Table of Contents Review by Alexander MacLennan of Warriors of the Word: The World

of the Scottish Highlanders………….….3-4 Review by Gregory J. Darling of

Empire of Analogies: Kipling, India and Ireland...……………5-7

Review by Dorothy Ann Bray of Seamus Heaney and Medieval Poetry...… 7-9

Review by Diana Luft of The Origin of the Four Branches of the Mabinogi...……………………..9-12

Conference Reviews 12-13 Conferences/Calls for papers 14-15 Books for Review 16-17 PayPal payment option 18 Dues Renewal Sheet 19

Beltaine, 2010 No. 27.2

Page 2 Celtic Studies Association Newsletter

CCSSAANNAA

CCEELLTTIICC SSTTUUDDIIEESS AASSSSOOCCIIAATTIIOONN OOFF NNOORRTTHH AAMMEERRIICCAA Officers:

President: Morgan Davies, Colgate University Vice-President: Paul Russell, Pembroke College, Cambridge University Secretary-Treasurer: Elissa R. Henken, University of Georgia

Members at Large:

Dan Wiley, Southern Illinois University Matthieu Boyd, Harvard University Michael L. Meckler, Ohio State University

Bibliographer: Karen Burgess: UCLA Executive Bibliographer: Joseph F. Nagy: UCLA Newsletter Editor: Charles MacQuarrie: California State University, Bakersfield Assistant Newsletter Editor: Adam B. Smith: California State University, Bakersfield Past-President & Yearbook Editor: Joseph F. Eska: Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University Incorporated as a non-profit organization, the Celtic Studies Association of North America has members in the United States, Canada, Ireland, Wales, Scotland, Europe, Australia and Japan. CSANA produces a semi-annual newsletter and bibliographies of Celtic Studies. The published bibliographies (1983-87 and 1985-87) may be ordered from the Secretary- Treasurer, Prof. Elissa R. Henken, Dept. of English, Park Hall, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602, USA (Email: ehenken@uga.edu ).. The electronic CSANA bibliography is available at: http://www.humnet.ucla.edu/humnet/celtic/csanabib.html,or visit our Web site at: http://www.csub.edu/~cmacquarrie/csana/. The electronic bibliography is available at cost in printed form to members who request it. The privileges of membership in CSANA include the newsletter twice a year, access to the bibliography and the electronic discussion group CSANA-l (contact Prof. Joe Eska at eska@vt.edu to join), invitations to the annual meeting, for which the registration fees are nil or very low, the right to purchase the CSANA mailing list at cost, and an invaluable sense of fellowship with Celticists throughout North America and around the world. Membership in CSANA is open to anyone with a serious interest in Celtic Studies. Dues are payable at Bealtaine. New and renewing members should send checks in any of the accepted currencies to Elissa R. Henken at the above address. Checks in US dollars, payable to CSANA, must be drawn on a US bank or a US bank affiliate (international money orders cannot be accepted). Cheques in British Sterling must be made payable to Elissa R. Henken at current exchange rates. Payments are also accepted via PayPal. Associate Member (student, retiree, unemployed, institution) $15.00 Sustaining Member (regular) $30.00 Contributor $50.00 Patron $100.00 Benefactor $250.00 (Contributors, Patrons and Benefactors support the creation of the CSANA bibliography, help to defray expenses of the annual meeting, and allow CSANA to develop new projects. Please join at the highest level you can.)

Beltaine, 2010, 27.2 Page 3

Warriors of the Word: The World of the Scottish Highlanders Michael Newton, Birlinn, 2009, 424 pages

Michael Newton’s ambitious and unique book covers a lot of ground in an effort to give a

comprehensive understanding of the world the Gaels of Scotland pre-Culloden/the Clearances. To use the author’s words for what has been lacking in scholarly literature, it is: “a sustained examination of their culture and historical experience from their own point of view.” Chapters include: Themes in Scottish History; Identity and Ethnicity; Literature and Oral Tradition; Clan Society; Family and Personal Life; Belief Systems and Cosmology; Song, Music, and Dance; Human Ecology. There is also a Gaelic Poetry Sampler. Each chapter is introduced by a story from the oral tradition; some of these stories may be already familiar to some scholars, but they serve well to introduce the point of the following chapter and, as the author notes, people do form most of their ideas about events and concepts by understanding them in story-form. Tables also liberally appear throughout the book to break down subjects discussed into digestible categories.

What distinguishes this book from most studies on Scottish history and folklore is the author’s knowledge of Gaelic and the insight this grants him into Highlanders’ thinking and their predicament. Incredibly, works are still being published on the Highlands and Highlanders by authors that have little or no knowledge of Gaelic. Continually throughout this work Newton is able to cite Gaelic material to back-up and illuminate his claims. Quite often I find English-language books about Highland history off-putting because of the author’s narrow focus and often barely-cloaked inability to identify with their subjects. I was originally attracted to this book solely for the Gaelic language material, but found its fresh and up-to-date interpretations of history and tradition a revelation.

How a people defines itself is critical for its sense of place in the world and feeling of

self-worth, and such definitions are not always as cut and dried as tradition or history would have it. The author deals with various questions of identity such as: what is a Celt, and how the biological Viking and Anglo-Norman heritage was naturally de-emphasized by certain clans as secondary to their cultural identification as Gaels. Notions of Highlanders as savages, and of how the Lowlanders differentiated themselves from Highlanders, were similarly based on romantic concepts of oppositionality that are more wishful than factual. Importantly, the Victorian idea of a non-Gaelic-speaking Highlander is shown to have been offensive to Highlanders when he first made his appearance.

