Duignan, Leonie
(2010)
The Echtrae as an Early Irish Literary Genre.
PhD thesis, National University of Ireland Maynooth.
Abstract
As its title indicates, this thesis is concerned with the echtrae as a genre m early Irish
literature
Chapter I looks at the basic use of the term in medieval Irish tale-lists and elsewhere, and then
briefly considers modem scholarship and vanous issues raised by it regarding the nature and
function o f the pre-Norman Irish echtrae Chapter H endeavours to gather such information as
is available about echtrae titles attested in the tale-lists and then to examine the medieval
provenance (or lack of it) of the use of the echtrae to refer to various tales often associated
with the genre
Narratives for which this can be established form the initial database of seven tales examined
in Chapter III, which proposes a preliminary taxonomy o f what can be regarded as reasonably
typical echtrai in the light of ten significant common elements Chapter IV augments this
rather restricted corpus with five further texts selected for similar analysis on the strength of
significant typological affinities with the group considered in Chapter III
The role of sovereignty or kingship, which emerges as a central concern o f echtrai in
Chapters III and IV, will be examined further in Chapter V, which will also look at the royal
or other connections o f the persons named in the titles o f various lost echtrai Chapter VI
explores the way in which sovereignty and other motifs are exploited in individual extant
echtrai Chapter VII examines stones relating the otherworldly expeditions o f Cu Chulainn
and their relationship to the echtrai Finally, Chapter VIII endeavours to summarise the main
findings and attempts to sketch the development o f the echtrae in the pre-Norman period.
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