ngship literature must include that exemplum literature. What does indicate that kingship literature is, or at least includes, exemplum literature, is that the major themes in kingship literature deal with either how to be a good king or how not to be a b

Wormald, Patrick. 'Celtic and Anglo-Saxon Kingship,' Source of Anglo-Saxon Culture, ed. Paul E.

The third section of Audacht Morainn defines the four types of rulers which were common: "the true ruler and the wily ruler, the ruler of occupation with hosts, and the bull ruler." The best of these four rulers is, unquestionably, the firflaith, the true or just ruler. Indeed, he is described in almost godlike terms: "The firflaith, first, is moved toward each good thing, he smiels on the true when he hears it, he exalts it when he sees it. For he whom the living do not glorify with blessings is not a firflaith." The firflaith is good and well-liked, but, although he is the ideal, he is not the only acceptable ruler. The ciallflatih , or sensible?? ruler is also described in favorable terms; he protects his people and land, and prospers from doing so. The flaith congbale co slogaib, or ruler through occupation with hosts, has a somewhat more questionable status. He is not considered entirely illegitimate; moreover, as the text points out, his rule will not last lon!

r to the change in perspective initiated by McCone, it is still considered fairly relevant. Dumezil's model is clearly related to mythology and the literature-as-mythology approach to early Irish texts was largely discredited by McCone. However, the model is also similar enough to the ideal of early Irish kingship represented in the texts that it has not been discarded. It seems probable that the ideals behind early Irish kingship were slower to change after the arrival of Christianity than other, more religious aspects of society.

Poppe, Erich. "A note on the jester in Fingal Ronain," Studia Hibernica 27 (1993), 145-154

Other than leisure and maintaining his status, the chief activities of a king during a typical week involved justice. The king's usual involvement in the judging of legal cases seems to be that of giving his approval of a judge's decision rather than making the decision himself, although some cases would be referred to a king in the case of the failure of the normal methods of justice. Certainly judging was one of the primary functions of an early medieval Irish king, both ideologically and historically.

early Irish literature" (unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of Edinburgh, 1991).

ings who allow their emotions and kinship loyalties to interfere with their judgments, early Irish justice was not supposed to be unaffected by the personalities of those being judged. It was important for the kings not to be partial, but a just judgment took into account the temperaments of those involved. One of the primary roles of kingship literature was to educate kings and future kings about how to fulfill their duties properly; in addition to serving this purpose, it now reveals a great deal about early Irish kingship and social values.

Gray, Elizabeth A. "Cath Maige Tuired: Myth and Structure (1-24)"

Gray, Elizabeth A. "Cath Maige Tuired: Myth and Structure (24-120)" Éigse 19 (1982/1983), 1-35.

Some common words found in the essay are:
Crith Gablach, Audacht Morainn, Elizabeth Gray, Maige Mucrama, Dumezil's Indo-European, Gaelic Irish, Thurneysen Strachan, Fingal Ronain, Congal Caech, Mac Con, medieval irish, irish kingship, cath maige, Ó cathasaigh, gaelic literature, medieval irish kingship, king client, maige tuired, irish literature, kingship literature, cath maige tuired, Ó cathasaigh tomas, cath maige mucrama, maige mucrama, medieval irish king,
Approximate Word count = 5402
Approximate Pages = 22 (250 words per page double spaced)