Suggested Reading for Part II

The readling lists given on this page have been compiled to offer current students on the Tripos with the suggested introductory reading for the Part II course.

A subject in Anglo-Saxon history: The Anglo-Saxon Chancery
A subject in Scandinavian history of the Viking Age: Rethinking the Viking Age
A subject in Celtic History: Sea Kings and the Celtic Speaking World, .1014-1164
A subject in Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic History: Law and Lawlessnes
A subject in Old English literature: Beowulf
Advanced medieval Scandinavian language and literature
Advanced medieval Welsh language and literature
Advanced medieval Irish language and literature
A subject inInsular Latin literature: Writing Women
Textual criticism
Germanic philology
Celtic philology
Writing Rituals

Paper 1: A subject in Anglo-Saxon history: Saints and Farmers: Economy and Society c. 950–1050

2021 Reading List

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Paper 2: A subject in Scandinavian history of the Viking Age: Rethinking the Viking Age

Selected Primary Sources

Bárðar saga (any modern translation)
Færeyinga saga (any modern translation)
P. Lunde and C. Stone, trans., Ibn Fadlan and the Land of Darkness: Arab Travellers in the Far North (2011)
Laxdæla saga (any modern translation)
Snorri Sturluson, Heimskringla I, trans. Alison Finlay and Anthony Faulkes
The Vinland sagas (any modern translation)
J. Bately and A. Englert, eds., Ohthere’s Voyages: A late 9th-century account of voyages along the coasts of Norway and Denmark and its cultural context (2007)
Þórðar saga hreðu (any modern translation)

Selected Secondary Sources

A. Andrén, ‘Places, Monuments, and Objects. The Past in Ancient Scandinavia’, Scandinavian Studies 85.3 (2013):267–281
B. Arrhenius, ‘Kinship and Social Relations in the Early Medieval Period in Svealand Elucidated by DNA’, The Scandinavians from the Vendel Period to the Tenth Century: An Ethnographic Perspective, ed. Judith Jesch (2001)
M. Clunies Ross, ed., The Pre-Christian Religions of the North. Research and Reception, Volume I: From the Middle Ages to c. 1830 (2018)
J. Diamond, The World Until Yesterday: What Can We Learn from Traditional Societies? (2012)
T. DuBois, Nordic Religions in the Viking Age (1999)
T. DuBois, ‘Ethnomemory: Ethnographic and Culture-Centered Approaches to the Study of Memory’, Scandinavian Studies 85.3 (2013): 306–331
M. H. Eriksen, Architecture, Society, and Ritual in Viking Age Scandinavia Doors, Dwellings, and Domestic Space (2019)
L. Gardeła, (Magic) staffs in the Viking age (Vienna: Fassbaender, 2016)
Johanna Katrin Fridriksdottir, Valkyrie: The Women of the Viking World (forthcoming 2020)
A. Kolodny, In Search of First Contact: The Vikings of Vinland, the Peoples of the Dawnland, and the Anglo-American Anxiety of Discovery (2012)
Magnell, Ola, and Elisabeth Iregren, ‘Veitstu hvé blóta skal? The Old Norse Blót in the Light of Osteological Remains from Frösö Church, Jämtland, Sweden’, Current Swedish Archaeology 18 (2010): 223–250
C. C. Mann, 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus (2005)
E. Mundal, ‘The perception of the Saamis and their religion in Old Norse sources’, Shamanism and Northern Ecology, ed. J. Pentikäinen (1996)
N. Price, N., et al., ‘Viking Warrior Women? Reassessing Birka Chamber grave Bj.581’, Antiquity 93 (2019), 181–98
Sindbæk, Søren, forthcoming publications on the archaeology of Ribe

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Paper 3: A subject in Celtic History: Socio-economic and ecclesiastical relations between Britain and Ireland in the pre-Viking era: Interaction and exchange

