1 General

Angharad Price, Gororion: Llên Cymru yng Nghyfandir Ewrop (Llanrwst: Gwasg Carreg Gwalch, 2023), looks at the links between Welsh and European literature, taking the form of eight literary trips.

Beth yw’r Gymraeg?, ed. by Angharad Naylor, Llion Pryderi Roberts, and Dylan Foster Evans (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 2023), offers an introduction to the Welsh language as a discipline and its use in different subject areas. The fourteen chapters by well-known academics are divided into three broad subject areas: Literature, exploring several genres within the field including drama and sexuality; Language, including linguistics, bilingualism, and dialect; and Society, looking at cultures, the links between language and matters such as education and race, and the Welsh language outside of Wales.

Guto Rhys, Amrywiaith 3: Blas ar Dafodieithoedd Cymru (Llanrwst: Gwasg Carreg Gwalch, 2023), is the third volume in the author’s series of studies on dialectal words, the development of the language, and matters related to the Welsh language, drawn from discussions with Welsh speakers themselves.

Ieuan Wyn, Darlith Saunders a’i Dylanwad (Clynnog Fawr: Utgorn Cymru, 2023), is a version of a lecture that was given to mark sixty years since the broadcast of Saunders Lewis’s 1962 radio lecture ‘Tynged yr Iaith’. It charts the influence of the lecture up to the present day. Dafydd Glyn Jones, Y Wasg Gymraeg Ddoe a Heddiw (Clynnog Fawr: Utgorn Cymru, 2023), is a published version of the author’s lecture on the growth and decline of the Welsh newspaper press from the seventeenth century up to the present day.

Delyth Badder and Mark Norman, The Folklore of Wales: Ghosts (La Vergne: Calon, 2023), looks at ghost stories and supernatural tales from Wales, and includes original Welsh texts, many of those translated into English for the first time.

Gofal ein Gwinllan: Ysgrifau ar gyfraniad yr Eglwys yng Nghymru i’n llên a’n diwydiant, ed. by A. Cynfael Lake and D. Densil Morgan (Talybont: Y Lolfa, 2023), presents a collection of chapters examining the Church in Wales’s contribution to Welsh literature, history, and culture. Starting in 1567, with the publication of Richard Davies and William Salesbury’s New Testament in Welsh, each of the fourteen chapters takes Welsh writers—some well known, including Thomas Charles, Angharad Llwyd, and Gwallter Mechain among others—and considers their contribution to literature and culture. This first volume takes the study to the end of the eighteenth century.

‘Penrhaith ein Heniaith ni’: Cyfrol Deyrnged Gruffydd Aled Williams, ed. by T. Robin Chapman and Bleddyn Owen Huws (Aberystwyth: Atebol, 2023), is an edited collection of eleven chapters inspired by the research interests of Professor Emeritus Gruffydd Aled Williams. The book covers a wide time period: chapters relating to Medieval Welsh are covered elsewhere in this volume by Simon Rodway; the chapters relating to the Modern period are covered below.

2 Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries

Geirfâu’r Fflyd (1632–1633): Casgliad John Jones, Gellilyfdy, o eiriau’r cartref, crefftau, amaeth a byd natur, ed. by Ann Parry Owen (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 2023), is a full study and edition of the thematic word lists created by the seventeenth-century scribe John Jones, Gellilyfdy, during his incarceration in the Fleet prison.

Jerry Hunter, ‘ “Ond Mater Merch”: Cywydd Llatai Troseddol Tomos Prys’, Llên Cymru, 46 (2023), 11–32, addresses a particular poem by Tomos Prys, c. 1564–1634. The poet sends a nightingale as a llatai (messenger) to various family members to explain the poet’s incarceration for a sexual offence; Hunter also questions whether poetry covering unsavoury topics should be appreciated or enjoyed.

Eurig Salisbury, ‘Cerdd gan Huw Morys i Ofyn Crwth: Cipolwg ar y Canu Caeth Newydd’, in ‘Penrhaith ein Heniaith ni’, pp. 105–131, looks at the development of strict metre poetry through the lens of a poem by the seventeenth-century poet Huw Morys. A full edition of the poem with detailed notes is also included.

