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 Llandāf, 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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