The cynfeirdd : early Welsh poets and poetry (1981)

Before the entire body of verse which has survived from the period can be adequetely understood and evaluated, however, we shall require to know very much more than we do about the role of the poet in the early community, the concepts of the nature and purpose of poetry which prevailed at the time, the centres where learning and literature were cultivated and the influences, both inherited from ancient times and imported from elsewhere, which affected the mind and thought of the Welsh poet in that age.