Celtic literature

Introduction

      the body of writings composed in Gaelic and the languages derived from it, Scottish Gaelic and Manx, and in Welsh and its sister languages, Breton and Cornish. For writings in English by Irish, Scottish, and Welsh authors, see English literature. French-language works by Breton authors are covered in French literature.

Irish (Irish literature) Gaelic

      The introduction of Celtic (Celtic languages) into Ireland has not been authoritatively dated, but it cannot be later than the arrival there of the first settlers of the La Tène culture in the 3rd century BC. The language is often described in its earliest form as Goídelic, named after the Celts (Goídil; singular, Goídel) who spoke it. The modern form, known in English as Gaelic (in Gaelic called Gaedhilge or Gaeilge), is derived from the Scottish Gàidhlig.

      The earliest evidence of Irish Gaelic consists of archaic sepulchral inscriptions in the ogham alphabet (ogham writing) based on a system of strokes and notches cut on the edges of stone or wood usually ascribed to the 4th and 5th centuries AD. Writings in the Roman alphabet date from 8th-century glosses in Old Irish, but 7th- and even 6th-century compositions are preserved in much later manuscripts.

      Four distinct periods are recognizable in Irish Gaelic literature. The early literature (linguistically Archaic, Old, and Early Middle Irish), was composed by a professional class, the fili (singular, fili), and by churchmen. The medieval literature (linguistically late Middle and Classical Modern Irish) was dominated by the lay and hereditary bardic orders. In the late literature (17th century to the end of the 19th) authorship passed into the hands of individuals among the peasants, the class to which most Irish speakers had been reduced, using the dialects into which the language had been broken up. The subsequent revival has continued to the present day.

Early period

      Irish literature was originally aristocratic and was cultivated by the fili, who seem to have inherited the role of the learned priestly order represented in Caesar's Gaul by the Druids, vates (“seers”), and bards and to have been judges, historians, and official poets responsible for all traditional lore and the performance of all rites and ceremonies. The arrival of Christianity and the gradual disappearance of paganism led to the abandonment of their specifically priestly functions. Nevertheless, the fili seem to have retained responsibility for the oral transmission of native lore or learning, which was in marked contrast to the new book or manuscript learning of the Christian Church. Fortunately, the ecclesiastical scholars were not as hostile to the native lore as were their counterparts abroad, and they appear to have been eager to commit it to writing. As a result, Ireland's oral culture was extensively recorded in writing long before it could have evolved that art itself. The record consisted mainly of history, legendary and factual; laws; genealogies; and poems, but prose was the predominant vehicle.

      The fili were powerful in early Irish society and were often arrogant, enforcing their demands by the threat of a lampoon (áer), a poet's curse that could ruin reputations and, so it was thought, even kill. The laws set out penalties for abuse of the áer, and belief in its powers continued up to modern times. The official work of the fili has been preserved in fragments of annals and treatises.

Verse

      The earliest verse has been preserved mainly in passages incorporated into later documents, both literary and legal; most have suffered in transmission and are very obscure. One of the earliest poems is a eulogy on St. Columba (c. 521–597) in rhetorical short sentences linked by alliteration, ascribed to Dallán Forgaill, chief poet of Ireland. This device of alliterative rhythmical prose was used again in the sagas. Probably the oldest actual metre was that in which two half lines were linked by alliteration—a system reminiscent of early Germanic verse. Rhyme was used from the 7th century; the requirement was only that there should be identity of vowel and syllabic length and that consonants should belong to the same phonetic class—a system also found in early Welsh. The quatrain (seven or eight syllables to a line and rhyme between second and fourth lines) was derived from Latin hymn metres. The quatrains of the later popular metre, the debide (literally “cut in two”), consisted of two couplets with the two lines of each couplet rhyming.

      Much early verse was of an official nature, but that of the church was hardly more lively than that of the fili, who often affected a deliberately obscure style. More interesting was the 10th-century Psalter, a biblical history in 150 poems. But the real glory of Irish verse lay in anonymous poets who composed poems such as the famous address to Pangur, a white cat. They avoided complicated metres and used a language that had been cultivated for centuries, with a freshness of insight denied to the fili. That the fili could, however, adapt their technique was shown by an 11th-century poem on the sea, where preface, choice of theme, and metaphorical expressions all suggest Scandinavian influence. This and other nature poetry carried on a tradition of native lyrics, sagas, and seasonal songs that showed remarkable sensitivity. The monastic and eremitic movement in the Irish Church also provided a strong impetus to nature poetry. This almost Franciscan poetry had an especial appeal to monastic scribes, so that much of it has been preserved.

      Historical verse arose partly because recording of the past was an important part of the work of the fili; some of the earliest poems were metrical genealogy. As time went on the necessity for compendiums of information grew, and these were again often in metrical form. In a long poem, Fianna bátar in Emain (“The Warriors Who Were in Emain”), Cináed ua Artacáin summed up the saga material, while Fland Mainistrech collected the work of generations of fili who had laboured to synchronize Ireland's history with that of the outside world. Equally important is a great collection, in prose and verse, called the Dindshenchas, which gave appropriate legends to famous sites of Ireland between the 9th and 11th centuries. Indeed, the development of a loose debide form, making rhyming easy, facilitated mnemonic verse on numerous subjects.

Prose

      The early Irish epic was a prose narrative that usually contained non-narrative poetic passages, often in dialogue form. The resemblance between this and the type of epic found in early Sanskrit suggests that the tradition went back to Indo-European times. The oldest sagas (saga) probably were first written down in the 7th and 8th centuries, from an oral tradition. These were imperfectly preserved, since Scandinavian invasions in the 9th and 10th centuries disrupted literary studies. Not until the 11th century did life become sufficiently settled for works to be collected in monasteries, and even then the collecting seems to have been haphazard. The great codex Lebor Na Huidre (The Book of the Dun Cow (Dun Cow, The Book of the)), written early in the 12th century, showed older treatments of saga material than are found in The Book of Leinster, written years later. The material has preserved a picture of primitive society—fighting from chariots, taking heads as trophies, the position of the Druids, the force of taboos—for which there is little or no evidence from strictly historical sources.

      The most important cycle was that of the Ulaid, a people who gave their name to Ulster (Ulster cycle). Conchobar (king of the Ulaid), Cú Chulainn (a boy warrior), Medb (queen of Connaught), and Noísi and Deirdre, doomed lovers, were outstanding figures in early Irish literature, and it was on elements from the sagas of the Ulaid that the nearest approach to an Irish epic was built— Táin Bó Cuailnge (Cattle Raid of Cooley, The) (The Cattle Raid of Cooley). First put together in the 7th or 8th century, it is striking chiefly for its terse vividness. The finest section is that in which Fergus, an exile from Ulster, recalls the deeds of Cú Chulainn's youth. But the value of the Táin generally lies in that, as it was being continually worked over, it provides a record of the degeneration of Irish style. The Táin collected around itself a number of ancillary stories, including that of its revelation to the fili in the 7th century by the ghost of Fergus and that of the tragedy of Noísi and Deirdre.

      In this period stories with an origin outside the recognized tradition began to appear. An exotic element was represented by The Taking of Troy and The Story of Alexander, which appeared in the oldest saga lists, but classical learning had comparatively little effect until the next period. Stories of Finn, whose traditions went back to an early period, only really developed when the fili were no longer in control. The “wild-man-of-the-woods” cycle associated with Suibne Geilt had its origins in Strathclyde, where Irish and Brythonic literature must have been in contact at an early date; this mixture of hagiography, saga, and nature material was one of the most attractive stories of the later period.

      The earliest didactic writings, Irish in language but in content mostly of Latin origin, comprised monastic rules, homilies, and hagiography. The lives of the saints were mainly works of fantasy, increasingly incorporating elements from folklore and saga material. The emphasis was always on the miraculous, but they are valuable as social documents. Another important genre of religious work was the vision, exemplified in Fís Adamnáín (Adamnán, The Vision of) (The Vision of Adamnan), whose soul is represented as leaving his body for a time to visit heaven and hell under the guidance of an angel. Both the saints' lives and the visions tended to degenerate into extravagance, so that parodies were composed, notably Aislinge Meic Con Glinne (The Vision of MacConglinne).

      Theory has always been important in Irish cultural life, and the fili built up a considerable body of academic speculation. A few surviving fragments discuss the nature of inspiration and the origin of language, with practical instruction on matters of metrics and style. Early on, a technical vocabulary was built up to deal with Latin, as well as Irish, grammar. In several ancient texts discussion of the art of the poet was mixed with questions relating to his legal status.

Middle period

      The 12th century was a period of contradictions. While the oldest surviving codices were being written in monasteries, fairly faithfully preserving the much earlier literature, a new literary order elaborated verse forms to a far greater extent than before and used a language close to the vernacular of the day. After the 12th century the hereditary bardic families became custodians of Irish literature and continued in that function until the collapse of the Gaelic polity. At first completely divorced from ecclesiastical influence, they soon were sending their sons into the recently introduced orders, above all to the Franciscans (Franciscan), who were to become by the end of this period the greatest custodians of the tradition.

