Reading Middle Welsh

"It is often assumed that people with an interest in Middle Welsh are either speakers of Modern Welsh, who can be eased into the medieval language fairly simply, or high-powered linguistics students with considerable knowledge of other languages, who can work directly from academic grammars and dictionaries. In fact, many potential students, perhaps most, do not come in these categories. A few are interested in linguistic studies. Many more are folklorists, historians, Arthurians. Some are simply of Welsh origin, though often no Welsh language, and interested in their heritage.

Reading Middle Welsh is based on materials and methods used by the author over many years to teach this wider audience. It introduces and practises the forms and structures used in the first story of the Mabinogi, a medieval tale of mythical characters from the earliest layers of Welsh tradition. It culminates in a reading of that story, complete and unchanged, in a standardised spelling close to that of Modern Welsh. Then it tells something about medieval spelling and opens the gate to reading the published text of the entire Mabinogi and the rest of Middle Welsh literature."

http://canol.home.att.net/