News
News
Nooks and crannies from Dinnshenchas Érenn
This Friday and Saturday, the School of Celtic Studies (DIAS) is hosting a conference dedicated to that wonderful, heady collection of Irish placename lore known as Dindshenchas Érenn. Go check out the programme and attend the conference if you have the chance.
The occasion reminds me that I have some raw material lying around that may be useful to some of you. The vast majority of the edited texts and translations by Edward Gwynn and Whitley Stokes are available from CELT and Thesaurus Linguae Hibernicae (see here for references). Gwynn's Metrical Dindshenchas, however, also offers some additional material in the form of variant or related texts that are not covered by CELT and since they are relegated to endnotes and appendices, may be more easily overlooked. The following transcriptions are all taken from volumes 3 and 5. DISCLAIMER: proofreading is still necessary, so I apologise in advance for any sloppiness on my part or lack of clarity in the accompanying notes. For the manuscript abbreviations used (M, Y, etc.), just see the catalogue entry in CODECS.
MD III: Cnogba
p. 483: CNOGBA, prose text, ed. Gwynn, MD, from Y, with corrections from H, S and S3. Cf. Stokes, Bodleian Dindsenchas, no. 43. link
Edition
CNOGBA, canas rohainmniged ? nínsa. h-Englic ingen Ealcmaire, rochar Aengus mac in h-Oc, & ni roichestair. [an tan] do theaglaimsed cluichi eter Cleiteach & Sid an Broga, doaithidis [sídchaire & aos án] Erend an cluichi sin cach aidchi samna, & a cuid mesraidi leo .i. cna. dolodar tri meic Deirg meic Eadamain atuaid a Síd Findabrach. dorucsad ingin Ealcmair leo a fuadach, timcheall na macraidi cen fis doib. IN tan rofedadar rorithsead na diaid conigi in dind dianad ainm Cnogba. doronsat guba mor ann, & isi feis fosrailangair (forrailangair S ; foraolangar S3 ; fosraolangar H) ann, cnó-mes. undo derivatur don guba imna cnóib : [ut dicitur]
- IS de ata Cnogba na cúan conad • ai[r]dric la gach slúag
- don guba iar mbuain cno dé • d'eis [dfess Y] ingine Ealcmaire
no comad ó ingin ríg Breatan .i. Búa bean Loga : & is iad so mná Loga, ut dicitur :
- Echtach ingen Deaga [Daghdha HS3] déid-ghil • Englic, Nás, Búi cen brath,
- is iad sin mná Logha línmair • rug roglia ó rignaib co rath.
Translation
Cnogba, whence was it named ? not hard to tell. Englic, daughter of Elcmaire, Aengus mac ind Oc loved her, and could not win her. They held a gathering for sports between Cleitech and Sid in Broga, and the fairy people and the noble folk of all Erin used to attend these sports every Samain eve, bringing with them provision of shell-fruit, that is, nuts. The three sons of Derg, son of Etaman, came from the North out of Sid Findabrach, and bore off the daughter of Elcmaire at a swoop, unknown to the young men (timcheall = cen fi dóib). These, when they knew of it, pursued after the reavers as far as the knoll that is called Cnogba. There they raised a loud lament, and this is the feast that sustained them there—the nut-crop. Hence the name is derived, from the lament over the nuts (cnó-guba) :
- “Hence comes Cnogba of the troops, so that it is famed among every folk,
- from the lament after stripping its nuts, when the daughter of Elcmaire was lost.”
Or else it was named after the King of Britain’s daughter Búi, wife of Lug : and these are the wives of Lug, as the poet says—:
- “Echtach, daughter of white-toothed Daig, Englic, Nas, guileless Bui,
- these are the wives of Lug, lord of hosts, who won the flower of gracious queens.”
MD III: Single stanza on ratha
p. 471: stanza from a poem in RIA MS D iv 3, f. 30v [1]
- Hite ratha rogaib Tuathal tren fri tobuch
- ...
MD III: Bend Etair I
p. 495 [2]: Prose from LL 216b line 1ff, on Slíab Mairge - "n with a dot above" is written as "n." (cnocc n.Duind). Cf. SG II: p. 521, version from Ed., Kilbride MS.
Edition
Margg ingen Rotmand maic Thacce, ben side do Echad Muniste rí Galian. Oen ingen lec .i. Bethe a hainm. Tue Etar mac Etgáith iside iarsain & ruc a hingin lee co tech Etair. Et oen mac ar a cind oc Etar .i. Aes mac Etair, conastuc side Bethi do mnái & co ruc mac dó. Dond dano a ainm-side. Oen ingen dano laiside .i. Elta a hainm-side. Romarbait dano Aes & Bethi oc immarbáig snáma issin muir. Beist rodosmarb. Et a quibus dicuntur, Rind chind 'Aisi, & ó Bethi, & cnocc n.Duind & mag nElta & bend Etair. Luid Margg iarsin iar n-éc caich di chumaid araile uadib co riacht in sliab n-ucut, ar ba sain-treb di, conabbad and. Unde sliab Mairgge.
MD III (and V): Currech Life
p. 520 n. 17: part of the prose of Lumman Tige Srafain from LL 193b. [3]. The text below incorporates corrections in Vol. V, p. 140.
Edition
Bái cath-milid in tan sin, & ba faid & ba fili é .i. Fer Bern mac Regamna, brathair do Find mac Regamna. Et oca-saide bói Teite ingen Maic Nia a quo Oenach Teite nominatur. Inund máthair (in margin .i. Fainchi trechichech ingen Airmora do Aradaib Cliach) la Currech mac Cathbad (?) & la Fothad Cananne & la Teiti la mnái Find maic Regamna & inund athair la Fer Bern & la Find mac Regamna
Translation
There was a warrior at this time, and he was a prophet and a poet, namely Fer Bern mac Regamna, brother to Find mac Regamna. And they had (in common) Teite he had to wife Téite daughter of Mac Nia, from whom Oenach Teite is named. Currech mac Cathbad (?) Cathair, Fothad Cananne and Find mac Regamna had the same mother (namely, Fainche Trí-chiíchech of Arada Cliach), and Fer Bern and Find mac Regamna had the same father.
