Thread: One of medieval history’s great joys is Gerald of Wales (1180s AD) The History & Topography of Ireland. It’s one of the first foreign accounts of the island at the edge of the world. He’s also known as Giraldus Cambrensis & was a Welsh religious. 
Now Gerry’s account has to be taken not with a pinch, but more of a pillar, of salt. As a Fitzgerald & ancestor of mine you can probably tell what he was like. He loved a tall tale! He began sensibly enough explaining that Ireland was 8 days long & 4 wide (at 40 miles a day)
He noted the awful rain (& he was used to Welsh downpours!). He also did research in ancient Irish manuscripts - leading him to some confusion. He recognised the Shannon as the most important river. & gave us a round up of fish with an emphasis on Norman delicacies
Gerry noted a preponderance of eagles (they became extinct by 1920). He also talked of vast flocks of cranes. This an ancient misnomer as Herons are called Cranes in Ireland - the former not being native.
A vast amount of religious time was spent on whether seabirds were fish or foul & thus, like fish, could be eaten on fast days. Thus he reports that birds are born of barnacles & are fish! So monks could chomp away! (Women having souls got less attention by the early Church)
Interestingly he reported that there were no magpies in Ireland. Given how easy they are to identify & how they hang out near habitation it seems that maybe they were absent?! Later he talks of crowds of pine martens (this was long dismissed) but recently has come to pass!
Gerry also mentioned great supplies of wild pigs (torc) - unfortunately these are now extinct. A wild boar roasted on a spit is one of life’s greatest pleasures so it’s particularly sad that they have disappeared
On badgers - ‘lying on their backs, they pile on their bellies soil that has been dug by others - they are dragged out of their holes with their burden by others’. Gerry was an easy target for winding up by his Norman cousins!
He noted the absence of frogs (they are not native to Ireland) & that the dust of Ireland killed poisonous reptiles. He acknowledged ‘this is the most temperate of all countries’. He also hit on the association between Irish wells & magic.
He was not afraid to pronounce on geopolitical matters. The Isle of Man was, in his view, part of Britain & not Ireland. This was because the Manx had poisonous reptiles like Britain, but Ireland did not.
The Welshman also retold ancient myths as historical facts. These included a priest having a chat with a wolf (they became extinct in Ireland with the last being shot in the 18th C in Kilmainham).
The medieval world was obsessed with unusual looking people & Gerry was no exception as he reported on people who were half ox, half men. It’s likely that these were embroidered tales of individuals with birth defects. And bestiality figures large 😔
Climate change advocates might also read Cambrensis - he notes that in Ireland wolves whelped in December. Indeed, historically, the mellowness of the Irish climate means that spring flowers have been recorded flowering in winter since the 18th C.
Gerry also retells the myth of St Kevin praying, stretching his hands out his window, & a bird landing & laying her eggs. Such was the Saint’s kindness that he waited til the blackbirds were weaned before withdrawing his arm. That’s nature conservation!
He also records the last gasp of the worship of a Celtic goddess. This was the sacred flame to St Bridget kept at Kildare. Bridget was the culturally appropriated Celtic Goddess Brigid, daughter of the Dagda. In Gerald’s time nuns kept the flame.
Another reference is to the (c800AD) Book of Kells. He was so impressed by the manuscript that he considered it not the work of man, but of angels. The millions who see it in Trinity College each year might agree! On Irish saints (in fact culturally appropriated Celtic gods) -
‘That just as the men of this country are during this mortal life more prone to anger & revenge than any other race, so in eternal death the saints of this land that have been elevated by their merits are more vindictive than the saints of any other region’
Giraldus then turns to history - drawing heavily on the ancient Irish Book of Invasions. He institutes the false legend that Ireland had more woods than plains (in fact woods were scarce even by the 12th C)
He’s a bit confused about the number of provinces (he has Munster divided into N & S) yet acknowledges Meath as a province in a separate entry. He does pick up on the Irish Scoti giving their name to Scotland.
He describes the Irish - ‘they are fully endowed with natural gifts, their external characteristics of beard & dress, & internal cultivation of the mind, are so barbarous that they cannot be said to have any culture’
The Irish went naked into battle & fought unarmed as well as throwing stones. ‘They are a wild & inhospitable people. They live on beasts only, & live like beasts’. Generally they were pastoral hipsters in this holy man’s opinion. He does accept that they were musically gifted
Brexiteers might consider his view of the natives - ‘be more afraid of their wile than their war; their friendship than their fire; their honey than their hemlock; their shrewdness than their soldiery - they are neither strong in war, nor reliable in peace’
To truly understand the motives of Giraldus Cambrensis one needs to understand religious history, Norman propaganda, English court intrigue, natural history & the challenges of the Hiberno-Normans who were rapidly becoming Hibernicised! More Irish than the Irish themselves!