Bardic verse

      The bardic reform of verse was sweeping. The language was modernized, the large number of metres used by the fili was greatly reduced, and greater rhythmic control and ornamentation were required. The scope of the verse narrowed; the bulk was poetry praising the poet's patron or God. No longer associated with monastic foundations, the bards, who trained for six or seven years, confidently looked to patrons to secure their living. One of the earliest poets of the great bardic family of Ó Dálaigh, Muireadhach Albanach, left a fine elegy on the death of his wife, as well as a stirring defense of his action in killing a tax collector. The courtly love themes, introduced into Irish literature by the Norman invaders, were used with native bardic wit and felicitous style to produce the enchanting poems called dánta grádha. A different departure from praise poetry was the crosánacht, in which verse was frequently interspersed with humorous or satirical prose passages.

The Fenian cycle

      Most native prose of this period was concerned with the hero Finn and his war band (fian). Stories about Finn, Oisín, Caoilte, and the rest must have existed among the people for many centuries. The outstanding work was Agallamh na Seanórach (Interrogation of the Old Men, The) (“The Interrogation of the Old Men”), written in the 12th century, in which Caoilte is represented as surviving the Battle of Gabhra and living on to accompany Patrick through Ireland. The Fenian stories never received such careful literary treatment as did those of the Ulster cycle, and the old form was soon abandoned for prose tales and ballads, which may be regarded as the beginnings of popular, as opposed to professional, literature in Irish. The metres represented a drastic simplification of the bardic technique, and a distinct change in theme occurred as this literature passed into the hands of the people.

Other prose

      Stories popular with the fili steadily dropped out of favour. Sometimes they were combined with folktale elements, as was the case with the very old saga of Fergus mac Léti, which was rewritten, perhaps in the 14th century, to include a story of a people of tiny stature—the leprechauns (leprechaun). Most important of all, a flood of translations from Latin and English began. The stories of Marco Polo, Sir John Mandeville, Prester John, and Guy of Warwick, as well as classical and Arthurian stories in their medieval adaptations, became well known in Ireland. The new religious orders translated many spiritual and devotional works, and the churchmen made the experiment, remarkable for the time, of handling philosophical material in the vernacular. There was also much technical writing, especially on grammar and metrics. Continental teaching seems to have superseded the native tradition during this period.

      By the end of the 15th century the printing press began to make literature available to larger numbers in most European countries. In Ireland, however, literature remained for some time the preserve of those who could afford to maintain the writers and supply their costly vellum.

Late period

      The dispossession of the Irish and the old Anglo-Irish nobility during the late 16th and early 17th centuries entailed the practical disappearance of the professional bards, who were the nobility's dependents and propagandists. With their elimination the old order was doomed, and the Irish language itself began its long process of decay.

      Hardly any correct bardic verse was written in Ireland after 1650, but new poets took over from the bards. And just as the bardic measures had been in preparation for centuries before they established themselves as canonical, so the song metres that replaced them had existed for centuries among the people. The new poets abandoned the syllable-measured lines for lines with a fixed number of stresses; the stressed vowels rhymed in patterns that might be very simple or, later, bewilderingly intricate, but simple vocalic assonance took the place of earlier rhyme. The language of poetry moved toward that of the people. While poets had little patronage, there was at least an increasing supply of paper, so that their works, still barred from the printing press, were able to circulate. The tone of verse throughout the 17th century was passionately defiant of the new regime. In it is found the first coherent expression of patriotism conceived as devotion to an abstract ideal rather than as loyalty to an individual, but much of the verse represents a mere nostalgia for the past.

      The greatest poets of the song metres were Dáibhidh Ó Bruadair, one of the last poets to enjoy some patronage, and Aodhagán Ó Rathoille whose aisling (vision) poems made the genre popular. After them the poetic tradition was maintained into the 19th century by peasant poets who, although not lacking in subtlety of craftsmanship, and occasionally vigorous in satire, had none of the advantages and only a few of the virtues of their predecessors.

      During the 17th century valuable antiquarian prose was produced. The most important is Annála Ríoghachta éireann (completed 1636; “Annals of the Kingdom of Ireland”; Eng. trans., Annals of the Four Masters), a compilation of all available material on the history of Ireland to 1616, directed by Michael O'Clery. Geoffrey Keating produced the first historical (as opposed to annalistic) work in his Foras Feasa ar éirinn (written c. 1640; History of Ireland) as well as some fine verse in both old and new metres and two spiritual treatises.

      An interesting development in prose style was the satire Páirliment Chloinne Tomáis (“Parliament of Clan Thomas”). It appears to be by a representative of the bardic order, for it attacked with equal savagery the new ruling class and the native peasantry, using a style close to that of the earlier crosánacht but with prose predominating over verse. It found several imitators, but the old tradition was by this time too attenuated for so aristocratic an attitude to be maintained. Imaginative prose was more popular; it consisted of developments of Fenian or romance themes from Irish and foreign medieval literature mingled with elements of folklore and of the fabliau (a short metrical tale). As in the case of the song metres, these romances had a considerable tradition before they appeared in writing. But as the public for Irish became smaller, there was little hope for much prose production.

      The 18th century is a low point in Irish Gaelic literature. The last great flowering of the poetic tradition in Munster was Cúirt an Mheadhon Oidhche (written 1780, published 1904; The Midnight Court) by Brian Merriman, a Clare schoolmaster. After it, Irish poetry became a matter of folk songs.

      During the 18th and early 19th centuries the only books in Irish prose were catechisms and devotional tracts. The manuscript tradition was carried on by a few scribes into the first half of the 19th century, when it all but died out. By the mid-19th century there was little literary activity in Irish, and almost all Irish speakers were illiterate.

The Gaelic revival

      Ironically, it was English-speaking antiquarians and nationalists from the small educated class, rather than the Irish-speaking minority, who led the 19th-century revival, which in turn was stimulated by the Romantic movement's interest in Celtic subjects.

      The rich vocabulary and idiomatic expressions and the wealth of folklore and folktales of the Irish-speaking districts (gaeltachts) gradually were acknowledged. Folklore collectors such as Douglas Hyde were able to restore some sense of pride in the language. The revivalists even succeeded in securing for Irish a modest place in the country's educational system.

      But the revivalists were faced with a language of diverse dialects, and standardization was only effected in the mid-20th century with the help of new grammars, adequate dictionaries, and government support and direction. Writers whose Irish was rich and vigorous were persuaded that the reading public needed not more folklore but a literature that could compete internationally. Among the pioneers in this field were Patrick Pearse and Pádraic Ó Conaire, who introduced the modern short story into Irish. The short story flourished in the hands of Liam O'Flaherty and Máirtín Ó Cadhain, who also produced an outstanding novel, Cré na Cille (1953; “Churchyard Dust”). In verse the work of Máire Mhac an tSaoi, Máirtín Ó Direáin, and Seán Ó Ríordáin is impressive, and in their shadow a new generation of young poets, some of considerable talent, has grown up. Indeed, there is no lack of literary activity, as the two literary periodicals, Comhar (“Cooperation”) and Feasta (“Henceforth”), eloquently testify.

      In drama Brendan Behan's (Behan, Brendan) An Giall (1957; The Hostage) stands out, but Seán Ó Tuama, Eoghan Ó Tuairisc, Diarmaid Ó Súilleabháin, and Criostóir Ó Floinn also have written fine plays and have contributed in other genres. However, the drama in Irish cannot be said to have created for itself the following attracted by the Anglo-Irish theatre in its heyday under the influence of Yeats and Synge.

      Literary criticism of distinction has developed also, and Seán Ó Tuama, Tomás Ó Floinn, and Breandán Ó Doibhlin have produced essays of high standard.

      The most valuable contribution made by the gaeltachts has been a series of personal reminiscences describing local life. One of the best is Tomás Ó Criomhthain's An tOileánach (1929; The Islandman). At one time the gaeltacht memoirs threatened to become a vogue and inspired the brilliant satirical piece An Béal Bocht (1941; The Poor Mouth) by Flann O'Brien (O'Brien, Flann) (pseudonym of Brian Ó Nualláin). Less characteristic but perhaps no less valuable have been the autobiographies written in Irish. Together with the spate of scholarly biographies in Irish, some on literary or semiliterary figures, they show how the revival has increased its range and depth.

Scottish Gaelic

Writings of the medieval period

      The earliest extant Scottish Gaelic (Scots Gaelic language) writing (Scottish literature) consists of marginalia added in the 12th century to the Latin Gospels contained in the 9th-century Book of Deer (Deer, The Book of). The most important early Gaelic literary manuscript is The Book of the Dean of Lismore (Lismore, The Book of the Dean of), an anthology of verse compiled between 1512 and 1526 by Sir James MacGregor, dean of Lismore (Argyllshire), and his brother Duncan. Its poems fall into three main groups: those by Scottish authors, those by Irish authors, and ballads concerned with Ossian, the mythical warrior and bard. This is the earliest extensive anthology of heroic Gaelic ballads in either Scotland or Ireland. The Scottish Gaelic poems date from about 1310 to 1520. The bard best represented is Fionnlagh Ruadh, bard to John, chief of clan Gregor (died 1519). There are three poems by Giolla Coluim mac an Ollaimh, a professional poet at the court of the Lord of the Isles and almost certainly a member of the MacMhuirich bardic family, the famous line of hereditary bards whose work spans nearly 500 years from the 13th to the 18th century. Perhaps the most notable of the other poets is Giolla Críost Brúilingeach and two women, Aithbhreac Inghean Coirceadail and Isabella, countess of Argyll.

