Medieval Ireland offers an unusually rich and varied corpus of literature, including saga, law, religion, pseudo-history and poetry. It was one of the earliest cultures in medieval Europe to produce extensive literature in its own vernacular, and yet this material is little known or studied. Old Irish (while challenging) is not in fact impossible for those who are new to language learning.

This book is consciously and deliberately written with the absolute beginner in mind (including those who have no prior grammatical training). 

Dr Rebecca Shercliff is a Research Fellow at St John's College, Cambridge, affiliated with the Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic. She completed her PhD in the same Department in 2018, with a thesis entitled 'A Critical Edition of "Tochmarc Ferbe" with Translation, Textual Notes and Literary Commentary'. Her main research interests are medieval Irish literature, early Arthurian literature and the role of medieval women.

Her current research centres on medieval texts and their development in the context of their social, historical and literary background, with a particular focus on producing new editions and translations of previously neglected works. Alongside this, she has a passion for the pedagogy of medieval languages, and has been involved in a number of digital humanities projects aimed at providing educational resources online.