155-412: Libeaus Desconus is a 14th-century Middle English version of the popular " Fair Unknown " story, running to about around 2,200 lines, attributed to Thomas Chestre . It is a version or an adaptation of Renaut de Beaujeu 's Le Bel Inconnu (6,266 lines) though comparatively much shorter. The story matter displays strong parallels to that of ; both versions describe the adventures of Gingalain ,
310-655: A principal area officially known as the City and County of Cardiff (Welsh: Dinas a Sir Caerdydd ). The city is the eleventh largest in the United Kingdom . Located in the southeast of Wales and in the Cardiff Capital Region , Cardiff is the county town of the historic county of Glamorgan and in 1974–1996 of South Glamorgan . It belongs to the Eurocities network of the largest European cities. A small town until
465-523: A steelworks close to the docks at East Moors, which Lord Bute opened on 4 February 1891. Cardiff became a county borough on 1 April 1889 under the Local Government Act 1888 . The town had grown rapidly and had a population of over 123,000. It retained its county borough status until 1974. King Edward VII granted Cardiff city status on 28 October 1905. It acquired a Roman Catholic cathedral in 1916. Later, more national institutions came to
620-482: A "French source" could well be just lip service and not a reliable testimony of its existence. There are Old French ( Libeaus Desconus ), Middle High German and Italian versions of this tale: Wirnt von Gravenberc 's MHG Wigalois (c. 1204–1210) and the Italian Cantare di Carduino (c. 1375). There is also Claude Platin's L'Hystoire de Giglan (1530), a reworking in early modern French. While this also goes to
775-626: A British rather than exclusively Welsh identity . The relative lack of local support for the Assembly and difficulties between the Welsh Office and Cardiff Council in acquiring the originally preferred venue, Cardiff City Hall , encouraged other local authorities to bid to house the Assembly. However, the Assembly was eventually located at Tŷ Hywel in Cardiff Bay in 1999. In 2005, a new debating chamber on an adjacent site, designed by Richard Rogers ,
930-424: A city of castles and palaces. Its lady is besieged by a Saracen giant called Maugys, described as "black as pitch" (his shield and armor black as well) and measuring 30 feet tall. Libeaus decides to succor her, and single combat ensues: after killing each other's horses and fighting on foot, they call a truce to refresh their thirst. Maugis breaks manner and shoves Libeaus into the water. Libeaus leaps up and claims
1085-732: A demonstrative ( þis , þat ), after a possessive pronoun (e.g., hir , our ), or with a name or in a form of address. This derives from the Old English "weak" declension of adjectives. This inflexion continued to be used in writing even after final -e had ceased to be pronounced. In earlier texts, multisyllable adjectives also receive a final -e in these situations, but this occurs less regularly in later Middle English texts. Otherwise, adjectives have no ending and adjectives already ending in -e etymologically receive no ending as well. Earlier texts sometimes inflect adjectives for case as well. Layamon's Brut inflects adjectives for
1240-459: A gift he had given. They exchange insult with threat and tempers mount. Sir Otis claims he would have fought Libeaus on the spot if he were armed, but in fact, returns with a whole band of comrades, only to be nearly annihilated single-handedly. Sir Otis, too, is sent to Arthur's court. (vv. 1029–1268) After many adventures in Ireland and Wales, Libeaus arrives at the beautiful Isle of Gold ( Ile d'Or )
1395-483: A history going back to the 11th-century Norman Conquest . The region that may be called "Rural Cardiff" contains the villages of St Fagans , Creigiau, Pentyrch , Tongwynlais and Gwaelod-y-garth . In 2017, plans were approved for a new suburb of 7,000 homes between Radyr and St Fagans , known as Plasdŵr . St Fagans, home to the Museum of Welsh Life , is protected from further development. Since 2000, there has been
1550-493: A largely Anglo-Saxon vocabulary (with many Norse borrowings in the northern parts of the country) but a greatly simplified inflectional system. The grammatical relations that were expressed in Old English by the dative and instrumental cases were replaced in Early Middle English with prepositional constructions. The Old English genitive - es survives in the -'s of the modern English possessive , but most of
1705-486: A lengthened – and later also modified – pronunciation of a preceding vowel. For example, in name , originally pronounced as two syllables, the /a/ in the first syllable (originally an open syllable) lengthened, the final weak vowel was later dropped, and the remaining long vowel was modified in the Great Vowel Shift (for these sound changes, see Phonology , above). The final ⟨e⟩ , now silent, thus became
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#17330930420771860-488: A lesser extent), and, therefore, it cannot be attributed simply to the influence of French-speaking sections of the population: English did, after all, remain the vernacular . It is also argued that Norse immigrants to England had a great impact on the loss of inflectional endings in Middle English. One argument is that, although Norse and English speakers were somewhat comprehensible to each other due to similar morphology,
2015-487: A life of 'recreantise'. When one day Libeaus meets the maiden Elene, she points out to Libeaus that he has been disloyal to his lord in abandoning his quest. He feels deeply ashamed and leaves the Isle of Gold. With him he takes his horse, his armour and La Dame Amour's steward Gifflet (here "Jurflete"), whom he makes his squire. (vv. 1269–1520) Arriving at Snowdon (Synadowne) at last, Libeaus challenges Lambert (or Lanwarde/Lambard)
2170-414: A lost twelfth century romance from which both Libeaus Desconus and the much earlier, late twelfth or early thirteenth-century Old French Le Bel Inconnu have their source. Le Bel Inconnu may have been known to the author in a manuscript copy that was not identical to the only copy which now survives, and Thomas Chestre may have had access to this "as well as other, related, material". Schofield, who
2325-481: A marked change of scale and building height in Cardiff, with the development of the city centre 's first purpose-built high-rise apartments. Tall buildings have been built in the city centre and Cardiff Bay, and more are planned. Cardiff, in the north temperate zone , has a maritime climate ( Köppen : Cfb) marked by mild weather that is often cloudy, wet and windy. Cardiff is one of the warmest and wettest cities in
2480-473: A massive improvement in the quality of the built environment, although it had "failed "to attract the major inward investors originally anticipated". In the 1997 Welsh devolution referendum , Cardiff voters rejected the establishment of the National Assembly for Wales by 55.4% to 44.2% on a 47% turnout, which Denis Balsom partly ascribed to a general preference in Cardiff and some other parts of Wales for
2635-411: A new local authority vote, 134 out of 161 voted for Cardiff. Cardiff therefore celebrated two important anniversaries in 2005. The Encyclopedia of Wales notes that the decision to recognise the city as the capital of Wales "had more to do with the fact that it contained marginal Conservative constituencies than any reasoned view of what functions a Welsh capital should have." Although the city hosted
2790-405: A palfreye white as mylke", seeking a champion to free her lady from oppression. The fool (Ipomadon) asks again that the quest be given to him. Since nobody else at court wants to undertake this task, the king concedes his request. The maiden is far from impressed. Only slowly does she moderate her acrimony as the fool travels along with her, defeating one hostile knight after another, until they reach
2945-765: A parallel in the Lay of the Great Fool ( Irish : Amadán Mór ), which is known widespread in Irish and Scottish versions, either as a standalone lay, or a prose tale containing the lay. Schofield uses the Irish lay ("Adventures of the Amadan Mor") recorded by O'Daly and a similarly worded lay recorded in Campbell's Popular Tales of the West Highlands as his counterpart examples. Middle English Middle English (abbreviated to ME )
