Barry J. (Barry James)
Lewis s. xx–xxi
2023
Medieval Wales was a land of saints. All over the country, churches, relics, images and wells kept the memory of holy men and women alive in the landscape. But the saints were also remembered in people’s view of the past, as the sons and daughters of kings, long-dead warriors of the heroic age and other figures of legend. This book presents an edition, translation and analysis of the main collection of saints’ genealogies, Bonedd y Saint. Each pedigree is individually edited, translated and provided with copious notes. Full attention is paid to the development of the pedigrees over time and the many additions that were made in the medieval and early modern periods. Two introductory essays survey the manuscript tradition and the text’s origin, history and cultural significance. This new edition will make Bonedd y Saint accessible to students of the cult of saints and the medieval church as well as early Welsh literature.
Medieval Wales was a land of saints. All over the country, churches, relics, images and wells kept the memory of holy men and women alive in the landscape. But the saints were also remembered in people’s view of the past, as the sons and daughters of kings, long-dead warriors of the heroic age and other figures of legend. This book presents an edition, translation and analysis of the main collection of saints’ genealogies, Bonedd y Saint. Each pedigree is individually edited, translated and provided with copious notes. Full attention is paid to the development of the pedigrees over time and the many additions that were made in the medieval and early modern periods. Two introductory essays survey the manuscript tradition and the text’s origin, history and cultural significance. This new edition will make Bonedd y Saint accessible to students of the cult of saints and the medieval church as well as early Welsh literature.
2022
A hitherto undeciphered englyn in the early fourteenth-century Hendregadredd Manuscript is here edited and argued to contain a reference to an incident involving a wolf attacking sheep. The englyn is probably contemporary with the writing and provides rare evidence for the survival of the wolf in Wales in this period.
The Hendregadredd Manuscript (Aberystwyth, NLW MS 6680B) of medieval Welsh court poetry was first compiled around 1300 and supplemented through the first quarter of the fourteenth century. These two strata represent stages in the creation of the book which, as Daniel Huws argued, probably took place in the Cistercian abbey of Strata Florida in Ceredigion. Soon afterwards, the remaining blank spaces in the book were filled with miscellaneous poems in a number of often informal hands: this phase constitutes the 'third stratum' in Huws's analysis. As much of the material in this stratum relates to Ieuan Llwyd of Glyn Aeron, not far from Strata Florida, it is generally assumed that the book had now left the scriptorium where it was made and had become the property of Ieuan. At his home it was used to record poems of various kinds, most likely by poets who visited the house, over an extended period. This is suggested not merely by the variety of the poems themselves but by the fairly informal nature of the writing, which contrasts with the neat scriptorium work of the first and second strata, around which these pieces were fitted.
This article concerns one of these pieces added as part of the third stratum. On fol.95v, inserted between two poems from the earlier strata of writing, is a single englyn. The hand of the inserter is called 'k' by Daniel Huws and he did not identify it anywhere else in the book.
A hitherto undeciphered englyn in the early fourteenth-century Hendregadredd Manuscript is here edited and argued to contain a reference to an incident involving a wolf attacking sheep. The englyn is probably contemporary with the writing and provides rare evidence for the survival of the wolf in Wales in this period.
The Hendregadredd Manuscript (Aberystwyth, NLW MS 6680B) of medieval Welsh court poetry was first compiled around 1300 and supplemented through the first quarter of the fourteenth century. These two strata represent stages in the creation of the book which, as Daniel Huws argued, probably took place in the Cistercian abbey of Strata Florida in Ceredigion. Soon afterwards, the remaining blank spaces in the book were filled with miscellaneous poems in a number of often informal hands: this phase constitutes the 'third stratum' in Huws's analysis. As much of the material in this stratum relates to Ieuan Llwyd of Glyn Aeron, not far from Strata Florida, it is generally assumed that the book had now left the scriptorium where it was made and had become the property of Ieuan. At his home it was used to record poems of various kinds, most likely by poets who visited the house, over an extended period. This is suggested not merely by the variety of the poems themselves but by the fairly informal nature of the writing, which contrasts with the neat scriptorium work of the first and second strata, around which these pieces were fitted.
This article concerns one of these pieces added as part of the third stratum. On fol.95v, inserted between two poems from the earlier strata of writing, is a single englyn. The hand of the inserter is called 'k' by Daniel Huws and he did not identify it anywhere else in the book.
2021
2020
2019
2018
This article investigates the fragmentary evidence for a lost church called Llanfawr, or Landa Magna in Latin, which lay in the Teifi valley in Ceredigion. It is argued that the Latin name of this church gave rise to stories about a character called Magna or Magnus. This fictional personage appears as the subject of a miracle performed by St David, and in Ireland was even transformed into a sister of David. Sources discussed include Bonedd y Saint, Progenies Keredic, the Breton-Latin Life of St Brioc, Rhygyfarch's Life of St David, the Life of St Maur by Odo of Glanfeuil, and the tract on the Mothers of Irish Saints. Possible locations of Llanfawr are discussed, but it remains uncertain where precisely it was and whether it corresponds to any church known today.
This article investigates the fragmentary evidence for a lost church called Llanfawr, or Landa Magna in Latin, which lay in the Teifi valley in Ceredigion. It is argued that the Latin name of this church gave rise to stories about a character called Magna or Magnus. This fictional personage appears as the subject of a miracle performed by St David, and in Ireland was even transformed into a sister of David. Sources discussed include Bonedd y Saint, Progenies Keredic, the Breton-Latin Life of St Brioc, Rhygyfarch's Life of St David, the Life of St Maur by Odo of Glanfeuil, and the tract on the Mothers of Irish Saints. Possible locations of Llanfawr are discussed, but it remains uncertain where precisely it was and whether it corresponds to any church known today.
