UWB Crest

School of Welsh

Traditions of the School

Image of Kate Roberts and R Williams Parry

It wouldn’t be possible to study Welsh at all as a modern academic subject if it wasn’t for two former members of staff at the School of Welsh. Ifor Williams, editor of Canu Aneirin, Canu Taliesin, Canu LLywarch Hen and Pedair Keinc y Mabinogi and Thomas Parry, editor of Gwaith Dafydd ap Gwilym made a huge contribution to the study of Welsh. The same commitment in research and academic standards can be seen in more recent years in the contribution made by Dafydd Glyn Jones to the success of the most ample English – Welsh dictionary ever, Geiriadur yr Academi.

John Morris-Jones, one of our most important scholars and a renowned poet, was the first Professor in Welsh here at Bangor. One of his most famous students at the beginning of the twentieth century was Kate Roberts, the author that was enthroned Queen of our Literature. The fact that creative authors such as R.Williams Parry and John Gwilym Jones are former members of staff and that William R Lewis and Gerwyn Wiliams are among our present staff, is a reflection of our commitment to the Welsh language as a solid academic discipline and as a powerful creative medium. Gwyn Thomas, who is now an Emeritus Professor, is an embodiment of that commitment, as he is one of the main scholars of Welsh as well as one of Wales’ most important poets in the second half of the Twentieth Century