Continuation of the oral tradition

      Some 16th-century Gaelic poetry survived in oral tradition until the mid-18th century, when it was written down. Examples are An Duanag Ullamh (“The Finished Poem”), composed in honour of Archibald Campbell, 4th earl of Argyll, and the lovely lament Griogal Cridhe (“Teasing Heart”; c. 1570). It is certain that the poetry recorded in The Book of the Dean of Lismore was not an isolated outburst; much professional and popular poetry must have been lost. Songs in the nonsyllabic, accented measures survived, again orally, from the early 17th century. This was the tradition that produced the work songs—e.g., waulking songs used when fulling cloth.

      In 1567 appeared the first book printed in Gaelic in Scotland: Bishop John Carswell's Foirm na n-Urrnuidheadh a translation of John Knox's liturgy, in Classical Common Gaelic.

The 17th century

      This period was the high point of Scottish Gaelic literature. The political, ecclesiastical, and social structures of Scotland were changing as was the relationship between the central government and the Gaelic area. Enough Gaelic poetry survives to show that there were many poets of great talent, and the diffusion of artistic talent is scarcely matched in any other period in Scottish Gaelic history. It was the great age of the work songs and of the classical bagpipe music. Some of the poetry and prose was contained in three 17th-century manuscripts. The first two were the Black Book of Clanranald and the Red Book of Clanranald, written by members of the MacMhuirich family, who were latterly hereditary bards to the MacDonalds of Clanranald. They were probably written for the most part in the 17th century but contained poems by earlier representatives of the family. The other important document was the Fernaig manuscript, compiled between 1688 and 1693, containing about 4,200 lines of verse, mostly political and religious.

      The two best known poets of the 17th century were Mary MacLeod (Macleod, Mary) and Iain Lom. The former, known as Màiri Nighean Alasdair Ruaidh, was closely associated with the MacLeods of Harris and Dunvegan. Her poems show deep personal emotion, and her style is fresh and natural. She inherited the imagery of the bardic poets but placed it in a new setting, and her metres were strophic (having repeating patterns of lines) rather than strictly syllabic. John Macdonald, known as Iain Lom, took an active part in the events of his time. His life spanned an eventful period in Highland history, and his poetry reflected this. He composed poems about the battles of Inverlochy and Killiecrankie, a lament for the Marquess of Montrose, a poem on the Restoration of Charles II in 1660, several poems dealing with the Keppoch murder of 1663, and a song bitterly opposing the union of the Parliaments in 1707. His versification had a compression and concentration not often found in later Gaelic poetry.

      Other noteworthy 17th-century poets include Donnchadh MacRaoiridh, whose best-known poem consists of four calm, resigned verses composed on the day of his death; Alasdair MacKenzie and his son Murdo Mackenzie; and Roderick Morison, known as An Clarsair Dall (the Blind Harper), who became harper to Iain Breac MacLeod of Dunvegan. The strong texture and poetic intensity of Morison's Oran do Iain Breac MacLeòid (“Song to Iain MacLeod”) and his Creach na Ciadaoin (“Wednesday's Bereavement”) are remarkable. Dorothy Brown and Sìleas na Ceapaich were women poets of great talent.

      Four other poets mark the transition from the poetry of the 17th century to that of the 18th: Lachlan MacKinnon (Lachlann Mac Thearlaich Oig); John Mackay (Am Pìobaire Dall), whose Coire an Easa (“The Waterfall Corrie”) was significant in the development of Gaelic nature poetry; John Macdonald (Iain Dubh Mac Iain 'Ic Ailein), who wrote popular jingles; and John Maclean (Iain Mac Ailein), who showed an interest in early Gaelic legend. Finally, bardic poetry continued to be composed into the 18th century by Niall and Domhnall MacMhuirich.

Developments of the 18th century

      Almost no secular poetry in Gaelic was printed before 1751, and most earlier verse was recovered from oral tradition after that date. Much of the inspiration of Gaelic printing in the 18th century can be traced to Alexander Macdonald (Alasdair Mac Mhaighstir Alasdair), who published a Gaelic vocabulary in 1741 and the first Scottish Gaelic book of secular poetry, Ais-eiridh na Sean Chánain Albannaich (“Resurrection of the Ancient Scottish Tongue”), in 1751. He rallied his fellow Highlanders to Prince Charles Edward's cause in the '45 rising with Brosnachadh nam Fineachan Gaidhealach (“Incitement to the Highland Clans”) and a song of welcome to the Prince. His masterpiece, Birlinn Chlann Raghnaill (“The Galley of Clanranald”), is an extravaganza, ostensibly a description of a voyage from South Uist in the Hebrides Isles to Carrickfergus in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. He also composed nature poems, love poems, drinking songs, and satires.

      Duncan Ban Macintyre (Donnchadh Bàn Mac an t-Saoir), who was influenced by Macdonald, had his poems published in 1768. He fought on the Hanoverian side at the Battle of Falkirk and later praised George III in Oran do'n Rìgh (“Song to the King”), but he had been a forester on the Perthshire–Argyllshire borders in early manhood, and this is the setting of his greatest poems, Moladh Beinn Dóbhrainn (The Praise of Ben Dorain) and Oran Coire a Cheathaich (“Song of the Misty Corrie”). His most famous love song is addressed to his wife, Màiri.

      Other poets of note in the 18th century included John MacCodrum, author of much humorous and satirical poetry; Robert (called Rob Donn) Mackay, who wrote social satire with a wealth of shrewd and humorous understanding of human nature; and William Ross, the Romantic poet of the group, several of whose best poems, such as Feasgar Luain (“Monday Evening”) and Oran Eile (“Another Song”), were occasioned by an unhappy love affair.

      The greatest composer of Gaelic religious verse in the 18th century was Dugald Buchanan, who assisted the Rev. James Stewart of Killin in preparing his Gaelic translation of the New Testament (1767). His Latha à Bhreitheanis (“Day of Judgment”) and An Claigeann (“The Skull”) are impressive and sombre and show considerable imaginative power.

Modern trends and works

      Short stories and essays appeared in 19th- and 20th-century periodicals. Alongside these were numerous religious translations from the 17th century onward, including Calvin's catechism of 1631, Gaelic translations of the Old and New Testaments, Kirk's Psalter and his Irish version of the Bible, and the 1807 Gaelic Bible. Other translations included works by John Bunyan, Richard Baxter, Thomas Boston, and Philip Doddridge. Among original prose writers were the Rev. Donald Lamont, Donald Mackechnie, and Angus Robertson. The most notable modern short stories have been written by Colin Mackenzie, John Murray, and Iain Crichton Smith.

      Little vital poetry appeared in the 19th century, and a 20th-century movement to free Gaelic poetry from its traditional shackles began with Sorley Maclean, George Campbell Hay, and Derick Thomson. This has been continued by Donald MacAulay and Iain Crichton Smith.

Manx

      Although they succeeded in establishing their language on the Isle of Man, the Gaels lost their hegemony over the island to the Norse in the 9th century and recovered it only from 1266 to 1333, when they lost it again to the English. They were consequently unable to provide there, as they did in Ireland and Scotland, the aristocratic support needed by the bardic institution. This, and the fact that Manx and Scottish Gaelic did not deviate significantly from Irish until the 16th century, explains why no medieval literature specifically identifiable with the island survives, and why such modern literature as exists, apart from translation literature, is predominantly folklore.

      The Reformation's slow progress on the island is reflected in the comparatively late appearance of a Manx translation of the Bible (biblical translation) and the Book of Common Prayer. The latter was completed about 1610 by a Welshman, John Phillips, bishop of Sodor and Man, but it remained unpublished until it was printed in 1893–94 side by side with the 1765 version made by the Manx clergy.

      Translating the Bible into Manx was indeed a formidable task because the clergy on whom it fell had but few scholars among them and no literary tradition to draw upon. A start was made in 1748 with the appearance of a Manx version of the Gospel According to St. Matthew. A revision of Matthew and a translation of the other Gospels and of the Acts appeared in 1763, and the remainder of the New Testament in 1767. The translation of the Old Testament was published in two parts: Genesis to Esther in 1771, Job to Malachi with two books of the Apocrypha in 1773.

      The Holy Scriptures were not the only religious books to be translated. Bishop Thomas Wilson's Principles and Duties of Christianity appeared in English and Manx in 1699, and 22 of his sermons appeared in a Manx translation in 1783. More interesting are Pargys Caillit, the paraphrase translation of Milton's Paradise Lost, which was published in 1794 and reprinted in 1872, and Coontey ghiare yeh Ellan Vannin (“The Short Account of the Isle of Man”), written in Manx by Joseph Bridson and printed as the 20th volume of the Publications of the Manx Language Society. As late as 1901 there appeared from the press Skeealyn Æsop, a selection of Aesop's fables.

