The Death of Aife's only son and the relationship between law and literature

Question 1

What has recent scholarship emphasised, such as Chapman- Stacey?

Answer 1

That law and literature in Ireland and Wales should be treated as interrelated genres as they share the same cultural background and the personnel and professional often overlapped, unusually for Europe
– Law was a branch of literature

Question 2

What is a detectable theme in Celtic scholarship?

Answer 2

• There is a general celticist trend to use one tradition (welsh or Irish), to establish the historical validity of the other

Question 3

An example of a legal tract that was attributed to a pseudo-historical figure?

Answer 3

• The Mellbretha composition is said to have taken place at Tara in the time of Conn Cetchahach, a key figure in the genealogical tales of the Ui Neill and the connacghta

Question 4

Common literature things found in law

Answer 4

• Use of fictional characters within the body of legal texts

- Tales from the Bible

Question 5

An example of a fictional character within the body of legal texts

Answer 5

• Many of the short tales in Bretha Nemed involve characters from pseudo-historical literature, such as Coipre Lifechair

Question 6

An example of a tale from the Bible being used in Irish law?

Answer 6

• The tales of Lucifer and Judas are used to demonstrate the importance of binding contractual agreements in Di Astud Chor

Question 7

What message was a juror trying to convey in casting their work as a story in the first place?

Answer 7

• Chapman-Stacey suggests that the texts acquired their validity from the fact that the jurist “was perceived as working within the confines of a recognised and authorativitve tradition”

Question 8

Discuss performative element

Answer 8

• Both law and literature had a performative element; both were written down and then had what Chapman-Stacey describes as an “orally performed equivalent” with authority constructed through reference to recognised cultural cues.

Question 9

What was the function of stories in law?

Answer 9

• Irish law books often used these tales as origin legends for offences and judgments pertaining to them.
• Scholars usually refer to these as ‘leading cases’; stories designed to validate practices current at the time the tract was composed

Question 10

Tales in senchas mar?

Answer 10

The senchas mar contains some tales that are so obviously legal that they must have been composed to specifically demonstrate a point

Question 11

Ideas of law v literature as legal evidence?

Answer 11

• The idea that law codes are more responsible to the ‘truth’ is flawed

Question 12

Difference between ‘leading cases’ and ‘precedent’

Answer 12

• Shouldn’t really say that leading cases are ‘precedent’ as the Irish legal system did not use precedent to make judgements (as we would now understand precedent to mean).
• Chapman-Stacey actually argues that the fact the lawbooks never cite decisions made by human judges equates to an “explicit rejection of the notion of precedent”

Question 13

Name the characters in Aided Oenfher Aife

Answer 13

• Connla
• Cú Chulainn
• Aife
• Emer
• 2 Ui Neill warriors of unknown

Question 14

Date of Aided Oenfher Aife

Answer 14

• Some have guessed 9th-10th century but we dont really know for sure when it was composed- which can be an issue

Question 15

What form does the story of Aided Oenfher Aife take in the Dinnsenchus texts?

Answer 15

• In the metrical and prose Dinnesenchus texts, the moral element is cut out and the tale is used to provide background for the story of a place name

Question 16

Summary of the story of Aided Oenfher Aife

Answer 16

• Follows the story of the ‘Wooing of Emer’- Ulaid hero Cu Chulainn leaves warrior princess Aife pregnant after raping her
• Cu Chulainn that when their son, Connla, is 7 he should come to ireland in search of his father (him) but that he must not identify himself to anyone
• At age 7, Connla arrives off the Irish coast and his warrior prowess alarm the ulaid, and two famous members of the ulaid are sent to him but with no success
• In some version’s, Cu Chulainn’s wife Emer tells him she thinks Connla is his son, but he then goes over to Connla and kills him. He recognsies Connla is his son and is grief stricken.