Studies in Celtic History – serie

WINNER OF THE FRANK WATSON BOOK PRIZE 2021. SHORTLISTED IN SCOTLAND'S NATIONAL BOOK AWARDS 2021The first full-scale, interdisciplinary treatment of the wide-ranging connections between the Gaelic world and the Northumbrian kingdom.Northumbria was the most northerly Anglo-Saxon kingdom; its impressive landscape featured two sweeping coastlines, which opened the area to a variety of cultural connections. This book explores influences that emanated from the Gaelic-speaking world, including Ireland, the Isle of Man, Argyll and the kingdom of Alba (the nascent Scottish kingdom). It encompasses Northumbria's "Golden Age", the kingdom's political and scholarly high-point of the seventh and early eighth centuries, and culminates with the kingdom's decline and fragmentation in the Viking Age, which opened up new links with Gaelic-Scandinavian communities. Political and ecclesiastical connections are discussed in detail; the study also covers linguistic contact, material culture and the practicalities of travel, bringing out the realities of contemporary life. This interdisciplinary approach sheds new light on the west and north of the Northumbrian kingdom, the areas linked most closely with the Gaelic world. Overall, the book reveals the extent to which Gaelic influence was multi-faceted, complex and enduring.Dr FIONA EDMONDS is Reader in History and Director of the Regional Heritage Centre at Lancaster University.

The adaptation of Late Latin grammars from the schools of the Roman Empire for use in a foreign Christian society culminated in the British Isles in the 7th and 8th centuries in the development of two distinct types of grammar designed respectively for elementary and for more advanced students. These works, whether they take the form of elaborate commentaries on the classical grammarians, or of simple collections of paradigms, reflect the reading and intellectual preoccupations of their authors, the first teachers in the West to face the problem of large-scale formal foreign-language teaching. The influence of the Insular grammarians extended far beyond their own time: their works,taken to the Continent by Irish and Anglo-Saxon missionaries, shaped both the latinity and the pedagogical technique of their pupils the Carolingians, and their influencein foreign-language teaching has persisted until our own time.

The backbone of historical accounts of Ireland, Scotland and Wales to the twelfth century is provided by annalistic texts which are related to one another in varying ways. This volume seeks to provide a series of models for the investigation of these Celtic annalistic texts.Kathryn Grabowski carries out a complete text-historical analysis of these southern Irish annals for the years 431-1092, establishing their relationships to the other annal-collections, separating the several strata of which they are composed, and judging the relative historical value of these sources. David Dumville studies the major source, the "Clonmacnoise Chronicle", to determine an outline-history ofthe sources and subsequent development of this chronicle. Text-historical study of this kind allows interrelationships to be charted with precision, and the historical value of the texts to be estimated with a greater degree of confidence.

These four major studies, thoroughly revised for this book, reflect this distinguished historian's continuing interest in relations between England and Wales in the tenth, eleventh and twelfth centuries. An introduction places theconclusions offered in these studies within the current framework of historical thinking about Wales in this period.The first chapter, a survey of Anglo-Welsh ecclesiastical life in the tenth and eleventh centuries, is followed by "The Archbishops of St Davids, Llandaff and Caerleon-on-Usk", in which the twelfth-century claims of certain major Welsh churches to extensive jurisdiction and the methods by which they promoted their claims are subjectedto a searching analysis. In "St Peter of Gloucester and St Cadog of Llancarfan" a detailed examination is made of the complicated links which bound together the churches of Gloucester and Llancarfan from about 1100 and of the sources which reveal these ties. Finally in "Geoffrey of Monmouth as a historian" the motivation and methods of one of the most controversial personalities of the Anglo-Welsh Church are considered.

A comparison of the opposed military systems along the English/Welsh border - Anglo-Norman and Celtic - in the 12th century.Between 1066 and 1282 two quite different societies were juxtaposedalong the Welsh Marches: a feudally-based Anglo-Norman one, and aCeltic Welsh one. It has been conventional to consider the formerto have been more sophisticated and developed than the latter but, in fact, the situation was more complex, and during more than two centuries of attacks and campaigns each society borrowed from the other.This book is the first comparative study of the twomilitary systems. It considers issues pertinent to the entire border region, and, indeed, to other medieval marches. Specific topics examined include: the nature of Welsh military service, Welsh tactics and the English response, the development and functioning of Clun (a representative border castlery), the local command in Shropshire and the so-called "wardens" of the March, and the extent to which Welsh military customs influenced those of the Marches and of England.FREDERICK SUPPE is Professor of History at Ball State University.

