{"title":"Preventive law in early Ireland. Rereading the Additamenta in the Book of Armagh","authors":"Andrew Rabin","doi":"10.26818/NORTAMERCELTSTUD.2.1.0037","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.26818/NORTAMERCELTSTUD.2.1.0037","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:This article argues that the so-called Additamenta, found on ff. 16r–18v of the Book of Armagh, may have functioned as a form of preventive law. Reading the Additamenta in this fashion suggests that the evidence they adduce to legitimize Armagh's property rights reflects those categories of claims thought most likely to prevail should the foundation's landholdings fall into dispute. As an archive of documents that both preserved and shaped institutional memory, they provided a historical frame that limited the possibility of challenges to Armagh's standing or, if those challenges did come to trial, shaped the court's perception to the foundation's benefit. Consequently, even if these documents do not necessarily reflect an ongoing charter tradition, we may still use them as case studies revealing one way in which early Irish landowners—especially those associated with ecclesiastical foundations like Armagh—utilized text and narrative to influence the progress of legal disputes.","PeriodicalId":160851,"journal":{"name":"North American journal of Celtic studies","volume":"20 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-01-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116219392","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The story of Plea","authors":"D. Bray","doi":"10.26818/nortamerceltstud.2.1.0056","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.26818/nortamerceltstud.2.1.0056","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:The story of the underwater monastery of Plea, told in a gloss to Broccán's hymn (Ní car Brigit), is an unusual tale in Brigit's tradition; however, it contains several well-known tropes from Irish immrama. The story has been associated with changing attitudes toward pilgrimage and the idea that the monastic rule of Kildare differed significantly from other Irish monasteries up to the twelfth century. This paper ex-amines the elements of the story and traces its possible connections to other, earlier elements in Brigit's tradition, including her association with St. Brendan of Clonfert, as well as the motifs in the genre of the immram. The tale may reflect contemporary concerns over perceived unorthodox practices in Irish churches and monasteries as the twelfth-century reform of the Irish Church got under way.","PeriodicalId":160851,"journal":{"name":"North American journal of Celtic studies","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-01-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127203918","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Gwerzioù for all! A look at the field","authors":"Matthieu Boyd","doi":"10.26818/nortamerceltstud.2.2.0179","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.26818/nortamerceltstud.2.2.0179","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":160851,"journal":{"name":"North American journal of Celtic studies","volume":"9 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-01-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124731306","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Guaranteeing what cannot be guaranteed. Defending and adapting bardic patronage in Ag so an chomairce, a Chormaic (ca. 1585) by Tadhg Dall Ó hUiginn","authors":"Sarah E. McKibben","doi":"10.26818/nortamerceltstud.2.1.0001","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.26818/nortamerceltstud.2.1.0001","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:This paper offers a historicized close reading of Ag so an chomairce, a Chormaic ‘Here is the guarantee, Cormac’ (ca. 1585) by Tadhg Dall Ó hUiginn (ca. 1550–ca. 1591), a 27-quatrain appeal to loyalist Sligo lord Cormac Ó hEadhra to be the master-poet's guarantor under the legal mechanism of booking (a form of legal registration or recording of dependents or followers of a given lord). The paper argues that the poem richly repays close literary-critical attention of the kind not usually accorded bardic poetry, displaying a remarkable rhetorical and political artistry in its deeply traditional, yet simultaneously richly innovative, defense of the patronly relationship, the native nobility that upheld it, and the bardic institution itself, as all were under threat from the transformations wrought by the expanding Tudor state.","PeriodicalId":160851,"journal":{"name":"North American journal of Celtic studies","volume":"67 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-01-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126651504","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Walter Map and the matter of Britain by Smith, Joshua Byron (review)","authors":"D. Helbert","doi":"10.1353/cel.2018.a781218","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/cel.2018.a781218","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":160851,"journal":{"name":"North American journal of Celtic studies","volume":"659 ","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-01-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"113994344","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Medieval Powys. Kingdom, principality and lordships, 1132-1293 by David Stephenson (review)","authors":"C. McKenna","doi":"10.1353/cel.2018.a781219","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/cel.2018.a781219","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":160851,"journal":{"name":"North American journal of Celtic studies","volume":"25 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-01-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129585833","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Ys celuit ae dehoglho. Interpreting a dream?","authors":"Myriah Williams","doi":"10.26818/NORTAMERCELTSTUD.1.2.0121","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.26818/NORTAMERCELTSTUD.1.2.0121","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:The second poem in the Black Book of Carmarthen (NLW Peniarth MS 1) is known by its first line as Breuddwyd a welwn neithiwr ‘I had a dream last night’. This poem is incomplete due to the loss of a leaf