MD III: Slíab nEchtga II
p. 532: [4]
Edition
Tri hollamain Chondacht .i. mac Liacc & mac Coisi & Fland mac Lonain .i. mac De & mac duine & mac deamain. Fland mac Lonain, mac deamain side ara geri & ara duilgi, uair ni deachaid a tig riam cen easba aire do denum cen esba aíre do dénum and. Mac Liac imorro mac duine ar febas a thigidis & ara febus arai in duine fen. Mac Cosi imorro mac De ar met a derci & is bas ailithri ruc. Illrechtach imorro ainm timpanaich meic Liac & timpanach meic Lonain roime he & dobai ac mac Liac iar n-ec meic Lonain. Dochuaid mac Liac do indsaigid Briain dia acallaim & Illrechtach mailli fris. IS amlaid notheighed co menic o loch Riach tar Echtgi fodeas co Luimneach ocus da puitric dec lais con a mbiad dingbala leo. Uair is da radarc dec atat a n-Echtgi & puitric noibead in cach radarc dibsin. Feacht and tra dochuadar fodeas & rosuidsedar i n-aroile cnuc inti .i. ceann Crochain & adbert mac Liag: Is imda cnoc & loch & dingna & robad fis mor a fis uili. Albert Ilrachtach: damad he mac Lonain nobeith sunn nobiad aici a fis dinds.eanchais cach inaid sund. Adbert mac Liag: Gabair sut & crochair he. Rochunnig Ilrechtach dal co maidin & tucad do can a chrochad, & rothraisc an aidchi sin co toracht anum Floind meic Lonain dia chobair. o drechtadar madan moch iarnabarach, adchonncadar chucu mac Lonan & adbert riu: Leigid uaib in cimid & indisfead duib seanchas cach dingna sunna isin nEchtgi. Rosaerad amlaid sen in timpanach cen a chrochad ac mac Liag & adbert mac Lonan and sin in duan-sa and.
Translation
There were three learned poets of Connaught, Mac Liac and Mac Coise and Fland mac Lonain, that is, the son of God, the son of Man, and the son of the Demon. Fland mac Lonain was called the son of the Demon, for his covetousness and surliness; for he never entered a house without causing loss therein without composing a wanton satire. But Mac Liac was called the son of Man for the good cheer of his house and for the goodness of the man himself. Mac Coise again was called the son of God for the greatness of his charity, and he died on a pilgrimage.
Now, the name of Mac Liac’s harper was Ilbrechtach (infra, 114); he had formerly been harper to Mac Lonain, and after Mac Lonain’s death he served Mac Liac. Mac Liac went to visit Brian and converse with him, and Ilbrechtach went with him. He would often go from Loughrea southward across Slieve Aughty to Limerick, carrying with him twelve bottles and suitable victuals thereto. For there are twelve points of view in Slieve Aughty, and he used to drink a bottle at each of them. Once upon a time they went southwards and sat them down on a certain hill named Cend Crochain, and Mac Liac said: ‘There be many hills and [p. 533] lakes and notable places, and ‘twere great knowledge to know them all.’ ‘If Mac Lonain were here,’ said Ilbrechtach, ‘he would know the story of every spot we see.’ Said Mac Liac, ‘Let some one take this fellow and hang him!’ Ilbrechtach begged a respite until morning, and it was granted to him; and he fasted all that night until the soul of Fland mac Lonain came to his aid. When they rose early next morning, they saw Mac Lonain approaching, and he said to them: ‘Let the prisoner go, and I will tell you the story of every notable place here in Slieve Aughty.’ So the harper was set free and escaped hanging at Mac Liac’s hands, and then Mac Lonain uttered this lay.
MD III: Mag nAidni
p. 537: [5] An introductory stanza in MS S not found in the other MSS
Edition
- Aidhne fer in mhaige moir . mac Allguba maic Etheoir
- é noadaidh tenidh treabh . re maccaibh mora Míledh
MD III: Turloch Silinde
p. 546-7 S: prose account of Loch mBlonac. [6]
Edition
Loch mBlonac, cid diatá? ninsa. Blonac ingen Tái roaitreb ann, & ba banbriugaid amra isidhe; conidh a n-inadh lías a gamhna roḟásastair in loch. Silend ingen Machair meic Duthain meic Rúin is sí robái isinn inadh sin ria mBlonaic, & ba holc re Silind [a] gabail di fuirri co rimgaib hi & co forgaib (read fargaib) an tir lé co Cuil Silinde a Muigh 'Ai, conid uaidhe raiter loch Silinde fri <pb n="547"/>loch Cairrgin & Cúil Silinde frisinn inadh atá.
Translation
Loch Blonac, whence its name? not hard to say. Blonac daughter of Tai dwelt there, and she was a famous landowner; and it was on the site of her calf-pen that the lake spread forth. Silend daughter of Machar son of Duthain son of Run had lived on that spot before Blonac came, and she was vexed at Blonac’s taking it from her. So she shunned her and left the land to her [and went] to Cuil Silinde in Mag Ai. So Loch Cairrgin is called Loch Silinde from her, and the spot where she abides is called Cuil Silinde.
MD III: Mag Muireisce
p. 557. Additional poem (3qq) in M, the first stanza of which also occurs in S S3 H as an interpolation after l. 28 (below). The same three stanzas are also found at the end of the prose version in Rawlinson B 506, edited and translated in Whitley Stokes, ‘The Bodleian dinnshenchas’, Folk-Lore 3 (1892): 507–508.
Edition (MD)
- Muiriasc foceard in mhuir mhor . diamadh [dianad] ainm Rosualt [corr: rosualt] romhor:
- ba hangmaidh in gnim co ngle . dia tairngair <ps>Colum Cille</ps>.
- Tolo mairb-eisc tuili te . re lind <ps>Gairbeisc Glunraighe</ps>:
- fobrucht in muir milib clann . fo ceithri hairdib <pn>Erenn</pn>.
- No 'si <pn>Muireasc</pn> ciar creachach . >ingen din ua deidh-Eachach:
- ba buaidh a bladh gan cuir cuir . fofuair in magh co mor-muir.
MD III: Carn Conaill
p. 559. Interpolated stanza in BB p. 30, coming after l. 104:
- Roadnacht in triar aile . a ndumachaib Findmaighe
- is de ita cnocán na ceand . túas i Raith Umaill imtheand
Translation
The other three were buried in the mounds of Mag Find; hence is named Cnocan na Cend, northward, in strong Rath Umaill.
MD III: Loch Rí
p. 560. Additional poem in M.
Edition
- Loch Ri, cred ba fail in tainm . a eolcha Fail re fir-gairm?
- raidhid ce in Ri o fuil . a eolcha dana in domain.
- Ri mac Muireada co mblaidh . do mhuigh Mighi meagar-glain
- dadaghab [read rogab] aitribh and re headh . a muig n-Airften ua n-aingeal.
- Gearran robo dedla dhe . damhun a haithli a eire:
- darin tipra, ba glan glor . dan mhun mor ina mhedon.
- Leathnais in tibra tren . tar mag nAirftean [ua] n-ard-sgel:
- baithis Ri, bha dedla dhe . eidir each is innile.
- On rig sin ba fortail feidhm . ainmnnichear he fo Erinn
- is uadha sin, sloind co moch . ata co dedla in dead-loch.
Translation
Loch Rí, whence comes its name, truly given, ye learned of Inis Fail? Say who was Rí from whom it is called, ye learned poets in all the world!
Rí, son of famous Muirid, of the bright joyous plain of Meath, got a home there for a time in Mag Airbthen of the angels.
A gelding—the braver was he!—when loosed of his burden staled and made a spring—it was thence of talk—of the abundant flow in mid-plain.
The copious spring spread over Mag Airbthen famed in story; it drowned Rí—the braver was he!—with his horse and all his cattle.
