The Celts MA

The Celts MA gives you the opportunity and ability to sift fact and fiction, and to answer in detail the question: Who were - and who are - the Celts? Few words are as evocative and intriguing as ‘Celtic’, bringing to mind the intricacies of Bronze Age jewellery, the massive structures of Stonehenge and Newgrange, the legends of Arthur and Cú Chulainn and the Bardic craft of medieval kings and princes. But ‘Celtic’ is also about the Renaissance, the Enlightenment and the New World; Romanticism, Revolution and the struggles for survival in modernity of languages, literatures and entire national identities.

Over a single academic year, modules will be taught by experts in the Schools of Welsh, History, and Music, focusing on literature, archaeology, religion, mythology, antiquarianism, art history and music, to explore the culture and identity of the Celtic peoples from the hillforts of prehistory to the devolved and independent parliaments of today. Students on the course will also be guided as they perform their own research towards a Master’s thesis on a topic of their choice. Major issues covered on the MA ‘Y Celtiaid - The Celts’ include: Do ‘The Celts’ actually exist, and if so, who and what are they?

How can we discuss such questions, with what methodology and with what evidence? How has the word itself (‘Celt’, ‘Keltoi’, etc.) been used through the centuries, from Classical historians to modern pop musicians? What are the strengths and weaknesses of ‘Celtomania’ and ‘Celtoscepticism’?

How has the concept of the ‘Celt’ has been discovered and discarded in various fields such as Literature, Archaeology, Linguistics, Music, Religion? How did nineteenth-century Continental scholars contribute to the creation of the ‘Celt’? How do and how did the Celtic-speaking peoples negotiate their own identities?

What do the medieval texts (Laws, Legends, Court Poetry, Saints’ Lives) and archaeological findings tell us, and what does recent history have to say? What are the main sources of evidence for the histories and identities of the ‘Celtic’ peoples (i.e. those speaking Celtic languages in the modern period)? How do we use these sources?

Can Arthur and Cú Chulainn tell us anything useful? How have the ethnic and national identities of the modern ‘Celts’ been represented and negotiated with reference to this concept of the ‘Celtic’? What has been - and what is - the political and ideological relevance of the ‘Celt’?

An important objective is to provide you with relevant analytical training, so that you are familiar with the latest theoretical and practical developments relating to Celtic Studies. On completing this course, you will have a solid grounding in the main methods and sources of the discipline, and will also have developed widely-transferrable skills which will be of clear relevance to a broad range of careers. Bangor is beautifully situated in in the old kingdom of Gwynedd in north-west Wales, between the mountains of Eryri (Snowdonia) and the Irish Sea.

Here, a majority of the population speak Welsh, the strongest surviving Celtic language. Welsh, with English, is the official language of this bilingual country. To travel from nearby Caergybi (Holyhead) on the ancient Druidic centre of Ynys Môn (Anglesey), to Dublin or Dun Laoghaire in Ireland takes as little as two hours, and by road and rail Bangor is comprehensively linked to the rest of the Island of Britain.

Those wishing to explore further their own Celtic roots can take…