Patrick, Confessio and Epistola ad milites Corotici, in A.B.E. Hood, ed. and transl., St Patrick: his Writings and Muirchú’s Life (Chichester, 1978)
Columbanus, Letters 1 & 2, in G. S. M. Walker, ed. & transl., Sancti Columbani Opera (Dublin, 1963), pp. 2-23
Muirchú, Vita S. Patricii, in L. Bieler with F. Kelly, ed. and transl., The Patrician Texts in the Book of Armagh (Dublin, 2004), pp. 62–123
Bede, Historia ecclesiastica, selected chapters, in Colgrave & Mynors, ed. & transl., Bede’s Ecclesiastical History of the English People (Oxford, 1969)
Ratio de cursus, qui fuerint eius auctores (An account of the liturgy, who were its authors), C. J. Mews, transl., ‘Apostolic Authority and Celtic Liturgies: from the Vita Samsonis to the Ratio de cursus’, in L. Olson, ed., St Samson of Dol and the Earliest History of Brittany, Cornwall and Wales (Woodbridge, 2017), pp. 115-35
Cummian, Paschal Letter, in M. Walsh and D. Ó Cróinín, ed. & transl., Cummian's Letter De Controversia Paschali and the De Ratione Conputandi (Toronto, 1988)
Life of Albei, in P. Ó Riain, ed. and transl., Beatha Ailbhe: The life of Ailbhe (London, 2017)
Rhygyfarch, Life of St David, ed. and transl., R. Sharpe and J. R. Davies, in J. Wyn Evans and J. M. Wooding, ed., St David of Wales. Cult, Church, and Nation (Woodbridge, 2007), pp. 107-55
The First Synod of Patrick, in M. J. Faris, ed. and transl., The Bishops’ Synod (“The First Synod of Patrick”). A Symposium with Text Translation and Commentary (Liverpool, 1976), pp. 1-8
Additamenta, Book of Armagh, in L. Bieler, ed. and transl., The Patrician Texts in the Book of Armagh (Dublin, 1979), pp. 166-79
The Annals of Ulster, in S. Mac Airt and G. Mac Niocaill, ed. and transl., The Annals of Ulster (to AD 1131) (Dublin, 1983)
Annales Cambriae, in P. M. Remfry, ed. and transl., Annales Cambriae (Shrewsbury, 2007)
K. Jankulak & J. M. Wooding, ed., Ireland and Wales in the Middle Ages (Dublin, 2007)
J. Graham-Campbell & M. Ryan, ed., Anglo-Saxon/Irish relations before the Vikings (Oxford, 2009)
O. Plumb, Picts and Britons in the Early Medieval Irish Church (Turnhout, 2020)
C. Wickham, ‘Problems in Doing Comparative History’, in P. Skinnner, ed., Challenging the boundaries of medieval history: the legacy of Timothy Reuter (Turnhout, 2009), pp. 5-28
É. Rebillard and J. Rüpke, ‘Introduction. Groups, Individuals, and Religious Identity’, in É. Rebillard and J. Rüpke, ed., Group Identity and Religious Individuality in Late Antiquity (Washington, DC, 2015), pp. 3–12
J. Rüpke, ‘Memory, Narrative, and the History of Religion’, in A. Klostergaard Petersen, I. Saelid Gilhus, L. H. Martin, J. Sinding Jensen, J. Sorensen, ed., Evolution, cognition, and the history of religion: a new synthesis: festschrift in honour of Armin W. Geertz (Leiden, 2019), pp. 536-46
H. Mercier and D. Sperber, The Enigma of Reason (Cambridge MA, 2017)
J. E. Fraser, From Caledonia to Pictland. Scotland to 795 (Edinburgh, 2009), pp. 1-11
J. E. Fraser, ‘From Ancient Scythia to The Problem of the Picts: Thoughts on the quest for Pictish origins’, in S. Driscoll, J. Geddes, & M. Hall, ed., Pictish Progress (Leiden, 2011), pp. 15-43
D. Harding, Rewriting History: Changing Perceptions of the Past (Oxford, 2019)

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Paper 4: A subject in Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic History: Law and Lawlessnes

The laws of early Iceland: Grágás; the Codex Regius of Grágás with material from other manuscripts, vol. 1 (1980)
D. Jenkins (ed and tr), The Law of Hywel Dda: Law Texts from Medieval Wales (Llandysul, 1986)
D. A. Binchy (ed.), Críth Gablach (Dublin, 1941)
Patrick Wormald, The Making of English Law: King Alfred to the Twelfth Century (Oxford, 1999)
W. I. Miller, Bloodtaking and Peacemaking: Feud, Law, and Society in Saga Iceland (1990)
T. M. Charles-Edwards & Paul Russell (eds), Tair Colofn Cyfraith: The Three Columns of Law in Medieval Wales, Cymdeithas HanesCyfraith Cymru 5 (2005).

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Paper 5: A subject in Old English literature: Beowulf

Editions

G. Jack, ed., Beowulf: a Student Edition (Oxford, 1994)
R. D. Fulk, R. E. Bjork and J. D. Niles, eds., Klaeber’s Beowulf, 4th ed. (Toronto, 2008)
B. Mitchell and F.C. Robinson, eds., Beowulf: an Edition (Oxford, 1998)
C. L. Wrenn and W. F. Bolton, eds., Beowulf (Exeter, 1988)

Digital Facsimiles

The British Library’s images of the whole manuscript
The Electronic Beowulf, ed. Kevin Kiernan, 4th ed.

Translations and Parallel Texts

H. Magennis, Translating Beowulf: Modern Versions in English Verse (Cambridge, 2011)
Chauncey B. Tinker, The Translations of Beowulf: A Critical Bibliography, updated by Marijane Osborn (Connecticut, 1974)
J. R. Clark Hall, trans., Beowulf, rev. C.L. Wrenn, with intro. by J.R.R. Tolkien (London, 1950)
R. D. Fulk, trans., The Beowulf Manuscript (Harvard, 2011)
John Porter, trans., Beowulf: Text and Translation (Pinner, 1991)
Michael Swanton, trans., Beowulf (Manchester, 1978)
Seamus Heaney, trans., Beowulf (London, 1998)
R. M. Liuzza, trans., Beowulf (Peterborough, Ontario, 2000)
Edwin Morgan, trans., Beowulf, A Verse Translation into Modern English (Aldington, 1952; repr. Manchester, 2002)
J. R. R. Tolkien, trans., Beowulf (London, 2014)

