Project MUSE®: North American journal of Celtic studies - Latest Articles
https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/787
Project MUSE®: Latest articles in North American journal of Celtic studies.daily12024-03-28T00:00:00-05:00text/htmlen-USVol. 1 (2017) through current issueLatest Articles: North American journal of Celtic studiesTWOProject MUSE®North American journal of Celtic studies2472-74902472-7482Latest articles in North American journal of Celtic studies. Feed provided by Project MUSE®‘Horseback brown’. Colour semantics of equine bay, chestnut, and dun in Middle Welsh literature
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/909946
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‘This darksome burn, horseback brown’In the Middle Welsh period (ca. 1150–1400), horse-colour terms tend to occur more frequently in poetry than in prose, with the majority being in the white (that is, ‘equine grey’) range, for which there are multiple terms covering many fine distinctions (see Hemming 2017). A few other horses are described as du ‘black’, which is relatively straightforward—at least in Welsh.1 It is striking, however, that these du horses occur almost entirely in the prose, with most of them in the romance Owein (Iarlles y ffynnawn) and among the outrageous colour-combinations in Breuddwyd Rhonabwy.2 Even among the horses bearing colour-based personal names in Trioedd y meirch, only three are
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2024-03-28T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/787/image/coversmall‘Horseback brown’. Colour semantics of equine bay, chestnut, and dun in Middle Welsh literature2023-10-23text/htmlen-US‘Horseback brown’. Colour semantics of equine bay, chestnut, and dun in Middle Welsh literature2023-10-232023TWOProject MUSE®2438132024-03-28T00:00:00-05:002023-10-23Gofraid Méránach’s paternity and surname
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/909947
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GOFRAID MÉRÁNACH, ALIAS GODRED CROVAN, was the founder of the dynasty that ruled the Kingdom of Man and the Isles for nearly 200 years, from the 1070s until the 1260s (Bauermann 2007; McDonald 2007: 42–69). His origins—particularly the identity of his father—are somewhat uncertain and have been the subject of considerable debate (Broderick 1980; Duffy 2006; Etchingham et al. 2019: 168–175). The current study will reassess the evidence in light of recent research into the process of surname formation in the Gaelic world between the tenth and the twelfth centuries. The analysis offered here will provide further support for a theory previously proposed by George Broderick concerning Gofraid’s ancestry. By expanding
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2024-03-28T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/787/image/coversmallGofraid Méránach’s paternity and surname2023-10-23text/htmlen-USGofraid Méránach’s paternity and surname2023-10-232023TWOProject MUSE®471072024-03-28T00:00:00-05:002023-10-23The Viking domination of Munster
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/909948
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‘THE WARLIKE DANES OVERRAN IRELAND and held the country for more than a century . . . the native Irish had been conquered and reduced to servitude’ claimed Justin McCarthy (1903: 18), echoing similar sentiments by other writers of his day.1 Such dramatic depictions of the Vikings as rulers of Ireland derived principally from the tale told in the Cogadh Gaedhel re Gallaibh (CGG),2 a twelfth-century romantic biography which used the Viking depredations as a background for its hero’s exploits as a Viking-tamer. With the gradual discrediting of CGG as an impartial and reliable source, historians have migrated to the opposite extreme, claiming not only that the Vikings never ruled Ireland as a whole, but that ‘the
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2024-03-28T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/787/image/coversmallThe Viking domination of Munster2023-10-23text/htmlen-USThe Viking domination of Munster2023-10-232023TWOProject MUSE®1151672024-03-28T00:00:00-05:002023-10-23Brides and bridles. Rhiannon and the white horse during the Norman invasion of Wales
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/909949
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ONE OF THE MOST STRIKING EPISODES in the First Branch of the Mabinogi, Pwyll Pendefig Dyfed, is Pwyll’s meeting with the otherworldly Rhiannon and her marvelous white horse, which Pwyll can never outpace despite the horse never going at a speed faster than an amble. The pair wed, but all is not well. After marriage, Rhiannon struggles to bear a child; when she eventually does, giving birth to Pryderi, the child is stolen at night and Rhiannon framed for cannibalizing him. As punishment for this alleged crime, Rhiannon is forced to stand by a horse block and share her story with travelers, offering to ferry them on her back. Eventually, her son returns to her, and Rhiannon’s innocence is proven. Rhiannon’s role in
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2024-03-28T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/787/image/coversmallBrides and bridles. Rhiannon and the white horse during the Norman invasion of Wales2023-10-23text/htmlen-USBrides and bridles. Rhiannon and the white horse during the Norman invasion of Wales2023-10-232023TWOProject MUSE®716192024-03-28T00:00:00-05:002023-10-23The medieval Irish legal fragment lost from British Library MS Egerton 92
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/909950
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BRITISH LIBRARY MS EGERTON 92 IS A COMPOSITE MANUSCRIPT dated to the fifteenth century (Flower 1926: 505; CLH no. 825). The manuscript contains both prose and poetry, mainly of a religious nature, and portions of the manuscript once formed part of the Book of Fermoy. Folios 1–3 are paper; there are some unfoliated blank paper leaves (see on-line description);1 all of the flyleaves are paper; and the remaining folios are vellum. James Hardiman’s hand-written paper description lists 60 pages (30 folios) (not counting his notes); the current foliation (counting his notes as ff. 1 & 2) is 32 folios (64 pages). Hardiman was a former owner of the manuscript.2The British Museum purchased Egerton 92 from Hardiman in 1832.
