The Isle of Man: Crossroads of Medieval Cultures and Languages

Week One:
For the first three weeks of the seminar we have made preliminary arrangements with one of the many old charming Victorian hotels along the boardwalk of the capital city of Douglas, Isle of Man. The hotels in Douglas are relatively inexpensive, and we expect to have Bed and Breakfast rooms for approximately 25 pounds Sterling per night per person. Some participants may be asked to share rooms. There will be choices of en suite and regular single rooms – that is rooms with bathrooms and rooms with a shared bathroom. The hotels also have some meeting facilities available, though we plan to hold most of our seminar meetings at the Manx Museum in Douglas.

We will begin our study by reading from the New History of the Isle of Man volume three, which has just been published by the University of Liverpool Press. This newly published volume brings together prominent scholars in Anglo-Saxon, Norse, and Celtic Studies to give a more balanced and inclusive presentation of the languages, literatures, and cultures that were part of the Isle of Man in the Medieval period. The New History also discusses the importance of the Irish Sea and of the Isle of Man as a means of trade and communication and as a nexus of Medieval multiculturalism. In our early seminar meetings we will discuss the early migration in the Middle Ages of Middle Irish speakers to the island and speculate, based on physical and textual evidence, what these Medieval Irish brought to the island, what they found when they got to the island, and what remains of their influence.

We will also discuss the Isle of Man as a focal point of language and culture in the British Middle Ages and come to grips with the various other populations that came together on the Isle -- sometimes integrating and sometimes remaining quite separate. We will also discuss the vexing problem of the linguistic situation during the Middle Ages. On the Isle of Man, as elsewhere in Britain and Ireland, it is not clear how much intercourse the speakers of various dialects and languages had with one another. We will discuss the lack of borrowing in English from Celtic sources and contrast that with the rich linguistic diversity in Manx, which is a root Q-Celtic language but has influences from Welsh, Norse, English and Latin.

We will focus on the Gaelic influence during our first week and so will be reading and discussing the Táin Bó Cuailnge and the Irish manuscript tradition. The Táin, the great Medieval epic of the Irish, which deals with a mighty battle between the people of the North and the people of Munster. In addition to presentations by Dr. Peter Davey, former head of the Centre for Manx Studies, and by other local scholars such as Brian Stowell, who will introduce us to the Manx language. Our first expedition will be to take a chartered bus from Douglas and to navigate around the island. On our initial tour we will give participants a sense for the scale and diversity of the island, and an appreciation for the relative proximity of the Isle of Man to Wales, England, Scotland, Northern Ireland, and Southern Ireland.

During our expeditions on the Island, and during our seminars, we will pay particular attention to the Celtic element in Medieval insular culture. We will have introductory lectures on Irish and Welsh language, philology, and paleography. Participants will focus on insular manuscript culture and will learn to appreciate the richness of Celtic language and Celtic manuscripts. We will look at photo copies of Irish manuscripts, such as the Book of the Dun Cow, and we will work through a few short passages in Irish. We will note the manuscript hand, discuss details of manuscript date and provenance, and discuss the nature and ramifications of manuscript evidence. We will then discuss a number of the tales which are contained in the manuscript, but here we will turn to translations. Students will read the Táin Bó Cuailnge and a few other shorter Irish tales such as "The Death of Conchobar" and "The Slaying of Ronán." We will discuss these tales in some detail, both as historical works that give us insight into Medieval and perhaps even Iron Age Celtic culture and as literary texts. What are the main plots, themes, tones of the stories - are there identifiable aesthetics? How are these elements of fact and fiction different from traditional Western modes which are written in the classical model? We will focus on both the familiar in Medieval Irish culture as well as on the outré qualities, and we will discuss the extent to which Medieval Irish culture is "Western" and the extent to which it is radically Other. Are Western cultures such as Medieval Ireland, which have arguably not been much influenced by Roman or Greek civilization, really Western at all? We will also discuss the method of transmission of these texts, the role of the church in this transmission (transposition, omission, and even transformation), and potential echoes from "native" Celtic cultures, of classical culture, and of Indo-European archetypes.