      More characteristic of Manx folk culture were the ballads and carols, or carvels. Among the most notable of the former are an Ossianic ballad describing the fate of Finn's enemy, Orree; the Manx Traditionary Ballad, a history of the island to the year 1507 made up of a mixture of fact and fiction; and the ballad on the death of Brown William; i.e., William Christian, shot as a traitor in 1663. The carvels differ from English carols because they take as their subject not so much the Nativity as the life of Jesus, his crucifixion, and the Last Judgment. They were sung by individuals in church on Christmas Eve. With the spread of Nonconformity on the island, Manx translations of some of the popular hymns of the Methodist Revival were published.

Welsh literature

The Middle Ages

      Welsh literature has extended in an unbroken tradition from about the middle of the 6th century to the present day, but, except for two or three short pieces, all pre-Norman poetry has survived only in 12th- to 15th-century manuscripts. Welsh had developed from the older Brythonic by the middle of the 6th century. In the Historia Brittonum (c. 830) references are made to Welsh poets who, if the synchronism is correct, sang in the 6th century. Works by two of them, Taliesin and Aneirin, have survived. Taliesin wrote odes, or awdlau (awdl), in praise of the warlike deeds of his lord, Urien of Rheged, a kingdom in present-day southwest Scotland and northwest England. To Aneirin is attributed a long poem, Y Gododdin, commemorating in elegies an ill-starred expedition sent from Gododdin, the region where Edinburgh stands today, to take Catraeth (Catterick, North Yorkshire) from the invading Saxons. The background, inspiration, and social conventions of the poems of Taliesin and Aneirin are typically heroic, the language is direct and simple, and the expression terse and vigorous. These poems, and others that have not been preserved, set standards for later ages. The alliterative verse and internal rhyme found here were developed by the 13th century into the intricate system of consonant correspondence and internal rhyme called cynghanedd.

      The heroic tradition of poetry existed also in Wales proper and was continued after the break with North Britain in the mid-7th century. The earliest surviving example is a poem in praise of Cynan Garwyn of Powys, whose son Selyf was slain in battle. This poem struck a note that remained constant in all Welsh eulogies and elegies down to the fall of the Welsh bardic system: Cynan is the bravest in the field, the most generous in his home, all others are thrall to him and sing his praises.

      The period between the 7th and 10th centuries is represented by a few scattered poems, most of them in the heroic tradition, including Moliant Cadwallon (“The Eulogy of Cadwallon”), by Afan Ferddig, the elegy on Cynddylan ap Cyndrwyn of Powys in the first half of the 7th century, and Edmyg Dinbych (“The Eulogy of Tenby”), by an unknown South Wales poet. Poetry claiming to foretell the future is represented by Armes Prydain Fawr (“The Great Prophecy of Britain”), a stirring appeal to the Welsh to unite with other Britons, with the Irish, and with the Norse of Dublin to oppose the Saxons and to refuse the unjust demands of their “great king,” probably Athelstan of Wessex. Poetry outside the main bardic tradition is preserved in englyns (stanzas of three or four lines), a dialogue between Myrddin and Taliesin, and in Kanu y Gwynt (“The Song of the Wind”), a riddle poem that contains the germ of the later convention known as dyfaliad (kenning).

      The poems associated with the name Llywarch Hen are the verse remains of at least two sagas composed toward the middle of the 9th century by unknown poets of Powys, whose basic material was the traditions associated with the historical Llywarch and Heledd, sister to Cynddylan ap Cyndrwyn. In these, it seems that prose (now lost) was used for narrative and description and verse for dialogue and soliloquy. The metrical form was embellished by alliteration, internal rhyme, and incipient cynghanedd. The theme of both sagas was lamentation for the glory that once had been. The background was the heroic struggle of the Welsh of Powys against the Saxons of Mercia. Some fragments of poetry preserved in the Black Book of Carmarthen (c. 1250) were parts of soliloquies or dialogues from other lost sagas. Examples are a conversation between Arthur and the doorkeeper Glewlwyd Mightygrasp; a monologue of Ysgolan the Cleric; verses in praise of Geraint, son of Erbin; and a fragment of what may be an early native version of the Trystan and Esyllt (Tristan and Iseult) story. The manuscript shows that there once existed a legend of Myrddin Wyllt, a wild man of the woods who went mad at the sight of a battle, a legend associated with Suibne Geilt in Ireland and with Lailoken in Scotland. This Myrddin (later better known as Merlin) had the gift of prophecy. The historical poet Taliesin also became the central prophetic figure in a folk tale that was given literary form in the 9th or 10th century, but that has survived only in certain monologues preserved in The Book of Taliesin and in garbled versions in late texts of Hanes Taliesin (“Story of Taliesin”).

      Nature, a source of similes in the heroic poetry and of symbolism in verse fragments of the sagas, was sometimes a subject of song in its own right. Generally, treatment of the subject was remarkable for its sensitive objectivity, its awareness of form, colour, and sound, and its concise, often epigrammatic, expression. In mood, matter, and form (that of the englyn) it often overlapped with gnomic poetry, which consisted of sententious sayings about man and nature. Most gnomic and nature poems were probably produced in the 10th and 11th centuries by poets other than professional bards. Toward the end of the pre-Norman period a few poems on religious, biblical, and other subjects showed acquaintance with nonnative legends. Saga poetry gradually gave way to prose.

      With the consolidation of the principality of Gwynedd under Gruffudd ap Cynan (1054–1137) and his descendants, court poetry flourished in the country, composed by the gogynfeirdd, or poets of the princes, who continued and developed the tradition of their predecessors, the cynfeirdd. The bardic order seems to have been reorganized, although no clear picture of it emerges from references in the poetry and law texts, and it seems to have been less schematized in practice than in theory. At the top of the order was the pencerdd (“chief of song or craft”), the ruler's chief poet, whose duty was to sing the praise of God, the ruler, and his family. Next came the bardd teulu, who was the poet of the ruler's war band although he seems to have been poet to the ruler's family as well. There were other, less exalted grades, with less exalted duties and the license probably to engage in satire and ribaldry.

      Bards were also graded according to proficiency. This classification led to the holding of an eisteddfod, or a session of bards, to confer certificates of proficiency and to prevent the lower orders from proliferating and drifting into mendicancy. One of the results of a bardic system of this type was a remarkable conservatism in literature. Most of the 13th-century bards used a conventional diction that was consciously archaic in its vocabulary, grammar, and idiom and incomprehensible to anyone uneducated in poetry.

      Bardism often went by families, and among the first court poets were Meilyr, his son Gwalchmai (Gwalchmai ap Meilyr), and his grandson Meilyr ap Gwalchmai, who were attached to the court of Gwynedd at Aberffraw. Gwalchmai in his Arwyrain Owain (“Exaltation of Owain”) displayed one characteristic of all the gogynfeirdd, description of water, whether of river or sea. Bardic poetry, highly conventional in form, was now marked not by profundity but by adornment and linguistic virtuosity. Two poet-princes, Owain Cyfeiliog of Powys and Hywel ab Owain of Gwynedd (Hywel ab Owain Gwynedd), however, stand out from contemporary bards. Cyfeiliog's most famous work, the Hirlas Owain (“Owain's Long Blue Drinking Horn”), celebrates a victorious raid; Hywel ab Owain's departure from convention was more striking; for the first time in Welsh literature love of country and of beauty in the modern sense appeared: land and sea and women and the Welsh language spoken in cultured accent by his ladylove awoke in him feelings of awe and wonder. The gogynfeirdd poetry alternated throughout this period between marwnad (“elegy”) and moliant (“eulogy”), and the period closed with the most famous of all elegies, Gruffudd ab yr Ynad Coch's elegy after the death in 1282 of Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, last native prince of Wales.

      The religious verse of the gogynfeirdd was generally simpler in style than the eulogies and elegies. A set type was the marwysgafn (“deathbed song”), in which the poet, sensing the approach of death, confessed his sins and prayed for forgiveness. Other religious poems were in praise of God and the Trinity, in honour of saints, on the torments of hell, and on the birth of Christ. They illustrate the gradual widening of the bardic horizon.

      With the passing of princes and their pageantry, the poets were forced to find patrons among the new aristocracy. These patrons had more limited means and less restricted interests, with the result that the bardic system and its educational basis were gradually changed and a new kind of poetry was produced. The language became less esoteric, less specialized. Poets in the years between the English conquest (1282) and the appearance of Dafydd ap Gwilym in the mid-14th century seem to have returned to an earlier poetic fashion or to have been influenced by new ideas from other lands. Famous in this period of transition were Gruffudd ap Maredudd, Gruffudd ap Dafydd, and Casnodyn.

      The conquest of Wales by Edward I transferred the patronage of court poetry at Gwynedd and Powys from prince to landed aristocracy. The pencerdd lost his superiority over the lower bardic ranks, who were no longer restricted in choice of content and style, and who, especially in South Wales (where the Norman Conquest had been established for a whole century before the conquest of Gwynedd), became more vocal as the older bardic song began to decline. The new poets of the south were well established before their works began to be preserved. The most important of them was Dafydd ap Gwilym, who in his early period wrote according to two distinct traditions. He wrote awdlau, or odes, in the manner of the later gogynfeirdd. (Originally an awdl was a poem with a single end rhyme throughout; later it contained sequences of lines with such end rhymes. In both cases the lines were embellished with alliteration, a correspondence of consonants or internal rhyme; i.e., “free” or incipient cynghanedd.) In the manner of a more popular and perhaps lower class of poets, Dafydd ap Gwilym wrote cywyddau (cywydd), composed of couplets of seven-syllable lines rhyming in alternately stressed and unstressed final syllables. Each line was embellished by a stricter form of cynghanedd, the cynghanedd gaeth. Dafydd established, if he did not invent, the cywydd, but his main achievement was the simplicity of diction he cultivated in it. His successors followed his lead; the old diction became obsolete, and he thus established the standards of modern Welsh. The substance of his poetry was also new, for he seems to have borrowed many of his themes from the wandering minstrels and trouvères of France. He wrote love poetry but perhaps is best known for his descriptions of nature.

