Narrative literature
Mabinogion
Contents: List of tables and figures -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- Chapter 1: The structure of the narrative -- Chapter 2: The geography and landscapes of Peredur -- Chapter 3: Historical context and the Empress -- Chapter 4: Literary context. Peredur and some lost tales -- Chapter 5: Peredur and Welsh law -- Chapter 6: The witches of Gloucester and other problematic characters -- Conclusion -- Abbreviations -- Bibliography -- Index.
This is Not a Grail Romance provides answers to some of the most important questions surrounding the medieval Welsh Arthurian tale Historia Peredur vab Efrawc, one of the few surviving medieval Welsh narrative compositions, and an important member of the ‘Grail’ family of medieval European narratives. The study demonstrates that Historia Peredur is an original Welsh composition, rather than (as previous theories have suggested) being an adaptation of the twelfth-century French grail romance. The new analysis of the structure of Historia Peredur presented here shows it to be as complex as it has always been thought – but also more formal, and the result of intentional and intricate design. The seeming inconsistencies or oddities in Historia Peredur can be understood by reading it in its medieval Welsh cultural context, allowing the modern reader a greater appreciation of both the narrative and the culture that produced it. The University of Wales Press gratefully acknowledges the funding support of the Maartje Draak Fund from the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, of the Utrecht University Institute for Cultural Inquiry, and of the Books Council of Wales, in publication of this book.
This article examines the internal historical evidence of the Third Branch of the Mabinogi. Through a close examination of the historical detail of Manawydan's sojourn as a craftsman in the cities of England, it becomes evident that the Third Branch reflects aristocratic social and economic anxieties in the decades following the Norman invasion of Wales. In light of an as-yet-unrecognized connection between the Third Branch and the twelfth-century royal biography Vita Griffini Filii Conani, this article suggests an early twelfth-century date for the former text.
This article reopens the question of the relationship between the medieval Welsh version of the Grail narrative, the Historia Peredur vab Efrawc, and the French Conte du Graal of Chrétien de Troyes. It explores the seeming inconsistencies in the Welsh tale’s presentation of the Grail procession, and suggests that the hero’s actions, and in particular his reticence in asking questions about the procession, should be read in the context of medieval Welsh customs and legal tradition. The article concludes with an exploration of the implications of the proposed interpretation for the reading of Historia Peredur as a postcolonial narrative.
This study examines dreams found in medieval Welsh literature from c. 1100 to c. 1550. The scope of the research covers secular and religious prose and poetry of the period. The purpose of this study is to provide an insight into dream literature in medieval Welsh by analysing the various functions of dreams in different types of texts in relation to the narratives and genres. Chapter 1 lays out the conceptual and methodological framework necessary for analyses in the subsequent chapters, and maps out the European context of medieval Welsh dream literature. Chapters 2 examines dreams in medieval Welsh prose, including the two ‘breuddwyd’ texts of the Mabinogion and three texts belonging to the genre of areithiau pros. Chapter 3 examines dreams in medieval Welsh secular poetry. Chapter 4 examines dreams in medieval Welsh religious writings, including hagiographies and anti-hagiographies, apocalyptic and mystic visions. Finally, a conclusion summarises the roles that dreams play in different textual contexts within the field of medieval Welsh literature, and in which I argue that ‘breuddwyd’ does not constitue a specific genre; instead, working within the various contexts and genres in which Welsh texts containing dreams are situated, the dreams play an essential and dynamic part in the formation of the plot, world-building, liminality, as well as have the capacity for revealing many interesting features of the text.
This article explores the devices employed by the medieval Welsh narrator of Owain, or Chwedyl Iarlles y Ffynnawn (‘The Story of the Lady of the Well’), to convey emotions and the mental states of his characters to his audiences. Although he generally remains inaudible, he uses, at some crucial points, words and phrases denoting emotions in a narrow sense, such as love, sadness and shame, in order to direct and steer the audiences’ perception and their understanding of the narrative. A comparison with thematically related texts, Chrétien de Troyes’ Yvain, and its Old Norse, Old Swedish and Middle English translations, helps to assess the narrative role of literary emotions in the Welsh text.
This article suggests that an iconographic design found on early instances of a series of Iron Age British coins may foreshadow medieval Celtic myths about fantastic boar. Parallels are drawn with traditions about Balar’s boar, Cú Chulainn and Formáel’s boar, and with the Welsh episode of Menw and Twrch Trwyth.
Although the mid-twelfth-century figure Iorwerth Goch seems an obscure lurker in footnotes in works which consider medieval England or medieval Wales, the pattern of contemporary evidence about him is extraordinary. He appears as a subsidiary character in both the Welsh tale Breudwyt Ronabwy and the Anglo-French romance Fouke le Fitz Waryn. Extensive further evidence about him appears in the English government's Pipe Rolls and in Welsh chronicles, genealogies, and poetry. Iorwerth founded a hereditary March family which held manors for several generations in return for service as Anglo-Welsh interpreters and intermediaries. Memories of his exploits persisted in Wales and the Marches through the remainder of the middle ages. He is, thus, a good example of the bi-culturally adept lords in the Welsh Marches whose members could preserve and transmit oral traditions which lie behind the Breudwyt Ronabwy, Fouke le Fitz Waryn, and other similar tales.
