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Home , Cunedda, Gododdin

Welsh Studies

EARLY AND MEDIEVAL LITERATURE

By MARGED HAYCOCK, Senior Lecturer, Department of and Literature, University College of , Aberystwyth (This survey covers the years [990, [99[ and [992)

Hengerdd scholarship has been immeasurably enriched by ] enny Rowland, Early Welsh Saga Poetry: A Study and Edition of the Englynion, Cambridge, Brewer, 1990, ix + 688 pp. The , Heledd and U rien cycles are re-edited (taking account of MS readings not used by Ifor Williams), with translations, notes and much historical detail (including a definitive edition of the awdl 'Marwnad Cyn­ ddylan'). Lucid chapters on the development and use of the englyn form in the early medieval period, and a sophisticated and wide­ ranging assessment of the literary aspects, ensure that this book will hold the field for the foreseeable future. J. Rowland, 'Notes on The ', Watkins Vol., 333-42, offers emendations ofCA lines 37-38,140-41, and 368, and touches on thc motif of 'a year's fame' and the use of disyllable rhyme for emphasis; in 'The orthography of the exemplar of Ganu awdl xlv', BBGS, 37, 1990 : I 19-20, R. suggests that forms such as rector and sax may indicate a learned (Latinizing) or archaizing orthography behind the B-text. G. Isaac, 'Mynyddawg Mwynfawr', ib., I I 1-13, suggests that the name may be a term for the hall of Gododdin; Id., 'ethy, ediu, eithiuiat', BBGS, 38, 1991: 101-02, suggests a cognate to Old Irish a {i}dem. ]. Koch, 'Gleanings from the Gododdin and other Early Welsh texts', ib., I I 1-18, proposes a number of new interpretations. In an incisive note, 'Where was Rhaeadr Derwennydd?', Fest. Hamp, 261-66, R. G. Gruffydd shows that the waterfall in CA lines 1101-17 is the Lodore Cascade on Derwentwater (Cumbria); he favours composition before 685 when the area was in Northumbrian hands, and the addition of 'Pais Dinogad' to a written text probably before 700. Id., 'From Gododdin to : reflections on the story of ', SG, 24-25, 1989-90: 1-14, argues that the 'story' is grounded in historical reality and that 'Marwnad Cunedda' may be a North British poem composed shortly after the death of C., on whose problematic name, see G. Isaac, 'Cunedag', BBGS, 38, 1991: 100-01. N. Higham, 'Cavalry in early ', Northern History, 27, 1991: 236-41, surveys references to horses and cavalry in The Gododdin, concluding that fighting from horseback remains unproven. P. Sims-Williams, 'The emergence of Old Welsh, Cornish and Breton orthography, 600-800: the evidence of Archaic Old Welsh', BEGS, 38, 1991 : 20-86, is relevant to the dating and transmission of the early hengerdd. Early and Medieval Literature 579 M. Haycock, 'The significance of the "Cad Goddau" tree-list in the Book of ', Watkins Vol., 297-331, edits and translates a passage interpreted as mock-heroic parody rather than (with Robert Graves) mystical acrophony. H. Tristram, 'The early Insular elegies: item alia', ib., 343-62, reaffirms the case for Latin influence, particu­ larly that ofVenantius Fortunatus, on the elegiac genre. N.Jacobs, 'Celtic saga and the contexts of elegiac poetry', EG, 26, 1989: 95-I 42, discusses points raised by a comparison between the early Welsh englyn poetry and Old English verse. A. Budgey, "'Preiddeu Annwn" and the Welsh tradition of Arthur', in Procs (Halifax), 391-404, translates the first six awdlau of the poem, and discusses their analogues. The Romance oj Merlin: An Anthology,ed. Peter Goodrich, Garland, NY, 1990, ixx + 417 pp., includes translations of the Myrddin poems. Allusions in the religious poem, 'Iesu a Mair a'r CynhaeafGwyrthiol' (12th-13th c.), are discussed by A. Breeze in three important articles: 'Job's Gold in medieval England, Wales, and Navarre', NQ, 235, 1990: 2Z5-78; 'Aur Job', LIG, I7: 134-37; and 'The instantaneous harvest', Eriu, 41, 1990: 81- 93; see also his 'The instantaneous harvest and the Harley lyric "Mayden Moder Milde"', NQ, 237: 150--52. H. Tristram, 'Der insulare Alexander', in Kontinuitat und Transformation der Antike im Mittelalter, ed. W. Erzgraber, Sigmaringen, 1989, 129-55, and 'More talk of Alexander', Geltica, 21, 1990: 658-63, refer to the Alexander material in the . M. Haycock, 'Probleme der friihmittelalterlichen kymrischen Metrik', in Metrik und Medienwechsel, ed. Hildegard Tristram (ScriptOralia, 35), Tiibingen, Niemeyer, 1991 : 155-71, reviews mainly hengerdd mctrics. A. Breeze, 'Hen SaesnegJranca; Hen Gymraegfranc', BBGS, 38, 1991 :98-99, makes the unlikely suggestion that theJranc ofthe ThreeJ uvencus englynion is not a mercenary, but the speaking persona's spear. Jenny Rowland, 'allan, ymaes', ib., 37, 1990: 1 18-19, makes a good case for the restoration of the second synonym in 'Seithenhin sawde allan'. The fruits of a collaborative project on the court poets of the 12th-1 3th c. are appearing under the general editorship ofR. Geraint Gruffydd guided by J. E. Caerwyn Williams. Pride of place must go to A. Parry Owen and Nerys A. Jones' splendid edn, Gwaith Gynddelw Brydydd Mawr, vol. 1 (Cyfres Beirdd y Tywysogion, III), Cardiff, Univ. of Wales Press, 1991, I + 372 pp., containing the awdlau and englynion sung to patrons in Powys (with modern Welsh translations). The introductions and notes are fuller than those in volume v of the same series, by Elin M. Jones (assisted by Nerys A. Jones), Gwaith Llywarch ap Llywelyn 'Prydyddy Moch', Cardiff, Univ. of Wales Press, 1991, xxxviii + 347 pp. Members of the same equipe have good articles and pamphlets to their credit: A. P. Owen, 'Canu Cynddelw