In a brilliant, thorough study, dense with complex and meticulous detail, Patrick Sims-Williams addresses the matter laid out in the book’s title. Drawing on his extensive knowledge of the literature (covering many centuries, many genres), linguistics, history, and geography, he considers the possibility of Irish vernacular influences on medieval Welsh literature in the form of concepts (the Otherworld); narrative techniques; texts (Branwen, Culhwch and Olwen) at the level of plots, episodes, motifs, and names; isolated allusions to Irish characters; and attitudes displayed in medieval literary criticism. Sorting out common inheritance (from a much earlier time, long before any literary records), direct borrowings (and who borrowed from whom), indirect borrowings through a third culture, internationally shared lore, and independent creations is a complex task, complicated further by dealing with texts preserved by chance (and unevenly, both in numbers and across time) and presenting uncertainties as to date of composition and of manuscript, intent (or error) of author and of scribe. This is an enormously difficult, complex task which Sims-Williams has accomplished most admirably. His conclusions on so many points of investigation are too varied and his routes to those conclusions too intricate to summarize here, but it is worth pointing out some of his approaches which serve as models for literary and folklore scholarship alike, whether or not focused on Irish or Welsh materials.
Sims-Williams resists scholarly biases born of preference or expectation; he seems truly to have gone into this project with an open mind. He is fully aware of previous scholarship and lays it out fairly, outlining and assessing all the twists and turns that built on or ignored earlier work. Examining evidence for proof rather than just possibility, he investigates every suggestion and claim (and is not shy about declaring wrong even the most honored scholars) and sometimes follows trails beyond the point at which others might have stopped. I admit that when a Welsh text names Esgair Oerfel in Ireland as the distance at which a powerful shout from Wales can be heard or that a magically-skilled shooter can aim his shot, I am content simply to recognize these familiar motifs involving great distance. Ten pages later (139 ff.), after reading the careful linguistic, literary, and geographical consideration of the exact location and possible significance of the place in Ireland, ending with the two proffered explanations for the name having come through ecclesiastical literary channels or being a well-known landmark for Welsh mariners, and in either case being one of the few specific Irish place names available to Welsh storytellers, I felt both chastened about settling for generalities and better informed.
The author does not let us get away with simply recognizing that Ireland and Wales each have a tradition of Otherworlds and then conflating them without regard to the specifics of how they are described, how they function, and what they are actually called in the original languages (chapter 3). He is, quite rightly, not satisfied with finding parallels between particular Irish and Welsh texts, but searches whether the same parallels appear in Anglo-Saxon or Old Norse or further afield. This work provides repeated reminders that we must be careful with our assumptions about cultural similarities arising from genealogy or borrowing, that those working mainly with written texts should not assume textual borrowings and those working mainly in oral texts should not assume commonly shared folklore: these materials are far too complex for ready assumptions. Without clear traces of transmission, all we have is conjecture. We must be careful when applying our personal expectations to literary interpretations. In a discussion of the episode in which the Irish king makes the peace offering of building a house for the giant Bendigeidfran because he had never before been contained in one, Sims-Williams cites the analysis by certain scholars whose conclusions depend on their assertion that such motivation is too weak to explain the building of the house, and then dismisses their analysis with the statement, “As we are no longer familiar with the psychology of giants it is difficult to assess the full persuasiveness of the offer of a house” (222). His open-minded and skeptical approach is also good-natured.
In his opening sentence (xi), Sims-Williams expresses the hope that his work will appeal to scholars of either Welsh or Irish literature and those interested in the methods of comparative literature, and to this end, he is very good about translating texts in Welsh, Irish, or any other quoted languages, except for Latin, where he honors us, perhaps too much, by assuming that we do not need help. This is not an easy book—again, it is dense with complex detail—and not all readers will bring to it the necessary skills or knowledge to appreciate fully the linguistic analyses or the references to manuscripts and texts from one culture or the other, and yet it is written in such a way that even if one cannot re-create all the fine points, one can follow the ideas.
Although I expected this book to be very useful for folklorists working in Celtic areas or more generally in medieval folklore, I was not expecting how much good and pertinent use Sims-Williams makes of folklore studies, especially in the two chapters on narrative techniques referred to here as “Slavic Antithesis” and the “Watchman Device” (chapters 4 and 5). In the former, an unusual sight or sound is given three or four extreme interpretations of which the last may be correct; in the latter, description of a distant view is interpreted by a knowledgeable character (the pools on either side of a ridge are actually the giant’s eyes on either side of his nose). In these chapters, Sims-Williams draws usefully on analogues from a wide range of cultures including Old English and Norse, Russian byliny, Finnish epic, the Iliad, and modern Greek song—not simply noting an analogue, but rather examining and beginning to classify differences in detail and narrative function. His discussion of the Watchman Device involves a well-developed discussion of riddles, metaphor, and poetic language. Sims-Williams again makes particularly good use of folklore analogues in the section on “The Lake of the Cauldron” (235-38). Several times throughout the book he makes comments on the conventions of verisimilitude versus the conventions of storytelling (206) and the differences between narrative pieces of realism and narrative devices (104), matters whose boundary lines are too often determined by idiosyncratic impressions, but which, nonetheless, merit further consideration.
Patrick Sims-Williams explores the questions of Irish influences on Welsh materials using tools of literary analysis, history, linguistics, and folklore and, after carefully sifting through the available evidence, assessing each potential point of Welsh-Irish relationship, he concludes that, “Irish influence never dominated Welsh literature, it seems, but neither was it negligible.” On route to that conclusion, he sorts through many tangled threads and lays them out for the reader to see clearly both the evidence and the process. I have come away not only with greater admiration for Sims-Williams’ breadth of knowledge and clear thinking, but also with a craving to study more of these materials for myself (so many enticing stories…) and with renewed commitment to these highest levels of detailed scholarship, which his work exemplifies.
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[Review length: 1194 words • Review posted on September 17, 2014]