3100-525: A population of only 1,870, making it only the 25th largest town in Wales, well behind Merthyr and Swansea . In 1793, John Crichton-Stuart, 2nd Marquess of Bute was born. He spent his life building the Cardiff docks and was later hailed as "the creator of modern Cardiff". A twice-weekly boat service between Cardiff and Bristol opened in 1815, and in 1821, the Cardiff Gas Works was established. After
3255-572: A process called apophony ), as in Modern English. With the discontinuation of the Late West Saxon standard used for the writing of Old English in the period prior to the Norman Conquest, Middle English came to be written in a wide variety of scribal forms, reflecting different regional dialects and orthographic conventions. Later in the Middle English period, however, and particularly with
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#17330930420773410-460: A rate of nearly 80 per cent per decade between 1840 and 1870. Much of this was due to migration from within and outside Wales: in 1841, a quarter of Cardiff's population were English-born and more than 10 per cent born in Ireland. By the 1881 census, Cardiff had overtaken Merthyr and Swansea to become the largest town in Wales. Cardiff's status as the premier town in South Wales was confirmed when it
3565-518: A variant of the Northumbrian dialect (prevalent in northern England and spoken in southeast Scotland ). During the Middle English period, many Old English grammatical features either became simplified or disappeared altogether. Noun, adjective, and verb inflections were simplified by the reduction (and eventual elimination) of most grammatical case distinctions. Middle English also saw considerable adoption of Anglo-Norman vocabulary, especially in
3720-432: A white-as-swan gerfalcon (≈ gyrfalcon ). This was not just a contest of combat skill, rather, Geffron held the boasting right that his lemman was of unsurpassed beauty, and any challenger must submit his lady to a beauty pageant held at the town's market, whose prize was the gerfalcon. Libeaus offers Elene as his candidate, and if she fails to win the pageant, he would be committed to fight Geffron in combat, possibly to meet
3875-564: A wider pattern of counter-urbanisation in Britain. However, it recovered to become one of the few cities outside London where population grew in the 1990s. During this period the Cardiff Bay Development Corporation was promoting the redevelopment of south Cardiff; an evaluation of the regeneration of Cardiff Bay published in 2004 concluded that the project had "reinforced the competitive position of Cardiff" and "contributed to
4030-544: A wooden palisade in the early 12th century. It was of sufficient size and importance to receive a series of charters, notably in 1331 from William La Zouche, Lord of Glamorgan through marriage with the de Clare family, Edward III in 1359, then Henry IV in 1400, and later Henry VI . In 1404, Owain Glyndŵr burned Cardiff and took possession of the Castle. As many of the buildings were made of timber and tightly packed within
4185-696: Is a form of the English language that was spoken after the Norman Conquest of 1066, until the late 15th century. The English language underwent distinct variations and developments following the Old English period. Scholarly opinion varies, but the University of Valencia states the period when Middle English was spoken as being from 1150 to 1500. This stage of the development of the English language roughly coincided with
4340-553: Is alerted of hunting activity nearby, when they the horn blowing of . The dwarf recognizes from the sound of the horn, it must be led by Sir Otis de Lile who had served the Lady of Snowdon but had fled in the time of peril. Later, a many-coloured hunting dog ( rache , a scent hound) come their way, and Libeaus fulfills Elene's wish to own it. There arrive a pair of greyhounds pursuing a hind , and afterwards Sir Otis, who courteously asks that his hound be returned, but Libeaus refuses to rescind
4495-459: Is angered that a young novice has been chosen, yet the king refuses to budge. Libeaus is furnished with arms and horse by famed Knights of the Round ; e.g., Gawain gives him a chevron (or griffin ) crested shield. (vv. 106–263) Libeaus, Elene, and the dwarf set off on their journey, in acrimony. On the third day, they approach the "Chapel Adventurous", whose path is guarded at the "Point Perilous" by
4650-557: Is at the summit of the Garth , within the county's northern boundary. Four Iron Age hill fort and enclosure sites have been identified within Cardiff's county boundaries, including Caerau Hillfort , an enclosed area of 5.1 hectares ( 12 + 1 ⁄ 2 acres). Until the Roman conquest of Britain , Cardiff was part of the territory of the Silures – a Celtic British tribe that flourished in
4805-454: Is attacked by William's three nephews (sister-sons), riding out of "Carboun" (recte Caerleon ). He breaks the eldest's thigh, then faces the others attacking two against one, until breaking the second brother's arms, leaving the youngest without will to fight. He forces the three likewise to surrender themselves to Arthur in bondage. (vv. 453–567) In a wild forest, Libeaus saves a maiden from two giants (one red, other pitch-black) Libeaus learns
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4960-577: Is evidence that Arthurian tales were often reworked, and that characters not originally associated with King Arthur in the eleventh and twelfth centuries were absorbed into his epic. The twelfth-century romance Ipomedon , written in Norman French by Hugh of Rhuddlan , is found in a Middle English version, Ipomadon , in MS Chetham 8009, lying in Chetham's Library, Manchester, England and dating from "between
5115-511: Is known of the fort and civilian settlement in the period between the Roman departure from Britain and the Norman Conquest. The settlement probably shrank in size and may even have been abandoned. In the absence of Roman rule, Wales was divided into small kingdoms; early on, Meurig ap Tewdrig emerged as the local king in Glywysing (which later became Glamorgan ). The area passed through his family until
5270-433: Is now rare and used only in oxen and as part of a double plural , in children and brethren . Some dialects still have forms such as eyen (for eyes ), shoon (for shoes ), hosen (for hose(s) ), kine (for cows ), and been (for bees ). Grammatical gender survived to a limited extent in early Middle English before being replaced by natural gender in the course of the Middle English period. Grammatical gender
5425-525: Is relatively flat and bounded by hills to the east, north and west. Its location influenced its development as the world's largest coal port, notably its proximity and easy access to the coalfields of the South Wales Valleys . The highest point in the local authority area is Garth Hill , 307 m (1,007 ft) above sea level . Cardiff is built on reclaimed marshland on a bed of Triassic stones. This reclaimed marshland stretches from Chepstow to
5580-496: Is represented by four constituencies: Cardiff East , Cardiff North , Cardiff South and Penarth , and Cardiff West . The Welsh Government is headquartered in Cardiff's Cathays Park , where most of its civil servants are based, with smaller numbers in other central locations: Cathays , Canton , and Cardiff Bay . There are other Welsh Government offices in other parts of Wales, such as Llandudno and Aberystwyth, and there are international offices. Between 1889 and 1974 Cardiff
5735-459: Is the only part of the Celtic Sea with exposed Jurassic ( blue lias ) geology. This stretch of coast with its reefs, sandbanks and serrated cliffs was a ship graveyard ; many ships sailing to Cardiff during the industrial era were wrecked on this hostile coastline during west/south-westerly gales. Smuggling, deliberate shipwrecking and attacks on ships were also common. "Inner Cardiff" consists of
5890-466: Is wounded on the neck by Irayne, but Libeaus in turn slices off Irayne's thigh, seemingly to immobilize him. Indeed, when Mabon breaks his sword, Libeaus runs up to Irayne and seize his weapon. Then decisively, Libeaus severs Mabon's shield arm. Mabon offers to surrender, fearing the wound from his own poisoned weapons cannot be left unattended. But Libeaus delivers the head-splitting stroke. Meanwhile, Irayne has disappeared. Depressed, Libeaus sits down in
6045-513: The Augustinian canon Orrm wrote the Ormulum , one of the oldest surviving texts in Middle English. The influence of Old Norse aided the development of English from a synthetic language with relatively free word order to a more analytic language with a stricter word order. Both Old English and Old Norse were synthetic languages with complicated inflections. Communication between Vikings in