Highland history can be a morass; one at times comes away with the feeling of still not

quite grasping the crux of the matter, but with a vague impression that the Highlanders were somehow taken advantage of once again. In his historical overview of Highland history Dr. Newton provides a clear and lucid account of the Lordship of the Isles and an explanation of the significance of the Statues of Iona that is enlightened by the latest thinking and fills in some nagging blanks. As he explains, Highlanders could often find themselves portrayed in the

Book Reviews

Page 4 Celtic Studies Association Newsletter historical record as barbarians, pagans, and rebels for no better reason than their inconveniencing the Anglo elite in Edinburgh and their allies.

Gaelic poetry with its impressive history and the “verbal arts” are explored in their

context, complexity, and functionality, rather than measured against English values in literature. In the examinations of Highland rites of passage and attendant beliefs, a helpful framework and vocabulary are provided to discuss and appreciate what otherwise be dismissed as irrational superstition.

The vast topic of supernatural beings in folk belief is wisely dealt with by focusing on

some important little-celebrated symbols such as the Cailleach/Earth-goddess and the craobh-shìdhe/Sacred Tree. The word “fairy” is so loaded with misconceptions that the author, correctly, mostly eschews it (which in itself tells you a good deal about the value of much of the received knowledge about Gaelic culture circulating in the English-speaking world), and his concise and insightful description of the role of the sìthichean in the Highland psychology made me wish he offered more examples of folk tale analysis. Saint Columba, a figure of monumental importance to Scotland but who is seldom acknowledged today, is given his due as a pivotal figure in negotiating the transition to Christianity.

Music is often over-emphasized in as a linchpin of the Scottish culture, as if it were able

to represent the culture on its own. Newton puts Highland music in the correct European context, demystifying any unrealistic uniqueness while being respectful of its value to the community.

The last chapter touches on current concerns with the environment by highlighting the

Gaels’ affection for their surroundings and intimate knowledge of their environment (aptly symbolized by how features of landscape were often described as body parts), and how language is a vital element of our planet’s diversity.

For its sympathetic and respectful depiction of the Highlander’s world this book is

ground-breaking and would be a valuable introduction and reference for any serious student of Scottish Gaelic culture and history. Advanced scholars would benefit from the fresh new insights clearly presented here on well-known topics. This inspiring book can only raise the bar for Scottish Gaelic scholarship, proving that competent comment on Scottish history and culture is only possible with a good grasp of the Gaelic language. In fact, a welcome theme running through the book is the importance of Gaelic itself. One cannot help but feel positive about the future of the Gaelic language, when at last we are able to have such a clear scholarly view of who the Gaels really were, and OF their values and accomplishments, rather than the all-too-common distorted view of foreign commentators. Michael Newton’s understanding and empathy with his subject shine through this brilliant work. Alexander MacLennan Carleton University

Beltaine, 2010, 27.2 Page 5

Empire of Analogies: Kipling, India and Ireland Kaori Nagai, Cork University Press, 2006, 185 pages

“Why is Kim Irish?” is a question asked by Kaori Nagai, the author of Empire of Analogies: Kipling, India and Ireland. In her Introduction, Nagai announces that “a central purpose of the book is to examine the implications of Rudyard Kipling's representation of the Irish in India” (2). Kim, the protagonist of the novel Kim, is the most famous Irish character in Kipling's works, but there are others: for example, the Irish soldier Terence Mulvaney, Namgay Doola, the Mavericks (2). Nagai observes that Kim, “the last Indian story” by Kipling, also comprises “the last of his stories in which this curious combination of India and Ireland occurs” (2). The frequent appearance of Irish figures in Kipling's narratives raises the question, "Why does Kim, as well as the other Irish characters, have to be represented in India?" Nagai observes that there are various approaches to the portrayal of the nexus between India and Ireland: This book compares and contrasts two different ways of representing the connections between India and Ireland: firstly, an "imperialist" mode of representation, which sought to interpret Irish participation in the Raj as the strongest proof of Irish loyalty to the Empire; and secondly, an Irish and Indian “nationalist” mode of representation, which strove to form anti-imperial networks between India, Ireland and beyond, characterizing Indo-Irish connections as the cooperation between two colonies suffering from the common fate of being ruled and exploited by England. (3) According to Nagai, Kipling, aware of the growing ties “between India and Irish nationalists, composed texts that took part in the discursive war of analogies being fought between imperialist and nationalist modes of representing Indo-Irish connections” (3). Kipling preferred the imperialistic approach, so that his "placement of Irish characters in the Indian setting can be seen as the most illustrative and influential example of the 'imperialist' mode of representing the Irish involvement in the Empire"(3). The Empire itself, according to Nagai, was seen through the perspective of India-Ireland analogies, for “comparisons and analogies between India and Ireland, two major components of the Empire, greatly influenced the way in which the Empire was viewed and understood” (4). In place of determining if “comparative methods are relevant and useful,” however, Nagai studies “the political and historical implications of comparing Ireland with other colonies” (7). For Nagai, a comparison of India and Ireland needs to take into consideration an important factor: Ireland as “colonizer” and “colonized”: In this sense, the Indo-Irish connection provides a significant case study, for it clearly marks Ireland's unique double position as the colonizer and the colonized within the British Empire: not only was there a shared experience between India and Ireland of being colonized, but there was also a long history of Irish participation in the imperial expansion. (7) Within this context, Kim emerges, according to Nagai, “as the personification of the imperial connection between India and Ireland” (10). He fulfills this role because “Kim, as a ‘hybrid’ boy, represents a combination of diverse racial types and cultures” (10). The novel Kim, however,

