of reading medieval Celtic female characters goes back to the 1920s, and is related to the myth and ritual school of scholarship. For example, the protagonist of the Welsh Canu Heledd is sometimes read in this way, and figures as diverse as Guenevere; the Cailleach Bhéirre;<ref>Jo Radner, 'The Hag of Beare: The Folklore of a Sovereignty Goddess', Tennessee Folklore Society Bulletin, 40 (1970), 75-81.</ref> Medb; Rhiannon; warrior women such as the Morrígan, Macha and Badb; and the loathly lady of Chaucer's Wife of Bath's Tale have been viewed in the same light. Britta Irslinger has argued that female characters in early Irish literature whose names relate to ruling or the supernatural, or who have been named after kingdoms, originate as sovereignty goddesses, whereas those whose names relate to drink or some other benefit of the hall were queens. However, recent scholarship has tended to criticise these assumptions, in both medieval Irish and related material. For example, the portrayals of Gormflaith ingen Donncadha (d. 861), Gormflaith ingen Flann Sinna (c. 870–948), and Gormflaith ingen Murchada (960–1030) have all been read as showing influence from the idea of the sovereignty goddess, but this has been shown to rest on little evidence. Likewise the role of the Empress of Constantinople, who appears in the Middle Welsh Peredur but not in its French source, has been found to be open to other readings. Even where female characters might historically owe something to traditions of sovereignty goddesses, reading them primarily through this lens has been argued to be limiting and reductive. See also Studies Sjoestedt, Marie-Louise. 1949. Gods and Heroes of the Celts, translated by Myles Dillon. London: Methuen Breatnach, R. A. 1953. “The Lady and the King: A Theme of Irish Literature.” Studies: An Irish Quarterly Review 42 (167): 321–36. Mac Cana, Proinsias. 1955, 1958–1959. “Aspects of the Theme of King and Goddess in Irish Literature.” Études celtiques 7: 76–144, 356–413; 8: 59–65. Bhreathnach, Máire. 1982. “The Sovereignty Goddess as Goddess of Death?” Zeitschrift für celtische Philologie 39 (1): 243–60. Lysaght, Patricia. 1986. The Banshee: The Irish Death Messenger. Dublin: O’Brien Press. pp. 191–218. Herbert, Máire. 1992. “Goddess and King: The Sacred Marriage in Early ireland.” In Women and Sovereignty, edited by Louise Olga Fradenburg, 264–75. Edinburgh: University of Edinburgh Press. Eichhorn-Mulligan, Amy C. 2006. “The Anatomy of Power and the Miracle of Kingship: The Female Body of Sovereignty in a Medieval Irish Kingship