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CSANA
CELTIC STUDIES ASSOCIATION OF NORTH AMERICA
Newsletter 31.1 Samain 2013
Contents
Announcements 3
CSANA 2014 CFP and Registration Information
Conferences 10
Book Reviews
Alexandra Bergholm on The Celtic Evil Eye and Related Mythological Motifs in Medieval Ireland 14
Sharon Paice MacLeod on Wise-‐woman of Kildare: Moll Anthony and popular tradition in the east of Ireland 17
Timothy P. Bridgman on Celtic from the West and Celtic from the West 2 18
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CELTIC STUDIES ASSOCIATION OF NORTH AMERICA On the web at http://celtic.cmrs.ucla.edu/csana/
Dan Wiley’s blog at http://csanablog.blogspot.com/
Officers: President: Paul Russell, Pembroke College, Cambridge University Vice-‐President: Charlene Eska, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Secretary-‐Treasurer: Elissa R. Henken, University of Georgia
Members at Large: Georgia Henley, Harvard University Michael Newton, St. Francis Xavier University
Bibliographer: Karen Burgess, UCLA Executive Bibliographer: Joseph F. Nagy, UCLA Newsletter Editor: Jimmy P. Miller, Temple University Yearbook Editor: Joseph F. Eska, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University Past President: Morgan Davies, Colgate University
Incorporated as a non-‐profit organization, the Celtic Studies Association of North America has members in the United States, Canada, Ireland, Wales, Scotland, Europe, Australia and Japan. CSANA produces a twice-‐a-‐year newsletter and bibliographies of Celtic Studies. The published bibliographies (1983-‐87 and 1985-‐87) may be ordered from the Secretary-‐Treasurer, Professor Elissa R. Henken, Dept. of English, Park Hall, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602, USA (Email: [email protected] ).
The electronic CSANA bibliography is available at: http://www.humnet.ucla.edu/humnet/celtic/csanabib.html. The electronic bibliography is available at cost in printed form to members who request it from Bibliographer Karen Burgess, [email protected]. The bibliographer welcomes updates, corrections, and information about out-‐of-‐the-‐way publications of relevance that should be included in the Bibliography.
The privileges of membership in CSANA include the newsletter twice a year, access to the bibliography and the electronic discussion group CSANA-‐L (contact Professor Joe Eska at [email protected] to join), invitations to the annual meeting for which the registration fees are nil or very low, the right to purchase the CSANA mailing list at cost, and an invaluable sense of fellowship with Celticists throughout North America and around the world.
Membership in CSANA is open to anyone with a serious interest in Celtic Studies. Dues are payable at Beltaine. New and renewing members should send checks in either of the two accepted currencies to Elissa R. Henken (Department of English, Park Hall, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602 USA). Please note that the currency changes the Payable to line. Checks in U.S. dollars, payable to CSANA, must be drawn on a U.S. bank or an affiliate of a U.S. bank (international money orders cannot be accepted). Cheques in British Sterling must be made payable to Elissa R. Henken. Payment may also be made by credit card through PayPal. [Go to the PayPal website (www.paypal.com), press the tab “send money,” type in the e-‐mail address [email protected]. Remember to pay in U.S. dollars. Put CSANA in the e-‐mail subject line. In the Note box, type in your name, postal address, e-‐mail address, and for what exactly you are paying (dues year, membership rate, Yearbook number).]
Membership categories: Associate (student, retiree, unemployed, institution) $20 US, £13 GBP, Sustaining Member (basic) $40 US, £26 GBP Contributor $60 US, £39 GBP Patron $100 US, £65 GBP Benefactor $250 US, £163 GBP
(Contributors, Patrons and Benefactors support the creation of the CSANA bibliography, help to defray expenses of the annual meeting, and allow CSANA to develop new projects. Please join at the highest level you can.)
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Announcements
CSANA 2014 CFP and Registration Information
Twenty-‐minute papers are invited on all aspects of Celtic Studies for the CSANA 2014 annual conference, scheduled March 6-‐8 at the Hotel Roanoke, Roanoke, Virginia. This year’s conference is hosted by Virginia Tech and features three plenary speakers:
• Edel Bhreathnach, The Discovery Programme, Ireland • Thomas Charles-‐Edwards, University of Oxford • Peter Schrijver, University of Utrecht
Abstracts should be sent by November 20, 2013 to Charlene Eska at [email protected] with the subject line “CSANA 2014.”
Online registration is being accepted at http://www.cpe.vt.edu/csana/registration.html, where a downloadable registration form can also be found. Registration is $30, and the conference dinner, scheduled for Friday, March 7, is $40. The registration fee covers a reception Thursday night as well as morning and afternoon breaks. Registration deadline is Feb. 20, 2014.
The Hotel Roanoke and Conference Center is offering rooms for $139 per night for single occupancy and $149 for double occupancy and $10 per room per night for each additional person, plus taxes. To make reservations, please call the hotel directly at 540-‐985-‐5900 or toll free at 866-‐594-‐4722. When calling to make your reservation, be sure to ask for the Celtic Studies Association Annual Meeting room block. All reservations must be made before Feb. 7, 2014. Parking is available at the hotel for $7 per day or $12 per day (valet).
Professor D. Ellis Evans (1930-‐2013)
D. Ellis Evans, Jesus Professor of Celtic emeritus at Jesus College, Oxford, died Sept. 26 at the age of 83. Born in Lanfynydd in Carmarthenshire, he went to Llandeilo Grammar School and then studied at Aberystwyth and Swansea
before going to Jesus College, Oxford, for his D.Phil. From 1957 until 1978 he worked in Swansea, first as lecturer and eventually as professor, before returning to the Jesus Chair in Oxford which he held to his retirement in 1996. He was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 1983. He is probably best known in the broader field of Celtic Studies for his work on Gaulish Personal Names (Oxford, 1967), a compendious collection and analysis not only of all the personal names from Gaul but incorporating discussion of many of the Continental Celtic personal names then known. In this age of citation-‐counting, it is worth pointing out that this is a work that has stood the test of time and still finds itself in every bibliography of every piece of scholarship on Continental Celtic – not bad for a work published in 1967. But for those closer to
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the subject, some of his other writing had, and still has, immense value: for example, “A Comparison of the Formation of Some Continental and Early Insular Celtic Personal Names,” Bulletin of the Board of Celtic Studies 24 (1970–72) 415–34, illuminatingly set the Continental evidence beside the Insular Celtic name evidence. Later he became interested in language contact, and in several papers considered this thorny topic with his characteristic probing concern for proper argument and methodologies: e.g. “Celts and Germans,” BBCS 29 (1980–2) 230–55; “Language Contact in Pre-‐Roman and Roman Britain,” in Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt, ed. H. Temporini and W. Haase, Vol. II Principät 29.2 (Berlin, 1982) 949–87. He was also a scholar to whom those keen for an overview of the field naturally turned. His 1977 Sir John Rhys lecture, “The Labyrinth of Continental Celtic,” PBA 65 (1979) 497–538, was a model of its kind, and even its title typically drew attention to the notorious difficulties of the subject; however much he knew about Continental Celtic (and he knew more than almost anyone else at that time), he never forgot it was a labyrinth (with all the misleading pathways and dead-‐ends that metaphor implies) and never underestimated the problems it presented – and continues to present. The remarkable increase in finds and data since Ellis was working in the field has only exacerbated those difficulties and would no doubt have produced a wry twinkle in his eye.
