Andrew Breeze
Biographic Data
| ID | 967508 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Andrew Breeze |
| GIVEN NAMES | Andrew |
| FAMILY NAME | Breeze |
| SIGNATURE | BREEZE A |
| AFFILIATIONS | Universidad de Navarra |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-3429-7191 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 46 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 9 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 46 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1970 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
James Ross, Robert de Vere, Earl of Oxford and Duke of Ireland (1362–1392) . Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 2024, xviii, 298 pp
Robert de Vere was the first (and only) Duke of Ireland and the ninth Earl of Oxford. In Richard II’s England he was (if we believe the chroniclers) detested by everyone who mattered except for Richard himself, who was infatuated with him. The results were dramatic and unfortunate. Widespread distrust of the monarchy led to Robert’s attempted coup on Richard’s behalf in 1387. It was soon crushed. Robert fled to the Low Countries (where he died, i…
Peter J. Lucas, Old English Poetry from Manuscript to Message . Utrecht Studies in Medieval Literacy, 58. Turnhout: Brepols, 2024, xviii, 398 pp
These collected papers of Peter Lucas (formerly of UCD, Ireland) shed welcome light on early (and even later) English verse. They comprise 22 items in five sections. Part one is on manuscript issues: the Nowell Codex and Judith ; the Vercelli Book; the Junius Manuscript’s structure, chasms, and problems of its Daniel and Christ and Satan . The second part brings us to meter: its relation to “verse grammar”; adverbs and “verse grammar”; the Pastor…
Jean Blacker, Arthur, Origins, Identities and the Legendary History of Britain . Explorations in Medieval Culture, 25. Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2024, xii, 565 pp
S. P. Tatlock’s monumental The Legendary History of Britain (Berkeley, 1950), this study of Arthurian tradition will be essential for all researchers on Geoffrey of Monmouth, Wace, and the Old French Bruts
Somerset, Bannaventa Tabernae , and the Dates of St Patrick
St Patrick is a figure unique in the culture of late antique Britain, because his writings are almost the only British literary texts of the fifth century. Their interpretation has yet been hamstrung by uncertainty on where Patrick was born, and when he lived. But research in the 1990s convincingly showed St Patrick’s home of Bannaventa to be Banwell, North Somerset, in a region west of Bath and with many Roman villas. Further analysis now offers…
Mary Bateman , Local Place and the Arthurian Tradition in England and Wales, 1400-1700 . Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2023, 328 pp
Congratulations are due for this study of a supreme British wild-goose chase. It was the attempt by antiquarians including John Leland (d. 1552) and William Camden (d. 1623) to give King Arthur a local habitation (a quest active even now). Historical Celtic Philology being unknown to Leland and Camden, Dr. Bateman thus describes rightly what they and others got wrong. She is the guide to three centuries of sprinting up blind allies and barking up…
Mary, «Pearl», and Sir John Stanley (d. 1414)
Pearl is a Middle English dream-poem in London, British Library, ms Cotton Nero A.x, of about 1400. It is attributed to the same author as the scriptural poems Patience and Cleanness and the romance Sir Gawain and the Green Knight also found in this manuscript. The four texts provide abundant information on fourteenth-century social life, including religion, particularly for devotion to the Blessed Virgin. Analysis of Marian imagery in Pearl and …
Tony Sullivan, The Battles of King Arthur . Barnsley and Havertown: Pen & Sword Military. 2022, xvii, 270 pp
Attractively presented, The Battles of King Arthur should have been a success. It has a comprehensive and up-to-date bibliography; it is systematic, with eight well-marshalled chapters (Roman Britain; Post-Roman Britain; the Saxon invasion; dating; political change; warfare; Arthur’s Twelve Battles; other locations; conclusions). The author also (rightly) thinks Arthur was “indeed a historical figure” (p. ix). So, what went wrong? Why is the book…
Rebecca Thomas, History and Identity in Early Medieval Wales . Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2022, xii, 202 pp
How the Welsh regarded their past is an illuminating subject, as with any nation; and it is here given fresh and stimulating treatment for the pre-Norman period. This study is particularly welcome because the few historical sources (Gildas, Historia Brittonum , Annales Cambriae , Asser, Armes Prydein ) for early Wales are ringed by linguistic and chronological chevaux de frise . They are a wonderful way to make a historian look foolish. Fortunate…
Elizabeth Boyle, History and Salvation in Medieval Ireland . London: Routledge, 2021, xii, 205 pp
The Irish are a nation of poets; they inhabit the Isle of Saints. So what Ireland’s early bards and teachers had to say on the Christian message makes a good book. In a monograph of five chapters, Dr Boyle (of NUI, Maynooth) hence tells us much, with the right combination of didactic and lyrical
Welsh Chwant ‘Desire’ and Trisantona ‘River Trent’ in Tacitus
The article deals with the ancient name of the longest river solely in England, the Trent, flowing past Stoke-on-Trent and Nottingham to the North Sea. In a passage that has raised debate and led to a number of misinterpretations in literature, Tacitus recorded it as (emended) Trisantona, which has been explained from Old Irish sét ‘course’ and Welsh hynt ‘path’ as ‘trespasser, one that overflows’ (of a stream liable to flood). Trisantona or the …
Place-Names in Three Prophecies from the «Book of Taliesin»
