General Literary Guides

• Meic Stephens (gol.), Cydymaith i Lenyddiaeth Cymru (1986, 1993); idem (ed.), A Companion to the Literature of Wales (Oxford, 1986). This is a Welsh literary encyclopedia and a useful factual guide to much else of contingent interest. The Cydymaith and the Companion were published simultaneously in Welsh and in English, with the text corresponding between the two versions. The many hundreds of entries are anonymous, and are in each instance by the same writer, whether originally composed in Welsh or in English (or both). Each edition contains close on 700 pages and is the work of 222 individual contributors whose names are listed at the beginning. The core of the work gives an account of famous historical characters and events: of poets, historians, chroniclers, theologians, scholars, etc. (limited in the first edition to people born not later than 1950). In addition to entries on individuals, there are subject entries which list places of famous historical, literary, or legendary interest; cathedrals, abbeys, monasteries and famous mansions; religious denominations; chronicles, societies, institutions; academies, periodicals and journals; famous poems, plays and novels; characters and incidents in legend and mythology; Welsh poetic terms and metres - and much else besides. (New and extended editions are in preparation. Both the Welsh and English editions will be published by the University of Wales Press in 1997 and 1998 respectively.)
• Thomas Parry, Merfyn Morgan and Gareth Watts (goln), Llyfryddiaeth Llenyddiaeth Gymraeg (Bibliography of Welsh Literature) (1976, 1993). A full bibliography of Welsh language and literature was planned in 1962, under the auspices of the Board of Celtic Studies. It was subsequently found to be impractical to combine language and literature in a single work, owing to the sheer volume of material to be included. The compilation of a bibliography of Welsh literature was therefore undertaken as a preliminary, and the first volume (Parry and Morgan) was followed by a second in 1993, edited by Gareth O. Watts. These two volumes together record all known published works concerning Welsh literature, up to 1975 in the case of the first volume, and with additions for the years 1976-86 in the second. This coverage omits only a few instances in which later studies have superseded an older book or article, except in a few cases in which the work possesses an intrinsic interest in itself, as representing a contemporary response to the subject concerned. The principle of classification corresponds in the two volumes: for the medieval period this is primarily dictated by the subject matter, while for the later period the classification is by centuries. There are concluding sections on the various Welsh literary forms in prose and in verse, with a separate section on the Eisteddfod and related matters. Further bibliographical sections list the works of individual scholars, giving references to obituaries and discussions of their published works. The names of the contributors to the individual sections are given in the first volume, and selected references to important reviews are cited.
• J.E. Caerwyn Williams (gol.), Llyfryddiaeth yr Iaith Gymraeg: trefnwyd gan Marian Beech Hughes (A Bibliography of the Welsh Language: arranged by MBH) (1988). This bibliography supplements in two ways the volumes noted above. It gives a comprehensive list of published work describing the Indo-European origin of the Celtic languages, with works on their early history, both on the continent of Europe and in Britain and Ireland. This is followed by separate sections on each language, which cite works on their individual histories, distribution, grammar, dialects, orthography, personal and place-names. The languages are discussed in the following order: Gwyddeleg (Irish), Gaeleg yr Alban (Scottish Gaelic), Manaweg (Manx), Brythoneg (Brittonic, that is the relationship between Welsh, Cornish and Breton, together with the `British Latin' spoken in Roman Britain), then separate sections on Cernyweg (Cornish), Llydaweg (Breton) and Cymraeg (Welsh). The second part of the book supplements the two volumes of the Llyfryddiaeth noted above by listing works which were published after 1986 relating to Welsh literature; included also are references to unpublished university theses. The sections relating to `Y Cyfnod Cynnar' (the early period) include works on the inscriptions, the early glosses and other survivals of Old Welsh, as well as on the Hengerdd (the earliest poetry); `Y Cyfnod Canol' (the middle period) details work on the Gogynfeirdd or Poets of the Princes (to 1988) as well as on the medieval tales, the Laws, and historical and religious works (there is, however, some intentional overlap here with the two previous volumes).