Naturally a careful and skeptical scholar, he was tolerant of the views of others in print, and criticism, if there were any, came encoded in the adjectives and adverbs with which he described their work: “ambitious” or “challenging” were terms which merely hinted at an over-‐stepping of the boundaries of the evidence (something of which Ellis could never be accused), but terms which this young graduate student anxiously learned to avoid having applied to his own work. When I knew him, he was already back in Oxford, already a great figure in the field, but also a kindly and gentle MPhil and DPhil supervisor. Criticism, when required, was delivered in the same coded
manner as his reviews of scholarship but all the more penetrating for that, and usually accompanied by a compendious bibliography on particular words culled from his boxes of paper slips covered in the most illegible handwriting I had ever seen. Since then, no indecipherable scribe has presented anywhere near the interpretative challenges that attempting to read his annotations on my essays and chapter-‐drafts did then. As a supervisor and teacher he was never dogmatic, never insistent on a particular view. His philological pedigree came through Henry Lewis and he taught the basics rigorously – he once spent a whole term lecturing on Celtic phonology and my notes indicate that we got about halfway through the consonants. As an MPhil student with a classical background, I needed a lot of that teaching, but it was very clear that he was someone from whom one learnt but that the formal teaching was only a small part of that learning process; at least as important, and even more so, was what you yourself brought to the table. That it was a process which worked is evidenced by the number of scholars who passed through the door of his study in Jesus College and went on to great things. Not least of what they learnt would have been a concern for the evidence, a
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care for methodology, and if they were going to present “ambitious” or “challenging” ideas, then they should be very sure what they were letting themselves in for.
Paul Russell Department of ASNC University of Cambridge
Professor Bo Almqvist
RTE News reports that Professor Bo Almqvist, former head of the Department of Irish Folklore at UCD, died Saturday, Nov. 9, at the age of 82 in Dublin after a short illness.
Professor Almqvist is best known for his work on northern European folklore and contacts between Scandinavian and Celtic folk traditions and literatures. He also collected and analyzed much folk material from the last residents of the Blasket Islands.
Irish Texts Society discount for CSANA members
CSANA and the Irish Texts Society have agreed on a collaboration: in return for our helping announce ITS works, CSANA members in good standing will receive a 33 percent discount on ITS publications.
The Irish Texts Society continues to be a leader in the publication of scholarly editions and translations of Irish texts. ITS has published four “Main Series” (texts and translations) volumes since 2007 (Bruiden Da Choca, ed. Gregory Toner; Lige Guill, ed. Diarmuid Ó Murchadha; Lebor Gabála Érenn 6, ed. Pádraig Ó Riain; and Cath Cluana Tarbh, ed. Meidhbhín Ní Úrdail) and has another volume forthcoming (Two texts on Loch nEchach: De causis torchi Corco Óche and Aided Echach maic Maireda, ed. Ranke de Vries). ITS also launched two volumes last week at its annual seminar: Lebor na Ceart: Reassessments (subsidiary series no. 25), ed. Kevin Murray, and Historical Dictionary of Gaelic Placenames, Fascicle 5: Clais to Chairn-‐Cnucha, ed.Pádraig Ó Riain, Diarmuid Ó Murchadha and Kevin Murray.
To take advantage of the partnership, go to the ITS website, www.irishtextssociety.org, where the full catalogue of ITS publications can be found. When ordering, you will be transferred to the Royal Irish Academy website where all ITS books are listed together with their prices. Enter the word "texts" in the box entitled "coupon code," and CSANA members in good standing will receive the 33 percent discount.
For questions about, or problems related to, ordering ITS volumes with the CSANA member discount, please contact CSANA Secretary/Treasurer Elissa R. Henken, [email protected].
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CSANA sponsors two Kalamazoo sessions
Under the leadership of Frederick Suppe, CSANA is sponsoring two sessions at the 49th International Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo, Michigan, May 8-‐11, 2014. Professor Suppe will preside over both sessions.
Session 1: New Work by Young Celtic Studies Scholars • “The Woman on Top in Early Irish Literature,” Jennifer Dukes-‐Knight, University of South
Florida • “The Animality of Man: Rape, Incest, and Procreation in the Mabinogion,” Katherine
Leach, Aberystwyth University • “How did the Norse change the Political Landscape of the Isle of Man?” M. Joseph Wolf,
Virginia Tech
Session 2: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Celtic Studies and “Celtic” • “The Afterlives of the Antiphonary of Bangor,” Helen Patterson, University of Toronto • “When Irish Teeth are Smiling: Genetic Origins of a Celtic People,” Jaimin Weets, SUNY
Potsdam • Comment by Frederick Suppe
Funding for Irish Studies postgrads in North America
The American Conference for Irish Studies announces two new fellowship opportunities:
Larkin Research Fellowship in Irish Studies. A pioneering historian, inspiring teacher and one of the founders of the American Conference for Irish Studies, Professor Emmet Larkin (1927-‐2012) was truly one of the twentieth century's giants of Irish historical studies. To honor his memory, ACIS and Dr. Larkin's friends and family have created the Emmet Larkin Fellowship, an annual research award of $700 to be given to a Ph.D. student conducting work in history or the social sciences on an Irish topic (diaspora included) at a North American institution. Applicants should submit a 2-‐3 page application letter (including a description of the research project and a statement of purpose), a CV and two letters of recommendations to Jason Knirck, Chair, Larkin Fellowship Committee, [email protected]. The deadline for submission is December 1, 2013.
Krause Research Fellowship in Irish Studies A poet and scholar most known for his extensive work on the life and letters of Irish playwright Sean O'Casey, Professor David Krause (1917-‐2011) mentored many students as a professor of English at Brown University for more than three decades. In recognition of his renowned record of scholarship and long service to Irish Studies, Dr. Krause's friends and family have taken the lead in establishing an annual fellowship of $700 to be awarded to a Ph.D. student working on topic in Irish Literature (diaspora included) at a North American institution. Applicants should
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submit a 2-‐3 page application letter (including a description of the research project and a statement of purpose), a CV and two letters of recommendation to Geraldine Higgins, Chair, Krause Fellowship Committee, [email protected]. The deadline for submission is December 1, 2013.
