Stones of Aran: Pilgrimage

by Robinson, Tim; Macfarlane, Robert

• ISBN13: 9781590172773
• ISBN10: 1590172779
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2008-08-05
• Publisher: NYRB Classics

Summary

The Aran Islands, in Galway Bay off the west coast of Ireland, are a unique geological and cultural landscape, and for centuries their stark beauty and their inhabitants' traditional way of life have attracted pilgrims from abroad. The Aran Islands, in Galway Bay off the west coast of Ireland, are a unique geological and cultural landscape, and for centuries their stark beauty and their inhabitants' traditional way of life have attracted pilgrims from abroad. After a visit with his wife in 1972, Tim Robinson moved to the islands, where he started making maps and gathering stories, eventually developing the idea for a cosmic history of Arainn, the largest of the three islands.Pilgrimageis the first of two volumes that make upStones of Aran, in which Robinson maps the length and breadth of Arainn. Here he circles the entire island, following a clockwise, sunwise path in quest of the "good step," in which walking itself becomes a form of attention and contemplation. Like Annie Dillard'sPilgrim at Tinker Creekand Bruce Chatwin'sIn Patagonia,Stones of Aranis not only a meticulous and mesmerizing study of place but an entrancing and altogether unclassiFiable work of literature. Robinson explores Aran in both its elemental and mythical dimensions, taking us deep into the island's folklore, wildlife, names, habitations, and natural and human histories. Bringing to life the ongoing, forever unpredictable encounter between one man and a given landscape,Stones of Arandiscovers worlds. Robinson's voyage continues inStones of Aran: Labyrinth

Author Biography

Tim Robinson was brought up in Yorkshire. He studied at Cambridge University and worked as a teacher and artist in Istanbul, Vienna, and London. In 1972 he moved to the Aran Islands, where he gained fame as a mapmaker. He learned Gaelic and began preserving Irish place-names, winning respect as an environmentalist and a Ford European Conversation Award. Stones of Aran: Pilgrimage, published in 1985, won the Irish Book Award Literature Medal and a Rooney Prize Special Award for Literature in 1987. His other books include Stones of Aran: Labyrinth, Setting Foot on the Shores of Connemara, and My Time in Space.

Seamus Heaney's first poetry collection, Death of a Naturalist, appeared forty years ago. Since then he has published poetry, criticism, and translations that have established him as one of the leading poets of his generation. In 1995 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Table of Contents

Introduction	p. ix
Timescape with Signpost	p. 5
South	p. 23
Before Beginning	p. 25
The Architecture of Destruction	p. 29
Connoisseurs of Wilderness	p. 31
This Vale of Tears	p. 33
Ocean Walls and Windows	p. 34
Little Sean's Boulder and Other Stones	p. 37
Prospective	p. 39
A Class Division	p. 41
Sea-Marks	p. 42
Signatures	p. 44
Nine Fathoms	p. 46
Duchathair	p. 50
Styles of Flight	p. 55
Wrack	p. 57
Arguments from Weakness	p. 58
The Cliffman's Kingdom	p. 63
A Marine Cathedral	p. 70
Seats on the Clifftop	p. 72
Brachiopods and Bullets	p. 76
Harbour Without Boats	p. 78
The Worm and the Root	p. 81
Dun Aonghasa: The Direct Approach	p. 84
Dun Aonghasa: A Legendary Perspective	p. 86
Posthumous Career of the Fir Bolg	p. 94
Dun Aonghasa: A Closer Look	p. 103
Perdition's Edge	p. 110
Tides of the Other World	p. 114
Life on the Brink	p. 116
Divisions of the Land	p. 119
An "Agrarian Outrage"	p. 122
Fear of Falling, Fear of Failing	p. 128
Looking Back	p. 132
Excursion	p. 139
North	p. 159
Premonitions	p. 161
Leviathan	p. 162
A Difficult Mile	p. 166
The Seaweed Gatherers	p. 171
On the Shores of the Past	p. 175
Shore Divisions	p. 180
Blackweed and Redweed	p. 183
Women's Work	p. 186
Poets on the Shore	p. 189
Fortune and Misfortune	p. 192
The Kelp Age	p. 194
Smoke and Ash	p. 199
Afterimages, Afterthoughts	p. 205
Man of Aran	p. 212
History of a Stranger	p. 222
Fishermen of Cill Mhuirbhigh	p. 225
Writing on the Beach	p. 229
The Luck of the Shore	p. 234
The Irish Iodine & Marine Salts Mfg. Co. Ltd.	p. 239
The Fingerprint	p. 243
Sailing on a Stone	p. 246
Looking into Other Lives	p. 254
Differences Between Limestone and Granite	p. 260
Yet Two More Bays	p. 266
The Drowned Woman	p. 268
The Feast of Saints Peter and Paul	p. 269
The Minister's Sand	p. 274
The Generations	p. 280
Destruction and Reconstruction	p. 285
Point of Arrival	p. 291
The Bay of Doubt	p. 298
The Field of the Cloak	p. 305
Cill Einne: The Village	p. 309
Aircin: The Castle	p. 313
Aircin: The Pawn	p. 330
Cromwell's Walls	p. 335
Aer Arann	p. 339
Bones in the Sand	p. 342
Sands in the Wind	p. 348
Straw Island	p. 357
The Step	p. 360
Easy Going	p. 365
Upon This Rock	p. 368
Sources	p. 371
Maps
The Aran Islands and Neighbouring Coasts	p. 381
Arainn	p. 382
Index	p. 385
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