Author Description

"On the basis of a wide range of written sources (laws, sagas, poetry, annals, genealogy, hagiography), Early Irish Kingship and Succession provides new insights about the place of lords and kings in early Irish society. It analyses the relationship with their subjects, by which means they ruled, and their strategies of survival in a competitive society. This is set in a context of the early Irish idealogy of rulership which combined Celtic ideas about sacral kingship with Christian concepts about proper behaviour and heavenly punishment. A lord or king had to be qualified for his office. Considerations such as descent, seniority, dignity, wealth, supporters and physical and mental capacities were all taken into account when a new lord or king was chosen. This study re-evaluates the rule of succession, its origins and its expression in narrative literature, and examines the meaning of the kingship of Tara and the titles rigdamna and tanaise rig. It sketches the background of the medieval Irish polity, with its expanding and fragmenting dynasties, and explains why none ever gained permanent rule over the whole island."--Jacket.