Module Identifier WEM0530  
Module Title THE ENGLYNION CYCLES  
Academic Year 2001/2002  
Co-ordinator Dr Marged Haycock  
Semester Semester 2 (Taught over 2 semesters)  

Learning outcomes


1.You will have gained an understanding of the nature and purpose of the early englynion cycles, and other late Cynfeirdd material composed in the englyn form. You will be able to relate it in broad terms to elegiac compositions from other traditions, especially Anglo-Saxon and Irish and Late Latin.


2. You will have a basic grasp of the political and cultural framework of early Wales and North Britain from the sixth century to the eleventh century.


3. You will have been introduced to the texts in translation, and will be able to recognize and analyse their main literary, stylistic and metrical features; you will have read a small selection of representative texts in the original with the help of notes and with the assistance of the lecturer.


4. You will be familiar with the current debates concerning the poetry.

Brief description


A detailed study of the ninth- and tenth-century poem cycles relating to Urien of Rheged, Llywarch Hen and Heledd and composed in the three-lined englyn form. The module considers historical contexts, the functions of the cycles and their performance, as well as medieval analogues.