MA in Celtic Studies

Module Descriptor - The Celtic Arthur: Arthur in early Celtic history and tradition to Geoffrey of Monmouth

Department: Welsh
Module Code: MAAS0120
Level: postgraduate
No of Credits: 20

Methods of assessment:
one essay (of approximately 5,000 words)

Teaching Method(s): taught by distance with written teaching materials; tutored individually by post, telephone, or e-mail
Pre-requisite(s): none
Co-requisite(s): none
Incompatibles: none
Medium: Taught through the medium of English or Welsh
Contact hours : n/a
Term taught: Flexible enrolment
Lecturers: Dr Karen Jankulak/ Welsh medium Dr Jane Cartwright

Syllabus:

This module examines the complicated historical and traditional context of Arthur as known from Celtic (mostly but not exclusively Welsh) sources, leaving to one side the large body of material directly dependent on Geoffrey of Monmouth (which forms the focus of another module). This module begins with the historical context, and moves more or less chronologically through the sources for our ‘historical' Arthur, which are of an extraordinarily varied nature. It does not so much try to reconstruct a linear and unified narrative of events as to establish a historical context for the consideration, thematically and more or less chronologically, of the relevant primary sources.

Learning Outcomes:

By the end of this module the student will have become familiar with the early medieval sources of the Arthurian legend , and will have gained a greater understanding of the medieval history of Britain, and, in particular, Wales.

The student will also have become familiar with the problems of historical enquiry into the early and central medieval period, working with fragmentary sources translated from different languages, and will begin to appreciate the possibilities as well as the limits as regards placing these into a historical context.

Transferable and other skills involved:

This module, as with any postgraduate module, will develop critical skills at a postgraduate level: these are chiefly the ability to do independent research, and to form and present critical arguments.

While this module does not concentrate specifically on internet skills, it presents the opportunity to use, and to assess, internet sources in the pursuit of high-level academic research and writing.

Main recommended texts:

• Alcock, L., Arthur's Britain (Harmondsworth, 1973).
• Bromwich, R. et al . (eds), The Arthur of the Welsh ( Cardiff , 1991).
• Davies, W., Wales in the Early Middle Ages ( Leicester , 1982).
• Dumville, D.N., ‘Sub-Roman Britain : History and Legend', History n.s. 62 (1977), pp. 173-92. Reprinted, with new material (but same pagination), in D.N. Dumville, Histories and Pseudo-Histories of the Insular Middle Ages ( Aldershot , 1990).
• Jarman, A.O.H., and G. R. Hughes (eds), A Guide to Welsh Literature , vol. I (Swansea, 1976; rev. ed. Cardiff, 1992).
• Padel, O.J., ‘The Nature of Arthur', Cambrian Medieval Celtic Studies 27 (1994), pp. 1-31.
• Padel, O.J., Arthur in Medieval Welsh Literature (Writers of Wales Series, Cardiff , 2000).

Evaluation (including student evaluation):

Module evaluation questionnaires are distributed to students towards the end of the course. The curriculum is also discussed at termly meetings of the Staff-Student Consultative Committee and e-learning students are invited to comments to the Director of E-learning via e-mail prior to the meetings. The course is also subject to annual reports by the External Examiner and periodic review by the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education.