Celtic Poets in North America database
The Celtic Poets in North America database has been launched and is available at http://poets-‐app.celticpoets.cloudbees.net/index. This is a Digital Humanities project about poetry composed in North America in Celtic
languages: Breton, Cornish, Irish, Manx, (Scottish) Gaelic and Welsh. This digital exhibit is intended to promote these literary and cultural assets and to assist in locating and contextualizing them. The earliest remains of North American poetry in Celtic languages date from the 18th century, even though early immigrants must have been composing it in the 17th century. It is still being created by living poets, some of whom are included in the database.
For information about the design of the project and data set, to comment on its functionality, or to contribute data, see Michael Newton’s blog at http://virtualgael.wordpress.com/
Irish Sagas Online
Irish Sagas Online http://iso.ucc.ie/ is a new website which aims to make available reliable versions of the original texts of medieval Irish sagas with parallel translations into Modern Irish and English. This website is the
brainchild of Tom O’Donovan of University College Cork and has been launched with the participation and co-‐operation of the staff of the CELT project (www.ucc.ie/celt) and the Celtic Digital Initiative (www.ucc.ie/acad/smg/CDI). A central feature of this website is the provision of links to extant electronic resources which will allow interested parties better understand the context and content of Irish sagas.
Call for submissions for Eolas 7
Eolas: The Journal of the American Society of Irish Medieval Studies seeks submissions on a range of subjects dealing with all aspects of medieval Ireland, including but not limited to: archaeology, philology, theology, literature,
history, and art history. The journal includes a Book Reviews section and is available to ASIMS members on JSTOR.
Papers of 4,000 to 12,000 words should be based on original research and should be submitted electronically as Word files to the General Editor, Larissa Tracy, at [email protected]. Illustrations must be completed to publication standard and submitted electronically at not less
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than 600dpi resolution; line drawings must not be less than 1200 dpi. Contributors are responsible for securing all rights and permissions for images upon acceptance. Please follow the style sheet on ASIMS’ website, www.asims.org. Deadline for submissions is Nov. 30, 2013.
Submissions will be peer-‐reviewed and assessed by the editorial committee and an outside double-‐blind reviewer and returned within three months.
Book reviews or requests for reviews should be sent to Cathy Swift at [email protected]
Online archive of spoken Irish from the 1920s and 30s
The Doegan Records Web Project, an online archive of spoken Irish recordings made from 1928-‐1931, was recently launched by academics from NUI Maynooth and the Royal Irish Academy.
www.doegen.ie is home to audio recordings made by Dr Wilhelm Doegen, who came to Ireland at the request of the new Ministry of Education to make a permanent record of the spoken language in all districts in which it was still spoken; 136 speakers from 17 counties recorded 400 stories, songs, prayers, charms and parables. The original wax matrices were transferred to Berlin and reformatted onto shellac disks.
Although the shellac recordings have been long known to linguists, the Academy Library wanted to make them freely available to all via a digital archive on the internet. In 2008, with a funding grant under the Higher Education Authority’s PRTLI4, the Academy Library commenced a project to transfer the recordings to the web, together with annotated transcripts of content, speaker details, translations of the transcripts and other data.
The fully bilingual site will enable linguistic, folkloric and musicological research and teaching, as well as provide a resource for family and local history. Lead academic project partner is Professor Ruairí Ó hUiginn, Roinn na Nua-‐Ghaeilge, NUI Maynooth, and website editor is Dr Eoghan Ó Raghallaigh, Roinn na Nua-‐Ghaeilge, NUI Maynooth. The project also benefitted from work done by Maynooth students Siobhán Barrett and Líadan Ní Chearbhaill under the NUI Maynooth Summer Programme for Undergraduate Researchers (SPUR).
Zeuss Prizes awarded by SCE The winners of the 2013 Johann Kaspar Zeuss Prizes of the Societas Celtologica Europea are:
• Dr. Niamh Ní Shiadhail, University College Dublin, for her Ph.D. dissertation Conspóidí
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creidimh 1818-‐c.1848: roinnt fianaise ó fhilíocht na Gaeilge (Supervisor: Dr. Meidhbhín Ní Úrdail)
• Sigrun Maurer, Universität Wien, for her M.A. thesis Die Legende von den Sieben Schläfern aus Ephesos in der Version des Leabhar Breac – Hintergrund, Übersetzung und Kommentar (Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Stefan Schumacher)
Digital humanities and Irish Studies volume
Breac, a peer-‐reviewed, interdisciplinary journal of Irish Studies, seeks contributions on the topic of Digital Humanities and Irish Studies for its third issue.
Guest Editors Matthew Wilkens and Sonia Howell invite submissions addressing the results of digital humanities projects as well as commentaries on the intersections and possibilities for future collaborations between Irish Studies and the digital humanities. Capitalizing on Breac's digital form, the editors seek submissions which can be best facilitated by an online journal. Other topics of interest include but are not limited to: data mining, geospatial analysis, data visualization, scholarly editing, new media, digital literature or poetry, digital humanities and the Irish language, digital humanities and world literature.
The issue will include essays from Hans Walter Gabler (editor-‐in-‐chief of the Critical and Synoptic Edition of James Joyce's Ulysses) on conceiving a dynamic digital research site for Ulysses, Matthew Jockers (author of Macroanalysis and co-‐founder of the Stanford Literary Lab) on macroanalysis and Irish Studies, and Padraig Ó Macháin (Director of Irish Script on Screen) on how the digital revolution has affected Irish Studies and Irish-‐language scholarship. It will also feature a review of Franco Moretti's Distant Reading by Joe Cleary (author of Literature, Partition and the Nation-‐State: Culture and Conflict in Ireland, Israel and Palestine).
Typical articles are 3,000-‐8,000 words, but the editors will consider shorter or longer pieces. Deadline for submission of manuscripts is January 15, 2014. Full submission instructions are available at http://breac.nd.edu/submissions/. Questions are welcome and should be sent to [email protected].
Breac also announces the launch of a Reviews page later this fall dedicated to reviewing recent publications as well as showcasing recent projects and works in progress. The page will operate on a rolling basis and an accompanying forum discussion will center around the most recent material. Reviews will provide a space where researchers and students can discuss current trends and new scholarship, as well as invite commentary and receive feedback from Breac subscribers. Submissions for the Reviews page should be 500-‐1500 words and may include screen shots, URLs, and other forms of media.