This "native" vs. "Christian" debate is of particular concern to Celticists, and we will explore the parameters of the debate and relate the debate to the texts we will be examining. The presentation of the heroic, in texts from various insular cultures will be one of our particular concerns, and we will pay special attention to the role and function of the character Cú Chulainn. Cú Chulainn, a marvelous child hero, who is unable to grow a beard and yet undergoes a terrible physical transformation (a "warp-spasm") before going into battle is very unlike most of the heroes that are presented in Western literature classes. Here we see what Matthew Arnold described as the Celtic delight in overstatement and hyperbole, as opposed to Anglo-Saxon understatement and litotes. We will also pay attention to the portrayal of women in the manuscript, especially in the person of Queen Medb, and we will keep an eye out for the representation of children, including Cú Chulainn. We plan to meet for lectures and seminar discussion for two hours Monday through Thursday. Most of our seminars will meet either in the Centre for Manx studies or in the Trevelyan Hotel. Some of our discussions, lectures, and seminars will take place as a part of our field work, but we will always arrange for at least two hours of dialogue between the participants, directors, and, when they are present, lecturers.

During the first week we will also visit the towns of Peel and Kirk Michael and tour the ancient Castle and the ruined Cathedral on St. Patrick's Isle. Here the first Irish missionaries arrived in the middle of the fifth century. To enhance our discussion of this aspect of history, and to transition into the second week, we will read from Adomnan of Iona’s Life of St. Columba, The Voyage of St. Brendan, and firsthand accounts of the sack of Lindisfarne.

Week Two:
During the second week, our focus will shift from Irish to Welsh and Latin influence on the Isle of Man and in Medieval British culture and literature. This week we will visit Castletown and its surroundings, as they most clearly reflect Welsh and British influence on the Island.

Welsh language and culture is another important element in Medieval Britain. We will note linguistic and physical evidence of Welsh influence on insular manuscripts and literature. In the second week we will focus on Welsh manuscripts, language and culture, particularly the Red Book of Hergest, one of the oldest extant Welsh manuscripts. We will discuss differences and similarities between Irish and Welsh paleography and language, and we will read the entire one of the oldest extant Welsh manuscripts. We will discuss differences and similarities between Irish and Welsh paleography and language, and we will read the entire in translation. The Mabinogi, which is not quite so outre as the Irish epic Táin Bó Cuailgne, contains elements of ancient Celtic myth, Roman references, and a prose style and organization which effectively melds Celtic and Continental aesthetics. The difference between Welsh and Irish language and literature is stark. The extant Medieval Welsh manuscripts, for instance, are relatively neat, blocked, and minimal when compared to some Irish manuscripts. Welsh language and literature is more clearly leavened with influence from Anglo-Saxon and classical language and culture, and from Christianity. In our text we will read about the battle between Ireland and Wales which is represented in Branwen, the second branch of the Mabinogi, and we will discuss the nature of the strife between the islands in the Medieval period. We will focus our discussion of the hero on the representation of Pryderi, of women on Arianrod, Rhiannon, and Blodwydd, and of children on Llew Llaw Gyffes. Welsh language and literature, like Irish, though it does seem quite familiar to us in some respects, is in other respects quite alien to classical or modern Western aesthetic sensibilities. While differences are evident, we will also explore the not-so-apparent connections between the two cultures, the similarities and influences.

During the second week we will discuss the relations between Ireland and Wales presented in the Mabinogi and see how that relationship played itself out in the real world of the Isle of Man. We will look at evidence of Irish and Welsh bilingualism on the island and attempt to isolate linguistic, literary, and cultural similarities and differences based on the Irish and Welsh texts that we have read, lectures we have heard, and archaeological sites we have visited.