Collections of Essays and Other Individual Studies

P. S. Baker, ed., Beowulf: Basic Readings (New York, 1995); reprinted as The Beowulf Reader (New York, 2000)
P. S. Baker, Honour, Exchange and Violence in Beowulf (Cambridge, 2013)
R. E. Bjork and J. D. Niles, A Beowulf Handbook (Lincoln, NA, 1997)
A. Bonjour, The Digressions in Beowulf (Oxford, 1950)
R. W. Chambers, Beowulf: an Introduction, rev. C.L. Wrenn, 3^rd ed. (Cambridge, 1959)
C. Chase, ed., The Dating of Beowulf (Toronto, 1981)
P. J. Cosijn, Notes on Beowulf, ed. and trans. R. H. Bremmer, J. van den Berg, and D. F. Johnson, Leeds Texts and Monographs, n.s. 12, (Leeds, 1991)
D. K. Fry, ed., The Beowulf Poet: A Collection of Critical Essays (Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1968)
R. D. Fulk, Interpretations of Beowulf: A Critical Anthology (Indiana, 1991)
G. N. Garmonsway, J. Simpson, and H.E. Davidson, Beowulf and its Analogues (London, 1968)
J.-A. George, Beowulf: A Reader’s Guide to Essential Criticism (Basingstoke, 2010)
M. E. Goldsmith, The Mode and Meaning of Beowulf (London, 1970)
A. Haarder, Beowulf: the Appeal of a Poem (Viborg, 1975)
E. B. Irving, A Reading of Beowulf (New Haven, CT, 1968)
E. B. Irving, Rereading Beowulf (Philadelphia, PA, 1989)
E. A. Joy and M. K. Ramsey, with B. D. Gilchrist, eds., The Postmodern Beowulf: A Critical Casebook (Morgantown, WV, 2006)
K. Kiernan, Beowulf and the Beowulf Manuscript, rev. ed. (Ann Arbor, MI, 1996)
W. W. Lawrence, Beowulf and Epic Tradition (Cambridge, MA, 1928)
L. Neidorf, ed., The Dating of Beowulf: A Reassessment (Cambridge, 2014)
L. E. Nicholson, ed., Anthology of Beowulf Criticism (Notre Dame, IN, 1963)
J. D. Niles, Beowulf: the Poem and its Tradition (Cambridge, MA, 1983)
J. D. Niles, ed., Beowulf and Lejre (Tempe, Arizona, 2007)
A. Orchard, Pride and Prodigies: Studies in the Monsters of the Beowulf Manuscript (Cambridge, 1995)
A. Orchard, A Critical Companion to Beowulf (Cambridge, 2003)
C. Rauer, Beowulf and the Dragon: Parallels and Analogues (Cambridge, 2000)
F. C. Robinson, Beowulf and the Appositive Style (Knoxville, TN, 1985)
F. C. Robinson, The Tomb of Beowulf and Other Essays on Old English (Oxford, 1993)
T. A. Shippey and A. Haarder, Beowulf: the Critical Heritage (London, 1998)
K. Sisam, The Structure of Beowulf (Oxford, 1965)
J. R. R. Tolkien, ‘Beowulf: the Monsters and the Critics’, Proceedings of the British Academy 22 (1936), 245-95
D. Whitelock, The Audience of Beowulf (Oxford, 1951)

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Paper 6: Advanced medieval Scandinavian language and literature

Reading List

Paper 7: Advanced medieval Welsh language and literature (with optional Cornish and Breton)

In addition to the items listed under Part I, Paper 7, the following will give an idea of the kind of material covered within the work for this paper.

Astudiaethau ar yr Hengerdd, Studies in Old Welsh Poetry, cyflwynedig i Syr Idris Foster, edited by R. Bromwich and R. B. Jones (Cardiff, 1978). E151 BRO. Essays variously in English and Welsh (the latter summarised in the English introduction).
Early Welsh Poetry. Studies in the Book of Aneirin, edited by Brynley F. Roberts (Aberystwyth, 1988), pp. 155–77. E157 ROB.
G. R. Isaac, 'Gweith Gwen Ystrat and the northern heroic age of the sixth century', Cambrian Medieval Celtic Studies, 36 (1998), 61–70.
G. R. Isaac, 'Readings in the history and transmission of the Gododdin', Cambrian Medieval Celtic Studies. 37 (1999), 55–78.
G. R. Isaac, 'Trawsganu Kynan Garwyn mab Brochuael: a tenth-century political poem', Zeitschrift für celtische Philologie, 51 (1999), 173–85.
Ystoria Taliesin, edited by P. K. Ford (Cardiff, 1992); valuable Introduction (pp. 1–55).
M. Haycock, 'Taliesin's questions', Cambrian Medieval Celtic Studies, 33 (1997), 19–79.
C. A. McKenna, The Medieval Welsh Religious Lyric. Poems of the Gogynfeirdd, 1137–1282 (Belmont, Mass., 1991). E156 MAC
Trioedd Ynys Prydein, The Welsh Triads, edited and translated by R. Bromwich (Cardiff, 2nd edn 1978). E154 BRO.
'The Black Book of Carmarthen "Stanzas of the Graves"', edited and translated by T. Jones, Proceedings of the British Academy, 53 (1967), 97–137. E153 BLA Jon.
A. O. H. Jarman, 'Llyfr Du Caerfyrddin, The Black Book of Carmarthen', Proceedings of the British Academy, 71 (1986), 333–56. [Description of contents of the manuscript.]
P. Sims-Williams, 'The evidence for vernacular Irish literary influence on early mediaeval Welsh literature', in Ireland in Early Mediaeval Europe. Studies in Memory of Kathleen Hughes, edited by D. Whitelock and others (Cambridge, 1982), pp. 235–57.

Cornish

Brian Murdoch, Cornish Literature (1993).
Lauran Toorians, The Middle Cornish Charter Endorsement. The Making of a Marriage in Medieval Cornwall (Innsbruck, 1991).

Breton

Rita Williams, 'Breton literature', in The Celtic Connection, edited by Glanville Price (1992), pp. 276–300.
M. McKenna, 'The Breton literary tradition', Celtica, 16 (1984), 35–51.
R. Largillière, 'Le dialogue entre Arthur et Guinclaff', Annalaes de Bretagne, 38 (1928–9), 627–74. [15th-century prophecy poem.]
M.-A. Constantine, Breton Ballads (1996). [Modern ballads, sometimes reflecting medieval traditions.]