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E.C. Quiggin Memorial Lecture
The Sixteenth Annual E.C. Quiggin Memorial Lecture, “Insular Latin and Insular Manuscripts,” is scheduled to be delivered by Dr. Mark Stansbury, Lecturer in Classics, NUI Galway, at 5 p.m. Dec. 5, 2013, at GR06/07, English Faculty
Building, 9 West Road, University of Cambridge. A reception will follow; all are welcome.
Conferences
California Celtic Studies Conference
The 36th Annual University of California Celtic Studies Conference is scheduled March 13-‐16, 2014, on the campus of the University of California, Los Angeles. Invited speakers include Geraint Evans of Swansea University; Elizabeth
FitzPatrick of the National University of Ireland, Galway; Catherine Flynn of the University of California, Berkeley; Helen Fulton of the University of York; Ralph O’Connor of the University of Aberdeen; Eurig Salisbury of the Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies; and Paul Widmer of Philipps University, Marburg. Abstracts (no longer than a double-‐spaced page) for papers twenty minutes in length (plus ten minutes allotted for discussion) are cordially invited. Please indicate your AV needs. Abstracts, to be submitted no later than Friday, January 17, 2014, should be sent to Professor Joseph Nagy at [email protected].
International Conference on Welsh Studies
North American Association for the Study of Welsh Culture and History (NAASWCH) seeks proposals for papers to be delivered at the International Conference on Welsh Studies, July 23-‐25, 2014, at the Royal
Military College of Canada, Kingston, Ontario.
The NAASWCH Program Committee seeks diverse perspectives on Wales and Welsh culture – as well as proposals focused on the Welsh in North America – from many disciplines, including history, literature, languages, art, social sciences, political science, philosophy, music, and religion. NAASWCH invites participation from academics, postgraduate/graduate students and independent scholars from North America, the United Kingdom, and elsewhere.
One-‐page abstracts of 20-‐minute papers should be sent, along with a one-‐page CV, to Huw Osborne, Department of English, Royal Military College of Canada, Kingston ([email protected]) by Jan. 3, 2014. Participants will be notified by mid-‐February. Email submissions are preferred and will be acknowledged promptly. If you have not received confirmation of your electronic
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submission within one week, please resend the document Proposals for thematic sessions, panel presentations, or other formats are also welcome.
Keynote presentations: • Thomas Dilworth (Windsor): David Jones and the Great War • Kurt Heinzelman (Texas): The Disappearance of Dylan Thomas • Chris Williams (Cardiff): Cartooning the First World War in Wales
Visit www.naaswch.org for more information.
Language Diversity in Wales
The first conference on Language Diversity in Wales is scheduled July 18-‐19, 2014, at the National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth, http://amrywiaeth.wordpress.com.
The conference aims to provide a forum for those interested in the language diversity of Wales. The event is not restricted to purely linguistic topics and is open to researchers with literary perspectives, those interested in translation studies, and researchers from the fields of media, arts, and anthropology insofar as they are working on topics connected with the language diversity of Wales.
Within the linguistic perspective, we welcome participants dealing with diversity in Welsh, English or any other languages that are or have been used in Wales (e.g. French, Latin, Flemish, Romani, Somali, sign language, etc.). Within the field of literary studies, possible topics include: the use of Welsh in English-‐medium literature, the use of English in Welsh-‐medium literature, and the use of dialects in Welsh literature.
The conference will also feature a workshop session, part of which will be a student-‐oriented careers workshop.
Abstracts for both papers and posters should not exceed 350 words including the references and should be submitted via EasyChair (http://tinyurl.com/pgshj4r) by Jan. 15, 2014. Papers should be 20 minutes, and will be followed by 10 minutes of discussion. Applicants will be notified of acceptance of their paper in February 2014.
The registration fee and more detail on how to register will be made available on the website. Questions should be directed to [email protected] or left as a comment on the website.
Invited Speakers: Prof Markku Filppula (University of Eastern Finland), Dr David Willis (University of Cambridge), Dr Elin Haf Gruffydd Jones (Aberystwyth University).
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Workshop on Language and History in Early Britain
A day-‐long workshop to celebrate 60 years of Kenneth H. Jackson’s Language and History in Early Britain (Edinburgh, 1953) is scheduled Dec. 6, 2013, at Cambridge University. The aim is to bring people together to assess the impact
of this important work 60 years after its publication.
To book a place, please contact Lisa Gold at [email protected] by Nov. 29, 2013.
Program includes: Thomas Charles-‐Edwards “Kenneth Jackson on Insular Inscriptions,” Liam Breatnach “LHEB: the Irish perspective,” Pierre-‐Yves Lambert “The impact of the new Old Breton glosses on the work of Kenneth Jackson,” David Parsons “Place-‐ and river-‐names in Language and History,” Simon Rodway “The morphology of the Brittonic languages before c. 1200: how much do we know?” Alex Mullen “Britons and Romans: linguistic and cultural contacts in Late Iron Age and Roman Britain,” Paul Russell “British Latin and Latin loanwords on LHEB and after,” Patrick Sims-‐Williams “Kenneth Jackson and the Hengerdd,” Oliver Padel “Cornish in LHEB, and some questions of method,” and Anders Jørgensen “Jackson, Falc’hun and the question of dialects of Middle Breton.”
The workshop is funded by the Chadwick Fund and St John’s College, Cambridge.
Islands in a Global Context Proposals are being accepted and registration is now open for the seventh annual International Insular Art Conference, scheduled July 16-‐20, 2014, at NUI Galway.
The International Insular Art Conference is the premier forum for the study of insular art during the late Iron Age and early medieval period. The Conference combines proven and innovative approaches to the remarkable corpus of insular art across all media. Whereas papers on all aspects of Insular art are welcome, contributors to IIAC7 are invited to consider in particular the European and Mediterranean background of Insular art ― motif, theme, symbol, transmission, translation and scholarship.
Abstracts of 350 words should be submitted to the conference website, http://iiac7galway.wordpress.com/, by Dec. 13, 2013. Abstracts will be reviewed and the outcomes communicated to the authors by Jan. 17, 2014. Queries should be directed to iiac7galway@gmail. com.
The website also includes registration forms and an option to sign up for the conference mailing list.
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CFP Collegial Communities in Exile
“Collegial Communities in Exile: new histories of the Irish, English, Scots, Dutch and other colleges founded on the Continent in the early modern period,” seeks proposals for papers to be delivered at the conference, June 19-‐20,
2014, at Mary Immaculate College, Limerick.
