Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rdxmf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T12:24:05.891Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

III - The Welsh book

from 15 - Vernacular literature and its readership

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2008

Nigel J. Morgan
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge
Rodney M. Thomson
Affiliation:
University of Tasmania
Get access

Summary

Welsh literature in the year 1400 was in antiquity and diversity (not to broach questions of quality) comparable to that in English. But in contrast, this Welsh literature survives only in books written after about 1250; in books, however – some eighty manuscripts survive for the period 1250–1400 – which are as well produced as their English contemporaries. The point needs to be made in view of the rapid divergence in this respect after 1400, when Wales went into post-Glyndŵr depression while in England the commercial production of fine books in the vernacular became widespread.

At the fountainhead of Welsh poetry stand Aneirin and Taliesin. While questions have been raised, no convincing arguments have been put forward to gainsay the sixth-century origin of a core of the surviving work attributed to these two bards who are named (with others) in connection with sixth-century rulers in the Historia Brittonum. Of early written transmission of the poetry, all that can safely be said is that the texts contain corruptions which can only be explained as misreadings of Insular script: derivation from Insular exemplars could have been as late as the twelfth century.

Surviving written Welsh in books of the period 800–1100 is confined to marginalia, short added texts and glosses. But comparison with neighbouring Ireland and England makes it improbable that books in the vernacular were unknown in Wales. The case is probably one of non-survival, one which calls for explanation. Gerald of Wales refers to books in Welsh, once in reference to genealogy, once to prophetic poetry, but no twelfth-century example survives.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2008

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Aneirin, : Aneirin: Y Gododdin: Britain’s oldest poem, ed. Jarman, A. O. H. 1988, Llandysul.Google Scholar
Aneirin, : Canu Aneirin, ed. Williams, I. 1938, Cardiff.Google Scholar
Aneirin, : Facsimile and text of the Book of Aneirin, ed. Evans, J. G. 1908, Pwllheli.Google Scholar
Aneirin, : Llyfr Aneirin: a facsimile, ed. Huws, D. 1989, Aberystwyth.Google Scholar
Aneirin, : The Gododdin of Aneirin, ed. Koch, J. T. 1997, Cardiff.Google Scholar
Blagden, C. 1960 The Stationers’ Company: a history 1403–1959, Cambridge MA.Google Scholar
Brut y Tywysogyon: Peniarth ms 20, ed. Jones, T. 1941, Cardiff.Google Scholar
Brut y Tywysogyon: Red Book of Hergest Version, ed. Jones, T. 1955, Cardiff.Google Scholar
Charles-Edwards, T. M. 1989 The Welsh Laws, Cardiff.Google Scholar
Christianson, C. P. 1990 A directory of London stationers and book artisans, 1300–1550, New York.Google Scholar
Chronica minora saec. iv. v. vi. vii., 3 vols., ed. Mommsen, T. 1892–8, Monumenta Germaniae historica, Auctores antiquissimi, 9, 11, 13, Berlin.Google Scholar
Cyfres Beirdd y Tywysogion, 7 vols., ed. Gruffydd, R. G. 1991–6, Cardiff.Google Scholar
Dafydd, ap Gwilym: Dafydd ap Gwilym: his poems, ed. and tr. Thomas, G. 2001, Cardiff.Google Scholar
Dafydd, ap Gwilym: Gwaith Dafydd ap Gwilym, ed. Parry, T. 1952, Cardiff (2nd edn 1963, 3rd edn 1979, both without the full introduction).Google Scholar
Edwards, A. S. G. 1997The manuscript’, in A companion to the Gawain-Poet, ed. Brewer, D. S. and Gibson, J., Cambridge.Google Scholar
[Evans, J. G.] 1898–1910 Report on manuscripts in the Welsh language,2 vols., Royal Commission on historical manuscripts, London.Google Scholar
Facsimile of the Black Book of Carmarthen, ed. Evans, J. G. 1888, Oxford.Google Scholar
Gerald, of Wales: Expugnatio Hibernica, ed. Dimock, J. F. 1867, Opera V.
Gerald, of Wales: Topographia Hibernica, ed. Dimock, J. F. 1867, Opera V.
Gramadegau’r Penceirddiaid, eds. Williams, G. J. and Jones, E. J. 1934, Cardiff.Google Scholar
Jackson, K. 1953 Language and history in early Britain, Edinburgh.Google Scholar
Jarman, A. O. H. and Hughes, G. R. (eds.) 1992 A guide to Welsh literature, I, rev. edn, Cardiff.Google Scholar
Jenkins, D. and Owen, M. E. 1983–4The Welsh marginalia in the Lichfield Gospels’, Cambridge Medieval Celtic Studies, 5 ; 7.Google Scholar
Lindsay, W. M. 1912 Early Welsh script, Oxford.Google Scholar
Llawysgrif Hendregadredd, eds. Morris-Jones, J. and Parry-Williams, T. H. 1933, Cardiff.Google Scholar
Llyfr Du Caerfyrddin, ed. Jarman, A. O. H. 1982, Cardiff.Google Scholar
Owen, A. P. and Evans, D. F. 1996 Gwaith Llywelyn, Brydydd Hoddnant, Dafydd ap Gwilym, Hillyn ac eraill, Aberystwyth.Google Scholar
Peter, of Poitiers: Y Bibyl Ynghymraec, sef Cyfieithiad Cymraeg canol o’r ‘Promptuarium Bibliae (gan Petrus Pictaviensis)’, ed. Jones, T. 1940, Cardiff.Google Scholar
Poems of the Cywyddwyr, ed. Rowlands, E. I. 1976, Dublin.Google Scholar
Pryce, H. 1998The origins and the medieval period’, in A nation and its books: a history of the book in Wales, eds. Jones, P. H. and Rees, E., Aberystwyth.Google Scholar
Sims-Williams, P. 1998The uses of writing in early medieval Wales’, in Literacy in medieval Celtic societies, ed. Pryce, H., Cambridge.Google Scholar
Taliesin, : Canu Taliesin, ed. Williams, I. 1960, Cardiff.Google Scholar
Taliesin, : Facsimile and text of the Book of Taliesin, ed. Evans, J. G. 1910, Llanbedrog.Google Scholar
Taliesin, : The poems of Taliesin, ed. Williams, I. with English version by Williams, J. E. Caerwyn 1968, Dublin.Google Scholar
The Elucidarium and other tracts in Welsh from Llyvyr Agkyr Llandewivrevi, ad 1346, eds. Morris, J. Jones and Rhys, J. 1894, Oxford.Google Scholar
The poetry in the Red Book of Hergest, ed. Evans, J. G. 1911, Llanbedrog.Google Scholar
The White Book Mabinogion, ed. Evans, J. G. 1907, Pwllheli (rpt, with introduction by Jones, R. M., Cardiff 1973).Google Scholar
Thomas, P. W. 1993Middle Welsh dialects: problems and perspectives’, Bulletin of the Board of Celtic Studies, 40.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×