6200-568: The Battle of St Fagans , between Royalist rebels and a New Model Army detachment, was a decisive victory for the Parliamentarians that allowed Oliver Cromwell to conquer Wales. It was the last major battle in Wales, with about 200, mostly Royalist soldiers killed. Cardiff was at peace throughout the ensuing century. In 1766, John Stuart, 1st Marquess of Bute married into the Herbert family and
6355-653: The Commonwealth Games in 1958, Cardiff became a centre of national administration only with the establishment of the Welsh Office in 1964, which later prompted the creation of various other public bodies such as the Arts Council of Wales and the Welsh Development Agency , most of which were based in Cardiff. The East Moors Steelworks closed in 1978 and Cardiff lost population in the 1980s, consistent with
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6510-592: The Danelaw and their Anglo-Saxon neighbours resulted in the erosion of inflection in both languages. Old Norse may have had a more profound impact on Middle and Modern English development than any other language. The effect of Old Norse on Old English was substantive, pervasive, and of a democratic character. Like close cousins, Old Norse and Old English resembled each other, and with some words and grammatical structures in common, speakers of each language roughly understood each other, but according to historian Simeon Potler
6665-600: The Early Modern English and Modern English eras. Middle English generally did not have silent letters . For example, knight was pronounced [ˈkniçt] (with both the ⟨k⟩ and the ⟨gh⟩ pronounced, the latter sounding as the ⟨ch⟩ in German Knecht ). The major exception was the silent ⟨e⟩ – originally pronounced but lost in normal speech by Chaucer's time. This letter, however, came to indicate
6820-504: The Ely Estuary , which is the natural boundary of Cardiff and the Vale of Glamorgan. Triassic landscapes of this part of the world are usually shallow and low-lying, consistent with the flatness of the centre of Cardiff. The classic Triassic marl , sand and conglomerate rocks are used predominantly throughout Cardiff as building materials. Many of these Triassic rocks are purplish, especially
6975-472: The High and Late Middle Ages . Middle English saw significant changes to its vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation, and orthography . Writing conventions during the Middle English period varied widely. Examples of writing from this period that have survived show extensive regional variation. The more standardized Old English literary variety broke down and writing in English became fragmented and localized and was, for
7130-667: The Iron Age – whose territory included the areas that would become known as Breconshire , Monmouthshire and Glamorgan. The 3.2 ha (8-acre) fort established by the Romans near the mouth of the River Taff in AD ;75, in what would become the north western boundary of the centre of Cardiff, was built over an extensive settlement that had been established by the Romans in the 50s AD. The fort
7285-566: The Norman Conquest , had normally been written in French. Like Chaucer's work, this new standard was based on the East Midlands-influenced speech of London. Clerks using this standard were usually familiar with French and Latin , influencing the forms they chose. The Chancery Standard, which was adopted slowly, was used in England by bureaucrats for most official purposes, excluding those of
7440-492: The Saxon Shore forts of the 3rd and 4th centuries, a stone fortress was established at Cardiff. Similar to the shore forts, the fortress was built to protect Britannia from raiders. Coins from the reign of Gratian indicate that Cardiff was inhabited until at least the 4th century; the fort was abandoned towards the end of the 4th century, as the last Roman legions left the province of Britannia with Magnus Maximus . Little
7595-720: The St Lythans burial chamber near Wenvoe , (approximately four miles or six km west of Cardiff city centre); the Tinkinswood burial chamber , near St. Nicholas (about six miles or ten km west of Cardiff city centre), the Cae'rarfau Chambered Tomb , Creigiau (about six miles or ten km northwest of Cardiff city centre) and the Gwern y Cleppa long barrow , near Coedkernew , Newport (about eight miles or thirteen km northeast of Cardiff city centre). A group of five Bronze Age tumuli
7750-475: The Taff ". The fort probably refers to that established by the Romans . Caer is Welsh for fort and -dyf is in effect a form of Taf (Taff), the river which flows by Cardiff Castle, with the ⟨t⟩ showing consonant mutation to ⟨d⟩ and the vowel showing affection as a result of a (lost) genitive case ending. The anglicised Cardiff is derived from Caerdyf , with
7905-422: The "baptism" only made him feel twice as light (eager) as before. Maugis cuts Libeaus's shield, but the latter retrieves the shield that the giant dropped earlier. In the end, Libeaus chops off the giant's arm, pursues, and decapitates him. La Dame Amoure, the lady lordship of the island and enchantress, offers the hero her love and lordship over the Isle of Gold. Libeaus gladly accepts, and for twelve months he lives
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#17330930420778060-621: The 12th century, incorporating a unique phonetic spelling system; and the Ancrene Wisse and the Katherine Group , religious texts written for anchoresses , apparently in the West Midlands in the early 13th century. The language found in the last two works is sometimes called the AB language . Additional literary sources of the 12th and 13th centuries include Layamon's Brut and The Owl and
8215-422: The 13th century and was replaced by thorn. Thorn mostly fell out of use during the 14th century and was replaced by ⟨th⟩ . Anachronistic usage of the scribal abbreviation [REDACTED] ( þe , "the") has led to the modern mispronunciation of thorn as ⟨ y ⟩ in this context; see ye olde . Wynn, which represented the phoneme /w/ , was replaced by ⟨ w ⟩ during
8370-409: The 13th century. Due to its similarity to the letter ⟨p⟩ , it is mostly represented by ⟨w⟩ in modern editions of Old and Middle English texts even when the manuscript has wynn. Under Norman influence, the continental Carolingian minuscule replaced the insular script that had been used for Old English. However, because of the significant difference in appearance between
8525-467: The 14th century, even after the loss of the majority of the continental possessions of the English monarchy . In the aftermath of the Black Death of the 14th century, there was significant migration into London , of people to the counties of the southeast of England and from the east and central Midlands of England, and a new prestige London dialect began to develop as a result of this clash of
8680-597: The 1540s after the printing and wide distribution of the English Bible and Prayer Book , which made the new standard of English publicly recognizable and lasted until about 1650. The main changes between the Old English sound system and that of Middle English include: The combination of the last three processes listed above led to the spelling conventions associated with silent ⟨e⟩ and doubled consonants (see under Orthography , below). Middle English retains only two distinct noun-ending patterns from
8835-465: The 2004 and 2012 local elections, no individual political party held a majority on Cardiff County Council. The Liberal Democrats held the largest number of seats and Cllr Rodney Berman was Leader of the council. The Liberal Democrats and Plaid Cymru formed a partnership administration. In the 2012 elections the Labour Party achieved an outright majority, after gaining an additional 33 seats across
8990-626: The 2005 revival of Doctor Who , Torchwood and Sherlock ) and is the Welsh base for the main national broadcasters. Cardiff Bay contains the Senedd building and the Wales Millennium Centre arts complex. Work continues at Cardiff Bay and in the centre on projects such as Cardiff International Sports Village , BBC drama village , and a new business district. Caerdydd (the Welsh name of
9145-568: The Church and legalities, which used Latin and Law French respectively. The Chancery Standard's influence on later forms of written English is disputed, but it did undoubtedly provide the core around which Early Modern English formed. Early Modern English emerged with the help of William Caxton 's printing press, developed during the 1470s. The press stabilized English through a push towards standardization, led by Chancery Standard enthusiast and writer Richard Pynson . Early Modern English began in
