Otten Reinoud (6460356) Men dare not offer Prayers for them; Perceptions of Suicide in Early Medieval Ireland

Abstract

Suicide is described in the Old-Irish Penitential as a sin for which men were not allowed to pray, yet there are examples in Early Irish narrative texts, such as Aided Chonchobair, Longes mac nUislenn, and Scéla Cano meic Gartnáin, which show self-inflicted deaths in a positive light. Conchobar willingly takes his own life, yet he is described as having a martyr’s death. Deirdre on the other hand is said to have committed a fierce, and heinous crime when she took her own life. This thesis aims to establish what the perceptions of suicide were in Early Medieval Ireland. There are two texts which are the focus of this thesis, namely a fourteenth-century gloss on an Early Irish Law text found in manuscript H 4.22, and an excerpt from the Old-Irish Penitential. The gloss describes suicide as a form of fingal (kin-slaying), which is condemned in all cases. The Old-Irish Penitential, on the other hand, does consider the motivation for which the suicide is committed. Those who commit suicide out of desperation or sadness, have committed such a grave sin that they could not be prayed for. An exception is provided for those who took their lives in a state of being dásachtach. This can be translated in different ways, but is interpreted in this thesis as ‘a state of irrationality’, or ‘possession by a demon or devil’. For a full understanding of these two sources the system of fingal in Early Irish law is discussed, as well as the origin of the perception of suicide as a sin in the Early Irish Church. By comparing the scarce Early Irish legal and canonical texts on suicide with narrative sources such as Aided Chonchobair, Longes mac nUislenn, and Scéla Cano meic Gartnáin it is possible to better understand the sources. This is done on the basis of the approach laid down by Robin Chapman Stacey.