Seachtain na Gaeilge in Cambridge

Seachtain na Gaeilge, 2011
5 - 17 MARCH

As part of the celebration of 'Seachtain na Gaeilge', a two-week festival which promotes Irish language and culture in Ireland and abroad, the Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse & Celtic will host the following events in the English Faculty Building, Sidgwick Site, 9 West Road.

9 MARCH (Wednesday), 5pm, English Faculty Board Room

Dr. Tim Robinson, Parnell Fellow
The 'Geophanic' Language of Ireland: A Discussion on the Value of Irish Placenames

Tim Robinson, author of several books on the landscape of Connemara and the Aran Islands and creator of beautifully detailed maps, will consider the importance of place in Ireland and the consequences of the loss of place in the modern world. All are invited to come and examine Dr. Robinson's maps of Connemara and participate in an informal discussion on the value of place--a topic thoughtfully probed by Robinson in his
recent Parnell lecture.


10 MARCH (Thursday), 5pm, ASNC Common Room

Dánta agus Ceol/ Poems and Music
Irish Film: 'KINGS'

A group of students from Modern Irish language courses will read selected Irish poems, perform traditional music and present a photographic travel account of the Irish landscape.

Student performances will be followed by a showing of 'KINGS', an Irish language film (with subtitles) and winner of five Irish Academy Awards. The film explores the lives of six men who left their homes in Connemara in 1977 with hopes of a better life in England.

Colm Meaney in Kings (image from Alt Film Guide www.altfg.com)

17 MARCH: H. M. Chadwick Lecture, 5pm (G-R 06/ 07)

Professor Wendy Davies (University College London) will present the annual H. M. Chadwick Memorial Lecture: Water mills and cattle standards: probing the economic comparison between Ireland and Spain in the early middle ages

Irish Manuscripts:
The Chadwick lecture will be preceded by a viewing of medieval Irish manuscripts at St. John's College. Places for the viewing are limited; to book please contact Denis Casey (dc399@cam.ac.uk).

These events will be followed by refreshments. All are welcome to attend.

Henry Sweet Society for the History of Linguistic Ideas - Programme

The Annual Colloquium of the Henry Sweet Society for the History of Linguistic Ideas will take place in the Faculty of English on 19 March 2011. Registration is £30 (full) or £15 (student/unwaged); forms can be found here. The programme is as follows:

  

Henry Sweet Society

for the History of Linguistic Ideas

Annual Colloquium

Faculty of English, University of Cambridge

Saturday 19 March 2011

PROGRAMME

9.00: Registration and Coffee

            Faculty of English Foyer

9.50: Opening remarks: Andrew Linn (University of Sheffield)

            Faculty of English Room GR06/07

10.00: Leslie Seiffert Memorial Lecture: Professor Emeritus Richard Hudson (UCL)

‘Why History Matters: From Babylon to Sweet, Tesnière, Chomsky and the National Curriculum’

11.00–11.30: Coffee and refreshments

            Faculty of English Foyer

11.30–13.00: Session I

            Faculty of English Room GR06/07

Chair: Nicola McLelland (University of Nottingham)

11.30–12.00: Hung-yi Chien (National Taiwan Normal University)
The Jesuit grammatology of Chinese from Ricci to Prémare

12.00–12.30: Camiel Hamans (European Parliament, Brussels)

The Reception of TGG in the Netherlands in the sixties of the 20^th century

12.30–13.00: Helena Sanson (University of Cambridge)

Women’s language in the ‘Questione della Lingua’ debates of post-unification Italy

*******

13.00–14.00: Lunch

            Faculty of English Foyer

14.00–14.30: Annual General Meeting of the Henry Sweet Society

*******

14.30–15.30: Session II

            Faculty of English Room GR06/07

Chair: Deborah Hayden (University of Cambridge)

14.30–15.00: Toon Van Hal (Research Foundation, Flanders)
From Alauda to Zythus: Collecting and discussing Old-Gaulish words in Early Modern Europe