9300-406: The French version, Le Bel Inconnu (abbrev. BI). Gyngelayne is raised in the forest by his mother, who keeps him away from arms for fear her 'wild' son might come to harm. Gyngelayne is never told his real name by his mother. Instead, she calls him ‘ Bewfiz (Beautiful Son)’, since he is 'gentle of body' and has an attractive face. One day, Gyngelayne finds a dead knight in the forest. He dons
9455-625: The Napoleonic Wars Cardiff suffered some social and industrial unrest, starting with the trial and hanging of Dic Penderyn in 1831. The town grew rapidly from the 1830s onwards, when the Marquess of Bute built a dock , which eventually linked to the Taff Vale Railway . Cardiff became the main port for coal exports from the Cynon , Rhondda , and Rhymney valleys, and grew in population at
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#17330930420779610-545: The Nightingale . Some scholars have defined "Early Middle English" as encompassing English texts up to 1350. This longer time frame would extend the corpus to include many Middle English Romances (especially those of the Auchinleck manuscript c. 1330 ). Gradually, the wealthy and the government Anglicised again, although Norman (and subsequently French ) remained the dominant language of literature and law until
9765-571: The Norse speakers' inability to reproduce the ending sounds of English words influenced Middle English's loss of inflectional endings. Important texts for the reconstruction of the evolution of Middle English out of Old English are the Peterborough Chronicle , which continued to be compiled up to 1154; the Ormulum , a biblical commentary probably composed in Lincolnshire in the second half of
9920-544: The Old English -eþ , Midland dialects showing -en from about 1200, and Northern forms using -es in the third person singular as well as the plural. The past tense of weak verbs was formed by adding an -ed(e) , -d(e) , or -t(e) ending. The past-tense forms, without their personal endings, also served as past participles with past-participle prefixes derived from Old English: i- , y- , and sometimes bi- . Strong verbs , by contrast, formed their past tense by changing their stem vowel (e.g., binden became bound ,
10075-406: The Old Norse influence was strongest in the dialects under Danish control that composed the southern part of the Northern England (corresponding to the Scandinavian Kingdom of Jórvík ), the East Midlands and the East of England , words in the spoken language emerged in the 10th and 11th centuries near the transition from Old to Middle English. Influence on the written languages only appeared from
10230-609: The Senedd; the constituencies for the Senedd are the same as for the UK Parliament. All of the city's electors have an extra vote for the South Wales Central regional members; this system increases proportionality to the Senedd. The most recent Senedd general election was held on 6 May 2021 . In the Senedd, Cardiff is represented by Jenny Rathbone (Labour) in Cardiff Central , Julie Morgan (Labour) in Cardiff North , former First Minister Mark Drakeford (Labour) in Cardiff West and former First Minister Vaughan Gething (Labour) in Cardiff South and Penarth . At Westminster, Cardiff
10385-488: The UK, with an average annual temperature and rainfall of approximately 11°C and 1200mm respectively. Summers tend to be warm and sunny, with average maxima between 19 and 22 °C (66 and 72 °F). Winters are fairly wet, but excessive rainfall as well as frost are rare. Spring and autumn feel similar, with mild temperatures averaging around 15°C as daytime maxima. Rain is unpredictable at any time of year, although showers tend to be shorter in summer. The northern part of
10540-472: The United Kingdom. With the exception of some outlying privately built estates at Michaelston-super-Ely , this is an economically disadvantaged area with high numbers of unemployed households. Culverhouse Cross is a more affluent western area of the city. Fairwater , Heath , Birchgrove , Gabalfa , Mynachdy , Llandaff North , Llandaff , Llanishen , Radyr , Whitchurch & Tongwynlais , Rhiwbina , Thornhill , Lisvane and Cyncoed lie in an arc from
10695-411: The Welsh f [v] borrowed as ff / f / , as also happens in Taff (from Welsh Taf ) and Llandaff (from Welsh Llandaf ). The antiquarian William Camden (1551–1623) suggested that the name Cardiff may derive from * Caer-Didi ("the Fort of Didius"), a name supposedly given in honour of Aulus Didius Gallus , governor of a nearby province at the time when the Roman fort
10850-433: The Welsh Parliament. At the 2021 census, the unitary authority area population was put at 362,400. The population of the wider urban area in 2011 was 479,000. In 2011, it ranked sixth in the world in a National Geographic magazine list of alternative tourist destinations. It is the most popular destination in Wales with 21.3 million visitors in 2017. Cardiff is a major centre for television and film production (such as
11005-710: The abundance of Modern English words for the mechanisms of government that are derived from Anglo-Norman, such as court , judge , jury , appeal , and parliament . There are also many Norman-derived terms relating to the chivalric cultures that arose in the 12th century, an era of feudalism , seigneurialism , and crusading . Words were often taken from Latin, usually through French transmission. This gave rise to various synonyms, including kingly (inherited from Old English), royal (from French, inherited from Vulgar Latin), and regal (from French, which borrowed it from Classical Latin). Later French appropriations were derived from standard, rather than Norman, French. Examples of
11160-546: The advent of the Normans in the 11th century. In 1081 William I, King of England , began work on the castle keep within the walls of the old Roman fort. Cardiff Castle has been at the heart of the city ever since. The castle was substantially altered and extended during the Victorian period by John Crichton-Stuart, 3rd Marquess of Bute , and the architect William Burges . Original Roman work can, however, still be distinguished in
11315-494: The areas of politics, law, the arts, and religion, as well as poetic and emotive diction. Conventional English vocabulary remained primarily Germanic in its sources, with Old Norse influences becoming more apparent. Significant changes in pronunciation took place, particularly involving long vowels and diphthongs, which in the later Middle English period began to undergo the Great Vowel Shift . Little survives of early Middle English literature , due in part to Norman domination and
11470-567: The beginning of the 13th century, this delay in Scandinavian lexical influence in English has been attributed to the lack of written evidence from the areas of Danish control, as the majority of written sources from Old English were produced in the West Saxon dialect spoken in Wessex , the heart of Anglo-Saxon political power at the time. The Norman Conquest of England in 1066 saw the replacement of
11625-826: The city of Newport; to the north by the South Wales Valleys , and to the south by the Severn Estuary and Bristol Channel . The River Taff winds through the city centre and together with the River Ely flows into the freshwater Cardiff Bay. A third river, the Rhymney , flows through the east of the city directly into the Severn Estuary. Cardiff lies near the Glamorgan Heritage Coast , stretching westward from Penarth and Barry – commuter towns of Cardiff – with striped yellow-blue Jurassic limestone cliffs. The Glamorgan coast
11780-425: The city's steward and "Constable of that castelle", who has the habit of fighting every knight who comes to the city seeking lodging (" ostell ", 'hospitality'). The loser suffers the shame of having carnage and filth (" cor/goore and fen[ne] ") cast at by the city-folk. Libeaus brings along Gifflet (his squire, here "Gyrflete") as fellow Knight of the Round. Libeaus engages Lambert in three rounds of jousting, and
11935-589: The city) derives from the Middle Welsh Caerdyf . The change from -dyf to -dydd shows the colloquial alteration of Welsh f [v] and dd [ð] and was perhaps also driven by folk etymology . This sound change probably first occurred in the Middle Ages ; both forms were current in the Tudor period . Caerdyf has its origins in post-Roman Brythonic words meaning "the fort of
