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Dr Aisling Byrne

Aisling Byrne portrait

Areas of interest

Much of my work examines the reception of medieval English literature beyond England’s borders. My starting point was textual transmission between England and Ireland, but my research quickly took me to Wales, Scotland, the Isle of Man, the Low Countries, Norway and Iceland. More recently, I have explored the reception of Middle English texts in Iberia.

I have also published extensively on the genre of medieval romance, particularly the Arthurian tradition. My work in this area has examined a wide range of themes, including marvels, feasting, chivalry, and territorial politics.

My other interests include medieval geographies (particularly maps), medieval library catalogues, Gerald of Wales, the Gawain-poet, as well as the modern reception of medieval writing in the works of J.R.R. Tolkien.

My book, Otherworlds: Fantasy and History in Medieval Literature, was published in 2016 by Oxford University Press and appeared in paperback in 2019.

With Professor Victoria Flood (Birmingham), I led the Crossing Borders in the Insular Middle Ages project funded by the Humboldt Foundation: https://digitalcultures.ncl.ac.uk/projects/crossingborders/

In 2021, I was awarded a Leverhulme Research Fellowship for the project ‘Writing Epic in Medieval England’. This explores the impact of the chansons de geste on English literature.

I have served on the committee of the Society for the Study of Medieval Languages and Literature and as an editorial board member for various scholarly journals and book series.

I was educated at University College, Dublin (BA) and St John’s College, Cambridge (MPhil, PhD). From 2011-2015, I was Fitzjames Research Fellow at Merton College, Oxford. In 2015, I came to şÚÁĎłÔąĎÍř as a lecturer in medieval literature and was appointed Associate Professor in 2021.

Selected publications

Books

  • Otherworlds: Fantasy and History in Medieval Literature (Oxford University Press, 2016; paperback 2019)
  • (co-editor with Victoria Flood), Crossing Borders in the Insular Middle Ages (Brepols, 2019)

