Welsh Journals

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A key phrase in education-as indeed in other fields-during recent years is 'fitness for purpose'. On this criterion alone, Andrew Breeze's book falls short of the mark, as it simply does not do what it claims for itself. Purporting to be 'the first general history of the literature of medieval Wales', one can only assume that Breeze is playing with semantics as he effectively dismisses the classic studies by Saunders Lewis and Thomas Parry (upon both of which he clearly draws), not to mention the first two volumes in the recently revived and much valued Guide to Welsh Literature. Nor does the volume fulfil its claim of incorporating the most recent research in the field (items in the Bibliography post-dating 1990, other than those by the author himself, are unexpectedly rare; the author's Preface is dated October 1996). Reviewers elsewhere have drawn attention to Breeze's lack of reference to the pioneering work of such scholars as John Koch and Graham Isaac (the Gododdin), Sioned Davies (style and structure of the Mabinogion), and Huw Edwards (Dafydd ap Gwilym). Among other notable omissions are the fruits of the Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies's first project which edited the complete works of the Poets of the Princes in seven volumes (1991-6; Breeze cites only the first of these in his Bibliography); recent publications in the field of Welsh Law, in particular perhaps Huw Pryce's study of the laws and the Church in medieval Wales (1993) and Dafydd Jenkins's edition in the Welsh Classics series (1986); together with Dafydd Johnston's edition of the poems of Lewys Glyn Cothi (1995). There are other significant omissions in the case of less recent studies, for example, Daniel Huws's masterly analysis of the form and structure of the Hendregadredd manuscript (1981). In fact, the balance of the whole Bibliography is quite curious, with publications through the medium of Welsh conspicuous by their absence. Some bibliographical 'scores' are highly suggestive in this respect: Andrew Breeze 63 J. E. Caerwyn Williams 5 Thomas Parry 3 Brynley Roberts 3 Sioned Davies 0 Dafydd Johnston 0 However, it is in its claim that it has been 'written for newcomers to the subject' that Medieval Welsh Literature is most unsatisfactory, for the volume presents a highly distorted and subjective view of the field, in which the author's own personal research interests have been allowed to reign supreme. Thus, for example, the canon of Master John of St Davids (five