Reading List – Story Archaeology

Bibliography and links to online resources

On this page, you will find full references to all texts referred to in the articles and podcasts. There are links to online versions of texts where available, links to sites where texts can be purchased, and to good online resources and reading lists.

If we have omitted a text that you think should be included, please contact us and let us know. We’ll keep updating this page as we go along.

Enjoy reading!

Online Resources

The best online resource for original Irish texts online is CELT, a project at University College Cork.

http://www.ucc.ie/celt/

A related project has put Hogan’s Onamasticon Goedelicum online. This text lists place-names mentioned in a wide range of Irish texts, and attempts to identify the places in modern Ireland.

http://publish.ucc.ie/doi/locus

Many texts and translations relating to Celtic Literature, including a vast set of Irish texts, have been gathered together on The Celtic Literature Collective:

http://www.maryjones.us/ctexts/

The Irish Folklore Commission of 1937 collected stories and folklore from all over Ireland, often getting schoolchildren to scribe the stories of elderly relatives and neighbours. The Commission’s research is housed in the National Folklore Collection at the National University of Ireland, Dublin (aka UCD).

http://www.ucd.ie/irishfolklore/en/schoolsfolklorescheme1937-38/

These websites by Will Parker give an in-depth account of the Welsh mythological cycle, often called the Mabinogi(on):

http://www.mabinogi.net/

http://www.mabinogion.info/

This classic translation of the Mabinogion can be read online:

Jones, Gwyn and Jones, Thomas. The Mabinogion. Golden Cockerel Press, 1948. Omits “Taliesin”.

And here is a link to an ongoing study project about the Mabinogion:

http://www.mabinogistudy.co.uk/

Many out-of-copyright texts of all kind are being made available on archive.org. This incredible project not only works to make all public domain media available for free to everyone, but simultaneously stores hard copies of all this information for future generations. We have a public bookmark list of texts of interest to Story Archaeologists here:

http://archive.org/bookmarks/Story%20Archaeologists

For websites with archaeological and artistic resources, see the “Links List” on the right of each page.

Studies and Compilations

A Guide to Early Irish Law

by Fergus Kelly

This is a crucial book that reviews the huge corpus of Irish law and status texts. Its importance is partly because it is arranged by topic rather than by text, and is both comprehensive and readable. A must for the bookshelf of anyone interested in Early Irish Society!

Buy this book from Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies:

http://books.dias.ie/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=9_25&products_id=149&zenid=r8ajl9e1gae11p00nnfko8um23

Early Irish Farming

by Fergus Kelly

A “sequel” to A Guide to Early Irish Law. This book breaks down the boundaries between disciplines, as it compares textual evidence with archaeological discoveries to build a picture of life for people in Early Irish Society. It also reviews evidence by topic, making a fascinating insight into the lives of the authors and audiences of Early Irish literature.

Buy this book from the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies:

http://books.dias.ie/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=9_25&products_id=150

On the Manners and Customs of the Ancient Irish: a series of lectures

by Eugene O’Curry; edited by William K. Sullivan

One of the first works to take a comprehensive view of the Irish manuscript tradition. O’Curry’s translations and conclusions are often flawed, but the book has been incredibly influential. (For more on this, read “The Importance of the Source”)

Volume 1 (Introduction by William K. Sullivan): http://archive.org/details/onmannerscustoms01ocuruoft

Volume 2 (includes O’Curry’s version of the story of Sinann): http://archive.org/details/onmannerscustoms02ocuruoft

Volume 3 (includes bibliographic information): http://archive.org/details/onmannerscustoms03ocur

Three Irish Glossaries: Cormac’s glossary, O’Davoran’s glossary and the glossary of Oengus Céile Dé

Edited by Whitley Stokes

These medieval glossaries show us the scholarly ideas of our medieval predecessors. While they are not an accurate guide to the language and lore of pre-9th century Ireland, they are nonetheless influential and sometimes informative.

http://archive.org/details/cu31924026508238

Irische Texte : mit ersetzungen und Wterbuch

edited with translations by Whitley Stokes and Ernst Windisch

This is a collection of various Irish texts, but includes the “Mittleirische Verslehren”, a text concerning the training of poets, edited by Rudolf Thurneysen.

http://archive.org/details/irischetextemite00stok

Recommended Reading

Myths of the World: A Thematic Encyclopedia

by Michael Jordan

An interesting and entertaining overview of myths from every corner of the world, groups according to themes. We use extracts from this book in “Stories of Creation“.

View on Google Books: http://books.google.ie/books?id=rUDXAAAAMAAJ

The Rites of Brigid: Goddess and Saint by Seán Ó Duinn

This book contains a wide selection of traditions associated with St. Brigid and the festival of Imbolc / Lá ‘le Bhríde. Ó Duinn has done extensive research using the Irish Folklore Commission, and quotes directly from this research in his book. View on Google Books:

The Ark Before Noah by Dr Irving Finkall

I love this book so much that I am including dome of the description of its contents. It is even better as an audiobook with Irving Finkell himself reading it.

In THE ARK BEFORE NOAH, British Museum expert Dr Irving Finkel reveals how decoding the symbols on a 4,000 year old piece of clay enable a radical new interpretation of the Noah’s Ark myth. A world authority on the period, Dr Finkel’s enthralling real-life detective story began with a most remarkable event at the British Museum – the arrival one day in 2008 of a single, modest-sized Babylonian cuneiform tablet – the palm-sized clay rectangles on which our ancestors created the first documents. It had been brought in by a member of the public and this particular tablet proved to be of quite extraordinary importance. Not only does it date from about 1850 BC, but it is a copy of the Babylonian Story of the Flood, a myth from ancient Mesopotamia revealing among other things, instructions for building a large boat to survive a flood.

Worlds of Arthur: Facts and Fictions of the Dark Ages

By Guy Halstal

This is a really academic exploration by a reputable historian that sets so called, Dark Age stories into context. I also appreciate that he uses Irish textual and archaeological evidence to support his arguements. I highly recommend this book.

Worlds of Arthby Guy HalsallAn academic investigation of the textual evidence (or lack thereof) for a historical King Arthur. Unusually, it includes Ireland as part of the European context for the material.

The Edge of Memory: Ancient Stories, Oral Tradition and the Post-Glacial World

The Geology of Folk Tales and Climate Change: by Patrick Nunn

This is one of my favourite books and it is so good to see such solid evidence for longevity of oral stories. Well worth reading and also available as an audiobook.