15.00–15.30: Paul Russell (University of Cambridge)

Irish f-, Latin u-, and the Greek digamma: Medieval Irish perceptions of sound laws, sound change, and linguistic borrowing

15.30–16.00: Coffee and refreshments

            Faculty of English Foyer

16.00–17.00: Session III

            Faculty of English Room GR06/07

Chair: Paul Russell (University of Cambridge)

16.00–16.30: Denis Casey (University of Cambridge)

Teaching Irish to the English Queen

16.30–17.00: Ingrid Tieken-Boon van Ostade (University of Leiden/University of Cambridge)

The Bishop’s grammar: Revising Robert Lowth’s status as a prescriptivist

17.00: Closing remarks

‘A Land without Shortcuts’ — 2011 Parnell Lecture in Irish Studies

Dr Denis Casey writes:

‘What makes a place out of a locality?’ was one of the many thought-provoking questions posed by Dr Tim Robinson, 2010–11 Parnell Fellow in Irish Studies, in his masterful 2011 Parnell Lecture, delivered at Magdalene College, Cambridge, yesterday.

 Charles Stewart Parnell (image from www.nndb.com)

Named for Charles Stewart Parnell, the ‘Great Adulterer’ and Magdalene College dropout still beloved of the Irish people, the Parnell Fellowship and Annual Lecture have provided forums for some of the most talented minds in Irish studies. This year the polymath Tim Robinson — author, mathematician, geologist, poet and cartographer (among other things) — skillfully expounded upon potential threats to the landscapes and seascapes of the Aran islands, Burren and Connemara; places on which he has become the greatest commentator and authority since J. M. Synge. His discussion of present day (and potential) adverse human impact upon these areas, both upon the physical environment and our perceptions of place, was set within an impressively large timeline stretching over geological and environmental eons. Questions from the audience, however, indicated that not everyone was in complete agreement with his assessment of modern human impact vis-à-vis that of previous generations and indeed natural forces of much longer duration. I came away feeling that while Robinson has not squared this circle, his answer to the above question, ‘it is the attention which we bring it’, is deserving of deeper reflection somewhere in the ‘long dark night of the intellect’ upon which he has previously written.

The Long Twelfth-Century View of the Anglo-Saxon Past

Dr David Woodman and Dr Martin Brett are hosting a two-day conference on 29th - 30th March on 'The Long Twelfth-Century View of the Anglo-Saxon Past' at Robinson College, Cambridge, in association with the Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse & Celtic, and the British Academy. Registration is £20, and details on how to register can be found here. The programme is:

Tuesday 29th March
10.15 – Registration and Coffee
11.00 – Welcome

Session I: The Anglo-Saxon Saints
Chair: Prof. N. Brooks
11.10: Dr R.C. Love: ‘Folcard of Saint-Bertin and the Anglo-Saxon Saints at Thorney’
11.50: Prof. R. Bartlett: ‘The Viking Hiatus in the Cult of Saints as seen in the Twelfth Century’

12.45 – Lunch in Robinson College

Session II: Anglo-Saxon England in the Narrative of Britain
Chair: Dr M. Brett
14.00: Dr J. Barrow: ‘Danish Ferocity and Abandoned Monasteries: the Twelfth-century View’
14.40: Prof. D.W. Rollason: ‘Symeon of Durham’s Historia de regibus as a Product of Twelfth-century Historical Workshops’
15.20: Dr H. Doherty: ‘The Twelfth-Century Laymen and the English Past’

16.00 – Tea and Coffee

16.30: Prof. J. Gillingham, ‘Some Late Twelfth-Century Views of the Anglo-Saxon Past’
17.10: Prof. R.M. Thomson: ‘William of Malmesbury's Unknown anti-Norman Diatribe’

End: 17.50

Wednesday 30th March

Session III: Anglo-Saxon Law and Charter
Chair: Prof. S. Keynes
09.30: Prof. N. Vincent: ‘The Use and Abuse of the Anglo-Saxon Past: The Royal Charter Evidence’
10.10: Dr S. Baxter - title to be confirmed