We will concentrate our reading and discussion of insular Latin on excerpts from two texts. The first is Bede’s Ecclesiastical History of the English People, and the second is Gildas’s De Excidio. The former is one of the most important texts in Medieval literature and history and will help us come to terms with the multiplicity of languages and cultures that were present in Britain in the early Middle Ages. The second text gives us the story of the early Anglo-Saxon invasions from a Brittonic perspective; Gildas sees the Britons as sinners and "sheep" who are being preyed on by the Anglo-Saxon "wolves" as a part of God’s punishment. Our questions about these texts are manifold. We will discuss the relation of the Latinate tradition to the Germanic and Celtic languages and cultures in the area, and discuss "Roman," "English," and "Celtic" identities of the people in Medieval Britain, keeping in mind some recent arguments that most of the Britons in pre-Anglo-Saxon England had actually given up their "Celtic" language and were monoglot speakers of Latin during the 400 years of Roman occupation. We will discuss open-ended questions in our seminar meetings and in lectures about the relation of Welsh and Insular Latin literature and cross fertilization, and we will also discuss the relevance and relationship between the Welsh and Latin material and the Irish material we focused on in the first week. One other topic of discussion will be the role of the Isle of Man in the Celtic and Latin literature. In which texts is it presented as a place of exile or confinement, in which texts is it presented as a ideal Otherworld, in which texts is it presented as a center of power?

Week Three:
In week three we will focus on the Norse and English influence on Medieval British language, literature, and culture. We will read from some of the most important and relevant Norse sagas, The Okneyinga Saga, The Saga of the Volsungs, The Saga of Hrolf Kraki and discuss these texts in conjunction with the Old English poem Beowulf and the Middle English poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.

Pursuant to our study of the Norse influence in Medieval Britain, we will read the Orkneyinga Saga with its portrayal of dynastic conflict and blood feud among various Norse, Anglo-Saxon, Scottish, and Irish characters and families. In this text, the Isle of Man plays an important role which seems to reflect its place as the center of the Lordship of the Isles, a Norse-Celtic maritime kingdom which was independent of Norway, England, Scotland, and Ireland in the Middle Ages, yet inextricably connected to the fortunes of each.

We will also read from The Saga of the Volsungs and The Saga of Hrolf Kraki to note and discuss the possible influence on the great Anglo-Saxon epic Beowulf. It is significant for our seminar that the first great work of British literature features Geats and Danes, precursors of the Vikings, as its heroes. All of these texts feature some of the same characters and are cross-referential in their attention to the early "history" of these peoples, detailing a time in which national identity had yet to be established, and cultures and boundaries were fluid. These early peoples spoke a mutually intelligible language, and these texts reflect the type of cross-pollination that is at the core of our argument about the Isle of Man. This recognition can impact the participants’ teaching and contribute significantly to their students’ understanding of the interconnectedness of the British Middle Ages.

During this final week on the island, we will visit museums, archaeological digs, and points of interest in the town of Ramsey and its environs, and we will discuss the possibility that certain Celtic and Norse themes and stories that we find as part of the Old and Middle English corpus were transmitted at some stage via the linguistic and literary amalgam that was situated on the Isle of Man. Recently, one scholar has argued that the author of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight was actually Stanley, Lord of the Isle of Man. We will discuss the plausibility of this claim and try to piece together evidence of the nature and extent of multiculturalism and multilingualism on the Island in the Old and Middle English periods and in the Viking period. We will discuss the aesthetic and cultural value of the Norse sagas and the Old and Middle English epics and speculate about the nature, breadth, and depth of Celtic and Latinate influence on these texts. We will also discuss the relationship between the texts that we have been reading and discussing and the archaeology that we have studied. What is the connection between language and culture in the Medieval world? Do the stories reflect a real world which we also see manifest in the archaeological evidence, or is the world depicted in the stories too fantastic, too much an entertaining aesthetic construction to reflect any reality?