12090-449: The city, are built of Portland stone from Dorset. A widely used building stone in Cardiff is the yellow-grey Liassic limestone rock of the Vale of Glamorgan, including the rare "Sutton Stone", a conglomerate of lias limestone and carboniferous limestone. Cardiff is bordered to the west by the rural district of the Vale of Glamorgan, also known as the Garden of Cardiff, to the east by
12245-595: The city, including the National Museum of Wales , the Welsh National War Memorial , and the University of Wales Registry Building, but it was denied the National Library of Wales , partly because the library's founder, Sir John Williams, considered Cardiff to have "a non-Welsh population". After a brief post-war boom, Cardiff docks entered a prolonged decline in the interwar period . By 1936, trade
12400-411: The city. Cardiff is divided into communities, several with their own community council and the rest governed directly by Cardiff City Council. Elections are held every five years. The last contested elections would have been held at the same time as the 2017 Cardiff Council election had there been more candidates standing than available seats. Those with community councils are: The centre of Cardiff
12555-414: The clergy for written communication and record-keeping. A significant number of Norman words were borrowed into English and used alongside native Germanic words with similar meanings. Examples of Norman/Germanic pairs in Modern English include pig and pork , calf and veal , wood and forest , and freedom and liberty . The role of Anglo-Norman as the language of government and law can be seen in
12710-614: The coastal marl found near Penarth. One of the Triassic rocks used in Cardiff is "Radyr Stone", a freestone which as its name suggests is quarried in the Radyr district. Cardiff has also imported some materials for buildings: Devonian sandstones (the Old Red Sandstone ) from the Brecon Beacons has been used. Most famously, the buildings of Cathays Park , the civic centre in the centre of
12865-507: The comparative and superlative (e.g., greet , great; gretter , greater). Adjectives ending in -ly or -lich formed comparatives either with -lier , -liest or -loker , -lokest . A few adjectives also displayed Germanic umlaut in their comparatives and superlatives, such as long , lenger . Other irregular forms were mostly the same as in modern English. Middle English personal pronouns were mostly developed from those of Old English , with
13020-606: The desire of medieval authors to "seek to ensure a measure of authenticity for their tales" should be remembered. Similarities in Tyolet and the Second Continuation of Chrétien's Perceval, le Conte du Graal has led R.S. Loomis to observe that the two stories "must derive from a common remote source". Instances of animals transforming into human beings occur also in the twelfth-century Breton lays of Marie de France , in particular " Bisclavret " and " Yonec ". R. S. Loomis notes
13175-478: The development of the Chancery Standard in the 15th century, orthography became relatively standardised in a form based on the East Midlands-influenced speech of London. Spelling at the time was mostly quite regular . (There was a fairly consistent correspondence between letters and sounds.) The irregularity of present-day English orthography is largely due to pronunciation changes that have taken place over
13330-541: The different dialects of the bits and pieces he incorporated into his own poetry . Libeaus Desconus was written for a more popular audience than the Old French romances on which it models itself. Most of the themes and motifs in Libeaus Desconus are drawn from a common stock of medieval Arthurian material. It is difficult to assign a unique work from which this Middle English poem derives, although some have argued for
13485-488: The different dialects, that was based chiefly on the speech of the East Midlands but also influenced by that of other regions. The writing of this period, however, continues to reflect a variety of regional forms of English. The Ayenbite of Inwyt , a translation of a French confessional prose work, completed in 1340, is written in a Kentish dialect . The best known writer of Middle English, Geoffrey Chaucer , wrote in
13640-531: The double consonant represented a sound that was (or had previously been) geminated (i.e., had genuinely been "doubled" and would thus have regularly blocked the lengthening of the preceding vowel). In other cases, by analogy, the consonant was written double merely to indicate the lack of lengthening. The basic Old English Latin alphabet consisted of 20 standard letters plus four additional letters: ash ⟨æ⟩ , eth ⟨ð⟩ , thorn ⟨þ⟩ , and wynn ⟨ƿ⟩ . There
13795-402: The early 19th century, its prominence as a port for coal when mining began in the region helped its expansion. In 1905, it was ranked as a city and in 1955 proclaimed capital of Wales . Cardiff Built-up Area covers a larger area outside the county boundary, including the towns of Dinas Powys and Penarth . Cardiff is the main commercial centre of Wales as well as the base for the Senedd ,
13950-468: The end of the Middle English period only the strong -'s ending (variously spelled) was in use. Some formerly feminine nouns, as well as some weak nouns, continued to make their genitive forms with -e or no ending (e.g., fole hoves , horses' hooves), and nouns of relationship ending in -er frequently have no genitive ending (e.g., fader bone , "father's bane"). The strong -(e)s plural form has survived into Modern English. The weak -(e)n form
14105-420: The evil clerks. She also tells him that the only way the curse which had changed her into a serpent could be lifted was by kissing Gawain or someone else of his kin. Then the lady offers herself and her many possessions to Libeaus, who gladly accepts. (vv. 1833–2168) After staying Lambert for seven days at Synadowne (Snowdon), Libeaus and the Lady of Synadowne go to King Arthur's court, where Arthur grants Libeaus
14260-418: The exception of the third person plural, a borrowing from Old Norse (the original Old English form clashed with the third person singular and was eventually dropped). Also, the nominative form of the feminine third person singular was replaced by a form of the demonstrative that developed into sche (modern she ), but the alternative heyr remained in some areas for a long time. As with nouns, there
14415-405: The fate of past losers who had their struck-off heads stuck "upon a shafte" for display. Libeaus causes steed and knight to fall and Geffron's back cracks audibly. Libeaus has the prize falcon taken to Arthur, who is so satisfied with his knight that he decides to send him a hundred pounds in florins at Cardiff, and here Libeaus holds a forty-days feast. (vv. 724–1028) In a forest, Libeaus's group
14570-399: The first challenge for which the king is required to provide a champion. ( Libeaus Desconus vv. 1–105) Soon a fair maiden, Elene ( Middle English : Ellene/Ellyne ) with a dwarf, Theodeley, come riding in. They are on mission to save their Lady of Synadowne (Snowdon), who has been imprisoned, and asks Arthur to send out a knight to free her. When Arthur grants Libeaus the quest, the maiden
14725-403: The forest, away from the threat of arms, spent his childhood hunting in this forest and at last came upon the home of a great lord where he was given the name Fionn, or Fair. Although the Irish and Scottish lays were only redacted in modern times, they often lay claim ancient authorship or old oral tradtiion. The episode of the many-coloured hunting dogs (common to LD and the French version) has
14880-412: The indicator of the longer and changed pronunciation of ⟨a⟩ . In fact, vowels could have this lengthened and modified pronunciation in various positions, particularly before a single consonant letter and another vowel or before certain pairs of consonants. A related convention involved the doubling of consonant letters to show that the preceding vowel was not to be lengthened. In some cases,
15035-501: The knight Syr William Delaraunche, who will demand that Libeaus fight or else relinquishes his arms. Elene chides Libeaus that he will prove himself not valiant enough. But Libeaus unhorses his opponent in joust, then breaks his weapon in swordfight. Libeaus will spare William on condition he will report himself as vanquished prisoner to Arthur's court. Only now does Elene's ridicule of Lybeaus subside, and she begs his "Mercy" for her earlier verbal abuses.(vv. 265–452) Next morning, Libeaus