Works of early Irish authors include a strong biblical component, but indicate that independent thought is accepted.Scarcity of scientific data, a real interest in the physical world, and the need to validate the scriptures encouraged seventh-century Irish scholars toward critical reflection on scientific matters. Their world-view was based onmaterials drawn from the Bible, on earlier Christian works and on personal reflection and contemplation. This volume looks at the Irish contribution to the development of western thought in the early middle ages. MARINA SMYTHis librarian of the Medieval Institute at the University of Notre Dame, and teaches early medieval cultural history.

An examination of the Scottish kingdom's historic links with Ireland, and the beginnings of a Scottish national identity from c. 1290.The close ties between Gaels of Ireland and Scotland are well known, but in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries the elite in the core areas of the kingdom of the Scots apparently turned their backs on Gaelic culture. This book takes a new look at the issue, investigating the extent to which Scottish men of letters of the period identified the Scottish kingdom and its inhabitants with Ireland, and exploring the function of the kingdom's Irish identity. DrBroun argues that a perceived historical link with Ireland was a fundamental feature of the kingdom's identity throughout the period, and discusses the beginnings of a Scottish national identity in the 1290s and early 1300s. His evidence is based on a thorough examination of accounts of Scottish origins, the royal genealogy, and regnal lists, which articulated perceptions of the kingdom's identity; included are new editions of the origin-legend material inBook I of Fordun's Chronica Gentis Scottorum; hitherto unknown witnesses of Scottish king-lists; and texts of the royal genealogy.Dr DAUVIT BROUNis lecturer in Scottish history at the University of Glasgow.

The life, career and medieval biography of Gruffudd ap Cynan, king of Gwynedd 1095-1137.The reign of the North Welsh king Gruffudd ap Cynan [1075-1135] marked the culmination of a century of rapid social and political change. A product of three cultures [Welsh, Irish and Scandinavian], Gruffudd faced a Wales dividedby Norman incursion and dynastic rivalry; his re-creation of his kingdom saw him acting on the wider (and often deadly) stage of Anglo-Norman politics, and surviving where more `traditional' Welsh rulers failed. His reign encouraged a new growth in Welsh literature and creativity, and is often looked upon as a literary `golden age'. This collaborative biography analyses key aspects of the career and context of this remarkable king.Dr K.L. MAUNDteaches in the School of History and Archaeology, University of Wales, Cardiff. Other contributors: DAVID MOORE, C.P. LEWIS, DAVID E. THORNTON, K.L. MAUND, JUDITH JESCH, NERYS ANN JONES, CERI DAVIES, J.E. CAERWYN WILLIAMS

Gildas's 'De Excidio Britanniae' is the prime source of our knowledge of post-Roman Britain, but because it is such an isolated text, for which we have no obvious historical, geographical or cultural background, it is a work whichraises more questions than answers. Much effort has been expended on extracting historical facts from 'De excidio', but Gildas did not set out to write history as we understand it. The common approach of the contributors to thisvolume is to look at tha author and his text on their own terms, for themselves rather than for the items of evidence which we can get out of them. Who was Gildas, and what was his position in society? What was his intellectual background - what he had learnt of Latin and Christian culture through his education, and what did he know of British language and literary traditions? What audience was he adressing? All these questions can be given some kind of answer by a close study of the text of the 'De excidio'. But there is also important evidence from Continental sources on early fifth-centyry Britain, and from Irish sources on Gildas's own repuation and career. This is a volume which no student of post-Roman Britain can afford to ignore; it does not attempt to present clear-cut conclusions or optimistic certainties, but establishes a basis on which further research can be carried out.

