Jenny Day
Research Fellow
Background
Jenny is a literary scholar specialising in Welsh poetry and prose of the middle ages and the early modern period. She has a particular interest in the scholarship of those times, in the interaction between the Welsh Cistercians and secular society (especially poets and scholars), in prophecy, and in weapons and warfare. After completing her BA and PhD at Aberystwyth University she has worked on a series of research projects at the Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies and is now leading her own project on the fifteenth-century poet and scholar Gutun Owain (gutunowain.cymru)
Specialist Subjects
- Medieval and early modern Welsh poetry and prose
- Prophecy in Wales
- The Welsh Cistercians
- Welsh saints’ cults and hagiography
- Medieval warfare and weapons in Wales
Professional and/or Research Experience
For the AHRC-funded project 'Gutun Owain: Border poet and Renaissance Man', Jenny is editing the poetry of Gutun Owain and investigating his scholarship and his connections with his learned patrons, to explore the role of north-east Wales and the Oswestry region in the development of the Renaissance in Wales. Jenny has worked on several earlier research projects at the Canolfan. Most recently, she edited and researched late medieval and early modern prophetic poems in the voice of Merlin/Myrddin for the 'Poetry of Merlin' project. As a member of the ‘Sacred Landscapes of Medieval Monasteries’ project team Jenny edited Gutun Owain's poems to two abbots of Valle Crucis, and investigated what they reveal about this important Cistercian abbey. She worked previously for the ‘Cult of the Saints in Wales’ project, the ‘Flood and Flow’ project, the 'Poetry of Guto’r Glyn project' and as part of the editorial team at Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru.
Qualifications
- BA
- MA
- PhD
Languages Spoken
Welsh and English
Academic Teaching
Link to Orcid Profile
Professional Publications
- '"What will there be for us …?": Myrddin and Gwenddydd as commentators on the Tudor era and the Civil War', in 'Myrddin: The Welsh Merlin and His Afterlives'/'Llais ac Adlais Myrddin', ed. David Callander, Jenny Day and Llewelyn Hopwood (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, forthcoming)
- Poems by Gutun Owain and descriptions of his manuscripts, on the <gutunowain.cymru> website (2026- )
- 'Poetry and Commemoration at Valle Crucis Abbey' (with Martin Crampin, Ann Parry Owen and Eurig Salisbury) (Aberystwyth, 2026) <https://shop.wales.ac.uk/product/poetry-and-commemoration-at-valle-crucis/>
- '"Beuno tŷ Sain Bened': Y Seintiau a Hunaniaeth yn y Canu i’r Abadau". Dwned: Cylchgrawn Hanes a Llên Cymru'r Oesoedd Canol, 29 (2025), 55-91 <https://repository.uwtsd.ac.uk/id/eprint/3269/>
- Buchedd Dewi (Peniarth 27ii) [a new edition and translation of a late-medieval version of the Welsh Life of St David] (2025) <saints.wales>
- ‘The Houses of the Old Cross’: Valle Crucis Abbey in the poems of Gutun Owain. Cîteaux – Commentarii cistercienses, 73 (2023), 255-75. <https://repository.uwtsd.ac.uk/id/eprint/2399/>
- Poems 8, 9, 10, 11 etc. on <myrddin.cymru> (The Poetry of Merlin project website)
- Buchedd Martin [a new edition and translation of the Welsh Life of St Martin] (2020) <saints.wales>
- ‘Ewin o ddur, onn a ddwg: y Rhest Gwaywffon a’r Beirdd’, Dwned, 25 (2019), 11–45 <http://repository.uwtsd.ac.uk/id/eprint/1286>
- ‘Llachar fy nghleddau, lluch ydd ardwy—glew: Rhai Agweddau ar Ddelweddaeth y Cleddyf ym Marddoniaeth yr Oesoedd Canol’, Dwned, 23 (2017), 41–77 <http://repository.uwtsd.ac.uk/id/eprint/902>
- ‘Agweddau ar Gwlt Martin o Tours mewn Llenyddiaeth Gymraeg hyd c.1525’, Llên Cymru, 40 (2017), 3–39 <https://doi.org/10.16922/lc.40.2>
- ‘Weapons and Fighting in Y Gododdin’, Studia Celtica XLIX (2015), 121–47
- ‘Brigandines in Two Fifteenth-century Request Poems’, Studia Celtica XLVII (2013), 167–182
- ‘ “Arms of stone upon my grave”: Weapons in the Poetry of Guto’r Glyn’, in D.F. Evans, B.J. Lewis and A. Parry Owen (eds.), ‘Gwalch Cywyddau Gwŷr’: Essays on Guto’r Glyn and Fifteenth-century Wales (Aberystwyth, 2013), 233–81
- ‘Shields in Welsh Poetry up to c.1300: Decoration, Shape and Significance’, Studia Celtica XLV (2011), 27–52
Additional Information
Jenny is a published historical novelist, writing in English and Welsh: 'The Banner of David' (1992), 'The Tenth String' (1997), 'Gwyrth y Gwirionyn' (1998)
Jenny also supervises PhD students, currently in the fields of hagiography, manuscript studies, prophecy and Welsh medieval literature.
Jenny also supervises PhD students, currently in the fields of hagiography, manuscript studies, prophecy and Welsh medieval literature.
Available to Supervise Doctoral Students
Yes