Customer Reviews

The Barddas of Iolo Morganwg: A Collection of Original Documents, Illustrative of the Theology, Wisdom, and Usages of the Bardo-Druidic System of th

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Weiser deserve credit for making this reprint of the 'Barddas' available. A word of warning: unless you can read Welsh (and archaic Welsh, at that), it is unwise to scoff at the Barddas. Iolo Morganwg (Williams)had his foibles - yes, but that is no reason to discredit his work. It has been alleged that 'Iolo' fabricated much of the material found in the Barddas, but the National College Library in Wales(Aberystwyth) is full of such material. I did a preliminary survey of it - back in 1972, and was staggered by the amount available, as rich and mysterious, in its own way, as anything retrieved from far-flung caves in Tun-huang, or the sands of Egypt. Both in style and content, much found in the Barddas will be found stated - all over again, in Welsh sources untouched by Iolo Morganwg. Condescendingly, John Matthews introduction to the Weiser reprint, states that Iolo's ideas were 'clearly a product of laudanum inspired dreams' (p. xviii), even while conceding that it might contain some 'nuggets' of ancient wisdom. etc. So far as the Laudanum habit goes, it might be pointed out that it was then legal and fairly widespread among the gentry. Such matters are rarely invoked to criticise Coleridge, De Quincy, Conan-Doyle etc. W.Y. Evans-Wentz - no less, a Rhodes scholar, renowned for his work on the 'Tibetan Book of the Dead' - also happened to know Britain well. In his Celtic researches (cf. The Fairy Faith in Celtic Countries) - W.Y. Evans-Wentz deemed the Barddas to be a genuine and valuable source.

Go Iolo! Hey this is a work of beautiful prose in beautiful language..Can you say beautiful prose and thoughts of the Druids and noble beautiful beliefs written in a noble language? Hey..Get your heads out, and read this, there arent many Druid texts out there, let's not fight so much about who wrote this, but love the text for it's wisdom and rich traditions, and the beauty of language, and the teaching of language, or the english translation goes side by side with the other(gaelic?..The Druid beliefs is whats so beautiful..) text in places.

It has been well documented that Iolo forged his "authentic manuscripts". He made up rituals and history and took other religious practices and re-worked them and claimed them to be authentically Druidic.

I have no problem with change and the ability to create, but I find it abhorrant to do so and then claim it as historical fact.