Massive Scribal Hangovers: One Ninth Century Confession

Anglandicus ^

[ameribbean expat]

Medieval Irish scribes were habitually recording their emotional and physical state as they labored at the task of copying manuscripts. These scribal glosses range from pious prayers ("God bless my hands today" Laon MS 26, f18v) to curses on pens, parchment, and careless work by fellow scribes. ***** One Irish ninth century copy of a Latin grammar, the Institutiones grammaticae by Priscian (c. 500), contains alongside the usual prayers and complaints a curious marginal gloss in ogham script.

Ogham script was used by the Irish possibly as early as the fourth century AD, mainly in grave monuments scattered over Ireland (as well as some in western Britain).

The ogham gloss on the top of page 204 in the Priscian grammar is a single word in Irish, Latheirt.

This obscure word can be accurately defined thanks to the remarkable old Irish dictionary dating to possibly as early as the ninth century, the Sanas Cormaic (Cormac's glossary). The entry for the Irish word Latheirt is defined as follows;

Ale [Lait] + killed [ort], i.e. ale has killed us, that is ale drinking.

McManus notes,

"This [definition] together with other contexts shows the basic meaning to be 'excessive ale-consumption' with the logical extensions 'excessive drunkenness' and 'massive hangover', the last probably the meaning intended in the Priscian Oghams."

The task of copying out a Latin grammar by hand was difficult enough for a monk without the added misery of a hangover. This was not our scribe's finest hour.

[ameribbean expat]

"Hangover", in ancient Irish.

[Ken H]

It can also be translated as “every morning”.

[Southside_Chicago_Republican]

Bookmark

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks ameribbean expat.

Barry Fell noted that a figure on the Gundestrup Cauldron is holding up his hands and spelling "thunder" in Ogham — and the figure is a thunder deity (later known as Thor, basically). One view (which IMHO is correct) is that the method of writing began as fingerspelling, a way to communicate silently and (if others were unfamiliar with it) secretly.

• Ogham alphabet
• Roman era reveals expenses claims
• New Written Language of Ancient Scotland Discovered
• 120-114 BC: The Cimbrian flood and the following Cimbrian war 113-101 BC
• Cave Skeleton Is European, 1,300 Years Old
• The Pinta, Santa Maria And A Chinese Junk? (More)

[Bigg Red]

Great story. Thanks.

[SunkenCiv]

:^) Fell’s discussion of Ogham alone makes reading “America BC” worth it.