15190-458: The lady's hand. A forty-day feast follows, after which the newly-weds are escorted back to Synadowne by Arthur and his knights, where they live happily together for many years. (vv. 2169– 2204[end]) Libeaus Desconus is a late fourteenth-century Middle English poem of around 2,200 lines (the exact number of lines varies amongst the six manuscripts). Like many Middle English romances (e.g. The Wedding of Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnelle and Emaré )
15345-452: The lady's torment. Lambert informs Libeaus that the Lady of Synadowne is being held captive by two "clerks of necromancy" (or "clerics" who practice black magic) (‘nigermansye’): Lambert informs Libeaus that these two clerks, brothers named Mabon and Irayne (Jrayne) have created a magical palace which no nobleman dares enter, and they say that they will kill the lady unless she transfers all of her right (birthright) to Mabon. Not only that, but
15500-459: The last decade of the fourteenth century and the middle of the fifteenth century". Following a number of adventures in which the eponymous hero demonstrates his martial prowess, Ipomadon puts on the garb of a fool and goes to the court of the uncle of the lady he loves, the King of Sicily, where he agrees to stay only if he is granted the "fyrste battayle". Shortly after he arrives, a maiden appears, "apon
15655-401: The late thirteenth or early fourteenth century, the lay itself was probably composed by the beginning of the thirteenth century. Like Perceval and Libeaus Desconus, Tyolet arrives at King Arthur's court as a young man who has spent all his childhood living alone in the forest with his mother. Like Perceval and Libeaus Desconus, what prompts Tyolet to go to King Arthur's court in the first place is
15810-441: The life of Perceval that are similarly situated to Libeaus desconus , only more vividly compared to LD 's "summary". The variant of Libeaus Desconus in which the maid rescued from giants is offered in marriage to the hero is of particular importance to R. S. Loomis in his comparative study to Erec et Enide , because this nuptial offer is followed by the gerfalcon adventure, just as Erec's amorous ties to Enide are followed by
15965-462: The maiden is Violet, daughter of the earl Anctour. He escorts her to the earl, bearing the giants' heads as trophy, which are then sent to Arthur's court as presents. (The Earl offers his daughter's hand in marriage in an interpolation, and Libeaus declines because he has a mission to accomplish)) The Earl then rewards Libeaus with beautiful armour and a fine steed. (vv. 568–723) Libeaus next defeats Geffron (Jeffron), Lord of Cardiff (Cordile), winning
16120-573: The maiden's land and he frees the lady, who is, in fact, the lady he loves. The maiden's name is Imayne, she travels with a dwarf and, along the way, Ipomadon defeats a knight named Maugys. The upbringing-in-the-wild motif is evident not only in tales of the Fair Unknown and in Chrétien de Troyes' Perceval, le Conte du Graal but in the Breton lay Tyolet . Known from only one Old French manuscript, dating to
16275-556: The main difference lied on their inflectional endings, which led to much confusion within the mixed population that existed in the Danelaw, this endings tended gradually to become obscured and finally lost, "simplifying English grammar" in the process. In time, the inflections melted away and the analytic pattern emerged. Viking influence on Old English is most apparent in pronouns , modals, comparatives, pronominal adverbs (like hence and together ), conjunctions, and prepositions show
16430-401: The man's armour and goes to Glastonbury, where King Arthur is holding court. There he asks Arthur to dub him a knight although his upbringing is uncourtly. Arthur is so pleased by young Gyngelayne's sight that he gives him a name – Libeaus Desconus, ‘The Fair Unknown’ ( Middle English : "þe faire unknowe" ) – and knights him that same day. Libeaus at once asks King Arthur if he might be offered
16585-417: The masculine accusative, genitive, and dative, the feminine dative, and the plural genitive. The Owl and the Nightingale adds a final -e to all adjectives not in the nominative, here only inflecting adjectives in the weak declension (as described above). Comparatives and superlatives were usually formed by adding -er and -est . Adjectives with long vowels sometimes shortened these vowels in
16740-427: The more complex system of inflection in Old English : Nouns of the weak declension are primarily inherited from Old English n -stem nouns but also from ō -stem, wō -stem, and u -stem nouns, which did not inflect in the same way as n -stem nouns in Old English, but joined the weak declension in Middle English. Nouns of the strong declension are inherited from the other Old English noun stem classes. Some nouns of
16895-484: The most marked Danish influence. The best evidence of Scandinavian influence appears in extensive word borrowings; however, texts from the period in Scandinavia and Northern England do not provide certain evidence of an influence on syntax. However, at least one scholarly study of this influence shows that Old English may have been replaced entirely by Norse, by virtue of the change from Old English to Norse syntax. While
17050-547: The most part, being improvised. By the end of the period (about 1470), and aided by the invention of the printing press by Johannes Gutenberg in 1439, a standard based on the London dialects (Chancery Standard) had become established. This largely formed the basis for Modern English spelling, although pronunciation has changed considerably since that time. Middle English was succeeded in England by Early Modern English , which lasted until about 1650. Scots developed concurrently from
17205-506: The north-west to the north-east of the centre. Lisvane, Cyncoed, Radyr and Rhiwbina contain some of the most expensive housing in Wales. Further east lie the wards of Pontprennau and Old St Mellons, Rumney, Pentwyn , Llanrumney , Llanedeyrn and Trowbridge . The last four are largely public housing stock, although much new private housing is being built in Trowbridge. Pontprennau is the newest "suburb" of Cardiff, while Old St Mellons has
17360-511: The number of surviving manuscripts, the Libeaus Desconus was the most popular of the Arthurian romances in Middle English. The summary is based on the Lambeth Palace text, TEAMS edition, though Kaluza's critical edition and Schofield's summary thereof will also be consulted, with variants indicated in explanatory notes. There are additional notes on comparison between this work (abbrev. LD) and
17515-681: The old insular g and the Carolingian g (modern g ), the former continued in use as a separate letter, known as yogh , written ⟨ȝ⟩ . This was adopted for use to represent a variety of sounds: [ɣ], [j], [dʒ], [x], [ç] , while the Carolingian g was normally used for [g]. Instances of yogh were eventually replaced by ⟨j⟩ or ⟨y⟩ and by ⟨gh⟩ in words like night and laugh . In Middle Scots , yogh became indistinguishable from cursive z , and printers tended to use ⟨z⟩ when yogh
17670-423: The other case endings disappeared in the Early Middle English period, including most of the roughly one dozen forms of the definite article ("the"). The dual personal pronouns (denoting exactly two) also disappeared from English during this period. The loss of case endings was part of a general trend from inflections to fixed word order that also occurred in other Germanic languages (though more slowly and to
17825-404: The other hand, Gabalfa, Plasnewydd and Cathays north of the 'arc' have large student populations, and Pontcanna (north of Riverside and alongside Canton) is a favourite for students and young professionals. Penylan , to the north east of Roath Park, is an affluent area popular with older parents and the retired. To the west lie Ely and Caerau , which have some of the largest housing estates in
17980-473: The palace hall: Irayne might well cause him trouble in the future. While Libeaus contemplates his situation, a window appears in one of the walls, and a winged serpent ( Middle English : worm ) with a woman's face crawls through. The dragon speaks, asserting that it is 'young', and then kisses a terrified Libeaus. Consequently, it changes into a beautiful young woman: the Lady of Synadowne. She thanks Libeaus for freeing her, and tells him that he has slain both of
18135-479: The poem is divided into stanzas of tail-rhyme verse, a rhyming couplet followed by a tail-rhyme, repeated four times in each stanza in a scheme like AABCCBDDBEEB. Writing principally in a dialect of southern England, possibly the SE Midlands, Thomas Chestre has been described as a "hack writer" who had an acquaintance with a number of other Middle English romances and was able to borrow from them, often retaining
