Illustration from the Saga of St Olaf, Flateyjarbók, Reykjavik, Iceland Credit: Jóhanna Ólafsdóttir
Narratives built around dreams and nightmares are woven into the early cultures of the British Isles." - The Festival of Ideas (www.cam.ac.uk/festivalofideas/) is the UK's largest free festival celebrating the arts, humanities and social sciences. It runs this year from October 24-November 4 with a theme of 'Dream and Nightmares'. Narratives built around dreams and nightmares are woven into the early cultures of the British Isles with blood-curdling descriptions of scary beasts - fire-breathing dragons, many-humped sea-monsters, composite creatures mutating before our eyes - whose forms decorate many of the precious manuscripts that survive to bring us gripping tales of heroes and outlaws. An afternoon of talks and readings this Saturday (3 November) at the Faculty of English will explore the language and literature of early Britain and Ireland - the Anglo-Saxons, the Welsh, and the Irish - with a series of eminent speakers giving an accessible overview of their research for an audience of teenagers upwards. The Vikings, whose culture influenced those of Britain and Ireland in this period, will also make an appearance. The sessions will start with a talk by Paul Russell about dream narratives in Old Welsh and Old Irish.
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