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Arthurian Literature in the Middle Ages #1
The Arthur of the Welsh: The Arthurian Legend in Medieval Welsh Literature
This collection of essays presents an account of the Arthurian literature produced in Wales, in both Welsh and Latin, during the Middle Ages. Topics addressed include the "historical" Arthur, Arthur in early Welsh verse, the legend of Merlin, and the tales of Culhwch ac Olwen, Geraint, and Owain.
310 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1991
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About the author
Rachel Bromwich
25 books4 followersRachel Bromwich, born Rachel Sheldon Amos, was a British scholar. Her focus was on medieval Welsh literature, and she taught Celtic Languages and Literature in the Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic at Cambridge, from 1945 to 1976. Among her most important contributions to the study of Welsh literature is Trioedd Ynys Prydein, her edition of the Welsh Triads.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
October 18, 2010
A collection of essays by different authors. Some are more useful than others, obviously: I've only read four of them. The first four, incidentally. They weren't terribly relevant for what I needed, but they have a good analysis of Arthur's role in early Welsh literature, and the potential historicity of the various accounts.
September 24, 2011
Bought for £25! But I had lots of vouchers... This book is a collection of essays on the Brythonic Arthurian tradition. There is an especial focus on the three romances and their analogues in France and Wales, and the probable influence of the Breton tradition on the transmitters (chiefly Geoffrey of Monmouth). This is a book that gets quoted a lot, but for me most of the essays were really boring, probably because most of them were very general, and perhaps some of them should have been books rather than essays. Still, this is about as close to a text book as Arthurian Studies has, so get it read if you're a student.
Three quotes:
(on one of my favourite poems, ymddiddan arthur a'r eryr)
The choice of a bird can be paralleled in the Englynion y Clyaid where thrush, raven, jay , and so on appear alongside the Welsh saints to offer moral precepts. One may recall too, Geoffrey of Monmouth’s tantalising allusions to a book of the prophecies uttered by an eagle while Shaftesbury was being built. On the Dialogue there is an added complication, however, in that the eagle reveals itself to be Arthurs deceased nephew, Eliwlod son of Madag son of Uthr (on whom see above). This of course gives added authority to its religious instruction,. The same motif of a dialogue with a revenant seem to occur in the englynion in the Red Book of Hergest between the hermits llywelyn and Gwrnerth and in those in the Black Book of Carmarthen between the deceased sinner Ysgolan and someone who (to judge by Modern Breton versions) is probably his mother. Perhaps the closest parallel however, occurs in the Fourth Branch of the Mabinogi, where Gwydion addresses englynion to his nephew Lleu, who has been transformed into the form of an eagle after receiving a mortal wound, and, like Eliwlod, is espied at the top of an oak tree.
(On the Brut translations of Geoffrey's Historia Gestis)
most of the Welsh translators recognized the names of Geoffrey’s characters and gave them their Welsh equivalents or restored the Old Welsh names more or less successfully to their contemporary Middle Welsh forms. In a few cases the Welsh texts add patronymics or epithes which are found in native sources.
(special visit from Caerwyn-Williams, a scholar capable of being so nativist you fear for his poor naive soul one minute, and amazingly discerning the next)
The Britons of the Highland Zone must have called themselves Brittones for this is the form which gave Welsh Brython, a name applied to all the western Britons from southern Scotland to Brittany, and they must have called their language Brittonikā which gave W. Brythoneg. The Bretons still call their language Brezhoneg, and although the Cornish people have adopted a new name for their language, Kenewek, it seems that they called it Brethonec until it died. Nowadays Welsh people use the term Brythoneg to denote the language from which their language is descended. This development was to be expected once the Welsh and their northern neighbours had begun to call themselves *Kombrogi (sg. *Kombrogos) whence the Welsh Cymry (sg. Cymro). The Bretons did not need to change the name of their language for they call their land Breizh which comes from Brittia, a diminutive of Britannia, and a form attested by Procopius.
Three quotes:
(on one of my favourite poems, ymddiddan arthur a'r eryr)
The choice of a bird can be paralleled in the Englynion y Clyaid where thrush, raven, jay , and so on appear alongside the Welsh saints to offer moral precepts. One may recall too, Geoffrey of Monmouth’s tantalising allusions to a book of the prophecies uttered by an eagle while Shaftesbury was being built. On the Dialogue there is an added complication, however, in that the eagle reveals itself to be Arthurs deceased nephew, Eliwlod son of Madag son of Uthr (on whom see above). This of course gives added authority to its religious instruction,. The same motif of a dialogue with a revenant seem to occur in the englynion in the Red Book of Hergest between the hermits llywelyn and Gwrnerth and in those in the Black Book of Carmarthen between the deceased sinner Ysgolan and someone who (to judge by Modern Breton versions) is probably his mother. Perhaps the closest parallel however, occurs in the Fourth Branch of the Mabinogi, where Gwydion addresses englynion to his nephew Lleu, who has been transformed into the form of an eagle after receiving a mortal wound, and, like Eliwlod, is espied at the top of an oak tree.
(On the Brut translations of Geoffrey's Historia Gestis)
most of the Welsh translators recognized the names of Geoffrey’s characters and gave them their Welsh equivalents or restored the Old Welsh names more or less successfully to their contemporary Middle Welsh forms. In a few cases the Welsh texts add patronymics or epithes which are found in native sources.
(special visit from Caerwyn-Williams, a scholar capable of being so nativist you fear for his poor naive soul one minute, and amazingly discerning the next)
The Britons of the Highland Zone must have called themselves Brittones for this is the form which gave Welsh Brython, a name applied to all the western Britons from southern Scotland to Brittany, and they must have called their language Brittonikā which gave W. Brythoneg. The Bretons still call their language Brezhoneg, and although the Cornish people have adopted a new name for their language, Kenewek, it seems that they called it Brethonec until it died. Nowadays Welsh people use the term Brythoneg to denote the language from which their language is descended. This development was to be expected once the Welsh and their northern neighbours had begun to call themselves *Kombrogi (sg. *Kombrogos) whence the Welsh Cymry (sg. Cymro). The Bretons did not need to change the name of their language for they call their land Breizh which comes from Brittia, a diminutive of Britannia, and a form attested by Procopius.
May 15, 2013
I read this book as an undergraduate, and was fascinated with the breadth of knowledge each scholar imparted on their particular areas of interest. I learned alot about Arthur and Arthurian research. I read it again at the beginning of my graduate studies, and found it to be a tremendous resource for scholars, ideas, and research papers. I have returned to it again and again, for pleasure, for research, for ideas. It is a masterful work in that it took all of the contemporary experts in the field of Welsh Arthurian studies. They may eventually update the book, but everything will be modeled after the original.
May 1, 2011
Brilliant collection of papers on Arthur in Old/Medieval Welsh literature - a strong strain of the "soup" that makes up the cauldron of Arthurian myth and legend, Excellent chapters on the characters and Welsh/Celtic origins of Merlin (both the wildman of the woods and the other more recognizable one) and Tristan. A must read for lovers of all things Arthurian and one I will refer to as I journey through my re-investigation of the entire Arthurian corpus.
September 17, 2015
Must read collection of scholarship for anyone interested in Arthurian Welsh literature, or indeed in Arthurian literature full stop.
June 3, 2016
The papers in this book and the ones on the English and French give an excellent in depth knowledge of the development of Arthur in western Europe
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews