Law, Literature, and Society in Medieval Ireland and Beyond

Sponsoring Organization(s)

American Society of Irish Medieval Studies (ASIMS); Heroic Age: A Journal of Early Medieval Northwestern Europe

Organizer Name

Westley Follett

Organizer Affiliation

Univ. of Southern Mississippi

Presider Name

Bridgette Slavin

Presider Affiliation

Medaille College

Paper Title 1

"No one knows what hound whelped you on a dungheap": Uncertain Paternity in Medieval Irish Law and Literature

Presenter 1 Name

Chelsey Collins

Presenter 1 Affiliation

Maynooth Univ.

Paper Title 2

Ail Anscuicht (The Immovable Rock): The High Cross as Witness to Compact, Boundary, and Early Irish Law

Presenter 2 Name

Caitlin Hutchison

Presenter 2 Affiliation

Univ. of Delaware

Paper Title 3

The Lawgiver Saint: Faith, Law, and Ecclesiastical Authority in Early Ireland

Presenter 3 Name

Máire Johnson

Presenter 3 Affiliation

Emporia State Univ.

Start Date

10-5-2019 1:30 PM

Session Location

Fetzer 2020

Description

Medieval Ireland possessed the oldest codified, vernacular legal system in Western Europe. The earliest witnesses of this system consist of legal tracts produced by professional Irish jurists, heroic literature which preserves a surprising amount of legalistic material, and ecclesiastical texts written in Latin and Old Irish. This session seeks to explore the relationships between medieval Irish law, literature, and other witnesses of legal tradition and what these relationships can teach us about the societies that produced them.

Sponsored by the American Society for Irish Medieval Studies

Westley Follett