      Dafydd's influence was twofold: the cywydd was established as the leading form, and the new subjects were recognized as fit themes for poetry. One contemporary, Gruffudd ab Adda, went much further toward a modern conception of nature; another, Iolo Goch, in his poem to the husbandman shows traces of English ideas, as seen in Piers Plowman. Llywelyn Goch Amheurug Hen wrote some early poems in the gogynfeirdd tradition, but his “Elegy to Lleucu Llwyd” successfully combined the Welsh elegy tradition with the imported serenade form.

      In the 15th century the cywydd was refined. Although Dafydd Nanmor was inferior to most of Dafydd ap Gwilym's contemporaries in treatment of his subject and in imagination, in his mastery of the cywydd form he had no equal. Further advances in the cywydd metre were made by Lewis Glyn Cothi and Guto'r Glyn, in whose work a real consciousness of Welsh nationhood is seen.

      The earliest examples of Welsh prose were utilitarian: notes on Latin texts dealing with weights and measures, an agreement, a list of church dues, and an astronomical commentary. Shortly before the middle of the 10th century, Howel (Hywel) Dda, according to tradition, had the Welsh laws codified. Although the earliest Welsh law manuscripts belong to the first half of the 13th century, some of the texts probably derive from 12th-century and earlier exemplars.

      The stylistic merits of the legal texts were reflected in a more conscious literary use of prose by storytellers (cyfarwyddiaid), who recited oral tales made up of a medley of mythology, folklore, and heroic elements. Some of these were recorded in writing; the most famous collection is the Mabinogion, preserved in The White Book of Rhydderch (c. 1300–25) and The Red Book of Hergest (c. 1375–1425). The Mabinogion are composed of 11 anonymous tales, based on older oral material. The greatest are the four related stories “The Four Branches of the Mabinogi,” redacted in the second half of the 11th century by an unknown author. The author of “Culhwch and Olwen (Kulhwch and Olwen)” (c. 1100), drawing on material akin to that of the “Four Branches,” appears to have kept closer to the oral tale, but his inferior stylistics presaged the later decadent areithiau (“rhetorics”), which were in part parodies of the Mabinogion. Three of the Mabinogion tales, “Owain” (or “The Lady of the Fountain”), “Geraint and Enid,” and “Peredur Son of Efrawg,” represented a transition from purely native tales to those composed under Norman influence. These romances correspond to the Yvain, Erec, and Perceval of Chrétien de Troyes, and the exact relationship between the Welsh and French texts has long been debated. Although more sophisticated, they show a decline from the directness and restraint of the native tales.

      Many translations from Latin and French helped to create a prose that could express aspects of life rarely touched on in the tales. Most of them dated from the 13th and 14th centuries and were probably made by monks. Notable among them were translations from the Latin of Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia regum Britanniae and the French of the Queste del Saint Graal and Perlesvaux. Their prose was largely experimental and influenced in varying degrees by the language and style of the originals, but at its best it was a not unworthy development of the prose of the law tracts and native tales.

      The development of medieval prose was hampered by a gap between Welsh literary tradition and the wider learning of western Europe. The inspiration for the fashioning of a prose able to express all facets of thought and activity arose toward the middle of the 16th century out of the Reformation and the Renaissance, from foundations laid by humanists, both Protestant and Catholic.

The Reformation and the Renaissance

      After the outstanding period of Dafydd ap Gwilym and his followers in the cywydd, there arose for a short time a school of literary formalists. The chief of these was Dafydd ab Edmwnd, whose poetic heirs were Tudur Aled (died 1526) and Gutun Owain (flourished c. 1460–1500).

      The Reformation broke the hold of the Roman Catholic religion on Welsh life without establishing at the same time a similar hold of its own. The Tudor policy of encouraging the spread of English at the expense of Welsh and of inducing the Welsh aristocracy to emigrate to England almost destroyed the old Welsh culture, completely bound up as it was with the language. Yet fine poetry was written by the satirists Siôn Tudur and Edmwnd Prys. Other masters of the cywydd were William Llŷn and Siôn Phylip.

The rise of modern prose

      When printing began in Wales in the 16th century, traditional prose was abandoned by the Renaissance humanists. The new prose they fashioned was based on bardic language and classical authors, enriched by new formations and borrowings. The first Welsh printed book, Yn y lhyvyr hwnn (1547; “In This Book”), consisted of extracts from the Scriptures and the prayer book: from this time modern Welsh prose began to assume definite form.

The Reformation

      The most important figure of the Reformation was William Salesbury (Salesbury, William), who translated (biblical translation) most of the New Testament of 1567. Despite some eccentricities, it was a fine piece of translation. In the same year was published the Welsh Prayer Book, also translated mainly by Salesbury in collaboration with Richard Davies, bishop of St. David's. The Welsh Bible translated by William Morgan (Morgan, William), bishop of St. Asaph, aided by Edmwnd Prys, was published in 1588. The revised version, published in 1620, is still used. It would be difficult to exaggerate the importance of these three translations in the development of Welsh prose. They started a steady, if not large, stream of Welsh prose books. The first were translations from English and Latin aimed at grounding the Welsh nation in the principles of the Reformation.

The Counter-Reformation

      While the reformed religion was being established in Wales, Welsh society and the Welsh language were at their lowest ebb. The Roman Catholic writers of the Counter-Reformation regarded the new religion as an English import and struggled to preserve old Roman Catholic culture. As a result there appeared Dosparth Byrr (“A Short Rationale”), the earliest printed Welsh primer, the work of Gruffydd Robert (c. 1522–c. 1610), and several religious works, many of which were published on the Continent.

The Welsh Renaissance

      Just as Italy and other European countries during the Renaissance turned to the Latin and Greek classics, so Wales turned to its own classical tradition of bardism. In addition to Gruffydd Robert's primer mentioned above, there appeared a set of rules for bardic poetry and principles of the Welsh language compiled by Siôn Dafydd Rhys (Rhys, Siôn Dafydd) and a dictionary and a grammar by John Davies of Mallwyd.

Welsh literature in the 17th century

      So far, writers of Welsh prose had contented themselves with translation, until Morgan Llwyd (Llwyd, Morgan) produced his religious works. A Puritan, he made an original contribution to Welsh religious thought, chiefly in Llyfr y Tri Aderyn (1653; “The Book of the Three Birds”), a disquisition on government and religious liberty, and Llythur ir Cymru Cariadus (c. 1653; “Letter to the Beloved Welsh”), which expounded a mystical gospel. Among the clergy who produced some of the many translations, mostly of religious originals, during this period were Edward Samuel; Moses Williams, a diligent searcher into manuscripts; Griffith Jones, the father of Welsh popular education; and Theophilus Evans, author of Drych y Prif Oesoedd (1716; A View of the Primitive Ages). Ellis Wynne o Lasynys (Wynne, Ellis) is often regarded as the greatest of Welsh prose writers. His two great works were Rheol Buchedd Sanctaidd (1701), a translation of Jeremy Taylor's Rule and Exercises of Holy Living, and Gweledigaetheu y Bardd Cwsc (1703; The Visions of the Sleeping Bard), an adaptation of a translation of the Sueños of the Spanish satirist Quevedo (Quevedo y Villegas, Francisco Gómez de).

      When Henry VII came to the throne, the old Welsh gentry began to turn toward England for preferment. Soon, poets of the older school had no audience, and only the rich gentlemen farmers kept up the old tradition. A new school, however, was rising that combined a vast store of folk song, previously despised and unrecorded, with imitation of contemporary English popular poetry and sophisticated lyrics. Landmarks of this new development were Edmwnd Prys's metrical version of the Psalms and Rhys Prichard's Canwyll y Cymry (1646–72; “The Welshman's Candle”), both written in so-called free metres. Prys's Psalter contained the first Welsh metrical hymns. Prichard's work consisted of moral verses in the metres of the old folk songs (penillion telyn). Many other poets wrote in these metres, but they were generally crude until handled by the greatest poet of the period, Huw Morus (Morys, Huw), who was particularly famous for his love poems. Later came Lewis Morris, the inspirer and patron of Goronwy Owen and thus a strong link with the next extremely productive period.

The 18th century: the first revival

      The mid-18th century was, after the 14th, the most fruitful period of Welsh literature. Goronwy Owen (Owen, Goronwy), inspired by English Augustanism, reintroduced and improved the strict metres of the cywydd and awdl (by this time a long poem written in a number of the classical cynghanedd metres). He also introduced a wide range of subject content, and thus founded a new classical school of Welsh poetry. The more important poets of this school were William Wynn of Llangynhafal, Edward Richard, and Evan Evans (Ieuan Fardd). Much of their activity was associated with the Welsh community in London and the Cymmrodorion Society and led to the establishment of local eisteddfods in Wales, which perpetuated the classical forms of Welsh poetry.

