Welsh Journals

the older genealogies, such as (Rhydderch) Hael, (Coel Hen) Godebawc, (Pabo) Post Prydyn, (Tudwal) Tutclyd, and the like.15 I have here indicated only a few of the many ways in which the genealogies contribute to our knowledge of the early Welsh tradition. The material made available in this book serves to emphasize the close association which was maintained at all stages between all branches of bardic learning. It is to be hoped that this admirable edition may stimulate further interest in the genealogies, as sources both for the study of Welsh history and of Welsh literature. RACHEL BROMWICH University College, Cambridge. PAGAN CELTIC BRITAIN. STUDIES IN ICONOGRAPHY AND TRADITION. By Anne Ross. Routledge and Kegan Paul, London; Columbia University Press, New York, 1967. Pp. xxxi, 433, Figs. 214, Pis. 96, Maps 3. l26s. Many scholars realize how much more fruitful than their independent pursuits would be a synthesis of the results of the three disciplines- classical studies, Celtic language and literature, and archaeology-on which our knowledge of Pagan Celtic Britain must be based. They often complain how difficult it has become for the specialist in one of them to comprehend what is going on in related fields. Dr. Ross has now come to their rescue with a massive and richly-illustrated book which reviews and correlates the evidence available from the study of ancient British religion from Old Welsh and Irish literature, classical authors and modern archaeology, including Romano-British epigraphy and iconography. As the author explains, her book does not anticipate more specialized works-a British Esperandieu, for example, or a digest of all Old Welsh and Irish sources relating to mythology and religion-which would benefit from a synthesis of the three disciplines. But it does provide a most valuable framework of reference for the student of classical Celtic literature to see how particular texts are illustrated by comparative religion and folk-lore, and by the various kinds of archaeological evidence now 15 A similar bardic epithet has been attached to the name of the legendary Gweirydd adar-weinidog (Geoffrey's Arviragus) in the king-list on p. 109. 'Bird servant' is a better rendering of this epithet than the editor's 'having bird-servants': see J. Lloyd-Jones. Geirfa, p. 648. It is a variant of the common bardic figure llithio brain, 'feeding ravens' (on corpses), and it is used similarly as an eulogistic epithet by Prydydd y Moch, Poetry from the Red Book of Hergest, col. 1420, 11.