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Paper 8: Advanced medieval Irish language and literature

Acallam na Senórach and Fíannaigecht material

James Carney, ‘Two poems from Acallam na Senórach’, in Celtic Studies … in Memory of Angus Matheson, ed. J. Carney and D. Greene (London, 1968), pp. 22-32
Ann Dooley and Harry Roe (trans.), Tales of the Elders of Ireland (Oxford, 1999)
Robert D. Nuner, ‘The verbal system of the Agallamh na Senórach’, Zeitschrift für celtische Philologie 27 (1958-9), 230-309
Kim McCone, ‘Werewolves, cyclopes, díberga and fíanna: juvenile delinquency in Early Ireland’, Cambridge Medieval Celtic Studies 12 (Winter 1986) 1-22
Kuno Meyer, Fianaigecht, being a collection of hitherto unedited Irish poems and tales relating to Finn and his fiana (Dublin, 1910)
Gerard Murphy, ‘Acallam na Senórach’, in Myles Dillon (ed.), Irish Sagas (Dublin, 1959)
J.F. Nagy, ‘Compositional concerns in the Acallam na Senórach’, in Donnchadh Ó Corráin, Kim McCone and Liam Breatnach (eds), Sages, Saints and Storytellers: Celtic Studies in Honour of Professor James Carney (Maynooth, 1989), pp. 149-58
J.F. Nagy, ‘Oral tradition in the Acallam na Senórach’, in W.F.H. Nicolaisen (ed.), Oral Tradition in the Middle Ages (Binghamton, New York, 1995), pp. 77-95
Donnchadh Ó Corráin, ‘Legend as critic’, in Tom Dunne (ed.), The Writer as Witness: Literature as Historical Evidence, Historical Studies XVI (Cork, 1987), pp. 23-38, at pp. 35-7
Nollaig Ó Muraíle, ‘Agallamh na Seanórach’, in Pádraig Ó Fiannachta (ed.), An Fhiannaíocht, Léachtaí Cholm Cille 25 (Maynooth, 1995)
Harry Roe, ‘Acallam na Senórach: the confluence of lay and clerical oral traditions’, in Cyril J. Byrne, Margaret Harry and Pádraig Ó Siadhail (eds), Celtic Languages and Celtic Peoples (Halifax, Nova Scotia, 1992), pp. 331-46
Richard Sharpe, ‘Hiberno-Latin Laicus, Irish Láech, and the devil’s men’, Ériu 30 (1989), 82-92

Aided Con Chulainn and Related Tales

J. Baudis, ‘Cúroí and Cúchulinn’, Ériu 7 (1914), 200-10
P.S. Hellmuth, ‘Aided Chon Roí im Gelben Buch von Lecan: die Geschichte eines Todes als Lebensretter?’, in Akten des Zweiten Deutschen Keltologensymposiums (Bonn, 2.-4. April 1997), ed. Stefan Zimmer, Rolf Ködderitzsch and Arndt Wigger (Tübingen, 1999), pp. 65-76
Uaitéar Mac Gearailt, ‘Cath Ruis na Ríg and twelfth-century literary and oral tradition’, Zeitschrift für Celtische Philologie 44 (1991), 128-53
Kuno Meyer (ed. and trans.), The Death-tales of the Ulster heroes (Dublin, 1906)
Whitley Stokes (ed. and trans.), ‘Cuculainn’s death abridged from the Book of Leinster’, Revue Celtique 3 (1876-78), 175-85
Rudolf Thurneysen, Die irische Helden- und Königsage bis zum 17. Jahrhundert (Halle, 1921), pp. 547-67
M. Tymoczko (trans.), Two Death Tales from the Ulster Cycle: the Death of Cú Roí and Cú Chulainn (Dublin, 1981)

Bethu Brigte and Hagiography

Ludwig Bieler, ‘The Celtic hagiographer’, Studia Patristica 5 (1959), 243-65
Seán Connolly, ‘The authorship and manuscript tradition of Vita I Sanctae Brigidae’, Manuscripta 16 (1972), 67-82
Charles Doherty, ‘The Irish hagiographer: resources, aims, results’, in Tom Dunne (ed.), The Writer as Witness: Literature as Historical Evidence, Historical Studies XVI (Cork, 1987), pp. 10-22
Mario Esposito, ‘On the earliest Latin Life of St Brigit of Kildare’, Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy C 30 (1912), 307-26
Mario Esposito, ‘Notes on Latin learning and literature in medieval Ireland, IV: on the early Latin lives of St Brigit of Kildare’, Hermathena 24 (1935), 120-65
Paul Grosjean, ‘Notes d’hagiographie celtique, 4: une invocation des saintes Brigides’, Annalecta Bolliandiana 61 (1943), 103-5
Kim McCone, ‘Brigit in the seventh century: a saint with three lives?’, Peritia 1 (1982), 107-45
Kim McCone, ‘An introduction to Early Irish saints’ Lives’, The Maynooth Review 11 (1984), 26-59
Feilm Ó Briain, ‘The hagiography of Leinster’, in Féilscríbhinn Eoin Mhic Néill, ed. John Ryan (Dublin, 1940)
Feilm Ó Briain (ed. Frederic Mac Donncha), ‘Brigitana’, Zeitschrift für celtische Philologie 36 (1978), 112-37
M.A. O’Brien, ‘The Old Irish Life of St Brigit’, Irish Historical Studies 1 (1938-9), 121-34 (translation), 343-53 (introduction) – see also review by Paul Grosjean, Analecta Bollandiana 59 (1941)
Donncha Ó hAodha, ‘The early lives of St. Brigit’, Journal of the Kildare Archaeological Society 15 (1971-6), 397-405
Donncha Ó hAodha, Bethu Brigte (Dublin, 1978) – see also review by Richard Sharpe, Éigse 17 (1979), 565-70
Pádraig Ó Riain, ‘Towards a methodology in Early Irish hagiography’, Peritia 1 (1982), 146-59
Richard Sharpe, ‘Vitae S. Brigitae: the oldest texts’, Peritia 1 (1982), 81-106
Richard Sharpe, Medieval Irish Saints’ Lives (Oxford, 1991)

