Medieval Wales and the Celtic World

Context & Approaches, Knowledge & Exchange

Silva Nurmio, Sarah Waidler, Myriah Williams (eds)

Pages: 392 p.
Size:156 x 234 mm
Illustrations:3 b/w, 12 col., 13 tables b/w.

Language(s):English
Publication Year:2026

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This book examines the society of medieval Wales and its intellectual, linguistic, and political relationships with its neighbours via fourteen studies encompassing the language, history, literature, and manuscript culture of this region.

Subject(s)

BIO

Myriah Williams is a lecturer at the University of California, Berkeley in the Celtic Studies Program
Sarah Waidler is a lecturer at Glucksman Ireland House, New York University
Silva Nurmio is postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Languages at the University of Helsinki

Summary

This volume takes a wide view of medieval Wales and its neighbours — both geographic and linguistic — exploring Wales’s place within the broader medieval and Celtic worlds. It examines a range of historical and cultural links within and beyond the British Isles, considering how Wales was shaped by and contributed to wider intellectual and societal developments. Covering a chronological span that includes earlier influences on medieval Welsh culture, as well as aspects that extend beyond traditional medieval boundaries, the book engages with language, literature, and history in a broad and inclusive framework. The contributors gathered here draw on diverse methodologies, including linguistic, book historical, narratological, and sociopolitical approaches, to trace threads of exchange and transformation that connect Wales to neighbouring regions and cultures, both old and new. These threads are woven into a rich tapestry that brings the medieval Welsh world vividly to life. In doing so, the volume seeks to situate Welsh and Celtic Studies within the wider context of medieval European scholarship, presenting its contributions and approaches as part of a broader, interconnected intellectual landscape.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction
Silva Nurmio, Sarah Waidler, and Myriah Williams

Paul Russell: Scholar, Teacher, Mentor
Charlene Eska

Legenda 9 Lectionum de Sancto Danieli and Syr Dafydd Trefor's ‘Moliant i Ddeiniol’
David Callander

The Age of Heroes and the Age of Saints: Arthur and Authority in the Lives of the Welsh Saints
Sarah Waidler

The Fractal Structure of Medieval Welsh Prose Tales. A Prolegomenon
Natalia Petrovskaia

Gereint vab Erbin: Un-Romance or Ur-Romance
Dara Hellman

Conquest, Advice, and Kingly Encounters: Transmarine Movement and the Structure of the Journey in Four Middle Welsh Prose Tales
Kelly Randell

A Judicial Curse Tablet? Chamalières Revisited
Alderik Blom

Herd Mentality: Animal Nouns and Individuation in the Brittonic Languages
Silva Nurmio

Orthographical Archaeology in Thirteenth-Century Welsh Chronicles
Ben Guy

Scribal Authority and Hagiographical Adaptation in London, British Library, Cotton Titus D. xxii
Georgia Henley

Scribal (In)experience among Thirteenth-Century Law Scribes: Abbreviations in the Black Book of Chirk
Myriah Williams

The ‘Lament’ of Rhygyfarch ap Sulien and its Manuscript Context
Sarah Zeiser

Political Alliances across the Irish Sea in the Eleventh Century
Rebecca Thomas

Not to Be Glossed Over: Medieval Irish Glossaries and the Caíer Narrative
Alice Taylor-Griffiths