MIDDLE WELSH. The earliest continuous texts of assured date appear in the Book of Liana(' 11 (Fiber Landarensis), a manuscript of the twelfth century. To the early :Middle Welsh pe riod belongs also the collection of ancient laws ascribed to Dowel Dda and probably compiled in their substance in his time. The oldest manu script of the law's belongs also to the twelfth century. These monuments of course possess rather historical than literary interest. The Middle Welsh literature, properly speaking, falls into two main divisions—bardic poetry and prose romance.
During the ages of struggle between .Saxons and Welshmen, the bards were an important class in society, and a very considerable quan tity of their poetry has been preserved. Their most flourishing period extends from the time of Gruffudd ab eynan's return from in 1080 to the death of Llewelyn ab Grufludd, the last Prince of Wales of the British line. in 1282. Among the foremost of these Middle Welsh poets were Meilyr, Gwalchmai his son. ()wain and Howel ab Dwain Gwynedd (both princes), Einion and Meilyr (sons of Gwaich mai). Davydd Benfras. Liywarch ab Llywelyn, GrulTudd ab Maredudd. Cynddelw. and Elidir Sais. After the reign of Llewelyn ab lorwerth in the first half of the thirteenth century, a decline began in the work of the poets. But the elegy on Llewelyn ab Gruffudd by Griffin ab yr Thad Goch ranks with the best productions of the earlier bards. The poetry of this whole pe riod lacks variety and broad human interest. The greater number of pieces are eulogistic ad dresses to living princes or elegies on the dead, and they contain little sustained description and almost no narration. The metrical form is usually very conventional, and the language is often obscure. But the style has much elevation and gives expression to strong national spirit. Not infrequently, too, there is revealed a genuine feeling for the beauties of nature, as in some of the poems of Gwalchmai, or fine romantic sentiment, as in the love-poems of Howel ab Owain. To these centuries belong also some re
ligions pieces. and certain mythological poems that are very difficult. of interpretation. In some productions of the period—particularly in those of Howe] ab Owain—there (s—m• 'Druidi cal' passages which have led to the theory that the mediaeval bards had inherited in some way the philosophy of the ancient Druids. But there is no sufficient ground for this opinion. See BARD.
In the fourteenth century literature received a new impulse, and the poetry of this revival. touched by the influence of the dawning Renais sance, has more general and abiding interest than most of that written by the earlier bards. War-songs and elegies now give place in large measure to poems of nature and romantic love. Ilhys (kw]) and Davydd ab Gwilym are the most conspicuous representatives of the new style. The latter, Commonly known as the 'Cambrian Petrarch,' combines such eharm of fancy and beauty of expression as to stand in the first rank of mediaeval lyric poets. The fourteenth cen tury is sometimes called the Golden of Welsh poetry. Among the bards who lived then were Ithys Gucln Eryri fid,-, m ;o0h. The later Middle Welsh poets were for the most part not equal to Davydd ab Cwilym and his contem poraries. Among the best of them were Lewis Glyn Cothi (of the fifteenth century) and Tudur Aled and Gulyn Owain (about 1541.
The prose literature of time Middle Welsh pe riod consists chiefly of chronicles and romantic tales. The first do not differ in character from the annals of the surrounding nations. The prose romanees, on the other hand. forum perhaps time most interesting—as they have certainly linen the most widely known--of all Welsh writ ings. They have been treated in a separate article on the Ilabinoyion (q.v.). The Welsh of course possessed translations and redactions of the common -And: of religious and didactic literature of the Middle Ages.