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.

The early medieval manuscripts of Ireland and Britain contain tantalizing clues about the cosmology, religion and mythology of native Celtic cultures, despite censorship and revision by Christian redactors. Focusing on the latest research and translations, the author provides fresh insight into the beliefs and practices of the Iron Age inhabitants of Ireland, Britain and Gaul. Chapters cover creation and cosmogony, the deities of the Gaels, feminine power in narrative sources, druidic belief, priestesses and magical rites.

When scholars discuss the medieval past, the temptation is to become immersed there, to deepen our appreciation of the nuances of the medieval sources through debate about their meaning. But the past informs the present in a myriad of ways and medievalists can, and should, use their research to address the concerns and interests of contemporary society. This volume presents a number of carefully commissioned essays that demonstrate the fertility and originality of recent work in Medieval Studies. Above all, they have been selected for relevance. Most contributors are in the earlier stages of their careers and their approaches clearly reflect how interdisciplinary methodologies applied to Medieval Studies have potential repercussions and value far beyond the boundaries of the Middles Ages. These chapters are powerful demonstrations of the value of medieval research to our own times, both in terms of providing answers to some of the specific questions facing humanity today and in terms of much broader considerations. Taken together, the research presented here also provides readers with confidence in the fact that Medieval Studies cannot be neglected without a great loss to the understanding of what it means to be human.

What is the “tragic imagination”? And what role does it play in the works of William Shakespeare and Ralph Waldo Emerson? Explaining the tragic imagination as a creative faculty employed to answer the perennial Riddle of the Sphinx – a theory of the world that advances human freedom and dignity in the face of historical injustice, cruelty and violence – Andy Amato seeks to recover and rehabilitate this concept by revealing its significance to both key works of philosophy and literature and our contemporary world. This book begins with a close and careful reading of Emerson's first major work, Nature, in conversation with nineteenth and 20thcentury continental philosophy, critical theory and post-structuralism. Uncovering neglected elements of Emerson's philosophy, beyond his reputation as the philosopher of 'cheer', this book explores how Emersonian transcendentalism affirms rather than denies the tragic sense of life – “tragic idealism” – and makes a substantial contribution to philosophy's perpetual endeavour to solve the Riddle. In the second part of the book, Amato then employs Emerson's theoretical lens to interpret Shakespeare's tragedy, King Lear. In doing so, he innovatively reframes the central themes of suffering, vision, nature, nothing, foolishness and silence toward achieving liberation. By pairing these two giants of literature and philosophy, The Tragic Imagination in Shakespeare and Emerson not only offers fresh interpretations of Nature and King Lear, but also makes the case for the renewed deployment of tragic imagination, in creative redress, to our current social-political situation.

In the past two decades, conflict archaeology has become firmly established as a promising field of research, as reflected in publications, symposia, conference sessions and fieldwork projects. It has its origins in the study of battlefields and other conflict-related phenomena in the modern Era, but numerous studies show that this theme, and at least some of its methods, techniques and theories, are also relevant for older historical and even prehistoric periods. This book presents a series of case-studies on conflict archaeology in ancient Europe, based on the results of both recent fieldwork and a reassessment of older excavations. The chronological framework spans from the Neolithic to Late Antiquity, and the geographical scope from Iberia to Scandinavia. Along key battlefields such as the Tollense Valley, Baecula, Alesia, Kalkriese and Harzhorn, the volume also incorporates many other sources of evidence that can be directly related to past conflict scenarios, including defensive works, military camps, battle-related ritual deposits, and symbolic representations of violence in iconography and grave goods. The aim is to explore the material evidence for the study of warfare, and to provide new theoretical and methodological insights into the archaeology of mass violence in ancient Europe and beyond.

Like a gathering of flowers from hedge and field, or a cloak made of owl feathers, Blodeuwedd is a figure of great complexity. She is both Flower Maiden and Owl of Wisdom… unfaithful wife and representative of Sovereignty… fallen woman and feminist heroine… medieval cautionary tale and reclaimed divinity. Yet, for all of these seeming inconstancies, the key to understanding Blodeuwedd is being able to see her as a whole. Bringing together strands of Celtic lore, Welsh literature, British folk practice, and modern devotion, Celticist Jhenah Telyndru weaves a solid foundation from which scholars and seekers alike can come into deeper relationship with this oft-misunderstood figure. Ultimately, this journey to reclaim Blodeuwedd’s identity - a Sovereignty Goddess who ensured the cycle of the seasons by choosing, in turn, to partner with the Solar Hero of Summer and the Otherworldly Champion of Winter - reveals a transformational mythic pathway that can also guide us in the reclamation of our own sovereignty.

This book examines human conflict throughout history, the reasons behind the struggles, and why it persists. The volume delves into the causes of human conflict and what can be done about them. Based on detailed descriptions that support insightful interpretations, the book explores significant historical events in the course of human history. By pursuing a “web of violence” approach, it raises and answers questions about the sources of conflict and how it may or may not be resolved through investigations into human agency and practice. It evaluates lessons learned concerning human conflict, violence, and warfare. To illustrate these lessons, the book presents a broad geographical and temporal set of data, including research on the time of Neanderthals in Europe (20-30 thousand years ago); the Late Neolithic civilization on the Mediterranean (6-8 thousand years ago); medieval Ireland; contemporary history of the Western Dani peoples of West Papua; and, finally, recent issues in Brazil, Congo, and Kenya.