Written by Brenda Nicholas

In his poem “Bogland,” Seamus Heaney speaks of the “black butter” bogs of Ireland, describing them as crusting sinkholes that lack lucrative resources such as coal. Little did he know a construction worker would indeed find a treasure buried in the peat. In July of 2006, an ancient Book of Psalms opened to Psalm 83 was uncovered in the thick mud by a bulldozer.

The 1200-year-old, leather bound relic contained roughly 20 pages of Psalm 83 written on vellum in Latin. Remember our little history lesson about the crafting of books? Vellum is an animal skin parchment.

According to a news report in National Geographic, “the King James Bible, which was translated from Hebrew to English more than a thousand year later, assigns different numbers to the psalms.” In the King James version Psalm 83 appears as Psalm 84:

“Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee, who passing through the valley of Baca [the vale of tears] make[s] it a well.”

Apparently Heaney’s tannic acid mud serves as a natural preservative, placing a value on the most unlikely locale. The National Museum of Ireland rescued the book with plans to display it “alongside the Ardagh chalice and the Derrynaflan Paten.” Of the discovery, Pat Wallace, the museum’s director had said:

“In my wildest hopes, I could only have dreamed of a discovery as fragile and rare as this. It testifies to the incredible richness of the Early Christian civilization of this island and the the greatness of ancient Ireland.”

Click here to read Seamus Heaney’s poem “Bogland.” And have a happy St. Patrick’s day, Munchie.