Eleanor Hull (1860-1935)

Life
[Dame Eleanor Hull], b. 15 Jan., Manchester, England, to Co. Down family, being dg. of Prof. Edward Hull, Dir. of Geological Survey of Ireland, 1870-90; ed. Alexandra College, Dublin; studied under Kuno Meyer and Standish Hayes O’Grady; settled in London and contrib. The Cornhill Magazine; joined London branch of Gaelic League; issued Cuchulain Saga in Irish Literature (1898), followed by Pagan Ireland (1904), and Early Christian Ireland (1905), as part of a 2-vol. Textbook of Irish Literature; fnd., with others, the Irish Texts Society, 1899, and served as secretary for 30 years; sometime President of Irish Literary Society (London); ed. Irish Home Reading Magazine, with Lionel Johnson, 1894; made Dame [date?]; wrote the hymn “Be Thou My Light” based on Mary E. Byrne’s translation of Dallan Forgaill’s Patrician lyric “Rob tu mo bhoile, a Comdi cride”; d. 13 Jan. 1935. JMC IF DIB DIW DIH OCIL FDA

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Works
  • Cuchulain Saga in Irish Literature, being a collection of stories [...] (London: David Nutt 1898) [contains an abridged translation of the Táin Bó Cuailgne by Standish Hayes O’Grady in the Book of Leinster version; see details]
  • The Epochs of Irish History: A Textbook of Irish Literature, 2 vols. - Vol. I: Pagan Ireland; Vol. 2: Early Christian Ireland (Dublin: M. H. Gill; London: Alfred Nutt 1906), 256pp., and Do. [another edn.] (1908) [see details].
  • Cuchulainn, The Hound of Ulster (1909), and Do., [another edn.] (NY: Thomas Y. Crowell [1911]), 279pp. ill. [8 lvs. of ills. by Stephen Reid].
  • The Poem-Book of the Gael: Translations from Irish Gaelic Poetry into English Prose and Verse (London: Chatto & Windus 1912) [see details].
  • The Northmen in Britain [Thomas Y. Crowell Company] (London: GC Harrap & Co. 1913), 256pp., ill. [16 pls. by M. Meredith Williams; authorities, p.10.]
  • A History of Ireland and Her People to the Close of the Tudor Period [2 vols.] (London: G. C. Harrap & Co. 1926), 518pp. [2p. β., 7-524, [1]p.]; Do., [another edn. [1931].
  • Folklore of the British Isles (London: G. C. Harrap & Co. 1928).

See also

  • The Development of the Idea of Hades in Celtic Literature, off-print from Folklore, 18:2 (1907) [held in Warburg Inst.] and Do. rep. [Folklore History Ser.] (Lulu Press 2010], 48pp.]
  • The Seven Psalms: A Commentary on the Penitential Psalm, trans. from French into English by Dame Eleanor Hull; ed. by Alexandra Barratt [Early English Text Soc., No. 307] (OUP 1995) [xl, 326pp.; contents - The Seven Psalms; The Manuscript; The Translator; The Language of the Text; The Seven Psalms; Appendix: Eleanor Hull’s Will.

Note: Vernam E. Hull edited Longes Mac N- Uislenn/The Exile of the Sons of Uisliu [MLA Monograph Series, 16] (NY: OUP: London: MLA 1949), ix, 187pp.; and A Collection of Irish Riddles [Univ. of California Pubs./ Folklore Studies, 6] (California UP 1955), xiv, 129pp.


Bibliographical details
Cuchulain Saga in Irish Literature, being a collection of stories relating to the hero Cuchullin / translated from the Irish by various scholars, compiled and edited, with introduction and notes, by Eleanor Hull [Grimms Library No. 8] (London: David Nutt 1898), lxxix, 316pp.; CONTENTS: The birth of Conachar, adapted from the translation of K. Meyer; How Conachar gained the kingship over Ulster, adapted from the translation of E. O’Curry; The origin of Cuchullin, from the French translation of M. L. Duvau; Tragical death of the sons of Usnach, from the translations by W. Stokes and O’Flanagan; The wooing of Emer and Cuchullin’s education under Scathach, translated by K. Meyer; The siege of Howth, translated by W. Stokes; The debility of the Ultonian warriors, from the German of E. Windisch; The appearance of the Morrigu to Cuchullin before the Táin Bó Cuailnge, from the German of E. Windisch; The Táin Bó Cuailnge, analysis with extracts by S. H. O’Grady; The instruction of Cuchullin to a prince, from the translations of E. O’Curry and M. D’Arbois de Jubainville; The great defeat on the plain of Muirthemne before Cuchullin’s death, translated by S. H. O’Grady; The tragical death of Cuchullin, translated by W. Stokes; The tragical death of King Conachar, from the translation by E. O’Curry; The phantom chariot of Cuchullin, from the translation by O’Beirne Crowe. [Also facsimile rep., AMS 1972, 316pp.]