      Chief among Owen's successors was David Thomas (Dafydd Ddu Eryri), who, however, like other eisteddfodic bards of this period, soon departed from classical strictness.

      The classicists of the 18th century stood aloof from the Methodist Revival, but religious fervour brought a new articulateness and inspired poets in free metre, especially hymn writers like the preeminent William Williams of Pant-y-celyn and the mystical Ann Griffiths.

      For a long time after 1750, Welsh prose was mainly concerned with religious subjects. The French Revolution, however, gave impetus to political writing, and among those it influenced was John Jones (Jac Glan-y-gors). It was only after a periodical press had been established that politics began to compete with religion as a subject for comment.

19th-century literary trends

      Strict metre poetry declined in the 19th century. Although the volume produced was enormous, the quality was poor. Eben Fardd was probably the last of the eisteddfodic poets to make any real contribution. The influence of the hymn writers of the 18th century was seen in the development of the lyric. In fact, all the poetry of the 19th century betrays a religious origin. The influence of contemporary English songs was also seen, as in the work of John Blackwell (Alun). More originality was shown by Evan Evans (Evans, Evan) (Ieuan Glan Geirionydd), who founded the Eryri school of poetry, inspired by the scenery of Snowdonia. The earlier lyricists were followed by a more bohemian group—Talhaiarn (John Jones), Mynyddog (Richard Davies), and Ceiriog (Hughes, John Ceiriog) (John Hughes), the latter the greatest lyrical writer of the century. Only one poet, Islwyn (William Thomas (Thomas, William)), made a success of the long poem: his Y Storm is a series of meditations on life and art.

      This was the most prolific period of Welsh prose, though much of it was of poor quality, partly because it was produced by a people who had had little formal education in their own language and who had lost touch with their own literary past. Much of it was marred also by the pretentious style of the followers of William Owen Pughe, who tried to “restore” literary standards. A tremendous volume of prose was produced—periodicals, religious books and tracts, biographies, sermons, letters, and monumental works such as Y Gwyddoniadur (“The Encyclopaedia”) and Hanes y Brytaniaid a'r Cymry (“History of the Britons and the Welsh”). Political writings became an important part of Welsh literature, the two great political writers of the century being Samuel Roberts and Gwilym Hiraethog (William Rees). Lewis Edwards (Edwards, Lewis), founder and editor of Y Traethodydd (“The Essayist”), tried to introduce a wider, European standard of literary criticism. There were some interesting attempts at creative writing, but the only great novelist was Daniel Owen (Owen, Daniel), whose work portrays the extraordinary influence of religion on contemporary society.

The second revival

      The most important event for the second revival in Welsh literature was the establishment of the University of Wales (1872–93). The immediate result was a great widening of literary horizons, accompanied by a strong reaction toward the old Welsh classical ideas. Sir Owen M. Edwards, Sir John Morris-Jones, Emrys ap Iwan (Robert Ambrose Jones), and others made the Welsh conscious of their literary identity and set new standards for correctness of language and integrity of thought. The great literary renaissance that followed was marked by T. Gwynn Jones (Jones, Thomas Gwynn)'s masterly use of the old strict metres to express modern thought and W.J. Gruffydd (Gruffydd, William John)'s lyrical use of the free metres to express his rebellion against society and his love for the countryside of his youth. R. Williams Parry showed a superb gift of poetic observation, while Sir Thomas Parry-Williams combined a mystical love for his native Gwynedd with an almost scientific analysis of his own metaphysical preoccupations. Older poets, such as Cynan (A. Evans-Jones), William Morris, and Wil Ifan (William Evans), clung to earlier lyrical models, although many others, like D. Gwenallt Jones and Saunders Lewis, drew increasingly on the rhythms and vocabulary of colloquial speech. Waldo Williams, Gwilym R. Jones, the younger Bobi Jones, and particularly Euros Bowen experimented with form and subject. Their work was followed and developed by writers of the next generation, the most distinctive and prolific being Gwyn Thomas. Interest in the use of the strict metres of cynghanedd was revived, as represented by the publication of the popular periodical Barddas (“Bardism”), whose editor, Alan Llwyd, was an outstanding poet. The work of most poets, old and young, reflected a varying involvement in contemporary Welsh political activity.

      The high standard of the periodical Y Llenor (“The Litterateur”; 1922–51) indicated the advances made in prose. Contributors were generally involved in a wide range of activities: its editor, W.J. Gruffydd, was both poet and essayist; Saunders Lewis was a poet, dramatist, and politician; Sir Thomas Parry-Williams a poet and essayist; and R.T. Jenkins an essayist and historian. Together with novelists and short-story writers such as Tegla Davies, T. Rowland Hughes, Kate Roberts, and D.J. Williams, they effectively mirrored contemporary Wales. John Gwilym Jones and Islwyn Ffowc Ellis were innovators in form and subject matter, and they were followed by an enthusiastic younger generation. Postmodernism enlivened the Welsh novel in the last two decades of the 20th century through the works of William Owen Roberts, Angharad Tomos, Robin Llywelyn, and Mihangel Morgan. Literary criticism also benefited. The standard set by Y Llenor was maintained in Ysgrifau Beirniadol (“Critical Essays”). In this field as in others, the establishment of the Welsh Academy (Yr Academi Gymreig) in 1959 and the publication of its review Taliesin made an outstanding contribution.

      Drama in Wales was first written in the 20th century. At first realistic, it developed into poetic, symbolic drama, often based on historical and mythological themes but dealing with moral, social, and psychological contemporary problems. The outstanding Welsh dramatists of the 20th century were Saunders Lewis, John Gwilym Jones, Emyr Humphreys, and Gwenlyn Parry.

Cornish (Cornish literature)

      The oldest remains of Cornish are proper names in the Bodmin Gospels and in the Domesday Book, 10th-century glosses on Latin texts, and a 12th-century vocabulary based on Aelfric's Latin–Anglo-Saxon glossary. The earliest literary text in Middle Cornish is a 41-line fragment of a drama, written about 1400, in which a girl is offered as wife, praised for her virtues, and counseled on her behaviour. The other plays that have survived complete or in part are related to the medieval miracle and morality plays.

      Of these the most important is the Ordinalia, a trilogy written in Middle Cornish (probably late 14th century) and designed to be acted on three consecutive days, perhaps in a plen-an-gwary (“play-field”). The first play, the Origo Mundi (“Origin of the World”), is based on the Old Testament and serves as a prologue to the other two, the Passio Domini Nostri Ihesu Christi; and the Resurrexio Domini Nostri Ihesu Christi. Lacking a treatment of the Nativity and of the ministry of Jesus, the scheme underlying the Ordinalia is more like that of the great French Passions than that of the English Corpus Christi cycle.

      The Pascon Agan Arluth (“Passion of Our Lord”), of which 259 stanzas have survived, has passages common to the Ordinalia and must have been composed about the same time.

      Beunans Meriasek (“The Life of Meriasek [or Meriadoc]”), on the patron saint of Camborne, is held to be considerably later: the manuscript in which it is found was completed in 1504 by one Dominus Hadton, thought to have been a canon of the Collegiate Church of Glasney. Gwreans an Bys (“The Creation of the World”), surviving in a text written in 1611, was intended to be the first of three plays and seems to be an extended and reworked version of the Origo Mundi. Written in Late Cornish, it is the latest of the Cornish religious plays.

      The Protestant Reformation destroyed the mentality that had created and enjoyed these plays, although there is evidence that the destruction was slow. Unfortunately the Reformation provided no work in the Cornish language that could take the place of the plays. A few people recognized that the Bible and the Book of Common Prayer should be made accessible to the monoglot Cornishmen, but little was done to that end. John Tregear translated into Cornish 12 of Bishop Edmund Bonner's sermons and a 13th sermon from an unidentified source, and it is probably significant that this translation was lost and not rediscovered until 1949.

      Attempts have been made to revive the use of Cornish as a spoken and written language. Among the societies and movements that have worked to this end are the Cornish-Celtic Society, The Old Cornwall Society, Land and Language, The Sons of Cornwall, and The Cornish Language Board; and among the papers or periodicals these have promoted, Kernow (“Cornwall”), An Lef (“The Voice”), An Lef Kernewek (“The Cornish Voice”), and Hedhyu (“Today”) have been notable for the attention they have given to compositions in Cornish—mostly poems, short stories, and short plays. Among the Cornish language revivalists are Henry Jenner, R. Morton Nance, and A.S.D. Smith.

Breton (Breton literature)

The three major periods of Breton literature

      Old Breton (8th to 11th century) is found only in lists and glosses in documents or as names in Latin books and charters. From the Middle Breton period (11th to 17th century) the 11th- to 15th-century compositions were mainly oral, and little except a few scraps of verse is extant until the late 15th century, when there appeared the Catholicon of Jean Lagadeuc, a Breton–Latin–French dictionary printed in 1499, and Quiquer de Roscoff's French–Breton dictionary and conversations (printed 1616).

