XPost: alt.religion.druid, alt.spirituality.druid   
   From: xremovexwade180@comcast.net   
      
   I've been reading an old Irish text about the laws related to   
   the grades of the poets.  I was particularly taken with a   
   passage dealing with poetic satire.  In it, the process is   
   described in detail, including the actual text of the satire itself.   
      
   I've included a number of references from various works   
   below.  First I'll address the skeptics who mistrust the   
   medieval manuscripts.  Most of the Uraicecht Na Ríar is   
   taken from various versions of works dating from the 1400s   
   to the 1800s.  However the satire in question also appears   
   in Cormac's Glossary so we're already back to the nine   
   hundreds.  Since Cormac was glossing texts that were so   
   old that the meanings were being lost we can comfortably   
   conclude that the work was very old in his time.  The editor   
   of the Uraicecht Na Ríar dates the manuscripts to the second   
   half of the seven hundreds based on linguistic evidence; which   
   seems quite a comfortable date.  The satire was almost certainly   
   old and well known when it was first written down.  It seems   
   unlikely the scribes of the day invented this sort of poetry.  The   
   tales of the Red Branch and the Ulster Cycle were almost   
   certainly well known in the oral tradition long before the scribal   
   efforts in Ireland.   
      
   The personages in question go back into mytho-history and   
   were said to have lived around the start of the common era.   
   Nede was the son of Adna, chief poet of Ireland and the   
   same person who is engaged in an exchange with an older   
   and wiser Druid in the Colloquy of Two Sages.  Nede was   
   adopted by his Uncle Caier, king of Connacht, after his father's   
   death.  He proceeded to commit adultery with the Queen,   
   his step/foster-mother. At her prodding he unjustly satirized   
   his foster father causing blisters and forcing his abdication.   
   But because the satire was unjust Nede sufferered a pierced   
   eye.   
      
   The interesting thing about the Uraicecht Na Ríar is that in the   
   text, glosses and notes a complete picture of a druidic satire   
   are described.  The satire is done in seven steps encompassing   
   three nine day stages associated with the three nine day periods   
   of the moon cycle.  First there is a warning period where   
   recompense can be made to avoid the whole thing.  If after nine   
   days (sometimes given as ten day periods conforming to the   
   synodic calendar) the object of the satire has not made amends,   
   a Celtic type cross made of wood is inscribed with Ogham letters   
   and affixed to a rod which is placed in the ground.  The first arm   
   of the cross invokes a god, the names the offender is put on the   
   second arm and his transgression written on the third, a praise   
   is placed on the fourth arm.  When the rod is planted a nine day   
   period ensues where the offender can make amends.  If at the   
   end of the second nine day period the offender is still recalcitrant   
   a trefocal proper is composed and chanted.  The trefocal is not   
   the actual satire but a composition composed of both praise and   
   warnings related to the infraction.  A third nine day period is given   
   as one last chance for the offender to make a pledge of restitution.   
   If a pledge has not been made by the end of the third nine day   
   period, the satire itself is made.   
      
   The offended Druid, possibly along with a full contingent of   
   students representing the seven poetic grades would rise before   
   sunset and proceed to the top of a hill where a whitethorn   
   (Hawthorn) grew.  The Druid(s) would stand with their back to   
   the tree holding a clay image of the object of the satire.  When   
   a north wind blew they would chant the satire while piercing   
   the clay image with a thorn from the tree.   
      
   Evil, death, short life to Caíar,   
   spears of battle will have killed Caíar,   
   may Caiar die, may Caiar depart- Caíar!   
   Caíar under earth, under embankments, under stones!   
      
   Note: the Irish version looks much more poetical.   
      
   Interestingly, the name huathe (hawthorn) translates to: terror   
   or terrible., and is associated with the Cailleach. The Word   
   Ogham of Morann mac Main associated with the Hawthorn   
   gives "pack of wolves,".  The Word Ogham of Mac ind Óic,   
   "blanching of face," well describes the effect the terror of a   
   satire held. The Word Ogham of Cuchulainn, "most difficult   
   at night," could well be referring to the Druids' special use of   
   the tree before daylight.  In folk tradition Hawthorns are called   
   a fairy tree and afforded special status.  They were sometimes   
   used to send prayers for healing or to change one's luck.   
   People who damaged them were said to suffer ill fortune.   
   All of these traditions speak to an old memory of their use   
   by Druids.   
      
   One point of interest; a word in the text about the satire that   
   Mr. Breatnach translates as simply "sorcery" has been   
   translated by others as "crane magic".  The Ogham and   
   the crane have been directly linked in some sources and   
   the contents of Manannan's crane bag are sometimes said t   
   o be the Ogham alphabet.  In some sources the extemporaneous   
   glam dicenn (satire) is said to have been performed while   
   standing on one leg with one eye closed and one arm outstretched.   
   supposedly mimicking a crane.  While I don't recall ever seeing   
   the source of that statement it is interesting in its similarity to the   
   usual description of the Fomorians (forces of chaos) as being one   
   eyed or one legged.  The associations with the chaotic watery   
   depths, the chaotic dwellers under the sea (the Fomorii).   
   Manannan's (sometimes thought of as the god of the sea) crane   
   bag and the crane's watery habitat, all seem to point to the curse   
   of the Druid invoking the forces of chaos.   
   ========================================   
      
   Early Irish Law Series   
   Volume II   
      
   Uraicecht Na Ríar   
   The Poetic Grades in Early Irish Law   
      
   Edited by Liam Breatnach   
      
   Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies   
   1987   
      
   Page 77   
      
   Dating   
      
   The linguistic features outlined above point to the OIr.   
   period as the time of composition of our text. Within   
   this period it is difficult to give a more precise date on   
   the linguistic evidence alone, except that the use of   
   drecht as the usual genitive plural of this u-stem (beside   
   one instance of drechtae) would seem to be in keeping   
   with a date in the late eighth century (see Thurneysen,   
   Grammar, p. 196, and Translators' Notes, no. 68). To   
   this single linguistic feature, however, can be added a   
   further consideration. The relationship between our text   
   and Bretha Nemed which one can deduce both from   
   the title and citations from BN (see below, page 78)   
   leads one to conclude that it cannot be earlier than BN.   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
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