The Dream of Rhonabwy

Breuddwyd Rhonabwy
The Dream of Rhonabwy
The opening lines of the mid–12th-century Dream of Rhonabwy (Red Book of Hergest):
Madog son of Maredudd ruled Powys from one end to the other, that is from Porffordd to Gwarfan in the uplands of Arwystli.
Author(s)anonymous
LanguageMiddle Welsh
Datelate 12th or 13th century
Manuscript(s)Red Book of Hergest, folio 134v to 138v
Genreprose
PersonagesRhonabwy, Iorwerth Goch ap Maredudd, Madog ap Maredudd, Iddawg Cordd Prydain, King Arthur, Owain mab Urien, Bishop Bedwin, Addaon fab Telessin, Osla Gyllellfawr, Medrawd, etc.

The Dream of Rhonabwy (Welsh: Breuddwyd Rhonabwy) is a Middle Welsh prose tale. Set during the reign of Madog ap Maredudd, prince of Powys (died 1160), its composition is typically dated to somewhere between the late 12th through the late 14th century.[1] It survives in only one manuscript, the Red Book of Hergest, and has been associated with the Mabinogion since its publication by Lady Charlotte Guest in the 19th century. A diplomatic version of the text is published by the University of Wales Press as Breuddwyt Ronabwy, edited by Grafton Melville Richards, first published in 1948.[2] The bulk of the narrative describes a dream vision experienced by its central character, Rhonabwy, a retainer of Madog, in which he visits the time of King Arthur. The text seems to use the fictional trope of time travel.

  1. ^ Stephenson, David, Medieval Powys: Kingdom, Principality and Lordships, 1132–1293, Boydell & Brewer, 2016, pp. 306–310.
  2. ^ Richards, Melville (Ed.) (2012), Breuddwyt Ronabwy. Caerdydd: Gwasg Prifysgol Cymru.