Cath Maige Tuired

John Carey, ‘Myth and mythography in Cath Maige Tuired’, Studia Celtica 24/5 (1989-90), 53-69
E. A. Gray (ed. and trans.), Cath Maige Tuired: The Second Battle of Mag Tuired, Irish Texts Society, 52 (London and Dublin, 1982)
E.A. Gray, ‘Cath Maige Tuired: myth and structure’, Éigse 18 (1980-81) 183-209 and 19 (1982-3) 1-36, 230-62
E.A. Gray, ‘Lug and Cú Chulainn: king and warrior, God and man’, Studia Celtica 24/5 (1989-90), 38-52
Tomás Ó Cathasaigh, ‘Cath Maige Tuired as exemplary myth’ in Pádraig de Brún, Seán Ó Coileáin and Pádraig Ó Riain (eds), Folia Gadelica: Essays presented to R.A. Breatnach (Cork, 1981), pp. 1-19
Tomás Ó Cathasaigh, ‘Curse and satire’, Éigse 21 (1986), 10-15
Brian Ó Cuív (ed.), Cath Muighe Tuireadh: The Second Battle of Magh Tuireadh (Dublin, 1945)
R.M. Scowcroft, ‘Some recent work on Irish mythology and literature’, Cambridge Medieval Celtic Studies 4 (Winter 1982), 86-9

Classical Irish Poetry

Osborn J. Bergin, The Native Irish Grammarian (London, 1938)
Osborn J. Bergin (ed. and trans.), Irish Bardic Poetry, eds David Greene and Fergus Kelly (Dublin, 1970)
Pádraig A. Breatnach, ‘The Chief’s poet’, Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy C (1983), 38-79
Mark Caball, ‘Bardic poetry and the analysis of Gaelic mentalities’, History Ireland, no. 2 (1994), 46-50
Mark Caball, Poets and Politics: Reaction and Continuity in Irish Poetry, 1558-1625 (Cork, 1998)
James Carney, ‘The Irish bardic poet: a study in the relationship of poet and patron’, published in his Medieval Irish Lyrics (reprinted Portlaoise, 1985), pp. 105-40
Proinsias Mac Cana, ‘The rise of the later schools of filidheacht’, Ériu 25 (1974), 126-46
Damian McManus, ‘Classical Modern Irish’, in Kim McCone and Katharine Simms (eds) Progress in Medieval Irish Studies (Maynooth, 1996), pp. 164-87
Brian Ó Cuív, ‘The Irish language in the Early Modern period’, in T.W. Moody, F.X. Martin and F.J. Byrne (eds), A New History of Ireland 3: Early Modern Ireland 1534-1691, pp. 508-45
Brian Ó Cuív, ‘The linguistic training of the medieval Irish poet’, Celtica, 10 (1973), 114-40
Pádraig Ó Macháin, ‘The Early Modern Irish prosodic tracts and the editing of bardic verse’, in H.L.C. Tristram (ed.), Metrik und Medienwechsel/Metrics and Media (Tübingen, 1991), pp. 272-87
Katharine Simms, ‘Bards and barons: the Anglo-Irish aristocracy and the native culture’, in R. Bartlett and A. MacKay (eds), Medieval Frontier Societies (Oxford, 1989), pp. 177-97
Katharine Simms, ‘Literacy sources for the history of Gaelic Ireland in the post-Norman period’, in Kim McCone and Katharine Simms (eds), Progress in Medieval Irish Studies (Maynooth, 1996), pp. 207-15
Katharine Simms, ‘Literacy and the Irish bards’, in Huw Pryce (ed.), Literacy in the Celtic-speaking Countries (Cambridge, 1998), pp. 238-58

Críth Gablach and Early Irish Law

D.A. Binchy (ed.), Críth Gablach (Dublin, 1941)
D.A. Binchy, ‘The linguistic and historical value of the Irish Law tracts’, Proceedings of the British Academy 29 (1943), pp. 195-227; reprinted in Dafydd Jenkins (ed.), Celtic Law Papers (Brussels, 1973), pp. 71-107
D.A. Binchy, ‘Lawyers and chroniclers’, in Brian Ó Cuív (ed.), Seven Centuries of Irish Learning (Dublin, 1961), pp. 58-71
Liam Breatnach, ‘Lawyers in Early Ireland’, in Daire Hogan and W.N. Osborough (eds), Brehons, Sergeants and Attorneys: Studies in the History of the Irish Legal Profession (Dublin, 1990), pp. 1-13
Thomas Charles-Edwards, ‘Críth Gablach and the law of status’, Peritia 5 (1986), 53-73
Fergus Kelly, A Guide to Early Irish Law (Dublin, 1988)
Eoin Mac Neill, ‘Ancient Irish Law: the law of status or franchise’, Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy 36 C (1923), 265-316
Neil McLeod, ‘Interpreting Early Irish Law: status and currency’, Zeitschrift für Celtische Philologie 41 (1986), pp. 46-64 and 42 (1987), pp. 41-115
Donnchadh Ó Corráin, Aidan Breen, Liam Breatnach, ‘The Laws of the Irish’, Peritia 3 (1984), 382-438
Donnchadh Ó Corráin, ‘Irish Law and Canon Law’, in Próinséas Ní Chatháin and Michael Richter (eds), Irland und Europa: Die Kirche im Frühmittelalter (Stuttgart, 1984), pp. 157-66

