Sacred histories. A Festschrift for Máire Herbert by John Carey, Kevin Murray, Caitríona Ó Dochartaigh (review)

108 North American journal of Celtic Studies The soldier’s perspective’, Adam Chapman combines outsiders’ views of Welsh soldiers with evidence from Welsh poetry to argue that, when the Welsh participated in English military engagements, their experiences did not fit neatly into modern national categories . ‘The Welsh soldier abroad’, Chapman concludes, ‘ . . . was English, but took his Welshness with him’ (256). Michael Hill’s chapter, ‘The mixed jury in Wales. A preliminary inquiry into ethno-religious administration and conflict resolution in the medieval world c.1100–1350 ce’, brings the volume to a close through a comparative analysis of mixed juries in Wales with similar ones found throughout Eurasia. A fascinating read, this chapter shows that, when compared to other instances of mixed juries, Wales stands out in a few ways, perhaps chiefly in that its juries were not imposed by a central authority. Hill suggests that ‘the Anglo-Welsh model of dual-administration and mixed jury did not explicitly seek to promote English political dominance or cultural Anglicisation’, unlike other models found in Eurasia (285). From this overview, readers can see that the volume leans towards the high and late Middle Ages. Aside from the first essay and a few paragraphs in the introduction, there is little in the volume that addresses Wales before 1100. A full chapter on the Welsh in Anglo-Saxon England, for example, would have been welcomed. Nonetheless, the present essays themselves are all of a high quality and will repay close attention. One question that arises at multiple points throughout the volume is the difficulty of identifying the Welsh outside of Wales, and especially outside of the British Isles. As Chapman’s essay suggests, Welsh identity could be easily lost in a sea of Englishmen abroad. In spite of this difficulty, The Welsh and the medieval world shows that it is worth our while not only to identify the medieval Welsh who lived, worked, and traveled outside of Wales, but also to listen to what their circumstances tell us about Wales, Europe, and beyond. Sacred histories. A Festschrift for Máire Herbert, ed. John Carey, Kevin Murray, & Caitríona Ó Dochartaigh. Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2015. ISBN 978–1-84682–564–4. 450 pp. $74.50 (hardback). Elizabeth M. G. Krajewski Colby-Sawyer College This substantial volume (33 essays, just over 400 pages) is dedicated to the great scholar of Irish literature, Máire Herbert, as its brief Preface indicates. Indeed, the subsequent list of Herbert’s contributions to the field of Celtic studies is nearly four times as long as the Preface itself. No wonder, then, that the collection that follows is both broad and deep. The essays in this volume may be grouped in three loose categories: those whose central aim is historiography; word-studies or literary analyses more broadly; and a few which examine various texts for religious or theological themes. As an aside, some eight Elizabeth M. G. Krajewski [ekrajewski@​ colby​ -sawyer​ .edu] teaches courses in World Religions at Colby-Sawyer College in New London, NH. Her research and publications address the biblical, literary, and broader theological themes in early medieval Celtic hagiographies. Reviews 109 of the essays are written in Irish, without translation, and so were beyond the scope of this reviewer; should the editors or publisher wish to include translations at a future date, they would be most welcome. The bulk of the entries address the literary content and context of various Irish texts, ranging from the Vita Columbae to the poems of Máire Mhac an tSaoi. Among these are John Carey’s essay ‘Yonec and Tochmar Becḟola. Two female echtrai’; ‘The bells of the saints’, by Próinséas Ní Chatháin; ‘The Hectors of Ireland and the western world’, by Máire Ni Mhaonaigh; and Andrea Adolph’s work completing Lisi Oliver’s essay on ‘Maidenhood , mourning, and Old English meowle’. This short list gives an indication of the breadth and variety of the work in the volume, as well as its quality. Two of these essays are particular standouts. John Carey brings his usual exceptional scholarship to his investigation of the Breton lay Yonec, illuminating its parallels with the middle Irish tale of Becḟola. He...