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2024-03-28T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/787/image/coversmallThe medieval Irish legal fragment lost from British Library MS Egerton 922023-10-23text/htmlen-USThe medieval Irish legal fragment lost from British Library MS Egerton 922023-10-232023TWOProject MUSE®482572024-03-28T00:00:00-05:002023-10-23The Gaelic Finn tradition ii ed. by Sharon Arbuthnot, Síle Ní Mhurchú & Geraldine Parsons (review)
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/909951
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The book under review is the second volume on the Gaelic Finn tradition (the first volume appeared in 2012). The majority of the contributions stem from papers presented at the Second International Finn Cycle Conference held in Glasgow in 2014. This book covers a wide range of time, locations, and topics, and thus provides an accurate reflection of the expansive and lasting influence of the narrative tradition surrounding Finn mac Cumaill. While the earliest traces of this tradition date back to seventh-century Ireland, oral fíanaigecht is still collected and recounted in, for example, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. The volume contains 14 articles, divided into three main parts: encounters with Acallam texts (five
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2024-03-28T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/787/image/coversmallThe Gaelic Finn tradition ii ed. by Sharon Arbuthnot, Síle Ní Mhurchú & Geraldine Parsons (review)2023-10-23text/htmlen-USThe Gaelic Finn tradition ii ed. by Sharon Arbuthnot, Síle Ní Mhurchú & Geraldine Parsons (review)2023-10-232023TWOProject MUSE®216412024-03-28T00:00:00-05:002023-10-23The Fenian Cycle in Irish and Scots-Gaelic literature by Joseph Flahive (review)
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/909952
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This ‘modest guide’ (ii) to the Fenian Cycle will find a welcome home on university instructors’ desks. Intended primarily for students and the general public, the inclusion of footnoted source citations differentiates it from a trade book. Its breadth of coverage is commendable, and the extensive array of sources used is reliable and up to date, making this booklet a suitable introduction to the narrative cycle concerning Fionn mac Cumhaill and his warrior band, the Fianna.In addition to an introduction and conclusion, Flahive includes seven chapters encompassing (1) the cycle’s origins, (2) early Irish literature, (3) the Agallamh textual tradition, (4) poetic lays, (5) prose romances, (6) seventeenth- through
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2024-03-28T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/787/image/coversmallThe Fenian Cycle in Irish and Scots-Gaelic literature by Joseph Flahive (review)2023-10-23text/htmlen-USThe Fenian Cycle in Irish and Scots-Gaelic literature by Joseph Flahive (review)2023-10-232023TWOProject MUSE®211862024-03-28T00:00:00-05:002023-10-23Myth and history in Celtic and Scandinavian traditions ed. by Emily Lyle (review)
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/909953
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The oppositional, yet often complementary, nature of the concepts of ‘myth’ and ‘history’ is explored in this expansive volume, which presents articles from prominent scholars in both medieval Celtic and Scandinavian studies. The collection’s main aim is to offer new perspectives that challenge widely-held, entrenched views on mythological literature, hagiography, pseudo-histories, and archaeology. The authors employ a wide range of innovative approaches to their respective topics, utilizing a number of the most current methodologies in comparative mythology, archaeology, political history, cosmology, and postmodern literary theory to achieve vibrant new insights into what might, at first glance, appear to be
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2024-03-28T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/787/image/coversmallMyth and history in Celtic and Scandinavian traditions ed. by Emily Lyle (review)2023-10-23text/htmlen-USMyth and history in Celtic and Scandinavian traditions ed. by Emily Lyle (review)2023-10-232023TWOProject MUSE®175102024-03-28T00:00:00-05:002023-10-23Revisiting the Cycles of the Kings ed. by Kevin Murray (review)
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/909954
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This publication appeared in conjunction with a one-day seminar on the Cycles of the Kings held at University College Cork in April of 2022. The seminar had had to be postponed twice owing to the pandemic, but the organizers were keen not only that the seminar take place, but also that the papers be published in a timely manner. The result is this welcome volume of five essays representing current approaches to that category of medieval Irish literature called ‘The Historical Cycle’ or ‘The Cycle of the Kings’ by modern scholars, in particular Myles Dillon, whose book The Cycles of the Kings was a landmark study of this material. The title of this current volume, according to Kevin Murray’s Introduction, is ‘in
