BDB Bertsolaritzaren datu-basea

“Keening” in English suggests a high-pitched, inarticulate moaning, but the Irish word caoineadh, from which it derives signifies among other things, a highly articulate tradition of women's oral poetry. The lamenting woman led the community in a public display of grief. Acting out in her appearance and behaviour the disorder brought about by death, she was often barefoot and dishevelled. Her caoineadh or lament was a series of breathless utterances of rhymed, rhythmic praise of the dead person (usually a man), and invective against his enemies. In the 20th century Elisabeth Kübler-Ross and others have identified the sequence of emotions which are the necessary components of the grieving process: notably denial, anger, bargaining, sadness, and acceptance. In this paper, texts of caoineadh, mostly from the 18th century, are examined and it is suggested that they embody a disciplined and powerful expression of these stages of mourning.