Hi there!
I am a BA student of Celtic Studies at Utrecht University, and I will be uploading fun facts on Celtic culture from language to literature on this page every once in a while! My goal is to introduce people to the most interesting study there is :)
As you may know, music is the thing that got me into Celtic studies and I still love Celtic music so much! I did some posts on Irish music before but I wanted to share some more songs with you, and this time not only songs, but some movie tips as well! :)
Songs
Julie Fowlis is a Scottish singer and she sings in Scots Gaelic :) This song is called 'Tha mo ghaol air àird a' chuain' (literally 'my love is on the high seas'). I don't speak Scots Gaelic myself, but I recognise some words and grammar from Irish, which I am secretly kinda proud of.
Sinéad O'Connor is one of the more known Irish singers. She isn't a native speaker of Irish, but has made an album 'Sean-nós Nua' (New Sean-nós) with some Irish traditionals, also in English. This one, Paddy's Lament, is about a young Irishman that migrates to America in the 19th/early 20th century during the Celtic migrations. I love this song, especially the melancholy about it. 'I wish I was at home in dear old Dublin..'
This is the soundtrack to 'Brendan and the Secret of Kells' (see below.. one of my movie tips!) I love this piece of music so much!
Movies
I have two Celtically related (I don't know if that's a word..) movies for you. One was very popular and won an Oscar if I'm corrected, the other is less known but just as amazing.
Brendan and the Secret of Kells!
An animation about the book of Kells. It has a lot of inside jokes about Pangur Bán, Colum Cille and other medieval Irish texts and history. I enjoyed this movie tremendously and I think I've watched it four times now.. Ánd, the book of Kells is as gorgeous in real life as it is in the movie!! So be sure to check it out when you're in Dublin.
This one you've probably heard of. Brave! It has some typically clichés in it (witches and magic etc.) but it has great music, even a Scots Gaelic one, and it is very funny. In the opening sequence you can see some Pictisch inscriptions that are actually real!
Well that's it for now, I'll probably do a blogpost like this more often because there are a lot of tips I'd like to give you :)
Until next time,
Lian
Today I have another linguistical topic for you. This isn't specifically Celtic, but it is found regularly in the medieval texts. It is called 'figura etymologica', and it is quite simple but very weird to translate if it's new to you.
In Celtic languages there is a thing called 'verbal noun', which is exactly as you would think, the noun of a verb. So 'to regulate' --> 'the act of regulating' (first verb that came to mind.. mm.) Got that? It's not as difficult as it may sound.
Now in the 'figura etymologica', the verbal noun is the subject of that exact same verb. So literally something like 'the act of regulating regulates'. Now that sounds incredibly silly to us, but in the medieval period people thought is was beautifully said.
A painting of Branwen
In the Welsh tale 'Branwen uerch Lyr' Branwen is married to the Irish king, but because her brother molested the king's horses (it's not a pretty text to read..) Branwen is put in the kitchen where she receives a blow every day. This is expressed by 'the blow that blows' etc.
In other languages the figura etymologica is used as well but not particularly in this sense. 'He drank a drink' is a figura etymologica as well. Now that doesn't sound so weird to our ears, it's just those Celts again that make everything weird ^^
I'd like to show you some very interesting ánd useful websites! I use some of them for studying but they are amazing to browse through as well.
Ogham A new project by Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies is a website about ogham stones. Ogham stones are found in Ireland and some in Britain, and they usually are inscribed with a name or a place. They are our source for Archaic Irish (the main reason why I love them!) On the website is more general info.
They want to make around
400 Ogham stones available with details ánd 3D images! There are 52 stones online right now, and it's really fascinating to browse through them.
Irish Scripts on Screen
Another website I enjoy using very much is Irish Scripts on Screen (short isos), also by the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies. This website has facsimiles of a very big corpus of Irish manuscripts! So you can look up the Book of Leinster, the Lebor na hUidre (book of the dun cow) or the Yellow Book of Lecan and leaf through them. Awesome. Irish Scripts on Screen
Welsh law
This website is a very good starting point if you are interested in the Welsh laws. It has information about the manuscripts, law texts themselves and it sketches a lot of the context of these laws! If you're brave, you can look through the website in Modern Welsh. The research is funded by the University of Wales. Cyfraith Hywel
Irish Archaeology
Not really a scientific website, but very interesting as well, is this blog on Irish archaeology. It focusses on a broad period of time, and deals not only with Irish stuff. You can follow it on Facebook as well! Irish Archaeology
Well that's it for now, if I think of more tips for you I will let you know :)
Bye,
