Rachel Bromwich

Rachel Bromwich (30 July 1915 – 15 December 2010) was a British scholar. Her focus was on medieval Welsh literature, and she was Emeritus Reader in Celtic Languages and Literature at the Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic at Cambridge until her death. Among her most important contributions to the study of Welsh literature is Trioedd Ynys Prydein, her edition of the Welsh Triads.

Life

Bromwich was born Rachel Amos in Hove, England, in 1915. Her father, Maurice Amos, was an English legal expert who served as international law adviser to the Egyptian government; her mother was Scottish and strongly associated with the Quakers. The family moved frequently before settling in Cumbria in 1925. In 1934 Rachel Amos attended Newnham College, Cambridge, where she studied the Anglo-Saxon language before shifting departments to focus on Middle Welsh. In 1938 she moved to the University College of Wales, Bangor and studied under Ifor Williams. Amos took a great interest in Medieval Welsh literature, and particularly the Arthurian legend; it was Williams' suggestion that she edit the Welsh Triads. As a university teacher, she combined rigorous scholarship with great personal kindness, always ready to help and share knowledge with her students, taking a close interest in their careers. She was awarded the degree of D.Litt. by the University of Wales for her services to Welsh scholarship. In 1939 she married John Bromwich; they had one son, Brian.

She became interested in medieval literature and the Welsh language in college. In 1961 she published Trioedd Ynys Prydein, her influential edition of the Welsh Triads. A third, thoroughly revised edition was published in 2006. It is much more widely consulted by scholars than might be supposed from the specialised nature of the text, thanks to her extensive notes on the names of a wide range of characters in Welsh myth and legend. Her other major contribution to Welsh scholarship was her series of books and articles on Dafydd ap Gwilym, the outstanding Welsh poet of the period, mostly summarised in Aspects of the Poetry of Dafydd ap Gwilym (Cardiff, 1985). With D. Simon Evans she produced editions of the major medieval Welsh tale Culhwch and Olwen in both Welsh (1988) and English (1992).

References

• Morgan, Gerald (2005) "A Scholar of Early Britain: Rachel Bromwich (1915– )". In Chance, Jane, Women Medievalists and the Academy pp. 769–781. University of Wisconsin Press. ISBN 0-299-20750-1.

External links

• Rachel Bromwich: Celtic scholar celebrated for her masterly dictionary of Welsh and British legend Independent obituary