598 Welsh Studies

EARLY AND MEDIEVAL LITERATURE By Nerys Ann Jones, Department of Celtic, University of Edinburgh

The ongoing debate on the subject and function of the Gododdin is moved forward by two important and stimulating papers. H. Fulton, ‘Cultural heroism in the Old North of Britain: the evidence of Aneirin’s Gododdin’, Davidson, Epic, 18–39, casts doubt on the viability of the concept of a historical ‘Heroic Age’ as defined by H. M. and N. K. Chadwick in The Growth of Literature (1932), and goes on to argue that it is with ‘the central image of the land-defending warband’ that the Gododdin construct of ‘heroism’ resides, concluding that the poem should be viewed as ‘a claim to the legitimacy of British land-holdings in the region of Gododdin’. On the other hand, J. Rowland, ‘Warfare and horses in the Gododdin and the problem of Catraeth’, CMCS, 30:13–40, after asserting the historical plausibility of the picture of mounted warfare in the poem by comparing the Gododdin troop with other early cavalry forces, proposes that, in light of the size and composition of the warband as depicted in the Gododdin, it seems more likely that Catraeth was an expedition by a mounted raiding party which went disastrously wrong rather than a territorial battle by an army of conquest. A. O. H. Jarman, ‘Y Gododdin’, YB, 20:59–78, presents a more conservative view of the Gododdin, but contains a lucid and sensitive discussion of the literary merits of the poem. Craig Cessford has published a number of short articles on the Gododdin, including ‘The Gododdin: the oldest Scottish poem?’, ScL, 11–12:1–9; ‘Dinogad’s smock’, TCWAAS, 94:297–99; ‘Saxons, Irish and Picts in Y Gododdin’, PASJ, 5 : 24–26; ‘Early historic chains of power’, ib., 6: 19–26. R. Geraint Gruffydd continues his exploration of the post-Roman British kingdoms of the North with ‘In search of Elmet’, SC, 28: 63–79, and discusses in particular the two poems to 6th-c. king Gwallog found in the ‘Book of Taliesin’. A further two poems from the same MS are edited with notes and translations in M. Haycock, ‘ ‘‘Canu y Medd’’ o Lyfr Taliesin’, Dwned, 1 : 1–23, and Id., ‘Taliesin’s ‘‘Lesser Song of the World’’ ’, Huws Vol., 229–50. Haycock’s discussions of these poems will be particularly useful to those interested in the Taliesin legend and also in medieval learned poetry in general. O. Davies, ‘Llenyddiaeth a Duw yn y Cyd- destun Cymraeg’, Diwinyddiaeth, 46: 24–36, suggests a historical context to those Welsh poems of the early Middle Ages which seem to be examples of exhortatio monastica. G. R. Isaac, ‘The end of the Early and Medieval Literature 599 world in Welsh and Irish: a common disaster’, SC, 28: 173–74, draws attention to the remarkable parallel between two phrases in Oianau Myrddin and Cath Muige Tuired. A further three volumes have appeared in the series of editions of medieval Welsh court poetry, Cyfres Beirdd y Tywysogion, Gwaith Llywelyn Fardd I ac eraill o feirdd y ddeuddegfed ganrif, ed. Kathleen Anne Bramley et al., Cardiff, Univ. of Wales Press, xxvii + 560 pp., presents the work of the lesser poets of the 12th c.; Gwaith Dafydd Benfras ac eraill o feirdd hanner cyntaf y drydedd ganrif ar ddeg, ed. N. G. Costigan (Bosco) et al., Cardiff, Univ. of Wales Press, ix+ 580 pp., provides an edition of poetry from the first half of the 13th c., and Gwaith Cynddelw Brydydd Mawr II, ed. Nerys Ann Jones and Ann Parry Owen, Cardiff, Univ. of Wales Press, xxii + 448 pp., contains the religious poetry of Cynddelw Brydydd Mawr, as well as the poems addressed to patrons in Gwynedd and Deheubarth. Studies of individual poems of the Gogynfeirdd include Sr. Bosco Costigan, ‘Cerdd Foliant Dafydd Benfras i Ddafydd ap Llywelyn a’i Chefndir’, YB, 20: 108–13, which provides the historical background to a rather enigmatic poem of appeasement, and N. A. Jones, ‘Marwnad Bardd-Ryfelwr’, ib., 90–107, which examines an elegy by Cynddelw Brydydd Mawr to 12th-c. poet Bleddyn Fardd. Rh. M. Andrews, ‘Cynganeddion Bleddyn Fardd’, SC, 28: 117–52, is a detailed analysis of ornament in the poetry of the 13th-c. poet of the same name. Andrews also presents the work of a contemporary Franciscan poet, Madog ap Gwallter, in ‘Bardd o Grefyddwr’, Y Cylchgrawn Catholig, 3 : 16–19; 4 : 6–10. M. Owen, ‘The archaism of the Welsh poetic tradition’, Chotzen Vol., 37–64, a version of her 1992 Hallstatt Lecture, discusses the Gogynfeirdd’s vision of society and demonstrates the continuity with earlier Celtic culture which is reflected in their poetry. The first fruits of a collaborative project on the poets of the 14th and 15th centuries under the general editorship of Ann Parry Owen are beginning to appear. The volumes contain edited texts in modern Welsh orthography accompanied by translations into modern Welsh prose, a comprehensive introduction to the life and work of each poet as well as textual notes. R. Iestyn Daniel, Gwaith Bleddyn Ddu, Aberystwyth, UWCASWC, 1994,xv+81 pp., edits the corpus of the Anglesey poet also known as Bleddyn Ddu Was y Cwd. The work of a further four contemporary Anglesey poets is presented in Nerys Ann Jones and Erwain Haf Rheinallt, Gwaith Sefnyn, Rhisierdyn, GruVudd Fychan ap GruVudd ab Ednyfed a Llywarch Bentwrch, Aberystwyth, UWCASWC, xvii + 233 pp. A number of important poems and a variety of genres of early 14th-c. poetry are to be found in N. G.