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2024-03-28T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/787/image/coversmallRevisiting the Cycles of the Kings ed. by Kevin Murray (review)2023-10-23text/htmlen-USRevisiting the Cycles of the Kings ed. by Kevin Murray (review)2023-10-232023TWOProject MUSE®115892024-03-28T00:00:00-05:002023-10-23Sacrament an alter. The sacrament of the altar. A critical edition with translation ed. by D. H. Frost (review)
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/910005
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This interesting volume is described as the first in ‘a series of critical editions of writings in or about the Cornish language during the period c. 800–1800 C.E.’ entitled 1,000 Years of Cornish (ii). One cannot help feeling a twinge of the ‘London bus’ syndrome in that this is one of two series which are currently proposing to produce a series of editions of Cornish texts, the other being Corpus Textuum Cornicorum (the first volume is Everson, Kent, & Williams 2023). So far each has produced one volume. Let us hope they are talking to each other about not producing duplicates; the field is too small for that.Sacrament an Alter may be an unfamiliar title, but the text has been available for many years in
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2024-03-28T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/787/image/coversmallSacrament an alter. The sacrament of the altar. A critical edition with translation ed. by D. H. Frost (review)2023-10-23text/htmlen-USSacrament an alter. The sacrament of the altar. A critical edition with translation ed. by D. H. Frost (review)2023-10-232023TWOProject MUSE®124702024-03-28T00:00:00-05:002023-10-23The chronicles of medieval Wales and the March ed. by Ben Guy et al (review)
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/910006
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A chronicle is a medieval historical source in which the compiler lists the significant events of each year in a separate entry for that year with the entries appearing in chronological order. (Technically, an annal is a work of this genre compiled contemporaneously with the events of each year, while a chronicle is compiled retrospectively, but using the year-by-year format.) A half-century ago, in the context of publication of Thomas Jones’ final edition of four volumes of the major Welsh language chronicles (Brut y tywysogyon and Brenhinedd y Saesson), R. Ian Jack commented in his guide to the sources for medieval Welsh history that the mysteries of these Welsh sources were now open to students (1972: 25).
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2024-03-28T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/787/image/coversmallThe chronicles of medieval Wales and the March ed. by Ben Guy et al (review)2023-10-23text/htmlen-USThe chronicles of medieval Wales and the March ed. by Ben Guy et al (review)2023-10-232023TWOProject MUSE®136122024-03-28T00:00:00-05:002023-10-23Bone and marrow/Cnámh agus smior. An anthology of Irish poetry from medieval to modern ed. by Samuel K. Fisher and Brian Ó Conchubhair (review)
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/910007
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This is not the first volume of its kind to come out, but it is undoubtedly the most comprehensive. There have been leaving certificate compilations like Caoimhghin Ó Góilidhe’s Díolaim filíochta, but they have been monolingual, and directed primarily at a specific curriculum. Bilingual anthologies, such as Ó Tuama & Kinsella’s An duanaire, Seán McMahon & Jo O’Donoghue’s Taisce duan, and Louis de Paor’s Leabhar na h-athghabhála have been very influential, but have suffered from lack of scope. This is the first truly comprehensive anthology of poetry in Irish, and the facing-page translation makes the book attractive to a much larger potential readership, many of whom will learn for the first time that Ireland has
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2024-03-28T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/787/image/coversmallBone and marrow/Cnámh agus smior. An anthology of Irish poetry from medieval to modern ed. by Samuel K. Fisher and Brian Ó Conchubhair (review)2023-10-23text/htmlen-USBone and marrow/Cnámh agus smior. An anthology of Irish poetry from medieval to modern ed. by Samuel K. Fisher and Brian Ó Conchubhair (review)2023-10-232023TWOProject MUSE®144972024-03-28T00:00:00-05:002023-10-23