or, more probably, a quire, and it is the only poem in the Black Book which A. O. H. Jarman did not fit into a category in his edition of the manuscript. Indeed, the poem has been little studied, with discussion generally amounting to a passing reference to the form of the work being a list of metricized proverbs. It is this disconnect between a poem which purports, or is purported, to be about a dream, but that is said to be composed of proverbs, which has led to difficulties in its categorization, and it is this same disconnect which is immediately interesting. By breaking the verse down into its constituent parts, it is possible to argue that the poem as it now stands is a composite work and that, at its core, there is a coherent proverbial poem around which marginal verses were accumulated through several stages of copying. The first part of this paper seeks to explore this possibility, while the second part presents a discussion of the potential relationship between Breuddwyd a welwn neithiwr and later proverb lists.","PeriodicalId":160851,"journal":{"name":"North American journal of Celtic studies","volume":"43 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-01-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"125075077","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Fionn mac Cumhaill in twenty-first-century Ireland","authors":"N. Sumner","doi":"10.2307/NORTAMERCELTSTUD.1.1.0082","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2307/NORTAMERCELTSTUD.1.1.0082","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:This article surveys the corpus of Fenian narrative available in twenty-first-century Ireland. The socio-political situation during the Celtic Revival era that enabled the continued production of Fenian texts into the present moment is first examined. Revivalist engagements with Fenian narrative, including publishing, folklore collection, and educational activities, are briefly traced. The connection between cultural and political nationalism in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Ireland emerges as a key factor in the establishment of the Fianna as cultural symbols for the modern Irish nation—a position which they continue to hold. The remainder of the article explores the twenty-first-century Fenian narrative corpus and traces areas of continuity and development with relation to the revival-era corpus. Areas of consideration include Fenian material in school textbooks, in children's literature and media, and in literature and media for older audiences, including books of heritage and tourist interest. Consideration is given to both English- and Irish-language sources.","PeriodicalId":160851,"journal":{"name":"North American journal of Celtic studies","volume":"8 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-01-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127308051","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Poems to the medieval O'Donnell chiefs and their historical context","authors":"K. Simms","doi":"10.2307/NORTAMERCELTSTUD.1.1.0045","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2307/NORTAMERCELTSTUD.1.1.0045","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:A bardic ode which survives in written form is normally of the highest quality, an expensive prestige purchase. Consequently, the 31 extant poems to the medieval O'Donnell chieftains of Tír Conaill, or Donegal, reflect the rise and fall of that family's fortunes from the thirteenth to the fifteenth centuries. Both O'Donnells and O'Neills had newly risen to power around 1200, and the idea that the two families should alternate in leadership of the Northern Uí Néill is a recurring theme in the thirteenth-century poems. The fourteenth century saw O'Donnell power collapse as a result of a prolonged succession struggle, and many chieftains of that period have no surviving poems to their name. When, in the fifteenth century, the O'Neills in turn became enmeshed in civil strife, the O'Donnell poems begin to boast that in early days their ancestors had supplied 10 kings of Tara, where the O'Neills' forebears had produced only seven. In addition to the perceptible relationship of such broad themes with the politics of their day, many details in the texts of the poems confirm and supplement the information on the history of the O'Donnell rulers of Tír Conaill found in the Irish annals.","PeriodicalId":160851,"journal":{"name":"North American journal of Celtic studies","volume":"29 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-01-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132588891","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The timeless tale of Bricriu's feast","authors":"Matthieu Boyd","doi":"10.26818/NORTAMERCELTSTUD.1.2.0151","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.26818/NORTAMERCELTSTUD.1.2.0151","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:The early Irish tale Fled Bricrenn ‘Bricriu's feast’ is set at an impossible time relative to the centerpiece of the Ulster Cycle, the epic Táin bó Cúailnge. Key characters, including Bricriu himself, are not available after the Táin, while the integral episodes involving Ailill and Medb would make no sense before the Táin. The embarrassing behavior of the heroes Lóegaire and Conall is also inconsistent with the way they are portrayed in other texts. Although there are limited parallels with other kinds of medieval literature, such as the verse tradition of French Arthurian romance, these problems are most helpfully addressed by recourse to contemporary Fan Fiction studies in conjunction with the medieval concept of glossing. Even if it does contain authentic lore, Bricriu's feast comes into focus as a comically distorted, but serious-minded reflection on the rest of the Ulster Cycle, including the Táin. The major themes of this reflection include the devaluation of fame through excess of praise, and the worthiness of the hero's community to benefit from him, even as the hero's own status depends on serving their interests and enacting their values.","PeriodicalId":160851,"journal":{"name":"North American journal of Celtic studies","volume":"148 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-01-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"123260250","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}