Unde sunt aues istae? Notes on Bird-Shapeshifting, Bird Messengers, and Early Medieval Hagiography

Abstract

The birds in the "Navigatio Sancti Brendani," as they tell Saint Brendan, are supernatural beings that have undergone metamorphosis, and, in that new shape, have a message to deliver to the pilgrim monks. Along with its Celtic background of well-known animal shapeshifiting -the stories of Tuan Mac Cairill, the Children of Lir, the "Buile Suibhne", in which the mad king "becomes one with the birds"- we may find the presence of other supernatural birds in Irish vernacular "imramma". Bird imagery in hagiography and, especially, the function of birds as heavenly messengers, merge with the Celtic literary legacy in order to sing praise of God in this early medieval narration.In the Old English "Exeter Book", there are anthropomorphic features in depiction of birds in Anglo Saxon poems: "The Wanderer" and "The Seafarer", while "The Phoenix" is an excellent example of allegorical use of a bird figure. There seems to be a very subtle link between birds as a result of shapeshifiting in certain vernacular poems and birds as messengers in early medieval hagiography.