Medieval Literature and Society: A Tutorial for Historians
- EPOCH
- 8 hours ago
- 10 min read
Josh Coulthard | Edge Hill University
‘I cannot be killed indoors,’ he said, ‘nor out of doors; I cannot be killed on horseback, nor on foot.’ ‘Well,’ she said, ‘how can you be killed?’ ‘I will tell you,’ he said. ‘By making a bath for me on a riverbank, and constructing an arched roof above the tub, and then thatching that well and watertight. And bringing a billy-goat,’ he said, ‘and standing it beside the tub; and I place one foot on the back of the billy-goat and the other on the edge of the tub. Whoever should strike in that position would bring about my death’ (Fourth Branch of the Mabinogi).
As this passage from the Fourth Branch of the Mabinogi shows, medieval Welsh and Irish literature can be puzzling. These works often show events controlled by fate and special rules, where characters follow patterns that are symbolic and carefully structured. For historians working with such works as literary sources, they can invoke confusion, fascination, and frustration in equal measure.
By the end of this tutorial, which examines the vernacular literatures of medieval Ireland and Wales (circa 1000–1500), you will have the tools to read medieval Irish and Welsh texts critically and situate them within their cultural, social, and manuscript contexts. These literatures are part of extensive oral and written traditions, including heroic sagas, bardic poetry, saints’ lives, genealogies, and historical tracts. Although they have often overshadowed in scholarship by Latin and French texts, or reframed by Romantic or nationalist narratives, these works reward careful attention: reading them in context illuminates recurring narrative strategies, social concerns, and literary networks that connect Ireland, Wales, and the broader Insular world. By approaching these texts with attention to authorship, genre, manuscript provenance, and performative or oral traditions, you will gain methods applicable not only to Celtic literatures but to medieval vernacular texts more broadly.
Celtic Literature?
While these literatures may not form a single, unified Celtic tradition, studying them together helps reveal patterns and differences. They developed within related cultural frameworks, share certain narrative habits and social concerns, and later faced comparable colonial and linguistic pressures under English dominance. Even if Celtic is a modern convenience, comparing Irish and Welsh texts helps reveal patterns and differences that would otherwise remain hidden.
Understanding the Text: Authorship, Genre, and Manuscripts
Who wrote the text, or who compiled the manuscript?
Many works are anonymous, and attributions are uncertain. Examples such as the Mabinogion and the Táin Bó Cúailnge illustrate the difficulty of establishing authorship. Scribes recopied and adapted material from multiple sources, so surviving manuscripts often reflect the choices of the scribe as much as the original composer. Claims about specific authors should be treated with caution.
What genre is it?
Medieval Irish and Welsh texts include sagas, annals, genealogies, saints’ lives, and bardic poetry. These genres served social, political, or literary purposes rather than recording historical events directly. Considering genre helps historians interpret form, audience, and purpose.
Where was the manuscript or original text composed?
Irish manuscripts were produced in monastic and learned centres such as Clonmacnoise, Armagh, and Kildare. Welsh manuscripts were similarly copied in centres such as Strata Florida Abbey and Carmarthen. Manuscript provenance, therefore, indicates where the text was recorded, rather than necessarily where it first circulated.
When was it first written, and when was it rewritten?
Irish literature was primarily composed between 700 and 1200, with a revival in the late fourteenth century; the surviving manuscripts, however, were often copied centuries after the original works. The principal surviving Welsh manuscripts of vernacular literature date from the thirteenth century onward, though they may preserve material composed earlier. Surviving manuscripts, such as the Irish Great Book of Lecan and the Welsh White Book of Rhydderch, reflect the time of their recording rather than the date of the original composition. It is therefore important not to assume the surviving manuscript represents the text’s original form. Furthermore, many texts, such as the Táin, are set in the Iron Age; they were composed centuries later and do not provide accurate historical evidence for that period.
Engaging Like a Medieval Reader
One effective way to interact with medieval texts is by writing in the margins, as medieval glossators did. By annotating your copies, you track your thoughts, clarify meanings, and uncover connections between texts. This practice mirrors how medieval readers engaged with literature and encourages critical thinking about the text’s language, context, and intended audience.
Deciding how closely to work with the original language is crucial. Modern editions, such as Sioned Davies’ translation of the Mabinogion, are often sufficient, but even with translations, you may need the original to check meanings or nuances (see list of language resources).
Language work is important because Irish and Welsh texts contain words, phrases, and grammatical structures that resist direct translation into English. Irish geis can refer to a prohibition, injunction, or taboo with social or supernatural consequences, a term with no direct equivalent in English. In Welsh, brut refers to a chronicle or history, but in medieval texts it can overlap with brud (prophecy), showing that accounts of the past were often intertwined with visions of the future; translating it simply as “history” flattens this subtlety. Other terms, like Irish ceol refer not simply to music but to musical practice imbued with emotional, social, and sometimes supernatural significance.
