Digital Resources

This page contains a list of digital resources and online primary source archives for Celtic Studies. If you would like to suggest further additions, please email our Digital Editor at editor@celticstudies.org.

GENERAL

  • ASNC Spoken Word
    The Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic at the University of Cambridge has a guide to pronunciation for all the languages its students learn, including Middle Welsh and Old Irish. The website includes extracts of medieval texts, with translations and an audio file of a reading.
  • Celtic Digital Initiative Hosted by University College, Cork, this website has links to relevant texts, images, and manuscripts.
  • The Celtic Languages and Cultural Identity
    A major project at the University of Wales, exploring the meaning of Celticity. Includes links to various resources, such as wordlists and maps
  • Exploring Celtic Civilizations | An Online Celtic Studies Coursebook
    Exploring Celtic Civilizations is an online coursebook suitable for undergraduates introducing the field of Celtic Studies: the various kinds of evidence available about Celtic-speaking communities through over two millennia and the methods available for understanding them.

RESOURCES FOR LEARNING CELTIC LANGUAGES

Brezhoneg (Breton)

  • Brezhoneg
    Website hosted by Sabhal Mòr Ostaig, a partner of the University of the Islands and Highlands based on the Isle of Skye, Scotland. Further resources for learning Breton
  • International Committee for the Defense of the Breton Language
    US-based organization. Website includes a list of recommended resources for learners with competency in different languages.
  • Kervarker
    Offers an introduction to Breton culture and an online course in the Breton language, including sound recordings.

Cymraeg (Welsh)

Middle Welsh

  • Middle Welsh Consonants
  • Middle Welsh Vowels and Diphthongs
    Elizabeth Pyatt at Penn State offers pronunciation guides – including audio files – for Middle Welsh across these two websites.
  • Pronunciation Guide for Middle Welsh
    Dr Aled Llion Jones compiled these sound recordings to provide students with a guide to pronouncing the personal and place names in Pwyll, the First Branch of the Mabinogi.
  • Reading Middle Welsh
    A Course Book based on the Welsh of the Mabinogi: Compiled by Gareth Moran of the University of Texas at Austen, and hosted by MIT, this website offers the equivalent of a full textbook for learning Middle Welsh.

Modern Welsh

  • Cymdeithas Madog
    Cymdeithas Madog is an organization dedicated to promoting the Welsh language in North America. It runs annual language courses and its website lists various other resources, some for learners
  • Learn Welsh
    Welsh government-sponsored website provides numerous resources for learning the language, including free online courses and video lessons.

Gaeilge (Irish)

  • Logainm A collaboration between the Irish government and Dublin City University, this website provides information on the origins of Irish placenames.

Old and Middle Irish

  • ASNC Spoken Word
    As well as a pronunciation guide, this website includes a grammar and translation exercises.
  • The electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language
    A dictionary of medieval Irish.
  • eSenchas
    Includes a small number of editions of Old Irish texts, every word of which has a link to the relevant entry in the Dictionary of the Irish Language, accompanied by translations and manuscript images.
  • Old Irish Online
    This website, hosted by the University of Texas at Austin, includes and introduction to Old Irish and a series of online lessons based on early medieval texts.
  • Old Irish Spelling and Pronunciation Guide
    A pronunciation guide for Old Irish, created by Dennis King and hosted by Sabhal Mòr Ostaig.

Early Modern Irish

  • Léamh: Learn Early Modern Irish
    A website dedicated to providing all the necessary tools for learning Early Modern Irish, the language of bardic poetry and much else besides. Includes editions and translations of several texts.
  • Corpas
    A searchable corpus of Irish language texts published from 1600 to 1926, part of the Historical Dictionary of Irish project. Includes over 3000 works and can be searched for words or phrases.

