Books in the Studies in Celtic History series

The adaptation of Late Latin grammars from the schools of the Roman Empire for use in a foreign Christian society culminated in the British Isles in the 7th and 8th centuries in the development of two distinct types of grammar designed respectively for elementary and for more advanced students.

First full-scale, interdisciplinary treatment of the wide-ranging connections between the Gaelic world and the Northumbrian kingdom.Northumbria was the most northerly Anglo-Saxon kingdom; its impressive landscape featured two sweeping coastlines, which opened the area to a variety of cultural connections. This book explores influences that emanated from the Gaelic-speaking world, including Ireland, the Isle of Man, Argyll and the kingdom of Alba (the nascent Scottish kingdom). It encompasses Northumbria's "e;Golden Age"e;, the kingdom's political and scholarly high-point of the seventh and early eighth centuries, and culminates with the kingdom's decline and fragmentation in the Viking Age, which opened up new links with Gaelic-Scandinavian communities. Political and ecclesiastical connections are discussed in detail; the study also covers linguistic contact, material culture and the practicalities of travel, bringing out the realities of contemporary life. This interdisciplinary approach sheds new light on the west and north of the Northumbrian kingdom, the areas linked most closely with the Gaelic world. Overall, the book reveals the extent to which Gaelic influence was multi-faceted, complex and enduring. Dr FIONA EDMONDS is Reader in History and Director of the Regional Heritage Centre at Lancaster University.

An examination of how the feminine was viewed in early medieval Ireland, through a careful study of a range of texts.Was femininity in early Irish society perceived as weak and sinful, innately inferior to masculinity? Was it seen as powerful and dangerous, a threat to the peace and tranquility of male society? Or was there a more nuanced view,an understanding that femininity, or femininities, could be presented in a variety of ways according to the pragmatic concerns of the writer? This book examines the sources surviving from fifth- to ninth-century Ireland, aiming to offer a fresh view of authorial perceptions of the period. It seeks to highlight the complexities of those perceptions, the significance of authorial aims and purposes in the construction of femininity, and the potential disjunction between societal "e;reality"e; and the images presented to us in the sources. This careful analysis of a broad range of early Irish sources demonstrates how fluid constructions of gender could be, and presents a new interpretation of the position of femininity in the thought world of early Irish authors. HELEN OXENHAM worked at the Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic in Cambridge as supervisor and researcher on the Mapping Miracles project. She now works for The English Heritage Trust.

The first comprehensive survey of the Irish literary elite in the early middle ages.Winner of the 2015 Irish Historical Research Prize. Much of our knowledge of early medieval Ireland comes from a rich literature written in a variety of genres and in two languages, Irish and Latin. Who wrote this literature and what role did they play within society? What did the introduction and expansion of literacy mean in a culture where the vast majority of the population continued to be non-literate? How did literacy operate in and intersect with the oral world? Was literacy a key element in the formation and articulation of communal and elite senses of identity? This book addresses these issues in the first full, inter-disciplinary examination of the Irish literate elite and their social contexts between ca. 400-1000 AD. It considers the role played by Hiberno-Latin authors, the expansion of vernacular literacy and the key place of monasteries within the literate landscape. Also examined are the crucial intersections between literacy and orality, which underpin the importance played by the literate elite in giving voice to aristocratic and communal identities. This study places these developments within a broader European context, underlining the significance of the Irish experience of learning and literacy. Elva Johnston is lecturer in the School of History and Archives, University College Dublin.

The saint's cult casts light on relations between Cornwall and Brittany - and Henry II's empire - in the 12th century.

Essays investigating the writings attributed to Columbanus, influential 0c founder of Luxeuil and Bobbio.

This study considers the Celtic, pre-Norman, Cornish monasteries through written sources, place-names and material remains. The emphasis is on identifying the sites and tracing their survival to later periods. The author also considers the progress of monasticism and its role in Church and society.

A comparison of the opposed military systems along the English/Welsh border - Anglo-Norman and Celtic - in the 12th century.

Surveys Anglo-Welsh ecclesiastical life in the tenth and eleventh centuries. This book examines the complicated links which bound together the churches of Gloucester and Llancarfan from about 1100 and of the sources which reveal these ties.

Offers a text-historical analysis of southern Irish annals for the years 431-1092, establishing their relationships to the other annal-collections, separating the several strata of which they are composed, and judging the relative historical value of these sources.

Crucial texts from ninth- and tenth-century Wales analysed to show their key role in identify formation.

All aspects of the cult of St David, patron saint of Wales, are examined in this wide-ranging volume.

A new investigation of the saints' cults which flourished in medieval Scotland, fruitfully combining archaeological, historical, and literary perspectives.

A study of a contemporary witness to the transformation of post-Roman Britain into Anglo-Saxon England.

An investigation of the places in the Irish landscape where open-air Gaelic royal inauguration assemblies were held from the twelfth to the sixteenth centuries.

Works of early Irish authors include a strong biblical component, but indicate that independent thought is accepted.

The life, career and medieval biography of Gruffudd ap Cynan, king of Gwynedd 1095-1137.

Offers an account of a fifth-century bishop of Auxerre, who on two occasions came to Britain.

Offers evidence from Continental sources on early fifth-century Britain, and from Irish sources on Gildas' own reputation and career. This book is suitable for students of post-Roman Britain.

The post-Norman ecclesiastical and political transformation of south-east Wales, recorded in early C12 manuscript.

An analysis of the politics of eleventh-century Wales.

A landmark of scholarship on medieval Scotland. Professor Dauvit Broun, University of Glasgow.

A new interpretation of Celtic Christianity, supported by images of Christ taken from manuscripts, metalwork and sculpture, and showing how it departed from continental practice largely due to a differing perception and application of Pelagianism.

Saints' cults flourished in the medieval world, and the phenomenon is examined here in a series of studies.

Essays consider the changes and development of Scotland at a time of considerable flux in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.