Phillip Bernhardt–House
(Independent Scholar / Academic Vagabond)
Paper
presented at the 60th International Congress on Medieval Studies
(Kalamazoo, 2025)
Session on
“Dream Books, Spells, Divination, Incubation, and Interpretation
—’Sandalphon, Send Me a Dream’ ”
Co-Sponsored by
Research Group on Manuscript Evidence
Societas Magica
P.-O.M.o.N.A.
Organized by
Phillip Bernhardt–House (Academic Vagabond)
Mildred Budny (Research Group on Manuscript Evidence)
Claire L. Fanger (Rice University)
2025 Congress Program
“Incubation, Inspiration, Incantation, or Invention?:
The Imbas Forosnai Ritual in Sanas Cormaic
as Dream Divinatory Operation”
Abstract
The 10-century text Sanas Cormaic (“Cormacʼs Glossary”), attributed to the historic king–bishop of Cashel
Cormac ua Cuilleanáin, defines imbas forosnai (“great knowledge which illuminates”), including a description
involving animal sacrifice, incubatory sleep, and some unstated incantations, which then produce visionary
results that answer a desired question for the person undergoing the ritual. The phrase “imbas forosnai” also
occurs in one of the Triads of Ireland as the first of the “Three Things Required of a Poet.” Further, it is used to
describe the mantic gifts of Finn mac Cumhaill, the famous warrior-poet/seer of Irish literature and folklore,
imparted to him via various otherworldly means depending on the story, which allowed him to discover hidden
knowledge. The ritual as described in Sanas Cormaic also has similarities to another divinatory incubation
technique known in certain narrative texts as a tarbfheis, “bull-sleep,” in which a bull is slain, its meat eaten, and
its skin is wrapped around the sleeper to induce a vision of the next successful candidate for kingship.
While much evidence can be marshaled for this ritualʼs comparative validity in an emerging picture of potential pre-
Christian mantic practices in Ireland, and likewise for the relevance of supernatural visionary inspiration in poetic
contexts, the question remains: is all of this comparative material directly relevant and confirmatory of this
ritualʼs existence, or is it simply very alluring in painting such a picture, and the ecclesiastical author of Sanas
Cormaic has built a creative but synthetically fabricated edifice suggested by diverse medieval Irish sources?
Have Celtic Studies scholars fallen under the spell of Cormacʼs literary skill, linguistic knowledge, and
inventiveness — which is witnessed in other parts of his text — or does the discipline need to be awakened from its
artificially-induced slumber and the fever dream of medieval post-Christian sources accurately portraying pre-
Christian magical realities?
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See also the companion Handout
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