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subversive_augury's review against another edition
4.0
This review concerns John J. O'Meara's translation of Topographia Hibernica by Giraldus Cambrensis (or Gerald of Wales).
Written and illustrated in the twelfth century, Gerald of Wales' The History and Topography of Ireland is significant in a number of key respects, amongst which is that it offers us useful insights into Romanesque Ireland as well as elucidating the political motivations of its Cambro-Norman author. The text is an early form of British ethnography and bears the hallmarks of the political project of its sycophantic and deeply misogynistic author, which was in part to unite Christendom as well as to incorporate populations at the figurative and literal margins of the British monarchy's control during Henry II's reign.
As a written work of the Middle Ages composed with an aristocratic British audience in mind, the text threads Biblical themes through its descriptions of the plants, animals, and topographical features of Ireland in the earlier sections. This interweaving of ecclesiastical maxims through varied topics continues into the later historical and cultural episodic accounts, which ruminate by turns on issues of female sexuality, bestiality, and cultural deficits amid sweeping surveys of various invasions, conquerors, and kingdoms from ancient times to the author's present.
Through the perspective of the Cambro-Norman clerical author, we receive highly charged and politically motivated accounts of the Irish as a "filthy people, wallowing in vice" (p. 106). These accompany equally disparaging accounts of their inadherence to Christian mores: "Of all people, it is the least instructed in the rudiments of the faith." These observations intend to justify the author's personal political project and serve his vested interest in persuading Henry II to continue the incorporation of Irish people and territories in the wake of the Anglo-Norman invasion.
The juxtaposition of topics demonstrates how medieval, elite thinkers like Gerald of Wales understood knowledge as a dispersal of varied social, political, natural, and supernatural entities and ways of being, which in their wonder, mystery, and profanity revealed deeper ecclesiastical truths (or their abasement). Through careful, theologically informed observation, the opacity of the distant and foreign could be reduced and rendered more or less intelligible through the deployment of Christian cosmology, whose deepest mysteries were lying in wait to be revealed to the understanding of this perceptive, literate ecclesiastical elite. While a contemporary reader might find these juxtapositions dissonant, they reveal a medieval ontology grounded in a Christian cosmological view wherein wondrous and profane entities populate a vast visual field stretching out toward the literal and figurative frontier of Western. This survey of entities in the visual field forms the logical binding of the account, rather than the kind of disciplinary methodologies that organize the themes and conjunctions of knowledge familiar to post-nineteenth century readers.
This work will appeal to scholars of medieval Ireland, Western patriarchy, Celtic culture, pre-colonial ethnography, historical ecological literature, and the process of European Christianization; neurodivergents who have a hyperfocus/special interest that includes the aforementioned subject areas; or the casual reader with a particular and perhaps acute interest in Ireland during the medieval period.
And to conclude on a personal note, the description and illustration of the mare stew king's ritual is particularly wild and will likely persist in my memory longer than I would prefer.
Written and illustrated in the twelfth century, Gerald of Wales' The History and Topography of Ireland is significant in a number of key respects, amongst which is that it offers us useful insights into Romanesque Ireland as well as elucidating the political motivations of its Cambro-Norman author. The text is an early form of British ethnography and bears the hallmarks of the political project of its sycophantic and deeply misogynistic author, which was in part to unite Christendom as well as to incorporate populations at the figurative and literal margins of the British monarchy's control during Henry II's reign.
As a written work of the Middle Ages composed with an aristocratic British audience in mind, the text threads Biblical themes through its descriptions of the plants, animals, and topographical features of Ireland in the earlier sections. This interweaving of ecclesiastical maxims through varied topics continues into the later historical and cultural episodic accounts, which ruminate by turns on issues of female sexuality, bestiality, and cultural deficits amid sweeping surveys of various invasions, conquerors, and kingdoms from ancient times to the author's present.
Through the perspective of the Cambro-Norman clerical author, we receive highly charged and politically motivated accounts of the Irish as a "filthy people, wallowing in vice" (p. 106). These accompany equally disparaging accounts of their inadherence to Christian mores: "Of all people, it is the least instructed in the rudiments of the faith." These observations intend to justify the author's personal political project and serve his vested interest in persuading Henry II to continue the incorporation of Irish people and territories in the wake of the Anglo-Norman invasion.
The juxtaposition of topics demonstrates how medieval, elite thinkers like Gerald of Wales understood knowledge as a dispersal of varied social, political, natural, and supernatural entities and ways of being, which in their wonder, mystery, and profanity revealed deeper ecclesiastical truths (or their abasement). Through careful, theologically informed observation, the opacity of the distant and foreign could be reduced and rendered more or less intelligible through the deployment of Christian cosmology, whose deepest mysteries were lying in wait to be revealed to the understanding of this perceptive, literate ecclesiastical elite. While a contemporary reader might find these juxtapositions dissonant, they reveal a medieval ontology grounded in a Christian cosmological view wherein wondrous and profane entities populate a vast visual field stretching out toward the literal and figurative frontier of Western. This survey of entities in the visual field forms the logical binding of the account, rather than the kind of disciplinary methodologies that organize the themes and conjunctions of knowledge familiar to post-nineteenth century readers.
This work will appeal to scholars of medieval Ireland, Western patriarchy, Celtic culture, pre-colonial ethnography, historical ecological literature, and the process of European Christianization; neurodivergents who have a hyperfocus/special interest that includes the aforementioned subject areas; or the casual reader with a particular and perhaps acute interest in Ireland during the medieval period.
