Arthurian Studies at Bangor

Arthurian Studies have flourished at Bangor since the founding of the University: a large number of standard works, central to work in the field, have been published by scholars who worked – and who work – here. The information below concerns some of those scholars.

Professor William Lewis Jones (1866–1922)

Professor of English, and University Librarian. In 1891 he was appointed Assistant Lecturer in English at the University College of North Wales and in 1897 became Professor. He took a leading part in raising funds for the new College buildings. He published King Arthur in History and Legend in 1914.

Sir John Morris-Jones (1864–1929)

Sir John Morris Jones was a grammarian, literary critic and poet. Born in Llandrygarn, Anglesey, he was educated in Friars School Bangor. Having been awarded a scholarship to study at Jesus College, Oxford, he was a founder member of Cymdeithas Dafydd ap Gwilym, and graduated in Mathematics in 1887. He returned to Wales and was appointed Lecturer in Welsh here in Bangor in 1889 before being appointed Professor in 1895. He played a central part in the National Eisteddfod, Bangor, of 1902, when the Chair was won by T. Gwynn Jones for his awdl ‘Ymadawiad Arthur’ (‘Arthur’s Departure’) and the Crown by R. Silyn Roberts for his poem ‘Trystan and Esyllt’.

Bedwyr Lewis Jones (1933–1992)

Bedwyr Lewis Jones was Professor of Welsh at the University 1974–92, and championed the use of the Welsh language in all the University’s activities. He was also a prolific lecturer at literary and other societies throughout Wales.

Gwyn Thomas (1936–2016)

Professor Gwyn Thomas was a poet, academic and a former National Poet of Wales. Born in Blaenau Ffestiniog, he was educated at Ysgol Sir Ffestiniog, University of Wales, Bangor and Jesus College, Oxford. He lectured at the School of Welsh from his appointment until his retirement as Professor of Welsh in 2000. In joint ventures with Margaret Jones he three times won the Tír na nÓg award, presented by the Welsh Book Council for the best children’s books: in 1989 he won with his retelling of the oldest Arthurian tale, Culhwch ac Olwen.

Dafydd Glyn Jones

Dafydd Glyn Jones is a Welsh scholar and lexicographer. He spent many years as a lecturer and senior lecturer in Welsh Language and Literature at the Bangor University. He retired from the University in 2000.

Professor P.J.C. Field

Professor P.J.C. Field lectured in the School of English Literature, Bangor University from 1964 until his retirement in 2004. Professor Field was also the President of the International Arthurian Society (2002–2005).

His work on the fifteenth-century romance writer Sir Thomas Malory culminated in his revised edition of E. Vinaver’s The Works of Sir Thomas Malory in 1990. In 2013 Prof. Field published the first full edition of Malory’s text from both the Winchester manuscript and Caxton’s first printed edition, as a result of over 30 years of scholarship.

Professor Peredur Lynch

Professor Lynch is an expert on the Poets of the Welsh Princes and among his many publications on Welsh medieval literature he made a major contribution to Cyfres Beirdd y Tywysogion (’The Poets of the Princes Series’) (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1991–96), the groundbreaking critical edition of this extensive body of poetry.

Professor Jerry Hunter

Professor Hunter’s Soffestri’r Saeson (2000) is an investigation into prophecy, historiography and nationalism during the Tudor Age, short-listed for the Wales Book of the Year Award in 2001. He has also published other important works on related aspects of medieval and modern Welsh literature.

Professor Raluca Radulescu

Professor Radulescu is Co-Director of the Institute for Medieval and Early Modern Studies (IMEMS: Bangor and Aberystwyth Universities). She is general editor of the periodical of the International Arthurian Society, Journal of the International Arthurian Society and of the Annual Bibliography of the International Arthurian Society. She has published extensively on Sir Thomas Malory and anonymous Arthurian romances, the Grail, Brut chronicles and political propaganda utilising the Arthurian legends. Her monographs are The Gentry Context for Sir Thomas Malory’s Morte Darthur (2003) and Romance and Its Contexts in Fifteenth-century England: Politics, Piety and Penitence (2013).

Dr Aled Llion Jones

Dr Jones’ recent monograph is concerned with the wider prophetic tradition of the Welsh middle ages, including Arthurian texts. Darogan: prophecy, lament and absent heroes in medieval Welsh literature (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 2013).