The Life of St Germanus, by Constantius of Lyon, is a contemporary account of a fifth-century bishop of Auxerre, who on two occasions came to Britain. Professor E.A. Thompson tries to extract as much information as possiblefrom the about the religious situation in Britain at the time of Germanus' visits, and the government, the circumstances of the famous `Hallelujah Victory', the revolt of Armorica, and so on. He attempts to settle the vexed question of the date of Germanus' death, and he studies the qualities of Constantius himself. The book ends with a description of what may have happened in eastern Britain in the years following Germanus's second visit, adescription which challenges many currently held assumptions.

Warren's book has been the single most useful compendium of information about the ritual aspects of the Celtic Church, which are of both historical and theological interest, since it was first published in 1881. It includes both acritical account of Celtic liturgy, and a collection of editions of Celtic liturgical texts, Cornish, Welsh, Scottish, and Irish, not all of which has been superseded. This new issue builds on the book's time-tested value by including an extensive new Introduction and Bibliography, which summarise current thought in liturgiology and Celtic history, and which are written with the needs of both Celticists and liturgists in mind.

This is the first study for more than seventy years to consider the early monasteries of Cornwall through a combination of evidence -written sources (the first hagiography of Brittany and Cornwall, ecclesiastical documents, Anglo-Saxon charters, Domesday Book), place-names and material remains. The main emphasis is on identifying the sites of these monasteries, and tracing their survival to later periods; Dr Olson also considers the origin and progress ofmonasticism in south-west Britain, and looks at the monasteries' characteristics and, in a broader context, their place in Church and society.

An analysis of the politics of eleventh-century Wales.The eleventh century was a time of political change throughout the British Isles, and especially so in Wales. Dr Maund examines the relationship of Wales to England and Ireland, and the ways in which Wales was affected by the political activities of these neighbours, setting this in the context of Welsh internal events and policies. She shows the rule of Gruffud ap Llywelyn to have been a turning point for Wales and also for English and Hiberno-Scandinavian politics, and demonstrates that the apparent political chaos was in fact a fascinating network of political activity and growth.

Essays investigating the writings attributed to Columbanus, influential 0c founder of Luxeuil and Bobbio.Columbanus (d.615), the Irish monk and founder of such important centres as Luxeuil and Bobbio, was one of the most influential figures in early medieval Europe. His fiery personality led him into conflict with Gallic bishops andRoman popes, and he defended his position on such matters as monastic discipline in a substantial corpus of Latin writings marked by burning conviction and rhetorical skill. However, the polish of his style has raised questions about the nature of his early training in Ireland and even about the authenticity of the writings which have come down to us under his name. The studies in this volume attempt to address these questions: by treating each of the individual writings comprehensively, and drawing on recently-developed techniques of stylistic analysis new light is shed on Columbanus and his early education in Ireland. More importantly, doubts over the authenticity of certain writings attributed to Columbanus are here authoritatively resolved, so putting the study of this cardinal figure on a sound basis.Professor MICHAEL LAPIDGE teaches in the Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic, Universityof Cambridge. Contributors: DONALD BULLOUGH, NEIL WRIGHT, CLARE STANCLIFFE, JANE STEVENSON, T.M. CHARLES-EDWARDS, DIETER SCHALLER, MICHAEL LAPIDGE, DÁIBHÍ Ó CRÓINÍN

Extremely scholarly and contains many important studies... impossible to do justice to the depth of scholarship which is on display here. BRITANNIAAnyone working on Britain and Ireland in the fifth century should pay close attention. MEDIEVAL ARCHAEOLOGY A fascinating work, which sheds light on a number of dark corners. EARLY MEDIEVAL EUROPESt Patrick's place in Irishhistory is celebrated, but is also the subject of intense controversy - even as to his death. Although the 1500th anniversary of that event was originally celebrated in 1961, there is every reason to think the death date of 461 unsustainable. This collection of essays commemorates a different date, 17 March 493, and takes stock of other difficult issues which require reassesment. These include Patrick's own account of his career, his impassioned apologiapro uita sua, and the later Irish sources which may not reveal much about Patrick but possibly contain material about Palladius, sent from Rome in AD 431 as first bishop for Irish Christians: the invention of two Patricks seems tobelong, at the latest, to the 8th century, and may be a reflex of a 7th-century conflation of the careers of Palladius and Patrick. The continuing mediaeval development of the legend and cult of St Patrick and a wide variety of other associated historical and literary-historical issues are also explored.DAVID DUMVILLE is Professor of Palaeography and Cultural History, University of Cambridge, and Fellow of Girton College.