Translators and readers must decide whether to leave such words untranslated, provide glosses, or approximate their meaning, engaging directly with the original language helps uncover the cultural and linguistic subtleties that give Irish and Welsh literature its distinctive texture.
For texts without modern editions, like Flann for Éirinn, you must work from the manuscript. Of the 14,000 surviving Middle Irish poems (c. 900–1200), only about 3,000 have been printed, so developing palaeographical skills is essential for full understanding in these cases. Some manuscripts also include Ogham, an early Irish writing system, often in scholarly notes.
Intertextuality, Manuscripts, and Literary Networks
Medieval literature, especially Celtic literature, is inherently allusive. No text was written in isolation; all exist within a broader literary culture, often drawing on biblical, classical, or pseudohistorical works, not all of which survive. For example, the Irish saga Togail Bruidne Dá Derga draws on the biblical depiction of King Saul, while the Saga of Fergus mac Léti reflects legal and social concerns, such as the impact of actions on one’s honour price.
This intertextuality is mirrored in manuscripts themselves, where diverse texts appear side by side, as in the Red Book of Hergest, which contains the four branches of the Mabinogi alongside Welsh adaptations of French romances and a translation of Geoffrey of Monmouth. These compilations reflect compilers’ interests and the mixing of native and continental works. In Ireland, manuscripts remained largely Irish, though Latin texts were occasionally included, with some post-1400 translations of French material.
Beyond Wales, literary connections linked Ireland and Gaelic Scotland. Irish poetic forms and conventions circulated across the Irish Sea, with a number of poets moving between the two regions and composing for audiences in both, helping to sustain a shared Gaelic literary tradition.
This interconnectedness is also evident in poetry, one late medieval Irish poet remarked, ‘In the foreigners’ poems we promise the driving of the Irish from Ireland; in those to the Irish, we promise the driving of the foreigners east overseas!’. Similarly, Welsh poets like Iolo Goch composed for both Welsh and English patrons, highlighting the cross-cultural exchanges that defined the Insular World.
Social Contexts
Ireland and Wales were patriarchal and highly status-conscious, with social hierarchies reflected in law and custom. Women’s roles were often defined by marriage, inheritance, and relationships to male kin, with political and legal authority largely reserved for men.
Branwen ferch Llŷr reflects patriarchal courtly concerns: Branwen’s marriage is arranged to secure a political alliance, and her mistreatment leads to inter-kingdom war. The story shows how women were used to secure alliances while male honour and sovereignty drive the narrative. The Táin portrays Queen Medb as a powerful but transgressive ruler, whose ambition and martial authority are framed as unnatural, and male characters frequently criticise her, suggesting female sovereignty was tolerated only if it did not challenge patriarchy.
At the heart of their literature lies courtly life itself, diplomacy and inheritance, honour and chivalry, vengeance, and the pursuit of power. Satire could also reinforce social hierarchies, as in this satire, ‘I have heard he does not give horses in exchange for poems; he gives what is natural for him – a cow’, highlighting that patrons of low rank offered limited reward, reflecting the poet’s social dependence. One triad (list of three) meanwhile emphasises the concentration of wealth in elite hands: ‘Three storage pits whose depth is unknown: the pit of a king, the pit of the church, the pit of a great poet’.
We need not only look to elite influences on our literature, but we should also consider their relation to wider human experiences. All medieval societies, but especially Ireland and Wales, were agricultural in nature and, therefore, contained many references to nature. Historically, nature was not something you went to visit; it was something sharing your house, including pigs and cows in the hall, bees in the garden, and rats in the pantry.
One need only look at the numerous pages of legal writing devoted to them. See, for example, the law tract Bechbretha (Bee Judgements) or indeed the amount of tales revolving around an animal, such as The Colloquy between Fintan and the Hawk of Achill or the Fourth Branch of Mabinogi in which the arrival in Britain of ‘small animals whose flesh is better than beef known as moch (pigs) is central to the narrative.
Equally, it is important to remember that medieval people were incredibly frank about sex. Therefore, it is sometimes worth wondering – is this a sex joke? The Irish tale of the Abbot of Drimnagh, for example, includes a humorous account of a sex change, raising questions about law, morality, and the place of women in a male-dominated world. Sexual themes were also prominent in Welsh literature, with Welsh poet Dafydd ap Gwilym often exploring erotic and bawdy subjects. Female poets similarly engaged with sexual themes, including the fifteenth-century Welsh poet Gwerful Mechain and the Scottish Gaelic poet Iseabail Ní Mheic Cailéin, both of whom produced verse with a strikingly sexual edge. These examples show that sexual knowledge, humour, and commentary were accepted aspects of medieval literary culture and could serve both social and artistic purposes.
