Celtic Literature Laurie Fadave

SPRING 2001: WCL Celtic Literature 421 (3 units)

Laurie Fadave, Lecturer              (SFSU, grade A)

TEXTS:

Mabinogi & Other Tales, Patrick Ford

The Tain, tr. Thomas Kinsella

Celtic Literature Anthology, Peter Beresford

Sweeney Astray, Ed. Seamus Heaney

Celtic Heroic Age, Ed. Koch and Carey

Plus a reader: Finn McCool cycle/Boyhood Deeds, Ulster Cycle, 2nd Battle of Magh Tuireadh, Celtic Languages, Celtic gods/goddesses, Lugh, The Dagda, Diarmuid (L.Gregory), Amergin, Macha, Ogham, Gododdin, Triads, Anroddiad, Heaney, modern Celtic composers, etc.

SPRING 1974: ANTH 410, Peoples and Cultures of Europe,( SFSU, 3 units, grade B) Prof. McGrath

Primary focus on Celtic, and Proto-Celtic tribes and Mediterranean cultures.

Ancient Irish Tales, Cross & Slover, The Tain, tr. Thomas Kinsella, etc.

Readings in Old and Middle Irish. 700-1200; Holland

Readings in Old and Middle Irish. 700-1200; 
Prof. Gary Holland, Linguistics,
SPRING 2001: Celtic Studies 105B (4 units), 
 (Full participation/grade/audit)
I'm afraid I dismally flunked the final in this class. But I'm glad I persevered.

Designed to offer students who have already taken the basic grammar course in Old and Middle Irish (105A) further opportunity to work with important texts written in the period A.D. 700-1200 and to refine their knowledge of the language as well as their grasp of the vernacular tradition as a whole. Texts will include both prose and poetry, and major genres such as epic, legend, and genealogy.

Prerequisites: Successful completion of Celtic Studies 105A or equivalent. Consent of instructor.

TEXTS:

Wolfgang Meid (ed.), Táin Bó Froech

Rudolph Thurneysend (ed.), Scéla Muicce Mac Dathó

Xeroxed poems 


I was in way over my head in both of Gary's classes, the other students were real linguists, so this was easy for them. Me? I was the auditing poet. One guy, can't remember his name, was simultaneously taking other Indo-European language classes—Hittite!  I loved the class. I didn/don't know the basics of forensic grammar (you can still write well and not know the basic functions or the forensics of language). So that was a huge handicap. I learned some useful things but I'm still shaky, grammatically speaking. But hey, I know what VSOP stands for.

 This class was enough to drive me to drink, but then, who had the time? I got up at 6 AM, translated a paragraph, and again in the evening, until midnight. There wasn't much room for anything else in my life, no time to write poetry, let alone, dreamtime. Dan Melia called Old Irish Bloodbath 101 A at Harvard. There sure was a lot of slaughter going on. But the chill delight when I translated aloud, in class, Cuchullan's epic line: The enemy of your enemy is my friend, it haunts me to this day. Magic and absolute wonder. What a distilled learning moment. I was so owl-eyed that I think even Gary got a kick out of it. Thank you Gary for that moment in time.

Had Dan been teaching the Old Irish class, I probably would've fared significantly better. His teaching style, is more suited to my learning style, such as it is. But I worked hard, and was diligent, with my nose to the books... it gave me a new insight into reading the Irish epics, having transcribed them, word for word from the Old Irish. The learning and knowledge is in my head, somewhere, and sometimes I can actually retrieve bits of it from my imperfect knowledge database. Who knew I would learn to like parsing lines? I felt I was doing real work. Delving deep into something almost unnameable and profound, unlocking those words from the past, like that. And earning the story, word by word.