From that Rí—it was a masterful effort—the lake is named throughout Erin: from him—a title early won—bravely arose the noble lake.
MD V: Oenach Uchbad
MS M [7]
Edition
1.
A caithir naem, comall ngle,
fuil fa bruindi Duirn Buide,
ba caitir ced ocus cuan,
re tathaig bed is borb[s.]luagh.
2.
Mor in sluag dotathaig ann
dolb comaithi fear n-Ereann:
Abartach, Ilbreac na rann,
mor in feadhan, is Doreann.
3.
In t-aenach sin, aenach Sainb,
el- in rig-airm:
ic ath na feini, is fir dam,
is e a ainm Aenach Uchbad.
4.
In t-ath sin Ath Salach sean,
risa n-abar Ath Cuitech,
ropsad Ath Catach a ainm,
a ndorochair Dubh mac Rogairb.
5.
An sliab adciu allaneas,
ar nach tallad comaitheas,
Caill Abla fa buidnib fear,
aball-gort Duib meic Deagad.
Translation
1. O home of saints, famous assembly, that standest by the marge of Dorn Buide! thou wast once a home of hundreds and of hosts, visited by doughty deeds and fierce troops.
2. Great was the array that visited it, the wizard folk that dwelt among the men of Erin,—Abartach, Ilbreac maker of rhymes, and Doirenn, great was the brotherhood.
3. That meeting-place, the meeting-place of Sanb ... the royal spot: by the ford of fighting men, truth I tell, its name was Aenach Uchbad.
4. That ford was Ath Salach of old, that is also called Ath Cuitech; Ath Catach was its name when Dub son of Rogarb fell.
5. The mountain I see to the southward, where no foreign force found place, was called among the multitude Caill Abla, the orchard of Dub mac Dedad.
MD V: Tuaim Dá Gualann
Edition
1.
Tuaim Da Gualaind, cred da buil,
indis uaid duind a udair:
indis duind gu dian gan dailb
narb esin riam i[n] rig-ainm?
2.
Æn ainm deg, is demin leam,
do reir na n-udar n-imtheand,
do atraig Tuaim for a cli
nogor thiglaích in ... en ri.
3.
Dun Seanaig a ainm ar tus,
as meabair leam a thimtus:
do ataigdis eolaigh sin
nuar dobi na Dun Seanaig.
4.
Na diag sin fo Gleann nGabha:
na diaig sein ba Lis Raba:
da eadar sa na diaig sin
fa he Dun Cairbri in cuigidh.
5.
Na diaig fa Gleann Achtarba
7 fa Suigeach Sealga:
ainiaig [sin] Gleann (?) Da Sealga,
arsin Dun Findlaic meic Fadhaig.
6.
Na diag sin ba Mur Mergi
gus (?) digdis fir nai seilgi:
Gleann na Fine na diaig sin,
is Dun Guill meic Glais-reannaigh.
7.
Na diaig sin fa hArd hIbair (?)
baile i neandais fir cinaig:
Tuaim Da Gualand na diaig sin
do rosbeannach Iarlaithe.
8.
Meabair and guaille in carbaid
inneach robe air farbairt
Tuaim Da Gualaind, creogu (?) sín,
ba he hainm agna etheolcaib.
9.
... sunna (?) in seancas fir
fath ainma Tuama re ...,
diamai (?) Iarlaithe na thigh,
intan tangadar Breatnaigh.
10.
Guala e ... is guala dearg (?)
and (?) o ḟearsadar coim fearg:
marbas gach d ... a cheili,
robo mana mor-meili.
11.
... Iarlaithi iarsin
Breatnaigh aigi (?) iar madin:
cuiris creidib inntibh ...
... aibh proigebta
12
...... arsin
ana ... in marbaili in cleirigh
isse sin ......
... tra fath (?) in anma sin.
13
...... mor na mind
darindi ...... druim (?)
— ...... doba heolach tra
dind[ṡ]eancas treorach Tuama. T.D.
Translation
1. Tuaim Dá Gualann, whence comes the name? tell us, O author! tell us quickly and truthfully, was not this the royal name of old?
2. Eleven names, I certify, according to sound authors ...
3. Dun Senaig was at first its name, I remember its story: the learned resorted thither when it was still Dun Senaig.
4. Thereafter it was Glenn Gaba, and next Liss Raba: I know that afterwards it was Dun Cairbre of the province.
5. Thereafter it was Glenn Echtarba and Suigeach Sealga (?): after that, Glenn Da Selga, then the Dun of Finnlaech mac Fadaig.
6. Thereafter it was Mur Meirge, whither came the hunters: after that, Glenn na Fine and the Dun of Goll mac Glaissrennaig.
7. Thereafter it was Ard Ibair, the place where men wrought a crime (?): after that it became Tuaim Da Gualann, when Iarlaithe gave it his blessing.
8. There the chariot’s shaft was broken; if any one makes enquiry (?) Tuaim Da Gualann (this is ...) was its name among the learned.
9. Here ye have the true story, the reason of Tuam’s name, when Iarlaithe had his home there, what time the Britons came.
10. A red shoulder is that Shoulder since they joined combat there: each man slew his fellow—it was cause of great grief.
11. Iarlaithe [called] thereafter the Britons to him after matins: he implanted the Faith in them, [and they heard his] preaching.
12. (Seems to be about a miracle performed by Iarlaithe, if we are to read mírbaile in l. 46.)
13. (Mostly illegible, except for the last few words which begin the second column of the page.)
Rob Meens was the plenary speaker for the 29th Irish Conference of Medievalists in 2015, which marked the 1400th anniversary of Columbanus’s death. The recordings of his paper have been made available online.
Introducing the Text Focaliser
Did you ever had to work your way through a sizeable corpus of texts and wished you had a digital toolset to hand that allowed you not only to store annotations (such as tags and references to scholarly discussions), but to go about it in a more systematic, semantically structured and data-driven fashion? Better still, one which allowed you to perform such actions within a team/community whose members may be physically far removed from one another? You or your group may have been focussing on particular figures in history or literary characters, places real and imagined, literary and learned motifs or themes, legal topics, lexical items of interest, linguistic features, narrative devices, metrical forms, evidence of intertextuality, or dates and recurring events, etc. Having assembled the data, you want automated queries to present your data in conveniently arranged lists, tables, filtered views, maps and what not.
It may seem a bit much to ask for, at least if one were aiming for the ultimate ‘chef’s knife’ that can do anything with equal success, but it is not an idle hope. In fact, such a multi-purpose tool is precisely what has been the focus of preparations here at CODECS. Why? Behind the scenes, I had already experimented with tailor-made solutions to specific projects, but in the end, a more centralised effort seemed both more productive and more feasible than building/maintaining separate tools for many different specialised needs.
Enter the Text Focaliser (previously Text Itemiser), for lack of a more adequate, catchier or established term. The challenge has been to develop a set of tools and methods that is at once simple and accessible enough to be easily taught and used, and can be used to assist a wide agenda of research questions with which one may approach a text or corpus of texts. Broadly speaking, the process involves three main areas of activity.
