Early Irish Literature and Mythology

3 units

This course will provide a brief survey of medieval Irish literature and mythology, with special emphasis on: origins in the shared Celtic traditions of Europe (continental and insular); parallels with the Welsh (including the Arthurian) tradition; notions of sacred space and time; thematic preoccupations such as visits to the supernatural realm, shape-shifting, sovereignty myths, myths of exile and return, and the elements of heroic biography; folklore, storytelling, and oral traditions; delineation of the four cycles-mythological cycle, the Ulster cycle, the Fenian cycle, and the cycle of kings; epic and saga literature in prose and verse; poetry and the status of poets; Brehon law and the status of women; early Christian writings by or about Saints Patrick, Brigid, Colmcille, Brendan and others; the reworking of the mythological material in modern Irish and Irish-American literature in the English language, as seen in the works of Gregory, Yeats, Synge, Joyce, Bowen, Heaney, Carr, Fitzgerald, and William Kennedy. All readings will be in modern English translations.