Professor Ann Parry Owen to deliver the 2025 O’Donnell Lecture
This year’s O’Donnell Lecture will be delivered by Professor Ann Parry Owen.
The annual lecture is organized by the University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies. The O’Donnell Lectures in Celtic Studies were founded in 1954 and are delivered annually at the Universities of Edinburgh, Oxford and Wales. This year the lecture will be entitled ‘A dictionary to preserve the language for posterity: Thomas Wiliems (1545/6͏–c.1622) and the first Welsh historical dictionary.’
Born in Bangor, Professor Ann Parry Owen received her primary education in Holyhead and Llanllechid, and her secondary education in Llangollen, before going on to study Welsh at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth, where she was awarded a PhD for a study of the awdlau of Cynddelw Brydydd Mawr (fl. c. 1150–1195). She joined the Centre’s Poets of the Princes team in 1985, and later led the Poetry of the Nobility and the Guto’r Glyn projects, and contributed to several others. In 2018 she joined the staff of the University of Wales Dictionary as a Senior Editor, and as a result developed a new interest in Welsh historical lexicography.
Professor Ann Parry Owen said, “Thomas Wiliems described his dictionary as ‘an immense collection of old and new Welsh words’, and after spending over 30 years of work collecting material (both words and example quotations from literary texts), he took over three years, between 1604 and 1607, to write it. It’s a huge dictionary, containing almost 40,000 entries on around 1,500 pages. Unfortunately it wasn’t published, and once Dr John Davies of Mallwyd’s Dictionarium Duplex was published in 1632, people turned to that, as its numerous printed copies were much more accessible than Thomas Wiliems’ unique manuscript copy. Thomas Wiliems’ work remains unpublished to this day, and is part of the National Library of Wales’s Peniarth collection (NLW Peniarth 228).”
Professor Elin Haf Gruffydd Jones, Director of the Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies, said “We are extremely proud that Professor Ann Parry Owen is delivering the O’Donnell Lecture this year, as we celebrate the 40th anniversary of the establishment of the Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies by the University of Wales. Professor Parry Owen is one of the Centre’s most distinguished researchers and has led several key projects. We very much look forward to her lecture.”
The lecture will be held live in the Drwm, National Library of Wales, and online via Zoom on Thursday, 5 June at 17:00. This is a Welsh language lecture with simultaneous translation into English.
Email cawcs@wales.ac.uk to register for the live event or to receive the Zoom link.
This is a free event. Tea will be served at 16:30.
A warm welcome to all!
Notes for Editors
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. The Centre is celebrating its fortieth anniversary this year and an international conference to mark the anniversary will be held at the National Library of Wales on 17–19 September 2025.
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, which is celebrated its centenary in 2021: https://www.welsh-dictionary.ac.uk/
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