Welsh Journals

The general thrust of this interpretation has much to commend it, but some aspects of it require modification. In particular, it is extremely unlikely that the text as it stands was written after the Reformation, although this may be true of the gloss explaining the meaning of Pengwern Powys. Especially significant in this regard is the reference to Brochwel' s residence at Shrewsbury as being 'where the College of St Chad the bishop is now situated' (my emphasis), which points to a date of composition earlier than the dissolution of the college in June 1548.30 It is also worth remarking that the work is not written in the elaborate periodic Latin prose style, modelled on that of Cicero, favoured by Renaissance authors in Wales from the mid-sixteenth century onwards.31 On the other hand, there is a strong case for believing that the work was composed no earlier than the late fifteenth century, for it is only from then onwards that the adjective divus applied to Melangell and Chad in the Historia is widely used as an alternative to sanctus to denote the title 'Saint' in British sources.32 It appears, therefore, that the text was originally composed at some point between the late fifteenth century and 1548. This is not to deny that the author was of an antiquarian bent, drawing on earlier written sources, of which some at least were in Latin. For example, the description of Brochwel as 'consul Legecestriae' ('earl of Chester') is almost certainly derived from Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae (c. 1138), whose account, based on that of Bede's Historia Ecclesiastica (II. 2), of the early seventh-century battle of Chester between the Britons and yEthelfrith, king of the Northumbrians, refers to the Britons going to 'Chester where Brochfael earl of the city was awaiting their arrival' ('Legecestriam ubi Broohmais [sc. Brochmail] consul urbis aduentum eorum expectabat').33 The identification of this Brochfael or Brochwel with Brochwel Ysgithrog was a later embellishment by the late twelfth- or early thirteenth-century Welsh translators of Geoffrey, however.34 (Brochwel is simply a later form of Brochfael or, in Old Welsh orthography, Brocmail.)35 It is also highly likely that the author was familiar with Bede's Historia Ecclesiastica itself, since, as Radford and Hemp noted, the date of 604 assigned to Brochwel' s hunting expedition in the Historia Divae Monacellae appears at the beginning of the chapter of Bede's work immediately following that describing the battle of Chester (Historia Ecclesiastica, II. 3).36 It is sugges- tive, too, that the identification of Pengwern with Shrewsbury is first attested in Gerald of Wales's Itinerarium Kambriae (1191), while the use of the adverb Britannice, meaning 'in Welsh', is unusual, possibly indicating familiarity with Geoffrey of Monmouth or Gerald, 30 A. T. Gaydon, The College of St. Chad, Shrewsbury, in idem (ed.), The Victoria History ofthe Counties of England: A History of Shropshire, vol. 2, (London, 1973), 117. 31 Cf. C. Davies, Latin Writers ofthe Renaissance, (Cardiff, 1981), 5-7. 32 Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources. Fascicule III D-E, prepared by R.E. Latham & D.R. Howlett, (London. 1986), 70s. v. divus 3c (which does, however, note one instance of the use of divus in this sense in a theological work of c. 1270). I should add that the title Historia Divae Monacellae, which provides the only example in the work of the use of diva in respect of St Melangell, is likely to be original even though it is lacking in the versions found in BL Harley 2059 and the publication of Maurice's manuscript, for it is already attested in Powel, Historie of Cambria, 22. 33 The Historia Regum Britannie of Geoffrey of Monmouth, I: Bern, Burgerbibliothek, MS. 568, ed. N. Wright, (Cambridge. 1985), 135 (c. 189). The use of Legecestria as a name for Chester is discussed in J.S.P. Tatlock, The Legendary History oj Britain, (Berkeley, 1950), 25. 34 H. Owen (ed.), The Description ofPenbrokeshire, b.v George Owen ofHenllys, Lord of Kernes, (London, 1892-1936), vol. 2, 283; Brut Dingestow, ed. H. Lewis, (Cardiff, 1942), 191 (XI. 13). 35 The Poems of Taliesin, ed. I. Williams, (Dublin, 1968), p. xxviii. Cf. Owen (ed.) op. cit. (note 34), vol. 2, 281-2. 36Radford & Hemp 1959 op. cit. (note 29), 83.