Background

• P.C. Bartrum, Early Welsh Genealogical Tracts (1966). Genealogical lore was passed down by word of mouth, and from time immemorial, as an essential part of the bardic heritage. Gerald of Wales records that in addition to their remarkable stores of memory, the bards preserved the genealogies of their princes `in their ancient and authentic books . . . which were written in Welsh'. In this work PCB has assembled, for the first and only time in book form, the early genealogies which are essential for the documentation of medieval Welsh history and tradition. The genealogical tracts which PCB has here edited, indexed, annotated and cross-referenced were nearly all originally composed before the end of the thirteenth century. Some of the later texts and variants have never been published before. The latest persons to be listed are Llywelyn the Great and a few of his contemporaries: one genealogy alone terminates with Llywelyn's grandson, Llywelyn the Last Prince. These genealogies are hardly the less interesting and important for the fact that at almost any stage they may have been contaminated by ulterior motives on the part of their transmitters, or by later scribal carelessness, or because they undoubtedly contain a proportion of legendary and fictitious names. Bartrum's collection opens with the extended inscription on the Valle Crucis pillar, which traces the descent of the ninth-century rulers of Powys to the remote past, with the names of Maximus and Vortigern. An edition of this inscription is followed by the genealogies from the Historia Brittonum, from the important Harleian and Jesus College manuscripts, the `Brychan' documents, the `Bonedd y Saint' and genealogies from the Vitae of the Welsh saints, the Chronicle of the Princes, and other important associated texts. There has as yet been no reissue of this important volume, essential as it is for all medieval Welsh literary and historical studies. [Some corrections to Early Welsh Genealogical Tracts, and a few misprints, have been noted by Bartrum in the Bulletin of the Board of Celtic Studies xx (1993), 171-2. P.C. Bartrum's Welsh Genealogies 300-1400 (1974), in eight volumes, and Welsh Genealogies 1400-1500 (National Library of Wales, 1983) are both available in microfiche.
• A.W. Wade-Evans (ed.), Vitae Sanctorum Britanniae et Genealogiae (1944). The Lives of the Welsh Saints from Cotton Vespasian A14, written by various hands c.1200 (probably at Brecon or Monmouth Priory); Latin text with facing English translation. The oldest Vitae are those of St David by Rhigyfarch (see next entry) and of St Cadog by Lifris of Llancarfan, both attributed to the late eleventh century. The Lives of Illtud, Padarn, Cybi, Carannog and others are of the twelfth century. Also included here are the Welsh Life of St Beuno (untranslated) from Llyfr Ancr Llanddewi Brefi (ed. J. Morris-Jones, Oxford, 1894), the `Brychan' documents, and a fourteenth-century text of `Bonedd y Saint' (for the last two see entries in Early Welsh Genealogical Tracts above). This book has been criticized on the ground of inadequate editing, and a new edition is much needed. Nevertheless, it has never been superseded (except in respect of the Life of St David, see next entry). It is the only available edition of these important Vitae Sanctorum, since that of W.J. Rees, Lives of the Cambro-British Saints (Llandovery, 1853).
• J.W. James (ed.), Rhigyfarch's Life of St. David (1967, 1985). This is the definitive edition of the Vita Davidis by Rhigyfarch of Llanbadarn (1056/7-99), son of Sulien, who was twice bishop of St David's. The text is based on a full collation of twenty-nine manuscripts, many of which had not previously been brought to light. Among these Dr James distinguishes five recensions, and selects those of `Nero' and `Digby' (both of the mid-twelfth century) as coming closest to Rhigyfarch's original work, which is believed to have been composed c.1090. He adopts BL Nero Ei as his basic text, and notes all significant variants from this. It is suggested that this recension shows the influence of the twelfth-century attempts by Bishop Bernard of St David's to win archiepiscopal status for his see, together with Welsh ecclesiastical independence from Canterbury. The introduction relates entirely to the formation of the text and its recensions, and is not concerned with the content of the Life. An English translation follows the Latin text. [See the Welsh Life of St David.]
