The Song of Dermot and the Earl explained

The Song of Dermot and the Earl
Author:Unknown
Translator:G.H.C. Orpen
Written:early 13th century
First:1892
Country:England
Language:Anglo-Norman
Subject:Anglo-Norman invasion of Ireland
Genre:chanson de geste
Form:Heroic couplet
Meter:Iambic tetrameter
Rhyme:aa bb cc ...
Lines:3459

The Song of Dermot and the Earl (French: Chanson de Dermot et du comte) is an anonymous Anglo-Norman verse chronicle written in the early 13th century in England. It tells of the arrival of Richard de Clare (Strongbow) in Ireland in 1170 (the "earl" in the title), and of the subsequent arrival of Henry II of England. The poem mentions one Morice Regan,[1] secretary to Dairmaid mac Murchadha, king of Leinster, who was eyewitness to the events and may have provided an account to the author.[2]

The chronicle survives only in a single manuscript which was re-discovered in the 17th century in London.[3] The work bears no title in the manuscript, but has been commonly referred to as The Song of Dermot and the Earl since Goddard Henry Orpen in 1892[4] published a diplomatic edition under this title. It has also been known as The Conquest of Ireland and The Conquest of Ireland by Henry II; in the most recent edition it was called La Geste des Engleis en Yrlande ("The Deeds of the English in Ireland").

Lines from The Song of (King) Dermot and the Earl (Strongbow)

This section of the poem has been translated from Anglo-Norman Frenchby G.H.C. Orpen (Trinity College, Dublin) from the Carew 596 manuscript and covers lines 3129 - 3161 (see Skryne and the Early Normans (1994)[5] by Elizabeth Hickey. p. 31).

See also

Editions and translations

Further reading

Notes and References

  1. The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography . 978-0-19-861412-8 . 10.1093/ref:odnb/23311 . 2004 .
  2. Regan, M., Orpen, G. Henry. (1892). The song of Dermot and the Earl: an Old French poem from the Carew manuscript no. 596 in the archiepiscopal library at Lambeth palace. Oxford: Clarendon press. p. vi.
  3. [Lambeth Palace]
  4. Review of The Song of Dermot and the Earl: an old French Poem edited, with translation and notes, by Goddard Henry Orpen. The Athenaeum. 3383. August 27, 1892. 283–284.
  5. Hickey, Elizabeth (1994). Skryne and the early Normans: papers concerning the medieval manors of the de Feypo family in Ireland in the 12th and early 13th centuries. WorldCat.
  6. Regan, M., Wright, T., Michel, F. (1837). Anglo-Norman poem on the conquest of Ireland by Henry the Second, from a manuscript preserved in the archiepiscopal library at Lambeth palace. London: W. Pickering.
  7. Regan, M., Wright, T., Michel, F. (1837). Anglo-Norman poem on the conquest of Ireland by Henry the Second, from a manuscript preserved in the archiepiscopal library at Lambeth palace. London: W. Pickering.