Optional modules

Optional modules can be studied across all of our MLitt Programmes and can be chosen from any of our programmes.

Celts and Vikings in Contact (20 credits)

Around AD 700 Celtic peoples dominated the North Atlantic. The Picts lived in the Northern Isles of Scotland, while Gaelic-speaking clerics from the Hebrides and Ireland had sailed to the Faroe Islands and Iceland. By 900AD these areas had been settled by the Vikings. The peoples and cultures were changed by their contact. This module will explore the result of the contact between these peoples and the extent to which cultural syntheses developed, both in the British Isles and in Iceland, the Faroe Islands and Greenland. It will examine the impact of the Gaels on Icelandic settlement and their continued impact of Icelandic folklore, and the reasons why they were written out of official Icelandic historiography. It will also explore Norse elements in the culture of the Gaelic areas of Scotland and Ireland and the creation of societies of mixed Gaelic Norse ethnicity. It will be a multi-disciplinary study including archaeology, folklore, history, place-names, genetics and literature.

Picts - Revealing the Painted Past (20 credits)

This module examines the role of the Picts in Scotland’s past from a fully interdisciplinary perspective. It will place the influential 1950s publication, The Problem of the Picts, in the light of recent research; summarising the current state of knowledge. All major aspects of Pictish society will be addressed, using stone sculpture, written sources and archaeological evidence. Major themes include: The Pictish Kingdom(s), Christianisation, Pictish Language and place-names and material culture, as well as the view of the Picts in contemporary media. 

Exploring Creative Writing (20 credits)

This module provides opportunities for the practice, study and development of creative and professional writing, operates at an advanced or publishable level and is intended to appeal to students with an interest in creative writing, those who want to develop their ideas with a view to completing a full length work and seek contact with others who are similarly minded in an environment that builds on the craft and practical business of writing such as editing, manuscript preparation, improvement, marketing, contracts and so on.

Mimir's Well (20 Credits)

This module aims to give the student a thorough grounding in Old Norse, and the cultural tradition in which it flourished. The course will cover the period AD800 - 1300 and will trace the expansion from Scandinavia in general, the settlement of Iceland in particular, and the development of Icelandic culture and society. Students will learn to read Old Norse, both East and West varieties. Students will study a representative selection of literary texts, both in the original and in translation. These will include laws, the literature of the church, history, and different types of saga and poetry. These will provide the students with a critical understanding of the nature of Old Norse society and culture. Studies will be made of runes and runic inscriptions. An understanding of Old Norse is essential for full comprehension of the development of Gaelic, Scots, and the Norn of Shetland and Orkney, which has heavily influenced the modern Shetlandic and Orcadian dialects.  Apposite parallels between the related languages will be drawn.  

Gaelic medium options available on our MLitt Island Studies programme through Sabhal Mòr Ostaig