The Beginnings of Welsh Poetry:

1980 second edition (First Paperback Impression) paperback 8vo  xx, 201 pp 1 monochrome manuscript facsimile frontispiece.  The flexible card covers are entirely whole,  with a straight, uncreased spine. The glossy finish shows only minor surface shelf-rubbing and light overall natural age-toning typical of the paper stock. The interior leaves are bright and completely free from foxing, library stamps, or marginal annotations.

Edited by the distinguished Celtic scholar Rachel Bromwich, this volume brings together the definitive English-language essays and lectures of Sir Ifor Williams focusing on the hengerdd (the oldest Welsh verse). The text presents Williams’ monumental philological reinterpretation and authentication of the 6th-century poetic traditions traditionally attributed to the Cynfeirdd (Earliest Bards) such as Aneirin and Taliesin. The chapters systematically evaluate the linguistic, historical, and paleographical evidence found in primary documents—including early stone inscriptions and the Harleian MS. 3859 manuscript—to chart the structural divergence of Old Welsh from its Brythonic roots.

A 1980 paperback edition collecting the foundational English essays of Sir Ifor Williams on early medieval Welsh poetry. Edited by Rachel Bromwich, the volume provides critical linguistic and historical analyses of 6th-century bardic verses.