Burnyeat, Abigail

Gaelic heroic literature forms perhaps the earliest, richest, and most extensive body of narrative in any pre-modern European vernacular tradition, a vast, inter-connected, varied and fascinating world of tales. Stories first attested in the medieval manuscript record are reworked throughout the early modern period and beyond, in both written and oral tradition, a window into a constantly evolving Gaelic narrative world. 

Like many other saga literatures, at first sight it appears to be primarily focused on the lives and heroic deeds of men; male heroes are at the centre of the majority of the tales, while female characters, however carefully drawn, appear as wives, help-meets, or deae ex machina. But how might women audiences have understood this material, and how might their emotional engagement and response to the tales have enabled the creation of new layers of meaning in which women’s stories become more visible?    

This paper will consider women’s roles as creative listeners to Gaelic narrative, exploring examples drawn both from medieval tales and from more recent oral tradition to ask how different kinds of women’s participation in narrative culture could contribute both to the creation of stories, and the creation of their meaning.  

Abigail Burnyeat is Head of Research at Sabhal Mòr Ostaig, University of the Highlands and Islands. She studied at the Universities of Cambridge and Glasgow, and was previously Lecturer in Medieval Gaelic language and literature at the University of Edinburgh. Her primary research focus is on Gaelic narrative and literary culture, from medieval manuscript tradition to contemporary storytelling. Current projects include Ar sgeulachdan, ar gaisgich, Bòrd na Gàidhlig-funded work in collaboration with the National Library of Scotland, School of Scottish Studies Archives and Stòrlann to create resources on Gaelic heroic tales for Gaelic-medium school children and teachers, and Aiseag, a collaboration with Scotland’s online digitised folklore and oral history archive Tobar an Dualchais, investigating and delivering location-specific cultural heritage curriculum provision for schools in Gaelic-speaking communities.