Poems of Blathmac and Other Religious Texts

John Carey (trans.), King of Mysteries: Early Irish Religious Writings (Dublin, 1998)
James Carney (ed. and trans.), The Poems of Blathmac son of Cú Brettan together with the Irish Gospel of Thomas and a Poem on the Virgin Mary (London and Dublin, 1964) – see also reviews by Brian Ó Cuív in Éigse 12 and by Gearóid Mac Eoin in Studia Hibernica 7
Colmán Etchingham, Church Organisation in Ireland AD 650 to 1000 (Naas, 1999)
David Greene, Fergus Kelly and Brian Murdoch (eds), The Irish Adam and Eve Story from Saltair na Rann 2 vols (Dublin, 1976)
Kathleen Hughes, The Church in Early Irish Society (London, 1966)
Vernam Hull (ed. and trans.), ‘Apgitir Chrábaid: the alphabet of piety’, Celtica 8 (1968), pp. 44-89
Gearóid Mac Eoin, ‘Observations on Saltair na Rann’, Zeitschrift für celtische Philologie 39 (1982), pp. 1-28
Pádraig Ó Néill, ‘The background to the Cambrai Homily’, Ériu 32 (1981), pp. 137-47
Pádraig Ó Néill, ‘The date and authorship of Apigitir Chrábaid: some internal evidence’, in Próinséas Ní Chatháin and Michael Richter (eds), Ireland and Christendom: the Bible and the Missions (Stuttgart 1987), pp. 203-15
Clare Stancliffe, ‘Red, white and blue martyrdom’ in Dorothy Whitelock, David Dumville and Rosamond McKitterick (eds), Ireland in Early Medieval Europe: Studies in Memory of Kathleen Hughes (Cambridge 1982), pp. 21-46
E.G. Quin (ed. and trans.), ‘The Early Irish poem Isúcán’, Cambridge Medieval Celtic Studies 1 (Summer 1981), pp. 39-52

Tochmarc Becfhola and Related Themes

Máire Bhreathnach, ‘The sovereignty goddess as goddess of death?’, Zeitschrift für Celtische Philologie 39 (1982), 243-60
Máire Bhreathnach (ed. and trans.), ‘A new edition of Tochmarc Becfhola’, Ériu 35 (1984), 59-91
Edel Bhreathnach, Tara: a Select Bibliography (Dublin, 1995), pp. 1-20
R.A. Breatnach, ‘The lady and the king: a theme of Irish literature’, Studies 42 (1953), 321-36
James Carney, Studies in Irish Literature and History (Dublin, 1955), pp. 229-30 – and chapter 6 in general
Myles Dillon, ‘The Wooing of Becfhola and the stories of Cano, son of Gartnán’, Modern Philology 43 (1945), 11-17
Máire Herbert, ‘Transmutations of an Irish goddess’, in Sandra Billington and Miranda Green (eds), The Concept of the Goddess (London and New York, 1996), pp. 141-51
Máire Herbert, ‘Dlithe an Domhnaigh in Éirinn, 600-750 AD’, in Máirtín Mac Conmara and Éilís Ní Thiarnaigh (eds), Cothú an Dúchais: Aistí in Ómós don Athair Diarmaid Ó Laoghaire S.J. (Dublin, 1997), pp. 60-9
Vernam Hull, ‘Cáin Domnaig’, Ériu 20 (1966), 151-77
Proinsias Mac Cana, ‘Aspects of the theme of king and goddess in Irish literature’, Études Celtiques 7 (1955-6), 76-114, 356-413 and 8 (1958-9), 59-65
J.G. O’Keeffe, ‘Cáin Domnaig’, Ériu 2 (1905), 189-214

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Paper 9: A subject inInsular Latin literature: Writing Women

Preliminary background reading

P. Dronke, Women Writers of the Middle Ages ( Cambridge , 1984), chapter 1
S. Hollis , Anglo-Saxon Women and the Church: Sharing a Common Fate ( Woodbridge , 1992)
C.A. Lees and G.R. Overing, Double Agents. Women and Clerical Culture in Anglo-Saxon England ( Philadelphia , PA , 2001)
M. Lapidge and R.C. Love, ‘The Latin Hagiography of England and Wales (600-1550)’, in Hagiographies: histoire internationalede la littérature hagiographique latine et vernaculaire, en Occident, des origines à 1500, ed. G. Philippart (Brepols, 2001), vol. III, pp. 1-120

Prescribed texts

A selection from the following:

