The literary, historical, and linguistic confluence that characterized the Irish Sea region in the pre-modern period is reflected in the interdisciplinarity of these new research essays, centered on the literatures, languages, and histories of the Irish-Sea communities of the Middle Ages, much of which is still evoked in contemporary culture. The contributors to this collection dive deep into the rich historical record, heroic literature, and story lore of the medieval communities ringing the Irish Sea, with case studies that encompass Manx, Irish, Scandinavian, Welsh, and English traditions. Manannán, the famous travelling Celtic divinity who supposedly claimed the Isle of Man as his home, mingles here with his mythical, legendary, and historical neighbors, whose impact on our image and understanding of the pre-modern cultures of the Northern Atlantic has persisted down through the centuries.

[Charles W. MacQuarrie](https://www.csub.edu/~cmacquarrie/) is Professor of English at California State University (Bakersfield campus). He earned his PhD in English from the University of Washington.[Joseph Falaky Nagy](https://folkmyth.fas.harvard.edu/people/joseph-falaky-nagy) is the Henry L. Shattuck Professor of Irish Studies at Harvard University. He earned his PhD in Celtic from Harvard and is formerly Professor at UCLA of English and Folklore & Mythology.

Preface (Charles W. MacQuarrie, California State University, Bakersfield, and Joseph Falaky Nagy, Harvard University)Introduction: "Manannán and his Neighbors" (Charles W. MacQuarrie, California State University, Bakersfield)Chapter One: "Hiberno-Manx Coins in the Irish Sea" (Helen Davies, University of Rochester)Chapter Two: "Hunferth and Incitement in Beowulf" (M. Wendy Hennequin, Tennessee State University)Chapter Three: "Cú Chulainn Unbound" (Ron J. Popenhagen, California State University, Northridge)Chapter Four: "Ragnhild Eiríksdóttir: Cross-Cultural Sovereignty Motifs and Antifeminist Rhetoric in Chapter 9 of Orkneyinga saga" (Brian Cook, University of Mississippi)Chapter Five: "Statius' Dynamic Absence in the Narrative Frame of the Middle-Irish Togail na Tebe" (Stephen Kershner, Austin Peay State University)Chapter Six: "The Stanley Family and the Gawain Texts of the Percy Folio" (Rhonda Knight, Coker College),Chapter Seven: "Ancient Myths for the Modern Nation: Seamus Heaney's Beowulf" (Maria McGarrity, Long Island University, Brooklyn)Chapter Eight: "Kohlberg Explains Cú Chulainn: Developing Moral Judgment from Bully to Boy Wonder to Brave Warrior" (Ethel B. Bowden, Central Maine Community College)Chapter Nine: "Language Revival and Preservation: Contrasting Manx and Texas German" (Marc Pierce, University of Texas, Austin)