The saint's cult casts light on relations between Cornwall and Brittany - and Henry II's empire - in the 12th century.The historical, political, ecclesiastical, and religious relationships between medieval Cornwall, Brittany, Wales, Ireland and England are explored here through a study of the cult of St Petroc. Evidence for the cult in each areais thoroughly surveyed, but Cornwall and Brittany, the most important loci of the cult and most closely linked by language and culture, are the book's primary focus. The implications of the cult of a Celtic saint [generallyan intensely local phenomenon] shared between Cornwall and Brittany are discussed, and attention is given to the highly politically-directed twelfth-century account of the furtive translation of the saint's relics to Brittany, which offers invaluable evidence for relations between Cornwall and Brittany, and also for Brittany's position in the Angevin empire of Henry II.Dr KAREN JANKULAK lectures in the Department of Welsh, University of Wales,Lampeter. She gained her Ph.D. from the Centre for Medieval Studies, Toronto, and was a post-doctoral fellow at the School of Celtic Studies, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies.

Native Irish chieftains, not totally subdued after the Norman invasion of Ireland, recovered a measure of their power in the later middle ages; unfamiliar sources illuminate developments.The Norman invasion of Ireland (1169) did not result in a complete conquest, and those native Irish chieftains who retained independent control of their territories achieved a recovery of power in the later middle ages. KatharineSimms studies the experience of the resurgent chieftains, who were undergoing significant developments during this period. The most obvious signs of change were the gradual disappearance of the title ri (king), and the ubiquitouspresence of mercenary soldiers. On a deeper level, the institution of kingship itself had died, as is shown by this study of the election and inauguration of Irish kings, their counsellors, officials, vassals, army, and sources ofrevenue, as they evolved between the twelfth and sixteenth centuries. Sources such as the Irish chronicles, bardic poetry, genealogies, brehon charters and rentals, family-tract and sagas are all used, in addition to the more familiar evidence of the Anglo-Norman administration, the Church, and Tudor state papers.Dr KATHARINE SIMMS lectures in the Department of Medieval History, Trinity College, Dublin.

An examination of how the feminine was viewed in early medieval Ireland, through a careful study of a range of texts.Was femininity in early Irish society perceived as weak and sinful, innately inferior to masculinity? Was it seen as powerful and dangerous, a threat to the peace and tranquility of male society? Or was there a more nuanced view,an understanding that femininity, or femininities, could be presented in a variety of ways according to the pragmatic concerns of the writer?This book examines the sources surviving from fifth- to ninth-century Ireland, aiming to offer a fresh view of authorial perceptions of the period. It seeks to highlight the complexities of those perceptions, the significance of authorial aims and purposes in the construction of femininity, and the potential disjunction between societal "reality" and the images presented to us in the sources. This careful analysis of a broad range of early Irish sources demonstrates how fluid constructions of gender could be, and presents a new interpretation of the position of femininity in the thought world of early Irish authors.HELEN OXENHAM worked at the Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic in Cambridge as supervisor and researcher on the Mapping Miracles project. She now works for The English Heritage Trust.

First full-scale account of the medieval realm of Powys.Powys, extending over north-east and central Wales, was one of three great medieval Welsh polities, along with Gwynedd to the north and Deheubarth (south-west), occupying nearly a quarter of the country. However, it has been somewhat neglected by historians, who have tended to dismiss it as a satellite realm of England, and viewed its leaders as obstacles to the efforts of Gwynedd leaders to construct a principality of Wales.This book provides the first full, authoritative history of Powys in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. It argues in particular that the Powysian rulers were dogged and resourceful survivors in the face of pressure from Welsh rivals and the problems ofinternal fragmentation; and that, paradoxically, co-operation with the English and intermarriage with marcher families underlay a desire to regain lands to the east lost in earlier centuries.Dr David Stephenson is anHonorary Research Fellow in the School of History, Welsh History and Archaeology, Bangor University.

