Highlights the use of laughter to express one’s disapproval, and its detrimental effect on the social status of its victim. App. contains a note on suicide in early Irish literature.
Sims-Williams (Patrick): The submission of Irish kings in fact and fiction: Henry II, Bendigeidfran, and the dating of The four branches of the Mabinogi.
Examines the historical background to the house-entering ceremony (represented in the Ir. annals by the formula tánic ina thech vel sim.), and its possible use as literary motif in Ireland and Wales.