An Old Welsh Reader (Mhra Library of Medieval Welsh Literature)

Old Welsh is the language of the earliest extant Welsh texts, dating from between c. 800 and the middle of the twelfth century. While Old Welsh texts are short and not particularly numerous, they are extremely interesting from a linguistic point of view, giving us a snapshot of the language in the centuries prior to the well-known medieval manuscripts. Their content is also fascinating: alongside poems, both religious and secular, we find functional prose texts spanning a number of genres, including property disputes, funerary inscriptions, ecclesiastical propaganda, and astronomy.

This reader contains edited texts, with English translations, of all the independent texts extant in manuscripts of the ninth, tenth, and eleventh centuries, with a selection of twelfth-century texts. They are accompanied by extensive notes and glossaries, along with an introduction which considers the prehistory of Welsh and its relationship with other Celtic languages. The volume also contains a comprehensive list of the sources of Old Welsh and an outline grammar: the first specifically dedicated to Old Welsh to appear in English. Appendices contain editions of one of the very few ancient Celtic texts from Britain, the Bath pendant, and the only sizeable text in another early medieval Brittonic language, the Old Cornish portion of the Leiden leechbook. This volume will be essential reading for anyone interested in the prehistory and early history of the Brittonic languages.

Simon Rodway is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Welsh and Celtic Studies at Aberystwyth University.