Ireland worker finds ancient psalms in bog

[Tyler]

I have the feeling we are seeing another urban myth in the making....

It's gotta be true. It's on the Internets.

The tubes never lie!

[flanum]

Tis on all the news over here and in every paper! Most of them mention Israel in the same context!

[brianc]

FWIW:

Psalm 83

Keep not thou silence, O God: hold not thy peace, and be not still, O God. For, lo, thine enemies make a tumult: and they that hate thee have lifted up the head. They have taken crafty counsel against thy people, and consulted against thy hidden ones. They have said, Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation; that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance. For they have consulted together with one consent: they are confederate against thee... My God, make them like a wheel; as the stubble before the wind. As the fire burneth a wood, and as the flame setteth the mountains on fire; So persecute them with thy tempest, and make them afraid with thy storm. Fill their faces with shame; that they may seek thy name, O LORD. Let them be confounded and troubled for ever; yea, let them be put to shame, and perish: That men may know that thou, whose name alone is JEHOVAH, art the most high over all the earth.

[alurker]

Anyone else notice this or find it odd that they would mention what page the book was opened on? I wonder is someone somewhere having a laugh...

This is what prompted my comment, "Its a miracle!"

djm

Sorry, I missed that comment entirely djm.

[dubhlinn]

The phrase "It's a miracle" is used every day among Irish people.
It is a standard expression used to fill a gap in the conversation.
I use it myself at least one a day, twice on a busy day.

Had the book mentioned the English, I would have used it today.

Slan,
D.

[djm]

"Its a miracle" over here usually conjures up images of some sort of low-brow fundamentalist bible-thumper with a decidedly southern US cracker drawl. It is a bad joke image, a cliché, a stereotype. It is Billy Graham. "Its a miracle" is right up there with ""You cayan be saved" - usually enough to set most people's teeth on edge.

djm

[Bloomfield]

During the period of Viking raids on the Irish monasteries (I think the earliest were around 795 - 800, and continued well into the the 11th century), many of the books written by the Irish monks were burried to protect them from raiders. There have been several folios from that period that have been discovered in the Irish bog somewhere. The Book of Kells, incidentally, is only called the Book of Kells (Co. Meath) because it was moved there to protect it from coastal Viking raids.

[Cynth]

So can anyone read this? I must say it's hard to understand quite what they've got there. I just can't imagine how they will deal with it.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/5216320.stm

Here's part of the story from the museum website:

Extensive fragments of what appear to be an Irish Early Christian Psalter, written on vellum, were recovered from the bog last Thursday. The manuscript was brought to the National Museum’s conservation laboratory on Friday by the Director (Pat Wallace), the Keeper of Irish Antiquities (Eamonn Kelly), and the Head of Conservation (Rolly Read). The pages appear to be those of a slim, large format book with a wraparound vellum or leather cover from which the book block has slipped.

Raghnall Ó Floinn, Head of Collections at the Museum, estimates that there are about 45 letters per line and a maximum of 40 lines per page. While part of Psalm 83 is legible, the extent to which other Psalms or additional texts are preserved will only be determined by painstaking work by a team of invited experts probably operating over a long time in the Museum laboratory.

I'm just daydreaming here, but the phrase "wrap-around cover" makes it sound as though possibly boards were never attached to the textblock. I wonder if there was originally any attachment of the textblock to the soft leather cover----it could have been sewn through or else glued. Or was the cover really just wrapped around it? That seems like something a person might do if he had copied some psalms for himself and couldn't or didn't want to go to the time or expense to actually bind the folios. But if the folios are "large format", that doesn't seem like something a person would have just scribbled out for himself. Was he carrying some folios, perhaps to hide them, perhaps to take them to someone else, that had been copied out and were intended to be part of a larger book? The wrap-around cover could have been just a temporary protection while the folios were being transported. Oh, this is the sort of thing that makes me want to travel back in time!

[djm]

Then again, if the original had been bound with a valuable cover, it might just as easily have been one of your Viking marauders who took the binding an flung the written pages into the bog. One could invent possibilities all day.

djm

[Monster]

I couldn't find anything on Snopes. It does seem strange, I hadn't paid much attention to it.

All the heads from the National Museum were out briefing the press so it doesn't look like a hoax at all.

Perhaps it's an elaborate hoax, maybe not.

Anyway, even if it is an authentic medeivel book there's no need to get superstitious over what page it's supposedly turned to. (Not saying anyone here is getting superstitious or anythng)

[brianc]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/5216320.stm


Hey, I recognize that! It's a recipe for Lentil soup!


(I thought they weren't going to allow it to be photographed until they'd gotten it restored)?

[Cayden]

The National Museum came out with a press statement yesterday to alleviete fears this was 'an omen'. The Latin translation of the psalm speaks of the Vale of tears, no mention of Israel and it's extermination is made.

[djm]

Good note, Peter. Thx.

djm

[GaryKelly]

[Flyingcursor]

And amar would have steam-cleaned it!

Yes! Are you wondering why the sudden interest in cleaning? I certainly am.

I'm not wondering.

Do you know something we don't?