      A 17th-century collection, Cantiques bretons (1642), names several Breton airs. All the remaining works of the middle period were religious and mostly in verse. Three mystery plays were probably the most significant products of the period: Buez santez Nonn (“Life of St. Nonn”), Burzud bras Jesuz (“The Great Mystery of Jesus”), and Buhez santes Barba (“Life of St. Barbara”). Three long poems, “Tremenvan an itron gwerches Maria” (“The Passion of the Virgin Mary”), “Pemzec levenez Maria” (“The Fifteen Joys of Mary”), and “Buhez mabden” (“The Life of Man”), were all probably based on French versions. A book of hours in verse, a prose extract from the Leon missal, and a prose catechism belong to this period, as does the prose Buhez an itron sanctes Cathell, guerches ha merzeres (“Life of St. Catherine, Virgin and Martyr”). Am Mirouer a Confession (“The Mirror of Confession”) and Doctrin an Christenien (“Christian's Doctrine”) are translated from the French. A collection of carols, An Nouelou ancient ha devot (“Ancient and Devout Songs”), appeared in 1650, and a book of metrical meditations in 1651. In general, Middle Breton literature lacked originality, and the indigenous culture of Brittany seems to have been entirely neglected by the educated classes, who introduced an enormous number of French words into the vocabulary.

      Modern Breton is said to have begun in 1659, when Julien Maunoir introduced a more phonetic orthography, but works of the Middle Breton type appeared until the 19th century. The bulk of Breton literature in this period consisted of mystery and miracle plays treating subjects from the Old and New Testaments, saints' lives, and stories of chivalry derived from French or Latin. Even plays depicting Breton saints evinced little originality. In the 18th century many Breton dictionaries were published but little of literary significance was produced. One name survives: Claude-Marie Le Laë, who wrote satiric poems.

The revival of Breton literature

      Interest in Breton, which revived at a time when France's central government was trying to impose French on Brittany and destroy the regional language, was particularly stimulated with the publication of the celebrated Barzaz Breiz (originally Barzas-Breiz, 1839; “Breton Bardic Poems”). This collection of poems was compiled by Théodore Hersart de La Villemarqué, who declared that they had survived unchanged as part of Breton folklore. Breton-speaking scholars doubted the collection's authenticity, and attacks reached their height when R.-F. Le Men, in a reprinting in about 1870 of Catholicon, and François-Marie Luzel, in a paper delivered in 1872, showed that Barzaz Breiz was not authentic (though scholars during the period often edited such collected material). Barzaz Breiz led to a renaissance of Breton writing and stimulated Luzel to collect authentic folk songs and publish Gwerziou Breiz-Izel (2 vol., 1868–74; “Ballads of Lower Brittany”) and, in collaboration with Anatole Le Braz, Soniou Breiz-Izel (2 vol., 1890; “Folk Songs of Lower Brittanyrdquo;). In the 1980s Donatien Laurent, the first to have had access to Villemarqué's papers, demonstrated that some of the poems were authentic.

Prose

      Luzel also collected folktales and legends, publishing many in Breton as well as in French translation. His collaborator, Le Braz, published stories concerning an ankou (“death”), as La Légende de la mort (1893; Dealings with the Dead). Traditional and literary elements combined indistinguishably in many stories. When Breton writers did not depend on folk legends for material, they fictionalized their own life stories. The many improving religious works published were not at all original; yet many Bretons who have read only one book in their own language have read Buez ar Zent (“Lives of the Saints”).

      Most playwrights were concerned to teach moral and religious lessons, such as Toussaint Le Garrec and Abbé J. Le Bayon, who revived several great mystery plays—Nicolazig, Boeh er goed (“The Voice of the Blood”), Ar hent en Hadour (“In the Steps of the Sower”), and Ar en hent de Vethleem (“On the Way to Bethlehem”).

Poetry

      For 200 years Bretons expressed their feelings in poems that were published as pamphlets—either as soniou (love songs, satires, carols, marriage lays) or gwerziou (gwersiou) (ballads or broadsides describing recent events in Brittany and elsewhere). Their authors were people of every social class, and the poems were hawked at fairs. Dozens of poets published collections after the appearance of Barzaz Breiz.

Developments of the 20th century

      Collections of folklore continued to appear, but there was an ever-increasing realization that the reading public needed a literature reflecting contemporary life. Literary periodicals attempted to satisfy the need. Worthy of special mention are Dihunamb (1905; “Let Us Wake Up”), Gwalarn (1925–44; “North West”), and Al Liamm (1946; “The Bond”). Tangi Malemanche was a prolific playwright but gained little recognition. Per-Jakez Helias as poet, playwright, and radio script writer has been both prolific and popular. The reminiscences of Yeun ar Go in E Skeud Tour Bras Sant Jermen (1955; “In the Shadow of the Great Tower of Saint-Germain”) and continued in Al Liamm have great charm. But the three writers who can claim to have done most to give Brittany a 20th-century Breton literature have been Jakez Riou and Youenn Drezen, authors of short stories and novellas, and Roparz Hemon, who has enriched every genre. Maodez Glanndour has given of his best to poetry. As one would expect in a literature in which little prose was written until the 20th century, verse continues to attract the attention and the skill of young and old writers. One of its recurring themes is the fear that the Breton language will die.

David Greene Derick S. Thomson Thomas Jones J.E. Caerwyn Williams

Additional Reading

General works

For a survey of modern Celtic literatures, see J.E. Caerwyn Williams (ed.), Literature in Celtic Countries (1971). Other works on Celtic literatures include H. Munro Chadwick and N. Kershaw Chadwick, The Growth of Literature, vol. 1, The Ancient Literatures of Europe (1932, reprinted 1968); Kenneth Jackson, Studies in Early Celtic Nature Poetry (1935, reprinted 1977), and A Celtic Miscellany: Translations from the Celtic Literatures, rev. ed. (1971); Pierre-yves Lambert, Les Littératures celtiques (1981); Magnus Maclean, The Literatures of the Celts (1902, reprinted 1970); and Alwyn Rees and Brinley Rees, Celtic Heritage: Ancient Tradition in Ireland and Wales (1961, reprinted 1978). See also Rachel Bromwich, Medieval Celtic Literature: A Select Bibliography (1974).

Irish Gaelic

General works include Aodh De Blácam, Gaelic Literature Surveyed (1929, reprinted 1974), a popular account; Myles Dillon, Early Irish Literature (1948); Proinsias Mac Cana, Literature in Irish (1980); Frank O'Connor, A Short History of Irish Literature: A Backward Look (U.K. title, The Backward Look: A Survey of Irish Literature, 1967); James Carney, Studies in Irish Literature and History (1955, reissued 1979); Robin Flower, The Irish Tradition (1947, reprinted 1979); Douglas Hyde, A Literary History of Ireland from Earliest Times to the Present Day, new ed. (1967, reprinted 1980); Eleanor Knott and Gerard Murphy, Early Irish Literature (1966); Brian Ó Cuív (ed.), Seven Centuries of Irish Learning: 1000-1700, 2nd ed. (1971); Patrick C. Power, A Literary History of Ireland (1969); and J.E. Caerwyn Williams and Máirín Ní Mhuiríosa, Traidisiún Liteartha na nGael (1979).Studies of Irish Gaelic poetry include David Greene and Frank O'connor (eds.), A Golden Treasury of Irish Poetry AD 600 to 1200 (1967), with excellent translations; Tadhg Dall Ó Huiginn, A bhfuil aguinn dár chum Tadhg Dall Ó Huiginn (1550-1591), ed. and trans. by Eleanor Knott, 2 vol. (1922–26), one of the best studies of the bardic system and technique, with English translations of Ó Huiginn's poems (vol. 2); Osborn Bergin, Irish Bardic Poetry (1970); Eleanor Knott, Irish Classical Poetry, rev. ed. (1966, reprinted 1974); Seán Mac Réamoinn, The Pleasures of Gaelic Poetry (1982); Gerard Murphy, Early Irish Lyrics, Eighth to Twelfth Century (1956, reprinted 1970); and Seán Ó Tuama, An Duanaire: An Irish Anthology: 1600-1900, Poems of the Dispossessed, trans. by Thomas Kinsella (1981).For studies of Irish myths and folk literature, see Alan Bruford, Gaelic Folk-Tales and Mediaeval Romances: A Study of the Early Modern Irish `Romantic Tales' and Their Oral Derivatives (1969); J.H. Delargy, “The Gaelic Story Teller,” Proceedings of the British Academy, 31:177–221 (1945); Myles Dillon, The Cycles of the Kings (1946, reprinted 1977); Myles Dillon (ed.), Irish Sagas (1959, reissued 1968); Proinsias Mac Cana, “The Rise of the Later Schools of filidheacht,” ériu, 25:126–146 (1974), and The Learned Tales of Medieval Ireland (1980); Thomas F. O'rahilly, Early Irish History and Mythology (1946, reprinted 1957); Seán Ó Súilleabháin, Storytelling in Irish Tradition (1973); and Seán Ó Súilleabháin and Reidar Th. Christiansen, The Type of the Irish Folktale (1963). See also Cadimhín Ó Danachair (kevin Danaher), A Bibliography of Irish Ethnology and Folk Tradition (1978).