Week Four:
One of our concerns during these final weeks will be to bring together fieldwork and scholarship, culture and linguistics, and we will be attending lectures and discussing the influence of the languages and cultures we have studied on Medieval English language, literature, and culture. We will read sections from Crystal’s The Stories of English and attempt to synthesize our study of the Anglo-Saxon roots of English and the heavy Norse and Latin influences, and we will discuss and seek to understand the various explanations for the relative dearth of Celtic influence on the lexicon of the English language. As trained philologists, the directors of the seminar feel that the study of the history and development of the English language is imperative to understanding, not only the texts that we read, but also the fundamental question of culture. The intimacy of language is intrinsic in any discussion of identity and the shaping of worldviews. That the Isle of Man is the cultural crossroads in the blending of languages and cultures is central to our focus in the seminar.

Though we will have ample time for discussion, we will also be busy in the museums and at various archaeological sites while on Man. The final two weeks of the seminar will include more time for the students to do independent research, to reflect, and to generate thoughtful discussion topics and questions of their own. During week four, therefore, we will leave the Isle of Man and travel by ferry and train to the Univeristy of Glasgow in order to allow the participants to avail themselves of the best sources in medieval studies in the world. We will reside in Graduate Student dormitory style housing. We have made preliminary inquiries and have been quoted a price of 25 to 30 pounds Sterling per night for Bed and Breakfast accommodation. Seminar participants will be issued guest reader cards for research in the Glasgow University, Edinburgh University, and the National Library of Scotland. We will tour of the cities of Glasgow and Edinburgh during our first week in Scotland. During week four, seminar participants will do independent research on a topic of their choosing or work on a variety of projects related to their teaching. The library systems at the Universities of Glasgow and Edinburgh are first rate, and the National Library of Scotland is one of the premier research facilities in the world; seminar participants will be strongly encouraged to utilize these resources in a manner which will best enhance their professional development and their respective teaching situations at home. The directors will be available for consultation and guidance through the intricacies involving such research.

While we are in Scotland we will continue to meet for two three hours, three times per week, for seminar discussions and conferencing, but we will expect seminar participants to generate the discussion questions based on their own research interests. We are arranging for two guest lectures while we are in Cambridge - one by Dr. Thomas Clancy, professor in Celtic at at Glasgow University; and the other by Professor William Gillies, head of Scottish Studies and Celtic at the University of Edinburgh. We plan to have these lectures focus, in part, on the Medieval manuscripts available to us at the libaries. We will take a tour of the collection, and we will ensure that all seminar participants will understand the basics of Medieval paleography.

We will also take the relatively short train ride from Glasgow to Edinburgh to spend a day at the National Museum of Scotland. We will pay particular attention to the Medieval exhibits in the museum, especially the Anglo-Saxon, Norse, and Celtic material. We will have a careful look at the Bog man and contextualize him within our field work on the Isle of Man and within our research, lectures, and seminar discussions.

Week Five:
While most of the final week will be taken up with independent research, writing up, and presentations, we do plan, early in week five, to take a second trip to Edinburgh. We will spend the day at the National Library, where we will be given a special tour of the Medieval manuscript collection. The National Library of Scotland is has an especially important collection of Medieval British manuscripts, and our seminar should certainly include a visit to it. We will also arrange for special manuscript reader cards for all the seminar participants so that they can experience the thrill of manuscript work. There is no substitute for actual contact with a Medieval manuscript. The feel, the textures, the smell, the rarified atmosphere of the National Library, and the opportunity to witness scholars at work in the field firsthand should prove to be unforgettable. We have contacted the Natioanl Library and are planning to hold our seminar meeting on that day in meeting rooms at the Library itself.

During the final days of the seminar, participants will use other nearby libraries to complete their research and give presentations on their work. As part of their presentation, they will discuss how they intend to apply their field work and research in their own classrooms and perhaps ways to extend their participation in the seminar beyond the summer’s activities. This final collaboration will be the culmination of what we have conceived of as a collaborative project from the beginning. It is to be hoped that all participants, directors included, will be actively engaged in every aspect of the seminar, sharing viewpoints, insights, and expertise. The length and rigor of this seminar will entitle participants to five quarter units (or the equivalent) of graduate work. Drs. Atchley and MacQuarrie will happily write letters for all participants substantiating the completion of the seminar units and outlining the relevance of the seminar to their professional development.