The Pattern and Culture of
"The Song of Amergin"
Robert Graves has said that "English poetic education should, really, begin not with Canterbury Tales, not with the Odyssey, not even with Genesis, but with the Song of Amergin" (Graves 12). Apparently, though, this is a very obscure work, so perhaps some background is in order. Taken from the Irish Book of Invasions, and first written down in the early medieval period, this poem is attributed to the bard Amergin of the Milesians. If he existed, and if this is a true accounting of his words, he would have been one of the earliest known Western poets. The Book of Invasions quotes the "Year of the World 3500", and according to the medieval conception of the creation of the world, this puts the origin of the tale very early, indeed (Cross). The Song of Amergin (perhaps more accurately called the Songs of Amergin) is quite long, and consists of several distinct parts. In the section examined, Amergin uses a poem with a very distinct building structure to calm a storm. This building structure forms the strength of the poem, and helps to rhythmically drive it forward, while the words and style serve to link it closely to its Irish roots.
A brief note before beginning. An assumption that runs throughout this paper is that, regardless of who wrote the poem, the speaker is the mythic personality of Amergin. This is important to note because the poem itself is set within a prose piece, which contains mythic elements. Thus, the speaker's intentions have magical overtones that must stand as they are for the poem to be understood. If the possibility of magical intentions is removed from consideration, it violates the words of the prose, and renders the poem naught more than a pretty piece of relatively meaningless verse.
The most noticeable part of the poem is the development of the description of Ireland. The second and third lines of the poem read "Much coursed be the fertile sea // Fertile be the fruit-strewn mountain." This pattern of building on the last word to describe the next line continues throughout the poem. Indeed, only in two places does the building connection between lines seem to not exist at first. The first and second line seem much disconnected, until one considers that the first line "I invoke the land of Ireland" is what the rest of the poem is building on. Each phrase after that speaks of something that the speaker considers to be an important part of Ireland, and so his initial invocation of Ireland prepares the way for all of the subsequent lines.
Again, between the fourteenth and fifteenth line, the connection between "darkly sung" and "incantation" seems obscure, but it is actually rather straightforward. Ancient poetry, especially in Irish, was often sung, as the musical elements aided in memorization. Thus, an "incantation", especially one dealing with a dangerous storm, might be "darkly sung" in order to evoke the desired emotions from the audience. The building pattern of the piece forms an expectation in the listeners mind of the next line, enticing them onward into the poem. It also allows the imagery to flow more naturally, to build up into a coherent vision, rather than just a series of disconnected pictures.
This coherent vision is important to what the speaker was trying to accomplish within the context of the story laid out by the prose. The line immediately preceding the poem reads: "'A shame to our men of learning is it,' said Donn, 'not to suppress the druidic wind.' 'No shame it shall be,' said Amergin, rising up; and he said:" (Cross). The calm and beautiful Ireland he describes contrasts with the violence of the storm, and thus acts to calm it. Disconnected pictures, not reinforced by a building structure, would not have as powerful an effect on either the listeners or the storm.
The way the speaker chooses to develop the piece is, in itself, interesting. The first seven lines of the poems deal with the land of Ireland. They describe her bounty and beauty, and the things that are the best about Ireland. The speaker next turns to aspects of the tribe for seven lines (beginning at eight, ending at 14), while the final seven lines are given over to descriptions of the people of those tribes. This would seemingly suggest a pattern to his thoughts, of the land coming before the tribe, and the tribe coming before the people within it. This is a very Irish pattern, in that a man's kin were considered to be his life. A man without kin was considered nearly headless, and a tribe without land was poor indeed.
The three bundles of lines are also characteristic of Irish thought. Many Irish sayings are arranged into triads, groupings of three characteristics or three things with similar characteristics. Examples of triads would be: "Three ruins of a tribe: a lying chief, a false judge, a lustful priest" and "Three things that hide ugliness: good manners in the ill-favored, skill in a serf, wisdom in the misshapen." While three was an important number to many ancient cultures, the fact that the writer arranged them as such, combined with the other examples already cited, firmly roots this into the Irish tradition.
The Book of Invasions is one of the prime examples modern scholars have of early Irish literature, and still stands as one of the greatest pieces for insight into that time of pre-history. It was recorded in the eleventh century from an oral culture which, if the text itself is to be believed, had already kept the story alive for 1500 years. Despite its alleged antiquity, though, it is still a powerful piece, capable of moving even modern individuals to wonder at the beauty and depth of its words. It draws this power not only from its compelling rhythm, though, but also from its own interconnectedness with the culture that birthed it.
Works Cited
Cross and Slover, Ancient Irish Tales. Online. Available: http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Oracle/6779/invasions.html
Graves, Robert, The White Goddess, Farrax, Straus, and Giroux, New York 1966
1
I invoke the land of Ireland
Much-coursed be the fertile sea,
Fertile be the fruit-strewn mountain,
Fruit-strewn be the showery wood,
5
Showery be the river of water-falls,
Of water-falls be the lake of deep pools,
Deep-pooled be the hill-top well,
A well of tribes be the assembly,
An assembly of the kings be Tara,
10
Tara be the hill of the tribes,
The tribes of the sons of Mil,
Of Mil of the ships, the barks,
Let the lofty bark be Ireland
Lofty Ireland, darkly sung,
15
An incantation of great cunning;
The great cunning of the wives of Bres,
The wives of Bres of Buaigne;
The great lady Ireland,
Eremon hath conquered her,
20
Ir, Eber have invoked for her.
I invoke the land of Ireland.
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