Scottish Gaelic

(Verse anthologies): A. Maclean Sinclair, The Gaelic Bards, 1411-1765, 2 vol. (1890–92), and The Gaelic Bards from 1825 to 1875 (1904); Alexander Cameron, Reliquiæ Celticæ: Texts, Papers and Studies in Gaelic Literature and Philology, 2 vol. (1892–94); John Mackenzie (ed.), Sar-obair nam Bard Gaelach; or, The Beauties of Gaelic Poetry, and Lives of the Highland Bards, new ed. (1904); J.F. Campbell, Leabhar na Féinne: Heroic Gaelic Ballads Collected in Scotland Chiefly from 1512 to 1871 (1872, reissued 1972); Alexander Carmichael et al. (eds.), Carmina Gadelica: Hymns and Incantations with Illustrative Notes on Words, Rites, and Customs, Dying and Obsolete, 6 vol. (1900–71); William J. Watson, Bardachd Ghaidhlig: Specimens of Gaelic Poetry, 1550-1900, 3rd ed. (1959, reissued 1976); and William J. Watson (ed.), Scottish Verse from the Book of the Dean of Lismore (1937, reprinted 1978). (Prose anthologies): William J. Watson (ed.), Rosg Gaidhlig: Specimens of Gaelic Prose, 2nd ed. (1929); J.F. Campbell (comp.), Popular Tales of the West Highlands, 4 vol., 2nd ed. (1890–93, reprinted 1983–84); John G. McKay (trans.), More West Highland Tales, 2 vol. (1940–60).

(Studies)

Derick S. Thomson, An Introduction to Gaelic Poetry (1974); Kurt Wittig, The Scottish Tradition in Literature (1958, reissued 1972); Adam J. Aitken, Matthew P. Mcdiarmid, and Derick S. Thomson (eds.), Bards and Makars: Scottish Language and Literature: Medieval and Renaissance (1977); John Macinnes, “The Oral Tradition in Scottish Gaelic Poetry,” Scottish Studies, 12:29–43 (1968), and “The Panegyric Code in Gaelic Poetry and Its Historical Background,” Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Inverness, 50:435–498 (1976–78). A bibliography of modern Scottish Gaelic works can be found in Donald John Macleod (ed.), Twentieth Century Publications in Scottish Gaelic (1980). See also Derick S. Thomson (ed.), The Companion to Gaelic Scotland (1983).

Manx

Henry Jenner, “The Manx Language: Its Grammar, Literature and Present State,” Transactions of the London Philological Society, 23:172–197 (1875–76); William Harrison (ed.), Mona Miscellany: A Selection of Proverbs, Sayings, Ballads, Customs, Superstitions, and Legends Peculiar to the Isle of Man (1869), and Mona Miscellany: Second Series (1873); Manx Miscellanies, 2 vol. (1872–80), published by the Manx Society; Yn Vible Casherick . . . , 3 vol. (1771), reprinted in 1 vol. as Bible Chasherick yn lught thie: The Manx Family Bible (1979), with new prefatory matter by R.L. Thomson; A.W. Moore, The Folk-lore of the Isle of Man (1891); A.W. Moore (ed.), Manx Carols (1891), and Manx Ballads and Music (1896, reprinted 1984); Church Of England, The Book of Common Prayer in Manx Gaelic, ed. by A.W. Moore and John Rhŷs, 2 vol. (1893–94); R.L. Thomson, “The Manx Traditionary Ballad,” études Celtiques, 9:521–548 (1960–61), and 10:60–87 (1962).

Welsh

An authoritative treatment is given in Thomas Parry, A History of Welsh Literature (1955, reprinted 1970; originally published in Welsh, 1944); and in R.M. Jones, Llenyddiaeth Gymraeg, 1936-1972 (1973). See also Rachel Bromwich (ed.), Trioedd Ynys Prydein: The Welsh Triads, 2nd ed. (1978); Nora Chadwick, The British Heroic Age: The Welsh and the Men of the North (1976); Glenys Goetinck, Peredur: A Study of Welsh Tradition in the Grail Legends (1975); Kenneth Jackson, The International Popular Tale and Early Welsh Tradition (1961); Glyn Jones and John Rowlands, Profiles: A Visitors' Guide to Writing in Twentieth Century Wales (1980); A.O.H. Jarman and Gwilym Rees Hughes (eds.), A Guide to Welsh Literature, 2 vol. (1976–79); Geraint H. Jenkins, Literature, Religion and Society in Wales, 1660-1730 (1978); Gwyn Jones and Thomas Jones (trans.), The Mabinogion, new ed. (1975); R.M. Jones, Highlights in Welsh Literature: Talks with a Prince (1969); Saunders Lewis, A School of Welsh Augustans: Being a Study in English Influences on Welsh Literature During Part of the 18th Century (1924, reissued 1969), and An Introduction to Contemporary Welsh Literature (1926); Roger Sherman Loomis, Wales and the Arthurian Legend (1956, reprinted 1978), and The Grail, from Celtic Myth to Christian Symbol (1963); Proinsias Mac Cana, The Mabinogi (1977); and T.J. Morgan (ed.), “The Welsh Literary Tradition,” The Welsh Review, 6(4):232–268 (Winter 1947).An anthology of verse in the Welsh language, with notes in English, is Thomas Parry (ed.), The Oxford Book of Welsh Verse (1962, reprinted 1981); and a popular and general treatment is Gwyn Williams, An Introduction to Welsh Poetry: From the Beginnings to the Sixteenth Century (1952, reissued 1970). Other studies of Welsh poetry include: H.I. Bell, The Development of Welsh Poetry (1936); Rachel Bromwich (trans.), Dafydd ap Gwilym: A Selection of Poems (1982); Rachel Bromwich and R. Brinley Jones (eds.), Astudiaethau ar yr Hengerdd: Studies in Old Welsh Poetry (1978); Joseph P. Clancy (comp. and trans.), The Earliest Welsh Poetry (1970), Medieval Welsh Lyrics (1965), and Twentieth Century Welsh Poems (1982); A.O.H. Jarman, The Cynfeirdd: Early Welsh Poets and Poetry (1981); R. Gerallt Jones (ed. and trans.), Poetry of Wales, 1930-1970 (1974); J. Lloyd-Jones, “The Court Poets of the Welsh Princes,” Proceedings of the British Academy, 34:167–197 (1948); Ifor Williams, Lectures on Early Welsh Poetry (1944, reprinted 1970), and The Beginnings of Welsh Poetry: Studies, ed. by Rachel Bromwich, 2nd ed. (1980); and J.E. Caerwyn Williams, The Poets of the Welsh Princes (1978). An indispensable bibliography is Thomas Parry and Merfyn Morgan (eds.), Llyfryddiaeth Llenyddiaeth Gymraeg (1976).

Cornish

Jane A Bakere, The Cornish Ordinalia: A Critical Study (1980); P. Berresford Ellis, The Cornish Language and Its Literature (1974); Henry Jenner, “The History and Literature of the Ancient Cornish Language,” The Journal of the British Archaeological Association, 33:137–157 (1877); Robert Longsworth, The Cornish Ordinalia: Religion and Dramaturgy (1967); Edwin Norris (ed. and trans.), The Ancient Cornish Drama, 2 vol. (1859, reprinted 1968); Whitley Stokes (ed. and trans.), Beunans Meriasek: The Life of Saint Meriasek, Bishop and Confessor: A Cornish Drama (1872); Paula Neuss (ed. and trans.), The Creacion of the World: A Critical Edition and Translation (1983); and John J. Parry, “The Revival of Cornish: An Dasserghyans Kernewek,” PMLA, 61:258–268 (1946).

Breton

Yann Brekilien, Le Breton, langue celtique (1976); Loeiz Herrieu, La Littérature bretonne depuis les origines jusqu'au XX^e siècle (1943); Anatole Le Braz, Le Théâtre celtique (1904); P. Le Goff, Petite histoire littéraire du dialecte breton de Vannes (1924); Camille Le Mercier D'erm, Les Bardes et poètes nationaux de la Bretagne armoricaine: anthologie contemporaine des XIX^e-XX^e siècles (1919, reprinted 1977); Hersart De La Villemarqué (ed. and trans.), Barzaz Breiz: chants populaires de la Bretagne, 6th ed. (1867, reprinted 1981); F.M. Luzel (ed.), Gwerziou Breiz-Izel: chants populaires de la Basse-Bretagne, 2 vol. (1868–74), and Soniou Breiz-Izel: chansons populaires de la Basse-Bretagne, 2 vol. (1890), both studies reprinted as Chants et chansons populaires de la Basse-Bretagne, 4 vol. (1971); Francis Gourvil, Langue et littérature bretonnes (1952, reissued 1976), and Théodore-Claude-Henri Hersart de La Villemarqué (1815-1895) et le "Barzaz-Breiz" (1839-1845-1867) (1960), a study critical to the understanding of 19th-century Breton literature and Breton literary movements; Joseph Rousee, La Poésie bretonne au XIX^e siècle (1895); Yves Marie Rudel, Panorama de la littérature bretonne, des origines à nos jours (1950).J.E. Caerwyn Williams

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