• Thomas Parry, Hanes Llenyddiaeth Gymraeg hyd 1900 (1945, 1979; reprint of 4th edn 1993). Fifty years since its first publication this history of Welsh literature, by one of the century's leading Welsh scholars, remains the standard work on the subject. But it is likely that this estimate now stands more securely in relation to the earlier literature than to that of more recent centuries. In his foreword Sir Thomas Parry states that he was encouraged to undertake a comprehensive survey of Welsh literature because the 1920s and 1930s had seen the publication of the fundamental studies by John Morris-Jones, Ifor Williams, John Lloyd-Jones, G.J. Williams, and a galaxy of other scholars who are named. Parry surveys perceptively the work of his predecessors on the Hengerdd (the earliest poetry), and on the classics of medieval prose; he discusses the Gogynfeirdd more briefly. A complete chapter is devoted to Dafydd ap Gwilym - the only poet to whom this honour is accorded - and this chapter anticipates views more fully expounded ten years later in Parry's definitive edition of the poet's work, Gwaith Dafydd ap Gwilym. A general chapter follows on the Cywyddwyr of the fourteenth and following centuries (the `cywydd' metre was a major innovation by poets of Dafydd ap Gwilym's generation). Parry describes his purpose as being to trace the essential continuity of the Welsh literary tradition through the centuries, and without reference to the question of foreign influences, impacts, or cognate features which are found elsewhere (except in a few instances in which he cites striking parallels in Irish). In the absence of footnote references, the Hanes Llenyddiaeth concludes with a twelve-page bibliography, which relates in turn to the subject matter of the successive chapters. (Minor additions and corrections were made to this bibliography in the 1953 edition, but the bibliography was discarded in its entirety from the edition of 1979 and from subsequent reprints, allegedly because of the publication in the interval of Parry's Llyfryddiaeth Llenyddiaeth Gymraeg in 1978. This has been a most unfortunate omission, in view of the perennial need of students for a selective bibliography. [For an English translation of Parry's Hanes Llenyddiaeth Gymraeg see H.I. Bell, A History of Welsh Literature, Oxford, 1955.
• Dafydd Johnston, A Pocket Guide to the Literature of Wales (1994). Despite its concise format (137pp) this attractively produced booklet gives a comprehensive survey of Welsh literature down to the present day, and from its earliest recorded beginnings in the sixth century. It forms an excellent supplement which updates Thomas Parry's Hanes Llenyddiaeth Gymraeg. It is also fair to say that a fundamental review of earlier scholarship has rarely been accomplished in so creative and yet appreciative a manner, and with so striking a display of original insights on points of detail. DJ takes due account of the changing views and new perspectives which have appeared with the advances in scholarship made over the last fifty years; some of these have been brought to bear upon the interpretations of the earliest poetry advanced in the pre-war years by Ifor Williams, and reflected in Parry's book. Recent developments have included some innovative studies and some greatly improved editions (now in continued progress) of medieval poetry. In this book for the first time literature in the Welsh language is associated with English literature inspired by a Welsh background, and the claim made by its title is implicitly restated - that the literature of Wales in either of its two languages is to be regarded as a single unit originating from an integrated tradition. Yet the first two thirds of the book are concerned exclusively with works composed and transmitted in the Welsh language alone; and apart from a few incidental forecasts in the earlier centuries `Anglo- Welsh' literature made its earliest substantial appearance in the 1930s. Inset on the pages of the book are the author's own accurate prose translations of Welsh verse (a few translations by others have also been included); there are pages with reproductions from famous manuscripts, and in conclusion a brief bibliography which concentrates on scholarly works published during the last two decades. Attention may also be drawn here to the two companion `Pocket Guides': J. Graham Jones, The History of Wales (1990, 1995); and Trefor M. Owen, The Customs and Traditions of Wales (1991, 1995).
