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It is believed that the earliest written Welsh is a marginal note of some sixty-four words in Llyfr Teilo (=The Book of St. Teilo), a gospel book originating in Llandeilo but now in the library of St. Chad's Cathedral, Litchfield, and also known as the Litchfield Gospels, or, The Book of St. Chad. The marginal note, known from its opening (Latin) word as The Surexit memorandum, dates from the ninth century, or even earlier, and is a record of a legal case over land.
The native Welsh storyteller, known as the cyfarwydd (=the one who knows) was an official of the court. He was expected to know the traditional knowledge and the tales. But the storytelling tradition was basically oral, and only a few remnants suggest the wealth of that tradition. Amongst the most important are Trioedd Ynys Prydain, or the Welsh Triads, a compendium of mnemonics for poets and storytellers. The stories that have survived are literary compositions based on oral tradition.
In the Middle Ages Welsh was used for all sorts of purposes and this is reflected in the type of prose materials that has survived from this period: original material and translations, tales and facts, religious and legal, history and medicine.
Native Welsh tales, or, Mabinogion
The name Mabinogion is a convenient label for a collection of tales preserved in two manuscripts known as the White book of Rhydderch and the Red Book of Hergest. They are written in Middle Welsh, the common literary language between the end of the eleventh century and the fourteentch century. They include the four tales that form Pedair cainc y mabinogi (=The four branches of the mabinogi):
- Pwyll prince of Dyfed;
- Branwen daughter of Llŷr;
- Manawydan son of Llŷr;
- Math son of Mathonwy.
Two are native tales embodying traditions about Arthur:
- Culhwch and Olwen – the earliest Arthurian tale in any language;
- The dream of Rhonabwy.
Three are Welsh Arthurian romances showing the influence of French poet, Chrétien de Troyes:
- Owain and Luned (also known as, The lady of the fountain);
- Geraint and Enid;
- Peredu son of Efrog.
The remaining two tales embody traditions about the early history of Britain:
- The meeting of Lludd and Llefelys;
- The dream of Maxen.
For more information, see Mabinogion.
Native Welsh law
Tradition holds that Hywel Dda summoned a conference at Whitland, Carmarthenshire, in about 945. At this conference Welsh native law was codified and set down in writing for posterity. Since the earliest manuscripts containing these legal texts date from about two hundred and fifty years after the event they are probably not a record of what was codified there, if such a conference was even convened. In fact, until the annexation of Wales in 1536, native Welsh law grew and developed organically and for that reason many more copies of it have survived than of the native tales.
The use of Welsh for legal texts shows that it had the words and the technical terms with definite and exact meanings needed in such circumstances. It also shows that reading and writing Welsh was not confined to priests and monks, but that there were also lawyers "whose skill is directed not to administrating the law (there were judges for that), but to writing it, to giving it permanence in words, to ordering words and sentences in such a way that what was stated should be quite clear" (Thomas Parry (1955), p.68).
Religious texts
The vast majority of Welsh religious texts from the Middle Ages are translations and mostly the works of unknown monks and priests. The works themselves reflect the tastes and fashions of Christendom at the time: apocryphal narratives, dreams or visions, theological treatises and exegesis, and mystical works.
Lives of the saints
About thirty lives of the saints, both native ones – like Beuno, Curig, and Gwenfrewi – and the more general – such as the Mary, the mother of Jesus, Mary Magdalene, Martin of Tours, and Catherine of Alexandria – survive, all translations into Welsh from Latin.
Even the lives of the native saints were composed in Latin originally, and that a long time after the saint's actual life and so of little or no interest to those looking for actual historical information. Perhaps the two most important is Buchedd Dewi (The life of Dewi, or, David) written by Rhygyfarch in about 1094, and Buchedd Cadog (=The life of Cadog) written by Lifris of Llancarfan in ca. 1100.
History texts
The Welsh medieval history texts belong to the class of literary creations, but the split into two distinct groups. While the first group, Brut y tywysogion, tends to stick to historical facts, the second, Brut y brenhinedd, is the fantastic creation of Geoffrey of Monmouth.
Brut y tywysogion
Brut y tywysogion (=Chronicle of the princes) are variant Welsh translation of a Latin original annales telling the history of Wales from the seventh century to the death of Llywelyn ap Gruffudd in 1282. It is believed that original and its translation were produced at the Cistercian Strata Florida Abbey.
Brut y brenhinedd
Brut y brenhinedd (=Chronicle of the kings) is the name given to a number of texts that ultimately trace their origins back to translations of Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae (1136). As such they were key works in shaping how the Welsh thought of themselves and others, tracing their origins back to Brutus, the mythical founder of the Britain. In fact the Welsh word brut is derived from Brutus's name and originally meant "a history of Brutus" and then "a chronicle history".
External links
The prose tradition
- Jenkins, Dafydd & Owen, Morfydd E. (1984), 'The Welsh marginalia in the Lichfield Gospels. Part II: The "surexit" memorandum'. In Cambridge Medieval Celtic Studies 7, 91-120.
Native Welsh tales
- Davies, Sioned (1993), The four branches of the Mabinogi. Llandysul : Gomer Press. ISBN 1859020054.
Native Welsh law
- Charles-Edwards, T. M. (1989), The Welsh laws. Writers of Wales series. Cardiff : University of Wales Press. ISBN 070831032X.
- Jenkins, Dafydd (2000), Hywel Dda : the law. Welsh Classics series. Llandysul : Gomer Press. ISBN 0863832776.
Religious texts
- Evans, D. Simon (1986), Medieval religious literature. Writers of Wales series. Cardiff : University of Wales Press. ISBN 0708309380.
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