22-603: Gweith Gwen Ystrat (in English: The Battle of Gwen Ystrad ), is a late Old Welsh or Middle Welsh heroic poem found uniquely in the Book of Taliesin , where it forms part of the Canu Taliesin , a series of poems attributed to the 6th-century court poet of Rheged, Taliesin . Put in the mouth of a first-person eyewitness, the poem glorifies a victory by Urien , prince of Rheged, in which he led his warband in defence against
44-518: A Welshman in Cornwall". The only Old English glosses were scratched into the parchment with a stylus, but not inked. The text also shows certain Hiberno-Latin features, but no direct connection with Ireland can be made. De raris fabulis contains several notable literary references. One line—"don't stand between me and the light"—is derived from the story of Diogenes and Alexander , probably through
66-497: A form of Old Welsh spoken in the 6th century, which he regards as the language in which Y Gododdin was originally composed. However, on re-editing the poem, Graham Isaac argues against Koch's methods and conclusions and suggests instead that Gweith Gwen Ystrat may have been composed in the 11th century or later. Moreover, the Gododdin are not mentioned in the poem and the presumed presence of Picts hinges on an unnecessary emendation for
88-455: A host of invaders at a site called Llech Gwen in Gwen Ystrad (Gwen valley). The heavy, prolonged fighting is said to have taken place since dawn at the entrance to a ford. Sir Ifor Williams suggests that the personal name Gwên may lie behind the forms Llech Gwen and possibly Gwen Ystrad , but the site cannot be identified. Urien's champions are described as the "men of Catraeth " (line 1),
110-470: A place often equated with Catterick (North Yorkshire), and the enemy forces as the "men of Britain" ( gwyr Prydein , line 6), who have come in large numbers to attack the land. Sir John Morris-Jones and John T. Koch prefer to emend Prydein to Prydyn "land of the Picts ". Ifor Williams offers some support for their identification as Picts, pointing out that the adversaries are envisaged as horsemen, to judge by
132-464: A word which makes sense on its own right. Responding to Koch's perception of the 6th-century heroic age as a possible but distant milieu for the production of literature, Isaac says that a "'heroic age' cannot produce literature, because a 'heroic age' is itself produced through literature". Old Welsh Old Welsh ( Welsh : Hen Gymraeg ) is the stage of the Welsh language from about 800 AD until
154-489: Is a collection of 23 or 24 short Latin dialogues from 9th- or 10th-century Celtic Britain . The dialogues belong to the genre known as the colloquy . These were pedagogical texts for teaching Latin in monastic schools . De raris fabulis survives in a single manuscript, the Later Oxford Codex ( Codex Oxoniensis Posterior ), now Oxford, Bodleian Library MS Bodley 572 (SC 2026), at folios 41v–47r. The manuscript
176-589: Is here, or dawn or cockcrow or dusk or matins or prime or terce or midday or none or twilight or vespers." In practice, the oblates would select the appropriate word from the list. De raris fabulis contains around 200 vernacular glosses in Old Cornish , Old Welsh and Old English . There are both interlinear glosses and glosses that have been incorporated into the main text. While the Celtic glosses were originally read as Cornish, some of them are indisputably Welsh and
198-796: The Lichfield Gospels called the "Surrexit Memorandum" is thought to have been written in the early 8th century but may be a copy of a text from the 6th or 7th centuries. Words in bold are Latin , not Old Welsh. surexit tutbulc filius liuit ha gener tutri dierchi tir telih haioid ilau elcu filius gelhig haluidt iuguret amgucant pel amtanndi ho diued diprotant gener tutri o guir imguodant ir degion guragon tagc rodesit elcu guetig equs tres uache, tres uache nouidligi namin ir ni be cas igridu dimedichat guetig hit did braut grefiat guetig nis minn tutbulc hai cenetl in ois oisau Tudfwlch son of Llywyd and son-in-law of Tudri arose to claim
220-557: The Gododdin are said to have suffered a catastrophic defeat. Koch breaks with the long-held view that the disaster at Catraeth was a battle against the Angles of Deira and Bernicia and points to the participation of warriors from Rheged. He equates the two battles of the poems, suggesting that they both refer to a conflict between the dynasty of Urien, i.e. the Coeling or descendants of Coel Hen , and
242-648: The 7th century, although more recent scholarship dates it in the 9th century. A key body of Old Welsh text also survives in glosses and marginalia from around 900 in the Juvencus Manuscript and in De raris fabulis . Some examples of medieval Welsh poems and prose additionally originate from this period, but are found in later manuscripts; Y Gododdin , for example, is preserved in Middle Welsh . A text in Latin and Old Welsh in