The Epochs of Irish History: A Textbook of Irish Literature, 2 vols. of which Vol. I: Pagan Ireland (London: D. Nutt 1904], 228pp.; Vol. 2: Early Christian Ireland (London: D. Nutt 1905); jointly as (Dublin: M. H. Gill; London: Alfred Nutt 1906), 306pp.; and Do. [another edn.] (1908).

The Poem-Book of the Gael: Translations from Irish Gaelic Poetry into English Prose and Verse (London: Chatto & Windus 1912) [new impression 1913 - available at Gutenberg Project online]; Do., another edn. (Chicago: Browne & Howell, 1913), 370pp. [available at Google Books online, or in frame as .pdf].

Plate of Saltair na Rann (Bodleian, Rawl. B. 502.) in Hull, Poembook of the Gael (1913)
Hull translates successive parts of the Saltair as: I. The Creation of the Universe; II. The Heavenly Kingdom; III. The Forbidden Fruit; IV. The Fall and Expulsion from Paradise; VI. The Penance of Adam and Eve; VI. The Death of Adam. (pp.3-52).
[ Read Poembook of the Gael (1913) at Gutenberg Project online, or in frame as .pdf. ]
Available at Internet Archive - online; accessed 07.04.2023.
CONTENTS - as infra.
A full copy of this text can be viewed in her as .pdf or downloaded as .docx.

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Criticism
“AE” [George Russell], ‘The Cuchullin Saga’, review of Eleanor Hull, ed., The Cuchullin Saga in Irish Literature (London: Alfred Nutt 1898), in New Ireland Review (January 1899), pp.333-38; Joseph Sweeney, ‘Why “Sinn Féin?”’, in Éire-Ireland, 6, 2 (Summer 1971), pp.33-40 [infra]. See also Irish Book Lover, Vols. 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, & 13.

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Commentary
W. P. Ryan, The Irish Literary Revival (London 1894), writes of Miss Eleanor Hull, on the staff of the Literary World, to which she contributes Irish matter; well considered as a lecturer to the Irish Literary Society [116]

Joseph Sweeney, ‘Why “Sinn Féin?”’, in Éire-Ireland, 6, 2 (Summer 1971), pp.33-40: ‘Eleanor Hull, a distinguished Irish scholar of [Douglas] Hyde’s generation feared that [the meaning of the words] Sinn Féin had been widely misunderstood. [...] Sinn Féin’s true meaning of Irish self-reliance, she suggested, could best be understood through the words of a poem by John O’Hagan, written before “the Society which called itself by the name was ever heard of.” (Hull, A History of Ireland and Her People, [1931], p.392; Sweeney, p.37). Sweeney quotes the first verse of O’Hagan’s poem ‘The work that should to-day be wrought, / Defer not til to-morrow; / The help that should within be sought / Scorn from without to borrow. / Old maxims these - yet stout and true - / They speak in trumpet tone, / ’ To do at once what is to do, / And trust Ourselves Alone.’ (Sweeney, p.38.) Sweeney adds that John O’Hagan became a prominent Justice who edited the collected poems of Samuel Ferguson, published a translation of The Song of Roland, and wrote an introduction to an edition of Thomas More’s Utopia. John O’Leary, who knew him in Paris, said that he was a fine conversationalist. (O’Leary, Recollections of Fenians and Fenianism, 1806, Vol. 2, p.62; Sweeney, p.38.)

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Quotations
Sense of Place: ‘[T]here is hardly a bay, a plain, or a hill in Ireland, around which romance, pagan or Christian, has not woven some tale or legend’ (The Cuchullin Saga in Irish Literature, 1898, rep. NY AMS Press 1972, p.xxxiv; quoted in J. W. Foster, Fictions of the Irish Literary Revival, 1987, p.15.) [Foster cites further from this work.]

