Arthur of the Welsh - 10 credits

This module will provide a brief introduction to Welsh ArthurianStudies by concentrating on one part of this vast subject (which includes Welsh poetry as well as Welsh and Latin histories, tales, lives of saints, triads, romances, and place-names). In particular, we will examine two of the earlier sources for the Arthur of Welsh history and literature (in translation) within a context of early Welsh medieval history.

One, the Historia Brittonum (also known as "Nennius") with its associated Annales Cambriae ("Welsh Annals") is a Latin-language historical miscellany, which is an intriguing mix of medieval history and legend, and which forms the basis of most subsequent Arthurian 'historical' tradition. The other, Culhwch ac Olwen seems to be quite a different thing altogether: a medieval Welsh folk or adventure tale, in which Arthur figures prominently as perhaps the precursor of the Arthur so well known from medieval and modern romance, but in a distinctly Welsh setting.

Through these texts we will look at how the Arthur of history and the Arthur of legend and literature (two different traditions? variations of the same tradition?) developed in the medieval Welsh tradition.