1. Editing items
A special editing form allows editors to do two things: (1) single out an item of source information, or multiple items under a shared heading, and (2) add semantic annotations about each item. Typically, such selections focus on manageably small sections of text that are relatively coherent in themselves, but there are other possibilities. In lieu of a full presentation, here is a screenshot to give you a rough impression:
2. Controlled vocabularies
The use of controlled vocabularies is not new to this site, but work in this area has certainly improved and accelerated with the coming of a new data tool that takes full advantage of their possibilities. It involves setting up a thesaurus of predefined terms that provide reliable anchor points for semantic tagging (no. 1 above), but which are also structured and organised themselves in order to assist data queries (no 3. below).
3. Queries
Semantic queries can act upon the available data and produce convenient overviews, for instance by rendering lists and tables, maps, filtered search and custom views. Some of these facilities are already available from this site, although they come with a soft warning.
A simple example:
- 1. An editor opens the form to edit a page about the introductory part of Aislinge Meic Con Glinne. At the point where this text makes a parody of the ‘four conditions of every composition’, the editor can add an appropriate tag to the ‘subject’ field. But which one?
- 2. The thesaurus includes a relevant term called four elements of composition (time, place, person and cause) (a variant of the six elementa narrationis in rhetorics), which is occasionally attested as a learned motif in Hiberno-Latin and Middle Irish writing. This term is indexed as a subclass of ‘numerical motifs’.
- 1. If the term is present (which it is), the editor can select the value from the autocomplete box. If it isn't, the term can still be defined later on, or a value can be added to the ‘keywords’ field: this is a field for non-standardised tags so that decisions can be deferred to a later, more convenient time, or referred to for consultation by other editors.
- 3. If we were to look for ‘numerical motifs’ in vernacular Irish writing and built a query to that effect, this example would turn up in our query results.
Of course, I have greatly simplified the process, for the sake of clarity if at the expense of ignoring some intricacies, but the general idea stands. For now, these outlines are all I have time for, but hopefully, I can dedicate the next series of posts to elucidating each of these areas in some detail and to offering some concrete examples.
Upgrade (16 April 2016)
Yes, the site has had an upgrade, all data have been rebuilt and I am looking forward to investigating some new opportunities.
ICU collation
CODECS needs coders! This website is in need of an appropriate ICU collation(demo) with which to sort its semantic query results in a more satisfactory alphanumeric order. While MW (MediaWiki) supports various such collations (e.g. uca-default and uca-ga) for page listings in categories and has even begun to take tailorings for natural number sorting more seriously(link), SMW (Semantic MediaWiki) has not yet caught up with these developments. Fortunately, SMW has an open community and an open-source repository at GitHub. If you are a programmer with relevant skills and experience in this field, you are very much encouraged to contribute a fix and help out CODECS as well as many others around the globe! Please see the report in this link.
| What should happen (uca-default) |
What actually happens (uppercase) |
|---|---|
|
[D]
[E]
[F]
[Z]
|
[D]
[E]
[F]
[Z]
[É]
[d]
|
This call for help is long overdue. In layman’s terms, collation is about comparing different character strings and putting them in a normalised order. Notoriously, default sort behaviour does not always follow the logic that most of us might expect to see and so may seem rather counterintuitive and unnatural. In that respect, SMW and most earlier versions of MW are no different: the uppercase and identity collations dictate a simple binary comparison of values but make insufficient linguistic or strategic – ‘natural’ – sense.
Consider the comparison on the left, which painfully demonstrates at least three key issues:
1. As shown by the values under [D] / [d], uppercase starts with uppercase A–Z and then proceeds with lowercase a–z. Especially in the case of lengthy lists of lexical items, the distance between results under [D] and those under [d] is unhelpful.
2. As shown by the values under [E] / [É] and [F], characters with diacritics (accented letters) do not quite end up where you would want them to be. Results beginning with É, for instance, are relegated to a position after [Z]. Again, the problem worsens when the list gets to a certain length. Those familiar with orthographic variation in Irish would not be too pleased to discover that Fiachu and Fíachu, which represent the same name, are now living miles apart.
3. As shown by the values under [Z], natural numerical sorting is another tricky affair.
For a long time, MediaWiki’s answer to this conundrum has been to tinker with the sortkey of each page: for instance, to add the sortkey Eriu for a page with the title Ériu. This approach has also been adopted here for quite a large number of pages and probably remains a convenient workaround for idiosyncratic cases, but the work is tedious and time-consuming. That is not all. Even if I could muster the number of volunteer forces necessary to take on such work, which is doubtful, I have not even covered the even larger number of page-type valuesthat is, values of a semantic property that has been declared as having the datatype <tt>Page</tt> for which no dedicated page is available.
Of course, there is no one-size-fits-all solution. Because languages and writing systems have different needs, there is no single sort order which can satisfy them all at the same time. As a basis for our mixed, multilingual indexes, however, UCA (Unicode Collation Algorithm) – or its open-source implementation ICU, to be precise – is comfortably adequate: it solves #1 and #2 and offers a tailoring for #3. I have already switched to uca-xx collation in MediaWiki core, but need SMW to follow suit.
KB web archive
Some good and admittedly, flattering news. The National Library of the Netherlands (Koninklijke Bibliotheek) in The Hague has selected our websites in the vanhamel.nl domain to be added to its web archive. This is part of a strategy begun in 2007 to build a digital archive of what it calls “the most significant websites of The Netherlands”. Its goal is to ensure their long-term availability in order that researchers and students may still be able to access them in the future.
CODECS beta
Welcome to the beta version of CODECS: Online Database and e-Resources for Celtic Studies.or simply prepend ‘Collaborative’ if you happen to dislike recursive acronyms While its name and design are indeed new, this website continues the collection of digital resources, including the selgā catalogue and Tionscadal na Nod, which was formerly accommodated on the main website of the A. G. van Hamel Foundation for Celtic Studies (itself now at www.vanhamel.nl/stichting). The project is still published by the Foundation and directed by board member Dennis Groenewegen.
As you may have read over at www.vanhamel.nl, this part of the website needed to be taken offline while a major transition was in force. This was not so much a technical issue as a matter of insufficient resources at our disposal (remember that the project has carried on without any outside funding). A combination of unfortunate circumstances, however, led to a considerably longer period of delay than anticipated. It was in the middle of a series of scheduled activities when I had to devote more of my time and energy to a grievous personal situation. At this time, my father, who had been suffering from malignant mesothelioma, was becoming increasingly weaker every day. He sadly passed away on the 29th of April.
The release of a beta version might seem premature, but I found myself a little overwhelmed by the many messages that have reached me lately. Many visitors, in fact, seem to have been relying on the availability of the website. I have, therefore, decided to reopen it even in its unfinished, somewhat unsteady state. Obviously, this comes with a hefty disclaimer, but most of you should be able to find your way around these parts as you used to.
