Uploaded July 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Today we are talking to Dr Nina Cnockaert-Guillou who is an O’Donovan postdoctoral scholar in the School of Celtic Studies at the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies. She gives us a mini-lecture on the text called Acallam na Senórach ‘The Colloquy of the Ancients’ and its many versions, and talks about different ways of studying narrative texts, including why it is important to work directly with medieval manuscripts. Thanks for listening!
Episode recorded on 17.04.2025.
People, texts and topics mentioned:
MA supervisor: Prof. Kevin Murray, University College Cork
PhD supervisor: Prof. Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, University of Cambridge
fíanaigecht / fiannaíocht (the Finn Cycle), collection of stories about Finn mac Cumaill (Fionn mac Cumhaill / Finn McCool) and his warriors (fían)
Acallam na Senórach / Agallamh na Seanórach ‘Colloquy of the Ancients’, Middle Irish text (early 13th century)
Acallam Bec / Agallamh Bheag ‘Little Colloquy’
The Reeves Agallamh na Seanórach / Agallamh a dó (‘the Second Agallamh’), Early Modern Irish version
An tAgallamh Nua ‘the New Agallamh’, modernised version of select episodes (18th–19th centuries)
Agallamh Oisín agus Phádraig ‘Colloquy of Oisín and Patrick’, poetic dialogue (18th–19th centuries)
Oisín, son of Finn mac Cumaill
‘Three men and the dog of Irúath’ (read the story in translation in Ann Dooley and Harry Roe, Tales of the Elders of Ireland (Oxford, 1999), pp. 152–7 and 171–6)
Caílte / Caoilte mac Rónáin
Narratology, study of the structure and function of narratives
Gérard Genette (1930–2018), French literary theorist
Historical / diachronic narratology
Monika Fludernik, ‘The Diachronization of Narratology: Dedicated to F. K. Stanzel on His 80th Birthday’. Narrative 11 no. 3 (2003): 331–348.
Eva von Contzen, ‘Why We Need a Medieval Narratology: A Manifesto’. Diegesis 3 no. 2 (2014): 1–21.
Irish Script on Screen (ISOS): https://www.isos.dias.ie/
Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Rawlinson B 487 (15th–17th century)
Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Laud. Misc. 610 (15th century): digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/cb909a51-5acd-4fee-95ec-51ff09b87676
(Re)Creating Stories Conference, held in May 2025 in DIAS (programme: https://www.dias.ie/2025/04/16/recreating-stories-23-24-may-2025/)
Association of Celtic Students: https://linktr.ee/celticstudents
Digital Humanities: TEI/XML tagging
Select publications by Nina:
‘Frame Tale, Embedded Tales and Narrative Devices in Acallam na Senórach’. Cambrian Medieval Celtic Studies 88 (Winter 2024): 21–46.
‘Textual Structure, Dialogue and the Layout of the Manuscripts of Acallam na Senórach’. Studia Celtica Fennica 20 (2024): 125–146. Available open access: doi.org/10.33353/scf.147011
‘An Edition and Translation of “Finn and Mac Lesc” Including Fuitt co bráth and Tánic sam’. Celtica 36 (2024): 116–157. Available open-access: doi.org/10.58480/SCS-fnucz-m3ya5
Forthcoming article in Zeitschrift für celtische Philologie (2025).
Reading recommendations: see fuller description at https://www.dias.ie/podcast/season-2-ep-4-storytelling-and-irish-manuscripts-with-dr-nina-cnockaert-guillou/
Copyright details
Sound and music remixed by Robert Scuta. Jingle produced by Silvan van der Zwaag of Studio Galassasa; the Irish fragment of Annie Uí Annluain is taken from the DIAS Glór recordings, with thanks to Dr Andrea Palandri. Logo designed by Nina Cnockaert-Guillou.
Production team: Dr Nina Cnockaert-Guillou, Dr Viktoriia Krivoshchekova, Robert Scuta.
