Welsh Poetry of a religious or serious character. The first half of the
book is concerned with Irish poems. The first group of these starts with
the dawning of Christianity out of Pagan darkness, and the
spiritualising of the Early Irish by the wisdom to be found in the
conversations between King Cormac MacArt--the Irish ancestor of our
Royal Family--and his son and successor, King Carbery. Here also will be
found those pregnant ninth-century utterances known as the "Irish
Triads."

Next follow poems attributed or relating to some of the Irish
saints--Patrick, Columba, Brigit, Moling; Lays of Monk and Hermit,
Religious Invocations, Reflections and Charms and Lamentations for the
Dead, including a remarkable early Irish poem entitled "The Mothers'
Lament at the Slaughter of the Innocents" and a powerful peasant poem,
"The Keening of Mary." The Irish section is ended by a set of songs
suggested by Irish folk-tunes.

Of the early Irish Religious Poetry here translated it may be observed
that the originals are not only remarkable for fine metrical form but
for their cheerful spirituality, their open-air freshness and their
occasional touches of kindly humour. "Irish religious poetry," it has
been well said, "ranges from single quatrains to lengthy compositions
dealing with all the varied aspects of religious life. Many of them give
us a fascinating insight into the peculiar character of the early Irish
Church, which differed in so many ways from the Christian world. We see
the hermit in his lonely cell, the monk at his devotions or at his work
of copying in the scriptorium or under the open sky; or we hear the
ascetic who, alone or with twelve chosen companions, has left one of the
great monasteries in order to live in greater solitude among the woods
or mountains, or on a lonely island. The fact that so many of these