The Triumph Tree: Scotland’s Earliest Poetry AD 550-1350

“The Triumph Tree” brings together the poetry of five languages – Latin, Welsh, Gaelic, Old English and Norse – in an accessible, scholarly anthology of translations, to form a spectacular window on Scotland’s past. Ranging from war to religion, and nature to love, the quality and power of these poems display the riches of a vanished world. Alongside famous works such as “The Gododdin” (here in its most faithful translation yet) and “The Dream of the Rood” are a range of other works, including poems by and for St Columba, the homesick verse of Gaelic poets on crusade, the court skalds of the Orkney earls, poems in praise of strong drinkers, harps, books and islands. Many of these poems have never before appeared in translation. For the first time, the first 800 years of Scotland’s literature are brought together in one volume.