Page 6 Celtic Studies Association Newsletter according to Nagai, was Kipling’s last attempt to represent the Irish in India, as Kipling turned his attention to a new paradigm of Empire—“a federation of the settler colonies” (11). Kim’s status as Kipling’s last foray into representing the Irish in India is explained by Nagai as follows: This can be seen as due not only to Kipling's increasing disillusionment with the Indo-Irish combination as an effective way to sustain the image of the Empire, but also to his growing fascination with a new model of Empire as a federation of settler colonies, also known as “the Five Nations” or the “White Man's World.” (11) In Chapter 1, “The Taming of the Irish Afreets,” Nagai examines how Kipling set forth his Irish characters in India. Nagai observes that "Kipling's Irish characters do not miss home, in marked contrast to his English characters, who periodically suffer from homesickness" (12). Nagai refers to the contrast drawn by Abdul R. JanMohamed "between the exile and the immigrant” in the latter’s essay on Edward Said (17): Thus we may say that, following JanMohamed's distinction between the immigrant and the exile, Kipling’s Irish characters are represented not as exiles but as immigrants, who do not miss Ireland and are willing to accept their new life in India. (17-18) Nagai in Chapter 1 also takes up “the political implications” of Irish movement into India as well as the topic of the “Irish rebel” (12). In this context, Kim plays an important role as he enters the Great Game, fighting against conspiracy: In this sense, Kim's Irishness functions similarly to that of Mulvaney's and the Mavericks' (his father's regiment), representing the loyal Irish in India who fight on behalf of the Empire against foreign conspiracies. Far from being accidental, Kim's Irishness is meant to function as a powerful antidote to Irish conspiracy (22). In Chapter 2, “When East Meets West: Kipling's India of Anti-Gravity,” Nagai compares Kipling's early narratives, composed in India, with narratives composed after his departure from India (12). In the early stories, the “corrupting force of the native ground” poses a threat; in the later stories, however, there is a sense of groundlessness, for India becomes “an ideal imperial space where all the different elements of the Empire are seen together and freely traverse without being constricted by the subversive colonial ground” (12). In Chapter 3, "Exiled Home: The Voice of the Irish Soldiers," Nagai focuses on the Irish soldier, Terence Mulvaney, whose voice counters "Irish nationalist voices which were raised against the Empire, and yet also figures as a subversive voice, which needs to be constantly controlled by the narrator" (12). In Chapter 4, “Shamrocks in the Veldt: Two Types of Aphasic Empire,” Nagai, employing "Roman Jakobson’s distinction between metonymy and metaphor," treats “the imperialist discourse as metonymic and the nationalist as metaphoric” (12). Nagai observes that "the former combines originally different elements into one imperial context according to spatial or temporal contiguity, while the latter forms the anti-imperial associations by means of identifications and substitutes based on varying degrees of similarity" (12). In Chapter 5, “Kim in South Africa,”

Beltaine, 2010, 27.2 Page 7

Nagai considers Kim “as a ‘Boer War’ novel, in which Kipling's new vision of a white empire meets his old India” (12). In Chapter 6, “The Dynamite War of Analogies,” Nagai discusses "the battle between imperialist and nationalist analogies as a “newspaper' war” (13). Nagai observes that "Indo-Irish connections served Irish nationalists as a means of recovering their own national voice, through their identification with India" (13). In the concluding chapter of the book, Nagai points out that in a sense the narratives about Kim and Terence Mulvaney “could serve as illustrative biographies of the Irish who served in India” (132). She notes the striking resemblance between Kim and General Reginald Edward Dyer, associated with the infamous Jallianwala Bagh massacre in Amritsar in 1919, in which 379 people were killed. Dyer, like Kim, was born in India and could “speak Hindustani like a native” (Nagai 132). Dyer, too, was considered "the friend of all the world, easily making friends and allies with various different people in India" (132). Nagai observes in her conclusion that India and Ireland represent the intersection of “two separate dreams born out of the Empire”: the imperialist dream of an Ireland and India loyal to the Queen, and a nationalist dream of Ireland and India “throwing off imperial rule” (134). Gregory J. Darling John Jay College of Criminal Justice and Fordham University

Seamus Heaney and Medieval Poetry Conor McCarthy, D.S. Brewer, 2008, 204 pages

When Seamus Heaney’s translation of Beowulf first appeared, it made a considerable

splash, winning the Whitbread Prize in 1999 and exciting lively attention from scholars of Anglo-Saxon literature. Not all of this attention was positive; some derisively nicknamed it the “Heaneywulf,” while others, although less scathing and, indeed, even admiring, were reserved in their judgment of it as a translation. The critical debate continues; nevertheless, its appearance in The Norton Anthology of English Literature (for which it was originally commissioned by the publisher) has meant that many college and university students in North America have their first introduction to the poem through Heaney’s translation. The question of its merits as a translation often shift from queries regarding what Heaney is doing with the poem (as opposed to what other translators, who are also scholars in the field, are doing) to considerations of his translation as a poem by Seamus Heaney, rather like some of the critical discussion of Ezra Pound’s The Seafarer (is it a translation of the Old English poem or a poem by Ezra Pound based on the Old English poem?).

