Search results for ""Author Patrick Sims-Williams""

Revisionist approach to the question of the authenticity - or not - of the documents in the Book of Llandaf. Awarded the Francis Jones Prize in Welsh History 2019 by Jesus College Oxford The early-twelfth-century Book of Llandaf is rightly notorious for its bogus documents - but it also provides valuable information on the earlymedieval history of south-east Wales and the adjacent parts of England. This study focuses on its 159 charters, which purport to date from the fifth century to the eleventh, arguing that most of them are genuine seventh-century and later documents that were adapted and "improved" to impress Rome and Canterbury in the context of Bishop Urban of Llandaf's struggles in 1119-34 against the bishops of St Davids and Hereford and the "invasion" of monks from English houses such as Gloucester and Tewkesbury. After assembling other evidence for the existence of pre-twelfth-century Welsh charters, the author defends the authenticity of most of the Llandaf charters' witness lists, elucidatestheir chronology, and analyses the processes of manipulation and expansion that led to the extant Book of Llandaf. This leads him to reassess the extent to which historians can exploit the rehabilitated charters as an indicator of social and economic change between the seventh and eleventh centuries and as a source for the secular and ecclesiastical history of south-east Wales and western England. PATRICK SIMS-WILLIAMS is a Fellow of the British Academy; he was formerly Reader in Celtic and Anglo-Saxon in the University of Cambridge and Professor of Celtic Studies at Aberystwyth University.

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An original study revealing the history of place-names from Ireland to Anatolia, from Scotland to the Apennines, and from to Andalusia the Black Seas. Includes numerous original maps and uncovers new methodology for linguistic geography Uses a dataset of over 20,000 names recorded by Greek and Latin authors such as Polybius, Caesar and Tacitus and by early geographers such as Strabo, Pliny, Ptolemy and the Ravenna Cosmographer A significant work for archaeologists, historians and philologists studying the early distribution of Celtic and other Indo-European languages

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This is the first comprehensive linguistic study for 50 years of the stones from western Britain and Brittany, inscribed in the Roman and Irish Ogam alphabets. First comprehensive study for 50 years of the stones from western Britain and Brittany, inscribed in the Roman and Irish Ogam alphabets. Provides a linguistic analysis of the 370 Brittonic and Irish inscriptions. Presents new phonological evidence for the dating of the inscriptions.

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Edition and translation of this important genre of Old Welsh poetry. The "Stanzas of the Graves" or "Graves of the Warriors of the Island of Britain", attributed to the legendary poet Taliesin, describe ancient heroes' burial places. Like the "Triads of the Island of Britain", they are an indispensable key to the narrative literature of medieval Wales. The heroes come from the whole of Britain, including Mercia and present-day Scotland, as well as many from Wales and a few from Ireland. Many characters known from the Mabinogion appear, often with additional information, as do some from romance and early Welsh saga, such as Arthur, Bedwyr, Gawain, Owain son of Urien, Merlin, and Vortigern. The seventh-century grave of Penda of Mercia, beneath the river Winwæd in Yorkshire, is the latest grave to be included. The poems testify to the interest aroused by megaliths, tumuli, and other apparently man-made monuments, some of which can be identified with known prehistoric remains. This volume offers a full edition and translation of the poems, mapped with reference to all the manuscripts, starting with the Black Book of Carmarthen, the oldest extant book of Welsh poetry. There is also a detailed commentary on their linguistic, literary, historical, and archaeological aspects.

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