I eventually plan to transcribe my Celtic Studies class notes, so this post is a placeholder (as well as a reading list). A reminder, a smack in the gob. What brought this on: I was asked to do a lecture on Celtic Bardic Poetry at Sacramento Poetry Center, and a) I was far too long gone from this material, b) I couldn't put my hands on the notes,. But I at least still had some of the books, and TG for the internet. So many medieval texts are now online (not so in 1999). I was able to reconstruct what I needed. But it was almost as bad as reinventing the wheel.   —MH 11/2015   

Celtic Stereotypes

Prof. Dan Melia ModCeltic Culture fl Scotland S/01-2

STEREOTYPES: IRISH

alcoholics/ friendly/ gregrious

always up for a laugh/ party

whiskey/guinness/whiskey

shamrockery/ stage irish

loads of movie stereotypes

St Paddywagon’s Day parade

crock of gold/rainbow

green isle/lots of rain/ farms

(superstitious islandfolk)

saints, scholars & schizophrenics

no snakes; magic

Standing stones

impractical to an extreme

wanting a good time

hot-tempered

stubborn/ pig-headed

hospitable, friendly

potatoes/ famine

sodabread/tea/ bacon

turf fire, poor cooks

tin-penny whistle

uliean pipes, bodhran

singers, storytellers

stepdancers/ tapdancers

religious/superstitious&

sentimental to an extreme

the little people/tuatha de

pooka/puck, fairies

The Troubles/divided/war

North vs South/ poverty

Catholic vs Protestant

1916 Uprising/ Freestate

betrayal from within/ pettymindedness to an extreme

Michael Collins, DeValera

emmigration, poverty

largest body of medieval lit.

Ulster, Finn, Tuatha cycles

Cuchulainn, Finn mac Cumhail

Tristan & Isolde/ill-fated love

Gaelic: a dying language

SCOTS

dour/melancholic/pettyminded

thrifty/stingy/reserved/friendly/ peevish/ smart/ practical/ inventive/ philosophers/scientists

Presbyterians /evangelical

vs Catholic minority

(not) given to drink

whisky galore

rich alcoholics who can hide it

highlanders a breed apart

bagpipes/kilts, scian dubh

(nothing is worn/ it’s in fine working order)

haggis & thistles/cockaleekie

crofters/ islanders/ isolated

(superstitious islandfolk)

loch ness monster/wee beasties

sheep buggerers

standing stones/ magic

Stone of Scone, Dalriada

shortbreads/scones

poor cooks

hospitable, friendly

Colum Cille/Iona royalty/saints

BooodyMary got her head cut off

Catholic vs Protestant

James II/VII; alliance w/England

Kenneth mac Alpin,Macbeth

Robert the Bruce, Braveheart

traitors: Bannockburn, Glencoe, Culloden Mhor

Highland clearances

Balmoral (kissing up to English royalty)

cultural thieves (Ossian)

emmigration poverty/wealth

Gaelic on the comeback

Lowland Scots (Robert Burns)

sentimental to an extreme

CORNISH

pasties

Poldark!

Pirates of Penzance

French Creek/smugglers

island causeway (name?)

tucked away villages

King Arthur/Tintagel

Geoffrey of Monmouth

Tristan & Isolde/ill-fated love

A dead/resurrected language

WELSH

eisteffodd (sp) chair

singers, poets

Daffyd ap Gwyllm

Dylan Thomas

alcoholics(reserved unless drunk)

suspicious, less friendly

Methodists/ evangelical

bible thumpers, dour, never smile

coal mines/ extreme poverty

How Green Was My Valley

very mountianous (inbred)

emmigration

dragons/ magic

Tudors/ betrayal

Mabinogion

Battle of the Trees

Trisan & Isolde/ill-fated love

poor cooks

Welsh language in recovery

Patagonia, Pennsylvania

BRETONS

Gauguin’s women/lace hats

Mt San Michel/island causeway

Lawyer/bread story; Ys, rocks

Carnac/standing stones

magical coastline

Breton Lays, Song of Roland

Tristan & Isolde/ill-fated love

Marie loses realm to Phillip(end of Brittany)

No Bretons or spitting allowed

good cooks, lots of cream fat

very pious/catholic to an extreme

MANX

tailess cats

1st Viking parliament, coins

tax haven for rock stars

last druidic stronghold

a very dead language

SPAIN/FRANCE/BELGIUM

Walloons/ marginalized

Wild Geese (Macmahonaise/hennessey)

Flight of the Earls

gallegos/singers, dancers

flamenco/ nearly absorbed

no Celtic language at all

King of Spain’s daughter (wine)

GALICIA

(Missing....I looked under the Word shell via RTF, and found completely unrelated text about Hannibal, LOL. I think I do have a hard copy of this somewhere...but where? No idea on date, other than 2001 0r 2002 —MH 11/2015)