A new design (brief announcement)
Within a couple of days, we will begin rolling out a thoroughly renewed design for the website. As this design will need to be tested live, there will be a brief liminal period in which you may witness mysterious (dis)appearances, unfamiliar code, elements floating astray, and other unsettling behaviour. So please bear with us while we restore things to order.
Upgrade (16 May 2014)
Here is a very brief announcement to inform you that a key component of the software used to run this website has been upgraded. In addition to the usual bug fixes and performance improvements, there are also a number of new features and feature improvements that hold promises for the future. For now I should just like to point out two temporary issues that have come about as a result of the upgrade. First, it's no longer possible to have custom search forms embedded inside other pages, at least not until a fix has been provided. It will take you an extra mouse click to go to the search form, so I hope you can manage the effort. Second, the calendar and list of events will be temporarily out of business, because the underlying data structure is now in need of revision. We will return with a spanking new calendar. Please bear with us while work is underway.
Het woordenboek Bretons/Nederlands en Nederlands/Bretons van Jan Deloof (2014) staat online!
De meest up-to-date versie van het tweetalige woordenboek van Jan Deloof, Geriadurig Brezhoneg–Nederlandeg & Nederlandeg–Brezhoneg, is nu online beschikbaar! Het wordt aangeboden op de website van de Stichting op het volgende adres:
In 2004 verscheen de eerste editie van het ‘woordenboekje’ (Geriadurig), een wat bescheiden benaming voor een woordenboek dat zo'n 800 pagina's telt met meer dan 40.000 lemma's. Zie Kelten 26 voor een recensie door Dimitri Boekhoorn. Toen in 2008 de heer Deloof het woordenboek had voorzien van een GPL license, werd het door Kevin Donnelly geïndexeerd voor een digitale, doorzoekbare uitgave, die nog altijd te raadplegen is op http://brezhoneg.org.uk/deloof (2008-2010). Ondertussen heeft Deloof niet stilgezeten, maar is hij nog gestaag in de weer geweest met het bijwerken van het woordenboek. Tussentijdse revisies konden worden ingezien op zijn persoonlijke website. De beoogde wijzigingen zijn inmiddels doorgevoerd en de Stichting heeft nu de eer gekregen om de vruchten van zijn werk online te mogen aanbieden.
Het veelzijdige oeuvre van Jan Deloof (geboren te Zwevegem in 1930) laat zich niet makkelijk in een hokje plaatsen, maar één van de constanten wordt gevormd door zijn verdiensten als vertaler van Bretonse literatuur. Een mooi voorbeeld hiervan is de tweetalige bloemlezing van twintigste-eeuwse Bretonse poëzie N'em eus lec'h all ebet / Ik heb geen ander land, Kruispunt 174 (Brugge, 1998). In 2007 ontving hij de Priz Roparz Hemon, een belangrijke onderscheiding voor zijn inspanningen en bijdragen aan de Bretonse taal en cultuur.
Project *selgā is inviting contributors
This announcement sums it up really:
(It may not be news to some of you, but more than once, we have heard from people that they were not aware of the opportunity being presented. Admittedly, some of the relevant information lies buried in the news archives, so to put the announcement more prominently on the website, and indeed on our agenda, seems to be the most sensible thing to do.)
Contributing in ways other than editing
In view of the above, this would be a good time to mention that participation should not be taken in the narrow sense only. If you are unable to commit yourself to editing or reviewing, but you have resources to offer that could well be of use to the project, we strongly encourage you to contact us at the customary address. We have had some positive experiences in this respect.
As previously announced, Jongeling (Karel) has made his personal bibliography of Welsh linguistics available for use by the bibliographical component of the project. Work on this is still continuing. Since Dr. Jongeling (now retired) has previously carried out research into the early, pre-scientific days of Welsh linguistics, it may not surprise you that this includes a list of early (i.e. pre-1880) works, especially Welsh grammars, dictionaries and comparative linguistic studies discussing the genetic status of the Welsh language. Since the catalogue will also cover printed works as part of our entries about texts, this should be a particularly valuable aid.
More recently, Hofman (Rijcklof) has donated a partial transcription of Calder's edition of Auraicept na n-éces, with the variants being conveniently tabulated side by side. Hofman has previously published on the Auraicept and thankfully, an article dating back to these years has finally appeared in print. These days, he is especially active in research on texts connected with the Modern Devotion movement (e.g. Geert Grootte).
We would also like to thank Hewitt (Steve) for sending in his bibliographical overview of Breton linguistics, his special area of expertise. It will be gratefully mined for the project. We are pleased to learn that he will be joining the *selgā team once his retirement releases him from his current obligations.
Oproep aan Nederlandse keltologen
Elk jaar wordt in het blad Kelten: Mededelingen van de Stichting A. G. van Hamel voor Keltische Studies een alfabetisch overzicht opgenomen van de publicaties van Nederlandse keltologen die in het voorgaande jaar zijn verschenen. Daarmee hopen we een afspiegeling te kunnen geven van de levendige Nederlandse bijdrage aan de Keltistiek. De overzichten voor de periode 2003-2011 zijn bijgewerkt en kunnen online worden geraadpleegd op de pagina ‘Publicatieoverzicht van Nederlandse keltologen’.
Natuurlijk zal het overzicht ook dit jaar niet ontbreken. Wij zouden daarom alle Nederlandse keltologen willen verzoeken om vóór 1 september uw publicaties van 2012 aan ons door te geven via biblio@vanhamel.nl.
Ook wetenschappelijke publicaties die niet door een keltoloog zijn geschreven, maar wel handelen over een Keltisch onderwerp, worden in het overzicht opgenomen. Als u hiervan de auteur bent of als op u op de hoogte bent van dergelijke publicaties, dan horen wij graag van u.
Het overzicht verschijnt in Kelten 60 (november 2013).
A table of contents for ZCP
It was only last week when we were able to report to you that a table of contents for the Revue Celtique has been compiled for selgā. Hot on the heels of this last effort, we have completed a table of contents for another giant among the Celtic journals and one that is very much alive today: Zeitschrift für celtische Philologie. This covers the first 59 volumes (volume 60 is still in the making), excluding reviews.
A table of contents for Revue Celtique
Founded by French scholar Henri Gaidoz in 1870, the Revue Celtique is the first journal to be dedicated exclusively to the broad field of Celtic studies. 51 volumes were published between 1870 and 1934, when it ceased publication and was continued by Études Celtiques. Regular contributors included such luminaries as Henri d'Arbois de Jubainville, Joseph Loth, Joseph Vendryes, Émile Ernault, Kuno Meyer and Whitley Stokes.
