The Harvard Celtic Colloquium was established in 1980 by two graduate students in the Harvard University Department of Celtic Languages and Literatures as a forum in which graduate students could share their work and gain experience in professional academia. Since then, it has been organized annually by a team of students in the department, grown in size, and gained an international reputation which annually draws a diverse mix of scholars from around the world to present papers on all facets of Celtic Studies.

The Harvard Celtic Colloquium is the only conference in the field of Celtic Studies to be wholly organized and run by graduate students. Since its inception, established and internationally-renowned scholars in Celtic as well as graduate students, junior academics, and unaffiliated scholars have been drawn to this dynamic setting, presenting papers on ancient, medieval, and modern topics in the many disciplines relating to Celtic Studies; including literature, linguistics, art, archeology, government, economics, music, and history.

Papers given at the Colloquium may be submitted for review to the organizers of the conference, who become the editors for those papers selected for publication in the Proceedings of the Harvard Celtic Colloquium. Only papers presented at the annual conference are considered for publication.

Harvard University Press is proud to announce that we will distribute the Proceedings of the Harvard Celtic Colloquium. Two new issues are available this Fall: Volume 18/19 (1998 and 1999) and Volume 20/21 (2000 and 2001). Back issues are also available.

This volume includes “The Influence of Nineteenth-Century Anthologies of Celtic Music in Redefining Celtic Nationalism,” by Graham Aubrey; “Breuddwyd Rhonabwy and Memoria,” by Matthieu Boyd; “A Reactionary Dimension in Progressive Revolutionary Theories? The Case of James Connolly’s Socialism Founded on the Re-Conversion of Ireland to the Celtic System of Common Ownership,” by Olivier Coquelin; “The Spiteful Tongue: Breton Song Practices and the Art of the Insult,” by Natalie A. Franz; “Celtic Democracy: Appreciating the Role Played by Alliances and Elections in Celtic Political Systems,” by D. Blair Gibson; “Pendragon’s Ancestors,” by Nathalie Ginoux; “When Historians Study Breton Oral Ballads: A Cultural Approach,” by Éva Guillorel; “Textual and Historical Evidence for an Early British Tristan Tradition,” by Sabine Heinz; “Time and the Irish: An Analysis of the Temporal Frameworks Employed by Sir Henry Maine, Eóin MacNeill, and James Connolly in Their Writings on Early Modern Ireland,” by Heather Laird; “‘And thus I will it’: Queen Medh and the Will to Power,” by Edyta Lehmann; “Judas, His Sister, and the Miraculous Cock in the Middle Irish Poem Críst ro crochadh,” by Christopher Leydon; “Se principen nominat: Rhetorical Self-Fashioning and Epistolary Style in the Letters of Owain Gwynedd,” by Patricia Malone; “Abduction, Swordplay, Monsters, and Mistrust: Findabair, Gwenhwyfa, and the Restoration of Honour,” by Sharon Paice MacLeod; and “Performing a Literary Paternity Test: Bonedd yr Arwyr and the Fourth Branch of the Mabinogi,” by Sarah Zeiser.