18290-403: The prestige that came with writing in French rather than English. During the 14th century, a new style of literature emerged with the works of writers including John Wycliffe and Geoffrey Chaucer , whose Canterbury Tales remains the most studied and read work of the period. The transition from Late Old English to Early Middle English had taken place by the 1150s to 1180s, the period when
18445-531: The question of Chestre's sources broached above, the links and differences between them are a complex issue, and one cannot simply assume a lost twelfth-century work from which they all originate. As well as the late-twelfth/early thirteenth century Old French romance Le Bel Inconnu , or its hypothesised precursor, there are a number of other works that are parallels which share motifs with Thomas Chestre's story Libeaus Desconus , possibly influencing, or influenced by it. The "Fair Unknown" story has parallels in
18600-518: The reins, finds nobody there but minstrels playing their music. Going deeper into the palace, searching for someone to fight with, he passes magnificent columns and stained glass windows and sits down on the raised platform at the far end of the space. The minstrels who had been playing now vanish, the earth shakes, and stones fall down. On the field outside appear the two necromantic clerks, Mabon and Irayne, armed and on horseback. They are intent on killing Libeaus, who does battle with them both. His horse
18755-564: The resulting doublet pairs include warden (from Norman) and guardian (from later French; both share a common ancestor loaned from Germanic). The end of Anglo-Saxon rule did not result in immediate changes to the language. The general population would have spoken the same dialects as they had before the Conquest. Once the writing of Old English came to an end, Middle English had no standard language, only dialects that evolved individually from Old English. Early Middle English (1150–1350) has
18910-795: The second half of the 14th century in the emerging London dialect, although he also portrays some of his characters as speaking in northern dialects, as in " The Reeve's Tale ". In the English-speaking areas of lowland Scotland , an independent standard was developing, based on the Northumbrian dialect . This would develop into what came to be known as the Scots language . A large number of terms for abstract concepts were adopted directly from scholastic philosophical Latin (rather than via French). Examples are "absolute", "act", "demonstration", and "probable". The Chancery Standard of written English emerged c. 1430 in official documents that, since
19065-458: The second person singular in -(e)st (e.g., þou spekest , "thou speakest"), and the third person singular in -eþ (e.g., he comeþ , "he cometh/he comes"). ( þ (the letter "thorn") is pronounced like the unvoiced th in "think", but under certain circumstances, it may be like the voiced th in "that"). The following table illustrates a typical conjugation pattern: Plural forms vary strongly by dialect, with Southern dialects preserving
19220-411: The shafts are shivered many times over upon shields, Libeaus breaks the other's helmet in the second bout, and unhorses him in the third. Lambert concedes defeat and guesses Libeaus must be Gawain's kin, and says he is more than welcome especially if he is willing to fight on behalf of his lady. Libeaus replies this is exactly what he has been tasked to do, but knew not of the reasons or perpetrators behind
19375-449: The sight of armour. Unlike Chrétien's Perceval , but like Libeaus Desconus , an animal in this story is transformed into a human, in this case a stag which changes into an armed knight, a "knight-beast". The Breton lays that we have from the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, on the evidence of the opening passages in Tyolet and others, describing their transmission, are possibly derived from stories that are considerably older, although
19530-430: The similarities between the early life of Perceval and the enfances of Finn mac Cumhail , as found in the twelfth-century narrative The Boyhood Deeds of Fionn ( Macgnímartha Finn ), and makes a similar comparison with the boyhood of Sir Gawain's son Gingalais, who arrives at King Arthur's court to become the Fair Unknown. Finn mac Cumhail likewise was a son of noble blood, first named Demne, deliberately reared deep in
19685-414: The son of King Arthur 's knight Gawain and a fay who raises him ignorant of his parentage and his name. As a young man, he visits Arthur's court to be knighted, and receives his nickname; in this case Sir Libeaus Desconus, before setting forth on a series of adventures which consolidate his new position in society. He eventually discovers who his father is, and marries a powerful lady. Other versions of
19840-567: The sparrowhawk episode in Chrétien's romance. (The topic of the gerfalcon episode paralleled in Erec et Enide has already broached in the plot summary above, under § Gerfalcon contest ). This story of Erec and Enide has itself been considered a successful reworking of material from which the tales of the Fair Unknown derive, in particular creating a heroine 'who is more complex and interesting than any of her counterparts in Le Bel Inconnu . There
19995-494: The story include the Middle High German romance Wigalois (c. 1204–1210) by Wirnt von Gravenberc and the 14th-century Italian epic Carduino . The "Fair Unknown" story has parallels in the tale of La Cote Male Taile , Chrétien de Troyes 's Conte du Graal , and Sir Thomas Malory 's Tale of Sir Gareth from Le Morte d'Arthur . Versions of Libeaus Desconus can be found in the following manuscripts: Judged by
20150-635: The streets of Cardiff". From 1901 coal exports from Barry surpassed those from Cardiff, but the administration of the coal trade remained centred on Cardiff, in particular its Coal Exchange , where the price of coal on the British market was determined and the first million-pound deal was struck in 1907. The city also strengthened its industrial base when the owners of the Dowlais Ironworks in Merthyr (who would later form part of Guest, Keen and Nettlefolds ) built
20305-409: The strong type have an -e in the nominative/accusative singular, like the weak declension, but otherwise strong endings. Often, these are the same nouns that had an -e in the nominative/accusative singular of Old English (they, in turn, were inherited from Proto-Germanic ja -stem and i -stem nouns). The distinct dative case was lost in early Middle English, and although the genitive survived, by
20460-585: The tale of La Cote Male Taile and Sir Thomas Malory 's Tale of Sir Gareth from Le Morte d'Arthur . as well as Chrétien de Troyes ' Conte du Graal . Chrétien de Troyes 's Perceval, le Conte du Graal (c. 1180–1190) and its Welsh version Peredur in the Mabinogion are named as parallels, moreover, Percival has been held to be the original template upon which the Fair Unknown stories were crafted, according to Schofield.<name="fresco-n33"/> Schofield even went so far as to pronounce that Libeaus
20615-477: The title. Welsh local authorities had been divided: only 76 out of 161 chose Cardiff in a 1924 poll organised by the South Wales Daily News . The subject was not debated again until 1950, and meanwhile Cardiff took steps to promote its "Welshness". The stalemate between Cardiff and cities such as Caernarfon and Aberystwyth was not broken until Cardiganshire County Council decided to support Cardiff; and in
20770-440: The top levels of the English-speaking political and ecclesiastical hierarchies by Norman rulers who spoke a dialect of Old French , now known as Old Norman , which developed in England into Anglo-Norman . The use of Norman as the preferred language of literature and polite discourse fundamentally altered the role of Old English in education and administration, even though many Normans of this period were illiterate and depended on
20925-480: The town walls, much of Cardiff was destroyed. The settlement was soon rebuilt on the same street plan and began to flourish again. (Glyndŵr's statue was erected in Cardiff Town Hall in the early 20th century, reflecting the complex, often conflicting cultural identity of Cardiff as capital of Wales.) Besides serving an important political role in the governance of the fertile south Glamorgan coastal plain, Cardiff
