Dafydd Johnston

Canu Maswedd yr Oesoedd Canol / Medieval Welsh Erotic Poetry Dafydd Johnston New edition

This book reveals an entirely new aspect of the Welsh poetic tradition, and is an invaluable collection for those interested in European literature, and in medieval writing about love and the erotic. It contains thirty-one poems from the later medieval period (1300-1500). They all deal frankly with sex and the sexual organs, some deliberately provocative, others self-mocking, and a few intended to shock and disgust. They are characterized by wit and inventive imagination, and often take the form of dramatic dialogue. One of the poets is a woman, and there may be another woman poet among the 'Anons.' Many of the poems were deliberately suppressed, while others lay undiscovered in manuscripts.