IMC 2014: Sessions

Session 302: Highway to Hell: Journeys to the Afterlife and the Otherworld in Medieval Irish Literature

Monday 7 July 2014, 16.30-18.00

Sponsor:	Centre for Antique, Medieval & Pre-Modern Studies (CAMPS), National University of Ireland, Galway
Organiser:	Patricia Ní Mhaoileoin, Roinn na Gaeilge, National University of Ireland, Galway
Moderator/Chair:	Elizabeth Boyle, Department of Early Irish, Maynooth University, Maynooth
Paper 302-a	Otherworlds and Underworlds: The Location of Hell and Its Inhabitants in the Deep and Distant Ocean in the Vita Ruadani and the Navigatio Brendani (Language: English) Sarah Corrigan, Department of Classics, National University of Ireland, Galway Index terms: Language and Literature - Celtic, Language and Literature - Latin, Learning (The Classical Inheritance), Religious Life
Paper 302-b	Visions, Immrama, and the Interim (Language: English) Nicole Volmering, School of Celtic Studies, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies Index terms: Language and Literature - Celtic, Language and Literature - Latin, Theology
Paper 302-c	Death is Only the Beginning: The Afterlives of Fergus mac Róich (Language: English) Patricia Ní Mhaoileoin, Roinn na Gaeilge, National University of Ireland, Galway Index terms: Hagiography, Language and Literature - Celtic, Language and Literature - Latin
Abstract	Interactions among the concepts of the otherworld, the afterlife, hell and the sea, in texts from both the secular and religious traditions of early Medieval Ireland, are the area of interest for this panel. Encompassing discussions of literary genre, theology and exegesis, the papers will explore the Biblical precedents for the conceptualisation of the sea as a location of hell; the eschatological imagery presented in the otherworldly sea-voyages of the immrama ; and the presence of a pagan hero in a Christian depiction of hell in an 11th century vision text.