Prophecy, Fate and Memory in the Early and Medieval Celtic World brings together a collection of studies on Celtic inscriptions, religious travel, settlement, penance and prophecy in medieval Celtic nations. The contributors explore the themes of memory, fate and prophecy to capture the worldview of early Celtic speaking nations and challenge the reader to consider what connections can be drawn among sources separated by time, space and language.
Going beyond the philological and mythological concerns of traditional criticism in Celtic studies, the contributors delve into religion, identity and world views to interpret how people remembered the past and envisaged the future.
Through analyses of land formations, religious structures and ideas, the legacy of Gildas, early Irish heroines and the formation of state, each chapter brings us closer to understanding the values and history of the medieval Celtic world.
Illustrations Introduction: prophecy, fate and memory in the early and Medieval Celtic World by Jonathan M. Wooding 1. Poeninus and the Romanisation of the Celtic Alps by Bernard Mees 2. Landscapes, myth-making and memory: ecclesiastical landholding in Early Medieval Ireland by Tomás Ó Carragáin 3. Remembering and forgetting holy men and their places: an inscription from Llanllŷr, Wales by Jonathan M. Wooding 4. Early Irish Peregrinatio as salvation history by Meredith D. Cutrer 5. Insular influences on Carolingian and Ottonian literature and Art by Penny Nash 6. The De xii abusivis saeculi and prophetic tradition in seventh-century Ireland by Constant J. Mews 7. Memories of Gildas: Gildas and the Collectio canonum Hibernensis by Stephen Joyce 8. Armes Prydein as a legacy of Gildas by Lynette Olson 9. A woman’s fate: Deirdre and Gráinne throughout literature by Roxanne T. Bodsworth 10. ‘No remission without satisfaction’: canonical influences on secular lawmaking in High Medieval Scotland by Cynthia J. Neville 11. Esoteric tourism in Scotland: Rosslyn Chapel, The Da Vinci Code, and the appeal of the ‘New Age’ by Carole M. Cusack Index
