Arthur in Early Welsh Poetry

Arthur in Early Welsh Poetry PDF Author: Nerys Ann Jones
Publisher: MHRA
ISBN: 1781889082
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 249

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Book Description
For over a thousand years, Arthur has had widespread appeal and influence like no other literary character or historical figure. Yet, despite the efforts of modern scholars, the earliest references to Arthurian characters are still shrouded in uncertainty. They are mostly found in poetic texts scattered throughout the four great compilations of early and medieval Welsh literature produced between 1250 and 1350. Whilst some are thought to predate their manuscript sources by several centuries, many of these poems are notoriously difficult to date. None of them are narrative in nature and very few focus solely on Arthurian material but they are characterised by an allusiveness which would have been appreciated by their intended audiences in the courts of princes and noblemen the length and breadth of Wales. They portray Arthur in a variety of roles: as a great leader of armies, a warrior with extraordinary powers, slayer of magical creatures, rescuer of prisoners from the Otherworld, a poet and the subject of prophecy. They also testify to the possibility of lost tales about him, his father, Uthr, his son, Llachau, his wife, Gwenhwyfar, and one of his companions, Cai, and associate him with a wide array of both legendary and historical figures. Arthur in Early Welsh Poetry, the fourth volume in the MHRA Library of Medieval Welsh Literature series, provides discussion of each of the references to Arthurian characters in early Welsh poetic sources together with an image from the earliest manuscript, a transliteration, a comprehensive edition, a translation (where possible) and a word-list. The nine most significant texts are interpreted in more detail with commentary on metrical, linguistic and stylistic features.

Arthur in Early Welsh Poetry

Arthur in Early Welsh Poetry PDF Author: Nerys Ann Jones
Publisher: MHRA
ISBN: 1781889082
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 249

Get Book Here

Book Description
For over a thousand years, Arthur has had widespread appeal and influence like no other literary character or historical figure. Yet, despite the efforts of modern scholars, the earliest references to Arthurian characters are still shrouded in uncertainty. They are mostly found in poetic texts scattered throughout the four great compilations of early and medieval Welsh literature produced between 1250 and 1350. Whilst some are thought to predate their manuscript sources by several centuries, many of these poems are notoriously difficult to date. None of them are narrative in nature and very few focus solely on Arthurian material but they are characterised by an allusiveness which would have been appreciated by their intended audiences in the courts of princes and noblemen the length and breadth of Wales. They portray Arthur in a variety of roles: as a great leader of armies, a warrior with extraordinary powers, slayer of magical creatures, rescuer of prisoners from the Otherworld, a poet and the subject of prophecy. They also testify to the possibility of lost tales about him, his father, Uthr, his son, Llachau, his wife, Gwenhwyfar, and one of his companions, Cai, and associate him with a wide array of both legendary and historical figures. Arthur in Early Welsh Poetry, the fourth volume in the MHRA Library of Medieval Welsh Literature series, provides discussion of each of the references to Arthurian characters in early Welsh poetic sources together with an image from the earliest manuscript, a transliteration, a comprehensive edition, a translation (where possible) and a word-list. The nine most significant texts are interpreted in more detail with commentary on metrical, linguistic and stylistic features.

Medieval Welsh Poems

Medieval Welsh Poems PDF Author: Joseph P. Clancy
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Wales
Languages : en
Pages : 404

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Book Description
This anthology of Welsh poems from c.575 to c.1525 offers the general reader the most substantial collection of medieval Welsh verse yet rendered into English, in translations that will support the claim that this poetry is one of the finest literary achievements of the Middle Ages. Drawing on Professor Clancy's acclaimed Medieval Welsh Lyrics (1965) and The Earliest Welsh poetry (1970) this comprehensive anthology presents over 150 poems, eloquently translated that render poetry as poetry. A lucid introduction, ample notes and a glossary provide the background needed for a full appreciation of the poems.

The Cambridge History of Welsh Literature

The Cambridge History of Welsh Literature PDF Author: Geraint Evans
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107106761
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 857

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Book Description
This book is a comprehensive single-volume history of literature in the two major languages of Wales from post-Roman to post-devolution Britain.

Early Welsh Saga Poetry

Early Welsh Saga Poetry PDF Author: Jenny Rowland
Publisher: Ds Brewer
ISBN: 9780859912754
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 688

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Book Description
The early Welsh Saga Englynion are lyric poems in character, long presumed to be the poetic remains of lost stories, told in a mixture of prose and verse. Three main cycles survive, centred on the figures of Llywarch Hen, who loses all his sons in his vicarious quest for glory; Unrien Rheged, a king unwillingly betrayed by his follower and kinsman; and Heledd, the sole survivor of an English invasion of her country. There are also many non-cyclical poems of the same type with other narrator figures such as the leper of Abercuawg. The best poems display considerable artistry and emotional intensity. The critical discussion of the saga Englynion seeks to restore the lost narrative background by careful reading of internal indications and by comparative study. The growth, nature and artistry of each cycle is fully explored, as well as how each relates to the larger corpus. Relevant early Welsh traditions and history are also cited. This is the first full edition of the saga Englynion since Sir Ifor Williams's Canu Llywarch Hen, and uses two additional manuscript copies. Full translations make the work accessible to a wider audience.

