I'm attempting to study this book in a little more detail and I'm finding that there are a couple of hindrances toward this endeavor. First, this book was originally published in 1943, which in and of itself makes it old enough that some of the terminology *might* be defined differently. Second, the sources that tend to be cites in the text are generally, of course, older than the published text. For instance, page one refers to Professor Macalister's Muiredach, Abbot of Monasterboice (890-923 A.D., His Life and Suroundings), which I find out was originally published in 1914. Needless to say, it won't be easy to get a hold of that book unless I can somehow find it in a library somehow. On the brighter side, there are photographs available concerning Monasterboice, at least, and the cross inscribed with Muiredach's name. (Muiredach's Cross is pictured at the right, East face)Monasterboice is the monastery which was founded by Saint Buite, who died in 521AD. This site contains three of the High Crosses in Ireland. These crosses are made of sandstone with two dating to around the 9th century. The names of the crosses are The Cross of Muiredach (named due to an inscription at it's base between two cats saying it was erected by Muiredach), The Tall Cross or West Cross (named for being the tallest High Cross in Ireland) and The North Cross, which apparently was of later period construction. Each of these crosses have intricate carvings on all four surfaces.
The West face (pictured to the right) contains - the Flight into Egypt, the baptism of Christ, Christ being mocked by Roman soldiers and Christ in the tomb.
The East face contains - Adam and Eve and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, Cain and Abel, Moses striking the rock, Sampson toppling the pillars, and David with the head of Goliath.
This is a close up view
of a panel on the west face of the cross (Christ's baptism? or Christ in the tomb?).--In the center Christ holds up His right hand as if saying to Thomas on his right, "Reach your finger here; see my hands. Reach your hand here and put it into my side. Be unbelieving no longer, but believe" (John 20:27). The figure on the right with the book may be St. John the Evangelist, who alone tells this post-resurrection story.--
http://www.bluffton.edu/~sullivanm/muiredach/muiredach.html
This picture to the left is below the first picture and it's described as follows (likely the one described as Christ being mocked by Roman soldiers):
--A young beardless Christ stands in the center held by two soldiers; thus, this could be a depiction of the arrest of Christ. Because Christ is dressed in regal fashion with a large, ornate brooch and because he carries a wand (sceptre), this may represent the mocking of Christ when the soldiers dressed Him in a purple robe and crown of thorns and gave him a mock sceptre of reed, hailing Him as "King of the Jews." (John 19:4-6)--
This next two pictures to the right are from the East face of Muiredach's Cross depicting Adam and Eve and Cain and Abel. These are two different angles showing differeing details.[As I find more detailed photos of the crosses, I'll update old entries to keep everything together.]
What I like about these pictures are the detail
the photographers were able to capture. Using these photos in conjunction with OIHD it's easy to see where they determined what the early Irish wore. According to OIHD, 'the two main garments worn by persons of importance in Ireland were a long close-fitting smock, for which the Irish was leine, and an outer mantle thrown over it which in Irish was called brat. Looking at the second photo, that's quite similar to what Christ is wearing between the soldiers. If you look close enough, the brat is being held closed by the traditional cloak pin against Christ's upper right chest.One of his other references to early Irish dress comes from Tain Bo Cualnge, which I refered to in an earlier post. Within the Tain are 32 descriptions of noble individuals. [I'll provide this in another post.] Other than in color, there were two main articles of clothing that were common, the leine (a tunic or shirt, sometimes hooded, and nearly always described as being worn "next to the skin") and the brat (a cloak or mantle, almost always described as being fastened on the breast with a brooch or pin). According to McClintock, most of the tunics or shirts are mentioned as described as silk (sioda or sroll). Yet on the other side of that, on the EMI group, they've indicated that in Old Irish, silk could simply be used to refer to any type of material that was very finely made. Refer back to my earlier post on silk for more information. Linen was specifically mentioned in No. 18 of McClintock's Appendix. From the research I've done thus far, wool and linen were the main staples of early Irish dress, and silk, since it was so expensive, was almost never used to make an entire outfit. It was used for trim and embroidery.
As to footwear, only the Poets or Druids were described to have worn sandals (I'd like to know what their definition of sandals was). McClintock claims the fighters went barefoot. It is difficult to tell from the etchings above if the warriors are barefoot or not, but since there is no obvious delineation either at the ankle or anywhere else below the trews (or trousers), it's safe to assume for now that they went barefoot.
More later...