If you have been searching the web for a table of contents, to no avail, you'll probably be glad to know that all c. 1250 articles have now been indexed for the selgā catalogue and bibliography. A table of contents, including links to the scanned versions available from the Internet Archive and Gallica, can be viewed here and of course, our search facilities will return relevant results as usual. Note that this currently excludes the many short contributions in the sections Bibliographie, Chronique and Périodiques. We have tried to cover all additions and corrections that were published separately, either in the same volume or a subsequent one. As it is not unlikely though that such peripheral notes have been occasionally overlooked, we would like to encourage the eagle-eyed observers among you to send your corrections to the undersigned at selga <at> vanhamel.nl.
Previewing the previews (*selgā March 2013)
Much of the work that has been lurking behind the scenes has been an exercise in preparation for improvements to the software (SMW) that have not yet been implemented in official versions of the product. One such improvement relates to the use of so-called ‘subobjects’: rather than having the page dictate the base unit for semantic annotation, so that semantic differentiation is primarily determined by the use of different properties, it will allow us to associate smaller chunks of information together. These smaller datasets then remain tied to the entry for which they are written but are otherwise treated as independent units in data querying. While this feature is already in place, the essential point is that the new software changes will make it a better fit for use in templates.(1)n. 1 If you are familiar with SMW and wondering about this, I’m referring here to better support for value arrays using delimiters.
Now do not worry if this pithy description manages to do little more than to raise your eyebrows, or bring them together in a confused frown. What this means in practice and why this is useful can be easily demonstrated. As you can see on the page for the composite Middle Irish text of Cath Maige Mucrama (‘The battle of Mag Mucrama’) or that of Aided Diarmata meic Cerbaill I, a separate tab is reserved for a summary of the text, subdivided into a number of episodes or at least, what appear to be relatively free-standing narrative units. In addition to a descriptive subheading and a synopsis, each of these can carry with it a variety of metadata, such as poems cited, ‘people’ (by which is actually meant any personified being), placenames, ‘events’ and other, miscellaneous keywords. A general section for comments is intended for more metadescriptive aspects, such as possible relationships with other texts and scholarly coverage.
So why is this worth having, apart from the convenience of layout? Whenever the corpus of available information on texts is queried, whether in a preformatted query or through a custom search facility where you (the user) can select or enter keywords, the use of subobjects will enable us to give you much more pertinent details than is possible using a generic page-based query. To get the context, you should always consult the main entry, i.e. the source page itself rather than a derivative item in a query. In the initial stages, however, when you have been given a large number of potentially relevant links, you do not want to have to do so for each one of them. In other words, it should be possible to retrieve better previews of what you might, and might not, be looking for.
Because this change in data structure comes with new requirements for querying, a new search facility is being developed. You can already try it here and use a keyword such as Áed to get a basic idea of what this means for searching the catalogue.
Another reason for adopting this section-based approach is that it allows us to refine our information about manuscript witnesses and coverage in secondary literature in a format which is easy to understand and use; especially when the manuscript texts are incomplete or far from uniform and when a published scholarly discussion centres only on a discrete part of a text. See, for instance, the work in progress for the legal tract Bretha nemed dédenach, where partial translations are noted where relevant.(2)n. 2 Like Bretha nemed toísech, this text is still awaiting a full translation. Finally, there are also advantages to be gained for our workflow. Because this catalogue is a progressive effort, having at least a framework to fall back on will allow editors to pitch in and home in on small parts that they would like to focus their attention and energy on.
There is much more that can be said about this, but for now one final remark should suffice. There are cases when it is appropriate to extend the hierarchy by dedicating a separate entry/page to an individual text section. This may be true, for instance, when poems or other parts of a narrative are also independently attested in the manuscripts; when it could be argued that subnarratives in a larger textual framework merit separate attention (e.g. some of the stories in Bretha nemed dédenach); or simply when multiple pages are required to cover an extensive text or compilation (e.g. Táin bó Cúailnge). We have usually indicated this with a link to the page in question (such as » entry or a link to a poem included).
To be continued...
*selgā (May–July 2012)
selgā has been in active progress now for a year and a half. In its short time of existence, the project has accumulated 784 entries for texts, 502 for manuscripts, and 5680 for the bibliography — so far with an emphasis on early Irish literature, but already extending across a wider spectrum of Celtic studies. Since this flurry of activity has carried on without much further comment or reflection from my part, it seemed to me high time (if not long overdue) to give you a small interim update on the process, on some of the decisions taken along the way and on plans for the future.
As outlined elsewhere, *selgā is an ongoing cataloguing project(3)n. 3 It is also the name for the online catalogue itself. that aims to connect the dots: it makes the first infant steps towards offering a web-based gateway or compass to the written sources and scholary resources of Celtic studies — texts, manuscripts and publications — and whatever connects them. By increasing their visibility, it is hoped that it will be a valuable aid to research and teaching. An important prerequisite to making such content widely available is that it comes free of charge. The website will not be locked away behind a paywall.
The means to build the catalogue, and perhaps a commendable end in itself, is ultimately to create and foster a vibrant working environment in which scholars and students from around the world can collaborate within their fields of interest and at the intersections of their disciplines. Especially in view of financial and other uncertainties that universities are facing these days, a platform for international cooperation may be exactly what is needed.
The system
The collaborative editing platform that was chosen for our undertaking is MediaWiki (MW).(4)n. 4 If the very word ‘wiki’ leaves a bad taste, it may be because of the occasional misunderstanding (in no small part due to the best known example of a wiki, Wikipedia) that any internet user can edit a wiki, regardless of competence. Rest assured that this is true only if this is an intended function of the site, which it is not in our case. Of the various modules added to the core package, the most important one is no doubt Semantic MediaWiki (SMW), whose annotation mechanisms bring many organisational advantages to the table. It is sometimes thought of as a free, open-source alternative to Microsoft SharePoint, with a more easily adaptable structure to fit one’s needs.(5)n. 5 For a useful comparison between SMW and SharePoint from the perspective of a SMW developer, see Yaron Koren’s post on http://wikiworks.com/semantic-mediawiki-vs-sharepoint.html. Another forte is its usability: user forms courtesy of Semantic Forms allow editors to create entries and add or modify data, while the source text can still be edited in the traditional MW way.
SMW is rapidly becoming recognised as a powerful and flexible tool for working with, presenting and sharing complex sets of data. While many wonderful initiatives may be ‘here today, gone tomorrow’, SMW enjoys an active support base with a dedicated team of developers in addition to reaping the benefits from the success of MW. MW/SMW is also beginning to gain a foothold in the burgeoning world of digital humanities, but more prestigious examples are needed that can showcase its true potential in terms of catering to the specialised needs of teaching and research. I hope, therefore, that selgā may be an instructive and inspiring prototype for other endeavours in the humanities.(6)n. 6 If you’re interested in pursuing such a project and need tips or advice, you are welcome to contact me at dennisgroenewegen[at]vanhamel.nl. Note in this regard that Tionscadal na Nod, also available from this site, works on the same premises and is linked to relevant components of selgā.
Bibliography
A first demand that had to be met was a sound and solid bibliographic system that could be used on its own right as well as serve the wider needs of *selgā. Our former reference repository *datlā was abandoned in favour of an on-board approach with more integrative and fuller indexing possibilities than was possible to date. In short, this means that the potential of MW/SMW was harnessed to build a fully customised system and data plan from scratch. Inevitably, the decision has entailed a good deal of work, but the result is well worthwhile.
