This work describes the whole literary and scholarly output of the whole of the Irish middle ages (4th-17th centuries), in Latin and in the vernaculars, and tries to do so as comprehensively as possible, esp. in biblica, liturgica, computistica, hagiographica and grammatica. The book focuses both on individual manuscripts and on textual transmission. In the case of manuscripts, it gives succinctly information and a detailed bibliography, always chronologically arranged. In the case of texts, it lists the manuscripts in which they occur or, on occasion, where such a list can be found, together with a bibliography of relevant publications. In the case of both, there are running cross-references to the standard works of reference. Concordantiae, at the end of the volume, reinforce that. The 'Index Manuscriptorum' is the most comprehensive attempt so far to list the MSS written by the medieval Irish or transmitting their texts. It should allow new work on the fortuna of Irish MSS and texts and their influence throughout the middle ages. The chapters on MSS and texts written in Irish provide the treatment of several areas: annals, genealogies, vernacular law, early poetry, bardic poetry and metrics.--See publisher's website.

This volume offers an in-depth exploration of the cultural connections between and across Britain, Ireland, and Iceland during the high and late Middle Ages. Drawing together new research from international scholars working in Celtic Studies, Norse, and English, the contributions gathered together here establish the coherence of the medieval Insular world as an area for literary analysis and engage with a range of contemporary approaches to examine the ways, and the degrees to which, Insular literatures and cultures connect both with each other, and with the wider European mainstream. The articles in this collection discuss the Insular histories of some of the most widely read literary works and authors of the Middle Ages, including Geoffrey of Monmouth and William Langland. They trace the legends of Troy and of Charlemagne as they travelled across linguistic and geographical borders, give fresh attention to the multilingual manuscript collections of great households and families, and explore the political implications of language choice in a linguistically plural society. In doing so, they shed light on a complex network of literary and cultural connections and establish the Insular world not as a periphery, but as a centre.

A standard work in nineteen chapters from leading international scholars on bishop Isidore of Seville (d. 636), addressing the contexts in which the seventh-century bishop lived and worked, exploring his key works and activities, and finally considering his later reception.

Despite being the female patron saint of Ireland and one of the most remarkable women in Irish history, St. Brigid has always been an elusive figure. Some scholars have argued that she never existed as a real person but was merely the Christian personification of the cult of a pagan goddess of the same name. This book reviews all the evidence-history, legend and folklore-and concludes that while she has many of the attributes of the goddess Brigit, she was certainly a real person. The book also reviews her cult and veneration in Ireland and overseas, from her lifetime down to the present day, as attested by place-names, holy wells, and folklore, and also by the large numbers of churches (Roman Catholic and Church of Ireland), schools, and GAA clubs dedicated to her. [Subject: Irish Studies, Irish Saints, Folklore, Myth & Legend, Christianity, History]

The entire conception of repentance and penance in the Oriental Church in the first six centuries is a remedial one: sin represents an ailment of the soul. The confessor is called upon to meet the confessing person as a spiritual physician or soul-friend. Penance does not mean punishment, but healing like a salutary remedy. Nevertheless the lack of privacy led to the unwanted practice of postponing repentance and even baptism to the deathbed. An alternative procedure of repentance arose from the sixth century onwards in the Irish Church as well as in the Continental Church under the influence of Irish missionaries, and in the South-West-British and later the English Church (Insular Church). In treatises about repentance, called penitentials, ecclesiastical authorities of the sixth to the eight centuries wrote down regulations on how to deal with the different capital sins and minor trespasses committed by monks, clerics and laypeople. Church-representatives like Finnian, Columbanus, the anonymous author of the Ambrosianum, Cummean and Theodore developed a new conception of repentance that protected privacy and guaranteed a discrete, affordable as well as predictable penance, the paenitentia privata. They established an astonishing network in using their mutual interrelations. Here the earlier penitentials served as source for the later ones. But it is remarkable that the authors appeared as creative revisers, who took regard of the pastoral necessities of the entrusted flock. The aim of the authors was to enable the confessors to do the healing dialogue qualitatively in a high standard. The penitents should feel themselves healed, not punished.

This book is an account of Viking activity in the north of Ireland, one of the less well-known episodes in the history of early medieval Ireland. It is also the story of the Cenel nEogain dynasty, an important Irish population group in the north of the island. The kings of Ailech came to prominence c.800 AD, just as the first Viking fleets began to raid the coasts of Ulster. Early Viking activity in the north of Ireland followed a similar pattern to raiding activity elsewhere on the island. It began to diverge after 866 when Aed Findliath, a high-king of Ireland from the Cenel nEogain dynasty, destroyed Scandinavian settlements in what is now Co. Antrim. It appears to have been the intention of the Cenel nEogain to allow Viking strongholds to survive further south in Ulaid territory at Strangford Lough and Carlingford, and later-on also at Ruib Mena on Lough Neagh. However, these longphuirt too were eventually destroyed by the Irish of the north of Ireland, the final ones in a spiral of violence that surrounded the death of the famous king of Aileach, Muirchertach na Cochall Craicinn (of the Leather Cloaks), who was killed by the Vikings in 943. This book also tells the stories of other note-worthy early medieval high-kings of Ireland who sprang from the Cenel nEogain dynasty. Among those discussed is Niall Glundub, killed at the battle of Dublin in 919, leading the combined armies of the Northern and Southern Ui Neill against Viking invaders known as the grandsons of Ivarr. Also included is his grandson Domnall Ua Neill, one of the first Irishmen to adopt a surname (which he took from his well-known grandfather). It was Domnall's over-ambitious plans, caused by the expulsion of the Vikings from the north of Ireland, that instead led to the collapse of the traditional Ui Neill high-kingship of Ireland in the early eleventh century.