M. Paul Bryant-Quinn, ‘Y Dosparth Byrr a’i Ddarllenwyr, 1567–1857’, in ‘Penrhaith ein Heniaith ni’, pp. 83–103, gives an account of the creation and publication of the humanist discussion on grammar and the bardic craft known as Dosparth Byrr. The chapter also looks at its reception and use, including copies, up to the mid-nineteenth century.

3 Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries

Jane Aaron, Cranogwen (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 2023), studies the life and work of Sarah Jane Rees (1839–1916), known as ‘Cranogwen’, and also examines her poetry in some detail.

D. Ben Rees, Cofiant Mabon (Liverpool: Modern Welsh Publications, 2023), is a biography of William Abraham (1842–1922), known as ‘Mabon’, who was an important figure in the National Eisteddfod.

Dylan Foster Evans, ‘ “A great Rhymer”: Solomon Evan (c. 1709–1776) o Sain Siorys’, Llên Cymru, 46 (2023), 33–47, discusses the background of the neglected poet Solomon Evan, and examines his memorial englynion poetry in detail for the first time.

4 Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries

Llwyfannu’r Genedl Anghyflawn, ed. by Ian Rowlands (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 2023), is a collection edited by the leading Welsh dramatist Ian Rowlands. It consists of five chapters by six well-known Welsh dramatists who reveal the challenges of writing a ‘national’ drama in contemporary Wales. On a similar subject, Sharon Morgan, Dramâu’r Rhosys Cochion (London: Honno, 2023), is a sequel to her first volume covering the work of Sera Moore Williams; it focuses on three dramas that were performed by the author for the Rhosys Cochion company.

Dewi Alter, ‘Kate Roberts, “Gorymdaith” a Chof Diwylliannol’, Llên Cymru, 46 (2023), 48–73, applies Jan and Aleida Assmann’s theories of cultural memory to interpret one particular short story from one of Kate Roberts’s collections of short stories and examines the work in a historical social context.

Manon Wyn Williams, ‘Anghyfiawnderau Cymdeithasol yng ngwaith Siôn Eirian’, Llên Cymru, 46 (2023), 74–94, looks at how the theme of social injustice runs strongly through the work of the poet, dramatist, script-writer, and novelist Siôn Eirian, in particular his treatment of hypocrisy and the marginalization of certain groups of people.

Dau Lais: Detholiad o Waith Gwilym Ceri Jones gol. Mererid Hopwood (n.p.: Barddas, 2023) is a discussion of the life and work of Gwilym Ceri Jones (1893–1963), and presents a selection of his poems.

Some five chapters in ‘Penrhaith ein heniaith ni’ cover the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. T. Robin Chapman’s chapter, ‘ “Dim ond Tir” ’: Gair am Y Rhandir Mwyn Marion Eames’ (pp. 223–236), reviews the historical novel Y Rhandir Mwyn by Marion Eames and its reception, including its role as a follow-up to her first novel.

Peredur Lynch, ‘Nodiadau ar Dair Cerdd’ (pp. 134–154), looks in detail at three particular twentieth-century poems: ‘Anatiomaros’ (1925) by T. Gwynn Jones; and ‘Cymru 1937’ (1937) and ‘Cymry Gŵyl Ddewi’ (1934) by R. Williams Parry. The final poems of T. H. Parry-Williams are discussed by Bleddyn Owen Hughes in ‘Cerddi Olaf T. H. Parry-Williams’ (pp. 211–222).

Gerwyn Wiliams, ‘Gohebiaeth Ryfel Alun Llywelyn-Williams: Tachwedd 1944 hyd Awst 1945’ (pp. 155–170), examines a selection of the letters sent by the poet Alun Llywelyn-Williams to his parents during his time in active service in Europe during WWII. The personal letters of a poet are also the subject of another chapter in the same volume: Jason Walford Davies, ‘ “Rhin cydeneidiau’n ymagor”: Gohebiaeth Waldo Williams a Megan Humphreys’ (pp. 171–209). This chapter looks at the letters and the friendship between Waldo Williams and Megan Humphreys over many years, and the themes covered in the letters.