All references are automatically placed in the category ‘References’ and can be searched through a special SMW-powered search facility: Special:RunQuery/Search_references. For easy reference, there are also ancillary pages for authors, journals and monograph series, although it should be pointed out that not all authors, journals or monograph series necessarily have their own page.
Many of the publications in our bibliography have been entered because they are considered necessary or useful readings for those with an interest in specific texts or manuscripts. Perhaps the majority is included by virtue of the general purpose of our bibliography (in which case their exact relevance may not (yet) be indicated). Here are some examples of other unifying principles that have been at work in its compilation:
- By author category
- By series
- The editions by Kuno Meyer in his many ‘Mitteilungen aus irischen Handschriften’
- CSANA Yearbook
- By journal
- Zeitschrift für celtische Philologie: the first 20 volumes (excluding reviews and news items). Links to online copies are usually provided where known.
- Revue Celtique: as above
- Studia Celtica Fennica (complete)
Also worthy of note is that Dr. Jongeling (Karel), who has taught Welsh and Hebrew at Leiden University, has kindly provided us with a CSV file that contains an extensive list of studies on the Welsh language, from the early modern days of scholarship right down to the present. Wholesale import is not possible at this stage, but work is underway to adapt the file for conversion. Meanwhile, the same bibliography can be consulted online from Dr. Jongeling’s personal homepage: http://www.punic.co.uk.
Texts
The focal area that has stood out thus far is the creation of many basic entries for ‘texts’, a term which is somewhat generously used to cover a wide variety of textual items: prose narratives, poems, compilations, anecdotes, treatises, homilies, glosses, charters, genealogical tracts, textual fragments, and so forth. Most of these texts are transmitted in manuscript form, but on the odd occasion, wax tablets and printed books are also taken into consideration. In selgā, a ‘text’ can also designate individual parts of a larger unit. In addition to the main entry for the Táin bó Cúailnge and in addition to separate pages for the three main recensions of this momentous epic tale, the various episodes are given separate attention. A template placed at the bottom of the page allows readers to catch the sequence of episodes at a glimpse. Poems, including the roscada (non-syllabic accentual verse), will be given their own entries and the well-known scribal memoranda at the end of the Book of Leinster version can be found at this location.
Information about individual texts usually includes (1) an overview of manuscripts in which they are preserved and (2) lists of publications such as editions, translations and secondary studies (again, see Táin bó Cúailnge for an example). Both (1) and (2) are linked to relevant entries in the catalogue, if available, and retrieve preformatted reference details from those pages. What is by meant by the latter is, for instance, that the full citation is stored only once, on its own reference page (e.g. Carey, John, “The uses of tradition in Serglige Con Culainn”, in Ulidia (1994)), and can be called wherever a citation is required. In this way, editors are spared a lot of unnecessary double work and consistency of formatting does not have to rely solely on the constant vigilance of copyeditors.
Not every text has had the fortune of a complete, critical edition and translation that can be called satisfactory by modern scholarly standards, and not every potentially significant text, even if edited, has attracted the attention it rightly deserves. A powerful use of a system like selgā is that it can be used to bring the state of research into sharper focus. For instance, a convenient way of keeping track of such desiderata is the use of annotation associated with the pages ‘Edition wanted’ and ‘Translation wanted’. Students who wish to undertake an edition and/or translation for their final thesis and are looking for a suitable choice of text are welcome to take a look. Please don't hesitate to contact me if a new edition/translation has been published, if we have overlooked anything, or if you're a scholar who is in the process of preparing an edition or translation and wish to leave a note that work is underway.
Categorisation is only rudimentary at present and what there is may not be consistent across the board. This is hardly a mechanical process because categorisation is itself a topic of ongoing debate and sometimes, heated controversy. The most convenient and neutral course of action seems to me, first of all, to allow for multiple possibilities based on what modern scholarship has to say on these matters. When, for example, the language of a poem is variously described as late Old Irish and early Middle Irish, or as transitional between Old and Middle Irish, the corresponding entry will be grouped together with both Old and Middle Irish texts. The catalogue entry itself should then explain this decision and if possible, provide references to further discussion. Second, basic criteria, such as language, subject matter and form, which underlie broader types of classification, such as ‘Cycles of the Kings’, must be taken firmly into account. In fact, such criteria are essential ingredients of any refined approach to indexing textual corpora. Once a more robust classification scheme is in place, we can finally begin improving the user interface and offer better ways to combine search criteria.
Manuscripts
In the process of creating entries for manuscripts, the emphasis has been primarily on providing a dependable framework and adding references to essential resources, notably library catalogues, diplomatic editions and digital repositories like Early Manuscripts at Oxford University and Irish Script on Screen. The contents of each manuscript are described in two ways. A list of texts for which entries are available is automatically generated can be consulted. In addition, more detailed, manually entered descriptions will be offered on separate pages. Progress in this area is naturally slow and has been most apparent with regard to the following manuscripts:
- Dublin, Royal Irish Academy, MS 23 E 25 (shortcuts: Dublin, Royal Irish Academy, MS 23 E 25, Dublin, Royal Irish Academy, MS 23 E 25)
- Dublin, Trinity College, MS 1339 (shortcuts: Dublin, Trinity College, MS 1339, Dublin, Trinity College, MS 1339)
- Dublin, Trinity College, MS 1318 (shortcuts: Dublin, Trinity College, MS 1318, Dublin, Trinity College, MS 1318)
While Irish and Welsh studies are no doubt served by a number of excellent catalogues that will remain an indispensable port of call for researchers for some time to come, there is also a need for something more readily accessible that stays on top of the ongoing flow. This need is felt to be particularly acute in the case of older works. Abbott and Gwynn's Catalogue of Irish manuscripts in the Library of Trinity College, Dublin was published in 1921 and is now in serious need of an ‘update’ which is mindful of new research that has been piling up over the last 90 years. Further, work on individual manuscripts and particular collections tends to leave many loose ends that need to be tied up in a centralised manner. There is no cross-catalogue search, for instance, and the chances that textual material relevant to one's studies goes unnoticed remain very real today. It is hoped that ultimately, by addressing these concerns, the project will go some way to offering a solid platform for cooperation between manuscript-holding institutions. Needless to say, interested parties are strongly encouraged to contact us.
Future
Above I’ve already touched upon several areas where there is room for improvement and areas where some form of partnership with selgā could be mutually beneficial. In conclusion, I would like to indicate some priorities, beginning with the most obvious one:
Participants wanted
Thus far, all contributions to selgā have been made by only a few volunteering editors and without any funding. For my part, most effort has been invested into getting to grips with the system as a content editor and using these learning experiences to improve the site's infrastructure as I went along. By now, the project is in a fit condition to take on board new contributors. In fact, interested scholars and students who are active in any branch of Celtic studies, or whose specialism borders on this field, are cordially invited to contact me at selga@vanhamel.nl. Some points of clarification:
- Don't be alarmed by some of the technical terms and descriptions above. Editing pages is relatively easy and I can always give personal assistance if desired.