Modern Irish

  • Conradh na Gaeilge
    Irish-based organization that promotes the Irish language. Offers online courses and much more.
  • Cumman na Gaeilge
    A Boston-based organization that seeks to promote the Irish language. Offers lessons in the Boston area and online. Also has links to further resources.
  • Daltaí na Gaeilge
    A US-based non-profit that promotes the Irish language. Website includes information about in-person classes in various parts of the US and online classes. * Foclóir: https://www.focloir.ie/ Foras na Gaeilge’s online Irish-English dictionary.
  • Gaois
    Dublin City University’s Fiontar agus Scoil na Gaeilge has developed a range of innovative digital resources, including the Corpus of Contemporary Irish and the titles of acts of the Oireachtas.
  • Teanglann
    The online Dictionary and Language Library provides free and easy access to the major published dictionaries of Modern Irish.
  • Téarma
    The national terminology database for Irish.
  • Tuairisc
    An online newspaper in Irish, covers national and international news, sport, culture and more. Special section for learners.
  • Vifax
    An online resource for Irish language teachers and learners hosted by Maynooth University. On Thursdays during the school semester, clips from the news of TG4 (The Irish-language television channel) are uploaded, along with questions sheets to improve vocabulary.

Gàidhlig (Scottish Gaelic)

Gailck (Manx)

  • Manx Language Network
    A government-sponsored website offering a range of resources, including classes aimed at beginners, intermediate and advanced learners.

Kernewek (Cornish)

TEXTS

General

  • Celtic Literature Collective (Mary Jones)
    Includes links to a large number of texts written by or about speakers of Celtic languages. Some are available in translation only, others in both the original language and in translation.

Irish

  • Bardic Poetry Database
    A searchable database of Irish bardic poetry, including numerous editions of poems, but not translations. These poems, written composed between the twelfth and the seventeenth century, are written in Classical or Early Modern Irish.
  • CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts
    Includes editions and translations of a large number of medieval and early modern texts in Celtic and other languages.
  • Confessio.ie
    Includes texts and translations of the writings of St Patrick, images of manuscripts and copies of early texts about Patrick.
  • A Dictionary of the Old-Irish Glosses in the Milan Codex Ambrosianus C 301 inf
    Brief explanatory notes in Old Irish, added to the Latin text commentary on the psalms, these glosses are a vital resource for our understanding of Old Irish.
  • Early Irish Glossaries Database
    Searchable database of early Irish glossaries, the product of a research project undertaken at the Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic, in the University of Cambridge.
  • Irish Sagas Online
     Hosted by University College, Cork, this website hosts digital editions of medieval Irish sagas, as well as translations into modern Irish and English.
  • Thesaurus Linguae Hibernicae
    Includes editions and translations of texts written by Irish scholars in both Latin and the vernacular.

Scottish Gaelic

  • Sorley MacLean Online
    Information about a great, twentieth-century Gaelic poet, including texts and translations of some of his poems.
  • The Angus MacLeod Archive
    Digital archive of an important figure in the history of Western Scotland int eh twentieth century, much of it in Gaelic.

Welsh

  • Cyfraith Hywel
    A one-stop shop for resources for the study of medieval Welsh law, this website includes transcriptions of the medieval texts, a modern guide and an extensive bibliography.
  • Maldwyn
    An index of Welsh poetry in manuscript at the National Library of Wales.
  • National Library of Wales digitized resources
    Searchable resources include tithe maps, Welsh newspapers & journals, Dictionary of Welsh Biography.
  • The Poems of Dafydd ap Gwilym
    Includes texts translations and audio recordings of over 170 poems by the famous fourteenth-century Welsh poet.
  • The Poems of Guto’r Glyn
    Editions and translations of more than 125 poems by the famous fifteenth-century Welsh poet, as well as biographical and other information.
  • Welsh Chronicles Research Group
    Provides access to texts of Latin chronicles written in medieval Wales.
  • Welsh Prose 1300–1425
    Transcriptions of medieval Welsh texts of different genres

THE CELTS IN ANTIQUITY

FOLKLORE

  • Carmichael-Watson Collection, University of Edinburgh
    Field notebooks and papers of 19th-century Scottish folklorist Alexander Carmichael, author of “Carmina Gadelica,” important “Celtic Twilight” anthology.
  • An Drochaid Eadarainn
    A collection of songs, stories and folklore in Gaelic. Though a valuable tool for learning idiomatic Gaelic expression, the site is not intended as a language learning site – the purpose of An Drochaid is to share Gaelic expression through the medium of the Gaelic language.
  • GaelStream
    Recordings of local folklore from Scottish Gaelic speakers in Cape Breton, Canada, made by the Cape Breton Folklore Collections.
  • Irish National Folklore Collection
    This website makes available the magnificent collection of Irish folklore housed at University College, Dublin. For more on the collection itself.
  • Tobar an Dualchais / Kist o Riches
    Online repository of recordings in Scottish Gaelic and Scots made in Scotland and beyond from the 1930s onwards.

