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Barry Lewis’s field of research is medieval Welsh literature. He has a particular interest in questions of genre and poetic technique, as well as the social, intellectual and religious context of medieval literature. Two other subjects which greatly interest him are the relationship between literature and the natural world, and the rhetorical analysis of the works of medieval Welsh poets.
Barry originally graduated in German and Russian, but then moved into Celtic Studies and obtained an M.Phil. degree from the Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic at the University of Cambridge. After that he became a student at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth, and in 2004 he was awarded his Ph.D. for a thesis on religious poetry in Welsh before c .1400. He joined the Centre in 2001.
His first contribution to the Poets of the Nobility| Series was a volume of the praise poems of Gruffudd ap Maredudd ap Dafydd. Gruffudd was an Anglesey poet of the later fourteenth century, and one of the so-called ‘later Gogynfeirdd ’ (poets who continued the metrical and stylistic traditions of the court poets of the Welsh princes after the English conquest of 1282). This was followed by a second volume, this time of Gruffudd’s religious verse. Gruffudd was an outstanding religious poet, and the highlight of the volume is his splendid poem of praise to the Rood of Chester. Having completed his work on Gruffudd ap Maredudd, Barry assembled and edited works by a number of Gruffudd’s contemporaries, above all Madog Benfras, a cywydd -poet who was a friend of Dafydd ap Gwilym and like him a skilled practitioner of love-poetry. This collection was published in October 2007.
Barry’s next task was a joint edition, working with Eurig Salisbury and Ann Parry Owen, of the works of another of Dafydd ap Gwilym’s acquaintances: the early cywydd -poet Gruffudd Gryg, from Anglesey. Gruffudd has a number of attractive poems, including addresses to the moon and the wave whilst he was on pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostella in Spain, and also two well-known elegies for Dafydd ap Gwilym. Gwaith Gruffudd Gryg will appear in 2009. Barry is currently working on the Centre’s new project which is devoted to the life and work of Guto’r Glyn| .
Selected Publications
‘Gwaith Natur a Edmygaf’: Afonydd, Llynnoedd a Ffynhonnau yn Llenyddiaeth Cymru yn yr Oesoedd Canol , Sir Thomas Parry-Williams Memorial Lecture 2007 (Aberystwyth, 2008).
‘Bardd Natur yn Darllen Bardd y Ddinas? Dafydd ap Gwilym, "Y Don ar Afon Dyfi" ac Ofydd, Amores, III.6’, Llên Cymru , 31 (2008), 1–22.
Gwaith Madog Benfras a Beirdd Eraill y Bedwaredd Ganrif ar Ddeg (Aberystwyth, 2007).
‘ Genre a Dieithrwch yn y Cynfeirdd: Achos “Claf Abercuawg”’, Llenyddiaeth mewn Theori , 2 (2007), 1–33.
‘Llawysgrifau a Barddoniaeth Grefyddol yn y Bedwaredd Ganrif ar Ddeg’, in Cof Cenedl XXI: Ysgrifau ar Hanes Cymru , ed. Geraint H. Jenkins (Llandysul, 2006), pp. 31–62.
‘Golwg y Beirdd Canoloesol ar Harddwch Natur’, Dwned , 11 (2005), 35–63.
‘“Llafurfaith a waith a weinyddaf”: Dulliau’r Gogynfeirdd o Agor Cerdd’, Llên Cymru , 28 (2005), 1–25.
Welsh Poetry and English Pilgrimage: Gruffudd ap Maredudd and the Rood of Chester (Aberystwyth, 2005).
Gwaith Gruffudd ap Maredudd, ii: Canu Crefyddol (Aberystwyth, 2005).
Gwaith Gruffudd ap Maredudd ap Dafydd, i: Canu i Deulu Penmynydd (Aberystwyth, 2003).
‘Trafod Barddoniaeth yn yr Oesoedd Canol: Y Traddodiad Mawl a Chrefydd’, Dwned , 8 (2002), 1–34.
‘Adeiladu Cerdd: Cyfuniadau Geiriol yng Nghanu Crefyddol y Gogynfeirdd’, Llên Cymru , 24 (2001), 35–51.
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