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BOOKS: Happy St. Patrick Day! New reads to celebrate Medieval Ireland!
Posted on March 17, 2013 | No CommentsBOOKS: Happy St. Patrick Day! New reads to celebrate Medieval Ireland! -
Faerie Folklore in Medieval Tales: An Introduction
Posted on February 24, 2013 | No CommentsDefining the term 'faerie' is not easy; some definitions include only specific, pre-Christian types of mythological creatures while other definitions include all of the spirits, angels and supernatural animals as well as the souls of the dead. I will take a middle road and include the spirits and the souls of the dead, since the dead and the faeries have an intimate connection in the folklore of the British Isles. -
From Paganism to Christianity: Transition of the Insular Celts As Seen Through The Archaeological Record
Posted on December 21, 2012 | No CommentsThese centuries of tension and adaptation provide the evidence for the interaction of Christianity and Celtic religions, but one must use caution when examining Celtic religion because of potentially biased evidence. -
Property Rights in Celtic Irish Law
Posted on December 16, 2012 | No CommentsUnfortunately, many historians not specializing in the study of the ancient Irish law tracts have been unaware of the textual inaccuracies of the O'Curry - O'Donovan translations and have continued to incorporate their older unscientific work, and that of their editors, into their own work. -
What can written sources, sculpture and archaeology tell us about Pictish identity and how this might have changed between the sixth and ninth centuries?
Posted on November 18, 2012 | No CommentsArguably one of the biggest changes in how the Picts portrayed themselves is understood through their use of sculpture. The earliest is thought to date to around the fifth century (Historic Scotland, 2012) lending itself to the Class I typology. -
The pattern of settlement on the Welsh border
Posted on October 28, 2012 | No CommentsThe attempt made in this paper to answer these questions will be based almost entirely on Welsh evidence. The English evidence, examined and re- examined since the late nineteenth century, is already sufficiently familiar to members of the British Agricultural History Society. -
The Arthur of the chronicles
Posted on September 30, 2012 | No CommentsEven if we cannot accept the claim made by Geoffrey in his introduction that his putative source was ‘attractively composed to form a consecutive andorderly narrative’, he certainly made extensive use ofWelsh genealogies andking-lists. -
Lofty Depths and Tragic Brilliance: The Interweaving of Celtic and Anglo-Saxon Mythology and Literature in the Arthurian Legends
Posted on September 20, 2012 | No CommentsArthur and his knights are set apart from other literary heroes because of their unique construct, a blending of two cultures into one legend. -
![My intent in the following paper is to make a case for the usefulness of comparative analysis in a narrower and more specific context, that is, in examining two fascinating but often marginalized medieval works: the Irish Cogadh Gáedel re Gallaib (modern Irish Cogadh Gaedhel re Gallaibh [“The Battle of the Gaels and the Foreigners”]) and the Icelandic/Orcadian Orkneyinga saga (“The Saga of the Orcadians”).](http://www.medievalists.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/220px-Flatey_Book_Orkneyinga_saga-115x115.jpg "Juxtaposing Cogadh Gáedel re Gallaib with Orkneyinga saga")
Juxtaposing Cogadh Gáedel re Gallaib with Orkneyinga saga
Posted on September 18, 2012 | No CommentsMy intent in the following paper is to make a case for the usefulness of comparative analysis in a narrower and more specific context, that is, in examining two fascinating but often marginalized medieval works: the Irish Cogadh Gáedel re Gallaib (modern Irish Cogadh Gaedhel re Gallaibh [“The Battle of the Gaels and the Foreigners”]) and the Icelandic/Orcadian Orkneyinga saga (“The Saga of the Orcadians”). -
Celticity: Migration or Fashion?
