AN INTRODUCTION TO THE ACALLAM TALES Acallam tales belong to a category of tales in which dialogue is an important feature. The term acallam is the verbal noun of ad-gládathar ‘addresses, speaks to, converses with’ and so it refers to a kind of conversation or dialogue. A related term is immacallam, the verbal noun of imm-acalladar ‘converses together’: these terms often appear to be used interchangeably, both within the medieval literature and in modern scholarship. When scholars speak of acallam tales, they are referring to a category of works defined by Joseph Falaky Nagy (1). They share several features, most notably a marked interest in learnedness, a related concern with memory (preserved both orally and in writing) and a preoccupation with landscape and place-names. As Nagy has shown, these texts typically present two speakers. One is depicted as responsible for preserving the knowledge exchanged in the dialogue, while the other who ‘may be an angelic messenger from God, a surviving relic of the past, a revenant, or a denizen of some supernatural realm, Christian or non-Christian … who comes bearing information that those with whom he speaks had thought was lost or inaccessible’ (2) . Our examples of acallam tales include the following works, which I’m listing in a rough chronological order: Imacallam Coluim Chille 7 in Óclaig, De Fallsigud Tána Bó Cúalnge, Scél Tuáin meic Cairill, Immacallam in Dá Thuarad, Siaburcharpat Con Culainn, Suidigud Tellaig Temra, Aided Echach maic Maireda. Medieval Irish literature has often been divided into four parts (‘cycles’) by modern scholars, namely the Ulster Cycle, the Mythological Cycle, the Kings’ Cycle (also known as the Historical Cycle) and the Fenian/Finn Cycle (i.e. fíanaigecht). Our examples of acallam tales are not limited to any one cycle, but yet they are most strongly associated with fíanaigecht due to impact made by Acallam na Senórach, the lengthiest and best-known of all the acallam tales. (1) ‘Close Encounters of the Traditional Kind in Medieval Irish Literature’, in Celtic Folklore and Christianity: Studies in Memory of William W. Heist, ed. Patrick K. Ford (Santa Barbara, CA, 1983), pp. 129-49. (2) Conversing with Angels and Ancients: Literary Myths of Medieval Ireland (Dublin, 1997), p. 3. |