In the field of Celtic Studies, we are indebted to modern poets who make translations of Old and Middle Irish works, as we have, for example, Thomas Kinsella to thank for a modern translation of The Táin, one which for many people is their first introduction to this, the greatest tale of the Ulster Cycle; the new translation by Ciaran Carson, the first major one since Kinsella’s, will certainly generate critical discussion for years to come and perhaps attract new audiences. Heaney’s translation of Buile Suibhne in Sweeney Astray (1983), although not strictly literal, has made that work better known outside the field of Celtic Studies, not least because it

Page 8 Celtic Studies Association Newsletter was done by Seamus Heaney. His most recent translation, The Testament of Cresseid & Seven Fables by Robert Henryson (2009; an earlier translation of the The Testament was published in a limited edition in 2004), may likely make Henryson better known and more accessible to a wider audience as well. Heaney is only one of several poets, like Kinsella and Carson, who have turned their attention to medieval works, and McCarthy invokes their names along with several other contemporary Irish poets (such as Paul Muldoon) in this study. However, as Conor McCarthy says at the outset of this book, Seamus Heaney has for several years been publishing translations of medieval literature from Old English, Italian, Irish and Middle Scots, and such work, according to McCarthy, is worth examining not only for Heaney’s translation practices and skills, but also for Heaney’s engagement with the medieval material he chooses. As McCarthy states:

It is my contention here that Heaney’s engagement with medieval literature constitutes a significant body of work by a major poet, a body of work worthy of independent consideration, or at least semi-independent, for, as the discussion below argues at length, Heaney’s original work and translation practice are mutually informing, and Heaney’s engagement with the literature of the Middle Ages extends to adaptation and allusion as well as translation. (2)

McCarthy’s further aim is to demonstrate what he sees as an “ongoing dialogue” between Heaney’s translations and their originals and how the medieval also informs Heaney’s contemporary work and his dealings with contemporary issues. McCarthy considers Heaney’s continuing dialogue with medieval literature to be a complex process, in both its personal and political relevance, yet coherent; it is a way for Heaney to bring a contemporary voice to medieval texts, while at the same time using them to explore contemporary concerns, whether it be the Troubles in Northern Ireland or Heaney’s own feelings of displacement. McCarthy also tackles the issue of language. Heaney’s translation practice according to McCarthy, “embodies a commitment to vernacularity in which linguistic diversity is a prominent feature” (9). Such a commitment serves to transcend the binary – and often adversarial view – of English and Irish. Much discussion was engendered by this Irish poet’s rendering of the canonical Old English epic Beowulf into an Ulster Irish –inflected English, but, although McCarthy devotes an entire chapter to Heaney’s translation of this work and its allusions to Irish history and contemporary issues, he does not consider what this means to the average reader who would not necessarily catch those allusions without notes to Heaney’s dialect words, or how Heaney himself directs such a reading in his introduction to his translation.

Apart from Beowulf, McCarthy’s discussion focuses on three other main texts in Heaney’s oeuvre, Sweeney Astray, Station Island, and The Testament of Cresseid, with some excursions into other parts of Heaney’s body of work. Understandably, McCarthy does not delve too deeply into Heaney’s medieval sources in themselves, but on what Heaney does with them, much of which is to bring them into a further dialogue with the wider world of English literature. In the chapter on Sweeney Astray, he examines more closely Heaney’s identification with Sweeney, his allusions to other literary texts from England, Scotland and Wales, and its political undercurrents. McCarthy summarizes Heaney’s accomplishment thus: “He produces a translation of a medieval Irish narrative in a dialect-inflected contemporary English that may be read as a sympathetic reflection of the poet’s own exile in the context of the conflict in Ulster, and perhaps

Beltaine, 2010, 27.2 Page 9

as both a sympathetic reflection of the position of the nationalist community in Northern Ireland and a staking of a historical and cultural claim to the landscape of Ulster…. But if much of this might align the work with an Irish nationalist position, the English translation also uses references to canonical works of English literature to bind the translation into the tradition of literature in English, fully aware that the work will have multiple readerships…” (42). In the chapter on Station Island, McCarthy also deals with Heaney’s adaptations of Dante in Field Work and Seeing Things, before discussing his relocation and reworking of Dante’s Commedia in the Irish context of Lough Derg, with a foray into the twelfth-century otherworld journey of St Patrick’s Purgatory. In the chapter on Henryson’s Testament of Cresseid, McCarthy examines Heaney’s translation in relation to Hiberno-Scottish relations, past and present; Heaney’s dealings with the Trojan War and the suffering of women in war, in this and other works; and both Henryson’s and Heaney’s dealings with Chaucer as a “poetic forefather.’ Where Henryson challenges the authority of Chaucer in his version of the Troilus story yet remains marginal in to the canon of English literature, Heaney, through Henryson, draws attention to “both Scottish and Irish literary traditions with the English language” (149), thereby advocating a reassessment of an English canon which sees Chaucer as the “father of English literature” (something which his translation of Beowulf also challenges).

The medieval sources serve to facilitate McCarthy’s reading of Heaney’s work, and thus

McCarthy’s own dealings with them are often superficial as well as cursory (even when he is discussing the translation of Beowulf and other Old English works). But this is not really a book for medievalists or for Celtic scholars; it is for scholars of Seamus Heaney, who may not be altogether familiar with his sources, especially his Irish ones. McCarthy sees Heaney’s approach to his medieval translations and adaptations as a coherent and continuing enterprise. McCarthy states that “Heaney’s work also seeks to take account of the non-English literatures of Britain and Ireland…and to acknowledge a canon of Irish literature in Irish that may now be recuperated into an Irish literature in English” (168). As an example, with respect to Heaney’s translation of “Pangur Bán,” McCarthy says the poem “is probably not much known outside Ireland, and so Heaney’s translation has the force of advocacy” (169). With that, there is much here to interest both medievalists and Celtic scholars. This book provides an appealing overview of Seamus Heaney’s engagement with medieval texts in his poetry, his sense of Irishness, and his translation practices, and what all this means in his literary creation.

