Welsh Journals

Henry de Lacy was a consistent supporter of the empress, and that the Earl William who captured his castle at Selby was necessarily William d'Aumale, earl of York. It would be idle to suggest that the honour of Weobley per se was as interesting as the honour of Pontefract, but that is simply because the evidence about it is less complete. By comparing and contrasting the two honours, however, Dr. Wightman is able to throw new light on old problems. In a previous article he has already shown that the Conqueror must have given William fitz Osbern palatine powers over much of the Welsh border. Now he traces the emergence of Walter de Lacy from a tenant of fitz Osbern's to a prominent tenant-in-chief in 1075. He has fresh things to say about the well-known grant of Holme Lacy, makes better sense of the Lacy genealogy than any writer before him, and has a fascinating account of Henry I's interference with the hereditary rules of succession in a (successful) attempt to reduce the size of an honour. All this adds up to a book which every mediaevalist must find exciting. Dr. Wightman is no stylist, but he has a lot to say, and it has been very well worth saying. Historians will hope to hear more from him. R. H. C. DAVIS. Merton College, Oxford. SIEFFRE o FYNWY: GEOFFREY OF MONMOUTH. By A. O. H. Jarman. University of Wales Press, Cardiff, 1966. Pp. 112. 4s. 6d. This bilingual booklet (Welsh and English on facing pages) is a popular introduction to Geoffrey and his writings, as well as a brief summary of the Historia Regum Britanniae and the Vita Merlini. Hardly a work directed at students of mediaeval history or Arthurian literature, it is, rather, an appreciation of Geoffrey and his contribution to the Middle Ages. As such it cannot properly be compared to the work of Faral, Tatlock, or Pahler. To criticise it for not being more scholarly is not to accept it on its own terms, but one may still wish that it had contained more. Jarman's work may be more appropriately related to Lewis Thorpe's recent translation of the Historia (Penguin, 1966). Both books are of a popular nature, but Thorpe's seems more designed for the student than the general reader and has the advantage over Jarman's work of giving a complete translation of the Historia. The assets of Jarman's pamphlet are that it summarises the not-easily-available Vita Merlini; it may be used by monolingual Welshmen and by English speakers wishing to improve their Welsh; and it stresses the Welsh relationships of Geoffrey. At times this last point is overstated, as when Jarman describes the