Celtic Studies Commons^™

The Multi-Period Cairn At Cnoc Raithní, Inis Oírr, Aran Islands, Co Galway, Keith Murphy

Articles

Across the Irish landscape we are fortunate to have plenty of well-preserved archaeological monuments. One such monument, embedded within the landscape, stands proudly on the island of Inis Oirr in Aran. This Bronze Age cairn, Cnoc Raithní, (Hill of the Ferns), has been identified as a multi-purpose burial mound used by both people from the Bronze Age and the early Christian period. Although the burial has never been excavated, it had an inspection after a storm in 1885 and further investigations have being conducted by the author and a Bronze Age pottery expert.. The Cnoc Raithní, Tumulus is one of …

Japanese-English Translation: Katayama Hiroko—Jesus And Simon Peter (June 1953), Christopher Southward

Comparative Literature Faculty Scholarship

Translation of 「イエスとペトロ」、片山廣子著、昭和２８年６月

Source: Aozora Bunko (a digital archive of public-domain Japanese-language works)

General website: https://www.aozora.gr.jp

Current text: https://www.aozora.gr.jp/cards/001346/files/50159_41222.html

A “Medieval” Myth For A “Modern” Empire Britain Under The Shadow Of Arthur (1461–1612), Julian Gonzalez De Leon Heiblum

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation studies the use of the Arthurian myth from the fifteenth through early seventeenth centuries, as a narrative that connected a set of political principles for the unification of Britain and its imperial expansion. Joining other competing political myths in the British archipelago, the political significance of the Arthurian myth has nevertheless been overlooked. On the one hand, the myth informed the transformations of kingship in England and Wales from the crowning of Edward IV to the early years of James’ English reign. It did so specifically within the process of institutionalizing a British crown which was intertwined with …

Brigid Of Kildare: The Saint Who Got A Facelift, Aimee Hunt

Student Research

On the outskirts of Papal authority, early medieval Ireland created its own Christian identity separate from other European nations closer to Rome. Saint Brigid of Kildare, one of the patron saints of Ireland, played important yet problematic roles in that identity. After her death, the church began to alter her history. Being a female bishop, performing the first recorded abortion, and having both men and women within her monastery, Brigid had trodden on the male-dominated system in a way that few women had. Deemed unacceptable but having already been sainted, the Catholic church gave Brigid a holy facelift.

Law And The Imagination In Medieval Wales. Robin Chapman Stacey. Philadelphia: University Of Pennsylvania Press, 2018. 344 Pages. Isbn: 978-0-8122-5051-0., Marisa Mills

e-Keltoi: Journal of Interdisciplinary Celtic Studies

No abstract provided.

Wild Wales: How Cultural Discrimination Transformed Merlin From Brittonic Legends To French Arthurian Romances, Viveca Calista Lawrie

Senior Projects Spring 2021

The legend of King Arthur and his knights of the round table is one of the best-known stories in the Western world. Generally people tend to associate Arthurian legend with fifteenth-century English writing or French romances, but in reality, Arthurian legend has its origins in Brittonic oral tradition. Merlin, specifically, represents the concepts of Brittonic paganism and wildness more than any other Arthurian character. The changes made in the character and the narrative of Merlin, from Brittonic legend to Latin writing and then to French romances, reflect a political and cultural shift in Britain and France. An examination of Merlin …

Literary Culture In Early Christian Ireland: Hiberno-Latin Saints’ Lives As A Source For Seventh-Century Irish History, John Higgins

Doctoral Dissertations

The writers of seventh-century Irish saints’ Lives created the Irish past. Their accounts of the fifth-and-sixth century saints framed the narrative of early Irish Christianity for their contemporary and later audience. Cogitosus’s Life of Brigit, Muirchú’s and Tírechán’s accounts of Saint Patrick, and Adomnán’s Life of Columba have guided the understanding of early Irish history from then until now. Unlike other early texts these Lives are securely dated. Composed as tools in the discourse regarding authority in seventh-century Irish ecclesiastical and secular politics, they provide historical insights not available from other sources. In the seventh century Armagh and Kildare …

"Alas For The Red Dragon:" Redefining Welsh Identity Through Arthurian Legend, Claire Lober

