I believe I said that the provenance of the "Brian Boru" harp was suspect and probably apochryphal. Although perhaps not in those terms. > Pure "mythopoeia". > I'm afraid "Brian Boru" harp is now dated to 1400's, and has nothing to do > with Brian Boru. > RT
I'm not sanguine on your sources for the current dating to the 1400s, but I'll accept it. In fact I'll even accept that the Irish/Celtic harp was invented in the 1400s, and was adopted by those primitive natives from the sophisticated peoples of Continental Europe at that time. Suetonius must have been inventing when he spoke of the Praetannic Isles as full of people who sang and told stories instead of being really civilized and conquering the world. A small people, interested only in their own entertainment. But weren't they magnificently predictive of future developments when they sculpted the harps on their memorial stones, harps in the shape and size of the "Brian Boru". And so inventive when their written records of the eighth and ninth C. spoke of the kinglets and their harpists lng before it happened. I commend you to the Anglo Saxon chronical(s), there are several under that name although the historians usually use the singular as they take only one of them. Monkish writings, some in Latin and some in early English, but a story of the times. These arguments are a bit juvenile, the "test" on Beowulf confirms that. I have to assume that you scanned and copied something to test me. BTW, the sort of "funny P" is a shape that is pronounced as a "th". I don't think you had the font and typed it in. I wish I could remember that "dangerous to newbies" thing I said a year ago that set you off, but I think it must have been more dangerous to your ego than to "newbies" as I would never presume to speak of the play of the lute (yet). I submit to the list, and to Roman, that I'm going to try to resist the temptation to respond. Were I of another temperament I might speak of the rather insulting mentions of the Celtic civilizations (and I can predict the response from one of a derivative culture - what civilizations). But being a rather relaxed old man I'll just go out in the backyard and collect more honey from my bee hives and ferment a bit more of it for my morning mead. Then I'll go to Home Depot and buy some blue paint, strip off my pants, paint my face and call it woad, and run around the neighborhood with my sword. (Can't do any damage, my sword is my ceremonial one with a blunt edge from my days as a U.S. Naval Officer in the late fifties - it wouldn't cut my finger). With my best regards to all of this list, and my thanks to the many who have helped me in learning a new instrument. Jon To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