• E.G. Bowen, Saints, Seaways, and Settlements (1969; new edn 1977, 1988). A geographical survey of the spheres of influence reflected by the cults of fifth- and sixth-century saints in Wales, Cornwall and Brittany, EGB emphasizes the unifying force held by the western sea-routes between these countries, centred on the Irish sea. Dedications to a particular saint do not imply the foundation of a church by him or by one of his followers: rather, they are indications of that saint's sphere of influence, and they frequently represent much older traditions than those which are preserved in the Vitae. The extent of the later dioceses, often established by the Normans, tend to reflect ancient and even prehistoric cultural areas, whose integrity had survived intact into the Age of the Saints (fifth to seventh centuries). A geographical survey of the cults of particular saints - Dewi, Cadog, Illtud, Beuno, the Brychan family - is extended to include Kentigern of Glasgow (renamed Cyndeyrn Garthwys in the Welsh `Bonedd y Saint') whose cult extended over Cumbria and into north Wales. (This book is an enlarged replacement of the author's The Settlements of the Celtic Saints in Wales, 1954.)
• G.H. Doble, Lives of the Welsh Saints. Edited with an introduction by D. Simon Evans (1971, 1983). Canon Doble (1880-1945) is principally known for his life- long studies - published locally in a series of booklets - of nearly fifty Cornish saints, several of whom were also remembered in Wales. Late in his life Doble turned his attention to a closer study of the sixth-century founders of the Welsh Church. In 1940- 4 he published his `Welsh Saints' series of booklets, which were described by a reviewer as `in the best traditions of modern scholarship'. These contained his accounts of the Latin Vitae of five Welsh saints - Dubricius (Dyfrig), Teilo, Oudoceus (Euddogwy), Illtud and Paulinus, based on the Lives in the Book of Llandâf, except for that of the Breton saint Paulinus (who came traditionally from Glamorgan) which is by the Breton monk Wrmonoc. All of these saints were near-contemporaries of St David, and belonged, like him, to areas in south and south- west Wales. Doble's studies, which had long been out of print, are here reissued, with the permission of the Dean and Chapter of Truro Cathedral. There are very few editorial alterations, but D. Simon Evans has added to the text some explanatory footnotes, together with a long and informative introduction on `Our Early Welsh Saints and History'.
• Glanmor Williams, The Welsh Church from Conquest to Reformation (1962; revised edn 1976). This important study surveys the two-and-a-half eventful and chaotic centuries which followed the Edwardian Conquest of Wales in 1282- 3. Literature, society and history are closely intertwined throughout the discussion, and GW makes ample cross-references to the rich literary inheritance of the period, in both prose and in verse, as essential for the correct interpretation of the relatively sparse historical records. Here is to be found the fullest analysis and discussion to date of the collection of religious texts in the Llyfr Ancr Llanddewibrefi (1346), which `marks the highest point in the development of philosophical and theological literature in medieval Wales'; with accounts of the Welsh biblical apocrypha, and of other religious works first translated into Welsh during these years. There is a perceptive discussion of the two major poets of the period - Dafydd ap Gwilym and Iolo Goch - and of the most significant aspects of their poetry, including their variant reactions to the altered and developing society of post-Conquest Wales. The Church in Wales is envisaged in its wider setting, as a small and remote, but integral member of western Christendom.
• R.R. Davies et al. (eds), Welsh Society and Nationhood: Historical Essays Presented to Glanmor Williams (1984). The earlier of the nine studies in this book are of especial relevance to medieval Welsh literature. In `Gildas, Maelgwn and the Bards' J.E. Caerwyn-Williams examines the powerful role of poets in early Celtic society in the context of Gildas's diatribe against Maelgwn Gwynedd, and he cites examples to illustrate the mutual dependence between the poets and the kings and princes whom they both evaluated and served. David Walker's `Cultural Survival in an Age of Conquest' documents `the agony of conquest for those who were defeated' in relation to the Norman Conquest and its dissimilar effects in England and in Wales; he presents Gerald of Wales as representative of the post-Conquest generation, ambivalently conscious of having inherited from each of the two traditions. R.R. Davies in `Law and National Identity in Thirteenth-Century Wales' examines further the clash of cultures, and the significance of `Cyfraith Hywel' (`customary law' as distinct from `prince-made law'). This was hardly less of a focus than the possession of a distinctive language and common traditions of origin for the awareness of national identity which was evolving during a century which saw the rise of Gwynedd to be the predominant power in Wales.
