Welsh Journals

of Diwrnach Wyddel'. Although this makes for easier reading of the text, it must be remembered that such divisions and sub-titles are editorial additions. The introduction to the text offers information relating to the date and provenance of the tale, the manuscripts, orthography and language, style and structure. The subject-matter is analysed, including international themes such as the boar hunt, while the tale's significance within the development of the Welsh Arthurian legend is also discussed. The notes to the text are detailed, the most useful being those related to personal names and places. This long-awaited edition of Culhwch ac Olwen should prove valuable to all those interested in medieval Welsh culture. It is a fitting tribute to the memory of Sir Idris Foster. SIONED DAVIES Cardiff IRELAND, WALES, AND ENGLAND IN THE ELEVENTH CENTURY. By K. L. Maund. Studies in Celtic History XII. The Boydell Press, 1991. Pp. x, 238. £ 35.00. Towards the end of her book, Dr. Maund writes: 'A complex network of political ties links together Wales, England and Ireland in the eleventh century, such that it is not easy to consider one country without taking into account the events within the others.' As far as Wales and England are concerned she has demonstrated the truth of her statement with which few historians, perhaps, would be disposed to quarrel. Given the physical relationship between Wales and England and the fluidity of politics in both countries, it was inevitable that English earls looked for help to Welsh princes and that the Welsh took advantage of English disunity and weak defences. Dr. Maund does not seem to have proved her case in respect of Ireland. Surely the large majority of events there happened without the slightest repercussions in England and with few if any in Wales? The Hiberno-Scandinavians of Dublin and other Ostmen towns may from time to time have impinged upon Welsh and even some English communities, but eleventh-century England had far closer and more continuous relations with Denmark-or even Norway-than with Ireland until 1066, and thereafter was tied to Normandy. Even Scotland could be said to have had a more serious impact upon England (though not upon Wales) than Ireland, and Norman aggressiveness showed itself far earlier in northern Britain than across the Irish Sea. This makes it all the stranger that Dr. Maund has entitled her study Ireland, Wales and England, when much the greater part of it is concerned with Wales and only one chapter deals with Ireland, or to be more precise with Hiberno-Scandinavians as well as the mixed Norse-Gaelic chiefs of Man and the Western Isles. The Welsh sections of the book are likely to have the most permanent value. A very long chapter consists of a detailed prosopography of the Welsh ruling caste and the most complete reconstruction yet attempted of genealogies of princely dynasties. In the course of this Dr. Maund points out that the old line of Rhodri Mawr was seriously challenged by 'upstart' lineages such as those of Llywelyn ap Seisyll and Bleddyn ap Cynfyn. This