Dorothy Ann Bray Department of English McGill University

The Origin of the Four Branches of the Mabinogi Andrew Breeze, Gracewing Publishing, 2009, 164 pages.

This book, as the title suggests, is an attempt to trace the author of the Four Branches of

the Mabinogi. As such it is a expansion of Breeze’s theory, originally published in his 1997 Medieval Welsh Literature, that the Four Branches were written by Gwenllian (c.1097-1136), daughter of Gruffydd ap Cynan of Gwynedd. Breeze notes that his theory, when originally mooted, garnered a great deal of media attention, as well as critical notice. While the media

Page 10 Celtic Studies Association Newsletter attention afforded may have been favourable, the critical notice was generally not so. Reviews (which are listed on the National Library of Wales website) noted the book’s lack of engagement with recent scholarship (James, Welsh History Review, Lloyd-Morgan, Medium Aevum, Nagy, Speculum), the lack of solid evidence for the primary assertion (Foster Evans, Barn, Roberts, Books in Wales), the circularity of its argument (Hemming, Early Medieval Europe, Hunter, Times Literary Supplement), its lack of engagement with feminist theory (Clancy, Peritia), and its oversimplification (Davies, Llên Cymru). The present effort reproduces many of the faults of the first attempt. I will not re-examine the faults raised by previous reviewers here, but will instead concentrate upon what I perceive to be this book’s major weakness, and that is its reliance upon a series of elementary logical fallacies to make its argument.

The primary conclusion of the book (that the Four Branches were written by Gwenllian

ferch Gruffydd ap Cynan) is based on the idea that it is possible to deduce an author’s sex from the subjects treated in his or her work, and his or her attitudes towards those subjects. Breeze provides a list of features in the Four Branches which would be “surprising’ if found in the work of a male author, but are presumably not so in the work of a female author. These features include an interest in the female characters (2) and the presentation of weak or passive male characters (13), an awareness of issues around childbirth and children (6, 10, 12), a concern with aging “since ageing is a subject on which women tend to be more sensitive than men (hence the modern cosmetics industry)” (9), a fascination with love (14), and a lack of interest in presumably male occupations such as monsters, swords and fighting (8).

This list itself is based upon a series of hasty generalisations or fallacies of secundum

quid, that is, statements based upon a few examples which are then taken to represent truths about an entire group. Rather than refer to the work of actual female authors to back up these generalisations Breeze bases them upon a series of appeals to nature (another elementary fallacy), claiming that such issues are “of natural interest to a woman” (14). He dismisses medieval male authors who wrote sympathetically about these “natural” female concerns such as Geoffrey Chaucer as exceptions which prove the rule (13), another elementary fallacy (exceptions do not prove rules: they disprove them). Of course there are innumerable other such exceptions: Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and its gruesome depiction of the monster, George Eliot’s strong yet fallible male characters in her Middlemarch, and George Moore’s sensitive portrayal of a servant girl’s life and loves (and children) in his Esther Waters come to mind immediately.

Nevertheless, having made his point that the Four Branches contain features indicative of

female authorship, Breeze goes on, in a classic illustration of the fallacy of the undistributed middle, to deduce that the author must have been a woman. The fallacy of this reasoning becomes obvious if we re-cast Breeze’s conclusions as a syllogism:

All women are interested in children. The author of the Four Branches is interested in children. Therefore the author of the Four Branches is a woman.

Leaving aside the fact that the first term of the syllogism is itself the result of a fallacy, the flaw in this logic becomes obvious through the simple expedient of substituting terms:

Beltaine, 2010, 27.2 Page 11

All Celtic scholars are well-trained. My cat is well-trained. Therefore my cat is a Celtic scholar.

Both Celtic scholars and my cat may be well-trained, but so are many other groups including Michelin-starred chefs and Olympic gold medallists. Many women may be interested in children, but, thankfully for the propagation of the species, many men are as well. Interest in children cannot be used to prove the sex of the interested party. Similarly: No women are interested in monsters. The author of the Four Branches is not interested in monsters. Therefore the author of the Four Branches is a woman. This is a good example of the classic fallacy of drawing an affirmative conclusion from a negative premise. Once again, a simple exercise in substitution will bring this to light: No Celtic scholars are Olympic gold medallists. My cat is not an Olympic gold medallist. Therefore my cat is a Celtic scholar. Once again, there are many individuals and groups which have no interest in monsters, including both men and women. The conclusion that the Four Branches were written by a woman cannot be reached from the premise given.

At this point Breeze adopts the fallacy of bifurcation by claiming that only two alternatives exist: that the author of the Four Branches is a woman, or that the author of the Four Branches is a man (13). No alternative authorial situations (including various types of oral composition described by Sioned Davies, scribal contribution over time as described by Daniel Huws, Christine James, Simon Rodway and Peter Wynn Thomas - all works which deserve to be in the bibliography but are not) are permitted. Indeed, in a curious chapter on “The Four Branches in Our Time” Breeze dismisses the work of a generation of scholars who have laboured to break down the certainties of an earlier age, opening up Mabinogi scholarship to new work by proposing a wider range of possibilities for dating the texts (Simon Rodway, Daniel Huws), a wider possibility of geographical distribution including the possibility that the texts were written in the north (Brynley Roberts, Patrick Sims-Williams), and a greater range of authorial possibilities, including the possibility of both lay and clerical authorship. Finally, Breeze retreats to the familiar fallacy of shifting the burden of proof, challenging scholars to find proof that Gwenllian ferch Gruffudd ap Cynan did not write the Four Branches (17) and thus involve themselves in the equally fallacious activity of attempting to prove a negative.

