The Four Ancient Books of Wales (Celtic Language & Literature : Goidelic & Brythonic Reprint of 1868 Edition) (English and Welsh Edition)

Welsh Edition by William F. Skene (Editor)

91 ratings

ISBN-13: 978-0404175849

ISBN-10: 0404175848

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Product details

Publisher : Ams Pr Inc (December 1, 1978)
Language : English, Welsh
ISBN-10 : 0404175848
ISBN-13 : 978-0404175849
Item Weight : 3.6 pounds
Dimensions : 5.75 x 2.75 x 8.75 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #22,992,158 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #29,855 in English Literature
- #31,157 in British & Irish Poetry

Customer Reviews:
91 ratings

Customer reviews

5 star		68%
4 star		15%
3 star		5%
2 star		7%
1 star		6%

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Top reviews from the United States

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S. Naify

Unreadable!

Reviewed in the United States on October 10, 2019

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Barely readable photocopy of photocopy. Had to return. Kindle version is better for actually being able to read!

5 people found this helpful

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Gwyn

Reads as the most boring essay...

Reviewed in the United States on May 7, 2018

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I was looking forward to reading the poetry and attempting to better understand the people, but the intro alone killed that desire. Maybe I didn't understand what I was getting, but it seems like someone decided to publish their thesis and didn't adjust it for a wider audience.

2 people found this helpful

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Evan Howard

Set up on timeline

Reviewed in the United States on December 30, 2019

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This is a book of books. Use this as a fair resource regarding the history and nature of Wales. Much of it holds the tradition of bards speaking from their own experiences. If you're not into mysticism, just the facts, this is a good place to start in the British Isles history starting from the mid to end of Roman control.

One person found this helpful

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hill fort rambler

Enchanting

Reviewed in the United States on February 22, 2013

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When one considers just how many contemporary stories and songs have borrowed from the themes present in this compendium of bardic poems, it becomes clear just how significant the work is. I have heard many criticisms of the translations by Skene, but nevertheless I find the work to have a genuine and fresh perspective. The Four Ancient Books of Wales are mesmerizing and beautifully penned.

14 people found this helpful

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Paracelsus

Low quality, had to return

Reviewed in the United States on August 15, 2015

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This book was very poorly produced. I had to return it because it was basically unreadable. It is an OCR image-to-text book that, most likely, has not been edited by a human. The text is printed in an ugly non-standard font, and the page numbers have weird computer icons by them.

Anyway here's a digital facsimile version that you can download for free in PDF, Kindle, plain text: https://archive.org/details/fourancientbooks01skenuoft

14 people found this helpful

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Nancy

gift

Reviewed in the United States on October 7, 2019

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good info

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The Docent

Awsome collection

Reviewed in the United States on April 20, 2014

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Well put together.
I highly recommend that anyone who gets this book should also get the book ARTHURIAN LOCALITIES, which is a very important 19th century examination of this book.

13 people found this helpful

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StarberryGhost

History Lesson

Reviewed in the United States on April 28, 2019

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The poetry starts on page 203 for the ebook.

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Top reviews from other countries

P. Stone

Worth the effort

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 17, 2012

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Yes there are errors in formatting, even potentially errors in spelling, crucial when trying to unravel complexities between misunderstandings in confluence of languages. However many of Mr Skenes observations and his reproductions of the bards are invaluable to scholars. It is not easy to unravel but is seriously worth the effort of persevering. This era was difficult,language and spelling were inconsistent. Some languages did not recognise certain lettering, MH when transcribed by the romans would be V, Y would become I. To find a scholar who recognises that St Ciaran is the same man as St Pieran, that place changes name purely because race does not accept the idiosyncracies of anothers language, instead adding their own interpretation to personalise individuals. This possesion of greatness by owning the King, Knight or Saint, by attaching them to local language and place means many individuals could in fact be few!Interesting avenues, especially in The verses of the Graves from the Black Book of Caermarthen.

9 people found this helpful

loricatuslupus

Did anyone read this before putting it on sale?

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 8, 2014

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While this is evidently a well-researched and very interesting read for anyone wishing to know more about the literature of ancient Wales or the origin of many Arthurian legends, I cannot give this any more than two stars for one simple reason: the way it has been laid out makes it very difficult to read. Almost EVERY PAGE prior to the books themselves has a spelling or grammar error, with asterisks often cutting in halfway through paragraphs or on a page far removed from the point to which they are attached. This makes it incredibly difficult to read as one is constantly having to flick back and forth in order to try and establish where a sentence will continue and whether or not to continue reading a paragraph before or after the section that has cut into it mid-word. It is almost as if someone unable to speak English has simply been handed the hard copy and told to type it up without being supervised or even given a spellchecking program. Another potential stumbling block for readers is the lack of translations for the majority of the Welsh and Latin passages used by the author, meaning that without at least a basic understanding of both languages it would be even for difficult to follow the points made which rely on said extracts.

Overall, this is an interesting look into the cultural and literary traditions of our ancestors rendered practically unreadable in parts by an apparent lack of care on the behalf of the publisher to even check the finished product.

12 people found this helpful

Ken Jones

Not as easily accessable as modern history but interesting nevertheless.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 10, 2020

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The style of the book is of its time as would be expected, nevertheless it is an interesting read. I bought the kindle version and I have to admit a preference for 'real' books as for me they are easier to flick through and to search.

Richard Woodward

Fantastic

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 9, 2016

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Fantastic very interesting and enjoyable

Caz

Affordable compilation of all four books

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 11, 2020

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Excellent condition and good service

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