New essays shed light on the mysterious St Samson of Dol and his Vita.The First Life of St Samson of Dol (Vita Prima Samsonis) is a key text for the study of early Welsh, Cornish, Breton and indeed west Frankish history. In the twentieth century it was the subject of unresolved scholarly controversy that tended to limit its usefulness. However, more recent research has firmly re-established its significance as a historical source.This volume presents the results of new, multi-disciplinary, assessment of the textand its context. What emerges from the studies collected here is a context of greater plausibility for the First Life of St Samson of Dol as an early and essentially historical text, potentially at the centre of early British Christianity and its influence on the Continent. The landscape of that Christianity is gradually emerging from the shadows and it is a landscape in which the career of St Samson, the first Insular peregrinus, is shown to be of considerable importance. LYNETTE OLSON is an Honorary Associate of the Department of History, University of Sydney.Contributors: Caroline Brett, Karen Jankulak, Constant J. Mews, Lynette Olson, Joseph-Claude Poulin, Richard Sowerby, Ian N. Wood, Jonathan M. Wooding.

A new investigation of the saints' cults which flourished in medieval Scotland, fruitfully combining archaeological, historical, and literary perspectives.Of all the Celtic countries, Scotland has lacked the kind of scholarly attention that has been lavished fruitfully on Wales, Ireland, Cornwall and Brittany. And yet of all of them, Scotland offers the widest range of interfaces with broader work on the cult of saints. The papers presented here cover this territory very effectively.... [the book] brings together excellent studies that successfully explore the wide ramifications of the topic. Anyone with aninterest in saints' cults will want this book. DAUVIT BROUN, Professor of Scottish History, University of Glasgow.This volume examines the phenomena of the cult of saints and Marian devotion as they were manifested inScotland, ranging from the early medieval period to the sixteenth century. It combines general surveys of the development of the study of saints in the early and later middle ages with more focused articles on particular subjects,including St Waltheof of Melrose, the obscure early medieval origins of the cult of St Munnu, the short-lived martyr cult of David, duke of Rothsay, and the Scottish saints included in the greatest liturgical compendium producedin late medieval Scotland, the Aberdeen breviary. The way in which Marian devotion permeated late medieval Scottish society is discussed in terms of the church dedications of the twelfth and thirteenth-century aristocracy, the ecclesiastical landscape of Perth, the depiction of Mary in Gaelic poetry, and the pervasive influence of the familial bond between holy mother and son in representations of the Scottish royal family.Steve Boardman is Professor of Medieval Scottish History at the University of Edinburgh; Dr Eila Williamson is a Research Associate in English Language and Linguistics at the University of Glasgow. Contributors: Helen Birkett, Steve Boardman,Rachel Butter, Thomas Owen Clancy, David Ditchburn, Audrey-Beth Fitch, Mark A. Hall, Matthew H. Hammond, Sim Innes, Alan Macquarrie

WINNER OF THE FRANK WATSON BOOK PRIZE 2021. SHORTLISTED IN SCOTLAND'S NATIONAL BOOK AWARDS 2021The first full-scale, interdisciplinary treatment of the wide-ranging connections between the Gaelic world and the Northumbrian kingdom.Northumbria was the most northerly Anglo-Saxon kingdom; its impressive landscape featured two sweeping coastlines, which opened the area to a variety of cultural connections. This book explores influences that emanated from the Gaelic-speaking world, including Ireland, the Isle of Man, Argyll and the kingdom of Alba (the nascent Scottish kingdom). It encompasses Northumbria's "Golden Age", the kingdom's political and scholarly high-point of the seventh and early eighth centuries, and culminates with the kingdom's decline and fragmentation in the Viking Age, which opened up new links with Gaelic-Scandinavian communities. Political and ecclesiastical connections are discussed in detail; the study also covers linguistic contact, material culture and the practicalities of travel, bringing out the realities of contemporary life. This interdisciplinary approach sheds new light on the west and north of the Northumbrian kingdom, the areas linked most closely with the Gaelic world. Overall, the book reveals the extent to which Gaelic influence was multi-faceted, complex and enduring.Dr FIONA EDMONDS is Reader in History and Director of the Regional Heritage Centre at Lancaster University.