• R. Geraint Gruffydd (gol.), Meistri'r Canrifoedd: Ysgrifau ar Hanes Llenyddiaeth Gymraeg gan Saunders Lewis (1973, 1982) (Masters of the Centuries: Essays on the History of Welsh Literature). Thirty-seven essays, lectures and reviews by the late Saunders Lewis are here collected from a wide range of periodicals, in which they were originally published over a number of years. The essays include much of Saunders Lewis's most mature literary criticism and discussion, including nearly all that he wrote which is relevant to the medieval period. Among these are his original, if controversial, articles on the genesis of the Four Branches of the Mabinogi, one of his two review articles on Parry's Gwaith Dafydd ap Gwilym, essays on the earliest of the Cywyddwyr and on individuals among their successors, including Dafydd Nanmor and Tudur Aled. Included also is his famous Eisteddfod lecture of 1965 on the poet Ann Griffiths. RGG comments on the vision and perception displayed in these essays, and observes that they are valuable not only as literary commentary and analysis, but are distinguished as literature in their own right. Welsh literature is here presented by Saunders Lewis as a small but unique contribution to the literature of Christian Europe.
• Alun R. Jones and Gwyn Thomas (eds), Presenting Saunders Lewis (1973, 1991). The authors point out that Saunders Lewis has done more than almost any other single writer to introduce the life and culture of Wales to an extended English-reading audience. This book supplements Meistri'r Canrifoedd by giving the text of the majority of his lectures, speeches and writings which were originally composed or delivered in English. These lectures and addresses arose mainly from the events of SL's political career, in the course of which, among his other concerns, he laid emphasis on Welsh literature as Wales's most essential spiritual inheritance. The book contains three seminal literary articles: `The Tradition of Taliesin' develops views earlier anticipated in his Braslun, by envisaging Taliesin's praises of Urien Rheged in the sixth century as having established a model for praise-poetry which was reiterated in various ways over many centuries. Included also is his English review article on Parry's Dafydd ap Gwilym (reproduced from Blackfriars xxxiv (1953), which is to be distinguished by its different range of reference from the separate Welsh review reproduced in Meistri'r Canrifoedd). There is a short but significant essay on `The Essence of Welsh Literature': this cites SL's discovery of a little-known poem by an eighteenth- century `bardd gwlad' (country poet) from west Wales, in celebration of the launching of a ship, which is a powerful demonstration of the long continuity of the poetic tradition. The book concludes with translations by Gwyn Thomas and Emyr Humphreys of a selection of SL's poems and plays. Presenting Saunders Lewis complements Meistri'r Canrifoedd in bringing together a very full conspectus of Saunders Lewis's unique contribution to Welsh literature, life and thought.
• J.E. Caerwyn Williams and P.K. Ford, The Irish Literary Tradition (1992). This expanded English version of JECW's earlier Traddodiad Llenyddol Iwerddon (1958) incorporates the results of advances made during the intervening forty years, by scholars both from Ireland and from further afield. As kindred Celtic languages, Welsh and Irish possess traditional literatures which complement and illuminate each other at almost every point, and in spite of the major differences in the historical experiences of the two countries. This affinity is particularly evident in the earliest period, though it continues to be manifested throughout the Middle Ages, and in certain respects it persists even later. In early times Ireland and Wales possessed hierarchies of poets trained over a long period, who handed down the intricacies of their art from one generation to the next, in the composition of praise-poetry of considerable complexity. This was addressed to their kings and princes, and to the memory of the spiritual leaders of their two nations. Impressive examples of this verse have come down in Irish, as in Welsh, from as early as the sixth and seventh centuries. In addition to an ancient and distinguished tradition of poetry, originally preserved and transmitted orally, both Ireland and Wales evolved from early times a prose of great distinction, versatility and technical precision. This was adapted early in both countries to purposes as diverse as the recording of the native laws and technical computations, together with a variegated and sophisticated narrative literature, which preserved relics from Celtic mythology and evoked remote memories of prehistoric events. Early Irish literature provides a commentary which cannot be disregarded for the light which it casts on the early literature and culture of Wales.