While the argument itself is the weakest aspect of this book, perhaps its most pernicious

feature is its relentlessly mimetic view of literary production. Every aspect of the Four Branches is explained as a reflection of the author’s personal interest or direct experience. Thus depictions of the life of the court indicate a courtly author (6); the fact that the action takes place in both north and south Wales indicates an author with connections to both regions (38); Arianrhod and

Page 12 Celtic Studies Association Newsletter Blodeuwedd’s bad ends reflect the author’s lack of sympathy with bad mothers and unfaithful wives due to the fact that the author was a mother and a wife (12); the “rather dry tone’ of the description of Branwen’s distribution of gifts to the Irish nobility “may suggest the author had personal experience of giving readily-accepted treasure to the Irish upper classes” (7); Pwyll’s chastity in Arawn’s court is the result of the fact that his character is partly based upon the author’s husband Gruffydd ap Rhys and “a woman representing her husband in fiction would not willingly represent his making love to another woman” (38); the author’s interest in the “round womb-like” pair dadeni presumably results from his or her possession of a round womb (8). According to this logic, the author of the Four Branches must be a courtly wife and mother, with connections to both north and south Wales, with experience of giving gifts to the Irish, married to Gruffydd ap Rhys and in possession of a round womb: is it any wonder that, given this view, Breeze fixes on the figure of Gwenllian ferch Gruffudd ap Cynan?

The pernicious aspect of this view of literary production is that it closes the door to both

authorial invention, and audience interpretation. It treats the texts as a Sherlock Holmes mystery, to be opened and shut once all the pieces have been put together. And there are many pieces here. Breeze offers a wealth of tantalising titbits of information and interpretation which, in a less prescriptive outline, will be of great interest to readers of the Four Branches. His identification of the place-names mentioned in the texts, for example, complete with Ordnance Survey grid references provides a useful tool for the student and interested reader alike. It is a shame that this useful information is employed in the service of such a flawed argument.

Diana Luft Cardiff University

The 32nd Annual University of California Celtic Studies Conference, sponsored by the UCLA Celtic Colloquium and the UCLA Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, took place March 4-7, 2010, on the UCLA campus (Royce 314). Invited guests included Cormac Bourke (Belfast), ABIGAIL BURNYEAT (University of Edinburgh), Gary Holland (UC Berkeley), Kim McCone (NUI Maynooth), Enid Morgan (Aberystwyth), Gerald Morgan (Aberystwyth), and Donald Stewart (University of Edinburgh). Special thanks to CMRS Program Coordinator Karen Burgess, Lisa Bitel (USC), Charles MacQuarrie (CSUB), Joseph Nagy, and everyone who presented papers. The event was informative and a fantastic opportunity for young scholars to present their work. ABS

The 2010 32nd Annual University of California

Celtic Studies Conference University of California, Los Angeles

March 4-7, 2010

Beltaine, 2010, 27.2 Page 13

2010 CSANA Annual General Meeting

The CSANA Annual Meeting for 2010 was held at the University of Notre Dame on April 9th and 10th. Ably organized by the local committee, consisting of Brian Ó Conchubhair, Patrick Roy McCoy, Amber Handy, and James W. Hamrick, the meeting was pleasantly bracketed by traditional Irish music performances on the evenings of 8 April and after the conference banquet on the 9th. Stimulating papers were offered on a variety of Irish and Welsh subjects of all periods with welcome attention to the modern period and to intercultural contact, conflict and influence. The annual CSANA seminar, on the “ Breudwyt Maxen Wledic,” was held in the Rare Books Room of the Hesburgh Library and produced a lively and wide-ranging discussion of the text itself and its social implications. The CSANA Annual General Meeting , presided over by President Fred Suppe, was enlivened by a spirited discussion of suggestions made by Matthieu Boyd of Harvard for creating new avenues of participation and greater visibility for Celtic Scholarship via the internet. Most sessions were held in the well-appointed venue of McKenna Hall, and the convivial Conference Banquet at the nearby Morris Inn. CSANA offers hearty thanks to the University of Notre Dame and to the Keogh Institute for their hospitality and support and particularly thanks the organizers and volunteers for making the conference run so smoothly and enjoyably.

DFM

CSANA president Frederick Suppe organized two sessions of papers for the annual International Congress on Medieval Studies which convened in Kalamazoo, Michigan during the week of May 13-16, 2010. The general organizing themes for the two sessions were: “New Work by Young Celtic Studies Scholars” and “Sex, Gender, and Marriage in Celtic Texts and Cultures.” Because Celtic Studies is inherently such a broad interdisciplinary enterprise, these themes were deliberately cast in broad terms to accommodate presentations on a wide range of specific topics. Thank you, to everyone who participated in this event.

The 2010 CSANA National Conference

University of Notre Dame April 9-11, 2010

The 2010 International Congress on Medieval Studies

Kalamazoo, Michigan May 13-16, 2010

Page 14 Celtic Studies Association Newsletter The call for papers is now on the Congress website (www.celticstudiescongress.org). Those receiving this announcement are encouraged to copy it, circulate it, and make known its contents to anyone else who might be interested. If you wish to receive further announcements regarding the Congress, please send a blank e-mail to: announce-subscribe@celticstudiescongress.org

