Maxim Fomin
Professor Maxim Fomin works at the School of Arts and Humanities in Ulster University (Derry/Londonderry campus, previously known as Magee Campus and Magee College). He was initially appointed at Ulster as Assistant Editor on the eDIL: Digitisation of the Dictionary of the Irish Language project in 2003, having subsequently held positions as Lecturer in Humanities, Senior Lecturer and Reader at the University.
He read Old and Middle Irish at Trinity College Dublin, having gained his PhD in Early Irish and Celtic Studies from University College Cork in 2003, the work which he subsequently developed into a monograph published in 2013 by Winter Verlag, Heidelberg, under the title 'Instructions for Kings. Secular and Clerical Images of Kingship in Early Ireland and Ancient India'.
Prof Fomin specialises in Irish folklore and oral culture, comparative studies of folk beliefs and cultural practices in European and Oriental traditions, Irish oral narrative, international folktales and migratory legends, public celebrations and calendar festivals, Celto-Slavic parallels in language, medieval narrative literature and folklore, Irish-Indian connections and cultural parallels, comparative linguistics, digitisation and linguistic computing in Celtic Studies, history of Celtic scholarship in the 19th and early 20th cc., adaptations of continental literature in Ireland, Irish language revival and 20th century Irish literature.
He is Secretary, Founding Member and Equality and Diversity Officer of the Learned Association Societas Celto-Slavica, as well as General Editor of Studia Celto-Slavica series. He served as Vice-Chair and Chair of the Irish Humanities Alliance (RIA, Dublin, 2021-2 and 2022-3). He is member of the prestigious Alexander von Humboldt Stiftung research network, supported by the government of the Federal Republic of Germany, having spent his Experienced Researcher Fellowship at the Eberhard-Karl University of Tübingen in 2016-7 and Humboldt Alumni Fellowship at the University of Leipzig in 2022-23.
He is Member of Editorial Board at the Centre for Research in Breton and Celtic Studies (CRBC) at the University of Western Brittany (Brest) since 2019, and was Visiting Professor in Celtic Studies at CRBC between 2020-23. He is Senior Fellow of Higher Education Academy, UK and has been member of Peer Review College of the Arts and Humanities Research Council (UK) since 2018.
He read Old and Middle Irish at Trinity College Dublin, having gained his PhD in Early Irish and Celtic Studies from University College Cork in 2003, the work which he subsequently developed into a monograph published in 2013 by Winter Verlag, Heidelberg, under the title 'Instructions for Kings. Secular and Clerical Images of Kingship in Early Ireland and Ancient India'.
Prof Fomin specialises in Irish folklore and oral culture, comparative studies of folk beliefs and cultural practices in European and Oriental traditions, Irish oral narrative, international folktales and migratory legends, public celebrations and calendar festivals, Celto-Slavic parallels in language, medieval narrative literature and folklore, Irish-Indian connections and cultural parallels, comparative linguistics, digitisation and linguistic computing in Celtic Studies, history of Celtic scholarship in the 19th and early 20th cc., adaptations of continental literature in Ireland, Irish language revival and 20th century Irish literature.
He is Secretary, Founding Member and Equality and Diversity Officer of the Learned Association Societas Celto-Slavica, as well as General Editor of Studia Celto-Slavica series. He served as Vice-Chair and Chair of the Irish Humanities Alliance (RIA, Dublin, 2021-2 and 2022-3). He is member of the prestigious Alexander von Humboldt Stiftung research network, supported by the government of the Federal Republic of Germany, having spent his Experienced Researcher Fellowship at the Eberhard-Karl University of Tübingen in 2016-7 and Humboldt Alumni Fellowship at the University of Leipzig in 2022-23.
He is Member of Editorial Board at the Centre for Research in Breton and Celtic Studies (CRBC) at the University of Western Brittany (Brest) since 2019, and was Visiting Professor in Celtic Studies at CRBC between 2020-23. He is Senior Fellow of Higher Education Academy, UK and has been member of Peer Review College of the Arts and Humanities Research Council (UK) since 2018.
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Papers by Maxim Fomin
The visitor’s name was Ludwig Mühlhausen, Professor of Celtic Studies at the University of Berlin. On his return to Germany, ten tales collected from Ó Caiside were published as Zehn irische Volkserzählungen aus Süd- Donegal. Of the tales the scholar chose not to publish, one called ‘Scéal Rí na Gréige’ (‘The Tale of the King of Greece’) falls within the focus of this study.
‘Scéal Rí na Gréige’ presents a version of the wellknown international folktale type ATU 707: ‘Three Golden Children’. The author examines the type’s dissemination in Ireland, and provides its classification into four ecotypes. Despite its wide distribution in the Irish oral tradition, the author suggests that the story known to Ó Caiside came from the printed medium – from a popular version of The Arabian Nights Entertainments.
To be understood by the Irish-speaking audience, the story was rendered in the vernacular; yet, its key elements were articulated in English, embellishing the plot with a flavour of exoticism and of the faraway lands. ‘Scéal Rí na Gréige’, a unique folklore product, marries the Irish vernacular to the European print culture. It represents a true testimony to Séamus Ó Caiside’s inquisitive mind and creative genius, and signifies an innovative step in the development of the Irish oral tradition.