Wit, an't be thy will, put me into good fooling! Those wits, that think they have thee, do very oft prove fools; and I, that am sure I lack thee, may pass for a wise man: for what says Quinapalus?'Better a witty fool, than a foolish wit.' William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night, Act I Scene 1.
hwedl Iarlles y Ffynnawn «The Tale of the Lady of the Fountain», a medieval Welsh romance also known as Owain, is a narrative closely parallel to the Chevalier au lion of Chrétien de Troyes 1 . The plot of both romances focuses on a knight of Arthur's court, Owain in Welsh and Yvain in the French version, who in search for adventure encounters a magic fountain, and upon killing its defender, marries its lady. A lengthy separation caused by forgetfulness during a visit to Arthur's court results in the hero's rejection by his wife. His subsequent madness and loss of identity is perhaps one of the most famous episodes in medieval literature, while the grateful lion who befriends him represents a motif of venerable and classical origin. 2
Delw y Byd : the Welsh medieval translation of a Latin encyclopaedia and the creation of a geographical tract.
The present article is an investigation into the origins of the Welsh geographical treatise Delw y Byd and its relation with its Latin original, Imago Mundi. It presents an overview of the manuscript tradition of the Welsh text, and identifies the branch of the Latin tradition from which Delw y Byd is derived. It establishes the existence of two independent Welsh translations of the first, geographical, book of Imago Mundi and demonstrates that one of these translations is based on the Latin text represented in the fragment of Imago Mundi preserved in Oxford, Bodleian Library MS Rawlinson B 484. A date and approximate provenance are provided for Rawlinson B 484, and new light is thrown on the potential Welsh contacts of another manuscript of Imago Mundi, Cambridge, Corpus Christi College MS 66.
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