Juvencus Manuscript

Last updated

The Juvencus Manuscript (Cambridge, Cambridge University Library, MS Ff. 4.42; Welsh : Llawysgrif Juvencus) is one of the main surviving sources of Old Welsh. Unlike much Old Welsh, which is attested in manuscripts from later periods and in partially updated form, the Welsh material in the Juvencus Manuscript was written during the Old Welsh period itself; the manuscript provides the first attestation of many Welsh words. [1]

Contents

Around the second half of the ninth century, [2] someone copied two Old Welsh poems into the margins: a nine-stanza englyn poem on the wonders of God's creation (generally known as the 'Juvencus nine'), and, on folios 25–26, a three-stanza poem which seems to represent a warrior lamenting his misfortunes (known as the 'Juvencus three'). These are the earliest surviving englynion. [3] The parts of the manuscript containing the 'Juvencus three' were cut out of the manuscript and stolen in the early eighteenth century by the antiquary Edward Lhuyd (1660-1709), but were found after his death and returned to the manuscript. [4]

Provenance

The manuscript was originally produced somewhere in Wales as a text of the Latin poem Evangeliorum Libri IV by Juvencus. This text was produced by more than ten different scribes, working around 900. One had the Old Irish name Nuadu . Another included his name as a cryptogram in Greek letters: the Welsh name Cemelliauc (modern Welsh Cyfeilliog), who could have been the same person as the Bishop Cameleac whom the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle describes as being captured by Vikings in 914. To this text the scribes added a large body of glosses in Latin and Old Welsh, along with a few in Old Irish, showing that the manuscript was produced in a milieu influenced by both Welsh and Irish scholarship. [5]

The 'Juvencus Three'

As edited and translated by Jenny Rowland, the text reads: [6]

In Rowland's estimation,

several points of the language remain unclear but enough is intelligible thanks to Ifor Williams's work to give a view of a short saga poem in fully Old Welsh guise. The poem is not long enough to invite comparison with any extant tale or cycle, but the situation clearly demands a story background. As in Canu Llywarch and Canu Heledd the speaker appears to be a 'last survivor', but a more active one, like the narrator of "The Wanderer". Instead of a party of his equals he is reduced to the company of a mercenary or freedman and thus takes no pleasure in the evening drinking. The skilful use of repetition builds a picture of the narrator's condition and emotional state, although only lightly ornamented englynion are used. [7]

The 'Juvencus Nine'

As edited in the nineteenth century by William Forbes Skene and as translated in 1932 by Ifor Williams, the text reads: [8]

Editions and translations

The main edition is The Cambridge Juvencus manuscript glossed in Latin, Old Welsh, and Old Irish: text and commentary, ed. by Helen McKee (Aberystwyth: CMCS Publications, 2000). A digital facsimile of the manuscript is available for viewing at the University of Cambridge library website, though there is an earlier printed facsimile too. [9] The poetry has been edited previously:

Related Research Articles

<span title="Welsh-language text"><i lang="cy">Englyn</i></span> Traditional Welsh short poem form

Englyn is a traditional Welsh short poem form. It uses quantitative metres, involving the counting of syllables, and rigid patterns of rhyme and half rhyme. Each line contains a repeating pattern of consonants and accent known as cynghanedd.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Baschurch</span> Village in Shropshire, England

Baschurch is a village and civil parish in Shropshire, England. It lies in the north of Shropshire. The village had a population of 2,503 as of the 2011 census. Shrewsbury is to the south-east, Oswestry is to the north-west, and Wem is to the north-east of Baschurch. The village is also close to Ruyton-XI-Towns.

<i>Red Book of Hergest</i> 14th century Welsh manuscript collection

The Red Book of Hergest, Oxford, Jesus College, MS 111, is a large vellum manuscript written shortly after 1382, which ranks as one of the most important medieval manuscripts written in the Welsh language. It preserves a collection of Welsh prose and poetry, notably the tales of the Mabinogion and Gogynfeirdd poetry. The manuscript derives its name from the colour of its leather binding and from its association with Hergest Court between the late 15th and early 17th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Book of Taliesin</span> Medieval Welsh manuscript

The Book of Taliesin is one of the most famous of Middle Welsh manuscripts, dating from the first half of the 14th century though many of the fifty-six poems it preserves are taken to originate in the 10th century or before.

