Virginia Tech® home

Charlene Eska

Charlene Eska, Professor

Charlene Eska, Associate Professor | Virginia Tech
Charlene Eska, Professor

Department of English
312 Shanks Hall 
181 Turner Street, NW
Blacksburg, VA 24061
ceska@vt.edu

Charlene Eska is a professor in the Department of English. 

  • Early Irish Law
  • Celtic Studies
  • Paleography
  • Medieval Literature
  • Linguistics 
  • Ph.D., Harvard University
  • M.A., Harvard University
  • M.St., University of Oxford
  • ALB, Harvard Extension School 
  • Excellence in Research and Creative Scholarship Award, College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences, Spring 2020.
  • Certificate of Teaching Excellence Award, College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences, 2014

Books

  • Lost and Found in Early Irish Law: Aidbred, Heptad 64, and Muirbretha. Leiden: Brill, 2022. xix, 444.
  • A Raven’s Battle-Cry: The Limits of Judgment in the Medieval Irish Legal Tract Anfuigell. Leiden: Brill, 2019.
  • Cáin Lánamna: An Old Irish Tract on Marriage and Divorce Law. Leiden: Brill, 2010. xix, 377.


Book Chapters

  • “Recholl Breth: Why it is a ‘Shroud of Judgments’.” Ollam: Studies in Gaelic and Related Traditions in Honour of Tomás Ó Cathasaigh. Ed. Matthieu Boyd. Madison, NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2016. 173–84.
  • “The Mutilation of Derbforgaill.” Wounds and Wound Repair in Medieval Culture. Ed. Kelly DeVries and Larissa Tracy. Leiden: Brill, 2015. 252–64.
  • “‘Imbrued in their owne bloud’: Castration in Early Welsh and Irish Sources.” Castration and Culture in the Middle Ages. Ed. Larissa Tracy. Woodbridge: Boydell and Brewer, 2013. 149–73.
  • “Marriage by Purchase in Early Irish Law.” Tome: Studies in Medieval Celtic History and Law in Honour of Thomas Charles-Edwards. Ed. Fiona Edmonds and Paul Russell. Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, 2011. 183–91.

Journal Articles

  • “The Transmission of Glosses: Script size and Irish legal commentary.” North American Journal of Celtic Studies 6 (2022): 78–101.
  • “One Thing Leads to Another: An Old Irish dialogue between Cormac and Coirpre on the legal consequences of seduction.” North American Journal of Celtic Studies 5 (2021): 242–250.
  • “The Fragment of Medieval Irish Sanctuary Law on British Library MS Egerton 88, f. 35r.” North American Journal of Celtic Studies 4 (2020): 189–97.
  • “The Surexit Memorandum Revisited: Legal Writing and Legal Process in Ninth-Century Wales,” Charlene M. Eska and Joe Wolf. Cambrian Medieval Celtic Studies 79 (2020): 19–36.
  • “Early Irish Trade: Cnóe Gnáe ‘Beautiful Nuts’ Revisited.” Cambrian Medieval Celtic Studies 78 (2019): 101–9.
  • “The Palaeography of the Eleven Latin Citations in TCD MS 1337, pp. 329c–330c.” North American Journal of Celtic Studies 3 (2019): 47–54.
  • “Rethinking the Palaeography of H in Lebor na hUidre.” Peritia 29 (2018): 65–79.
  • “A Short Note on the National Library of Sweden MS Vitterhet Engelsk II.” North American Journal of Celtic Studies 2 (2018): 79–83.
  • “An Early Irish Legal Commentary on Wakes and Funerals from Anfuigell ‘Wrong Judgment’.” North American Journal of Celtic Studies 1 (2017): 27–44.
  • “The Abbreviation S.D. and Patterns of Ascription in the Corpus Iuris Hibernici. Études Celtiques 42 (2016): 161–84.
  • “On the Swearing of Oaths in Cemeteries.” Cambrian Medieval Celtic Studies 71 (2016): 59–70.
  • “Four Marginalia from Trinity College, Dublin MS 1433 [E.3.5].” Studia Celtica 49 (2015): 115–20.
  • “Celtic and Germanic Light on Hittite Divorce Law.” Journal of Indo-European Studies 40 (2012): 300–14.
  • “Women and Slavery in the Early Irish Laws.” Studia Celtica Fennica 8 (2011): 29–39.
  • “Problematic Pigs: Swine Values in Bodleian MS Rawlinson B 506.” Celtica 26 (2010): 23–30.
  • “Varieties of Early Irish Legal Literature and the Cáin Lánamna Fragments.” Viator: Medieval and Renaissance Studies 40, no.1 (2009): 1–16.
  • “Non-Lawful Betrothals in Early Irish Law.” Keltische Forschungen 3 (2008): 33–43.
  • “Rewarding Informers in Cáin Domnaig and the Laws of Wihtred.” Cambrian Medieval Celtic Studies 52 (2006): 1–11.
  • Guggenheim Fellowship, 2022
  • Visiting Fellowship, Magdalen College, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK. October 1–December 31, 2017.
  • American Philosophical Society Franklin Research Grant, Summer 2015. ($6,000)
  • “Curating the Law: Dubhaltach Mac Fhirbhishigh and Early Irish Law in Early Modern Ireland,” Celtic Studies Association of North American seminar series, online. September 22, 2022.
  • “Raiding and Retaliation: Legal Raiding in Medieval Ireland,” Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse, and Celtic. University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK. October 16, 2017.
  • “A Reexamination of Hand H in Lebor na hUidre,” research seminar, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK. October 12, 2017.
  • “Taking Another Look at the Palaeography of Hand H in Lebor na hUidre,” research seminar, Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse, and Celtic. University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK. June 30, 2017.
  • “Weddings and Funerals are What Family Feuds are Made of: An early Irish legal commentary from Anfuigell ‘Wrong Judgment’,” keynote address, Thirty-Fourth Annual Harvard Celtic Colloquium. Harvard University, Cambridge, MA. October 11, 2014.
  •  

Select Media Mentions