Otherworld women feature in a number of medieval Irish tales. They are not always powerful figures, and their struggles often mirror those of mortal women; authors apparently found them useful for exploring social tensions and issues of contemporary concern. This volume analyzes female figures as literary characters, rather than as mythological beings, focusing on their expression of emotions and the repercussions for the societies depicted in the narratives. Drawing on gender analysis, speech act theory, narratology, disability theory, and trauma theory, and incorporating recent work on emotions in medieval literature, this study probes the representation of both mortal and Otherworld women as active and desiring subjects and the responses that their words and actions might have generated in their medieval audiences.
