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Home , Aneirin, Rheged

Welsh Studies

EARLY AND MEDIEVAL LITERATURE

By MARGED HAYCOCK, Lecturer in the Department of and Literature, University College of , Aberystwyth studies are booming: A. 0. H.J arman, : The Gododdin, Britain's Oldest Heroic Poem, Llandysul, Gomer, ciii + 205 pp., gives the text in Mod. W. orthography, an English transl. and notes, and a judicious if traditionalist introd. Newer approaches are investigated in B. F. Roberts (ed.), Early Welsh Poetry: Studies in the Book ofAneirin, Aberystwyth, National Library of Wales, xii + 2I2 pp. B. 0 Hehir, 'What is the Gododdin?', ib., pp. 57-95, believes that the A-text uses two distinct sources: a 'funerary anthology' of 5 I poems in which the concentration on the Catraeth story is most evident, and a general Gododdin anthology starting at CA LV.A, with which the B-text may be compared. K. A. Klar, 'What are the Gwarchanau?', ib., pp. 97-I37, regards the gwarchan as an old form whose original purpose was to retain and transmit traditional material, as opposed to material composed for a specific situation. D. N. Dumville, 'Early Welsh poetry: problems ofhistoricity', ib., pp. I-I6, questions assumptions about the date and context of the alleged events in the Gododdin, outlining possible modes of written and/or oral transmission. J. T. Koch, 'The Cynfeirdd poetry and the language of the sixth century', ib., pp. I 7-42, deals with the cyjlythyraeth apparent when the text is restored to pre-Old Welsh orthography, with word-order and morphology; he discerns an archaic stratum of 6th- and 7th-c. diction. An accentual prosody is favoured both by E. E. Sweetser, 'Line-structure and rhan-structure: the metrical units of the Gododdin corpus', ib., pp. I 39-54, and by M. Haycock, 'Metrical models for the poems in the Book of ', ib., pp. I55-78. D. Huws, 'Canu Aneirin: the other manuscripts', ib., pp. 43-56, shows how all the copies derive ultimately from the Book of Aneirin; he suspects that, even in the I3th c., MSS of the text were few.J. Rowland, 'Genres', ib., pp. I 79-208, classifies the wide range of genres in the hengerdd (the Gododdin being sui generis), and warns that poems in the englyn form are not necessarily 'popular' productions. Also on the Gododdin: P. K. Ford, 'The death of Aneirin', BEGS, 34, I987: 4I-50, who compares Aneirin's subterranean 'imprisonment' with rituals of bardic composition; B. 0 Hehir, 'Manuscript sources of the Gododdin', in Proceedings ... (Ottawa), pp. 52I-29; and K. A. Klar and E. E. Sweetser, 'Remarks on the development of medieval Welsh metrics', ib., pp. 499-5Io. J. T. Koch, 'Llawr en asseo (CA 932) "the laureate hero in the war-chariot": some recollections of the Iron Age in the Gododdin', EC, 24, I 987: 253-78, edits CA LXXV, xxvi, and parts of Early and Medieval Literature Gorchan Cynfelyn, noting possible memories of members of the Catuvellaunian dynasty and parallels with their iconographic representations. M. Rockel, 'Wer war ?', WZHUB, 37: ro5g-63, lists terms used for U rien; I d., 'Die Dichtungen Aneirins und Taliesins als Gegenstand linguistischer Betrachtung', ib., I064-67, is an elemen• tary summary of the early language and poetic usages. M. Pennar, Taliesin Poems: New Translations, Llanerch Press, I I9 pp., is an attractive literary introduction to the I 2 poems of the 'historical' Taliesin whose source, the , and four other MSS in the same hand are assigned by M. Haycock, 'Llyfr Taliesin', NLW}, 25:357-86, to the first quarter of the I 4th c. Also ofpalaeographical interest are D. Huws, 'The making ofLiber Landavensis', NLWJ, 25, I987: I 33-60, and Id., Peniarth 28: Darluniau o Lyfr Gyfraith Hywel Dda: Illustrations from a Welsh Lawbook, Aberystwyth, National Library of Wales, I3 pp. Assiduous detective work by G. C. G. Thomas reveals interesting material: from Peniarth 2 I come seven lines of the Cadwallon 'saga': 'A verse attributed to Cadwallon fab Cadfan', BEGS, 34, I987:67-70. Id., 'An Early Welsh seasonal poem', ib., 6 I -67, prints three ?early- I 2th-c. stanzas previously unnoted, and Id., '"Kanu y Swyddogyon Llys y Brenin": verses attributed to Taliesin', ib., I 32-33, gives the text of'Kanv y Kynydd' and 'Kanv y Meichiad' from Peniarth 27, the hitherto unidentified source ofJohn Jones, Gellilfydy's copy in Peniarth I I 3· A current project on the Poets of the Princes is described by R. G. Gruffydd, 'Editing the "Gogynfeirdd"', in Proceedings ... (Ottawa), pp. 46 I -8o, with sample eds of the work ofEinion ap Gwalchmai, and a short love poem by Cynddelw. C.'s long eulogy to the princess Efa is translated and sensitively discussed by A. Parry Owen, 'Rhieingerdd Efa ferch Madog ap Maredudd: Cynddelw a'i cant', YB, I4:56-86, while N. A. Jones, 'Cerdd ymryson Cynddelw Brydydd Mawr a Seisyllt Bryffwrch', ib., 4 7-55, takes a sceptical look at the englynion which purport to record his contest for professional advancement witt his rival at the court of Powys. This is complemented by the meticulous analysis of the domains of different kinds of poets by D. Jenkins, 'Pencerdd a bardd teulu', ib., Ig-46. Rh. Andrews, 'Amrywiad ar Doddaid Byr a Thraeanog', BEGS, 35: I4-I9, lists lines of I 2th-c. toddaid byr and traeanog in which the gwant (rather than the line-ending) is ornamentally linked with the following line. The most significant work on I 4th-c. poetry is D. R.Johnston (ed.), Gwaith lolo Goch, Cardiff, Univ. ofWales Press, xxxii + 4I2 pp. Two poems are placed in their historical contexts by D.J. Bowen, 'Cywydd Iolo Goch i Syr Hywel y Fwyall', LlG, I5: 275-88, and by D. Johnston, 'Awdl Llywelyn Goch i Rydderch a Llywelyn Fychan',