Speaker: Alexander O’Hara,Department of Celtic Languages and Literatures, Harvard UniversityWhen: Monday, March 28th @ 5:15pm (ET)Where: In person, Building E51, E51-095*Abstract: During the eighth and ninth centuries Irish clergymen and theologians such as Virgil of Salzburg, Dicuil, Sedulius Scottus, and John Scottus Eriugena were drawn to the courts of the Carolingian kings and emperors. They served as advisors, teachers, and theologians for their royal and episcopal patrons in Frankia. As had been the case with the Merovingian court of the seventh century, the Carolingian court to an even greater extent brought together a cosmopolitan multi-ethnic array of courtiers, clergymen, and scholar that served as a middle ground for an emerging European consciousness. A new European dialectic emerged from this cultural mixing, one grounded in a biblical hermeneutics of the Franks as the new Israel. Coming from the margins of Europe, the Irish embraced a more inclusive strategy than their Anglo-Saxon counterparts that put them within this new European framework. This paper explores how these Irish immigrants wrote about their place within Europe and their identity as Irishmen. Bio: Dr Alexander O'Hara is a Fulbright Fellow in the Department of Celtic Languages and Literatures at Harvard University and Honorary Fellow in the Faculty of Theology at St Patrick's Pontifical University, Maynooth. A graduate in Medieval History of the University of St Andrews and Oxford University, he has held […]