Traditions of the School

It wouldn’t be possible to study Welsh at all as a modern academic subject if it weren’t for the School of Welsh at Bangor, and two former members of staff, Ifor Williams and John Morris-Jones.

Ifor Williams

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, both language and literature. 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 comprehensive English–Welsh dictionary ever, Geiriadur yr Academi.

John Morris-Jones

John Morris-Jones, one of Wales' most important scholars and a renowned poet, was the first Professor in Welsh at Bangor, and one of his most famous students at the beginning of the twentieth century was Kate Roberts, the foremost novelist and short story writer commonly known as Brenhines ein Llên ('Queen of our Literature').

Academics, authors and poets

The fact that creative writers such as R. Williams Parry and John Gwilym Jones are former members of staff, and that Jason Walford Davies, Jerry Hunter, Peredur Lynch, Angharad Price 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. Davies and Wiliams have each won the Crown at the National Eisteddfod, and Hunter and Price have won the major prose prize for recent novels. Lynch, also, is a nationally prominent poet and critic, especially of strict-metre poetry.

Gwyn Thomas, Emeritus Professor, is a further embodiment of this commitment to creativity in academia, being one of the main scholars of Welsh and one of the most important Welsh poets of the recent period.