Ollam

Studies in Gaelic and Related Traditions in Honor of Tomás Ó Cathasaigh

By (author) Anders Ahlqvist, Fergus Kelly, Patricia Kelly, Kim R. McCone, Damian McManus, Rory McTurk, Joseph Falaky Nagy, Ruairí Ó hUiginn, M. Katharine Simms, Liam Breatnach, Pádraig A. Breatnach, Morgan T. Davies, Aidan Doyle, Charlene M. Eska, Hugh Fogarty, William Gillies, Barbara Hillers, Sìm Innes, Aled Llion Jones, Catherine McKenna Edited by Matthieu Boyd

Publication date:

12 February 2016

Length of book:

372 pages

Publisher

Fairleigh Dickinson University Press

ISBN-13: 9781611478341

Ollam (“ollav”), named for the ancient title of Ireland’s chief poets, celebrates the career of Tomás Ó Cathasaigh, Henry L. Shattuck Professor of Irish Studies at Harvard University, who is one of the foremost interpreters of the rich and fascinating world of early Irish saga literature. It is a complement to his own book of essays, Coire Sois, the Cauldron of Knowledge: A Companion to Early Irish Saga, also edited by Matthieu Boyd (University of Notre Dame Press, 2014), and a sequel to his classic monograph The Heroic Biography of Cormac mac Airt (Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1977) and as such it begins to show the richness of his legacy.

The essays in Ollam represent cutting-edge research in Celtic philology and historical and literary studies. They form three clusters: heroic legend; law and language; and poetry and poetics. The 21 contributors are among the best Celtic Studies scholars of their respective generations, whether they are rising stars or great professors at the finest universities around the world. The book has a Foreword by William Gillies, Emeritus Professor at the University of Edinburgh and former President of the International Congress of Celtic Studies, who also contributed an essay on courtly love-poetry in the Book of the Dean of Lismore. Other highlight include a new edition and translation of the famous poem Messe ocus Pangur bán; a suite of articarticles on the ideal king of Irish tradition, Cormac mac Airt; and studies on well-known heroes like Cú Chulainn and Finn mac Cumaill.

This book will be a must-have, and a treat, for Celtic specialists. To nonspecialists it offers a glimpse at the vast creative energy of Gaelic literature through the ages and of Celtic Studies in the twenty-first century.

Foreword, William Gillies (University of Edinburgh)
Preface, Matthieu Boyd (Fairleigh Dickinson University)
List of Abbreviations
Part I. Heroes
Chapter 1. The Death of Aífe’s Only Son and the Heroic Biography, Kim McCone (Maynooth University)
Chapter 2. Two by Two: The Doubled Chariot-figure of Táin Bó Cúailnge, Aled Llion Jones (Bangor University)
Chapter 3. On Not Eating Dog, Matthieu Boyd (Fairleigh Dickinson University)
Chapter 4. The Odrán Episode in Esnada Tige Buchet, Patricia Kelly (University College Dublin)
Chapter 5. Moling and the Bórama, Morgan Davies (Colgate University)
Chapter 6. Wavering Heroes in the Icelandic Sagas, Rory McTurk (University of Leeds)
Chapter 7. Heroes Humiliated: A Theme in Bardic Eulogies, Katharine Simms (Trinity College Dublin)
Chapter 8. Annals, Histories and Stories: Some Thirteenth-century Entries in the Annals of the Four Masters, Ruairí Ó hUiginn (Maynooth University)Chapter 9. Cormac mac Airt in Classical Irish Poetry: Young in Age but Old in Wisdom, and Not Entirely Flawless, Damian McManus (Trinity College Dublin)
Chapter 10. “Bhí an saol aoibhinn ait”: Cormac mac Airt in Oral Folk Tradition, Barbara Hillers (University College Dublin)
Part II. Law and Language
Chapter 11. Below Ground: a Study of Early Irish Pits and Souterrains, Fergus Kelly (DIAS)
Chapter 12. Recholl Breth: Why it is a “Shroud of Judgments”, Charlene M. Eska (Virginia Tech)
Chapter 13. Comparing Like to (Un)like: Parables, Words, and Opinions in Romance and Irish, Aidan Doyle (University College Cork)
Chapter 14. On the Line-Break in Early Irish Verse, and Some Remarks on the Syntax of the Genitive in Old and Middle Irish, Liam Breatnach (DIAS)
Chapter 15. “Dubad nach innsci”: Cultivation of Obscurity in Medieval Irish Literature, Hugh Fogarty (University College Dublin)
Part III. Poetry
Chapter 16. Pangur Bán, Anders Ahlqvist (University of Sydney)
Chapter 17. Finn’s Student Days, Joseph Falaky Nagy (UCLA)
Chapter 18. A Poem by Eochaidh Ó hEódhusa, Pádraig A. Breatnach (DIAS)
Chapter 19. The dánta grá and the Book of the Dean of Lismore, William Gillies (University of Edinburgh)
Chapter 20. Fionn and Ailbhe’s Riddles between Ireland and Scotland, Sìm Innes (University of Glasgow)
Chapter 21. Terms of Art: Theorizing Poetry in the Earliest Welsh Anthology, Catherine McKenna (Harvard University)
Bibliography of Tomás Ó Cathasaigh
Other Works Cited
About the Contributors

It is always a challenge to produce a cohesive and thematically focused Festschrift for a retiring scholar, and when the scholar in question is as influential and well-loved as the honorand of this volume, Harvard Professor Emeritus Tomás Ó Cathasaigh, the hill one has to climb is particularly steep. Happily, editor Matthieu Boyd has risen to the occasion, bringing to this collection of essays the same level of discernment and editorial eagle eye that characterized his earlier compilation of Ó Cathasaigh's essays, Coire Sois, The Cauldron of Knowledge: A Companion to Early Irish Saga.... [T]his is an extremely valuable collection and a fitting tribute to the scholar it seeks to honor...[I]t is in many ways much like Tomás Ó Cathasaigh himself: rigorous, thoughtful, wide-ranging, and full of fascinating tidbits of information.