briamon smethraige

[adelenozedar]

Can anyone help me with the above? I'm pretty sure it's an Irish 'practise'. I've done a google and there are sites in French, Russian and Italian but although I have people on hand who can help with the languages we are still none the wiser. The only ref. I can find is in the Penguin Dictionary of Symbols under the entry for 'ear'...all help very gratefully received!
Best wishes to all
Adele Nozedar

[Beith]

Hi Adelenozedar,

I can help you a little but some follow up would be needed to find out more. It is indeed Irish, but of a very old era and unless those folks around you have old Irish or middle Irish (era between about 700AD - 1200AD) then it would be hard to track it down.

You are on the right track with the ear reference. Briamon smethrach or B.smethraige is a phrase given in Sanas Cormaic as a feat performed by the filid (the seer poets - the high caste poets who had what I suppose, one could call 'shamanistic' skills in combination with high arts of poetry and learning). I looked it up in the DIL (Dictionary of the [0ld] Irish Language) where  I found a phrase pertaining to it but no full translation so I will give it a go based on my own "beginner's knowledge" of Old Irish....

Briamon smetrach .i. ainm nemthiusa dogniat filid im nech atatoing. i. meilid smit ind aue iter a dá mér, doécce in duine ima ndéne nemtess

Translation:
.i. (that is) the name of a skill that the filid (seer poets) do, on one who refuses/denies them. .i. (that is) he crushes the lobe of the ear between his two fingers and beholds the person (or the person beholds) who demonstrates privilege (or power)

Again, I'm probably not translating that exactly as meant in original sense as old Irish and early middle Irish are really confusing in some areas - especially on the small words and particles which can change the sense of a sentence entirely if you pick the wrong one! I'm not sure whether nemthius (nemthess) is meant as "privilege or status" or as a "power" - it can be used as both and I'm not sure whether the 'ima ndéne' is from the verb do-gní (meaning to do or make) used with "im-" particle. I found a reference for imma-dénai which means "proves" or "demonstrates" so I am applying it here, but maybe someone more versed than I would be able to add more.  

It seems to be a phrase referencing some sort of satirical action performed by a poet in response to a refusal of something....and either involves an actual gesture -  pulling on the ear lobe or else this may be a metaphorical term for a ritual action of a poet in the context of performing some form of satire in response to a slight.

The sense of 'refusal' implied in the verb as-toing ('ata-toing' - 'refuses them') is usually a reference to a "refusal by oath" or legal denial of something...and I'd suspect here it is maybe a denial of the privileges that are supposed to be accorded to this high caste of poets under Brehon law.

Context:
You see, the high-grade poets (as indeed other high caste persons) were accorded certain privileges according to rank. The higher the status, the more privileges accorded. These were practical and social merits - from the size of a retinue a poet may hold, the hospitality due to him and his retinue, the payment for certain types of poems composed, the greatness of his "honour price", etc. The use of satire by the poets was a way of legally enforcing a defaulting party to pay up or concede to the rightful demands of a poet for work performed. It was a legal measure (whereas illegal satires were prosecuted by law and were punishable with huge fines) and was used effectively against those of even higher status, in order to bring down their honour and force them to meet their social and financial obligations.

Whether the briamon smethrach is used in this sense or not, I do not know. Do you have a passage where the context of its use is referenced? eg. a tale in which it is mentioned? where did you originally find the term?

I did find that reference Sanas Cormaic (the advice of Cormac) and SC or parts thereof is translated in "Anecdota from the Irish Manuscripts" - translated pieces by Kuno Meyer, Osborn Bergin, and other Celtic scholars. You might find the relevant piece within with expanded text.

Good luck with it. If you churn up more, let me know what you find. I have not got time right now to re-do my translation above to a higher degree but that's about what I can offer off the cuff.

best wishes
Beith

[adelenozedar]

hi beith and a huge thanks for all your trouble. I was astonished to find such a level of help and I reall appreciate it.

This is the first time I've used this forum so hope I'm replying in the correct way.

I found the original ref. in the Penguin Dictionary of Symbols under the section about 'ear' ...here's what it says;

'One of the Druidical spells recorded by Irish literary sources is the 'briamon smethraige' - its meaning is obscure -which was directed at the ears, the druid rubbing the ear of the person mentioned in the spell and causing his or her death. Not only did the druid isolate the person from the rest of humanity, but he caused his or her death by stopping them communicating with anyone else and completely preventing the person under the spell from receiving any enlightenment'...