Tá an ghairm scoile anois ar fáil ar shuíomh idirlín na comhdhála. (www.celticstudiescongress.org). Iarrtar orthu siúd a gheobhaidh an fógra seo é a chóipeáil agus a scaipeadh ar dhaoine eile a mbeadh spéis acu ina bhfuil ann. Má theastaíonn uait tuilleadh fógraí faoin gcomhdháil a fháil, cuir, le do thoil, ríomhphost folamh go dtí: announce-subscribe@celticstudiescongress.org CALL FOR PAPERS FOR: The Celts in the Americas conference will be held 29 June – 2 July, 2011 at Saint Francis Xavier University in Nova Scotia, hosted by the Celtic Studies Department of St FX and the Centre for Cape Breton Studies at Cape Breton University. The Celts in the Americas conference will offer a unique opportunity to share scholarship about the history, culture, and literature of Celtic-speaking peoples in North and South America. We invite submissions for 20 minute talks which discuss various aspects of the experiences and literatures of the communities speaking Breton, Cornish, Irish Gaelic, Manx Gaelic, Scottish Gaelic, or Welsh in the Americas, including:

• The history of the migrations of Celtic-speaking communities • Examinations of Celtic literatures and folklore of the Americas • Social movements and organisations formed by and for Celtic immigrant communities • Developments in the folklife of Celtic immigrant communities • Issues of linguistic and cultural maintenance and sustainability for Celtic immigrant communities • Assessments of the history or current state of the field of Celtic Studies in the Americas • New sources of information about Celtic-speaking peoples

The 2011 Celts in the Americas Conference

Saint Francis Xavier University in Nova Scotia CALL FOR PAPERS

XIV INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF CELTIC STUDIES MAYNOOTH

1-5 AUGUST 2011 CALL FOR PAPERS

XIV COMHDHÁIL IDIRNÁISIÚNTA SA LÉANN CEILTEACH MAIGH NUAD

1-5 LÚNASA 2011

Beltaine, 2010, 27.2 Page 15

• Preservation of and access to archival cultural resources, esp. digitization projects The final day of the conference will be devoted to examining the interactions between Celtic peoples and non-Celtic peoples in the Americas, with a special emphasis on indigenous peoples and peoples of African descent. Suggested topics include:

• The development of the idea of Other and racialism • Indigenous peoples, Imperial frontiers, and cultural invasion • Mutual reflections of Others in literature (Celtic, indigenous, and Afro-centric) • Mutual cultural, folkloric, and linguistic influences and exchanges • Mutual influences in movements for civil, cultural, and linguistic rights

Presentations may be offered in English, French, or any of the Celtic languages; a short summary abstract in both English and French will be required before the conference for dissemination to conference attendees. A selection of papers from the conference is expected to be published. Please submit your name, institutional affiliation, paper title, and abstract (between 150 and 300 words) by 5 December 2010 via email to: mnewton@stfx.ca Further details about the conference will be made available on the St FX Celtic Department website: http://www.stfx.ca/academic/celtic-studies/

DIFFERENT FONT! Dear friends and colleagues,

You may have heard about the new international Celticists' society founded in Zurich last September, The SOCIETA CELTOLOGICA EUROPAEA, or SCE. As many of you are not on the members' mailing list, kindly allow me to address you (some of you, again). I'd like to invite you most cordially to join the SCE. For a small sum you get full member's privileges and you support a cause which is dear to all of us.

We already have more than 100 members and would be delighted to win YOU too, with all your energy and expertise.

As a side note, I add membership declarations in English and German, and a first flyer. The first official newsletter will follow soon. Please feel free to contact me or any other member of the Board for more information or to join.

With best compliments and wishes,

-- Prof. Dr. Stefan Zimmer Vilicher Str. 56 53757 Sankt Augustin Tel. 02241-28876 st.w.zimmer@t-online.de

SOCIETA CELTOLOGICA EUROPAEA

Page 16 Celtic Studies Association Newsletter

If you are interested in reviewing any of the following books, or if you have another title in mind for review and would like me to contact the publisher for a review copy, please contact the CAPnewsletter editor at cmacquarrie@csub.edu. Reviews for the next CAPnewsletter should be received by September 15.

After the Irish: An Anthology of Poetic Translation. Edited by Gregory A. Schirmer.

Cork UP; Cork, 2009. Hardback: 500 pages. Aislinge Meic Conglinne: The Vision of Mac Conglinne. Introduction and Translation

by Lahney Preston-Matto. Syracuse UP; Syracuse, New York, 2010. Hardback: 136 pages.

The Cult of Saints and the Virgin in Medieval Scotland. Edited by Steve Boardman

and Ella Williamson. Boydell Press; Woodbridge, Suffolk, U.K. 2010. Hardback: 209 pages.

Castles of South Wales. Chris S. Stephens. Gomer Press; Llandysul, Ceredigion, 2010. Softback: 40 pages.

Dictionary of Munster Women Writers, 1800-2000. Edited by Tina O’Toole. Cork UP;

Cork, 2005. Hardback: 330 pages. Emily Lawless 1845-1913: Writing the Interspace. Heidi Hanson. Cork UP; Cork,

2006. Hardback: 234 pages. The Fenian Ideal and Irish Nationalism, 1882-1916. M.J. Kelly. Boydell:

Woodbridge, Suffolk, 2006. Hardback: 282 pages.

Gearrscéalta ár Linne. Edited by Brian Ó Conchubhair. Cló Iar-Chonnachta: Indreabhán, Co. na Gaillimhe, Éire, 2006. Paperback: 392 pages.

Going to the Well for Water: The Séamus Ennis Field Diary 1942-1946. Edited and

translated by Ríonach uí Ógáin. Cork UP; Cork, 2009. Hardback: 595 pages. The Idiom of Dissent: Protest and Propaganda in Wales. Edited by Robin Chapman.

Gomer Press; Llandysul, Ceredigion, 2006. Paperback: 165 pages. Ireland and the Global Question. Michael J. O’Sullivan. Cork UP; Cork, 2006.

