Texts

Buchedd Gwenfrewy ‘Life of Gwenfrewi’

  • Middle Welsh
  • prose
Vernacular Welsh Life of Winifred or Gwenfrewi.
Manuscripts
pp. 189–250
Written by Roger Morys.
Adaptation (incomplete) by Thomas Williems.
p. 217 ff
Copied by an assistant of Moses Williams.
Language
  • Middle Welsh
Form
prose (primary)

Classification

Subjects

Gwenfrewi
Gwenfrewi (Winefrith)
(fl. c. 650)
Nun and saint associated with Holywell (Ffynnon Wenfrewi or Treffynon, Flintshire) and Gwytherin (Denbighshire); niece to St Beuno.

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Sources

Primary sources Text editions and/or modern translations – in whole or in part – along with publications containing additions and corrections, if known. Diplomatic editions, facsimiles and digital image reproductions of the manuscripts are not always listed here but may be found in entries for the relevant manuscripts. For historical purposes, early editions, transcriptions and translations are not excluded, even if their reliability does not meet modern standards.

[ed.] Jones, Lisa Eryl, “Golygiad o Fuchedd Gwenfrewy”, unpublished M.Phil. thesis, University of Wales, Cardiff, 2000.
[ed.] Baring-Gould, Sabine, and John Fisher, The lives of the British saints: the saints of Wales and Cornwall and such Irish saints as have dedications in Britain, 4 vols, vol. 4: [S. Nectan-S. Ystyffan, Appendices], London: The Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion, 1913.
Internet Archive: <link>, <link>
397–423 Text taken from Llanstephan MS 34. direct link

Secondary sources (select)

Cartwright, Jane, Hystoria gweryddon yr Almaen: the Middle Welsh Life of St Ursula and the 11,000 virgins, MHRA Library of Medieval Welsh Literature, London: Modern Humanities Research Association, 2020.  
abstract:
Medieval Welsh literature is rich in hagiographical lore and numerous Welsh versions of the Lives of saints are extant, recording the legends of both native and universal saints. Although the cult of St Ursula and the 11,000 virgins is well known internationally, this is the first time that a scholarly edition of her Welsh legend has been published in its entirety. Hystoria Gweryddon yr Almaen was adapted into Welsh by Sir Huw Pennant and it survives in a unique manuscript - Aberystwyth, National Library of Wales, Peniarth MS 182 (c. 1509–1514). The edition is accompanied by a full glossary, as well as detailed textual and linguistic notes, and information on the development and transmission of the legend. The peculiarities of the Welsh text will be considered in the introduction as well as the similarities it shares with other versions. The volume also considers the wider cultural context of the legend and discuss the Welsh cult of St Ursula and her companions. Welsh tradition claims that Ursula was Welsh and she became associated with the church at Llangwyryfon in Ceredigion and other minor Welsh chapels.
13–15
Contributors
Dennis Groenewegen
Page created
April 2018, last updated: June 2023