Articles and chapters

  • "Romance Britain", in The New Cambridge History of Britain, vol. 2: 1100-1500, ed. Peter Crooks (Cambridge University Press, 2026), in press.
  • (with Eleanor Giraud and Magnus Williamson) “Rediscovered Polyphony from Tudor Ireland: the Gloria Amice Christi Johannes”, Early Music 53 (2025), in press.
  • (with Emily Wingfield) “Arthur in Irish, Scots, Cornish and Breton”, in The Cambridge History of Arthurian Literature and Culture, eds. Raluca Radulescu and Andrew Lynch (Cambridge University Press, 2025), in press.
  • “Medieval Britain and the Transmission of the Chansons de geste”, in Medieval French on the Move: Studies in Honour of Keith Busby, eds. Leah Tether, Patrick Moran, and Anne Salamon (De Gruyter, 2025), pp. 169-182.
  • "Fictions of Britain", in The Oxford History of Poetry in English: vol. 3, 1400-1500, eds. Julia Boffey and A.S.G. Edwards (Oxford University Press, 2023), pp. 341-354.
  • “Between Epic and Romance: The Matter of England and the Chansons de Geste", in Cultural Translations in Medieval Romance, eds. Megan G. Leitch and Victoria Flood (D. S. Brewer, 2021), pp. 192-208.
  • "Guy of Warwick in Iberia: England, Portugal and the Background to Tirant lo Blanch", Medium Aevum 90 (2021), 92-109.
  • “Irish”, in The Routledge Companion to Medieval English Literature in a Trans-European Context, eds. Sif Rikhardsdottir and Raluca Radulescu (Routledge, 2021), pp. 88-97.
  • “The Island of Sicily and the Matter of Britain”, in Medieval Romance, Arthurian Literature: Essays in Honour of Elizabeth Archibald, ed. A.S.G. Edwards (D. S. Brewer, 2021), pp. 34-45
  • “Charlemagne Narratives in Ireland: Manuscripts and Readers”, in Charlemagne in the Norse and Celtic Worlds, eds. Helen Fulton and Sif Rikhardsdottir (D. S. Brewer, 2020), pp. 160-190.
  • "From HĂłlar to Lisbon: Middle English Literature in Medieval Translation, c.1286–c.1550", The Review of English Studies 71 (2020), 433-459.
  • (with Ceridwen Lloyd-Morgan) “(Re)appropriating Arthur in Wales and Ireland”, in La LittĂ©rature arthurienne tardive en Europe, ed. Christine Ferlampin-Acher (Presses universitaires de Rennes, 2020), pp. 807-21.
  • (with Victoria Flood), “Insular Connections and Comparisons in the Later Middle Ages”, in Crossing Borders in the Insular Middle Ages, eds. Aisling Byrne and Victoria Flood (Brepols, 2019), pp. 7-22.
  • “Translating the Crusades in Medieval Ireland”, in Crossing Borders in the Insular Middle Ages, eds. Aisling Byrne and Victoria Flood (Brepols, 2019), pp. 125-136.
  • “Translating Europe: Imported Narratives and Irish Readers at the End of the Middle Ages”, Paul Walsh Memorial Lectures, vol. 4 (Maynooth School of Celtic Studies, 2019)
  • “Ireland: Translations and Romances”, in Arthur in the Celtic Languages, eds. Ceridwen Lloyd-Morgan and Erich Poppe (University of Wales Press, 2019), pp. 344-57
  • “The Evolution of the Critical Canon”, in Handbook of Arthurian Romance: King Arthur’s Court in Medieval European Literature, eds. Leah Tether and Johnny McFadyen (De Gruyter, 2017), pp. 43-58.
  • “Cultural Intersections in Trinity College Dublin MS 1298”, in Adapting Texts and Styles in a Celtic Context: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Processes of Literary Transfer in the Middle Ages: A Festschrift for Erich Poppe, eds. Axel Harlos and Neele Harlos (Nodus Publikationen, 2016), pp. 289-304.
  • “The Geraldines and the Culture of the Wider World”, in The Geraldines and Medieval Ireland: The Making of a Myth, eds. Peter Crooks and Seán Duffy (Four Courts Press, 2016), pp. 278-292.
  • “Writing Westwards: Medieval English Literature and its Early Modern Irish Audiences”, in Medieval into Renaissance: A Festschrift for Helen Cooper, eds. Andrew King and Matt Woodcock (D. S. Brewer, 2016), pp. 73-89.
  • (co-author with Victoria Flood) “The Romance of the Stanleys: Regional and National Imaginings in the Percy Folio”, Viator 46 (2015), 327-352.
  • “Language Networks, Literary Translation and the Friars in Late Medieval Ireland”, in Language Networks in Medieval Britain, ed. Mary Carruthers (Shaun Tyas, 2015), pp. 166-178
  • “The Circulation of English Romance in Medieval Ireland”, in Medieval Romance and Material Culture, ed. Nicholas Perkins, (D. S. Brewer, 2015), pp. 183-198
  • “Fairy Lovers: Sexuality, Order and Narrative in Medieval Romance”, in Sexual Culture in Late-Medieval Britain, eds. Robert Rouse and Cory Rushton (D. S. Brewer, 2014), pp. 99-110.
  • “A Lost Insular Version of the Romance of Octavian”, Medium Aevum 83 (2014), 287-301.
  • “Malory’s sources for the Tale of the Sankgreal: Some Overlooked Evidence from Lorgaireacht an tSoidhigh Naomhtha”, Arthurian Literature 30 (2013), 87-100.
  • “The Earls of Kildare and their Books at the End of the Middle Ages”, The Library 14 (2013), 129-153.
  • “Family, Locality and Nationality: Vernacular Adaptations of the Expugnatio Hibernica from Late Medieval Ireland”, Medium Aevum 82 (2013), 101-118.
  • “West is East: The Irish Saracens in Of Arthour and of Merlin”, Nottingham Medieval Studies 55 (2011), 221-232.
  • “The Intruder at the Feast: Negotiating Boundaries in Medieval Insular Romance”, Arthurian Literature 27 (2010), 33-57.

Publications

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