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Projects

Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Historia regum Britanniae, Prophetiae Merlini, and Vita Merlini reimagine British history in an attempt to renegotiate the boundaries between English and Welsh culture. Through the figure of Merlin, Geoffrey co-opts key elements of Welsh culture as part of the larger Norman colonization effort. I argue that the effectiveness of Geoffrey’s colonization attempt lies in his embodiment of Welsh figures and his hybrid identity that allowed him to insert himself into the Welsh narrative and reconstruct it from within. I also argue that a reconsideration of Vita Merlini reveals a new dimension of Geoffrey’s colonial project. Merlin’s changing …

Get Thee To A Nunnery: Unruly Women And Christianity In Medieval Europe, Sarah E. Wolfe

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis will argue that the Beowulf Manuscript, which includes the poem Judith, Saxo Grammaticus’s Gesta Danorum, and the Old-Norse-Icelandic Laxdæla saga highlight and examine the tension between the female pagan characters and their Christian authors. These texts also demonstrate that Queenship grew fragile after the spread of Christianity, and women’s power waned in the shift between pre-Christian and Christian Europe.

When We Were Monsters: Ethnogenesis In Medieval Ireland 800-1366, Dawn Adelaide Seymour Klos

Master's Theses

Ethnogenesis, or the process of identity construction occurred in medieval Ireland as a reaction to laws passed by the first centralized government on the island. This thesis tracks ethnogenesis through documents relating to change in language, custom, and law. This argument provides insight into how a new political identity was rendered necessary by the Anglo-Irish. Victor Turner’s model of Communitas structures the argument as each stage of liminality represents a turning point in the process of ethnogenesis.

1169 marked a watershed moment as it began the Anglo-Norman invasion of Ireland. English nobles brought with them ideas of centralized power. In …

Arthur’S Heirs: Situating Medieval Welsh, Spanish, And Scandinavian Texts In Their Literary And Historical Contexts, Nahir I. Otaño Gracia

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation addresses a significant gap in Arthurian scholarship by adapting postcolonial and translation theory to analyze Medieval Arthurian literature from the peripheral cultures that interacted throughout the Irish Sea and the Atlantic littoral. This project uses a similar approach as that traditionally employed in Mediterranean studies to investigate Arthurian texts and related materials from the Celtic (Irish and Welsh), Scandinavian (Norwegian and Icelandic), and Iberian (Castilian and Catalan) cultural peripheries to point out both the local and transcultural roles of these texts. By highlighting that Arthurian literature was not only transmitted from Britain through France to the rest of …

Zoomorphic Penannular Brooches In 6th And 7th Century Ireland, Esther G. Ward

School of Art, Art History, and Design: Theses and Student Creative Work

In this thesis the author examines the evolution, manufacture, and societal significance of zoomorphic penannular brooches, a type of metal dress fastener used in early medieval Ireland that is often decorated. The brooches examined are dated to the 6^th and 7^th centuries, during which the Irish underwent a process of religious conversion from Celtic paganism to Christianity, and social rank was paramount. It is in this social context that the brooches are examined. Despite the significance of this time of social change, brooches from this period tend to be overlooked by scholarship in favor of the more ornate …

Desert Islands: Europe's Atlantic Archipelago As Ascetic Landscape, Paul Siewers

Faculty Contributions to Books

A focus on early literatures around the Irish Sea as both archipelagic and ascetic in their engagement of the environment.

Green Worlds And Ecosemiotics, Paul Siewers

Faculty Conference Papers and Presentations

"Overlay landscapes" in Early Insular literatures, and how they connect early medieval cosmology with current-day ecosemiotics..

The Ecosemiosphere: Story And Region In Insular Medieval Literatures, Paul Siewers

Faculty Conference Papers and Presentations

Reflections on the interrelation of environmental humanities studies, physics and semiotics, as part of an international panel introducing ecosemiotics and biosemiotics to the North American ecocriticism communtiy at large.

Discovering Border Crossings In Pagan Epic Literature, Marian Russell Bland

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation argues that border crossings were important to the ancient Celts and Norse as evidenced by the vast quantity of occurrences in their literature,and have remained important themes in literature throughout the ages. Border crossings reflect man's fascination with concepts beyond his immediate existence and understanding. His reactions to such inexplicable phenomena have provided inspiration to writers for hundreds of years. The investigation uncovers examples of border crossings in the epic stories captured in the Ulster and Fenian Cycles, TheTáin, The Eddas, and The Mabinogion.

Border crossings remain important for modern literary scholars to consider …