Welsh Journals

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By using the text in B.M., Cotton, Nero E.l as a basis, and 'emending' it in the light of the variant readings found in the other texts of the Nero and Digby Recensions, Dr. James is confident that he has been able to give us the text which was the archetype of the texts of the Nero and Digby Recensions-in his own words, 'the basic mid-twelfth century Latin text'. That this is a great boon to scholars is obvious, for the Life of a saint such as St. David is important not only because of the light it throws on the activities of the saint, but also, and perhaps even more so, because of the light it sheds on the mind and motives of the author, in this case Rhigyfarch, and on the period in which he lived. Dr. James is to be congratulated on a most valuable contribution to the study of the history of the Church in Wales as well as to the study of our culture in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. The full implications of his researches have yet to be assessed. Is it too much to hope that he will write another volume on these implications ? J. E. CAERWYN WILLIAMS Aberystwyth MADOC AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA. SOME LIGHT ON AN OLD CONTROVERSY. By Richard Deacon. Frederick Muller, 1967. Pp. 269. 42s. Richard Deacon has written an interesting account in a journalistic vein of the Madoc legend and its development. He has marshalled and examined all the main contributions to its growth and circulation, some- times adopting a critical attitude, sometimes accepting without hesitation evidence of questionable value. After reading the seventeen chapters, one cannot fail to marvel at the amount of blatant deception, wishful thinking, and human gullibility which went to the making of this legend over the course of four centuries. The origins of the legend are pretty obscure and its Welsh beginnings are shrouded in mystery. The allusions of fifteenth-century poets hardly give us more than a vague indication of Madoc's love of the sea. Richard Deacon's attempt to probe beyond this immediate pre-Tudor phase is foiled by his obvious lack of facility in the language of the early literature. His task has been made more difficult by the misunderstanding and mis- representation of Gogynfeirdd poetry on the part of the secondary authorities upon whom he had to depend. Attempts to interpret allusions