Copying a classic
In the mid-9th century, in the teeth of ferocious Viking raids, a team of scribes at a monastery in the northeast of Ireland were busy copying a Latin textbook written in 6th-century Constantinople by Priscian. We know the scribes were Máil Pátric and an anonymous scribe. Additional work was done by Finguine and Donngus. The Irish were well known as Latin teachers, and because it was not the official language in Ireland, unlike in much of the former Roman world, they were even more precise about the exact meanings of words. This copy was for use in Ireland, and the writers made thousands of careful notes clarifying the meanings of words; a third of these were in Old Irish, with a small number in ogham script. Because of this, the manuscript (Cod. Sang. 904), which was brought to St. Gallen in the medieval period, is of great importance for understanding the Irish language of the time.
The reality of writing
The writers mention the feast of Mo Chaoi of Nendrum, Co. Down, which suggests it was written there or in nearby Bangor, although some have argued it could have been written on the Continent. Exact dates given for certain feastdays suggest it was completed in 851. The script is Irish miniscule, a form of writing used for rapidly copying texts. The manuscript work was difficult, and the materials were not always up to scratch. The scribes comment on the cold and the quality of the ink, and were sometimes critical of their own workmanship. Comments could be humorous and human — anticipating dinner or lamenting a hangover. The glosses suggest that the scribes had a large library to draw on.
Under threat
One thought above others was preying on the minds of the scribes. Although the book is hugely famed among scholars, it is popularly known because of a poem written in its margins:
Is acher ingáith innocht . fufuasna faircggae findḟolt ni ágor réimm mora minn . dondláechraid lainn oua lothlind’ Cod. Sang. 904, Leabhar 6, 112a, stgallpriscian.ie
‘Bitter is the wind tonight, it tosses the ocean’s white hair: I fear not the coursing of a clear sea by the fierce heroes from Lothlend’ Cod. Sang. 904, Book 6, 112a, stgallpriscian.ie
Viking raids at this time were intense. In the years before the copying of the Priscian there were severe attacks on Bangor (824) and Movilla (825), and the armies of Armagh tried to defend their dependent churches (831) in the northeast from fleets in Carlingford Lough before they themselves were raided. While the meaning of Lothlend is debated, it is likely to mean Viking Scotland.
These Viking fleets used Ireland’s lakes and waterways to attack their targets. In 2018 a member of the public found a sword in the River Shannon at Limerick, in association with an axe in its haft. X-rays of the sword show that it had a pattern welded blade and careful cleaning of its pommel by the conservation department of the National Museum of Ireland show it was decorated with silver and copper wire. This sword-type accounts for one-third of all swords found in Irish Viking graves and is likely to belong to the 9th century. Over twenty examples of this sword-type come from Dublin, with only two from elsewhere, one of which came from Co. Armagh. The Limerick example, then, is an important discovery.
Words on the Wave
The book and the sword go hand in hand. In 845–848, Irish kings had organised and defeated Viking forces in Ulster and at Skreen, Co. Meath. Viking forces began to organise large camps called longphuirt, some of which grew into towns. Irish kings sent diplomatic messengers to Charles the Bald with gifts. Irish scholars such as Sedulius Scottus were in the emperor’s court and were part of a community of Irish scholars which likely included members at the Abbey of St Gall. In these years the Priscian book was taken to the Continent, as it contains an inscription praising Archbishop Gunthar of Cologne (850–863). The Priscian is not listed among the ‘books written in the Irish fashion’ in a St. Gallen library catalogue (Cod. Sang. 728) compiled around 860–65 , which is also on exhibition in Dublin. The manuscript may therefore have arrived after that point.
Many scholars have studied the book, and recent work includes an amazing internet-based resource from the University of Galway, where you can explore the glosses, comments and their meanings: http://www.stgallpriscian.ie/
The forthcoming Words on the Wave exhibition will provide a once in a lifetime opportunity to view the Priscian Grammaticae when it returns to Irish shores for the first time in over a thousand years. A Viking sword, whose power provoked anxiety in the monastic scriptoria of Ireland will also be displayed.
Harrison, S.H. and Ó Floinn, R. 2014 Viking Graves and Grave-Goods in Ireland, Medieval Dublin Excavations 1962–81, ser. B, vol. 11. Dublin. National Museum of Ireland.
Hofman, R. 1996 The Sankt Gall Priscian Commentary. Part 1, Volume1 (Introduction; Book 1–5), Volume 2 (Translation and Commentary; Indices). Münster, Nodus Publikationen.
Ó Corráin, D. 1998 ‘The Vikings in Scotland and Ireland in the Ninth Century’, in Peritia 12, 296–339.
Ó Néill, P. 2000 ‘Irish Observance of the Three Lents and the Date of the St Gall Priscian (MS 904)’, Ériu 51, 159–81.
https://e-codices.ch/en/csg/0904/1/0/