Today we are talking to Dr Nina Cnockaert-Guillou who is an O’Donovan postdoctoral scholar in the School of Celtic Studies at the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies. She gives us a mini-lecture on the text called Acallam na Senórach ‘The Colloquy of the Ancients’ and its many versions, and talks about different ways of studying narrative texts, including why it is important to work directly with medieval manuscripts. Thanks for listening!
Episode recorded on 17.04.2025.
People, texts and topics mentioned:
MA supervisor: Prof. Kevin Murray, University College Cork
PhD supervisor: Prof. Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, University of Cambridge
fíanaigecht / fiannaíocht (the Finn Cycle), collection of stories about Finn mac Cumaill (Fionn mac Cumhaill / Finn McCool) and his warriors (fían)
Acallam na Senórach / Agallamh na Seanórach ‘Colloquy of the Ancients’, Middle Irish text (early 13th century)
Acallam Bec / Agallamh Bheag ‘Little Colloquy’
The Reeves Agallamh na Seanórach / Agallamh a dó (‘the Second Agallamh’), Early Modern Irish version
An tAgallamh Nua ‘the New Agallamh’, modernised version of select episodes (18th–19th centuries)
Agallamh Oisín agus Phádraig ‘Colloquy of Oisín and Patrick’, poetic dialogue (18th–19th centuries)
Oisín, son of Finn mac Cumaill
‘Three men and the dog of Irúath’ (read the story in translation in Ann Dooley and Harry Roe, Tales of the Elders of Ireland (Oxford, 1999), pp. 152–7 and 171–6)
Caílte / Caoilte mac Rónáin
Narratology, study of the structure and function of narratives
Gérard Genette (1930–2018), French literary theorist
Historical / diachronic narratology
Monika Fludernik, ‘The Diachronization of Narratology: Dedicated to F. K. Stanzel on His 80th Birthday’. Narrative 11 no. 3 (2003): 331–348.
Eva von Contzen, ‘Why We Need a Medieval Narratology: A Manifesto’. Diegesis 3 no. 2 (2014): 1–21.
Irish Script on Screen (ISOS): https://www.isos.dias.ie/
Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Rawlinson B 487 (15th–17th century)
Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Laud. Misc. 610 (15th century): digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/cb909a51-5acd-4fee-95ec-51ff09b87676
(Re)Creating Stories Conference, held in May 2025 in DIAS (programme: https://www.dias.ie/2025/04/16/recreating-stories-23-24-may-2025/)
Association of Celtic Students: https://linktr.ee/celticstudents
Digital Humanities: TEI/XML tagging
Select publications by Nina:
‘Frame Tale, Embedded Tales and Narrative Devices in Acallam na Senórach’. Cambrian Medieval Celtic Studies 88 (Winter 2024): 21–46.
‘Textual Structure, Dialogue and the Layout of the Manuscripts of Acallam na Senórach’. Studia Celtica Fennica 20 (2024): 125–146. Available open access: doi.org/10.33353/scf.147011
‘An Edition and Translation of “Finn and Mac Lesc” Including Fuitt co bráth and Tánic sam’. Celtica 36 (2024): 116–157. Available open-access: doi.org/10.58480/SCS-fnucz-m3ya5
Forthcoming article in Zeitschrift für celtische Philologie (2025).
Reading recommendations: see fuller description at https://www.dias.ie/podcast/season-2-ep-4-storytelling-and-irish-manuscripts-with-dr-nina-cnockaert-guillou/
Copyright details
Sound and music remixed by Robert Scuta. Jingle produced by Silvan van der Zwaag of Studio Galassasa; the Irish fragment of Annie Uí Annluain is taken from the DIAS Glór recordings, with thanks to Dr Andrea Palandri. Logo designed by Nina Cnockaert-Guillou.
Production team: Dr Nina Cnockaert-Guillou, Dr Viktoriia Krivoshchekova, Robert Scuta.