And to conclude on a personal note, the description and illustration of the mare stew king's ritual is particularly wild and will likely persist in my memory longer than I would prefer.
soaraus's review against another edition
adventurous
informative
medium-paced
3.0
I was so excited to read this and it turns out Gerald is full of crap. Ended up making it fun to read 900 year old pettiness tho!
christian_mcguire's review against another edition
2.0
The Topographia Hibernica (Topography of Ireland) by Gerald Cambrensis is a report to the King of the English Henry II. He describes to Henry the geography and people of Ireland, presumably for political purposes as Ireland was later imperialized by England. I'm sure it was of great importance in its own time, but as a casual reader today it's not very enjoyable or helpful. Gerald himself was a talented writer of both prose and verse, and he has a good ability to make bland things more interesting through his writing style. Despite that, this is a rather dull read. It is split into three long chapters and I will analyze each.
The first chapter describes the physical geography of Ireland; its location relative to other things, its terrain and its fauna mainly. However, this is where the book is at its most dull. Describing physical geography for pages on end when you already know where Ireland is and what its landscape is like is not enjoyable at all. Also, it isn't entirely correct, as Ireland is in fact not particularly mountainous. I did find two things here interesting; his descriptions of birds, because I personally like birds, and is definition of Thule, one of the most mysterious toponyms of the classical and medieval world. According to Gerald it is an island in the north Atlantic above the arctic circle. This chapter is quaint and at times relaxing, and a glimpse into how medieval geography was conveyed, but otherwise is mostly boring.
The second chapter is significantly more interesting. This is where Gerald recounts the wonders, mysteries and miracles of Ireland. Contained within are many stores about magic wells, saintly escapades, cursed villages, human-animal hybrids, magic islands and even a woman getting raw-dogged by a goat. It gets tedious towards the end because catholic miracles aren't quite as interesting as the surreal and fantastical stuff, but overall this part of the book was enjoyable because I really do enjoy hearing about medieval people seeing the world through such a magical lenses, and because the well that dumps rain on you and only you when you spill out water from an ox horn onto a nearby rock is funny.
The third chapter, about the history and human geography of Ireland, is where the book falls apart. Irish creation mythology about the biblical flood and various legendary kings is potentially interesting but Gerald recants it rather dryly which is a disappointment. He then discusses the Irish people, and does so in a shockingly uncharitable way. He describes them as pastoral savages who are wicked and not Christian enough, without giving much insight to their culture or social structure which is a big disappointment. The blatant racism and lack of juicy details other than a few tid-bits about bathing in horse soup and creative methods of legal kinslaying is not very praiseworthy. The book ends with more contemporary political history but once again Gerald fails to provide much of interest or drama, and I can't help but feel that there are much better books on Irish history regarding this time period.
Overall this is a largely unenjoyable and unhelpful book whose information is for the most part unhelpful on account of being provably untrue of fantastical, or redundant, or uninteresting and incomplete because, frankly, Gerald was a poor historian. The fact that he uncritically cites Geoffrey of Monmouth, a grifter pseudo-historian, is indicative of this. This I imagine is important for scholars but I don't recommend this for casual readers unless you really wanna hear about magic wells, islands that kill women, and extremely catholic talking dogs.
The first chapter describes the physical geography of Ireland; its location relative to other things, its terrain and its fauna mainly. However, this is where the book is at its most dull. Describing physical geography for pages on end when you already know where Ireland is and what its landscape is like is not enjoyable at all. Also, it isn't entirely correct, as Ireland is in fact not particularly mountainous. I did find two things here interesting; his descriptions of birds, because I personally like birds, and is definition of Thule, one of the most mysterious toponyms of the classical and medieval world. According to Gerald it is an island in the north Atlantic above the arctic circle. This chapter is quaint and at times relaxing, and a glimpse into how medieval geography was conveyed, but otherwise is mostly boring.
The second chapter is significantly more interesting. This is where Gerald recounts the wonders, mysteries and miracles of Ireland. Contained within are many stores about magic wells, saintly escapades, cursed villages, human-animal hybrids, magic islands and even a woman getting raw-dogged by a goat. It gets tedious towards the end because catholic miracles aren't quite as interesting as the surreal and fantastical stuff, but overall this part of the book was enjoyable because I really do enjoy hearing about medieval people seeing the world through such a magical lenses, and because the well that dumps rain on you and only you when you spill out water from an ox horn onto a nearby rock is funny.
The third chapter, about the history and human geography of Ireland, is where the book falls apart. Irish creation mythology about the biblical flood and various legendary kings is potentially interesting but Gerald recants it rather dryly which is a disappointment. He then discusses the Irish people, and does so in a shockingly uncharitable way. He describes them as pastoral savages who are wicked and not Christian enough, without giving much insight to their culture or social structure which is a big disappointment. The blatant racism and lack of juicy details other than a few tid-bits about bathing in horse soup and creative methods of legal kinslaying is not very praiseworthy. The book ends with more contemporary political history but once again Gerald fails to provide much of interest or drama, and I can't help but feel that there are much better books on Irish history regarding this time period.
Overall this is a largely unenjoyable and unhelpful book whose information is for the most part unhelpful on account of being provably untrue of fantastical, or redundant, or uninteresting and incomplete because, frankly, Gerald was a poor historian. The fact that he uncritically cites Geoffrey of Monmouth, a grifter pseudo-historian, is indicative of this. This I imagine is important for scholars but I don't recommend this for casual readers unless you really wanna hear about magic wells, islands that kill women, and extremely catholic talking dogs.
benababy85's review against another edition
mysterious
slow-paced
3.0
Hard to believe anyone taught this to be factual
franfernandezarce's review against another edition
1.0
this could be summed up with: "ireland is a lovely place to live except for the irish--of which there are plenty"
dantew's review against another edition
fast-paced
1.0
Content Warnings
Minor: Racism and Antisemitism