Digitizing the Poets of the Nobility Series

The Poets of the Nobility Series is now freely available online as a fully searchable digital resource: 44 volumes, over 1,100 poems, and over 61,000 lines of poetry composed between 1282 and around 1550.

In autumn 2022 Professor Ann Parry Owen received a grant from the Coleg Cymraeg Cenedlaethol to digitize the ground-breaking Poets of the Nobility Series. The Series is now freely available in the Coleg Cymraeg’s Resource Portal, under open access licence CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.

The Poetry of the Nobility Series is the output of a research project formally undertaken at the Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies in Aberystwyth between 1993 and 2008, continuing to publish printed volumes until 2015. The work was carried out by teams of researchers funded by the University of Wales and by successive grants from the AHRB, AHRC, the Skaggs Foundation and others, and prior to publication each volume was scruitinized by a dedicated Editorial Board. The project was adopted as one of the British Academy’s Research Projects.

The Series is an invaluable resource for anyone who wants to learn about the Welsh language and literature in the later Middle Ages, and about the cultural and material life of the time. This was an exciting period in the history of the Welsh poetic tradition, when poets were important members of society and the uchelwyr were eager to commission them to sing their praises and promote their status.

Professor Ann Parry Owen, the Series Editor, said “Having access to all the volumes in the Beirdd yr Uchelwyr Series, and being able to search them electronically, will be a great help to researchers internationally, and I’m very grateful to the Coleg Cymraeg for their support and for providing a safe home for the volumes.”

Professor Elin Haf Gruffydd Jones, Director of the Centre, said, “The Poets of the Nobility Series is one of the Centre’s major contributions to Welsh language scholarship. We are delighted that this work, by Professor Parry Owen and many other noteable researchers, is now digitally available.”

Note to Editor

Contact: Dr Angharad Elias (Admin Officer) a.elias@wales.ac.uk

1. The Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies (CAWCS) was established by the University of Wales in 1985 as a dedicated research centre conducting team-based projects on the languages, literatures, culture and history of Wales and the other Celtic countries. It is located in Aberystwyth, adjacent to the National Library of Wales, which is an internationally-renowned copyright library with excellent research facilities.

2. CAWCS offers unique opportunities for postgraduate students to work alongside specialists in a dynamic and supportive environment. We welcome enquiries about MPhil/PhD topics in any of our research areas. For more information about research opportunities, or for an informal chat about possible topics, contact our Head of Graduate Studies, Dr Elizabeth Edwards: e.edwards@wales.ac.uk

3. CAWCS is the home of the Dictionary of the Welsh Language.

Further Information

Arwel Lloyd

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