One of the striking features of early modern Catholic migration, especially from Ireland, England and Scotland, was the establishment of national “colleges” on the continent to facilitate the formation and education of clerical and lay students. This phenomenon was not confined to English, Scots and Irish Catholics: Leuven and other cities witnessed the foundation of Dutch Colleges, while Rome saw a dramatic increase in the number of colleges hosting foreign students. This conference seeks to re-‐conceptualize the colleges in a comparative framework by exploring the histories of Irish, English, Scots, Dutch, Roman and other colleges together and by drawing parallels with educational institutions established by other religious minorities and refugees.
The conference welcomes proposals for papers on any aspect of the Irish, English, Scots, Dutch, Roman or other colleges in the early modern period or in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. We also welcome proposals for papers on individuals or groups associated with the colleges.
Papers dealing with neglected issues are especially welcome, including: buildings, spaces and architecture; material culture; music; social and financial histories; relationships with migrant communities and networks; relationships with host societies (including state and municipal authorities, universities, churches, religious houses); political and intellectual engagements; self-‐fashioning and the colleges; the ‘afterlives’ of the colleges in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries; the historiography of the colleges; parallel institutions established by other religious minorities and refugees in early modern Europe.
Proposals for 25-‐minute papers should be submitted by e-‐mail to Liam Chambers ([email protected]) by Jan. 17, 2014. Proposals should include name, institutional affiliation (if appropriate), paper title, and a 250-‐word abstract. Proposals for three-‐speaker panels are also welcome. Postgraduate students are particularly encouraged. Prospective speakers will be notified by February 2014.
For further information, see the Conference Website: colleges2014.wordpress.com/
Plenary Speakers: Professor Willem Frijhoff (VU University, Amsterdam) on Dutch Colleges; Professor Michael Questier (Queen Mary, University of London) on English Colleges; Dr. Thomas O’Connor (NUI Maynooth) on Irish Colleges; Professor Mícheál Mac Craith (St Isidore’s College, Rome) on the colleges of the Irish regular clergy; a speaker to be confirmed on Scots Colleges.
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Book Reviews
Jacqueline Borsje, The Celtic Evil Eye and Related Mythological Motifs in Medieval Ireland. Leuven: Peeters, 2012. Studies in History and Anthropology of Religion 2. xii+387 pp., 3 appendices. ISBN 978-‐90-‐429-‐2641-‐7. Price: 42 Euros/$56.
Jacqueline Borsje’s new book brings together six thematically related articles, five of which have previously been published elsewhere. All the essays have been revised and updated for the present volume, and those originally published in Dutch and German (chapters two and five) appear here in English translation for the first time. The chapters are complemented by three appendices, which include Fergus Kelly’s edition and translation of a medieval commentary on an Old Irish legal fragment on the evil eye, and Borsje’s own translations of the tales Cath Maige Tuired and Togail Bruidne Da Derga. These additional materials are particularly valuable for non-‐specialist readers, as much of the discussion throughout the book is based on detailed analysis of the texts in question.
The phenomenon of the evil eye is a complex one, and the beliefs and practices related to it are equally manifold. In the first chapter, “The Evil Eye in Medieval Irish Literature,” Borsje traces the roots of the belief to the occurrence of the evil eye in Sumerian texts from the third or fourth millennium BC, but considering the ubiquitous nature of the phenomenon, it may well predate these earliest textual witnesses. Indeed, as the comparative evidence adduced by the author in this essay demonstrates, the tendency to attribute supernatural qualities to abnormal eyes and angry or envious glances appears so widespread in different cultures that it could validly be deemed universal. In the medieval Irish context, Borsje identifies five instances or types of dangerous eyes, which form the basic categories of her discussion: 1) the destructive eye (súil milledach), 2) the angry eye (often expressed by forms of do-‐éccai “looks at, gazes” and co handíaraid, “angrily”), 3) casting the evil eye (possibly associated with bewitching in some uses of the verb millid “spoils, ruins, destroys” and aidmillid “completely destroys,” as well as in the case of corrguinecht “the craft of conjuration”), 4) envy and the evil eye (as witnessed in the glossing of Latin invideo “to look askance at” as for-‐moinethar “envies”), and 5) protection against the evil eye. Each of these categories receives a fuller treatment in subsequent chapters, in which relevant examples are also discussed at greater length.
Chapter two, “The Evil Eye in Medieval Irish Law,” focuses on the legal aspects of the evil eye belief by analyzing the brief Middle Irish commentary on a fragmentary quotation no etlae tre fhormat “or stealing through envy,” which may originally have formed part of a longer law tract on marriage and divorce (Kelly’s Appendix I, p. 225). Borsje sets the passage against the background of other examples of the pervasive association between different emotions (admiration, greed, envy) and the casting of a harmful glance that was considered to cause damage to dairy and cattle. As is the case with early Irish law texts in general, the commentary is quite obscure, and Borsje does an admirable job in trying to tease out its meaning. To elaborate on the connection between theft and envy she draws on comparative evidence from
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modern folklore, where a similar idea of supernatural harm done to dairy produce, especially during the critical liminal time around Beltaine, is found. As noted by Borsje, the importance of dairy in the everyday diet entailed that decreased milk yield or failure in churning butter could have a crucial effect on the household’s livelihood. The envious sentiments caused by one’s neighbors’ success could thus easily give rise to accusations of witchcraft or other supernatural beliefs – such as “blinking” or “overlooking” the milk, butter, or cow – against which appropriate legal and ritual measures had to be taken.
In chapter three, “A doomed king and the motif of being one-‐eyed,” the author shifts the attention to early Irish narrative literature in order to explore the supernatural dimensions of unilaterality in general and one-‐eyedness in particular. Here the author’s main interest remains on the text Togail Bruidne Da Derga, in which she distinguishes three possible representations of the motif of being one-‐eyed: literally one-‐eyed beings, mediated one-‐eyedness (i.e. having two eyes, but one of them defective), and figurative one-‐eyedness (i.e. temporarily taking on a one-‐eyed appearance by closing or hiding an eye). In the first group are the characters of Ingcél Cáech and Fer Caille, the former of whom is actually portrayed as casting the evil eye (aidmillid) on king Conaire and his company. The gloomy figure of Ingcél Cáech – Borsje translates the name as “One-‐eyed Bad Luck/Evil Omen” – resembles Fer Caille in overall appearance, but also in more functional terms, as both characters can be seen as portents of Conaire’s imminent doom. A less explicit, but equally ominous, instance of the motif is associated with the otherworldly swineherd Nár Túathcháech, whom Borsje treats as an example of mediated one-‐eyedness (the figure as well as the meaning of the epithet túathcháech are analyzed in more detail in chapters 4 and 5), whereas the case of figurative one-‐eyedness is represented by the female character Cailb, whose ritualistic behavior could be interpreted as an example of the supernatural procedure of corrguinecht.
