The Book of Kells
Ancient treasures and wonders of Ireland, mysterious gems and gold, lost creatures and Irish wonders
High jewel of the middle ages
Many centuries ago, on a windswept and hostile rock in the North Sea, a place called Iona, the great monk, philosopher and evangelist Colmcille founded a monastery. Men devoted to the new faith worked with fervour, bending their backs to hew from the pitiless stone, amid bleak and harsh weather, a place for worship and meditation upon the saviour of humanity.
In this merciless wintry abode a great beauty flowered within the beehive stone cells, far brighter than any that had grown on the rocky landcape of Iona before. Some centuries after Columba built the monastery, monks travelled from all over Ireland to commit their skills to the creation of a single masterwork, the pinnacle of illuminated manuscripts, their poem to the creator-God, a tome which became known as the Book of Kells.
The latest and finest in a series of illuminated manuscripts produced by Irish monks, including such books as the Cathach of St. Columba, the Book of Durrow, the Lindisfarne Gospels, and the Book of Armagh, the Book of Kells represented the pinnacle of Gaelic ecclesistical artwork, intertwining animals, biblical figures and fantastical creatures with knotwork and richly coloured patterns of sublime intricacy in the four Gospels.
These marvellous works were largely independent of the influence of the classical Roman style which had subsumed most of Europe's artistic and cultural development, demonstrating an energy and creative talent unheard-of in those dark times.
Although there is some dispute as to the original location of the book's creation, with some believing it was first created in Iona and brought to Kells when Viking raiders slaughtered many of the monks, and others believing it was inked in Kells itself, it has survived remarkably intact for centuries upon centuries. Only sixty pages are missing, perhaps because medieval sources do record that an illuminated manuscript was stolen from the stone church of Kells in 1006, which is likely to have been the Book of Kells. According to the Annals of Ulster it was found "two months and twenty days" later "under a sod" without its jewelled cover.
Strangely, Kells Abbey was plundered several times by Vikings and yet the book managed to escape all of these depredations without harm.
It is a work of unbelievable ambition, almost all of its vellum leaves decorated with extravagant patterns laden with mystical symbolism. As one medieval observer described it,
"This book contains the harmony of the Four Evangelists according to Jerome, where for almost every page there are different designs, distinguished by varied colours. Here you may see the face of majesty, divinely drawn, here the mystic symbols of the Evangelists, each with wings, now six, now four, now two; here the eagle, there the calf, here the man and there the lion, and other forms almost infinite.
Look at them superficially with the ordinary glance, and you would think it is an erasure, and not tracery. Fine craftsmanship is all about you, but you might not notice it. Look more keenly at it and you will penetrate to the very shrine of art. You will make out intricacies, so delicate and so subtle, so full of knots and links, with colours so fresh and vivid, that you might say that all this were the work of an angel, and not of a man."
Today it resides in Trinity College Dublin, and serves as a lasting tribute to the genius and creative power of Irish Gaelic culture.
Kells is marked on the map below!
Ancient Treasures of Ireland
The Irish love music, and it has long been said that the Irish race lived and breathed melodies, liable to burst into song at the drop of a hat. Few realise how far back the Irish musical tradition goes however - at least as far as we know! Some of the earliest musical instruments which have been uncovered date from the Irish Bronze Age, in thos ... [more]
The Corleck stone head is believed to be an ancient pagan idol, representing perhaps some ancestor or deity from the pre-Christian era in Ireland. The most striking aspect of the Corleck stone head is its three faces, set in strange, almost unsettling expressions, all the more remarkable for their simplicity of design, lacking ears or detailed feat ... [more]
During the Irish bronze age, the working of gold reached heights never before seen or dreamed of. Goldsmiths fashioned the soft, luminous metal into intricate forms resembling cloth, cord, the rising and falling hills of Ireland, and many other striking designs. Among their most famous and beautiful creations were the astonishing gold collars, one ... [more]
The warm, glimmering golden glow of amber, or ómra in Irish, has held deep fascination for people since the Neolithic and probably long before that. Its rich, flowing contours capture and refract the sun and firelight with equal facility, and it may have been one of the first gems worked by human hands. Its beauty has inspired enterprise and ... [more]
This stunning battle-shield, cast from golden-hued shimmering bronze, was originally made during the bronze age. It is one of about two dozen similar shields of varying sizes found across the Irish Isles, and dates back to around 1000 BC. Measuring around 71cm across, it began life as a flat sheet of bronze, which was then hammered over rounded ... [more]
The extraordinary bronze age Irish axehead is remarkable not only for the decorations adorning the axe itself, but also for the carry-pouch or sheath discovered along with it when it was found four meters deep in a peat bog in Brockagh, County Kildare. It is very unusual for any organic material to have survived thousands of years, but the unique c ... [more]
This beautiful iron age armlet, usually worn on the upper arm around the bicep, dates from the end of the Irish iron age, a time of heroes and mystery. It is made of yellow bronze and was originally cast around the second century AD. It is about 10cm across, or three inches. It was discovered where the Deel and Boyne rivers meet in Balymahon, Co ... [more]
The Clonoura shield was discovered standing upright in a bog in Clonoura, county Tipperary and represents one of the very few fully intact Iron Age shields that have ever been found. It is marked with many slash and stab scars from knives, swords, spears and other sharp weapons, and dates from 30 to 60 AD, pre-Christian Iron Age Ireland. It is q ... [more]
Many centuries ago, on a windswept and hostile rock in the North Sea, a place called Iona, the great monk, philosopher and evangelist Colmcille founded a monastery. Men devoted to the new faith worked with fervour, bending their backs to hew from the pitiless stone, amid bleak and harsh weather, a place for worship and meditation upon the saviour o ... [more]
The Lurgan Canoe is one of the earliest boats found in Ireland, dating back four and a half thousand years, made from a single mighty oak tree felled when the first metalworkers began to arrive. This was a time of upheaval, mystery, magic, and wonder, old orders tottering and collapsing, the end of the age of the God-Kings of Ireland with their pon ... [more]
The Irish elk, or more properly deer, was the single largest species of deer which has ever existed. They were slightly larger than the modern moose, but their spread of antlers was vast - up to four meters or thirteen feet across in some specimens! These magnificent creatures roamed the plains and forests of Ireland and Europe before, during and a ... [more]
One of the rarest and most beautiful woods in the world is Irish bog oak. This very ancient kind of wood can be found across Ireland, but is most often recovered from deep peat bogs in the midlands, and can be anywhere from three thousand to eight thousand years old or more. These trees grew, lived and fell in times of legend, witnessing the rise o ... [more]
War and the arts of war much occupied the people of Ireland, who became renowned for their skill with weapons and in the ways of battle. They fought one another and the many invaders who came to this land, earning not only fame for their arms and the swords and spears they carried, but for their shields as well! Some of the most legended shields ... [more]
One of the most legended and powerful relics of ancient Ireland was the Cathach, or battle-book of St Colmcille, who was also known as St Columba. A Cathach was really any sort of sacred or magical artifact, and great was the strife between the tribes and clans of Ireland to gain ownership of them! The psalter or prayer book of Saint Colmcille w ... [more]