10.50 - Tea and Coffee

11.30: Prof. N. Brooks: ‘Was there a “Textus Cantuariensis” and what did it contain?’
12.10: Prof. B. O’Brien: ‘Anglo-Saxon Law-Makers and their Laws in the Twelfth Century’

12.45 – Lunch in Robinson College

Session IV: Scribes, Artists and the French Vernacular
Chair: Prof. M. Lapidge
14.00: Dr J. Crick, ‘Norman Imitation of Pre-Conquest English Script: Possibilities and Limitations’
14.40: Prof C. Karkov: ‘The Scribe Looks Back: Anglo-Saxon England and the Eadwine Psalter’

15.20 - Tea and Coffee

15.50: Dr T. Webber: ‘Bede’s Ecclesiastical History and Office Readings in Post-Conquest England’
16.30: Dr J.E. Weiss: ‘The Anglo-Saxons and the Anglo-Normans: “History” in Anglo-Norman Romance’

End 17.10

Another ASNC awarded Junior Research Fellowship!

Congratulations to Dr Deborah Hayden, who has just been elected to a Junior Research Fellowship at Christ Church, Oxford, beginning in October 2011, to work on the medieval Irish poetico-grammatical treatise Auraicept na nÉces.

Deborah outlines her proposed research project here:

I will spend the next three years working on a manuscript study of the Irish treatise on linguistic and poetic theory entitled Auraicept na nÉces, ‘The Scholars’ Primer’, which has long been recognised as a valuable source for the study of literary and intellectual life in medieval Ireland. The Auraicept consists of a concise core of text, possibly datable to as early as the eighth century, to which a copious amount of commentary was subsequently added; the abundance of this commentary testifies to the considerable popularity of the work amongst medieval Irish scholars over an extended period. The Auraicept represents one of the earliest sustained attempts in Western grammatical tradition to contrast a classical language with a vernacular one, as it weaves native terminology, ideas and allusions into a structural framework heavily influenced by classical doctrine on grammar and rhetoric. The work’s commentators drew upon a range of different sources, revealing not only what they perceived to be of importance in the study of their language, but also how they articulated the relationships between linguistic theory, rhetorical practice and literary authority. Recent scholarship has begun to re-evaluate the Auraicept’s seminal role in Latin and vernacular learning in medieval Ireland, its contribution to our understanding of medieval literary genre, and the light it sheds on Ireland’s engagements with continental Europe in the medieval period. However, several manuscript copies of the treatise have still not been comprehensively examined, and it is the aim of my project to fulfil the need for an in-depth and up-to-date study of the Auraicept’s manuscript transmission, including further research into the nature and sources of its accreted scholia.

Parker Library blog and CCASNC

Two notices which may be of interest:

First, the Parker Library, Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, now has a blog, which you can find here.

Second, the 2011 Cambridge Colloquium in Anglo-Saxon, Norse & Celtic, which is organised by postgraduate students in the Department of ASNC, will be held on 26th February. This year's theme is 'Colliding Worlds', and the Colloquium will feature two keynote lectures: Prof Malcolm Godden, Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon, University of Oxford, who will be speaking on 'Old English Orosius and its sources' and Dr. Paul Russell, Reader in Celtic, University of Cambridge, who will be speaking on 'Revisiting the "Welsh Dictator" of the Old English Orosius'. The full programme, along with details of how to register, can be found here.

CFP: Henry Sweet Society for the History of Linguistic Ideas

This is a final reminder that the deadline for the submission of paper proposals for the Spring Meeting of the Henry Sweet Society for the History of Linguistic Ideas is 31st January. The meeting takes place on 19th March. Further information can be found here.

Chadwick Memorial Lecture 2011

The next public lecture in ASNC will be the 2011 H. M. Chadwick Memorial Lecture, on Thursday 17th March, at 5pm, in room GR.06/07, English Faculty Building, 9 West Road, Cambridge.