<i>Y Gododdin</i> Medieval Welsh poem

Y Gododdin is a medieval Welsh poem consisting of a series of elegies to the men of the Brittonic kingdom of Gododdin and its allies who, according to the conventional interpretation, died fighting the Angles of Deira and Bernicia at a place named Catraeth in about AD 600. It is traditionally ascribed to the bard Aneirin and survives only in one manuscript, the "Book of Aneirin".

Medieval Welsh literature is the literature written in the Welsh language during the Middle Ages. This includes material starting from the 5th century AD, when Welsh was in the process of becoming distinct from Common Brittonic, and continuing to the works of the 16th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Urien</span> Sixth-century ruler of Rheged

Urien ap Cynfarch Oer or Urien Rheged was a powerful sixth-century Brittonic-speaking figure who was possibly the ruler of the territory or kingdom known as Rheged. He is probably the best-known and certainly the best documented of the British figures of the 'Old North' in the sixth century. His kingdom was most likely centred around the Solway Firth. The most secure evidence for his existence comes from a ninth-century Welsh history and eight praise-poems in Middle Welsh dedicated to him surviving in a fourteenth-century manuscript. Despite their being found in Middle Welsh orthography, the poems may possibly reflect earlier material, even material contemporaneous to Urien. One of these poems is explicitly attributed to the famed poet Taliesin in the manuscript. The early material paints Urien as a ferocious warrior and a major political figure in his time, conquering Picts, Anglo-Saxons, and Britons of the 'Old North' alike. According to the Historia Brittonum, Urien, with three other kings confederate with him, nearly exterminated the newly-arrived Anglo-Saxons in Britain, though this campaign was brought to an abrupt end when Urien was murdered by one of his allies. In addition to this earlier material, Urien and his family feature elsewhere in medieval literature from Wales. Outside of the historical Welsh context, he eventually was transformed in Arthurian legend into the figure of king Urien of Garlot or Gorre. His most celebrated son, Owain, likewise gave his name to the Arthurian character of Ywain.

Geraint son of Erbin is a medieval Welsh poem celebrating the hero Geraint and his deeds at the Battle of Llongborth. The poem consists of three-line englyn stanzas and exists in several versions all in Middle Welsh. The earliest surviving version is in the Black Book of Carmarthen, completed around 1250, though the poem may have been composed in the 10th or 11th century. The poem is significant for its early mention of King Arthur.

Llywarch Hen, was a prince and poet of the Brythonic kingdom of Rheged, a ruling family in the Hen Ogledd or "Old North" of Britain. Along with Taliesin, Aneirin, and Myrddin, he is held to be one of the four great bards of early Welsh poetry. Whether he actually wrote the poems attributed to him is unknown, and most of what is known about his life is derived from early medieval poems which may or may not be historically accurate.

Cynddylan, or Cynddylan ap Cyndrwyn was a seventh-century Prince of Powys associated with Pengwern. Cynddylan is attested only in literary sources: unlike many kings from Brittonic post-Roman Britain, he does not appear in the early Welsh genealogies or other historical sources. The son of King Cyndrwyn, Cynddylan is described in the probably seventh-century poem Marwnad Cynddylan and seems to have been a chieftain in Powys.

Gwallog ap Llênog was possibly a sixth-century ruler of Elfed, a region in the wider area memorialised in later Welsh literature as the 'Old North'. The evidence for Gwallog's existence survives entirely from two poems of spurious date and several other references in semi-legendary genealogies and literature well beyond his era. If this later material is to be believed, he was a member of the Coeling, a family which is supposed to have been prominent across several kingdoms in northern Britain in the sixth century. He is probably best remembered for his role in the Historia Brittonum as an ally of Urien Rheged. As with many figures of this period, he attracted much interest in later Medieval Welsh literature.

