Welsh Journals

CYLCHGRAWN LLYFRGELL GENEDLAETHOL CYMRU THE NATIONAL LIBRARY OF WALES JOURNAL VOLUME XII. Summery 1962. NUMBER 3. HEN LWYTHAU GWYNEDD A'R MARS In two earlier articles I have given the texts of a number of early genealogical tracts, which I believe to have been composed in their original form in the 13th century. The present article completes the publication of the material contained in these tracts. I have already discussed the tracts in the two previous articles, and it will be sufficient, therefore, for the present purpose to summarise the conclusions, necessarily somewhat tentative, reached in those articles. The tracts survive in their clearest form in copies made by John Jones of Gelli Lyfdy in Cardiff MS. 25 in 1640. They occupy pp. 1-22 and pp. 32-100 of that manuscript. It appears that only pp. 1-22 were copied from the lost Hengwrt MS. 33 which was known as 'Hanesyn Hen'. Pages 32 to 100 were probably copied from one or more other manuscripts which contained the 'Hanesyn Hen' material, slightly augmented, and much else. The latest persons mentioned in these two parts of Cardiff MS. 25 are Llywelyn the Great and his contem- poraries. In one place they are referred to as living 'at the present time', which suggests that the tracts were originally compiled in the 13th century. But the manuscripts used by John Jones were probably not as old, and I suggest that they had been 'edited' to some extent. For example the two versions of Bonedd y Saint contained in them2 (if they were so contained) include extra material not found in any other extant versions written up to the year 1400. The material of these tracts is contained in many other manuscripts but in most cases it has been so re-arranged and combined with other material that without the guidance of Cardiff MS. 25 it would not be easy, if possible, to extract the original nucleus. However, they often contain better readings, partly no doubt through having been copied when the originals were in better condition than they were when John Jones had them. All of the copyists have evidently modified the orthography according to the custom of the time and their own preferences. 1 viz. ByA and ABT-see 'Abbreviations'. 2 In Card. 25 they are defective and occur on pp. 10-1 and pp. 32-44 respectively.