Orality, Performance, and Poetic Power
Another key point is the orality of much of this literature. Culhwch ac Olwen is highly oral, full of alliteration, repetition, rhythm, and tongue twisters. But this is clearest in the incredibly long list of 800 often rhyming names which runs to five pages in the Red Book of Hergest featuring names such as Gwawrddydd Cyfarch, from the uplands of hell, Morfan son of Tegid, said to be so ugly he was believed to be a demon, Sandde Pryd Angel, said to be so beautiful he was believed to be an angel, and Sol, who could stand all day on one leg. The oral performance of this list clearly demonstrates the mastery of the performer in both memorising and being able to read out such a long list filled with tongue twisters.
The social prestige of poets was closely linked to their skill in oral performance. This is reflected in narrative episodes, such as in the Fourth Branch of the Mabinogi, with the wizard Gwydion’s arrival at Pryderi’s court disguised as a poet reflects the social prestige and mobility associated with poets, who could travel freely between courts and expect hospitality in return for their art. This brief episode offers a glimpse of the real-world customs underlying such narratives, where poets were welcomed as bearers of praise, satire, and entertainment.
Comparable attitudes appear in the Irish tradition, where poets were central figures in literary and social life. Early Irish sources often attribute real power to the spoken word. The Annals of Ulster, for instance, record that in 1414 the English Lord Lieutenant of Ireland was said to have been killed by satire, and tales of the firt filed (death by rhyme), suggest a poet’s words were believed to have the power to harm their target.
Conclusion
As this tutorial has shown, the vernacular literatures of medieval Ireland and Wales (c.1000-1500) can be puzzling, fascinating, and richly allusive. Welsh texts such as the Mabinogion, alongside Irish sagas and poetry, reveal concerns with hierarchy, gender, and daily life, while showcasing the artistic skills of performance within the narratives. These works are also deeply reflective of the processes of cultural exchange happening across the Medieval British Isles. By engaging with the works of scholars you can situate Irish manuscripts in historical context (Katharine Simms), explore the social frameworks shaping literature (Fergus Kelly), trace Irish–Welsh literary connections (Patrick Sims‑Williams), view texts within broader medieval Celtic culture (Helen Fulton, Huw Pryce), and work with original languages to uncover nuance and style (Rebecca Shercliff, Brent Miles). Approaching these literatures in this way allows you to read critically, think comparatively, and uncover the imaginative, social, and cultural patterns embedded in the texts.
Further Reading:
Elva Johnston, Literacy and Identity in Early Medieval Ireland (Boydell and Brewer, 2013).
Helen Fulton ed., Medieval Celtic Literature and Society (Four Courts Press, 2005).
Huw Pryce ed., Literacy in Medieval Celtic Societies (Cambridge, 1998).
Lindy Brady, Origin Legends in Medieval Britain and Ireland (Cambridge, 2022).
Patrick Sims-Williams, Irish Influence on Medieval Welsh Literature (Oxford, 2010).
Celtic Literature for Beginners:
Ciaran Carson trans, The Táin (Penguin, 2007).
Jeffrey Gantz trans, Early Irish Myths and Sagas (Penguin, 1981).
Sioned Davies trans, The Mabinogion (Oxford University Press, 2007).
Joseph P. Clancy, Medieval Welsh Poems (Four Courts, 2018).
Contextual Resources:
David Walker, Medieval Wales (Cambridge, 1990).
Brendan Smith ed., The Cambridge History of Ireland Volume 1: 600–1550 (Cambridge, 2018).
Katharine Simms, Medieval Gaelic Sources (Four Courts, 2009).
Fergus Kelly, A Guide to Early Irish Law (DIAS, 1988).
Roisin McLaughlin, Early Irish Satire (DIAS, 2008).
Robin Chapman Stacey, Law and the Imagination in Medieval Wales (University of Philadelphia Press, 2018).
List of Language Resources:
E.G. Quinn, Old Irish Workbook (RIA, 1975).
David Stifter, Sengoidelc, Old Irish for Beginners (Syracuse University Press, 2006)
Rebecca Shercliff, Old Irish, A Beginner’s Guide (RIA, 2025).
Chantal Kobel, “Teaching the Irish Hand; gáir peinn do dromaib duillenn ‘the scratch of the pen on the surface of pages’” Teaching the Codex, 2018.
Deborah Hayden, “The origins of manuscript ogam and medieval Irish grammatical tradition” OG(H)AM, 2022.
Brent Miles, An Introduction to Middle Welsh: A Learner’s Grammar of the Medieval Language and Reader (University of Toronto, 2023).
Josh Coulthard is Medieval Editor at EPOCH and a doctoral candidate at Edge Hill University. His research focuses on the political culture of the insular Plantagenet World between 1200 and 1400; he is especially interested in the ways in which differing ideas of legitimacy in England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland intersected with one another. He is also the co-convenor of the North West Medieval Studies Postgrad.