MEDIEVAL MANUSCRIPTS

  • The Book of Kells
    Digital images of the famous Book of Kells, a masterpiece of medieval art.
  • British Library Digitized Manuscripts
    The British Library website contains descriptions of the manuscripts in its vast collection, including some in Irish, Welsh, Cornish and other Celtic languages. Digital images of some of these can also be accessed.
  • CODECS Catalogue of Celtic Manuscript
    This catalogue is still under construction, but includes entries on many medieval manuscripts containing Celtic-language texts. Digital images of some of these are available via links to libraries and other repositories
  • CODECS Tionscadal na Nod
    A collection of examples of manuscript abbreviations used by medieval Gaelic scribes.
  • Digital Bodleian, Western medieval Manuscripts
    Oxford University’s Bodleian Library contains one of the world’s greatest collections of medieval manuscripts. The library’s main collection contains several items from Ireland, while the collection of Jesus College (which can be accessed through the same site) contains several in Welsh. Many of these can be viewed online, including the Red Book of Hergest (Oxford, Jesus College MS 111)
  • Irish Script on Screen
    A large collection of digital images of manuscripts written largely in Irish, from repositories in Ireland, Britain and beyond.
  • Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru/National Library of Wales
    Holds most of the major medieval Welsh MSS, now fully digitized, including the White Book of Rhydderch, Book of Taliesin, Book of Aneirin, Black Book of Carmarthen, Hendregadredd MS, Welsh Laws of Hywel Dda, Book of Llandaff, and more.
  • Medieval Manuscripts on the Web
    This website, created and maintained by Siân Echard at the University of British Columbia, includes links to websites hosting images and information about medieval manuscripts around the world. The Celtic element is small, but this is a very useful website nonetheless.
  • Manuscripts of Lichfield Cathedral
    Includes information about, and images of, English manuscripts reflective of Celtic influence, most famously the St Chad Gospels. Marginal notes in this manuscript include some of the earliest surviving examples of written Old Welsh.

MATERIAL CULTURE

  • 3D Icons
    Includes 3D images (and the required plans for 3D printing) of medieval and prehistoric Irish sites, including high crosses and early ecclesiastical settlements.
  • Celtic Inscribed Stones Project
    This project, based at University College, London, was completed in 1999. It led to the creation of a searchable, online database of inscribed stones: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/archaeology/cisp/database/
  • Irish Inscribed Stones Project
    As part of this project, based at the National University of Ireland, Galway, more than 300 stones bearing Irish inscriptions were scanned. The 3D scans are now available via the project website.
  • National Museum of Ireland, Archaeology
    Includes images of and videos about artefacts from prehistoric and medieval Ireland.
  • Ogham in 3D
    A collection of 3D images of ogham stones from across Ireland, including information about their inscriptions.

BIBLIOGRAPHIES

  • CSANA Bibliography
    Searchable bibliography of secondary literature pertaining to Celtic Studies. The CSANA Bibliography is a legacy document current up to November 2020.
  • Bibliography of Irish Language and Literature
    An extensive bibliography of medieval texts and modern scholarship pertaining to the Irish language and Irish-language literature, maintained by the School of Celtic Studies at the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies.
  • CODECS Texts
    Searchable bibliography of texts in Celtic languages, includes references to primary and secondary sources for each of the texts, as well as reference to the various manuscripts
  • CODECS Bibliography
    Searchable bibliography of scholarship pertaining to Celtic Studies
  • MS-OMIT
    ‘Manuscript Sources to Old and Middle Irish Tales’, is a tool for facilitating research on Early Irish prose and prose-and-verse tales. It includes: 1) a list of early medieval narrative texts in the Irish language until approximately 1150 with (a) references to their medieval and early modern manuscript sources (with a few exceptions until the 17th c.) and (b) information about their availability in print (with a few exceptions from ca. 1870); 2) a list of abbreviated manuscript names which appear in the list of narrative texts together with a short explanation and a reference mostly to the corresponding library catalogues and, as the case may be, to facsimiles and diplomatic editions.