21080-475: The townsfolk fear that they intend to "do her sin" (i.e., rape her), presumably with the design of claim her as wife. Lambert rides with Libeaus to the gate of the perilous palace, but no other barons, burgesses, etc. are willing to accompany, save for Libeaus's swain Gifflet (here "Sir Jerflete"), but he is denied due to mortal danger. (vv. 1521–1832 ) Next morning, Libeaus enters this palace and, leading his horse by
21235-649: The wall facings. A town grew up under the castle, consisting mainly of settlers from England. Cardiff had a population of between 1,500 and 2,000 in the Middle Ages – a normal size for a Welsh town in the period. It was the centre of the Norman Marcher Lordship of Glamorgan. By the end of the 13th century, Cardiff was the only town in Wales with a population exceeding 2,000, although it remained relatively small compared with notable towns in England and continued to be contained within its walls, which were begun as
21390-453: The walls of his honours castle and from the north part of the town to the south part where there is a fair quay and a safe harbour for shipping." Cardiff became a borough in 1542 and further Royal Charters were granted to it by Elizabeth I in 1600 and James I in 1608. In 1573, it was made a head port for collection of customs duties. Pembrokeshire historian George Owen described Cardiff in 1602 as "the fayrest towne in Wales yett not
21545-459: The wards of Plasnewydd , Gabalfa , Roath , Cathays , Adamsdown and Splott ward on the north and east of the city centre, and Butetown , Grangetown , Riverside and Canton to the south and west. The inner-city areas to the south of the A4161 road , known as the "Southern Arc", are with the exception of Cardiff Bay some of the poorest districts of Wales, with low levels of economic activity. On
21700-636: The welthiest". It gained a second Royal Charter in 1608. A disastrous flood in the Bristol Channel on 30 January 1607 (now believed to have been a tidal wave) changed the course of the River Taff and ruined St Mary's Parish Church , which was replaced by a chapel of ease dedicated to St John the Baptist. During the Second English Civil War St Fagans , just to the west of the town,
21855-405: Was "only Perceval with a new name". However, this notion has been retorted by modern Germanist J. W. Thomas. While admitting there are traces of Perceval material in the "Fair Unknown" romances, an equal or even more viable scenario is that these embellishments were merely later added. The Middle English verse romance, Sir Perceval of Galles ( Sir Perceval of Wales ), relates early events in
22010-654: Was a busy port in the Middle Ages and declared a staple port in 1327. In 1536, the Laws in Wales Acts 1535–1542 led to the creation of Glamorganshire and Cardiff was made the county town , it also became part of Kibbor hundred , around the same time the Herberts became the most powerful family in the area. In 1538, Henry VIII closed Cardiff's Dominican and Franciscan friaries, whose remains were used as building materials. A writer in this period noted: "The River Taff runs under
22165-554: Was a county borough governed by Cardiff County Borough Council (known as Cardiff City Council after 1905). Between 1974 and 1996, Cardiff was governed by Cardiff City Council , a district council of South Glamorgan . Since local government reorganisation in 1996 , Cardiff has been governed by the City and County Council of Cardiff, based at County Hall in Atlantic Wharf, Cardiff Bay. Voters elect 75 councillors every four years. Between
22320-455: Was a proponent of the theory that Thomas Chestre had recourse to a French work that was older than Renaut's Libeaus Desconus finds corroboration in Chestre's testimony of his "French source", which occurs in three passages in the work. However, it has been pointed out that it was "a convention of romance.. to acknowledge a French source, whether or not it is the actual source", so Chestre's claim of
22475-615: Was at less than half its value in 1913, reflecting the slump in demand for Welsh coal . Bomb damage in the Cardiff Blitz of World War II included the devastation of Llandaff Cathedral , and in the immediate postwar years, the city's link with the Bute family came to an end. The city was recognised as the capital city of Wales on 20 December 1955, in a written reply by the Home Secretary , Gwilym Lloyd George . Caernarfon had also vied for
22630-578: Was chosen as the site for the University College of South Wales and Monmouthshire in 1883. A permanent military presence was established with the completion of Maindy Barracks in 1877. Cardiff faced a challenge in the 1880s when David Davies of Llandinam and the Barry Railway Company promoted rival docks at Barry . These had the advantage of being accessible in all tides : David Davies claimed his venture would cause "grass to grow in
22785-486: Was established. Although some sources repeat this theory, it has been rejected on linguistic grounds by modern scholars such as Professor Gwynedd Pierce. Archaeological evidence from sites in and around Cardiff show that people had settled in the area by at least around 6000 BC, during the early Neolithic; about 1,500 years before either Stonehenge or the Great Pyramid of Giza was completed. These include
22940-425: Was indicated by agreement of articles and pronouns (e.g., þo ule "the feminine owl") or using the pronoun he to refer to masculine nouns such as helm ("helmet"), or phrases such as scaft stærcne (strong shaft), with the masculine accusative adjective ending -ne . Single-syllable adjectives added -e when modifying a noun in the plural and when used after the definite article ( þe ), after
23095-414: Was later created Baron Cardiff . In 1778, he began renovating Cardiff Castle. A racecourse , printing press , bank and coffee house opened in the 1790s and Cardiff gained a stagecoach service to London. Despite these improvements, Cardiff's position in the Welsh urban hierarchy declined over the 18th century. Iolo Morganwg called it "an obscure and inconsiderable place" and the 1801 census found
23250-484: Was not available in their fonts; this led to new spellings (often giving rise to new pronunciations), as in McKenzie , where the ⟨z⟩ replaced a yogh, which had the pronunciation /j/ . Cardiff Cardiff ( / ˈ k ɑːr d ɪ f / ; Welsh : Caerdydd [kairˈdiːð, kaːɨrˈdɨːð] ) is the capital and largest city of Wales . Cardiff had a population of 372,089 in 2022 and forms
23405-520: Was not yet a distinct j , v , or w , and Old English scribes did not generally use k , q , or z . Ash was no longer required in Middle English, as the Old English vowel /æ/ that it represented had merged into /a/ . The symbol nonetheless came to be used as a ligature for the digraph ⟨ae⟩ in many words of Greek or Latin origin, as did ⟨œ⟩ for ⟨oe⟩ . Eth and thorn both represented /θ/ or its allophone / ð / in Old English. Eth fell out of use during
23560-450: Was one of a series of military outposts associated with Isca Augusta ( Caerleon ) that acted as border defences. The fort may have been abandoned in the early 2nd century as the area had been subdued. However, by this time a civilian settlement, or vicus , was established. It was likely made up of traders who made a living from the fort, ex-soldiers and their families. A Roman villa has been discovered at Ely . Contemporary with
23715-512: Was opened. The Senedd (Welsh Parliament; Welsh : Senedd Cymru ) has been based in Cardiff Bay since its formation in 1999 as the "National Assembly for Wales". The Senedd building was opened on 1 March 2006 by The Queen . The Members of the Senedd (MSs), the Senedd Commission and ministerial support staff are based in Cardiff Bay. Cardiff elects four constituency Members of the Senedd to
23870-417: Was ousted by it in most dialects by the 15th. The following table shows some of the various Middle English pronouns. Many other variations are noted in Middle English sources because of differences in spellings and pronunciations at different times and in different dialects. As a general rule, the indicative first person singular of verbs in the present tense ended in -e (e.g., ich here , "I hear"),
24025-469: Was some inflectional simplification (the distinct Old English dual forms were lost), but pronouns, unlike nouns, retained distinct nominative and accusative forms. Third person pronouns also retained a distinction between accusative and dative forms, but that was gradually lost: The masculine hine was replaced by him south of the River Thames by the early 14th century, and the neuter dative him
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