Posted on July 7, 2012 | No CommentsThe definition of the Celts and Celtic is at the core of Celtic Studies, either in antiquity or the early medieval period. -
Constructions of Gender in Medieval Welsh Literature
Posted on June 17, 2012 | No CommentsThe discussion of gender in medieval literary criticism is generally considered to be a relatively new field, having achieved real momentum only in the latter half of the twentieth century. However, since it was the early fifteenth century when Christine de Pisan wrote a response to Jean de Meun’s Romance of the Rose, it cannot really be imagined that the medieval audience was too primitive to be fully aware of the subtext inside their stories. -
Placenames and the settlement pattern of dark-age Scotland
Posted on June 3, 2012 | No CommentsThis study will examine some placename evidence for features of settlement in E Scotland, that zone which lies of the Firth of Forth and E of the main Scottish mountain mass. In this areaat least four different languages have been spoken with differing temporal and spatial extents: one non-Indo-European tongue, Celtic, Norse and English. -
Halloween Customs in the Celtic World
Posted on May 20, 2012 | No CommentsIn Wales it is known as Hollantide, in Cornwall Allantide, and in Brittany Kala-Goanv. Samhain's equivalent on the Christian calendar is All Saints' Day, introduced by the Catholic church partly to supplant the pagan festival of the dead. -
Consorting with the other: Re-constructing scholastic, rhetorical and literary attitudes to pagans and paganism in the Middle Ages
Posted on April 11, 2012 | No CommentsMy thesis suggests that Christian culture in the late antique to medieval period consciously adapted pagan cultures for its own ends, with a particular view to the usefulness of pagan cultures. -
VAGANTES: “I See Red: Language of Blood and Feminity in Táin Bó Cúailnge
Posted on April 6, 2012 | No CommentsThis paper examined the role of Medb and Fedelm, the seer in the Táin. It focuses on this conversation between the seer and Medb. -
Hidden Manna and the Holy Grail: The Psychedelic Sacrament in Arthurian Romance The Mystery of Manna: The Psychedelic Sacrament of the Bible Park Street Press (2000)
Posted on April 3, 2012 | No CommentsScholars are generally agreed that Arthurian wonder tales like “Cullhwch and Olwen” must have been widely distributed in Wales, Cornwall, and Brittany in advance of the Norman conquest of England in 1066. Belief in a living Arthur was then in the air. -
Tynwald: a Manx cult-site and institution of pre-Scandinavian origin?
Posted on March 18, 2012 | No CommentsThe subject of Tynwald and its history, origins and symbolism have occupied the interest of academics and others over the years. -
Why did the Anglo-Saxons not become more British?
Posted on March 4, 2012 | No CommentsMost of the English, if they know anything of early history, feel that their Englishness derives ultimately from a predominantly Anglo-Saxon ancestry, with perhaps a romantic tinge, but only a tinge, of later immigrant blood - Viking, Norman, Huguenot, or whatever -
Penda the Pagan: Royal sacrifice and a Mercian king
Posted on February 20, 2012 | No CommentsRegicide was a common occurrence in the early Middle Ages. It was a fairly routine way for a victorious usurper or conqueror to rid himself of a potential source of trouble. Penda's reputation in this field would almost certainly have been viewed with some approval had he been a Christian, and his foes pagan... -
Scandinavian Influences on the English Language
Posted on February 5, 2012 | No CommentsThe Viking Age lasted roughly from the eighth century to the eleventh, with the Viking attacks on Europe beginning around 750 AD. The Scandinavians were excellent sailors, and they had impressive ships and navigational skills that carried them as far as North America (‘Vinland’) long before the arrival of Columbus in 1492. -
Perception of Women of the Arthurian Legend in the Middle Ages and in the Twentieth Century
Posted on January 29, 2012 | No CommentsThe first chapter of my thesis provides a chronological account of the development of female characters in the Arthurian legend. The chapter begins with Celtic myths from which the legend originated, the role of women in Celtic religion and society is described as well as the extent to which the Celtic aspects of the legend have been preserved... -
Enduring Borderlands: the Marches of Ireland and Wales in the Early Modern Period
Posted on December 19, 2011 | No CommentsDespite the successes of the ‘New British History’ in encouraging a less Anglocentric view of the early modern period, there have been few direct comparisons between Wales and Ireland. -
The examination of the Book of Kells using micro-Raman spectroscopy
Posted on October 23, 2011 | No CommentsThe examination of the Book of Kells using micro-Raman spectroscopy Bioletti, Susan, et al. Journal of Raman Spectroscopy, Vol. 40 (2009) Abstract The Book of Kells is a large calfskin-parchment manuscript codex,... -
A history of women religious in the early Irish Church : the hagiographical evidence
Posted on September 9, 2011 | No CommentsA history of women religious in the early Irish Church : the hagiographical evidence Anderson, Jill J. Thesis: Doctor of Philosophy, University of Toronto (1995) Abstract This... -
The Enchanted Islands: A comparison of mythological traditions from Ireland and Iceland
Posted on September 7, 2011 | No CommentsThe Enchanted Islands: A comparison of mythological traditions from Ireland and Iceland By Katarzyna Herd Master’s Thesis, University of Jyväskylä, 2008 Introduction: Ancient Europe was a home of many tribes, cultures...