Skáldskaparmál - 01.01.1997, Page 169

Hostellers in Landnámabók
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itinerants who were benighted beyond the reach of kith and kin’ (1994, 96),
Patterson goes on to write:
[PJrosperity gained from farming might be diverted altogether into a different
function, namely the role of the briugn, the ‘hosteller’. He invested his considerable
agricultural wealth in a ‘public service’, not in a personal clientele, and was therefore
dependent upon the recognition and protection afforded him by the dominant
dynastic clan of the territory. (201)
The successful briugu, whose function expressly excluded military activity,
could achieve a rank equivalent to that of a petty king. Kelly calls attention to the
hosteller’s permanent obligation to provide hospitality and cites a triad from the
Bretha Nemed toísech (The First ‘Judgments of Privileged Persons) that stipulated
that the briugus ongoing status was dependent on having ‘a never-dry cauldron,
a dwelling on a public road, and a welcome to every face.’8 A higher grade of
hosteller was to have a house at the meeting of three roads, a site that conferred
prestige because of its centrality.9 The commentary to this legal stipulation of
three roads approaching the hostel (tri ramuta lais) goes on ‘to say that he has a
man posted on each of the roads to ensure that no one would pass his house
without enjoying his hospitality or at least having it offered.’10 In later texts the
incumbent is called fer tige oíged ‘guest-house owner’ or bíattach ‘sutler, provider
of food’ (distinct from the term’s alternate meaning, ‘base client,’ Kelly 37). In
Ireland the guesthouse owners might provide other services as well (medical,
scribal, artisanal) and we should imagine the hostels as ‘centers for news’ (Patter-
son 202) and other social and economic interaction.
The foregoing information on the hosteller is gleaned from annals and from
legal tracts originally written in the seventh and eight centuries and provided with
extensive commentary, reflecting social evolution, in subsequent centuries. The
law tracts give a pre- and pro-scriptive view of reality, not so much an idealization
as a point of departure in litigation. The early Irish story-telling tradition, which
also took form before the Viking incursions, complements this view, although
contention and conflict find more active expression than in the legal code. The
traditional tales’ representation of reality is equally stylized and ideologically
early Irish society will be found in Mac Eoin (forthcoming in Zeitschriftfur celtische Philologie).
The following discussion is endebted to Professor Mac Eoin for kindly providing pre-publica-
tion copies of these two studies.
8 Kelly 1988, 36, citing Corpus Iuris Hibernici 1978, 2220.8-9. Other insignia of the hosteller
include the bar and stand for the cauldron, an ever-lit fire, a vat for malting (Mac Eoin,
forthcoming in ZcP).
9 ‘His house at the junction of three roads . . . and welcome to every face; he refuses no person,
he excludes no company; he does not reckon it against anyone no matter how often he comes’
(Coic Conara FuigilL, in Corpus Iuris Hibernici 1978, 2273). Cf. CIH 1608.19-21: ‘he excludes
no rank, he refuses no company, he does not count against anybody though he come often’
(translations Mac Eoin, forthcoming in Celticá).
10 Mac Eoin (forthcoming in ZcP), citing C///1978, 1608: 36f.