The Way of the Warrior in Early Christian Gaeldom (P01234)

? Credit Points : 20 ? SCQF Level : 11 ? Acronym : HCL-P-P01234

This supervised reading course has as its focus the subject of violence and attitudes towards it among the Gaelic-speaking societies of early medieval Ireland and northern Britain. Its particular emphasis is upon the 'warrior class' in these societies, and understanding, on a number of levels, the culture of endemic violence within which it operated.

Entry Requirements

none

Subject Areas

Home subject area

History, (School of History and Classics, Schedule E)

Other subject areas

Postgraduate (School of History and Classics), (School of History and Classics, Schedule E)

Delivery Information

? Normal year taken : Postgraduate

? Delivery Period : To be arranged/Unknown

? Contact Teaching Time : 2 hour(s) per week for 10 weeks

Summary of Intended Learning Outcomes

The principal objective of the course is to provide students with specialist knowledge and understanding of the mentalities and social institutions of early medieval Gaeldom that sought to produce individuals psychologically and physically conditioned to practice brutal violence as a way of life. Particular aims are to subject received assumptions and scholarly models to critical scrutiny, and to maximise student handling of primary evidence, including literary sources (read in translation), material and artefactual evidence, and a certain amount of linguistics. Students will emerge from the course having developed a sufficient degree of expertise in the subject to undertake a Masters dissertation.

Assessment Information

Students will be required to submit one individual essay of no less than 4000 words, and no more than 5000 words, to be handed in on the last Monday of the semester in which the course is run. The essay mark will count as 100% of the final grade.