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Ymddiddan Melwas a(c) Gwenhwyfar ‘The dialogue of Melwas and Gwenhwyfar’

  • Middle Welsh
  • verse

Medieval Welsh dialogue poem set during a royal feast at which Gwenhwyfar taunts and converses with a stranger, who identifies himself as Melwas of an Otherworldly island (Isle of Glass). The narrative background to the poem is thought to be a tale of Arthur’s expedition to the Otherworld, in which he rescues Gwenhwyfar from an enchanted prison presided over by Melwas. Extant copies of the poem are late, dating from the 16th and 17th centuries, and show a degree of textual corruption, but scholars have argued for an older core, possibly going back to the mid-12th century.

Manuscripts
A =
Aberystwyth, National Library of Wales, MS Wynnstay 1
p. 91
B -
Aberystwyth, National Library of Wales, Llanstephan MS 122
p. 426
Language
  • Middle Welsh
Form
verse (primary)

Classification

Subjects

MelwasMelwas
Entry reserved for but not yet available from the subject index.
See more GwenhwyfarGwenhwyfar
Entry reserved for but not yet available from the subject index.
See more CaiCai
Entry reserved for but not yet available from the subject index.
See more
Ynys WydrinYnys Wydrin
Entry reserved for but not yet available from the subject index.
See more DevonDevon
Entry reserved for but not yet available from the subject index.
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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.] [tr.] Coe, John B., and Simon Young, The Celtic sources for the Arthurian legend, Felinfach: Llanerch Press, 1995.
110–115
[ed.] [tr.] Bromwich, Rachel [ed. and tr.], Trioedd Ynys Prydein: the Welsh Triads, 2nd ed., Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1978.
383–384 See also the third edition of this work.
[ed.] [tr.] Williams, Mary, “An early ritual poem in Welsh”, Speculum 13:1 (Jan., 1938): 38–51.
[ed.] Jones, Evan David, “Melwas, Gwenhwyfar a Chai”, Bulletin of the Board of Celtic Studies 8 (1936, 1935–1937): 203–208.

Secondary sources (select)

Bromwich, Rachel [ed. and tr.], Trioedd Ynys Prydein: the triads of the Island of Britain, 3rd ed., Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 2006.
Sims-Williams, Patrick, “The early Welsh Arthurian poems”, in: Rachel Bromwich, A. O. H. Jarman, and Brynley F. Roberts (eds), The Arthur of the Welsh. The Arthurian legend in medieval Welsh literature, 1, Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1991. 33–71.
58–61
Jackson, Kenneth H., “Arthur in early Welsh verse”, in: Roger Sherman Loomis (ed.), Arthurian literature in the Middle Ages: a collaborative history, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1959. 12–19.
18–19
web page identifiers
Contributors
C. A., Dennis Groenewegen
Page created
June 2020, last updated: June 2023
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