Discussing ymddiddan : The dialogue poems of the Black Book of Carmarthen

Abstract

abstract: The term ymddiddan has been used by editors and scholars to refer to a body of medieval Welsh poetry usually containing or composed of dialogue. This paper begins by addressing the use and misuse of the term, assessing the meaning of ymddiddan and demonstrating how editors' application of the term to titles of poems that are frequently untitled in their manuscript context has shaped perceptions of a genre of medieval Welsh dialogue poetry. Arguments about the performance of ymddiddanau made in connection with evidence from prose tales such as Owein are also considered. The rest of the paper seeks to reach an understanding of the nature of medieval Welsh dialogue poetry by analyzing the poems themselves. For this, the Black Book of Carmarthen (NLW Peniarth MS 1) is used to provide parameters for investigation. Not only do the poems in this manuscript have a concrete historical connection, but the high proportion of them that have been designated as ymddiddan means that the Black Book scribe's idiosyncrasies and editorial decisions may have impacted our understanding of the corpus. With the form and features of dialogue poems clarified, the issue of a genre is re-evaluated. The results of this study form the basis of a sister article, in which the most famous Welsh dialogue poem, Ymddiddan Myrddin a Thaliesin , is tested against the definition of dialogue poetry established here.