Sun Dancing: A Vision of Medieval Ireland - Hardcover

Moorhouse, Geoffrey

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0151002770 ISBN 13: 9780151002771

Publisher: Harcourt Brace & Company, 1997

Synopsis

A two-part history of fourth-century monks describes their meditations on Celtic spirituality and their effects on Ireland, India, and Egypt and the course of Western art.

About this title

About the Author

Geoffrey Moorhouse is the author of nineteen books, including Calcutta, Imperial City, and Hell's Foundations. He was chief features writer at the Manchester Guardian for twelve years, until 1970. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, he lives in North Yorkshire, England.

Reviews

The rigors of Irish monasticism in the medieval period, well told by travel writer Moorhouse (On the Other Side, 1991; Hell's Foundations, 1992; etc.). The first half of the book is an imaginative reconstruction of life in an Irish monastery on the secluded rock-island of Skellig Michael from its founding in 588 to its dissolution in 1222. Moorhouse uses fictional vignettes to enliven the text. Each chapter is a well-chosen window onto a significant figure or event in the monastery's history--an 824 attack by Viking raiders, for example. In these fictional glimpses, we see the larger picture of Irish monasticism's evolution from a rigorously austere island faith to a less zealous, Romanized religion. Skellig Michael, perilously located on a sheer cliff rising from the ocean, began as one of the most ascetic of the Irish monasteries. Gradually, however, the population of monks began to dwindle, and the last fictionalized chapter shows the abbot and his aging disciples rowing their way back to the security of the mainland. The first half of the book is so intriguing and beautifully written that the second, a more traditional historical treatment of Irish monasticism, arranged topically, pales by comparison. Some of the discussions are absorbing, though; in one instance, Moorhouse explores the theme of syncretism, arguing that early Irish Catholicism, rather than eradicating pagan Celtic rituals, incorporated them into monastic life. This eclectic borrowing was able to continue for centuries because of Ireland's geographical remoteness from the centralizing forces of Rome. Due to accommodation with a Celtic spring ritual, Easter was dated differently than in Rome, a discrepancy that continued until Rome demanded conformity in the early 8th century. An uneven work, then, more fascinating in its first, fictionalized half than in the rigorous explications of the second, and one that might have worked better presented purely as a novel. (illustrations, not seen) -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Edition details

• Publisher: Harcourt Brace & Company
• Publication date: 1997
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0151002770
• ISBN 13: 9780151002771
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 284