Revisionist approach to the question of the authenticity - or not - of the documents in the Book of Llandaf.Awarded the Francis Jones Prize in Welsh History 2019 by Jesus College OxfordThe early-twelfth-century Book of Llandaf is rightly notorious for its bogus documents - but it also provides valuable information on the earlymedieval history of south-east Wales and the adjacent parts of England. This study focuses on its 159 charters, which purport to date from the fifth century to the eleventh, arguing that most of them are genuine seventh-century and later documents that were adapted and "improved" to impress Rome and Canterbury in the context of Bishop Urban of Llandaf's struggles in 1119-34 against the bishops of St Davids and Hereford and the "invasion" of monks from English houses such as Gloucester and Tewkesbury. After assembling other evidence for the existence of pre-twelfth-century Welsh charters, the author defends the authenticity of most of the Llandaf charters' witness lists, elucidatestheir chronology, and analyses the processes of manipulation and expansion that led to the extant Book of Llandaf. This leads him to reassess the extent to which historians can exploit the rehabilitated charters as an indicator of social and economic change between the seventh and eleventh centuries and as a source for the secular and ecclesiastical history of south-east Wales and western England.PATRICK SIMS-WILLIAMS is a Fellow of the British Academy; he was formerly Reader in Celtic and Anglo-Saxon in the University of Cambridge and Professor of Celtic Studies at Aberystwyth University.

A landmark of scholarship on medieval Scotland. Professor Dauvit Broun, University of Glasgow.Personal names can provide a rich and often overlooked window into medieval society, and Scotland's diversity of languages over the course of the Middle Ages makes it an ideal case study. This book offers a range of new methodological approaches to anthroponymy, covering Gaelic, Scandinavian and other Germanic names, as well as names drawn from the Bible, the saints, and secular literature. Individual case studies include a comparison of naming in early medieval Scottish and Irish chronicles; an authoritative taxonomy of Gaelic names drawn from twelfth and thirteenth-century charters; a revolutionary new analysis of the emergence of surnames in Ireland, with implications for Scottish history; a complete linguistic discussion of the masculine Germanic names in the 1296 Ragman Roll; a detailed local case study of saints. names in Argyll which bears on place-names as well; and an examination of the adoption of Hebrew Old Testament names in central medieval Scotland. Dr MATTHEW HAMMOND is a Research Associate at Kings College London. Contributors: Rachel Butter, Thomas Owen Clancy, John Reuben Davies, Valeria DiClemente, Nicholas Evans, Matthew Hammond, Roibeard O Maolalaigh, David Sellar, Tom Turpie.

The physical nature of the medieval cartulary examined alongside its textual contents.Medieval cartularies are one of the most significant sources for a historian of the Middle Ages. Once viewed as simply repositories of charters, cartularies are now regarded as carefully curated collections of texts whose contents and arrangement reflect the immediate concerns and archival environment of the communities that created them. One feature of the cartulary in particular that has not been studied so fully is its materiality: the fact that it is a manuscript. Consequently, it has not been recognised that many cartularies are multi-scribe manuscripts which "grew" for many decades after their initial creation, both physically and textually.This book offers a new methodology which engages with multi-scribe contributions in two cartulary manuscripts: the oldest cartularies of Glasgow Cathedral and Lindores Abbey. It integrates the physical and textual features of the manuscripts in order to analyse how and why they grew in stages across time. Applying this methodology reveals two communities that took an active approach to reading and shaping their cartularies, treating these manuscripts as a shared space. This raises fundamental questions about the definition of cartularies and how they functioned, their relationship to archives of single-sheet documents, and as sources for institutional identity. It therefore takes a fresh look at the "genre" ofmedieval cartularies through the eyes of the manuscripts themselves, and what this can reveal about their medieval scribes and readers.

First in-depth investigation of the genealogies of medieval Wales, bringing out their full significance.Genealogy was a central element of life in medieval Wales. It was the force that held society together and the framework for all political action. For these reasons, genealogical writing in medieval Wales, as elsewhere in Europe, became a fundamental tool for representing and manipulating perceptions of the socio-political order across historical and literary time. From its beginnings within an early medieval Insular genre of genealogical writing, Welsh genealogy developed across the Middle Ages as a unique and pervasive phenomenon.This book provides the first integrated study of and comprehensive introduction to genealogy in medieval Wales, setting it in the context of genealogical writing from Ireland, England and beyond and tracing its evolution from the eighth to the sixteenth century. The three most important collections of secular genealogies are carefully analysed and their composition is considered in relation to medieval Welsh politics. Particular attention is devoted to the pedigrees of the kings and princes of Gwynedd, which were subject to many intricate alterations over time. The book also includes fresh critical editions of the most significant extant collections of secular genealogy.

