Description

The sixteen articles in Proceedings of the Harvard Celtic Colloquium, 41, present a broad range of topics in Celtic Studies and an equally broad time scale. The October 2022 keynote by Dr. Natasha Sumner examines the common folklore trope in Celtic literature of an individual trapped, tricked, or accidentally trespassing into the Otherworld, seeking escape or rescue. Several contributions to the volume examine Irish and Welsh poetry, medieval and modern in both form and content. Women, as poets as well as subjects, are highlighted. Literary culture in the early modern period in Ireland is covered through published reviews, as well as in an article about an Irish émigré's notebook. Medieval Irish religious beliefs feature in articles on Irish hagiography, divination, and the use of relics. Drama and performance are represented in two articles which discuss Welsh translations of Shakespeare and Scots-Gaelic theatre. A study of place names in the vicinity of Iona reveals a cultural topography as well as actual landscape. An investigation into the attitudes towards the disabled and impaired in medieval Irish literature, an apparently modern concern, finds surprising resonance with themes of compassion and acceptance.