Aldhelm, Prose De uirginitate and Carmen de uirginitate, ed. R. Ehwald, Aldhelmi Opera Omnia , Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Auctores Antiquissimi 15 ( Berlin , 1919)
The letters written by, and addressed to, women in the Bonifatian correspondence, ed. M. Tangl, Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Epistolae Selectae I (Berlin, 1916)
Hygeburc’s Vita s. Willibaldi episcopi and Vita s. Wynnebaldi abbatis, ed. O. Holder-Egger, Monumenta Germaniae Scriptores 15 (1887-8), 86-106 and 106-117
Bede, Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum on Æthelthryth and Seaxburh (IV.19-20 [17-18]), the Barking ladies (IV.6-10), and Hild ( IV.23 [21]), ed. and trans. B. Colgrave and R.A.B. Mynors, Bede’s Ecclesiastical History of the English People ( Oxford , 1969; reprinted 1991)
Bede, In Cantica Habacuc Allegorica Expositio, ed. J.E. Hudson, Corpus Christianorum Series Latina 119B (Turnhout, 1983), 381-409
Goscelin, Liber confortatorius, ed. C.H. Talbot, ‘The Liber Confortatorius of Goscelin of Saint Bertin, Analecta Monastica 37 (1955) 1-117
Goscelin, Vita s. Edithe, ed. A. Wilmart, ‘La légende de Ste Édithe en prose et vers par le moine Goscelin’, Analecta Bollandiana, 56 (1938), 5-101, 265-307
Goscelin, Vita s. Mildrethe , ed. D.W. Rollason, The Mildrith Legend. A Study in Early Medieval Hagiography in England ( Leicester , 1982), pp. 108-43
Goscelin, Vita s. Wulfilde, ed. M. Colker, ‘Texts of Jocelyn of Canterbury which relate to the history of Barking Abbey’, Studia Monastica 7 (1965), 383-460
Goscelin, Vitae ss. Werburge, Sexburge and Eormenhilde, ed. and trans., R.C. Love, Goscelin of Saint-Bertin. The Lives of the Female Saints of Ely, Oxford Medieval Texts ( Oxford , 2004)
Anon., Vita s. Cuthburge, ed. R. Rushforth, ‘The medieval hagiography of St Cuthburg’, Analecta Bollandiana 118 (2000), 291-324
Anon., Vita s. Fritheswithe, ed. W.J. Blair, Saint Frideswide Patron of Oxford ( Oxford , 1988)
Cogitosus, Vita s. Brigitae, ed. Patrologia Latina 72, cols. 775-90, and Acta Sanctorum, Feb. I.135-41
Conchubranus, Vita s. Monennae, ed. M. Esposito, ‘Conchubrani Vita Sanctae Monennae’, Proceedings of theRoyal Irish Academy 28C (1910), 202-38; Ulster Society of Mediaeval Latin Studies, ‘The Life of St Monenna by Conchubranus’, Seanchas Ardmhacha 9 (1978-9), 250-73 and 10 (1980-2), 117-41
Anon., Vita s. Wenefredae (ed. A.W. Wade-Evans, Vitae Sanctorum Britanniae et Genealogiae ( Cardiff , 1944), pp. 288-308
Anon., Vita S. Osmannae, ed. Acta Sanctorum, Sept. III.417-25
Turgot, Vita S. Margaretae reginae Scotiae , ed. Acta Sanctorum, Iun., II.328-35; J.H. Hinde, Symeonis Dunelmensis Opera, Surtees Society 51 (Durham, 1868), pp. 234-54
Anon., Encomium Emmae Reginae, ed. A. Campbell, Camden Society, 3 rd series 72 ( London , 1949), reprinted with a supplementary introduction by S. Keynes, Camden Classic Reprints 4 ( Cambridge , 1998)
Anon., Vita Eadwardi Confessoris, ed. and trans. F. Barlow, The Life of King Edward who rests at Westminster, Oxford Medieval Texts, 2nd edition (Oxford 1992)

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Paper 10: Textual criticism

Introduction to general principles and terminology

R. Tarrant, Texts, Editors, and Readers. Methods and Problems in Latin Textual Criticism (Cambridge, 2016)
L. Bieler, The Grammarian’s Craft. An Introduction to Textual Criticism, 3^rd edn. (New York, 1965) [originally published in Folia 10 (1958), 3-42]
D.C. Greetham, Textual Scholarship. An Introduction (New York and London, 1994)
L.D. Reynolds and N.G. Wilson, Scribes and Scholars, 3^rd edn. (Oxford, 1993)
L.D. Reynolds, ed., Texts and Transmission: a Survey of the Latin Classics (Oxford, 1983)
M.L. West, Textual Criticism and Editorial Technique (Stuttgart, 1973)

Textual Criticism of Medieval Latin

A.G. Rigg, ed., Editing Medieval Texts, English, French and Latin, written in England (New York and London, 1977)
C. Leonardi, ed., La critica del testo mediolatino (Spoleto, 1994)
M. Lapidge, ‘The Edition of Medieval Latin Texts in the English-Speaking World’, Sacris Erudiri 38 (1998-9), 199-220
M. Lapidge, ‘Autographs of Insular Latin Authors of the Early Middle Ages’, in Gli autografi medievali. Problemi paleografici e filologici, ed. P. Chiesa and L. Pinelli (Spoleto, 1994), pp. 103-44

Textual Criticism of Old English

M. Lapidge, ‘Textual Criticism and the Literature of Anglo-Saxon England’, Bulletin of the John Rylands Library 73 (1991), 17-45
M.R. Godden, ‘Old English’, in Editing Medieval Texts, ed. A.G. Rigg (New York, 1977), 174-90
A. Orchard, ‘Crying Wolf: Oral Style and the Sermones Lupi’, Anglo-Saxon England 21 (1992), 239-64
D.G. Scragg and P.E. Szarmach, eds., The Editing of Old English (Cambridge, 1994)

Textual criticism of Old Norse

H. Fix, ‘Text Editing in Old Norse: A Linguist’s Point of View’, NOWELE 31-2 (1997), 105-17
T. Machan, ‘Alliteration and the Editing of Eddic Poetry’, Scandinavian Studies 64 (1992), 216-27
G. Neckel and H. Kuhn (eds.), Edda. Die Lieder des Codex Regius nebst verwandten Denkmälern (5th edn., Heidelberg, 1983)
R. Poole, ‘Variants and Variability in the Text of Egill’s Hofuðlausn’, in The Politics of Editing Medieval Texts, ed. R. Frank and A. Frantzen (New York, 1991), pp. 65-105
D. Whaley, The Poetry of Arnórr jarlaskáld. An Edition and Study (London, 1998)

Textual Criticism of Medieval Welsh

Cyfranc Lludd a Llefelys, ed. B.F. Roberts (1975)
Owein or Chwedl Iarlles y Ffynnawn, ed. R.L. Thompson (1968)
Ystoria Gereint uab Erbin, ed. R.L. Thompson (1968)
J.K. Bollard, ‘Peredur: the four early manuscripts’, Bulletin of the Board of Celtic Studies, 28 (1978-80), 367-72
G.R. Isaac, ‘Canu Aneirin awdl LI’, Journal of Celtic Linguistics 2 (1993), 65-91
G.R. Isaac, ‘Readings in the history and transmission of the Gododdin’, Cambrian Medieval Celtic Studies 37 (1999), 55-78

