An Edition and Study of the Early Welsh Legendary and Prophetic Poems in the Book of Taliesin

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The fourteenth-century Book of Taliesin, the most corrupt and least-studied of the 'Four Ancient Books of Wales' contains 60 Welsh poems dated variously from the sixth to the twelfth centuries. I would edit and translate (with linguistic and literary commentary) two closely related groups: (a) 29 poems (1718 lines) which contain the earliest (c. 900-1200) stages of the legend of Taliesin, archetypal poet, sage and shape shifter; (b) five political prophecies (2991ines) attributed to Taliesin. The research would provide a detailed and reliable edition and study which would be of service to many people in the academic world and beyond: literary and cultural historians, historical linguists, especially Celtic philologists, comparativists interested, for example, in the growth of poet legends (cf. the medieval Virgil), medieval poetics, the relationships between Latin learning and vernacular traditions, and the phenomenon of prophecy. Non-specialists in Wales and elsewhere who are interested in Welsh myth and legend- poets, creative writers, and increasingly artists and musicians- would find the study a useful and reliable resource, and perhaps an antidote to the wilder speculations found elsewhere.