The reference comes originally from two sources, I think , 'Ogam - Tradition Celtique'. Rennes 1948, and also Les Druides by Francoise Laroux, 1961

I'm guessing that the 'death' would be symbolic and the rubbing of the ear might have been to indicate that the person in question be 'sent to coventry' for a time but I may be way off track with this supposition. If you can cast any further light I'd be very grateful!

Again, many many thanks, and best wishes
adele

[Beith]

Hi Adele,
Glad to be of help!

I think you are right that the "death" is metaphorical.  At the most I would say that it was a satirical action and accompanying poem or charm designed to reduce the honour status of the person who had insulted the poet and by doing so, force payment of the correct nature for a poem provided or to provide the correct hospitality or privileges that should be accorded to a poet according to his status in early Irish society.

The nastier satires and spells would be the Firt Filed (the poet's spell) causing blemish to the face of the individual, thereby lowering honour status because to tolerate a satire without action was to have one's lóg enech (honour price) reduced; and the powerful Glám Dícenn used to bring down a king (encompassing incantations in a specific location and conditions and a voodoo-like piercing of an effigy with thorns). I hadn't heard of the Bríamon Smethrach until you mentioned in ..so thanks for that because I learned something new too!

Do you have access to an academic library?
if so, I see there's another reference to it given in the journal Zeitschrift fuer Celtische Philologie: ZCP xxi 324 and also the Revue Celtique: RC xxxvi 24.78

In Early Irish society, the honour price (lóg enech, enechlann) was an important status measure. It affected everything - from your power to make a contract of sale or purchase or sharing of goods/work, to inheritance rights to kin-land, to the level of sick-maintenance accorded to a person, fines for compensation in case of offence perpetuated against them and payment for work performed among many other things. Basically it marked out who you were and what level of status you held and all that this physically and socially represented.

Under the law, in the case of poets, there is a legal entitlement of a poet to his duas - the payment for a poem composed on behalf of a patron. Once the poem was perfect, the price should be paid. In some cases, patrons defaulted on this and the legal means of enforcing that payment on very high status people who could not be fined according to the usual law, was to make a satire against them. The insitution of satire was one of the most powerful in early society because satire reduces the honour price and thereby reduces the lord (flaith), King (rí) in status.

Similarly, a poet whether on public business or attending feasts or on a circuit would be entitled to a certain level of hospitality for himself and his retinue (their number also assigned by his status and level of training in the ranks of the Filid)...and if this was not provided accordingly, this would be considered a great insult to the poet and hence worthy of satire.In fact the "first satire made in Ireland" is that of the poet Cairbre against Bres, the Formorian king of the Túatha Dé Danann who houses him in a little dark house, without a stick of furniture, no fire in the grate and only 3 small dry oatcakes for a meal. Cairbre then composes a virulent satire against Bres, causing his cheeks to erupt in boils and blemishes and hence his downfall from kingship as under ancient law, no king could rule if he was blemished or otherwise physically or mentally incapacitated.


As mentioned before, satire was a formal process (if done according to the law and hence legal) where the poet would have to give notification of intent to satirize, name the offender, praise the offender and specify the offence in a "warning shot" poem called a trefhocal. Then there would be a specific period in which the offending party could make restitution of give guarantee that a gesture of restitution would be made. If this was not done within that period, then a formal satire would take place and thus the honour of this person would be brought down.
For that to happen to someone of status, it would be a terrible thing and removed many of their rights and privileges, so to this end, satire was a feared and powerful tool and not something to be taken lightly.

I would think that your term of reference fits into that, rather than causing actual death.

I don't have more specific references to it, but I could recommend that for background reading, you look up the Brehon Law translations by the below authors as you might find something therein.

Prof Fergus Kelly - Guide to Early Irish Law
Prof Liam Breatnach  -  Uraicecht na Ríar

You could also try to look in Bretha Nemed which is the law tract on status as the poets should be mentioned therein and likewise perhaps some of their skills. Also given that the Auraicept na nÉces is the "Scholar's primer" there may also be some reference to such arts as poet's training materials. I really don't know. George Calder did a translation of AUR so that might be a place to start.

Are you working on an essay on it or just from interest may I ask? It's such an interesting topic! Prof Breatnach has published much on poets and satire so if you google his works, then you might churn up something but you will have to sort to much reference material to find out.

Try the ZCP reference if you have access to such journals. But I don't know whether the article referenced there is in German or English - the journal it bilingual.

Happy hunting! keep me posted on your discoveries there. It is fascinating!

Best regards
Beith