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Paper 11: Germanic Philology

O. W. Robinson, Old English and Its Closest Relatives: A Survey of the Earliest Germanic Languages (London, 1992)
O. Bandle (et al), eds., The Nordic Languages: an International Handbook of the History of the North Germanic Languages I (Berlin and New York, 2002)
F. van Coetsem and H. L. Kufner, eds., Toward a Grammar of Proto-Germanic (Tübingen, 1972)
E. V. Gordon, An Introduction to Old Norse, 2nd ed., rev. A. R. Taylor (Oxford, 1957)
D. H. Green, Language and History in the Early Germanic World (Cambridge, 1998)
W. Harbert, The Germanic Languages (Cambridge, 2007)
T. Hoad, ‘Preliminaries: Before English’, in The Oxford History of English, ed. L. Mugglestone (Oxford, 2006), pp. 7–31
R. M. Hogg, ed., The Cambridge History of the English Language, Volume I: The Beginnings to 1066 (Cambridge, 1992)
E. König and J. van der Auwera, eds., The Germanic Languages (London, 1994)
H. Krahe and W. Meid, Germanische Sprachwissenschaft (3 vols.; Berlin, 1969)
T. L. Markey et al, Germanic and Its Dialects: A Grammar of Proto-Germanic, III: Bibliography and Indices (Amsterdam, 1977)
H. F. Nielsen, The Germanic Languages: Origins and Early Dialectal Interrelations (Tuscaloosa and London, 1989)
E. Prokosch, A Comparative Germanic Grammar (Pennsylvania, 1939)
D. Ringe, From Proto-Indo-European to Proto-Germanic (Oxford, 2006)
S. Sonderegger, Althochdeutsche Sprache und Literatur (Berlin, 3rd ed. 2003)
J. B. Voyles, Early Germanic Grammar: Pre-, Proto-, and Post-Germanic Languages (San Diego and London, 1992)
J. Wright, Grammar of the Gothic Language, 2nd ed. rev. O. L. Sayce (Oxford, 1954)

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Paper 12: Celtic Philology

Martin Ball and James Fife (eds), The Celtic Languages (London, 1993)
A. Bammesberger and A. Wollman (eds), Britain 400-600: Language and History(Heidelberg, 1990)
D. Simon Evans, A Grammar of Middle Welsh (Dublin, 1964)
D. Ellis Evans, Gaulish Personal Names (Oxford, 1967)
Kenneth Jackson, ‘Common Gaelic’, Proceedings of the British Academy, 37 (1951), pp. 71-77
Kenneth Jackson, Language and History in Early Britain (Edinburgh, 1953)
Pierre-Yves Lambert, La langue gauloise (Paris, 1994)
Henry Lewis, Llawlyfr Cernyweg Canol 2^nd edn (Cardiff, 1946) – translated into German by Stefan Zimmer, Handbuch des Mittelkornischen (Innsbruck, 1990)
Henry Lewis and J.R.F. Piette, Llawlyfr Llydaweg Canol 3^rd edn (Cardiff, 1966) – translated into German by Wolfgang Meid, Handbuch des Mittelbretonischen (Innsbruck, 1990)
Henry Lewis and Holger Pedersen, A Concise Comparative Celtic Grammar, 3^rd edn (Göttingen, 1989)
Kim McCone, The Early Irish Verb (Maynooth, 1989)
Kim McCone, Towards a Relative Chronology of Ancient and Medieval Celtic Sound Change (Maynooth, 1996)
Kim McCone et al. (eds), Stair na Gaeilge in ómós do Pádraig Ó Fiannachta (Maynooth 1994)
D. Macaulay, The Celtic Languages (Cambridge, 1992)
Damian McManus, A Guide to Ogam (Maynooth, 1991)
T.F. O’Rahilly, Irish Dialects Past and Present (Dublin, 1931)
Micheál Ó Siadhail, Modern Irish: Grammatical Structure and Dialectal Variation (Cambridge, 1989)
Holger Pedersen, Vergleichende Grammatik der keltischen Sprachen, 2 vols (Göttingen, 1913)
Paul Russell, An Introduction to the Celtic Languages (London, 1995)
K.H. Schmidt (ed.), Indogermanisch und Keltisch (Wiesbaden, 1977)
K.H. Schmidt, ‘On the Celtic languages of Continental Europe’, Bulletin of the Board of Celtic Studies, 28 (1978-80), pp. 189-205
Peter Schrijver, Studies in British Celtic Historical Phonology (Amsterdam, 1995)
Rudolf Thurneysen, A Grammar of Old Irish (Dublin, 1946)

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Paper 13: Writing Rituals

2022 Reading List

Anglo-Saxon, Norse & Celtic

Suggested Reading for Part II

Paper 1: A subject in Anglo-Saxon history: Saints and Farmers: Economy and Society c. 950–1050

Paper 2: A subject in Scandinavian history of the Viking Age: Rethinking the Viking Age

Paper 3: A subject in Celtic History: Socio-economic and ecclesiastical relations between Britain and Ireland in the pre-Viking era: Interaction and exchange

Paper 4: A subject in Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic History: Law and Lawlessnes

Paper 5: A subject in Old English literature: Beowulf

Paper 6: Advanced medieval Scandinavian language and literature

Paper 7: Advanced medieval Welsh language and literature (with optional Cornish and Breton)

Paper 8: Advanced medieval Irish language and literature

Paper 9: A subject inInsular Latin literature: Writing Women

Paper 10: Textual criticism

Paper 11: Germanic Philology

Paper 12: Celtic Philology

Paper 13: Writing Rituals

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