See Poembook of the Gael (1912; new imp. 1913) - in RICORSO Library > Irish Classics - in frame as .pdf or at Gutenberg Project online.

Epic champions: ‘We see the champions as we can actually conceive them to have lived in an early pre-Christian age. Their barbarities are described without a shade of disgust; their chivalries are the outcome of a natural fairness and fineness of mind, and are not the product of a courtly attention to an exterior code of morals.’ (Text Book, 1906-08, Vol. 1, p.90; quoted in Maria Tymoczko, The Irish Ulysses, California UP 1994, p.310.)

Women in Irish epics: ‘They Irish women belong to an heroic type. They are often thecounsellors of their husbands and the champions of their cause; occasionally, as in Maeve’s case, their masters. They are frequently fierce and vindictive, but they are also strong, forceful, and intelligent. In youth they possess often a charming gaiety; they are full of clever repartee and waywardness and have a delightful and careless self-confidence.’ (Ibid., p.78; Tymoczko, op. cit., p.312.)

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References
New English Hymnal (Canterbury Press 1986, and eds. to 1990), incls. 8th-century poem, prob. Irish, trans. by Mary Byrne (1860-1931) and versified by Eleanor Hull (1860-1935): ‘Be thou my vision, O Lord of my Heart / Be all else but naught to me, save that thou art / Be thou my best thought in the day and the night / Both waking and sleeping they presence my light ... Still be my vision whatever befall / Still be thou my vision, O Ruler of All’.

Church of Ireland Hymnal (1960, 1987 edn), incls. “Grusab tú mo bhoile / be thou my vision”, called early Irish [322]; “Baoth a csoidhe, a Mhic Dé”, by Murdock O’Daly [i.e., Muireadach Albanach Ó Dálaigh], 13th c., trans. Eleanor Hull [324]; “Do budh mian dom anmáin-se [My spirit lists]”, trans. from Old Irish [227].

Library of Herbert Bell, Belfast holds A Text Book of Irish Literature, 2 vols. (Dublin [n.d.]); Cuchulain, The Hound of Ulster (London 1911); do., 2nd copy (London n.d.), ill. by Stephen Reid; Edward Hull, The Physical Geology, Geography of Ireland (London 1878).

Belfast Public Library holds under Hull 12 titles; 2 mythology, and 10 geology, incl. Cuchulain, the Hound of Ulster (1911); Early Christian Ireland (1905); History of Ireland and her People (1931); On the Geol. Age of the Ballycastle Coalfield ( [n.d.]); Pagan Ireland (1908); The Physical Geol. and Geog. of Ireland (1891); Poem-Book of the Gael (1912); Reminiscences of a Strenuous Life (1910); A Textbook of Irish Literature (1908); [Hull, pere], Explan. memoir ... [with] sheets 37, 38 and part of 29 of maps of the geol. survey of Ireland (1871).

University of Ulster Library, Morris Collection holds Folklore of the British Isles (1928); A History of Ireland and her People to the Close of the Tudor Period (1926); The Poem Book of the Gael, translation from Gaelic poetry into English prose and verse (1912); A Text Book of Irish Literature, Vol. 1 (Gill 1906).

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Notes
W. B. Yeats - : Hull includes Lady Gregory’s poem by Rafterty on Mary Hynes in her Poembook of the Gael (1913) using the same version as the one given by Yeats under the title “Death Hath Closed Helen’s Eye” with the sole difference that she spells the place-name Bailelaoi for his Ballylee. in the editorial note appended to the poem where she cites Lady Gregory as the author, she writes: ‘The title is added by Mr. W. B. Yeats to an article written by him on this poem in The Dome (New Series, vol. iv.). Lady Gregory informs me that Mr. Yeats has slightly worked over her translation.’ (p.323.) Yeats, writing of the transaction in The Celtic Twlight (1893) where he quotes the poem in full, says: ‘The friend that was with me has made some of the translation, but some of it has been made by the country people themselves. I think it has more of the simplicity of the Irish verses than one finds in most translations.’ (Gutenberg Project Edn., online [CT, 1893-1902], p.38-39.) The ‘friend’ is patently Lady Gregory. (See further under Lady Gregory - supra.

