Top 4 Resources for Learning Medieval Gaelic
A Celticist's Guide to learning this difficult language
At risk of stereotyping, I’ve decided to dedicate Senchas Claideb posts during the month of March to Ireland or all topics Irish. Unlike standard St. Patty’s Day lip service, I’ll be providing lore on topics such as the Gaelic language, the old, primeval gods of the Isle, and other lesser-known anecdotes about the history, mythology, and people of Ireland.
For the first post of the month, I’ll be sharing a few resources that were instrumental in my learning of the Medieval Gaelic language (or Old Irish). My readers might be wondering why I’ve chosen to write about Old Irish rather than modern Gaeilge (Irish), and that’s simply because I don’t speak Modern Irish—I speak Scottish Gaelic (Gáidhlig)—and I figured it would be more interesting to share my experience with this ancient language, especially for those who might write stories that take place in medieval Ireland.
Without further ado, here are the top four resources (plus some nestled within) for learning Old Irish!
1. A Student’s Companion to Old Irish Grammar
Written by my graduate school advisor, Ranke de Vries, PhD., A Student’s Companion is probably the most accessible introduction to the Old Irish language to date. While it is a textbook specifically meant for Dr. de Vries’ course in Old Irish, she breaks down the complexities and “culture shocks” of this difficult language into very digestible examples more akin to modern language-learning that can be understood by both academics and casual learners. The ordering of a few of the concepts I found to be a bit inconsistent, although I may have attributed that to my late-night delirium while racing to translate sentences for my final assignments and thesis. Regardless of that, A Student’s Companion was a true companion to me during my postgraduate career and is the first text I’d recommend to anyone wanting to start learning Old Irish at any capacity.
2. Sengoidelc: Old Irish for Beginners
Technically my first introduction to Old Irish, I was immediately intimidated by the weighty terms and concepts Stifter launches at readers from the very first page. Despite my initial surprise, I pressed on, dedicating part of one whole summer to studying the lessons years before I pursued my master’s degree. As with A Student’s Companion, Sengoidelc is also a companion textbook for Stifter’s university courses and most definitely intended for academics who have some knowledge about linguistic concepts beyond what one would learn in grammar school. He does, however, provide some explanation behind most of the basic information one would need to begin learning Old Irish, but it is assumed the reader already has a grasp on the mechanics of language and grammar. Sengoidelc is a far denser text than A Student’s Companion, both in the sense of its content and the actual book itself, making a self-guided course through it a labor of love that will definitely require additional tools for notetaking and recording progress. Each chapter has its own exercises to help learners practice each new concept after covering it thoroughly. One thing I really appreciate about this text is the small glossary it provides at the back that I have used both for academic and fiction writing. Sengoidelc will challenge readers immensely but it is necessary for upping your game when it comes to learning Old Irish.
3. The (electronic) Dictionary of the Irish Language
Either a Celtic Studies student’s best friend or worst enemy, this digitized, electronic version of The Dictionary of the Irish Language (eDIL) provides a catalogue of Old Irish words that may be searched alphabetically or manually. One of the biggest challenges navigating eDIL is locating exact words and conjugations. Words from Old Irish texts are often already conjugated and words on eDIL can most reliably be found by searching for head words (i.e., the unconjugated words). I lost track of the number of times I ran into the “No search results found” screen whenever I tried searching for exact words as I saw them in the texts—usually these were verbs, verbs are very difficult in all stages of the Gaelic language and sometimes have fun little quirks that can’t easily be explained in standardized grammar books and aren’t categorized on eDIL even under variations of words.
Another “feature” (as Todd Howard of Bethesda Softworks would call it) is that, sporadically, eDIL will go down and never has a consistent timeframe of when it will be available again. Aside from this, and being slow at times, it works serviceably as a resource for finding new words and most definitions as long as you know how to look for them. One other thing to note is that eDIL only has Old Irish to English words available. While the search bar may locate English words within definitions, it helps a lot more to know the Irish word you’re looking for to maximize success in search results.
Even with its flaws, eDIL is an invaluable resource for Old Irish learners in the digital age.
4. The Stories Themselves
One of my favorite YouTubers, Jackson Crawford, once said, on learning ancient languages, that learners must read, and read, and read…if they wish to master such things that are seldom spoken aloud anymore. The saga texts from medieval Ireland especially are great ways to understand not only how to read the language at face value, but to learn storytelling conventions and phrases that may have aided in oral retellings of these ancient tales.
Something that just sort of happens when you’re studying any language and immersing yourself in it via reading, listening to native speakers, or engaging in media created in that language is that words naturally start to become recognizable from a glance. When it comes to ancient languages, reading them becomes like a word puzzle where once you find one word that's familiar, the rest of the sentence slowly starts to make sense. In the long hours I spent translating legal and saga texts, my brain started to automatically understand individual words, then almost complete sentences while still only having to refer to my learning resources to make sure my translations were correct—in most cases, though, I still needed some improvement!
Some Old Irish grammar books will come with excerpts of saga literature or poetry to translate as exercises. Celtic Studies also often utilizes textbooks written in the early 20th century which contain untranslated episodes from the sagas, accompanied with glossaries that handily contain the quirkier conjugations of words not found on eDIL or in grammar textbooks.
While translation work can be tiring or frustrating over long sessions, figuring out your own translations without the aid of another translated text is incredibly rewarding and helpful for the development of language-learning. What is more is that unlike with languages spoken today, there is little pressure to have to learn exactly how every word is pronounced unless you’re planning to have live recitals of the original texts.
When it comes to readily-available texts for translation practice, these are the ones I would recommend:
John Strachan’s Stories from the Táin
A.G. Van Hamel’s Compert Con Culainn and Other Stories
David Stifter’s Sengoidelc (linked above)
The Corpus of Electronic Texts (or CELT) site also has reams of stories that may be used for translation practice. Note that they do not come with glossaries but they’re a great “training ground” if you want to step up your game after you’ve exhausted the beginning options.
Given how integral storytelling has been in Gaelic society for centuries, learning through the original tales is the perfect way to read, read, read and build not only your Old Irish skills but your inventory of lore.
Thanks for reading this week’s post! Have you studied or are you currently studying any ancient languages? If so, leave a comment about your experience and what helped you master it!
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Special Announcement! New Story Release!
I am excited to share that DMR Books has released their latest anthology Die By the Sword Volume II! This collection contains twelve tales of sword & sorcery fantasy, including my latest story “Balefire Beneath the Waves” featuring my series characters Eachann MacLeod and Connor Ua Sreng.
In this story, the lads pledge their service to a gruff sailor who has been travelling the world with his daughter, hunting a mysterious sea monster whose existence has haunted him since his youth. Eachann, Connor, and the small crew of the mad sailor’s ship soon find more than they bargained for in the stormy grey seas north of Scotland…
You can pick up your copy of Die By the Sword Volume II in paperback, hardcover, or eBook from DMR Books’ website! Be sure to leave a review and spread the word with friends, family, and fellow fans of S&S!
This is so fascinating. I've always loved how poetic the ancient British Island languages were, and you can even see this influence in modern Irish and Scotch Gaelic. Thanks for the recs!
I'm trying to understand the difference between Old Irish, Medieval Irish and Medieval Gaelic. They seem to be used interchangeably, but I'm not quite sure that is true. Can you help? Thanks!