Memory and Nation

Writing the History of Wales

Editor(s) Rebecca Thomas,Sadie Jarrett,Katharine K. Olson

Language: English

Genre(s): History

  • July 2025 · 512 pages ·216x138mm

  • · Paperback - 9781837722341
  • · eBook - pdf - 9781837722358
  • · eBook - epub - 9781837722365

About The Book

Written in honour of Professor Huw Pryce, this volume brings together exciting new research on writing and performing the history of Wales, from the Middle Ages to the modern period. Each chapter offers a different perspective on the theme of historical writing and remembrance. The first section (Texts and their Histories) focuses on the creation and function of medieval historical texts; a wide range of texts are investigated here, including chronicles and narrative histories, charters, and the Welsh triads. The second section (History and Identity) concerns the relationship between writing history and identity construction; chapters consider different aspects of this theme, including the role of bishops in writing history and the use of names to construct ethnic identities. The third and final section (Memory and Nation) widens the lens to investigate strategies of remembrance and the performance of history; this includes essays on the Eisteddfod, tattoos of historical individuals and the role of historical pageants in twentieth-century nation building. Taken together, the contributions to the volume offer new insights into Welsh historical writing and perceptions of the past throughout the ages.

Contents

Acknowledgements / Diolchiadau

List of Figures and Tables / Rhestr o Ffigyrau a Thablau

Abbreviations / Byrfoddau

Notes on Contributors / Bywgraffiadau Cyfranwyr

Introduction / Rhagymadrodd

PART I: TEXTS AND THEIR HISTORIES

RHAN I: TESTUNAU A’U HANES

How did medieval Welsh chroniclers find their information?

David Stephenson

The Reception of Gerald of Wales in Welsh Historical Texts

Georgia Henley

Trioedd Ynys Prydein fel Testunau Hanes

Nia Wyn Jones

From Llandaf to Liber A: Welsh Charters and Diplomatics in Long Perspective

Charles Insley

The Development of Old Welsh Boundary Clauses

Ben Guy

PART II: HISTORY AND IDENTITY

RHAN II: HANES A HUNANIAETH

Naming and National Identity: The Monastic Orders in Late Medieval Ireland and Wales Compared

David Thornton

Gwystlon yn De gestis Britonum a Brut y Brenhinedd

Rebecca Thomas

The Context of Laudabiliter in the Works of Gerald of Wales

Thomas Charles-Edwards

The Medieval Bishops of Bangor and the Writing of Welsh History

Shaun D. McGuinness

“Pinnacles of Preaching” and Men of “Bold Learning”: Religious Reforms, Historical Interests, and the Elizabethan Bishops of Bangor

Katharine K. Olson

PART III: MEMORY AND NATION

RHAN III: COF CENEDL

Antiquarianism, Ancestry and ‘Ancient Britons’: Welsh historical consciousness, cultural patronage and the identity of the gentry, c. 1800–1920

Shaun Evans

‘Th’ enlighten’ d crowd with grateful raptures glow’: History, setting norms and Victorian modernity in eisteddfod competitions 1815–1855

Marion Löffler

‘Ireland Raids Wales’: Pageants and the Performance of History in the 1920s

Paul O’Leary

Tattooing Owain Glyndŵr? The body, memory and interpretations of Welsh history

Mari Elin Wiliam with the assistance of Owain Hurcum

‘Time Present and Time Past’: Narrating Nation and Society in Welsh Historical Writing, 1970–210

Neil Evans

Llyfryddiaeth o weithiau cyhoeddedig Huw Pryce / A bibliography of the published works of Huw Pryce (hyd 2023/to 2023)

Rhidian Griffiths

Manuscripts Cited / Rhestr o Lawysgrifau

Selected Bibliography / Llyfryddiaeth Ddethol

About the Editor(s)

Author(s): Rebecca Thomas

Rebecca Thomas is Senior Lecturer in Medieval History at Cardiff University. She is author of History and Identity in Early Medieval Wales (Woodbridge, 2022).

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Author(s): Sadie Jarrett

Sadie Jarrett is a specialist in early modern Wales. She has held research fellowships at the Institute of Historical Research and The Queen’s College, Oxford.

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Author(s): Katharine K. Olson

Katharine Olson is Assistant Professor of History at San Jose State University. She has published widely on the medieval and early modern British Isles and Europe, and is currently completing the monograph Finding Salvation: Popular Religion, Culture, and Reformation in Wales and the Marches, c.1350–1603 (Oxford, forthcoming)

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