Agency, Consent and Loyalty

This paper explores the depiction of women in the early Middle Irish biblical verse epic Saltair na Rann. Using Michal, the daughter of Saul and wife of David, as a central case study reveals the nature and extent of the anonymous poet’s elaboration of their biblical source, with a creative and dramatic dialogue between Michal and Saul as the audacious centrepiece of that part of the narrative. This paper proceeds to examine some other female characters within the text more briefly, and concludes by tentatively placing some of the poet’s concerns with female agency, marriage and royal daughterhood within a wider literary and political context which reflect the possible circumstances within which Saltair na Rann was composed

Daughter · Genealogy · Irish · Loyalty · Political science · Social science · Sociology · Classics · History · Irish and British Studies · Law · Philosophy