Abstract
society, is also provided in this section. In the chapter on "Instruments," the author discusses the appearance of various instruments in the literature, as well as any and all supernatural or otherworldly dimensions associated with or illustrated in the literature. These instruments include the crott or cruitt (harp), the timpan, the fiddle, the bagpipes, pipes and whistles, trumpets and horns, bells, cnamfir, fer-cengail, and the musical branch. After discussing each of these instruments, the author then examines them in three main categories: instruments in a purely Otherworld context; instruments in everyday life, yet with some otherworldly influence(s); and instruments in everyday life with no otherworldly influences. In the chapter on "Effects," two main areas are discussed: the supernatural or otherworld effects of music; and the effects of music in everyday, mundane life. Both the pagan and Christian contexts of music in medieval Irish society and otherworld situations are examined. An explanation of the three strains of music (suantraigi, genntraigi, and golltraigi) is given, and examples of their appearance in the literature is provided. The author has found over twenty-five different types of effects of music in the literature, which I found very interesting. In the chapters on "Places" and "Times," there are three main subdivisions of materials: places where music is described as part of a purely supernatural otherworld dimension; places which are liminal (everyday places that are natural symbols of transcendence); and everyday places where music is heard. In the Conclusion, the author once again reiterates chapter by chapter the results of her research. There are ten charts given in the Appendix, which also document graphically the groupings and subdivisions of otherworldly music in medieval Celtic literature. Finally, an extensive bibliography of sources is provided. While I found the information in this book both interesting and fascinating, I was somewhat concerned by the constant reiteration by the author of her findings, as well as the constant reiteration of examples from the literature in different chapters. The reader is constantly having summaries of the research given by the author: first in the chapters, then in the conclusions of the chapters, and finally in the Conclusion of the book. I almost felt like a child being given a constant reminder from my parents, or that there really wasn't all that much information to give and that the author was trying to fill up space. In any event, this book does bring together a useful survey of medieval Celtic literature and the appearances of music in medieval Celtic literature related to the otherworld and the spiritual. The fact that at the recently held 11th International Congress of Celtic Studies (Cork 1999) four papers alone were dedicated to the Nauigatio Sancti Brendani 'The Voyage of Saint Brendan' (henceforth NSB), gives ample evidence of the interest in this fascinating Middle Latin text, as well as in the genre of early Irish voyage literature, of which NSB is a part, as a whole. But despite this interest scholarship in the field has been largely hampered by the unsatisfying accessability of a good deal of the secondary literature. To remedy the lack of a critical study encompassing all aspects of the genre, at the occasion of a conference in Maynooth (June 1995) the idea was born to put together a guide to these tales and their background with representative selections of seminal studies, spanning nearly a century of scholarly work. The result is the volume The Otherworld Voyage in Early Irish Literature, edited by Jonathan Wooding, lecturer at the University of Wales, Lampeter and himself a specialist in the field for many years.
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