Following from the many interesting points raised in this analysis, Borsje’s conclusion that the asymmetrical characteristic of one-‐eyedness can, quite simply, be seen as an “ominous sign” (p. 115) seems a bit cursory. Considering the suggested thematic similarities between the various sinister asymmetrical figures and the wider literary comparisons presented especially in relation to Cailb for instance (pp. 101-‐112), one may be surprised to find the one-‐legged, one-‐armed and one-‐eyed Fomoire of Lebor Gabála Érenn only mentioned in passing in a separate appendix (pp. 117-‐18). Pursuing some of the references listed in this brief addendum could have afforded even more insight into the “multilayered or polysemous” (p. 115) symbolism of unilaterality within the broader context of early Irish literature. It would have also been interesting to see how the Ulster king Congal Cláen (or Congal Cáech, as he is also known) might fit into this analysis, especially since Borsje has previously analyzed the demonic aspects of this character in print.1 Although Congal is arguably a less mythical or supernatural figure than others treated in
1 Borsje, Jacqueline, “Demonising the enemy: a study of Congal Cáech,” in Rekdal, Jan Erik, and Ailbhe Ó Corráin (eds.), Proceedings of the Eighth Symposium of Societas Celtologica Nordica, Studia Celtica Upsaliensia 7, Uppsala: University of Uppsala, 2007. 21—38.
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this chapter, there was evidently some special significance traditionally attributed to this “squinting” or “half-‐blind” character that could have merited discussion here.
The fact that the essays collected in this volume were originally published as separate articles renders the argumentation somewhat repetitive in places, perhaps mostly so in chapters four and five. The semantic analysis of the term túathcháech offered in chapter four “Encounters with one-‐eyed beings,” leads up to a discussion of the literary context of the concept, in which the example of Nár Túathcháech once again features prominently. The examination of this character is then pursued further in chapter five “Another doomed king and his banshee,” where Borsje considers the different features associated with Nár – whether as a male swineherd or as a seductive female character (the latter appears in relation to the otherworldly journey of King Crimthann). Even though the author goes into great detail in her semantic and textual analysis when trying to establish the relationship between the individual traditions, the argument on a whole is easy to follow. Borsje makes a compelling suggestion that the term túathcháech, generally translated as “blind in the left eye,” should more appropriately be rendered as “with a sinister eye.” This, as her reading of the evidence demonstrates, would best cover both the sinister connotations of túath (“left,” but also “evil, bad, inauspicious, unfavorable”) and the general meaning of cáech “one-‐eyed.” As such, the term functions to communicate a whole range of supernatural, evil, or portentous meanings, regardless of whether the evil eye is actually physically blind or located on the left side of the face.
The final chapter, “The power of words: The intricacy of the motif of the evil eye,” is the only one the author has written specifically for this volume. In it Borsje introduces some of the evil eye material that she has collected after the original articles were published, paying particular attention to different forms of verbal protection as well as to some of the potential cures for the harm caused by the evil eye. The essay’s thematic focus reflects Borsje’s more recent research on “the power of words” – a topic to which her forthcoming book on Irish saints and spells also pertains – and illustrates some of the more subtle ways in which allusions to the belief in the evil eye may have been preserved in the use of euphemisms and metaphors in verbal contexts such as loricae and charms. The examples drawn from hagiography moreover illustrate how Saint Patrick for instance, though not necessarily said to have cast the evil eye as such, nevertheless knew how to accompany his verbal assaults with a fierce and piercing gaze (in Muirchú’s words hunc …intuens turvo oculo) for maximum dramatic – and devastating – effect.
It is difficult to think of a Celtic scholar who would be more eminently capable of tackling such a wide and elusive topic than Borsje. The book is carefully researched throughout and testifies not only to her extensive knowledge of the source material, but also to her familiarity with a considerable body of secondary literature drawn from the anthropological and comparative study of religion and folklore. The author’s desire to make her work available for a wider readership outside the field of Celtic Studies is commendable, and she succeeds well in presenting the results of her research in a lucid and readable manner. While the decision to keep the original essays as intact as possible is understandable, some of the unavoidable repetition and extensive cross-‐referencing could have arguably been eliminated by more
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systematic revision and rewriting. These minor quibbles notwithstanding, however, this volume should be a welcome addition to any Celtic scholar’s bookshelf, and hopefully finds its audience outside the immediate confines of the discipline as well.
Alexandra Bergholm University of Helsinki
Erin Kraus, Wise-‐woman of Kildare: Moll Anthony and popular tradition in the east of Ireland. Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2011. 64 pp. ISBN 978-‐1-‐84682-‐292-‐6. Price: €9.95/$14
This delightful study is part of the “Maynooth Studies in Local History” series, focusing on the regional diversity of Ireland and the social and cultural basis for
that diversity. It presents an interesting case for the preservation of folk traditions in the east of Ireland, arguing that the west and northern fringes have received more attention in folklore collecting than other areas. Kraus explores the case of Moll Anthony, a nineteenth-‐century folk-‐healer from County Kildare, whose legends reflect some of the same themes seen in connection with stories about Biddy Early in County Clare, but with some interesting additional material.
Chapter One discusses the concept of “Tradition versus Modernity” in a masterful and inspiring manner, exploring the intriguing idea that modern society and cultural traditions may not be mutually exclusive and can exist side by side. This is evidenced by the continuation of what she calls “core beliefs,” which remain reasonably steadfast amidst the flow of constant change throughout the ages. Rather than suggesting that these traditions exist in a static form, Kraus cogently argues that in a living, mutable world, the folk tradition is (and must be) a living tradition; as such, it cannot really be “lost.” She then clearly sets forth the subject matter of the study, which is augmented by helpful maps of County Kildare demonstrating the importance of mythological sites in the area.
In Chapter Two, the parameters of Moll’s perceived powers are set forth. These included knowledge of the known world, negotiating the unknown realms, and healing the ailments of people in her community. Through the recitation of the stories about Moll which have survived, the core of folk “belief” is preserved; stories show what is true by what is said to have happened. Kraus continues with an excellent exposition of fairy belief in Ireland, as well as the local perception that Moll Anthony received her healing and divinatory powers as a result of her interactions with the Good People.
This fascinating exploration continues in Chapter Three, where folk medicine and fairy doctors step into the spotlight. The author shines in this chapter as well, as she discusses supernatural medicine and fairy gifts, natural and supernatural illness, fairy doctors versus folk healers, and the use of herbs and charms.
