PART I

1. INTRODUCTORY

Dante’s _Commedia_ preceded by a long series of Visions of the Otherworld--The Vision a favourite subject with Irish writers of the Middle Ages--Dante’s originality 1-4

2. THE SEER

The Irish Church at the close of the seventh century--Its missionary activity--Irish scholars and clerics on the Continent--The authorities for Adamnán’s life--His birth and parentage--Meaning of his name--Enters the monastery of Iona--Becomes abbot--Missions to Northumbria--Intercourse with the Venerable Bede--The Paschal controversy--Adamnán adopts the Roman usage--His labours in the cause--Wins over Ireland except Iona--His death--His _Life of St. Colm Cille_--His treatise _De Locis Satutis_--Miscellaneous and apocryphal writings--His scholarship--Adamnán in the later annals--Anecdote of his student days--The Boruma Tribute--Remitted by Árd Rí Finnachta Fledach--Adamnán’s opposition thereto--Doubtful authenticity of the record--Further dissensions with the Árd Rí--Death of Finnachta--Adamnán’s legislation on behalf of the women of Ireland--Their previous status and liability to military service--The _Cáin Adamnáin_--Character of Adamnán--The _Fis Adamnáin_, why associated with his name--MSS. and editions of the _Fis Adamnáin_ 4-28

3. TRANSLATION OF THE FIS ADAMNÁIN

1. Exordium--2. Enumeration of previous revelations of the Otherworld--3. Adamnán’s translation from the body--4-6. The Land of Saints--7-8. The Throne of the Deity--9. The Divine Presence enthroned, and 10. Pictured as a mystic omnipresent face--11. The Celestial City, its seven walls and its floor; 12. Its inhabitants; 13. Its design, as of a Christian Church--14. Limbo of the excluded--15-18. The Soul’s progress through the seven Heavens; 15. Their doors and porters; the first Heaven; 16. The second Heaven, Purgatorial pains; 17. The third and fourth Heavens; 18. The fifth and sixth Heavens--19. The Judgment of the Soul--20. The fate of the damned--21. Hell, a fiery glen--22-23. The Bridge of Doom--24. The half good, half wicked--25-29. Punishments of the wicked described; classification of crimes and punishments--27. The charitable but carnal--29. Fiery wall reserved until after the Last Judgment--30. Description of Hell; impatience of the damned for Judgment; respite on Sundays--31. Adamnán returns to Heaven; is restored to the body, and bidden report what he has seen--32. This the subject of his subsequent preaching; consonant with the doctrine of the Apostles and Saints--33. Enoch, Elias, and the Bird-flocks of Paradise--34. Peroration; L’Envoy--35. Rhapsodical description of Heaven 28-47