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Giants of Wales- Cewri Cymru
| Author: | Grooms, Chris | |
| Year: | 1993 | |
| Pages: | 428 | |
| ISBN: | 0-7734-9368-9 978-0-7734-9368-1 | |
| Price: | $259.95 | |
A collection and discussion of the literary, place-name and archaeological materials concerning giants in Wales and the Marches, the text includes three basic registers: 1) tales and materials about place-names containing Welsh cawr or cewri, or English giant; 2) tales and materials for place-names with associated giant traditions; 3) tales and material associated with personal names of giants. The preface includes a discussion of the linguistic, inscriptional and literary materials of Gaulish cavar and a description of the Welsh materials. There is also a new text and translation of Sion Dafydd Rhys's 34 folio chapter on giants from his 16th-century prose defence of Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia. National Grid and Cantref/Shire cross-indexes to all primary and secondary place-names in the study have been provided, and a Stith Thompson motif-index for Welsh giants. There is also an additional appendix to the Gaulish materials, and a full list of abbreviations, bibliography, and index.
Reviews
". . . a gigantic contribution to Welsh folklore. . . . He has correlated traditions about giants with their associated locations and landscape features. . . . The information is highly cross-referenced and rarely if ever repeated. . . . a comprehensive compendium of information for the next generation of scholars to interpret. His achievement is enormous. I expect it will be a standard reference for many generations and a classic ever after. . . . Folklorists, local historians, archaeologists, linguists and toponymists (who study place names) will find the book invaluable. . . . Writers might find tantalizing gems to seed new tales or decorate old ones." -- Y Drych
"Hardly one of its 426 pages is devoid of fascinating matter -- onomastic, historical, geographic, archaeological, folkloric, literary, anthropological, mythological, religious, etc." -- Ninnau
"This is an impressive work of scholarship, drawing on a great variety of primary and secondary sources, many of the latter of an antiquarian nature -- always an important source of information of the sort needed to elucidate a topic like this. . . . This is a valuable piece of work and a real contribution to the field . . . . the registers themselves are a pleasure to read, especially the longer entries with their glimpses of antiquarian fascination of an earlier age." -- Patrick K. Ford
"Hardly one of its 426 pages is devoid of fascinating matter -- onomastic, historical, geographic, archaeological, folkloric, literary, anthropological, mythological, religious, etc." -- Ninnau
"This is an impressive work of scholarship, drawing on a great variety of primary and secondary sources, many of the latter of an antiquarian nature -- always an important source of information of the sort needed to elucidate a topic like this. . . . This is a valuable piece of work and a real contribution to the field . . . . the registers themselves are a pleasure to read, especially the longer entries with their glimpses of antiquarian fascination of an earlier age." -- Patrick K. Ford