Literature that in a pithy, sententious style comments on the nature of humankind and the world or that gives aphoristic, moralizing precepts is known as gnomic, or wisdom, literature. The wide variety of wisdom texts and the large number of gnomic statements scattered throughout tales and poetry give evidence of the high esteem that the genre enjoyed in Irish literature.
Tecosca
A distinct subgroup of Irish wisdom texts is called tecosc (instruction), plural tecosca, consisting of advice on the moral qualities appropriate to kings that was usually attributed to legendary figures of the past and directed at their pupils or foster sons. Tecosca can be equated with the later continental genre of specula principum (Mirrors of Princes). These texts emphasize moderate and considerate social conduct and encourage defense and maintenance of the traditional law. A distinct lack of heroic, warriorlike ethics is noticeable. The central theme of the tecosca is that of fir flathemon (the ruler’s truth). By acting in accord with this concept, the ruler secures peace, stability, and prosperity for himself and for his people, since his justice and righteousness correlates with the welfare of his country. The idea of fir flathemon has been compared with similar concepts in the Indo-Iranian world, such as Vedic rta- (right order) and Avestan a2a- (rightness). Keating claims that tecosca were recited at the inauguration of kings until the Norman period.
The oldest of these in the Irish language is Audacht Morainn (AM) (The Testament of Morann), which on linguistic grounds can be dated in its oldest recension to the late seventh century. AM, which consists of 164 lines in sixty-three paragraphs, expresses the ideas of fir flathemon in its most concise form of all tecosca, cp. the catalogue of its beneficial effects introduced by the phrase Is tre fir flathemon . . . "It is through the ruler’s truth that . . . " (§§ 12-28). AM shows affinities in form and in substance with law tracts of the Bretha Nemed school. The probably ninth-century Tecosca Cormaic (TCor) (The Instructions of Cormac), advice given by the wise king Cormac in reply to questions of his son and successor Cairpre, is the longest Irish wisdom text. In some manuscripts it consists of thirty-seven sections (746 lines), but only the first eighteen are believed to make up the original part of the work. Other paragraphs may have been borrowed from Senbriathra Fithail (SF) (The Old Sayings of Ffthal (king Cormac’s judge)) (245 lines in thirteen sections). The focus of SF, composed around 800, lies less on political instruction than on statements of a general nature (§§ 1-6, 9), which are cast to a large extent into three-word maxims such as Dligid fir fortacht (Truth should be supported) (§ 5.2) and Tosach eolais imchomarc (Inquiry is the beginning of knowledge) (§ 1.4). Sections 7-8 and 10-12 are, like TCor, in the form of a dialogue between Ffthal and his son. AM, TCor, and SF are frequently found combined in the manuscripts.
The short Tecosc Cuscraid (TCus) (The Instruction to Cuscraid (son of king Conchobar)) (26 lines), attributed to the Ulster hero Conall Cernach, forms part of the tale Cath Airtig (The Battle of Airtech). Briatharthecosc Con Culainn (BrCC) (The Precept-Instruction of Cu Chulainn) to the future king Lugaid Reoderg (40 lines), is included in the tale Serglige Con Culainn (The SickBed of Cu Chulainn). Middle-Irish compositions such as Diambad Messe bad Ri Reil (If I were an Illustrious King) (37 quatrains) and Cert Cech Rig co Reil (The Tribute of Every King is Clearly Due) (72 quatrains), which draw on the older tradition, are cast into metrical form. Close in sentiment to the tecosca is what the seventh-century Latin tract De Duodecim Abusivis Saeculi (The Twelve Evils of the World) has to say in topic 9 on the rex iniquus (unjust king) and the rex bonus (good king). This topic was also included in the Collectio Canonum Hibernensis (XXV, 3-4) and contributed strongly to the concept of the continental specula principum. Sedulius Scottus, an Irish scholar who lived in the Frankish empire in the ninth century, drew on classical and Christian tradition for his Latin Liber de Rectoribus Christianis (Book on Christian Rulers) for king Lothair II.
Gnomic Texts
Other wisdom texts contain general advice, not aimed at specific social classes. Aibidil Luigne maic Eremoin (ALE) (The Alphabet of Luigne Son of Eremon) (157 lines) is a miscellaneous collection of legal and proverbial maxims in three distinct sections brought together from various sources such as law tracts and tecosca. Briathra Flainn Fina maic Ossu (BFF) (The Sayings of Flann Ffna Son of Oswiu) is in its core identical with sections 1-5 of SF, but has expanded the number of maxims from 139 to 261. The ascription of the authorship to Flann Ffna, the Irish name for king Aldfrith of Northumbria (d. 705), is doubtful since the language of the collection is that of the eighth or ninth century. Another collection with the title Roscada Flainn Fina maic Ossu Rig Sacsan (RFF) (The Maxims of Flann Ffna Son of Oswiu, King of the English) is close in content to BFF, but the sections and maxims have a different order. Colin Ireland, their most recent editor, treats SF, BFF, and RFF as different recensions of one original gnomic collection. For Trecheng Breth Feine (TrBF) (The Triads of Ireland) see Triads. The Prouerbia Grecorum (PG) (Proverbs of the Greek), which may go back to the sixth or seventh century, purports to be a Latin translation of some eighty proverbs from Greek, but its Western manuscript tradition and its ideas about the just king, similar to those expressed in the tecosca, speak for an Irish provenance.
Though having a different bias, religious texts such as Apgitir Chrabaid (The Alphabet of Piety) or The Rule of Ailbe of Imlech, and legal texts such as The Advice to Doidin show affinities in style, structure, and expression with wisdom texts. Irish law tracts contain many didactic passages, and stylistically many legal axioms are expressed in a manner similar to that of wisdom literature. Medieval Irish tales are also interspersed with nuggets of wisdom, such as Gel nech nua (Any new thing is bright) (TCor § 14.23), which is used in Serglige Con Culainn of 720.
The earlier texts (AM, TCus, BrCC, parts of TCor and SF) are composed in a rhythmical prose whose prime stylistic features are repetition, alliteration, and sometimes unusual syntax. BFF, ALE, parts of SF and TCor display a monotonous, formulaic style with terseness of expression bordering on obscurity. A strong legal interest is apparent in all wisdom texts. Women are usually depicted in an unfavourable way. Although pre-Christian origins are frequently assumed for Irish wisdom literature, stylistic parallels with biblical models such as the Book of Proverbs are observable and may have influenced, if not engendered, the Irish texts. Due to the nature of the genre, its formulaic style, and the compilatory character of many of the texts, a great amount of mutual borrowing has taken place and the collections could easily have been added to in the process of transmission, so that it is now largely impossible to get a clear picture of the original shapes of the texts.
