Gramadeg Gwysanau
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Ann Parry Owen
Abstract
This chapter discusses a recently-discovered fragment of a Welsh bardic grammar, preserved on a single vellum bifolium in the Flintshire Record Office in Hawarden. It was probably composed in the third quarter of the fourteenth century by an anonymous author from north-east Wales. It is one of only two Welsh literary manuscripts from before 1400 written in a documentary hand (Anglicana) rather than in a book hand. It is quite different from the other surviving bardic grammars and discusses matters such as composition, transmission of poetry (orally and in written form) and orthography in a lively manner, and offering advice to pupil poets. The author was aware of the fact that earlier poetry was preserved in manuscripts with varying orthographical practices; and was also aware of the work of other Welsh grammarians from the past. An edition of the text is offered with accompanying translation.
Abstract
This chapter discusses a recently-discovered fragment of a Welsh bardic grammar, preserved on a single vellum bifolium in the Flintshire Record Office in Hawarden. It was probably composed in the third quarter of the fourteenth century by an anonymous author from north-east Wales. It is one of only two Welsh literary manuscripts from before 1400 written in a documentary hand (Anglicana) rather than in a book hand. It is quite different from the other surviving bardic grammars and discusses matters such as composition, transmission of poetry (orally and in written form) and orthography in a lively manner, and offering advice to pupil poets. The author was aware of the fact that earlier poetry was preserved in manuscripts with varying orthographical practices; and was also aware of the work of other Welsh grammarians from the past. An edition of the text is offered with accompanying translation.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Foreword & acknowledgements vii
- Abbreviations ix
- List of plates xiii
- Notes on contributors xv
- Editors’ introduction 1
- Allegory, the áes dána and the liberal arts in Medieval Irish literature 11
- Cryptography and the alphabet in the “Book of Ádhamh Ó Cianáin” 35
- Caide Máthair Bréithre “What is the Mother of a Word” 65
- The expression of “sense, meaning, signification” in the Old Irish glosses, and particularly in the Milan and Saint Gall glosses 85
- The verbal paradigms in Auraicept na nÉces 101
- The glossing of the Early Irish law tracts 113
- Teaching between the lines 133
- The Welsh bardic grammars on Litterae 149
- Poetry by numbers 161
- Gramadeg Gwysanau 181
- Master list of references 201
- Index of manuscripts 219
- Index of subjects 221
- Index of terms by language 225
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Foreword & acknowledgements vii
- Abbreviations ix
- List of plates xiii
- Notes on contributors xv
- Editors’ introduction 1
- Allegory, the áes dána and the liberal arts in Medieval Irish literature 11
- Cryptography and the alphabet in the “Book of Ádhamh Ó Cianáin” 35
- Caide Máthair Bréithre “What is the Mother of a Word” 65
- The expression of “sense, meaning, signification” in the Old Irish glosses, and particularly in the Milan and Saint Gall glosses 85
- The verbal paradigms in Auraicept na nÉces 101
- The glossing of the Early Irish law tracts 113
- Teaching between the lines 133
- The Welsh bardic grammars on Litterae 149
- Poetry by numbers 161
- Gramadeg Gwysanau 181
- Master list of references 201
- Index of manuscripts 219
- Index of subjects 221
- Index of terms by language 225
