Adapting Winefride in Welsh, Latin and English

Callander, David ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0177-7789 2023. Adapting Winefride in Welsh, Latin and English. Sylvester, Louise and Pons-Sanz, Sara, eds. Medieval English in a Multilingual Context: Current Methodologies and Approaches, Springer Nature, pp. 441-466. (10.1007/978-3-031-30947-2_15) Item availability restricted.

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Abstract

The Lives of the Welsh saints provide an excellent case study for how Latin texts were adapted in different languages in multilingual medieval Britain. Following advances made in the textual scholarship of the Welsh and Latin Lives by the recent AHRC Cwlt y Seintiau yng Nghymru and Vitae Sanctorum Cambriae projects, we now know much more about these texts and how they relate to one another. This case study takes the example of the border-crossing saint Winefride/Gwenfrewy, whose Latin Life by Robert of Shrewsbury was translated and adapted in Middle English and Middle Welsh. Despite the traditions of Winefride being trilingual, individual texts are overwhelmingly monolingual. The primarily Middle English texts and collections are the most multilingual, but this is almost always English/Latin rather than English/Welsh. This study also examines in detail examples of where Welsh occurs in Robert of Shrewsbury’s Latin Life of Winefride, being primarily associated with place-names and personal names. As Robert’s Life was adapted into Middle English as well as Middle Welsh, I study how these uses of Welsh in Robert’s Life are adapted in contrasting ways in the two languages (as well as later Latin adaptations in England, which follow different patterns to the vernacular adaptations). While the overwhelming trend in the Middle English texts is deletion of the Welsh elements, there are examples of creative engagement with the Welsh language. I highlight that a fuller view of Welsh-English linguistic interaction in the Middle Ages is enabled by widening the lens beyond the Welsh March.

Item Type:	Book Section
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Welsh
Publisher:	Springer Nature
ISBN:	9783031309465
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	11 January 2023
Last Modified:	06 Mar 2024 13:19
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/155649

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