Celtic Britain

by John Rhys

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Genres: History, Nonfiction

372 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 1884

About the author

Sir John Rhys was a Welsh scholar, fellow of the British Academy, Celticist and the first Professor of Celtic at Oxford University.

In 1874 Rhys delivered a series of lectures in Aberystwyth, later published as Lectures on Welsh Philology, which served to establish his reputation as a leading scholar of the Celtic language. This reputation saw him appointed as the first Professor of Celtic at Oxford University in 1877. He was also made a Fellow of Jesus College, Oxford. Rhys was elected bursar of the college in 1885, a position he held until 1895, when he succeeded Daniel Harper as principal.

Reviews

[Flint Johnson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book, the pinnacle of scholarship in its day, was thorough in its scholarship and asked the focal questions. More importantly, it answered them with as much research and open-mindedness as possible. When I read through the book, I did not find what I was looking for, but I had in my mind a better idea what I should be looking for - much more than when I read more current books by more modern scholars. Rhys gave me the approach I needed for the Arthurian stories in this book; its pertinence one hundred years later is evidence enough of its quality.

[Miriam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Meaning of Uthur Pendragon: "...Gildas described Maelgwn as insularis draco or the island dragon,the island being probably Britain...: here we have an early instance of the habit so common in Welsh poetry of calling a king or great leader a dragon, as when a mythical Gwledig of Lower Britain is always called Uthr Bendragon, or Uthr Head-dragon, the reputed father of King Arthur.", p. 136.

"If Arthur is to be treated as historical, the historian must look at him much in the same light as he does at Charlemagne, with all the legends that have gathered round his name. He will in that case find that the hero who the Welsh sometimes call King Arthur, and sometimes Arthur the Emperor, falls readily into the place and position of a successor of the Count of Britain; and in favor of that view might be cited the fact that Arthur's name might be explained as the Welsh form which the Kymry gave to the Latin Artorius., p. 238-9.