• T.M. Charles-Edwards, The Welsh Laws (`Writers of Wales', 1989). This book gives a succinct account of medieval Welsh law - `Cyfraith Hywel'. The codification of the Laws goes back to the time of Hywel Dda (Howel the Good) a mid tenth-century ruler of Dyfed, who in his later life held authority over almost the whole of Wales. The Laws are preserved in a number of manuscripts, from the thirteenth to the sixteenth centuries. `Cyfraith Hywel' was an organic growth, which gradually became accommodated to altering circumstances throughout the Middle Ages and beyond: even after the Act of Union `Cyfraith Hywel' continued to be partly operative in such matters as inheritance and personal status. The three main versions in which the Laws have come down are known as the Books of Cyfnerth (the earliest), Blegywryd, and Iorwerth respectively. The Latin texts are recognized as among the most important of the law-books, and the earliest of all the texts is one in Latin. But in view of the preponderance of very early Welsh technical terms in `Cyfraith Hywel', it is impossible to ascertain whether the Laws were originally redacted in Latin or in Welsh. It is recognized that from the earliest times there has been a close relation between the clarity and concise style of the Laws and the development of a lucid prose style for other writings in medieval Welsh: the two went hand-in-hand. This is exemplified most strikingly in the `Mabinogi' and in the other tales and translations. Saunders Lewis described `Cyfraith Hywel' as `a pinnacle of European medieval culture' and as `the cornerstone of the Welsh language'.
  TMCE concludes his brief survey with a useful bibliography which lists the Press's editions of the Latin and Welsh versions of `Cyfraith Hywel', and the manuscripts (mainly preserved in the National Library of Wales) from which these are drawn: H.D. Emanuel, Latin Texts of the Welsh Laws (1967); S.J. Williams and J. Enoch Powell, Llyfr Blegywryd (1942; 2nd edn 1961), A.R. Wiliam, Llyfr Iorwerth (1960, 1979); D. Jenkins, Llyfr Colan (1963, 1980). He adds a further full list of published studies of the Laws: this includes D. Jenkins and M.E. Owen (eds), The Welsh Law of Women (1980) and T.M. Charles-Edwards, M.E. Owen and D.B. Walters (eds), Lawyers and Laymen (1986).[For an English translation of `Cyfraith Hywel', with introduction and notes, see Dafydd Jenkins, Hywel Dda; The Law (Llandysul, 1986). The volume next listed also includes an important essay on the Laws.
• Elwyn Davies (ed.), Celtic Studies in Wales: A Survey (1963). Though now over thirty years old, this book retains its value and usefulness as an outline of advances made in Welsh scholarship to 1963, in the several fields within the remit of the University of Wales's Board of Celtic Studies. The book was originally published as an introduction to the subject for the participants at the Second International Congress of Celtic Studies, held in Cardiff in that year. In spite of extensive subsequent developments in the various fields which are covered (including the need for extensions to the bibliography, see pp.43-4 below), each of the five chapters in the book remain useful and valuable: Leslie Alcock, `Celtic Archaeology and Art'; A.H. Dodd, `Welsh History and Historians'; H.D. Emanuel, `Studies in the Welsh Laws'; R. Geraint Gruffydd, `Literature'; T. Arwyn Watkins, `Language and Linguistics'. A preface by Henry Lewis gives a brief description of the activities of the Board of Celtic Studies, with a list of the Board's earlier publications.

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