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#1732869921582264-537: The Gododdin, who in Gweith Gwen Ystrat , as in Y Gododdin , are shown assisted by the Pictish troops (see above) but are not otherwise named. The Gwen Ystrad poem would then present a victor's view of the same event. However, Koch's interpretation of the poem has been challenged on a number of counts. He relies on an early date for Gweith Gwen Ystrat , classifying its language as what he calls 'Archaic Neo-Brittonic',
286-538: The account of Valerius Maximus . Its meaning, however, is not entirely clear, suggesting a misunderstanding at some point in the transmission. A proverb (#14) from the probably Irish Proverbia Grecorum is also quoted, which probably reflects the independent transmission of this text in Wales. Although King Arthur is not named in the De raris fabulis , its account of a war between Britons and Saxons may depend on oral legends within
308-518: The allusion to rawn eu kaffon "manes of their horses" (line 22). This description would fit the Picts but rules out the Saxons, who fought on foot. However, the emendation is not universally accepted. In the commentary to his edition of the poem Y Gododdin , Koch argues that the Gwen Ystrad poem offers a vital clue for an understanding of the 6th-century Battle of Catraeth portrayed in Y Gododdin , in which
330-546: The dialogues and a reference to a probably fictitious victory of the Britons over the Saxons situate De raris in a Celtic context. Based on its terminology, it has even been suggested that it originated in Brittany and subsequently passed through Wales to Cornwall, acquiring distinct features along the way. De raris fabulis consists of 23 or 24 distinct conversations. Their purpose
352-557: The early 12th century when it developed into Middle Welsh . The preceding period, from the time Welsh became distinct from Common Brittonic around 550, has been called "Primitive" or "Archaic Welsh". The phonology of Old Welsh is as follows. The oldest surviving text entirely in Old Welsh is understood to be that on a gravestone now in Tywyn – the Cadfan Stone – thought to date from
374-524: The land of Telych, which was in the hand of Elgu son of Gelli and the tribe of Idwared. They disputed long about it; in the end they disjudge Tudri's son-in-law by law. The goodmen said to each other 'Let us make peace'. Elgu gave afterwards a horse, three cows, three cows newly calved, in order that there might not be hatred between them from the ruling afterwards till the Day of Judgement. Tudfwlch and his kin will not want it for ever and ever. Page 141 (on which
396-509: The other pages in the Lichfield Gospels . This language-related article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This Wales -related article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This article related to the history of Wales is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . De raris fabulis De raris fabulis ("On uncommon tales", "On curious tales" or "On rare expressions" )
418-423: The rest could be either. The two languages are not easily distinguished for the 9th century. Joseph Loth argued that the text may have originated in an area intermediate between Wales and Cornwall, such as Gloucestershire or Somerset , but Kenneth Jackson argued that these areas were already English-speaking in the 9th century. He argued instead that the glosses were the work of either "a Cornishman in Wales, or
440-456: The text is written) also has a Latin memorandum above the Old Welsh text. It appears to hold more text written below the main text, and a mysterious section where text appears to have been erased, both of which are partially overwritten with Old English text. No translations or transcripts have yet been offered for this section. It is unknown why that particular page was used for the glosses, as little or no text appears to have been added to any of
462-618: Was produced in Cornwall , and dates to the second quarter of the 10th century. The script is Anglo-Caroline . The text itself may have been composed in the 9th century in Wales . The manuscript was in Winchester by the 11th century (and possibly as early as the late 10th), and by the end of the 11th century was at St Augustine's Abbey in Canterbury . The unascetic nature of monastic living implied by
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#1732869921582484-418: Was teaching spoken Latin to monastic oblates . For this reason they mostly concern daily life in a monastic environment, although there are also references to trade and pilgrimage. The text may be a combination of two earlier sets of colloquies. In structure, the dialogues typically contain questions and answers with strings of vocabulary to choose from, e.g., "Ring the bell because the hour called 'midnight'
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