Fosterage was a central feature of medieval Irish society, yet the widespread practice of sending children to another family to be cared for until they reached adulthood is a surprisingly neglected topic. Where it has been discussed, fosterage is usually conceptualised and treated as a purely legal institution. This work seeks to outline the emotional impact of growing up within another family. What emerges is a complex picture of deeply felt emotional ties binding the foster family together. These emotions are unique to the social practice of fosterage, and we see the language and feelings originating within the foster family being used to describe other relationships such as those in the monastery or between humans and animals. This book argues that the more we understand how people felt in fosterage, the more we understand medieval Ireland.
Author(s): Thomas O'Donnell
Series: The Early Medieval North Atlantic
Publisher: Amsterdam University Press
Year: 2020
Language: English
Pages: 242
City: Amsterdam
Cover
Table of Contents
Abbreviations
Acknowledgements
Introduction
What is fosterage?
An emotional history of fosterage
Methodological approach
The chapters
1. Cú Chulainn and Expressions of Foster Fatherhood
Conchobur and the role of the maternal uncle
The language of fosterage
Multiple fosterage and emotions
Foster fatherhood beyond infancy
How many foster fathers is too many foster fathers?
2. Who Makes a Foster Sibling?
Cú Chulainn, Conall Cernach and Finnchóem
The fosterage in Alba
Fer Diad, death and how to mourn
Foster brotherhood: A lost idyll
3. Identity within Fosterage
Holy brother, foster brother
Fosterage and social standing
Fíanna: Where everyone is a foster sibling?
Creating foster identity
4. Fosterage in the Medieval Irish Church
Ísucán
The Christ Child elsewhere in Middle Irish
Miraculous fosterage in saints’ lives
Monastic fosterage and oblation
Divine metaphor and mortal practice
5. Animal Fosterage: A Bestial Parallel?
St Ailbe and Cormac mac Airt
Children gone to the dogs
Relationships beyond suckling
A permeable boundary between human and animal
Becoming human
Through an animal darkly
Conclusion
Drawing the chapters together
Revisiting the methodology
Bibliography
Manuscript sources
Primary sources
Secondary sources
About the Author
Index
