or literature as history is even more recent. Nevertheless, among those recent scholars who have chosen to study Early Gaelic literature as literature, kingship and social values are considered to be some of the most important themes discussed within these tales. The obvious emphasis given to kingship in the tales has led modern scholars to label a variety of tales "kingship tales." These tales reveal a great deal about what early medieval Irish society considered important qualities for their kings to possess. As mentioned earlier, however, it has taken a long time for Gaelic scho!
             lars to begin discussing such themes found in the literature; originally, the language was studied solely for its unusual linguistic characteristics.
             German linguists began the study of Early Gaelic or Old Irish itself in the early twentieth century, but the first Early Gaelic grammar was not translated into English until 1946. While a fair bit of linguistic study had been done previously by German scholars such as Rudolf Thurneysen and Strachan, authors of the two
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