Immacallam in Dá Thuarad
or
The Colloquy of the Two Sages
is a ninth
-
century text
preserved
in whole or part in eleven manuscripts dating between the twelfth and sixteenth centuries
(Carey, 2014, p. 630), in which two poets Néde and Ferchertne engage in a verbal sparring
contest which is often obscure, in an attempt to define their iden
tity and status and exact the
claim of head poet. This paper focuses on §236, Neglect of Crops; i.e., without cultivating
them, or without their growing although they are cultivated; or [neglect] of judgements, and
§237, Perjuries (2014, p. 637), from John
Carey’s edition of the eschatological section of
Ferchertne’s speech. It seeks to demonstrate how these phrases illustrate the complexity of the
learning of the medieval Irish poet who delivers an eschatological vision of last days, informed
by metaphoric
and allegorical references which were employed by a ‘small intellectual elite’
(Boyle, 2016, p. 13), and derived from a combination of poetic, historical, legal, and exegetical
erudition.
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