MUIRHEAD`S MYSTERIES: THE LIMERICK CATHEDRAL MISERICORDS

Dear folks,

Today I take a look at the misericords of Limerick Cathedral. A misericord is a:

1. Ledge projecting the underside of a hinged seat in a choir stall, giving support to someone standing when the seat is folded up.

2. an apartment in a monastery in which some relaxations of discipline were permitted.

3 A small dagger for delivering a death stroke. (1)

Seeing as I don`t want to become a monk or assassinate the Supreme Leader of the CFZ, for the purposes of this blog I will be referring to definition 1.

Historian John Hunt has commented:

'In the Middle Ages, cathedrals and churches presented a very different appearance to that which we now see. Until the sixteenth century changes, and before the destruction and desecration which took place under puritan hands in the seventeenth century, the great Irish cathedrals vied with those of the Continent and England in the richness and beauty of their interior decoration and carved woodwork and furnishings. Walls were covered with paintings, and elaborate screens and partions of carved tracery work marked the divisions of the church into nave,chancel and sidechapels. ..There are now only nineteen misericords remaining on the stalls in Limerick cathedral.Their arrangement has been altered several times during the last century and at present there is only one range of stalls on either side of the chancel in the cathedral. Originally there were probably two, together with seats or forms for the boys of the choir…The creatures carved on the misericords come from that wonderfully rich world created by the medieval imagination out of half understood and oft repeated travellers` tales. Bestiaries, books containing accounts and illustrations of beasts fabulous or otherwise, were very popular throughout Europe from the twelth century onward. These became the pattern books from which the medieval sculptor drew much of his inspiration

Like most things in medieval life,each beast usually had a mystical or religious significance. The mind of medieval man seized upon these creatures, and saw in each a secondary significance often pointing some moral or religious lesson underlying their ordinary or extraordinary appearance. So every carving carried a message more widely understood in the fifteenth century than it is today.'(2)

Some examples of the Limerick Cathedral misericords are as follows.

'A griffin. The body and limbs are those of a lion with the wings and head of an eagle.It is immensely strong and tears in pieces men and horses which it especially hates.' (3)

'The manticora. He inhabits the Indies.He has the head of a man, the body of a lion, the wings of an eagle,the tail of a scorpion,and feeds on human flesh.' (4)

'A yale (?) Often in heraldry, this was an animal like a horse with long with long moveable horns and reputed to have the power of killing with a glance,or perhaps a unicorn, an image of Christ.' (5)

'An amphisboena.This curious beast is like a wyvern,but has an additional head at the end of its tail.Evil can proceed in more than one direction.'(6)

There are at least two wyverns ( 'a wyvern is a winged two legged dragon with a barbed tail.'7) amongst the misericords. One with a head curved back biting its tail and another with a raised head and curved tail.

There are several sites on the Web showing good quality illustrations of the Limerick Cathedral misericords; just Google `Limerick Cathedral Misericords.' Also, at http://www.misericords.co.uk/bibliography.html there is a comprehensive bibliography on misericords.

1.Concise Oxford English Dictionary (2008) p913

2. J.Hunt The Limerick Cathedral Misericords. Ireland of The Welcomes. Vol.20(3) 9-10. 1973. pp12-13

3. J.Hunt Ibid p.13

4. J.Hunt Ibid. p.13

5. J.Hunt Ibid .p.15

6. J.Hunt Ibid. p.16

7. Concise Oxford English Dictionary (2008) p.1667

Thanks for the poem on the blog for my birthday Jon and Richard. I was going to quote from Stevie Wonders song Happy Birthday here but decided it would be hubristic. The song is for Martin Luther King,so then I thought of quoting from Belfast Child by Simple Minds.

Brother,sister where are you now

As I look for you right through the crowd

All my life here I`ve spent

With my faith in God our church and the government

Some say troubles are bound

Some day soon they`re gonna pull the old town down

One day we`ll return here

When the Belfast child sings again

When the Belfast child sings again.