This book brings together and provides translations for a number of Latin and Gaelic poems associated with the monastery of Iona. Previous publication of the poems has largely been confined to journals such as Eriu and Peritia which can be difficult to find and have not always included English translations. The book consists of four parts beginning with an introduction which looks at the history of lona, the life and work of the monastery and lona's role as a literary centre. Part Two, which forms the main focus of the book, is a discussion and translation of the various poems. Then follows a sectton on The Alphabet of Devotion, a work by a contemporary of Columba which considers religious life. Part Four discusses some of the books known to have been present at Iona.

The poems include two probably composed by Columba himself and one other that may have been; one by Dallan Forgaill, a contemporary of Columba; two by Beccan mac Luigdech, a seventh century hermit linked with Rhum and Iona, some verses by Columba's biographer, Adomnan. and a poem by Cu Chuimne, a late seventh/early eighth century monk from lona. All these works shed considerable light on sixth to eighth century Scotland and contain a wealth of interesting information and ideas. In addition two are of particular relevance to the Picts.The Amra Choluimb Chille (pp 96-128) is a Gaelic elegy to Columba composed by Dallan Forgaill shortly after the saint's death. It describes Columba as the teacher of the tribes of the Tay (I.15) and states that he converted the fierce ones who Lived on the Tay (V111.5-6). These inhabitants of the Toi [Tay] are obviously Picts and the statement that Columba lit up the East (II.9) may also be a reference to the Picts. By placing Columba's activities at the Tay this poem provides an interesting contrast to Adomnan's Life of Columba which was written a century later and linked the saint with the Moray Firth area instead. This is briefly discussed (pp 118-19) with the suggestion that Adomnan and Bede may both have had reasons for not mentioning Columba's activities in southern Pictish territory. If one accepts that after the death of Bridei in 584 power shifted southwards, then at the time that this poem was composed it is possible that power was centred on the Tay region and the tribes of the Tay may simply have been a Scottic term for the Picts in general. One of the verses possibly composed by Adomnan(pp 164-68) is concerned with the death Bruide mac Bile, describing him as the son of the king of Dumbarton and stating that he was buried in an oak coffin, presumably on Iona.

This is an important and reasonably priced work which should bring these previously neglected poems to the greater prominence which they undoubtedly deserve. Minor quibbles include the ideas that the Picts practised matrilineal succession and that the Pictish language included non Indo-European elements (p 6), neither of which is generally accepted anymore. Nonetheless this criticism in no way detracts from the core of the book which is the poetry itself.

Craig Cessford