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Chapter Four explores the issue of social authority and Moll’s interactions with the Catholic clergy. Also presented is a much-‐needed section on the difference between “witchcraft” and “folk magic or healing,” and a discussion of the imported notion of witchcraft and its effect on Anglicized regions of Ireland. Kraus deftly points out that this is not a part of the native Irish folk tradition. In this chapter she also discusses an interesting phenomenon in which folk healers in subsequent generations may take the name of a previous folk healer as their name or nickname. This is important in helping discern where folk healers may have passed down their charms and power through a family line, as well as how the original folk healers’ reputation is remembered and preserved in the community. A more thorough exploration of this theme would certainly be of interest to readers and students of folklore.
Up to this point, the study is clear and illuminating, and a joy to read. The author hits a few bumps in the road at the end of Chapter Four, however, as she attempts to equate the image of the folk healer with the figure of the Cailleach Bhéarra, and to subsequently suggest that female healers and wise women were originally goddess figures. The previous clarity of the work is obscured in this section, as Kraus draws unwarranted correlations and weakens her argument by relying on outdated or less-‐than-‐superlative sources. These difficulties persist into the brief concluding chapter, and the study does not manage to end as brilliantly as it began.
However, the excellent appendix would seem to be a natural jumping-‐off place for the author’s considerable skills, and additional studies could be derived from these intriguing sources. We might look for more work by this promising young scholar in mining these legends to a deeper level, perhaps exploring the ample evidence for horse imagery (in addition to the bovine imagery she discusses in the study) as well as the symbolism of thresholds (physical and temporal). Valuable work could also be done by taking a different tack with the appearances and identities of female figures (noting, for example, the hint of parallels with the tale of Macha in Item D). Overall, Kraus is to be congratulated for creating a very worthwhile study, well-‐written and argued, and an excellent resource for those interested in folk culture, fairy beliefs, charmers and healers, and the continuation of early traditions in modernized regions of the island.
Sharon Paice MacLeod Senchas: Celtic Religious Studies Association
Barry Cunliffe and John T. Koch, eds. Celtic from the West: Alternative Perspectives from Archaeology, Genetics, Language and Literature. Oxford, United Kingdom: Oxbow Books, 2012. vii + 384 pp. ISBN: 1842174754. Price: $70/€50
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John T. Koch and Barry Cunliffe, eds. Celtic from the West 2: Rethinking the Bronze Age and the Arrival of Indo-‐European in Atlantic Europe. Oxford, United Kingdom: Oxbow Books, 2013. viii + 237 pp. ISBN: 1842175297. Price: $70/€50
When one travels in the extreme western parts of Breizh (Brittany) or Éire (Ireland), one notices physical features in the local population that are different from the general population of these areas: extremely high cheekbones, massive forehead and occipital lobes, large skeletal structure. It is clear that these individuals exhibit an extremely old gene pool, perhaps stretching as far back in time as the Neanderthals. It does not matter what language these individuals speak today; that older gene pool remains and could demonstrate a substratum of population which was present in those areas well before the Celts ever evolved.
Within these two beautifully produced, richly illustrated volumes, this hypothesis and many questions, such as the origins of the Celts and the Celtic languages within and outside of the Indo-‐European context, are examined by some of the world’s foremost scholars and researchers in ancient Celtic studies. These questions, however, are studied in these volumes in a very different way: one of the central themes is whether the Celts originated in the Luso-‐Hispanic peninsula (Breizh) rather than in central Europe, the latter being the prevalent and most well-‐known hypothesis. John Koch’s work leads the way in this hypothesis. His study and analysis of the Tartessian language is truly a wonderful work of scholarship and erudition. Barry Cunliffe lends support to this central hypothesis with his research and analysis in archaeology. One of the greatest strengths of both of these volumes is that they are entirely interdisciplinary, which is extremely refreshing. Another great strength is that that they bring together research and analysis from many different countries: Spain, Portugal, Germany, France, Belgium, Great Britain, and Ireland to name just a few. They endeavor to fit widely varying research, hypotheses and results into a bigger pan-‐European picture, including linguistics, archaeology, epigraphy, DNA analysis, anthropology and literature. This is a truly impressive endeavor to say the very least and a huge effort at documentation, as well as international bibliography.
Another strength of the writings in these two volumes is the recognition that individuals of all cultures, backgrounds and ways of life were highly mobile both on land and on water during all periods studied. Not only was there an enormous amount of trading going on, but individuals, sometimes whole families, were moving from place to place, often over large distances. Consequently, Koch logically catalogues a patchwork of very different languages, some Indo-‐European and some non-‐Indo-‐European within what is now known as Europe, but what is even more fascinating is the suggestion that non-‐Indo-‐European groups, such as the Iberians, Aquitanians/Palaeo-‐Basques and Imazighren (Berbers) would have constituted an indigenous substratum which lived in what is now known as Europe well before the arrival of Indo-‐Europeans. Moreover, still according to Koch, the Indo-‐European immigrants “would have engaged in bilingualism and absorbed some stamp of substratum effects-‐usually phonetic and/or syntactic from this substratum” (Volume II 115-‐6). Koch remarks quite rightly that the central European Hallstatt c 850/800-‐700 B.C. has no equivalent in the Luso-‐Hispanic peninsula where the beginning of Kanaan (Phoenician) colonization changed everything (Volume II 121).
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He continues to ask a lot of the right questions and to make intelligent hypotheses. Furthermore, Dagmar S. Wodtko, in his essay “The Problem of Lusitanian,” writes that scholars are limited by the extant sources and, consequently, the actual linguistic environment of Europe was most probably much more complex than these extant sources would suggest (Volume I 190). Ancient languages only become visible to the researcher through the written medium.
It is, however, a great disappointment that confusing and extremely outdated Helleno-‐Roman terminology continues to be used throughout these two ground-‐breaking volumes. Thus, the contributing authors are fighting an uphill battle to make the reader realize how revolutionary their central hypothesis is because this terminology still conveys the ancient Helleno-‐Roman colonialist and centralist points of view. Also, the analysis of ancient texts is poorly done throughout these volumes. For example, Herodotus was not confused in the least about the Danube, but, rather, he was reporting the information he had gathered on the subject. This information may not have been correct, just as his
assertion that he was doubtful of the existence of a sea to the northwest of the European mainland (Volume I 192). Also, much has been made in this two-‐volume set of the name of the people Kuneites mentioned by Herodotus (Volume I 128, 192; Volume II 128-‐9) and the assumption that this name would be Celtic, even Indo-‐European. In fact, it means “the dogheads” in ancient Hellenic. They were most probably mythological, or this was an imposed name in the text of Herodotus. The phenomenon of imposed names is a time-‐honored way of writing in the Helleno-‐Roman tradition. Moreover, an assumption is made that Kuneisioi>Kuneites>Conii, and this is not necessarily justifiable. Also, it is thought that parts of the Ora Maritima of Avienus came from a much earlier travel log of voyages around the Mediterranean, but this is a hypothesis and not fact. This should have been highlighted as such (Volume I 193-‐4). Once again, using the texts of ancient Helleno-‐Roman authors as a gold standard for ethnicity is a grave mistake.
