Matthieu Boyd

Diana Luft

Hugh Fogarty

Aled Llion Jones

Benjamin Bruch

Charlene Shipman Eska

Katharine Olson

Kathryn Izzo

The Harvard Celtic Colloquium was established in 1980 by two graduate students in the Harvard University Department of Celtic Languages and Literatures as a forum in which graduate students could share their work and gain experience in professional academia. Since then, it has been organized annually by a team of students in the department, grown in size, and gained an international reputation which annually draws a diverse mix of scholars from around the world to present papers on all facets of Celtic Studies. The Harvard Celtic Colloquium is the only conference in the field of Celtic Studies to be wholly organized and run by graduate students. Since its inception, established and internationally-renowned scholars in Celtic as well as graduate students, junior academics, and unaffiliated scholars have been drawn to this dynamic setting, presenting papers on ancient, medieval, and modern topics in the many disciplines relating to Celtic Studies; including literature, linguistics, art, archeology, government, economics, music, and history. Papers given at the Colloquium may be submitted for review to the organizers of the conference, who become the editors for those papers selected for publication in the Proceedings of the Harvard Celtic Colloquium. Only papers presented at the annual conference are considered for publication. Harvard University Press is proud to announce that we will distribute the Proceedings of the Harvard Celtic Colloquium. Two new issues are available this Fall: Volume 18/19 (1998 and 1999) and Volume 20/21 (2000 and 2001). Back issues are also available.

Proceedings of the Harvard Celtic Colloquium, 20/21: 2000 And 2001

Political prophecy was a common mode of literature in the British Isles and much of Europe from the Middle Ages to at least as late as the Renaissance. At times of political instability especially, the manuscript record bristles with prophetic works that promise knowledge of dynastic futures. In Welsh, the later development of this mode is best known through the figure of the mab darogan, the ‘son of prophecy’, who – variously named as Arthur, Owain or a number of other heroes – will return to re-establish sovereignty. Such a returning hero is also a potent figure in English, Scottish and wider European traditions. This book explores the large body of prophetic poetry and prose contained in the earliest Welsh-language manuscripts, exploring the complexity of an essentially multilingual, multi-ethnic and multinational literary tradition, and with reference to this wider tradition critical and theoretical questions are raised of genre, signification and significance.

Prophecy, lament and absent heroes in medieval Welsh literature

Darogan

Samuel Jones

Jennifer Dukes Knight

Matthew Knight

Christina Chance

This volume includes “The Celtcity of Galicia, Spain, and the Arrival of Celtic Peoples from Britain in the Fifth Century AD” by Manuel Alberro; “Reading Aislinge enguso as a Christian Parable” by Brenda Gray; “Celtic Legends in Irish Opera, 1900–1930” by Axel Klein; “‘I Wonder What the King is Doing Tonight’”—Looking for Arthur in All the Wrong Places” by Laurance Maney; “What Future for the Irish Gaeltacht Communities in the 21st Century?” by Nollaig Gadhra; “Acallam na Senrach as Prosimetrum” by Geraldine Parsons; “Courtly, Religious, and Traditional Themes in a Medieval Welsh Elegy to a ‘Swan Wargan Wyry’ (Fair Gentle Virgin)” by Laura Radiker; and “Welsh Prophetic Poetry in the Age of the Princes” by Elizabeth Schoales.

Proceedings of the Harvard Celtic Colloquium

Charlene M. Eska

Patricia Kelly

Rory McTurk

Anders Ahlqvist

Joseph Falaky Nagy

Aidan Doyle

Barbara Hillers

Fergus Kelly

William Gillies

Kim R. McCone

Damian McManus

Ruairí Ó hUiginn

M. Katharine Simms

Liam Breatnach

Pádraig A. Breatnach

Morgan T. Davies

Sìm Innes

Catherine McKenna

Ollam (“ollav”), named for the ancient title of Ireland’s chief poets, celebrates the career of Tomás Ó Cathasaigh, Henry L. Shattuck Professor of Irish Studies at Harvard University, who is one of the foremost interpreters of the rich and fascinating world of early Irish saga literature. It is a complement to his own book of essays, Coire Sois, the Cauldron of Knowledge: A Companion to Early Irish Saga, also edited by Matthieu Boyd (University of Notre Dame Press, 2014), and a sequel to his classic monograph The Heroic Biography of Cormac mac Airt (Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1977) and as such it begins to show the richness of his legacy. The essays in Ollam represent cutting-edge research in Celtic philology and historical and literary studies. They form three clusters: heroic legend; law and language; and poetry and poetics. The 21 contributors are among the best Celtic Studies scholars of their respective generations, whether they are rising stars or great professors at the finest universities around the world. The book has a Foreword by William Gillies, Emeritus Professor at the University of Edinburgh and former President of the International Congress of Celtic Studies, who also contributed an essay on courtly love-poetry in the Book of the Dean of Lismore. Other highlight include a new edition and translation of the famous poem Messe ocus Pangur bán; a suite of articarticles on the ideal king of Irish tradition, Cormac mac Airt; and studies on well-known heroes like Cú Chulainn and Finn mac Cumaill. This book will be a must-have, and a treat, for Celtic specialists. To nonspecialists it offers a glimpse at the vast creative energy of Gaelic literature through the ages and of Celtic Studies in the twenty-first century.

Studies in Gaelic and Related Traditions in Honor of Tomás Ó Cathasaigh

Ollam

Aled Llion Jones

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