BLATHMAC (fl. EIGHTH CENTURY) (Medieval Ireland)

Blathmac was the son of Cu Brettan mac Congusso (d. 740), who was perhaps king of the Fir Roiss, a sept of the Airgialla, located in modern counties Louth and Monaghan. In the eighth-century saga of the battle of Allen (718), his father is represented as a combatant and ally of the king of Tara, Fergal mac Maele-duin. He was a poet and author of devotional poems on the Passion of Christ and the Virgin Mary, which are found uniquely in MS G 50 in the National Library of Ireland. They apparently do not survive in their entirety: the first, Tair cucom, a Maire boid, now has 149 stanzas, originally perhaps 150; the second, A Maire, grian ar clainde, is a continuation of the first. There may have been a third, thus comprising a triptych of 3 by 150. The language of the poems is Old Irish, of a form contemporary with the eighth-century glosses, and they were therefore probably composed between 750 and 770.

Blathmac’s poetry shows familiarity with Scripture, patristic literature, and biblical apocrypha. It is especially interesting that it draws upon the apocryphal Acts of Thomas as a source for some incidents in the life of Christ. His praise of Mary is framed within a description of Christ’s life, miracles, teaching, and passion. His metaphors and motifs are drawn from contemporary Irish social, legal, and religious institutions, and his poems therefore give us a valuable insight into the Zeitgeist of the period.

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