The present article is a re-evaluation of a marvellous element in a medieval Welsh romance, Chwedl Iarlles y Ffynnawn ‘Tale of the Lady of the Fountain’, also known as Owein. One of the characters encountered by the hero is a one-eyed one-legged dark giant forester who appears to have a particular power over animals. Previous interpretations of this character and episode have sought explanations and parallels in re-constructed Celtic mythology and the Celtic ‘Otherworld’. The objective of the present article is to demonstrate that the element in question belongs to the pan-European medieval tradition of the marvelous rather than, as has previously been suggested, to an exclusively Celtic tradition.
This paper examines supernatural episodes in the story of the Knight of the Lion. The story has closely related versions in French (Yvain, ou le Chevalier au Lion) and in Welsh (Owein: Chwedyl Iarlles y Ffynnawn), which allow for analysis and comparison. Even without assuming which author wrote first, we can still study how each text was adapted differently for audiences in Wales and France. This essay finds eleven episodes across both texts (eight in Yvain and nine in Owein). We categorise the supernatural in these episodes as mirabilia, magicus or miraculosus, after Le Goff, Kieckhefer and Sweeney. Our final analysis shows that miraculosus dominates in the French version, presumably due to a Christianising urge of Chrétien de Troyes which emphasises the agency of God in the text. This is not the case in the Welsh version where mirabilis episodes dominate, and the supernatural elements are kept separate from the religious aspects of the text. This analysis suggests that Welsh audiences were more comfortable with secular episodes of the supernatural than French audiences.
B. Roberts describes one of the three older versions of the Welsh Brut y Brenhinedd, found, among others, in the Llanstephan I manuscript (13th c.). In this version, the Lludd and Llevelys tale has been inserted. Its environment, the abbey of Valle Crucis, can be seen to have a measurable impact.
B. Roberts décrit l’une des trois versions anciennes du Brut y Brenhinedd gallois, conservée entre autres dans le manuscrit « Llanstephan I » (xiiie siècle). Dans cette version, où est interpolé le conte de Lludd et Llevelys, l’influence de l’abbaye de Valle Crucis est tangible.
In der mittelalterlichen Literatur aus Wales finden sich wie in ihren Nachbarliteraturen beredte und blutig ausgemalte Kampfbeschreibungen. Die Studie untersucht vor dem Hintergrund kulturwissenschaftlicher und mentalitätsgeschichtlicher Themen die sprachliche Kodierung von Gewalt, die ästhetischen Strategien bei der Darstellung von Kampfszenen und die Semantik von Zweikämpfen. Den Ausgangspunkt bilden fünf zentrale Erzählungen der mittelkymrischen Literatur, die Texte der Vier Zweige des Mabinogi und Culhwch ac Olwen. Alle folgen syntaktisch wie stilistisch einem berittenen Zweikampf in Pwyll Pendeuic Dyuet, dem ersten Mabinogi-Text. Die Betrachtung der sog. drei walisischen Romanzen mit ritterlich-höfischem Hintergrund zeigt, daß sie sich von einheimischen Werken ebenso unterscheiden wie von Texten Chrétiens de Troyes und Hartmanns von Aue. Die Blütezeit der Texte ist geprägt durch den kolonialistischen Konflikt nach der normannischen Eroberung, der französische Einflüsse zeitigte. Der dritte Teil umfaßt sechs Übersetzungstexte mit Bezügen zu anglo-normannischen Vorlagen. Sie sind weniger formelhaft und weisen teils religiöse Kontexte auf.
In Medieval Welsh Literature as well as in other insular and continental literatures of the period, there are eloquent and bloody descriptions of fights. Against the background of cultural sciences and the history of mentality, this study deals with the linguistic codification of violence, aesthetic strategies in the presentation of fighting scenes, and the semantics of duels. The starting point are five important native tales of Middle Welsh literature, the texts of the Four Branches of the Mabinogi and Culhwch ac Olwen. With regard to syntax and style, all of them follow the description of a mounted duel in Pwyll Pendeuic Dyuet, the first of the Mabinogi texts. The analysis of three so-called Welsh romances, with their background of chivalry and courtly life, reveals that they differ from both native works and texts by Chrétien de Troyes and Hartmann von Aue. The zenith of the texts is affected by the colonialistic conflict after the Norman conquest, which produced French influences. The third part comprises six texts of translation literature with connections to Anglo-Norman models. They seem less formulaic and sometimes have religious contexts.
