| Sumario: | Taking the omnipresence of grotesque humour in Máirtín Ó Cadhain's Cré na Cille as the point of departure, this article explores the grotesque in the author's work. In so doing, it follows the theoretical framework set by the Russian theorist Mikhail Bakhtin. According to Bakhtin, the grotesque (or the carnivalesque as he tends to call it) is intrinsically connected to the natural cycle - it lowers its objects to the level of the earth that can be simultaneously a place of death and regeneration. This cycle - in nature, human life as well as culture - is one of Ó Cadhain's prime themes. Frequently in his oeuvre, however, he expresses the anxiety that it will bring deterioration instead of improvement, or that it will entirely come to a halt. In Cré na Cille, this anxiety, expressed by the voice of Stoc na Cille (the trumpet of the graveyard), is counterbalanced by the carnivalesque talk of the buried characters. Even the frequent verbal fights among the corpses delay the workings of entropy and bring a degree of 'life' into the cemetery. The carnivalesque can be regarded as relatively successful in Cré na Cille - in the last two interludes, the trumpet loses much of its 'divine' authority and becomes just one voice among others. Ultimately, the discussion of the carnivalesque helps to locate the novel in the context of European literature.
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