Abstract
The essays in this collection examine the worldviews held by the Celtic peoples, particularly the Gaelic (Irish and Scottish) perspectives.
The essays in this collection, many originally presented at a 2008 colloquium on Celtic Cosmology and the Power of Words, aim to examine the worldviews held by the Celtic peoples, particularly the Gaelic (Irish and Scottish) perspectives. Texts and inscriptions, some of them pre-Christian, in Celtic languages and in Celtic Latin provide the sources for the worldviews under study. This area of research is also linked to that of the power of words, which refers to human belief in powerful speech acts. Naming and story-telling processes convey knowledge of the cosmos; this knowledge is connected to the landscape and its roads, rivers, mountains and hills. Cosmology is a description of the order and structure of the world as perceived by human beings, and its study is a study of layers – in the earth, in the language and in the tales.
The essays in this collection, many originally presented at a 2008 colloquium on Celtic Cosmology and the Power of Words, aim to examine the worldviews held by the Celtic peoples, particularly the Gaelic (Irish and Scottish) perspectives. Texts and inscriptions, some of them pre-Christian, in Celtic languages and in Celtic Latin provide the sources for the worldviews under study. This area of research is also linked to that of the power of words, which refers to human belief in powerful speech acts. Naming and story-telling processes convey knowledge of the cosmos; this knowledge is connected to the landscape and its roads, rivers, mountains and hills. Cosmology is a description of the order and structure of the world as perceived by human beings, and its study is a study of layers – in the earth, in the language and in the tales.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | Celtic Cosmology: Perspectives from Ireland and Scotland |
| Editors | Jacqueline Borsje, Ann Dooley, Gregory Toner, Seamus Mac Mathuna |
| Place of Publication | Toronto |
| Publisher | Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies |
| ISBN (Electronic) | 978-0-88844-826-2 |
| ISBN (Print) | 978-0-88844-826-2 |
| Publication status | Published - 2014 |
Publication series
| Name | Papers in Mediaeval Studies |
|---|---|
| Volume | 26 |