- The current focus on Irish merely reflects the interests of a handful of editors and is not meant to be representative of the scope of the project. For example, editors who are willing to work on entries pertaining to Welsh literature, history and law are urgently needed.
There are, of course, many other ways (ways other than editing) in which individuals and institutions can help the project. For example, editors require adequate sources and may not always have access to university libraries. If there is a way that such access can be provided or if specific works can be lent or donated to our editors, we would be most grateful.
A dinnshenchas project?
One specific goal that has set been for the future, and one extensive enough to be given the status of a subproject, is an index to the compilation known as the Dinnshenchas Érenn. A plan is in preparation on how to cover all prose and verse texts that are regarded as belonging to the Dinnshenchas Érenn and perhaps to give separate status to dinnshenchas texts that survive independently from this collection. Such an undertaking must show the correspondences in terms of subject matter, while taking into account the divergence of scholarly opinion on the complex relationships that exist between the various recensions and between the prose and verse texts. In addition, metadata will be supplied about the characters and place-names mentioned in these texts.
Funding
selgā has so far progressed without any outside funding. We hope to have demonstrated why it is a useful addition to the Celtic dimension of the so-called Digital Humanities, but it will be difficult to sustain its ongoing growth if no financial support is forthcoming. Disk storage, for instance, needs to be paid for. Because of its reliance on MW / SMW and a shared webserver, the website bears relatively low costs, but the latter also imposes certain constraints. It entails, for instance, that there is currently no support for adequate searching. The present options are a generic MW search as well as an external (Google) search for the whole site, and a property-based search for semantically stored data, but these are only imperfect attempts to make the best out of these limitations. We are, therefore, looking for private and/or corporate funding. If you are interested in showing such generosity, please send an e-mail to selga@vanhamel.nl.
If you have any further questions, suggestions or some other reason to contact us, do not hesitate to send an e-mail.
- Dennis Groenewegen
- A. G. van Hamel Foundation for Celtic Studies
- (selga@vanhamel.nl)
Publicaties van Frans Buisman (1942-2002)
Buisman (Frans) was een Nederlandse taalkundige, van huis uit een Sanskritist, die zich uiteindelijk ontpopte tot een toonaangevend onderzoeker op het gebied van zijn grote passie: de Piobaireachd, een muziekgenre uit de Schotse Hooglanden dat vooral met de doedelzak wordt beoefend. Veel van zijn publicaties zijn verschenen in het blad Piping Times en hij heeft meegewerkt aan het editeren van de composities in het zogeheten MacArthur-MacGregor handschrift (NLS) uit 1820. Helaas heeft hij zijn onderzoek niet meer kunnen voortzetten, want in 2002 kwam hij door een tragisch ongeval in Oostenrijk om het leven.
Met hulp van Paul Filling heeft Lauran Toorians een voorlopige lijst van publicaties samengesteld. Van zijn gegevens hebben wij dankbaar gebruik mogen maken en deze zijn dan ook op de relevante auteurspagina in onze catalogus verwerkt. Wij benadrukken dat de lijst mogelijk niet volledig is. Mocht u aanvullingen hebben, dan vernemen wij dat graag via biblio@vanhamel.nl.
A. G. van Hamel Foundation for Celtic Studies (main site)
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selgā
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Publications
Cathinka Dahl Hambro, ‘The religious signficance of the sén 7 soladh in Altram Tige Dá Medar’ in Charms, charmers and charming in Ireland... (2019) • Joseph J. Flahive, ‘A toothache charm in a manuscript fragment of John Lysaght’ in Charms, charmers and charming in Ireland... (2019) • Bairbre Ní Fhloinn, ‘‘The cure for bleeding’: charms and other cures for blood-stopping in Irish tradition’ in Charms, charmers and charming in Ireland... (2019) • Gearóid Ó Crualaoich, ‘An Leabhar Eoin: the In principio charm in oral and literary tradition’ in Charms, charmers and charming in Ireland... (2019) • Shane Lehane, ‘The cailleach and the cosmic hare’ in Charms, charmers and charming in Ireland... (2019) • Denis McArdle, ‘Aisling na Maighdine: ‘the Virgin’s dream’ in Irish oral tradition’ in Charms, charmers and charming in Ireland... (2019) • John Carey, ‘Charms in medieval Irish tales: tradition, adaptation, invention’ in Charms, charmers and charming in Ireland... (2019)...
Texts
Armes Prydein • Tuilsitir mo derca súain • Chronicon Scotorum • Annals of Tigernach • Vita sanctae Brigitae (Cogitosus) • Dinnshenchas of Slíab Comailt • Ríagail Phátraic • Ríagail na Céle nDé • Agallamh an anma agus an chuirp re ceil • Leachta carad i gcath Bhriain • Sciath Con Culainn • Na trí Fothaid • Trí meic Ruaid • Úath Beinne Étair • Dinnshenchas of Crotta Clíach • Vita sancti Endei abbatis de Arann • Ulster Cycle • Trí croind Éirenn oiregda • Temair Breg, baile na fían • Tairired na nDéssi • Tánic sam • Opuscula sacra (Boethius) • Ro-chúala crecha is tír thair • Scéla laí brátha • Scéla Conchobuir meic Nessa...
Manuscripts
Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Rawlinson B 489 • Aberystwyth, National Library of Wales, MS 3041B/pp. 657-672 • Aberystwyth, National Library of Wales, MS 3041B • Dublin, Trinity College, MS 1292/ff. 4-14 • Dublin, Trinity College, MS 1292 • Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Rawlinson B 488/ff. 30-31 • Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Rawlinson B 488/ff. 40-53 • Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Rawlinson B 488 • Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Rawlinson B 488/ff. 34-39 • Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Rawlinson B 488/ff. 1-26 • Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Rawlinson B 484/ff. 67-71 • Dublin, Royal Irish Academy, MS 23 N 7 • Vesoul, Bibliothèque municipale, MS 190 • Vesoul, Bibliothèque municipale, MS 1 • Auxerre, Bibliothèque municipale, MS 127...
Blogs and news sites elsewhere
Anglo-Saxon, Norse & Celticbloga (fragments)
Celtic Digital Initiative
ChronHib on Twitter
A Corner of Tenth-Century Europe
Exploring Celtic Civilizations
Early Irish Manuscripts Project, Trinity College Dublin
eDIL on Facebook
Félire Óengusso Online
Forum for Medieval and Renaissance Studies in Ireland (FMRSI)
Irish Archaeology
Mapping Miracles
Maynooth University, Department of Early Irish
Monastic Ireland
Nótaí Imill (Dennis King)
Penance, Penitential Tradition, and Pastoral Care in the Middle Ages
Peritia (also on Twitter)
School of Celtic Studies, DIAS
Senchus