Hardback: 215 pages. Map-making, Landscapes and Memory: A Geography of Colonial and Early

Modern Ireland c. 1530-1750. William J. Smyth. Cork UP; Cork, 2006. Hardback: 584 pages.

Newgrange. Geraldine and Matthew Stout. Cork UP; Cork, 2008. Paperback: 122

pages. Not Quite White. Simon Thursk. Gomer; Llandysul, Ceredigion, Wales. 2010.

Paperback: 480 pages. On this Mountain: Essays on Ten Welsh Mountains. Images by Ray Wood. Gomer

Press; Llandysul, Ceredigion, 2008. Hardback: 110 pages.

Books for Review

Beltaine, 2010, 27.2 Page 17

Out of the Earth: Ecocritical Readings of Irish Texts. Edited by Christine Cusick.

Cork UP; Cork, 2010. Hardback: 269 pages. Out of the Fire of Hell: Welsh Experience of the Great War 1914-1918 in Prose

and Verse. Edited by Alan Llwyd. Gomer Press; Llandysul, Ceredigion. 2008. Paperback: 336 pages.

Power, Politics, and Pharmaceuticals. Edited by Orla O’Donovan and Kathy Glavanis-

Grantham. Cork UP; Cork, 2008. Hardback: 262 pages. The Present and the Past in Medieval Irish Chronicles. Nicholas Evans. Boydell

Press; Woodbridge, Suffolk, 2010. Hardback: 308 pages. Proceedings of the Harvard Celtic Colloquium: Volume XXVI, 2006, Volume

XXVII, 2007. Harvard UP; Cambridge, Mass and London. 2010. Hardback: 407 pages.

Redmond: The Parnellite. Dermot Meleady. Cork UP; Cork, 2008. Hardback: 407

pages. Revolution in Ireland: Popular Militancy 1917-1923. Conor Kostick. Cork UP; Cork,

2009. Hardback: 258 pages. The Ulster Literary Theatre and the Northern Revival. Eugene McNulty. Cork UP;

Cork, 2008. Hardback: 258 pages. Uncharted. Jon Gower. Gomer Press; Llandysul, Ceredigion, 2010. Paperback: 205

pages. Wexford: A Town and its Landscape. Billy Colfer. Cork UP; Cork, 2008. Hardback:

233 pages.

Page 18 Celtic Studies Association Newsletter

Paypal available for CSANA dues

Members may now pay dues and subscribe to the Yearbook by credit card through the on-line company PayPal. All credit card payments must be made in US dollars. Because of the transaction fees, the CSANA prices for those paying by credit card will be $15.75 US (associate member) and $32 US (sustaining member, yearbook. When buying Yearbooks, people must add $2 for every $25. Some members have been paying $32 for

dues on PayPal, but then only $50 for a yearbook.)--and multiples thereof. Please note that conversion fees from other currencies to USD will be charged by the credit card companies. [The prices and system for those paying by check or cash remain unchanged.] To pay by credit card, go to the PayPal website (www.paypal.com), press the tab "send money," type in the e-mail address ehenken@uga.edu. Remember to pay in US dollars. Put csana in the e-mail subject line. In the Note box, type in your name, postal address, e-mail address, and for what exactly you are paying (dues year, membership rate, Yearbook number)..

Beltaine, 2010, 27.2 Page 19

Dues due:

Those of you who have a date of Apr 2010 or earlier on the label of your newsletter are due to pay your dues. Please return this sheet in the enclosed envelope, and your check or money order, to Elissa Henken.

The privileges of membership in CSANA include the newsletter twice a year, access to the bibliography and the electronic discussion group CSANA-L (contact Prof. Joe Eska at eska@vtaix.cc.vt.edu to join), invitations to the annual meeting, for which the registration fees are nil or very low, the right to purchase the CSANA mailing list at cost, an invaluable sense of fellowship with Celticists throughout North America and around the world. Membership in CSANA is open to anyone with a serious interest in Celtic Studies. Dues are payable at Bealtaine. New and renewing members should send checks in any of the accepted currencies to Elissa R. Henken at the above address. Checks in US dollars, payable to CSANA, must be drawn on a US bank or an affiliate of a US bank (international money orders cannot be accepted). Cheques in British Sterling must be made payable to Elissa R. Henken and at current exchange rates. Payments are also accepted via PayPal. (See the back of this form for details of paying via Paypal) Associate Mbr (student, retiree, unemployed, institution) $15.00 ($15.75 PayPal) Sustaining Member (regular) $30.00 ($32 via PayPal) Contributor $50.00 Patron $100.00 Benefactor $250.00 Contributors, Patrons and Benefactors support the creation of the CSANA bibliography, help to defray expenses of the annual meeting, and allow CSANA to develop new projects. Please join at the highest level you can. Don’t forget to order your Yearbooks as well. The publisher has increased prices for the Yearbooks -- members who had already paid their $25 have the choice of paying the additional amount ($35) to receive 7 or cancelling their order and applying that $25 to their CSANA dues. Please indicate your preference on this form or contact Elissa Henken. _______Year book 1, $50.00 _______Yearbook 2, $50.00 _______Yearbook 3&4, $90.00 _______Year book 5, $50.00 _______Year book 6, $50.00 _______Membership _______Total Name ___________________________________________ Address __________________________________________ e-mail _____________________ __________________________________________ __________________________________________

Page 20 Celtic Studies Association Newsletter

CSANA Newsletter Charles MacQuarrie Department of English California State University, Bakersfield @ Antelope Valley 43909 30th Street West Lancaster, CA 93536