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IMC 2010: Sessions

Session 519: Imagined Landscapes in Medieval Celtic Literature

Tuesday 13 July 2010, 09.00-10.30

Sponsor:Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse & Celtic, University of Cambridge
Organiser:Philip Dunshea, Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse & Celtic, University of Cambridge
Moderator/Chair:Paul Russell, Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse & Celtic, University of Cambridge
Paper 519-aDelw y byd: Imagining the World in Medieval Wales
(Language: English)
Natalia Petrovskaia, Peterhouse, University of Cambridge
Index terms: Crusades, Language and Literature - Celtic, Manuscripts and Palaeography, Mentalities
Paper 519-bPlace and Journey: The World of Dindshenchas Érenn
(Language: English)
Aidan Russell, St Cross College, University of Oxford
Index terms: Language and Literature - Celtic, Mentalities, Onomastics
Paper 519-cSome hengerdd Place Names Reconsidered: The Landscape of the 'Old North'
(Language: English)
Philip Dunshea, Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse & Celtic, University of Cambridge
Index terms: Language and Literature - Celtic, Onomastics
Abstract

Our session will explore the geographical Weltanschauungen of the medieval Welsh and Irish as they were laid out in some of their literary manuscripts. We would like to discuss these imagined landscapes on three levels: local and national (Russell), international (Petrovskaia), and historical (Dunshea). Petrovskaia's paper will outline the main distinctive features of the Welsh tradition of the imago mundi, a geographical treatise translated into Welsh in the mid-13th century. Russell will explore how Dindshenchas Érenn constructs a coherent imaginative geography of Ireland, in which each place becomes an avatar of some socially significant issue through the themes and characters of its etymological origin story. Dunshea will look at how the medieval Welsh remembered the landscape of the North British kingdoms in their hengerdd poems.