Irish Book Lover (July/Aug. 1935), records that Hull was a favourite pupil and close friend of Standish Hayes O’Grady.

Douglas Hyde called Eleanor Hull ‘the most intelligent and best educated girl in Dublin’ in his diary (20 March 1889; see Dominic Daly, Young Douglas Hyde, 1974, n., p.208.)

Namesake?: A certain Vernam E. Hull is the author/ed. of Hessens Irisches Lexikon. Kurzgefasstes / Hessen’s Irish Lexicon [begun by H. Hessen and continued by S. Caomhánach, R. Hertz, V. E. Hull and G. Lehmacher] (Halle 1933- ). Note that Vernam is an English family name but also the name for a ‘perfect cypher‘ employed to encode tele-messages using a separate key for each letter (hence the original of the Enigma Code of the Germans in World War II).

Poembook of the Gael (London: Chatto & Windus 1912, 1913) - Table of Contents

CONTENTS
(Where not otherwise indicated, the translation or poetic setting is by the author.)
PAGE

Introduction

xv

THE SALTAIR NA RANN, OR PSALTER OF THE VERSES

I.

The Creation of the Universe

3

II.

The Heavenly Kingdom

11

III.

The Forbidden Fruit

20

IV.

The Fall and Expulsion from Paradise

22

V.

The Penance of Adam and Eve

31

VI.

The Death of Adam

43

ANCIENT PAGAN POEMS


The Source of Poetic Inspiration (founded on translation by Whitley Stokes)

53

Amorgen’s Song (founded on translation by John MacNeill)

57

[viii]

The Song of Childbirth

59

Greeting to the New-born Babe

61

What is Love?

62

Summons to Cuchulain

63

Laegh’s Description of Fairy-land

65

The Lamentation of Fand when she is about to leave Cuchulain

69

Mider’s Call to Fairy-land

71

The Song of the Fairies    A. H. Leahy

73

The great Lamentation of Deirdre for the Sons of Usna

74

OSSIANIC POETRY

First Winter-Song    Alfred Percival Graves

81

Second Winter-Song

82

In Praise of May    T. W. Rolleston

83

The Isle of Arran

85

The Parting of Goll from his Wife

87

Youth and Age

91

Chill Winter

92

The Sleep-song of Grainne over Dermuid

94

The Slaying of Conbeg

97

The Fairies’ Lullaby

98

Song of the Forest Trees    Standish Hayes O’Grady

99

[ix]

EARLY CHRISTIAN POEMS

St. Patrick’s Breastplate    Kuno Meyer

105

Patrick’s Blessing on Munster    Alfred Perceval Graves

107

Columcille’s Farewell to Aran    Douglas Hyde

109

St. Columba in Iona    Eugene O’Curry

111

Hymn to the Dawn

113

The Song of Manchan the Hermit

117

A Prayer

119

The Loves of Liadan and Curithir

121

The Lay of Prince Marvan

125

The Song of Crede, daughter of Guare    Alfred Perceval Graves

130

The Student and his Cat    Robin Flower

132

The Song of the Seven Archangels    Ernest Rhys

134

The Féilire of Adamnan    P. J. McCall

136

The Feathered Hermit

138

An Aphorism

138

The Blackbird

139

Deus Meus    George Sigerson

140

The Soul’s Desire

142

Tempest on the Sea    Robin Flower

144

The Old Woman of Beare

147

Gormliath’s Lament for Nial Black-knee

151

[x]

The Mother’s Lament at the Slaughter of the Innocents    Alfred Perceval Graves

153

Consecration

156

Teach me, O Trinity

157

The Shaving of Murdoch    Standish Hayes O’Grady

159

Eileen Aroon

161

POEMS OF THE DARK DAYS

The Downfall of the Gael    Sir Samuel Ferguson

165

Address to Brian O’Rourke “of the Bulwarks” to arouse him against the English

169

O’Hussey’s Ode to the Maguire     James Clarence Mangan

172

A Lament for the Princes of Tyrone and Tyrconnell    James Clarence Mangan

176

The County of Mayo    George Fox

182

The Outlaw of Loch Lene    Jeremiah Joseph Callanan

184

The Flower of Nut-brown Maids

186

Roisín Dubh

188

My Dark Rosaleen    James Clarence Mangan

190

The Fair Hills of Eire    George Sigerson

194

Shule Aroon    (Traditional)