Professor Wendy Davies (University College London) will speak on: 'Water mills and cattle standards: probing the economic comparison between Ireland and Spain in the early middle ages'.

Hector Munro Chadwick (1870-1947) was second Elrington and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon in the University of Cambridge (1912-41). Through the immense range of his scholarly publications, and through the vigorous enthusiasm which he brought to all aspects of Anglo-Saxon studies -- philological and literary, historical and archaeological -- he helped to define the field and give it the interdisciplinary orientation which characterises it still. The Department of ASNC, which owes its existence and its own interdisciplinary outlook to H.M. Chadwick, has wished to commemorate his enduring contribution to Anglo-Saxon studies by establishing an annual series of lectures in his name.

The H.M. Chadwick Memorial Lecture, established in 1990, is delivered by a scholar who is invited to Cambridge for the occasion, on a subjected calculated to be of interest to the whole Department.

Everyone welcome.

ASNC awarded Junior Research Fellowship

Congratulations to Levi Roach, a PhD student in the Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse & Celtic, and a member of Trinity College, Cambridge, who has just been elected to a Junior Research Fellowship at St John's College, Cambridge, beginning in October 2011. Levi proposes to work on the following project for duration of his Fellowship:

Over the next three years I will embark on an exciting new research project, provisionally entitled ‘Apocalypse and Atonement around the Year 1000: Æthelred “the Unready”’ and Otto III in Comparison’. My intention is to investigate how discourses of penance and apocalypticism influenced kingship and politics at court in England and Germany in the 990s and early 1000s. Specifically, the study will focus on how the rulers of these two kingdoms, Æthelred II (better known to posterity as ‘the Unready’) and Otto III reacted to contemporary apocalyptic and eschatological fears. It has long been noted that a degree of millennial anxiety is visible in this period, and it has likewise long been appreciated that discourses of penance and repentance played an important role at Æthelred’s and Otto’s courts. My intention, however, is to look at the intersection between these two, which has yet to receive detailed commentary. The aim will be to investigate both how fears of the Last Judgement may have helped fuel concerns about penance and atonement, and how on the other hand such apocalyptic anxieties themselves may have been in part a product of contemporary concerns about sin and repentance. It is my contention that these concerns about apocalypse and atonement came together in a unique fashion in the 990s, in part—though certainly not only—in response to the approaching millennium. It is, therefore, no accident that both Æthelred and Otto are known to have performed penance, and equally no accident that in both cases this seems to have taken place in the later 990s.[1]

[1] That Otto III performed penance is well established and S. Hamilton, ‘Otto III’s Penance: a Case Study of Unity and Diversity in the Eleventh-Century Church’, Studies in Church History 32 (1996), 83–94, surveys the evidence admirably. The evidence for Æthelred’s penance is more circumstantial, but compelling nonetheless. It has yet to receive detailed treatment in print, but will be discussed at length in two forthcoming studies: C. Cubitt, ‘The Politics of Remorse: Penance and Royal Piety in the Reign of Æthelred the Unready’, Historical Research (forthcoming); and L. Roach, ‘Public Rites and Public Wrongs: Ritual Aspects of Diplomas in Tenth- and Eleventh-Century England’, Early Medieval Europe 19 (forthcoming 2011). I am grateful to Dr. Cubitt for making her paper available to me in advance of publication. For the time being, see also her insightful remarks in ‘Ælfric’s Lay Patrons’, in A companion to Ælfric, ed. M. Swan and H. Magennis (Leiden, 2009), pp. 165–92, at 171–5.

Sutton Trust Summer School in ASNC

Dr Elizabeth Boyle writes:

In 2011 the Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse & Celtic will once again be running a Summer School in association with the Sutton Trust. This year the Summer School will take place from 22nd - 26th August. More details can be found via the University's Summer School pages, and in the film below, which features participants from last year's Summer School in ASNC: