FAS Scholarly Articles

On two occasions in the Fourth Branch of the Mabinogi , the figure of Gwydion presents himself in a court as a poet and provides entertainment, presumably in prose, in the form of cyfarwyddyd , a term that has been variously interpreted as ‘stories’ and ‘lore’. Little attention has been paid, however, to the episode in which Gwydion actually composes and recites poetry, the three englynion that he addresses to his nephew Lleu. This article examines those englynion —their vocabulary, function, and effect—and discusses the possible intentions of the Fourth Branch author in representing the magician Gwydion as an accomplished poet.

The capacity of proteins to interact specifically with one another underlies our conceptual understanding of how living systems function. Systems-level study of specificity in protein–protein interactions is complicated by the fact that the cellular environment is crowded and heterogeneous; interaction pairs may exist at low relative concentrations and thus be presented with many more opportunities for promiscuous interactions compared with specific interaction possibilities. Here we address these questions by using a simple computational model that includes specifically designed interacting model proteins immersed in a mixture containing hundreds of different unrelated ones; all of them undergo simulated diffusion and interaction. We find that specific complexes are quite robust to interference from promiscuous interaction partners only in the range of temperatures Tdesign > T > Trand. At T > Tdesign, specific complexes become unstable, whereas at T < Trand, formation of specific complexes is suppressed by promiscuous interactions. Specific interactions can form only if Tdesign > Trand. This condition requires an energy gap between binding energy in a specific complex and set of binding energies between randomly associating proteins, providing a general physical constraint on evolutionary selection or design of specific interacting protein interfaces. This work has implications for our understanding of how the protein repertoire functions and evolves within the context of cellular systems.

This study of the sister's son in some of the major early Irish narratives, in religious verse, and in the laws(and including linguistic analysis of kindred terminology) shows that the relationship between sister's son and maternal kindred is an important theme in the literature; the relationship can be amicable (and accordingly be greatly beneficial to society) or hostile (and greatly destructive of social order); the sister's son must be integrated into society by means of a solemn contract; and the social good will be served only if the obligations imposed by that contract are duly discharged on both sides. The social role of the sister's son can be summed up in the word goire, and this is reflected in gormac, which came to replace the inherited term nia as the designation of 'sister's son'.

Cath Almaine, a tenth-century tale on the battle of Allen, presents a remarkable sequence of verbal and vocal acts. They include pledges and promises, curse and prophecy, narrative before the battle and after it, a cry of victory given by the men of Leinster and one given by the war-goddess, the Fool's roar that memorializes the battle, sweet music heard by the slain warriors and a piteous warrior-chant heard by the victors. The tale points to the necessary interaction of word and deed, and to the absolute futility of warfare as an instrument of social order.