196

Love’s Despair    George Sigerson

198

The Cruiskeen Lawn    George Sigerson

200

 [xi]

Eamonn an Chnuic, or “Ned of the Hill”    P. H. Pearse

202

O Druimin donn dilish

204

Do you Remember that Night?    Eugene O’Curry

206

The Exile’s Song

208

The Fisherman’s Keen    (Anonymous)

210

Boatman’s Hymn    Sir Samuel Ferguson

213

Dirge on the Death of Art O’Leary

215

The Midnight Court    (Prologue)

224

RELIGIOUS POEMS OF THE PEOPLE

Hymn to the Virgin Mary

229

Christmas Hymn    Douglas Hyde

231

O Mary of Graces    Douglas Hyde

232

The Cattle-shed

233

Hail to Thee, O Mary

234

O Mary, O blessed Mother

235

I rest with Thee, O Jesus

236

Thanksgiving after Food

236

The Sacred Trinity

237

O King of the Wounds

237

Prayer before going to Sleep

238

I lie down with God

239

The White Paternoster

240

[xii]

Another Version

241

A Night Prayer

243

Mary’s Vision

243

The Safe-guarding of my Soul be Thine

244

Another Version

244

The Straying Sheep

246

Before Communion

246

May the sweet Name of Jesus

247

O Blessed Jesus

248

Another Version

248

Morning Wish

249

On Covering the Fire for the Night

249

The Man who Stands Stiff    Douglas Hyde

250

Charm against Enemies    Lady Wilde

252

Charm for a Pain in the Side    Lady Wilde

252

Charm against Sorrow    Lady Wilde

253

The Keening of Mary    P. H. Pearse

254

LOVE-SONGS AND POPULAR POETRY

Cushla ma Chree    Edward Walsh

259

The Blackthorn

260

Pastheen Finn    Sir Samuel Ferguson

263

She

265

Hopeless Love

266

The Girl I Love    Jeremiah Joseph Callanan

267

[xiii]

Would God I were    Katharine Tynan-Hinkson

268

Branch of the Sweet and Early Rose    William Drennan

269

Is truagh gan mise I Sasana    Thomas MacDonagh

270

The Yellow Bittern    Thomas MacDonagh

271

Have you been at Carrack?    Edward Walsh

273

Cashel of Munster    Sir Samuel Ferguson

275

The Snowy-breasted Pearl    George Petrie

277

The Dark Maid of the Valley    P. J. McCall

279

The Coolun    Sir Samuel Ferguson

281

Ceann dubh dhileas    Sir Samuel Ferguson

283

Ringleted Youth of my Love    Douglas Hyde

284

I shall not Die for You    Padraic Colum

286

Donall Oge

288

The Grief of a Girl’s Heart

291

Death the Comrade

294

Muirneen of the Fair Hair    Robin Flower

296

The Red Man’s Wife    Douglas Hyde

298

Another Version

299

My Grief on the Sea    Douglas Hyde

302

Oró Mhór, a Mhóirín    P. J. McCall

304

The little Yellow Road    Seosamh Mac Cathmhaoil

306

Reproach to the Pipe

308

Lament of Morian Shehone for Miss Mary Bourke    (Anonymous)

311

[xiv]

Modereen Rue    Katherine Tynan-Hinkson

314

The Stars Stand Up

316

The Love-smart

318

Well for Thee

319

I am Raftery    Douglas Hyde

320

Dust hath Closed Helen’s Eye    Lady Gregory

321

The Shining Posy

324

Love is a Mortal Disease

326

I am Watching my Young Calves Sucking

328

The Narrow Road

329

Forsaken

332

I Follow a Star    Seosamh Mac Cathmhaoil

334

LULLABIES AND WORKING SONGS

Nurse’s Song    (Traditional)

337

A Sleep Song    P. H. Pearse

339

The Cradle of Gold    Alfred Perceval Graves

340

Rural Song

341

Ploughing Song

342

A Spinning-wheel Ditty

344

NOTES

349

[ Full text copy available in RICORSO Library > “Irish Classics” - in frame as .pdf, or at Gutenberg Archive - online.

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