Welsh History in the Early Middle Ages: Texts and Societies (review)

As with other volumes in the Variorum series, this collection offers a series of papers, articles and essays that span the professional life of the scholar concerned. In this case, Wendy Davies, a medievalist specializing in early medieval Wales and Brittany, is represented by eighteen essays, mostly on Welsh History. A second volume in the Variorum series, Brittany in the Early Middle Ages: Texts and Societies, provides access to Davies' writings on Brittany (CS, 924, Ashgate Variorum, 2009).

This collection's subtitle, Texts and Societies, gives insight to the different foci of the collection. The first ten papers deal with texts, in particular Davies' survey of a series of early Welsh charters. They cover a range of early legal issues, including land measurement, episcopal government and post-Roman settlements. The remaining papers deal with society, in particular early medieval Welsh society as shaped by its proximity to England.

The span of the essays (from 1972 to 2004) means that many changes in historical approach and even quality can be judged. Davies herself points to aspects of her earlier works that she now suggests could be revised, or where later scholarship now challenges an earlier interpretation. However, one of the chief values of the Variorum series (besides making accessible a range of scholarly works) is to show the evolution of an individual scholarly career. In Davies' case, her pioneering work on the charters stands the test of time, and one unchanging feature of her work is her scrupulous scholarship.

This feature of Davies' work is especially noteworthy, as Welsh history is a polemically charged field of study, especially material relating to Welsh interaction with the English in the early Middle Ages. Much of what passes as mainstream historical scholarship, including the proceedings of the Honourable Society of Cymrodorion and much that is taught in Welsh schools and universities, is shaped by the nationalist agenda of Plaid Cymru. These polemical influences are notably absent from Davies' writings, even though much of what she discusses (such as the interaction of Welsh princes with the English monarchy) is the same field that is so susceptible to this nationalist agenda. Instead Davies' work stands forth for its pioneering study of the charters in particular, and for its commitment to honest scholarly scrutiny of issues central to Welsh identity.