Medieval Irish and Medieval Icelandic Texts in Nineteenth-Century Translation

The project 'Medieval Irish and Medieval Icelandic Texts in Nineteenth-Century Translation' (MIRMINT) is a comparative study of translations of medieval Irish and Icelandic texts published by antiquarians in Ireland, Iceland, and Denmark in the nineteenth century.

This period saw both scholars and cultural and political nationalists in several countries reflect on their respective national medieval pasts and what relevance it could have to the contemporary political situation.

This, in turn, led to the adoption of so-called 'Golden Ages' - a point in time which was deemed to embody all of the characteristics which the envisaged national ideal held.

Key to the adoption and perpetuation of the golden age were the translations of medieval texts from this designated period which made these works accessible to a larger audience. The project will answer the following three questions: What texts were translated? What does the choice of these texts tell us?

What are the links between the texts and cultural nationalism?

This will be achieved by compiling a database with a list of publications which will be crossreferenced against another list of medieval texts known to antiquarians in the nineteenth century, and by researching antiquarian correspondence and nationalist periodicals.

This study will centre and promote the role of the small nation in the nineteenth-century context of empire, exploring how the past was used to argue for cultural and linguistic distinction, which, it was hoped, would lead to greater political autonomy.

It will also investigate how the dominating countries, in this case, Britain and Denmark, also shared an interest in the Irish and Icelandic past, though they had different motivations for engagement with antiquarian research.

The research is highly topical at a time when white nationalists associated with the Alt-Right have centred the middle ages to further their arguments, frequently focusing on the imagined Irish and Nordic pasts.