the Stone and Bronze Ages, suggesting evolving beliefs in the sun, fertility, water, and the otherworld, before considering the religion of the pagan Celts, including votive deposits, the head cult, the sun god, and the mother goddess. He then discusses the role of the druids as bards, seers, and mediators between the spirit and earthly worlds. He goes on to examine the importance of Tara, with its ritual landscape of monuments, the various gods and spirits associated with them, and how these change over time, and the sacred nature of pre-Christian kingship in different parts of Ireland. The final chapter is concerned with the gradual conversion to Christianity, the loss of spiritual power by the druids but the continuation of their learning amongst the filid, and the adoption of some pagan features, such as holy wells and trees, into the new religion.

This book is based on undergraduate lectures and is therefore aimed at a general readership. The material is potentially fascinating and the use of different types of evidence is essential. The various beliefs are often explained through the analysis of heroic stories involving mythical figures such as Cu Chulainn and Fionn mac Cumhaill. Although various general themes emerge, such as the importance of the sun god, the Daghdha, and the earth goddess sometimes called Danu, this book would really have benefited from tighter structuring in order to bring these out and in particular from a concluding discussion. The bibliography for some reason only includes books, although the end notes make copious use of articles, and infuriatingly there is no index.

Burial in Medieval Ireland 900-1500 by Susan Leigh Fry, which is based on her M.Litt. thesis, makes use of some of the same documentary sources and also draws upon archaeological evidence. However, her aim is to provide an overview of the changing burial customs in Ireland during the period and to compare them with those in England and France which have been much more thoroughly studied. She begins by examining critically the usefulness of the impressive range of sources she has examined. She then considers the medieval Irish cemetery: the gradual shift from pagan to Christian burial sites; the rise of powerful territorial churches where kin groups were buried; the role of cemeteries, not just as places of burial, but also as the setting for a variety of other public activities such as fairs and swearing oaths; and the care of the remains of the dead. Next she examines burial ritual including `wakes', keening, requiem masses, eulogies, and processions, and the all-important choice of burial place and how this might be used to make a political point, such as Brian Boruma's burial in Armagh rather than in his native Killaloe after his death in the Battle of Clontarf. She briefly discusses the meagre documentation for burial artefacts, such as shrouds and coffins. Finally, she considers the evidence for social stratification in burial: the cemeteries of kings in places such as Clonmacnoise, the burial of women, children, and criminals, and, in the latter part of the period, the important shift for the wealthy from burial in territorial churches to the new monastic foundations, especially the Franciscan houses. She concludes that Christian burial in medieval Ireland, though it was conservative and incorporated some minor elements from the pagan past, did respond to changes brought about by factors such as the Anglo-Norman settlement and the twelfth-century reform and was essentially comparable with practices in Britain and western Europe.

The analysis can be rather tentative but some general trends emerge, notably the growing power of territorial churches as places of local burial and how this is gradually broken down in the latter half of the period. The book would have benefited from more careful copy-editing and proofreading. Nevertheless, it contains a vast array of interesting information, referenced and indexed, which will be of considerable use to others, historians and archaeologists alike.

NANCY EDWARDS
Bangor