Abstract
AbstractThis article examines how the medieval Welsh were racialized by Anglo‐Saxon and Anglo‐Norman sources and how the Welsh in turn developed a model of racial alterity. Literary sources, including the Old English riddles and the ethnographic work of Gerald of Wales, followed classical sources in their portrayals of the Welsh as being marked by “swarthiness,” or comparatively dark complexions. Rather than following this rhetorical practice, medieval Welsh literature reveals that the Welsh considered themselves pale‐complected, with darkness justifying biopolitical regulation of non‐European Christian peoples. While pseudo‐scientific racial discourse classifies the modern Welsh as white Caucasian, medieval texts negotiate difference between peoples with a range of methods and purposes, with racial difference being negotiated throughout various traditions in British literature.
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