Cambrian Medieval Celtic Studies is a bi-annual academic journal of Celtic studies, which appears in summer and winter. The journal was founded as Cambridge Medieval Celtic Studies in 1981 by Patrick Sims-Williams, who has remained the journal's editor to this day. It was given its present title beginning with volume 26 in 1993.

The Englynion y Beddau is a Middle Welsh verse catalogue listing the resting places (beddau) of legendary heroes. It consists of a series of englynion, or short stanzas in quantitative meter, and survives in a number of manuscripts. The collection is thought to be considerably older than its earliest manuscript, the 13th-century Black Book of Carmarthen, and provides an important early glimpse at medieval Welsh heroic tradition and topographical folklore.

Englynion y Clywaid is a collection of Welsh stanzas.

Canu Llywarch Hen are a collection of early Welsh englyn-poems. They comprise the most famous of the early Welsh cycles of englynion about heroes of post-Roman North Britain.

Claf Abercuawg is the modern title of a 32-stanza medieval Welsh englyn-poem. According to Jenny Rowland, 'most critics would classify it among the most sophisticated and moving all the early englynion poems'; it is 'the classic example' of meditative, lyric, at least implicitly religious, early Welsh poetry.

Kyntaw geir is a medieval Welsh englyn-poem. It is a relatively rare example of religious poetry in the englyn form.

Canu Heledd are a collection of early Welsh englyn-poems. They are rare among medieval Welsh poems for being set in the mouth of a female character. One prominent figure in the poems is Heledd's dead brother Cynddylan.

Ystorya Trystan, also known as Trystan ac Esyllt or The Welsh Fragment of Tristan, is an early Welsh tale of uncertain date, though no later than the 16th century, which tells, partly in prose and partly in verse, an episode from the legend of Tristan and Iseult. The Ystorya relates, somewhat in the manner of a French fabliau, how the lovers Trystan and Esyllt escape from Esyllt's husband, March, and outwit him to obtain from King Arthur a judgement that they should remain together.

References

  1. ↑ John T. Koch, 'The Juvencus Manuscript', in Celtic Culture: A Historical Encyclopedia, ed. by John T. Koch (Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2005), s.v.
  2. ↑ Helen McKee, 'Scribes and Glosses from Dark Age Wales: The Cambridge Juvencus Manuscript', CMCS, 39 (2000), 1-22.
  3. ↑ John T. Koch, 'The Juvencus Manuscript', in Celtic Culture: A Historical Encyclopedia, ed. by John T. Koch (Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2005), s.v.
  4. ↑ Myriah Williams, 'Cambridge Juvencus (MS Ff.4.42)', http://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/MS-FF-00004-00042.
  5. ↑ John T. Koch, 'The Juvencus Manuscript', in Celtic Culture: A Historical Encyclopedia, ed. by John T. Koch (Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2005), s.v.
  6. ↑ Jenny Rowland, Early Welsh Saga Poetry: A Study and Edition of the 'Englynion’ (Cambridge: Brewer, 1990), pp. 466-67, 510.
  7. ↑ Jenny Rowland, Early Welsh Saga Poetry: A Study and Edition of the 'Englynion’ (Cambridge: Brewer, 1990), p. 249.
  8. ↑ William Forbes Skene, The Four Ancient Books of Wales, 2 vols (Edinburgh: Edmonston and Douglas, 1868), II, 1-2, https://books.google.com/books?id=7uEIAAAAQAAJ 'Périodiques I', Revue Celtique, 51 (1934), 164-70 (p. 167), https://archive.org/details/revueceltique51pari.
  9. ↑ McKee, Helen (ed.), Juvencus Codex Cantabrigiensis Ff.4.42: llawysgrif o'r nawfed ganrif gyda glosau Cymraeg, Gwyddeleg, a Lladin (Aberystwyth: Cyhoeddiadau CMCS, 2000).
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.