Irish mirabilia in the Norse Speculum Regale: wild men of the wood

The article deals with two fragments from the Norse tract of XIIIth century: Speculum Regale (The King’s mitrror – Konungs skuggsjá). The tract in the didactic form describes special features of countries such as Norway, Iceland, Greenland and Ireland. The chapters devoted to Ireland, describes many marvels and wanders, but the compiler himself doesn’t always believes these descriptions. In particular, the tract gives two descriptions of so called ‘wild men’. In the first of them, he uses the Irish borrowing gelt and tells that such a beings are ordinary men transformed into gelta by the terror, gripped them on the battlefield. In the second fragment a hairy man (or beast) is described. Unlike gelta, it does not have human speech, and its origin is unclear. The work draws parallels with the Irish tradition itself. The author comes to two conclusions. First, the theme of the feathers that supposedly grow on the body of a geilt, is due to the linguistic error. The term clúm has the meanings ’down, wool, hair’ but not ‘feather’. In the Irish legend of Suibne Geilt it is coherently use in the meaning ‘wool, hair’. Its understanding as “feather” gives to some Irish scholars the possibility to make comparison of the figure of Suibne with that of a Shaman, that represents not only a mistake bat a speculation. On the other hand the article deals with the legends of the wild men within Irish tradition itself. The problem of the presence/absence of an attitude towards authenticity of such tales is also discussed.

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