Kelly A Kilpatrick
Wadham College
Supervisor:
Professor Thomas Charles-Edwards
Thesis title:
The Historical Interpretation of Early Medieval Insular Place-Names
Reseach Interests
My primary research interest is medieval toponymy, or place-names studies. Place-names have been recognised as an invaluable resource for medieval historians, because place-names fossilise within them linguistic and cultural conditions common to the period in which they were formed. A high proportion of place-names in Britain and Ireland were coined during the early medieval period, and this is also the first point in history from which we can recover a considerable amount of place-name information in documentary sources. In my research, I am largely concerned with analysing place-names alongside contemporary narrative in order to reveal the roles ‘place’ and place-names played in early texts and the possible ways in which contemporary audiences interpreted the toponymic information. In my doctoral research I analyse place-names in selected early Insular sources c. 540-1100. These studies include: Y Gododdin, Vita Sancti Columbae, the medieval dossier of St Brigit of Kildare, Vita Sancti Guthlaci, and Senchas na Relec, a Middle-Irish tract concerning famous cemeteries. These sources were chosen in order to survey as many regions, cultures and languages of the early medieval Insular world as possible, to provide a comparative study of the importance of place-names in different medieval societies.
Selected Publications
- ‘Gwanannon en het grensland van de Gododdin’, Kelten: Medelingen van de Stichting A.G. van Hamel voor Keltische Studies, number 45 (February, 2010), pp. 5-8.
- ‘A Case-Study of Nemeton Place-names’, Ollodagos: Actes de la Société Belge d'Études Celtiques (forthcoming December, 2010), pp. 1-75.
- ‘Place-Names in a Hagiographical Tradition of St Brigit of Kildare: Analysis of Vita Prima and Bhethu Brigte’, Ainm: Journal of Irish Place-Name Studies (forthcoming, 2010).
Additional Projects
I study a variety of historical and artistic disciplines in addition to place-name studies. For the past ten years I have researched monumental sculpture-work and free-standing crosses of the early Christian period in Britain and Ireland. I am especially interested in the early medieval ecclesiastical sculpture-work of the British Isles, particularly the Pictish Symbol Stones of Scotland, Anglo-Saxon monuments and Irish high-crosses, though I am also interested in the Gotland Picture stones. At present I am co-authoring an article concerning early sculptured monuments in the Shetland Islands.
I am also interested in the landscapes of early ecclesiastical sites in Britain and Ireland, and I am especially fascinated by Anglo-Saxon church architecture. I have donated a number of photographs and descriptions of Anglo-Saxon church sites I have visited to the Woruldhord Project, at http://projects.oucs.ox.ac.uk/woruldhord/
I am also employed part-time at the Taylor Institute Library.