The Ottery
“If an otter can’t have fun doing something, it just simply won’t do it.”

Gotta Love Those Irish Bogs

July 27th, 2006

Last night I drove to Irish dance practice, listening to NPR as usual. And lo, as I was seconds away from my destination, they began a story about a medieval Psalter just recently discovered in an Irish peat bog (see the same story as reported in the Washington Post). What could I do but intentionally drive past my turn and meander around side-streets until the story was over?

In case you don’t already know, I’m a nut for the medieval history of Ireland and the British Isles, particularly for hagiography (stories about saints’ lives). Kind of a weird obsession, I know. It began, naturally, when I discovered stories about saints and otters.

The best otter tale is that of the seventh-century St. Cuthbert of Lindisfarne: for that one, I refer you to the Venerable Bede.

But there’s actually a saint-and-otter story that directly relates to Psalters and bodies of water. Celtic Christian monks often prayed standing in cold water, to keep themselves awake. One day St. Kevin (“Coemgen” in the inscrutable Gaelic spelling) was praying in a lake at Glendalough when he accidentally dropped his psalter into the water, and the book “sank some distance in it; and the angel came to help him. Thereupon an otter came bringing him his book in its mouth.”

Hurrah! I love it that the angel uses an otter to help Kevin out. Smart angel.

Anyway, whatever careless 9^th- or 10^th-century monk dropped his book in a peat bog clearly didn’t have any otters around (as far as I know, otters don’t hang out in peat bogs).

I’m disappointed that the news articles about this amazing find don’t mention other great archeological finds from Irish peat bogs, such as the victim of the “triple death.” The so-called Lindow Man, found in an Irish bog, gave proof to the theory that, for the ancient Celts, sometimes killing a person once wasn’t enough. Instead, he had to have his head clubbed, his throat slit, and be drowned. Sometimes I consider reviving the good old triple death tradition for people who particularly irritate me.

Anyway, the other important thing many articles fail to mention (but which the NPR report included!) is that the Psalm legible in this 20-page Psalter is Psalm 84 in the old Vulgate numbering. All Protestant and most current Catholic translations use the Hebrew numbering system, and thus this will probably appear in your Bibles as Psalm 83. A shame, in a way, because Psalm 84 is a much “nicer” Psalm. Psalm 83 is all about vengeance against God’s enemies. It does make me wonder why this particular Psalm was so important that it appeared in its own book (since books were still so costly, many monks simply memorized the Psalms). Perhaps our Irish monks were afraid of the Vikings, who began to attack monasteries during this time?

Entry Filed under: Books, Uncategorized