Provocative new investigation into the shadowy figure of Gildas, his influence and representation.Gildas is an essential witness to the Christian culture of the British Isles in the opaque period after the decline and fall of the western Roman empire. His criticisms in De excidio Britanniae of the Britons in the context of spiritual and secular corruption and partition with pagan powers are a crucial source for understanding the transition to the medieval nations of England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland. But the ways in which this enigmatic ecclesiastical figure has been received over the centuries have shaped an ambivalent reputation. On the one hand, he is seen as a significant contributor to ecclesiastical reform; on the other, as a dour and unreliable chronicler lamenting an inevitable spiritual and political decline.This book seeks to refine and recuperate the image of Gildas. It does so by examining his self-image as presented in select surviving works, and subsequent representations as developed by the reception of these works - the legacy of Gildas - by church luminaries such as Columbanus, Gregory the Great, and Bede; in exploring how Gildas influenced perceptions of authority in the British Isles and on the continent, it puts this legacy into a wider context. Overall, the volume argues that as one of the earliest authorities to define and defend Christian kingship Gildas deserves to be seen as a significant contributor to the political and ecclesiastical development of the early medieval West.

2022 Hywel Dda Award (University of Wales Literary Awards)A ground-breaking study of the lawbooks which were created in the changing social and political climate of post-conquest Wales.The Middle Ages in Wales were turbulent, with society and culture in constant flux. Edward I of England's 1282 conquest brought with it major changes to society, governance, power and identity, and thereby to the traditional system of the law. Despite this, in the post-conquest period the development of law in Wales and the March flourished, and many manuscripts and lawbooks were created to meet the needs of those who practised law.This study, the first to fully reappraise the entire corpus of law manuscripts since Aneurin Owen's seminal 1841 edition, begins by considering the background to the creation of the law from the earliest period, particularly from c.1100 onwards, before turning to the "golden age" of lawmaking in thirteenth-century Gwynedd. The nature of the law in south Wales is also examined in full, with a particular focus on later developments, including the different use of legal texts in that region and its fourteenth- and fifteenth-century manuscripts. The author approaches medieval Welsh law, its practice, texts and redactions, in their own contexts, rather than through the lens of later historiography. In particular, she shows that much manuscript material previously considered "additional" or "anomalous" in fact incorporates new legal material and texts written for a particular purpose: thanks to their flexible accommodation of change, adjustment and addition, Welsh lawbooks were not just shaped by, but indeed shaped, medieval Welsh law.

Examines common themes and connections in Gaelic storytelling from the Middle Ages to present day.From the great medieval saga Táin Bó Cúailnge to cautionary folk tales in contemporary Gaeltacht areas, storytelling has remained a cornerstone of Gaelic culture for over a thousand years. Pre-Christian motifs and ecclesiastical influences, with nods to classical literature and poetic devices, provide the framework for many stories that remain familiar today (such as St Patrick's journey across Ireland and the exploits of Finn mac Cumhaill). However, despite this rich tradition, scholarship on Gaelic storytelling that crosses both medieval and modern fields is a rarity; as a result, there is a question mark over what of the early tradition remains in the modern, and what this can tell us about the ecology and the survival of Gaelic storytelling.This volume presents ground-breaking research from scholars in both areas, providing a dynamic insight into the refractions of Gaelic storytelling across a broad chronological period. Contributors address matters such as composition, style, narrative techniques, audience, and the importance of physical and social landscapes, drawing on a variety of methodologies, including philological, narratological, comparative literature, folkloristic, and translation studies. From seminal research on notions of scél "story" and truth to an exploration of the issues facing a Gaelic translator today, these essays work together to widen and deepen our understanding of how and why stories were so fundamental - and remain so fundamental - to Gaelic culture.