This volume includes: "The Influence of 19th century Anthologies of Celtic Music in Redefining Celtic Nationalism" by Graham Aubrey; "A Reactionary Dimension in Progressive Revolutionary Theories?" by Olivier Coquelin; "The Spiteful Tongue: Breton Song Practices and the Art of the Insult" by Natalie Franz; "Celtic Democracy" by D. Blair Gibson; "Pendragon's Ancestors" by Natalie Ginoux; "When Historians Study Breton Oral Ballads: A Cultural Approach" by Eva Guillorel; "The British Tristan Tradition" by Sabine Heinz; "Time and the Translation of the Breton Laws" by Heather Laird; "Judas, His Sister, and the Miraculous Cock in the Middle Irish poem Cr st ro crochadh" by Christopher Leydon; "Se principen nominat: Rhetorical Self-Fashioning and Epistolary Style in the Letters of Owain Gwynedd" by Patricia Malone; and "Abduction, Swordplay, Monsters and Mistrust: Findabair, Gwenhwyfa and the Restoration of Honour" by Sharon Paice MacLeod.

This volume includes "Nations in Tune: the Influence of Irish music on the Breton Musical Record" by Yann Bevant; "Ethnicity, Geography, and the Passage of Dominion in the Mabinogi and Brut Y Brenhinedd" by Christina Chance; "Rejecting Mother's Blessing: the Absence of the Fairy in the Welsh Search for National Identity" by Adam Coward; "Gwalarn: An Attempt to Renew Breton literature" by Gwendal Denez; "At the Crossroads: World War One and the Shifting Roles of Men and Women in Breton Ballad Song Practice" by Natalie Franz; "Apocryphal Sanctity in the Lives of Irish Saints" by Maire Johnson; " 'An Dialog wtre Arzur Roe d'an Bretounet ha Guynglaff' and Its Connections with the Arthurian tradition" by Herve Le Bihan; "A Walk on the Wild Side: Women, Men and Madness" by Edyta Lehmann; "The Early Establishment of Celtic Studies in North American Universities" by Michael Linkletter; " 'The Marshalled Fence of Battle of All the Men of Earth' A Reading of C Chulainn's First Recension r astrad" by Elizabeth Moore; "Dreams of Medieval Scottish Nationhood: The Epic Case of William Wallace" by Kylie Murray; " 'Some of You Will Curse Her' Women's Fiction During the Irish-language Revival" by Riona Nic Congail; "Dating Peredur: New Light on Old Problems" by Natalia I. Petrovskaia; " 'From the Shame You Have Done' Comparing the stories of Blodeuedd and Bl thnait" by Sarah Pfannenschmidt; " 'And There was a Fourth son Llefelys' Narrative Structure and Variation in Cyfranc Lludd a Llefelys" by Kelly Ann Randell; and "Fabricating Celts: How Iron Age Iberians became Indo-Europeanized during the Franco Regime" by Aaron Alzola Romero and Eduardo Sanchez-Moreno.

Bodies and their role in cultural discourse have been a constant focus in the humanities and social sciences in recent years, but comparatively few studies exist about Old Norse-Icelandic or early Irish literature. This study aims to redress this imbalance and presents carefully contextualised close readings of medieval texts. The chapters focus on the role of bodies in mediality discourse in various contexts: that of identity in relation to ideas about self and other, of inscribed and marked skin and of natural bodily matters such as defecation, urination and menstruation. By carefully discussing the sources in their cultural contexts, it becomes apparent that medieval Scandinavian and early Irish texts present their very own ideas about bodies and their role in structuring the narrated worlds of the texts. The study presents one of the first systematic examinations of bodies in these two literary traditions in terms of body criticism and emphasises the ingenuity and complexity of medieval texts.

This book is a study of the print cultures of the four principal Celtic languages — Irish, Welsh, Gaelic and Breton — in the crucial period between 1700 and 1900. Over the past four centuries, the Celtic languages of northwest Europe have followed contrasting paths of maintenance and decline. This was despite their common lack of official recognition and use, and their common distance from the centres of political power. This volume analyses publishing, circulation and reading in the four languages, particularly at a popular level, showing the different levels of overall activity as well as the distinctions in the types of printed texts between regions. The approach is a broad one, considering all printed books down to very small cheap formats. It explores the interactions between the different regions and the continuation of print culture within diasporic communities. This volume will appeal to book historians, to scholars of the four languages and their literature, and to students of Celtic studies.

Medieval Welsh Pilgrimage, c.1100–1500 examines one of the most popular expressions of religious belief in medieval Europe—from the promotion of particular sites for political, religious, and financial reasons to the experience of pilgrims and their impact on the Welsh landscape. Addressing a major gap in Welsh Studies, Kathryn Hurlock peels back the historical and religious layers of these holy pilgrimage sites to explore what motivated pilgrims to visit these particular sites, how family and locality drove the development of certain destinations, what pilgrims expected from their experience, how they engaged with pilgrimage in person or virtually, and what they saw, smelled, heard, and did when they reached their ultimate goal.

What use is it to be given authority over men and lands if others do not know about it? Furthermore, what use is that authority if those who know about it do not respect it or recognise its jurisdiction? And what strategies and 'language' -written and spoken, visual and auditory, material, cultural and political - did those in authority throughout the medieval and early modern era use to project and make known their power? These questions have been crucial since regulations for governance entered society and are found at the core of this volume. In order to address these issues from an historical perspective, this collection of essays considers representations of authority made by a cross-section of society within the British Isles. Arranged in thematic sections, the 14 essays in the collection bridge the divide between medieval and early modern to build up understanding of the developments and continuities that can be followed across the centuries in question. Whether crown or noble, government or church, burgh or merchant; all desired power and influence, but their means of representing authority were very different. These essays encompass a myriad of methods demonstrating power and disseminating the image of authority, including: material culture, art, literature, architecture and landscapes, saintly cults, speeches and propaganda, martial posturing and strategic alliances, music, liturgy and ceremonial display. Thus, this interdisciplinary collection illuminates the variable forms in which authority was presented by key individuals and institutions in Scotland and the British Isles. By placing these within the context of the European powers with whom they interacted, this volume also underlines the unique relationships developed between the people and those who exercised authority over them.