#OTD in 1860 – Birth of Irish Celtic Scholar, Eleanor Hull, in England, of a Co Down family.

 

 

Eleanor Henrietta Hull was a writer, journalist and scholar of Old Irish. She was educated at Alexandra College, Dublin and was a student of Irish Studies. On 26 April 1898 she was a co-founder of the Irish Texts Society for the publication of early manuscripts. Douglas Hyde was President and Frederick York Powell was chairperson and Norma Borthwick and Eleanor Hull were the secretaries. Hull was honorary secretary for nearly thirty years.
 
She was president of the Irish Literary Society.
She died in Wimbledon, England on 13 January 1935, two days shy of her 75th birthday.
 
Her published works include:
 
The Cuchulain Saga in Irish Literature (1898)
Pagan Ireland (Dublin, 1904 and 1923)
Early Christian Ireland
A Text Book of Irish Literature (2 volumes) (1906)
The Poem-Book of the Gael (London, 1912)
The Northmen in Britain (New York, 1913)
Folklore of the British Isles (1929)
A History of Ireland and her People (2 volumes) (1926)
She wrote the English versification (known as the hymn “Be Thou My Vision” ) for the Irish hymn “Bí Thusa ‘mo Shúile” in 1912.
 
Featured Image | “Cuchulain Slays the Hound of Culain”, illustration by Stephen Reid from Eleanor Hull’s The Boys’ Cuchulain, 1904

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