Vita Griffini Filii Conani: The Medieval Latin Life of Gruffudd Ap Cynan

(Hardback)

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Vita Griffini Filii Conani is a critical edition, with facing English translation, of the Latin Life of Gruffudd ap Cynan. It has long been recognized that the surviving Welsh text is a translation of an original Latin life of Gruffudd ap Cynan, and it has always been assumed that the original Latin life had been lost. The main focus of this volume is on Peniarth MS, 434E which has been heavily annotated and corrected. The author shows that the annotation and correction was all intended to bring the text into line with the Welsh text, and that the underlying base text cannot be a translation of the Welsh text. The text edited here is that underlying, original text, and the author demonstrates that this text is not a translation of the Welsh text (as has always been thought) but a copy of the medieval Latin life of Gruffudd ap Cynan which predated the Middle Welsh translation. The effect of this discovery is extremely important for many aspects of medieval history, especially for medieval Wales but, given Gruffudd's Irish and Norse origins, it can also cast a different light on Irish and Norse relations with Wales in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. The differences between the original Latin text and its Welsh translation raise all kinds of questions both for medieval historians and for students of translation literature. The book consists of an Introduction dealing with the significance of the text contained in Peniarth 434E, followed by the Latin text and translation, appendices and indexes.

Reviews

'By uncovering the lost Latin text of the Life of Gruffudd ap Cynan, Paul Russell has performed a great service to scholars of medieval Welsh history and literature and, although this is the fifth book about Gruffudd to be published in less than 100 years, it will doubtlessly ensure the continued importance of this intriguing dynast for some time to come.'David E. Thornton, Bilkent University, Cambrian Medieval Celtic Studies

Author Bio

Paul Russell is Lecturer in Celtic Languages and Literatures, Dept. of Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic, Cambridge.