Comparing Social Networks of Translations: a case study on the medieval Irish epic Táin Bó Cúailnge

Comparing Social Networks of Translations: a case study on the medieval Irish epic Táin Bó Cúailnge | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Comparing Social Networks of Translations: a case study on the medieval Irish epic Táin Bó Cúailnge Stephen McKermitt, Gaëlle Clion, Pádraig MacCarron This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-7359035/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Published Journal Publication published 24 Dec, 2025 Read the published version in Social Network Analysis and Mining → Version 1 posted 7 You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract This work presents a comparative analysis of the characteristics of social networks derived from different translations and editions of the Irish epic Táin Bó Cúailnge. The characteristics of the social networks are compared using graph-matching techniques and comparing structural properties, as well as truncating the larger networks to match the size of the smaller networks for further comparison. We find that the original Irish edition and the direct English translation of the Táin Bó Cúailnge Recension I by Cecile O’Rahilly are most similar to one another, and that the modern English versions have the furthest distance from the sources. Individually we show that each social network, regardless of the author or network size, is disassortative and display ”small-world” network characteristics. They are also shown to have largely similar degree distributions, with Maximum Likelihood Estimate fitting showing that most networks can be fitted using power law distributions. The results show that the more similar a version stays to the source material, the more similar the generated social networks will be. Social Networks Complex Networks Narrative Networks Graph Matching Celtic studies Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Published Journal Publication published 24 Dec, 2025 Read the published version in Social Network Analysis and Mining → Version 1 posted Editorial decision: Revision requested 12 Sep, 2025 Reviews received at journal 19 Aug, 2025 Reviewers agreed at journal 16 Aug, 2025 Reviewers invited by journal 15 Aug, 2025 Editor assigned by journal 15 Aug, 2025 Submission checks completed at journal 12 Aug, 2025 First submitted to journal 12 Aug, 2025 You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. 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