Cudgel War 2025 Laurel Prize Display: No Summer In Ireland (A Crown of Triads)
This was my entry for the Laurel Prize Display at Cudgel War 2025 in the Barony of Aarnimetsä in Drachenwald.
The triad is a medieval Irish poetic form, with some resemblance to the Japanese haiku. It does not have a defined meter or number of syllables, but has some broad characteristics that can be reproduced.
Triads are mostly known from a (probably) ninth-century work called Trecheng Breth FĂ©ne, translated as "A Triad of Judgments of the Irish", which contains 256 of them (not all strictly triads). There are also Welsh triads, and the form appears in later Irish law texts, possibly as an aid to memory.
The only existing translation of the Trecheng Breth Féne was by Kuno Meyer, in 1906. It includes material from six of the nine manuscripts known at the time, and three more have since been discovered. The other manuscripts might contain more triads. Additionally, Meyer’s translations frequently take more poetic license than a modern one would, so further examination of these would be useful.
The form is: Three [description of a category]: example 1, example 2, example 3.
The examples are sometimes direct; three things which match the description. Occasional triads have the third example as a twist - something that matches the description only in metaphorical terms, or which jars against the previous two in tone.Â
Many of the existing triads are simple collections of notable places:
[49] The three highroads of Ireland: Slige Dala, Slige Asail, Slige Luachra.
[50] The three mountain-passes of Ireland: Baltinglass, the Pass of Limerick, the Pass of Dublin.
More are advice or proverbs:
[64] Three unfortunate things for a man: a scant drink of water, thirst in an ale-house, a narrow seat upon a field.
Some enforce social strictures and rules:
[71] Three unfortunate things for the son of a peasant: marrying into the family of a franklin, attaching himself to the retinue of a king, consorting with thieves.
There is a particular feature in this written form, where consecutive triads reverse one another:
[72] Three unfortunate things for a householder: proposing to a bad woman, serving a bad chief, exchanging for bad land.
[73] Three excellent things for a householder: proposing to a good woman, serving a good chief, exchanging for good land.
For the triads I’ve written here, I’ve arranged them in three sets: winter, spring, and autumn, the joke being that Ireland has no summer. I’ve written them from the point of view of early medieval Ireland, using only the species of plants and animals I know to have been present (before the Norman introduction of ducks or pigeons, for example). I’ve also given a lot of weight to the importance of cattle, pigs, and grain, which were vital concerns both in myth and in law at that time. I’ve used the twist in the third example, sparingly; the reversal in consecutive triads; and a nod to the collections of places, although I’ve left them in the abstract rather than using place names which will be meaningless to most non-Irish readers. Seasonal concerns come through naturally from the three sets (each with three subsets of three triads), and I like the way this echoes the haiku.
Battle and warfare are mentioned only in the autumn set; there is a lot of evidence in early medieval texts from across Europe that battles were only fought in the gap between the harvest and the difficulty of travel in winter. Many conflicts in Ireland were over cattle, too, and the autumn is a good time to move them, whether moving yours to a winter pasture, or moving your neighbours' cattle to somewhere else.
The “Crown of Triads” references a meta-form in much later English poetry called a “Crown of Sonnets”, something which, despite sonnets being my main form, I have not yet succeeded in writing.
1.1 Three colours of winter: the black of night, the grey of the sky, the white of frost.
1.2 Three scents of winter: the smoke of peat, the sharpness of snow, the pine bough.
1.3 Three tastes of winter: the roundness of porridge, the salt of meat, the pang of hunger.
2.1 Three feelings of winter: being lost in the night, being cold, finding the firelight in the valley
2.2 Three fears of winter: the cattle lost, the food not enough, the coming of the snow.
2.3 Three hopes of winter: the warmth of the bed, the turning at the solstice, the coming of spring
3.1 Three birds of winter: the shrieking gull, the clucking hen, the bright robin.
3.2 Three beasts of winter: the cow in calf, the sow in pig, the fox in thieving.
3.3 Three places of winter: the fireside, the cliffside, the grave.
1.1 Three colours of spring: the green of the new leaf, the yellow of the celandine, the blue of the clear sky.
1.2 Three scents of spring: the milk for the calf, the garlic in the woods, the bitter last of the ale.
1.3 Three tastes of spring: the first of the greens, the new eggs, the fresh leek.
2.1 Three feelings of spring: the relief of eating, the worry of calving, the rise in the blood.
2.2 Three fears of spring: that the calf will die, that the cow will die, that the corn will not grow.
2.3 Three hopes of spring: that the calf will live, that the cow will live, that the corn will sprout.
3.1 Three birds of spring: the corncrake in the field, the gannet on the rock, the swallow in the sky.
3.2 Three beasts of spring: the calf by its mother, the piglet by the sow, the hare in the meadow.
3.3 Three places of spring: the river bank, the sea shore, the top of the hill.
1.1 Three colours of autumn: the red of the berry, the gold of the leaf, the grey of the sky.
1.2 Three scents of autumn: the smoke of the fire, the mushrooms in the woods, the blood of the slaughter.
1.3 Three tastes of autumn: the sweetness of honey, the sourness of the sloe, the fresh-made bread.
2.1 Three feelings of autumn: the fullness of the belly, the comfort of the harvest, the dreams of the dead.
2.2 Three fears of autumn: the storm before the harvest, the boat lost at sea, the son lost in battle.
2.3 Three hopes of autumn: the grain store filled full, the salmon to smoke, the warriors victorious
3.1 Three birds of autumn: the goose in the bog, the swallows gathering, the crow among the dead.
3.2 Three beasts of autumn: the fatted boar, the climbing squirrel, the barn cat.
3.3 Three places of autumn: the wheat field, the peat bog, the battlefield.
The Triads of Ireland, CELT Edition: https://celt.ucc.ie/published/T103006/