A Selection of Early Welsh Saga Poems

A Selection of Early Welsh Saga Poems PDF Author: Jenny Rowland
Publisher: MHRA
ISBN: 1907322639
Category : Literary Collections
Languages : en
Pages : 148

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Book Description
The saga englynion are among the most appealing medieval Welsh poems. Despite some difficulties, their style is generally direct and their contents interesting to modern readers. In these poems the anonymous poets speak as characters from story. The full narrative setting has been lost, but enough can be reconstructed to appreciate the poetry. This selection includes dramatic dialogues and monologues exploring the acceptable limits of heroism. The old warrior, Llywarch Hen, mourns his sons’ death in battle and his lonely old age full of regrets. Heledd, the only major female character in the saga poetry, laments the loss of her family and her country to the invading English. A Selection of Early Welsh Saga Poems, the fifth volume of the Library of Medieval Welsh Literature Series, presents edited texts from the main manuscripts. The introduction offers a guide to interpretation, dating, and metrics, while a full glossary and explanatory notes make these poems readily accessible to the reader.

Early Welsh Poetry

Early Welsh Poetry PDF Author: Brynley F. Roberts
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 234

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Book Description


Ymddiddan Myrddin a Thaliesin, (o Lyfr Du Caerfyrddin)

Ymddiddan Myrddin a Thaliesin, (o Lyfr Du Caerfyrddin) PDF Author: Alfred Owen Hughes Jarman
Publisher: University of Wales Press
ISBN: 9780708302583
Category : Merlin (Legendary character)
Languages : en
Pages : 86

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Book Description


Darogan

Darogan PDF Author: Aled Llion Jones
Publisher: University of Wales Press
ISBN: 0708326773
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 343

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Book Description
Political prophecy was a common mode of literature in the British Isles and much of Europe from the Middle Ages to at least as late as the Renaissance. At times of political instability especially, the manuscript record bristles with prophetic works that promise knowledge of dynastic futures. In Welsh, the later development of this mode is best known through the figure of the mab darogan, the 'son of prophecy', who - variously named as Arthur, Owain or a number of other heroes - will return to re-establish sovereignty. Such a returning hero is also a potent figure in English, Scottish and wider European traditions. This book explores the large body of prophetic poetry and prose contained in the earliest Welsh-language manuscripts, exploring the complexity of an essentially multilingual, multi-ethnic and multinational literary tradition, and with reference to this wider tradition critical and theoretical questions are raised of genre, signification and significance.

Reading Ovid in Medieval Wales

Reading Ovid in Medieval Wales PDF Author: Paul Russell
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780814213223
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 291

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Book Description
Reading Ovid in Medieval Wales provides the first complete edition and discussion of the earliest surviving fragment of Ovid's Ars amatoria, or The Art of Love, glossed mainly in Latin but also in Old Welsh. This study discusses the significance of the manuscript for classical studies and how it was absorbed into the classical Ovidian tradition.

The Bloodaxe Book of Modern Welsh Poetry

The Bloodaxe Book of Modern Welsh Poetry PDF Author: Menna Elfyn
Publisher: Bloodaxe Books
ISBN:
Category : Poetry
Languages : en
Pages : 454

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Book Description
Welsh is the oldest surviving Celtic language, and the most flourishing. For around fifteen centuries Welsh poets have expressed an intense awareness of what it is like to be human in this part of the world in poems of extraordinary range and depth. And despite the global tendency towards homogenisation, Welsh poets have fought back, drawing inspiration from both the traditional and the contemporary to forge a new and rainbow-like modernism. This wide-ranging anthology of 20th-century Welsh-language poetry in English translation - by far the most comprehensive of its kind - will be a revelation for most readers. It will dispel the romantic images of Welsh poets as bards or druids and blow away any preconceived mists of Celtic twilight. This poetry is full of vitality, combining old craftsmanship and daring innovation, humour and angst, the oral and the literary. The selection brings together poets of every hue: from magisterial figures like T Gwynn Jones, R Williams Parry and Saunders Lewis to folk poets such as Alun Cilie and Dic Jones; from cerebral poets Pennar Davies and Bobi Jones to popular entertainers Geraint Løvgreen and Ifor ap Glyn. There are Chaplinesque poets, rebellious and subversive ones, lyrical voices and storytellers. The variety is enormous: from Welsh performance poetry to song lyrics; from the wry social comment of Grahame Davies to the contemporary parables of Gwyneth Lewis, who writes different kinds of poems in Welsh and English. This exuberant chorus of voices from the margins of Europe proves that poetry in this minority language is far from stagnant. Poetry Book Society Recommended Translation.