This volume brings together Wendy Davies's pioneering early studies on the text of the Book of Llan DA￠v alongside later pieces which explore the place of Wales in the wider world of the early middle
John Rhys (1840–1915), the son of a Welsh farmer, studied at Oxford and in Germany, and became the first professor of Celtic languages at Oxford in 1877. His research ranged across the fields of linguistics, history, archaeology, ethnology and religion, and his many publications were instrumental in establishing the field of Celtic studies. This two-volume work, published in 1901, had its beginnings in the late 1870s, when Rhys began collecting Welsh folk tales. His entertaining preface sheds light on folklore fieldwork and its difficulties, including fragmentary evidence, alteration of stories by those interviewed, and the hostility of the religious and educational establishment to 'superstition'. For each text, Rhys provides fascinating information about his sources, and an English translation. He analyses possible origins for the tales, in imagination and myth, and in early British history, and compares them with legends from elsewhere in the British Isles.
Political Power in Medieval Gwynedd investigates the governance exercised by the princes of Gwynedd on that independent kingdom that existed until the thirteenth century in what is now northwest Wales
David Ceri Jones’s landmark study situates the Welsh Methodist Revival within the context of the international evangelical community that thrived, particularly between 1735 and 1750, and that spanned
This book is the first look at Jews in Wales to draw extensively on oral history, bringing the voices of Welsh Jews into a field of history that has largely focused on formal studies rooted in synagog
This volume explores the rich and complex histories of English, Scottish and Welsh theatres in the 'long' twentieth century since 1895. Twenty-three original essays by leading historians and critics investigate the major aspects of theatrical performance, ranging from the great actor-managers to humble seaside entertainers, from between-wars West End women playwrights to the roots of professional theatre in Wales and Scotland, and from the challenges of alternative theatres to the economics of theatre under Thatcher. Detailed surveys of key theatre practices and traditions across this whole period are combined with case studies of influential productions, critical years placed in historical perspective and evaluations of theatre at the turn of the millennium. The collection presents an exciting evolution in the scholarly study of modern British theatre history, skilfully demonstrating how performance variously became a critical litmus test of the great aesthetic, cultural, social, poli
Campbell, who was born in Madagascar to parents who were also, like Griffith, Welsh missionaries there, grew up in Wales and is now the director of McGill University's Indian Ocean World Centre. His i
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 un
This 1982 collection of essays examines Ireland's relations with the rest of western Europe between AD 400 and 1200. They show the idiosyncratic ways in which Ireland responded to external stimuli and illustrate the view that early Irish history, religion, politics and art should be seen not in isolation but as vital contributors to the development of European culture. This was the firmly held opinion of Kathleen Hughes, to whose memory these essays, specially commissioned from leading scholars in the field, are dedicated. The range of essays reflects the diversity of early Ireland's history and the extent of her influence upon other cultures. The ecclesiastical tradition and hagiography form one area of study; political expansion and diplomatic history, as well as literary and artistic influences, are also discussed. The subjects are variously introduced as they affect Ireland's relations with Scotland, Anglo-Saxon England, Merovingian Gaul, the Scandinavians and the Welsh.
This 1998 collection of studies examines the use of the written word in Celtic-speaking regions of Europe between c. 400 and c. 1500. Building on previous work as well as presenting the fruits of much new research, the book seeks to highlight the interest and importance of Celtic uses of literacy for the study of both medieval literacy generally and of the history and cultures of the Celtic countries in the Middle Ages. Among the topics discussed are the uses and significance of charter-writing, the interplay of oral and literate modes in the composition and transmission of medieval Irish and Welsh genealogies, prose narratives and poetry, the survival of Celtic culture in Brittany and of Gaelic literacy in eastern Scotland in the twelfth century, and pragmatic uses of literacy in later medieval Wales.
Immigration and Integration: The Irish in Wales, 1798-1922 is the first book-length study of the Irish in modern Wales. Emigration has been one of the defining experiences of modern life for the Irish
The aim of this book is to question assumptions about the nature of the Augustan era through an exploration of Jacobite ideology. Taking as its starting point the fundamental ambivalence of the Augustan concept the author studies canonical and non-canonical literature and uncovers the 'four nations' literary history of the period defined in terms of a struggle for control of the language of authority between Jacobite and Hanoverian writers. This struggle is seen to have crystallized Irish and Scottish opposition to the British state. The Jacobite cause generated powerful popular literature and the sources explored include ballads, broadsides and writing in Scots, Irish, Welsh and Gaelic. The author concludes that the literary history we inherit is built on the political outcome of the Revolution of 1688.
This book explores how culture and citizenship are theorised, promoted and learned throughout schools in Wales. Following a brief history of Welsh education and a discussion of how contemporary cultur
In Conflict and Soldiers' Literature in Early Modern Europe, Paul Scannell analyses the late 16th-century and early 17th-century literature of warfare through the published works of English, Welsh and