Moreover, these beautiful volumes suffer from a more basic methodological flaw: Celtic is not only a linguistic term, but it is a cultural one and, as such, is not genetic. Therefore, genetic research is of dubious value, and looking for genetic identifiers without knowing what we are looking for is unscientific methodology to say the least (Volume I Chapter 4). Moreover, it seems that no one has thought of analyzing the DNA from the bodies of the miners which were found fresh-‐frozen in the salt of the Hallstatt mines and which are currently in Vienna, Austria, to see what their genetic make-‐up was like. Furthermore, was an area ever populated by a genetically homogenous group? Also, there seems to be no clear way as yet of relating the DNA evidence to historical, archaeological or linguistic evidence (Volume I Chapter 6, 146). The notion of race as applied to the Celts is at the very least unscientific, as the notion of race is nonsensical (Volume I 6). These volumes also continue to convey a rather narrow definition of who or what a Celt was during the ancient period: “A Celt is one who speaks a Celtic language. The search for Celtic origins, therefore, becomes the search for the origin of the Celtic languages and their speakers” (Volume II 208). The present writer speaks two Celtic languages
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and parts of a third and fourth, but is not a Celt. Scholars know now that there were several Celtic languages in the ancient world, thus, there were most probably several forms of Celtic culture and different customs (Volume I 20).
If the researchers represented in these volumes had taken into account the research that has been done concerning the names of peoples presented as Celtic in the extant writings of the ancient Helleno-‐Roman authors, they would have realized much earlier that the linguistic situation on the ground was far more complicated than they were implying. Also, multilingualism in the ancient world was very common, as Herodotus and Caesar state repeatedly in their writings. As most books on the ancient Celts, these volumes suffer greatly from not operationally defining who or what a Celt was (Volume I 48; Volume II 216). These volumes also suffer from being too linguistically loaded. They do not give
enough attention to ancient Celtic culture or customs (Volume I 164-‐5; Volume II 26). Moreover, there is very little discussion of the origins of the Tartessian written signs. To the uninitiated, some resemble ogam, some resemble tamazirt, but this could be a simple coincidence (Volume I 288; Volume II 125). Wadtko makes an interesting and useful suggestion (Volume I 350): individuals may have been called Celtius/Celtice to distinguish them from other individuals in the population, perhaps because they were foreigners or from other areas of the Celtic world, rather like the Allobrogii. He also suggests that there may have been lenition in the ancient languages of the Luso-‐Hispanic peninsula (Volume I 351). Much is made of the Bell Baker hypothesis, but, in the final analysis, there are no perceptible Bell Beaker connections with the origins of the ancient Celts that are in any way meaningful or helpful. As with other hypotheses in these volumes, the Bell Beaker hypothesis suffers from a lack of sources, as does the hypothesis concerning the Atlantic Bronze Age generally (Volume II 62, 71, 131, 153). We do not know what language the Bell Beaker people spoke, as we do not know what language the Unetice people spoke or even the Hallstatt folk of central Europe (Volume I 34, 61; Volume II 131). Scholars only start to have an idea of Celtic language around the eighth-‐seventh centuries B.C. with the inscriptions found in southern Switzerland/northern Italy in the Golasecca area and, as the research in these volumes points out, with Tartessian and Lusitanian. It is a great pity that there is such a paucity of discussion concerning Ligurian, as the Ligurians are often mentioned in the ancient Helleno-‐Roman sources and taken for Celts (Volume I 121-‐25; Volume II 189). Also, many euphemisms couched in pseudo-‐scientific language appear which detract from the wonderful scholarship in these volumes, such as “Absolute dating remains the elusive key and Isaac’s very approximate 2000 B.C. (for the eastern location of the forerunner of Celtic) is a frank admission that most historical linguists distrust dating proto-‐languages by statistical formulae applied to word lists and prefer to grope intuitively for the chronological implications of suggestively uncommon shared innovations among related languages” (Volume I 1-‐8) or “Linguists and geneticists don’t do dates and shouldn’t” (Volume I 93). This methodology unfortunately points to guesswork: it “feels more intuitively correct” (Volume I 130). Finally, it is more than surprising that Cunliffe does not take into account climatic change in his archaeological analysis of the megalithic phenomenon. A
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good example of this is Gavrinnis in south-‐central Breizh, which was on dry land when it was built, and one could walk from Carnac right out to it.
In conclusion, these two volumes have certainly attained their stated goals in spite of the methodological caveats outlined above. The research in Volume I sets out to explore the hypothesis that Celtic language originated in the Atlantic zone of Europe and spread eastward to the northern Alpine region during the Beaker period or Bronze Age. Volume 2 is concerned with different and varying approaches to the European Bronze Age and how the development of Indo-‐European fit into the context of Atlantic Europe. Both volumes were produced to explore different hypotheses and ideas that run contrary to the prevailing hypothesis, developed in antiquarian research starting in the sixteenth century, that Celtic speech and culture developed in central Europe and spread westward to the Atlantic façade of Western Europe. As such, these two volumes constitute an extremely important contribution to the study of the ancient Celts and certainly form the basis for further groundbreaking studies. The wall map of Celtic settlement between the sixth and third centuries B.C. that Kim McCone saw at an Austrian exhibition in 1980, and that framed his Myles Dillon Memorial Lecture of 2008, has started to gain additional shading.2
Timothy P. Bridgman Binghamton University and Broome Community College
Call for news and book reviews
CSANA seeks book reviews and announcements for its twice-‐a-‐year newsletter. If there is a recent book you would like to review for the newsletter, please let me know, and I will contact the publisher about obtaining a review copy. We
welcome reviews of books in all aspects of Celtic Studies. We also welcome any announcement that would be of interest to members: job ads, conferences, calls for papers, competitions and prizes, etc. The newsletter is published at Samain and Beltaine. Announcements and queries about book reviews can be sent to [email protected] (note one "L" in philip).
Books received that need a reviewer (though reviews of any recent books are welcome!): • Race and Immigration in the New Ireland, ed. Juliean Veronica Ulin, Heather Edwards
and Sean O’Brien, University of Notre Dame Press, 2013. • Ulidia 3
Read Dan Wiley’s CSANA blog at http://csanablog.blogspot.com/ Visit CSANA on the web at http://celtic.cmrs.ucla.edu/csana/ 2 McCone, Kim. The Celtic Question: Modern Constructs and Ancient Realities. Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, Myles Dillon Memorial Lecture (2008) 1.