The Book of Taliesin (now at the National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth) is a fourteenth-century manuscript of Welsh poetry, with some of its material going back to the late sixth century. But it includes poems of later date. Amongst them are three political prophecies: 'Taliesin's Verdant Song'; 'The Contention of Gwynedd and Deheubarth'; 'A Short Poem About Lludd's Discussion'. The first two are of the tenth century, the last of the eleventh. W…
S. J. Drake, Cornwall, Connectivity and Identity in the Fourteenth Century . Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, 2019, xxii, 490 pp
King Arthur 'Dux Bellorum': Welsh Penteulu 'Chief of the Royal Host'
Although the North British hero Arthur (d. 537) is described in medieval romance as a king, he is not so termed in the earliest documents relating to him. The ninth-century 'Historia Brittonum' states merely that he fought 'cum regibus Brittonum' ('alongside kings of the Britons'), but was himself merely 'dux bellorum'. What this means has been long disputed. It has been taken to represent a senior rank in the Roman army, with Arthur as a command…
Doubts on Irish Iubhar 'Yew Tree' and Eburacum or York
York, a cathedral city in the north of England, was the Eburacum or Colonia Eburacensis of Roman Britain. Its name has usually been explained from Irish iubhar ‘yew tree’ (or alternatively from Welsh efwr ‘hogweed’) and so ‘place where yew trees grow’; or else as containing the British(-Latin) personal name Eburus plus the suffix -aco-, and so ‘estate of Eburus’ (with commentators wavering between the two). The author provides an overview of the …
The River Wharfe and Verbeia, Celtic Goddess
The Wharfe is a river of Yorkshire, in northern England. It was known to the Romans as 'Verbeia', also used of their fortress in what is now the town of Ilkley. Although 'Verbeia' is surely Celtic and ultimately gives the modern hydronym 'Wharfe', its meaning has been obscure. Comparison with other Celtic forms yet suggests the sense 'Powerful Striker, she who is Strong in Hitting'', with 'ver' as an intensive prefix and 'beia' related to British…
Welsh Dawn ‘Gift’ and Doncaster, Yorkshire
Doncaster, known to the Romans as Danum, is a town on the River Don, Yorkshire. Its British-Latin name (deriving from that of the river) has been obscure: although interpretations ‘wet’ or ‘bold’ or ‘flowing’ have been proposed from alleged parallels with the Danube, Dnieper, Don, or Rhône of the European continent, they are inconclusive, because they lack equivalents in Brittonic. A new etymology is needed. The one suggested here is ‘gift; gifte…
The Four Branches of the Mabinogi: Gwynedd and the Glamorgan Bards
Pedeir Keinc y Mabinogi or 'The Four Branches of the Mabinogi', surely the work of an author from Gwynedd or north-west Wales, are twelfth-century tales of love and adventure; and one character in them is Gwydion, a magician of Gwynedd. Amongst his exploits is disguising himself as a poet from Glamorgan (in South Wales) and thereby deceiving a Gwynedd sorceress, who is fooled into welcoming him as a story-teller and entertainer. In a similar way …
John Leland’s Caer Urfe: Tynemouth or Chepstow
The paper focuses on the problem of identifi cation of Caer Urfe, one of the Twenty-Eight Cities of Britain listed by John Leland (d. 1552) from Henry of Huntingdon (d. 1155) after the ninth-century Historia Brittonum. Many of the twenty-eight have defi ed identifi cation; but Leland’s proposal of Tynemouth for Caer Urfe is now maintained by archaeologists on Tyneside, in the north of England. The author argues that Caer Urfe is to be associated …
“Good Friend” and the Goodwin Sands, Kent
The Goodwin Sands are a hazard to shipping in the English Channel. Their name means “good friend” and is often taken as euphemistic or propitiatory. Alternatively, in a legend with Celtic parallels, the sands have been regarded as an island which belonged to Earl Godwine (d. 1053), but was drowned by natural disaster. Science shows, however, that the Goodwins have never been land within historic times. Their name can thus have nothing to do with …
Legionum Urbs and the British Martyrs Aaron and Julius
Статья посвящена установлению места, где приняли смерть британские святые Аарон и Юлий, известные исключительно благодаря Гильде Премудрому, писавшему в 530-е гг. Сообщение Гильды воспроизвел Беда Достопочтенный (ум. 737 г.), благодаря чему эти двое святых не были забыты, а их культ существует и поныне. Автор дает детальный обзор литературы об Аароне и Юлии за последние два столетия и высказывает мнение, что местом гибели мучеников был не К ерлео…
Tome: Studies in Medieval Celtic History and Law in Honour of Thomas Charles-Edwards, ed. Fiona Edmonds and Paul Russell
Thomas Charles-Edwards retired as Oxford’s fifth Jesus Professor of Celtic in 2011, and this Cambridge-edited volume marks the event. Tome in its title alludes both to TOME ‘of Thomas’ on a pre-Norman cross (now in Margam Abbey Museum) from Port Talbot, Glamorgan, and to ‘tome’ as used by the honorand’s family for a book-in-progress. After this donnish jokelet, we turn to the collection’s nineteen essays, which reflect the dedicatee’s special int…
The Ravenna Cosmography, Argistillum and Wales
The location of Argistillum in the Ravenna Cosmography has been obscure. This paper uses linguistic and historical analysis to suggest that it was the Roman fort at Caersws, in the cantref (district) of Arwystli, still with a name relatable to Argistillum
Wales and the Wider World: Welsh History in an International Context, ed. T.M. Charles-Edwards and R.J.W. Evans
Here is an offering to the memory of two fine Welsh historians: Sir Rees Davies (1938–2005) of Oxford, and Sir Glanmor Williams (1920–2005) of Swansea. By a trick of fate, the latter appears in his own memorial volume. He died after presenting a contribution for R.R. Davies, so the editors chose to commemorate not one scholar but two. Nevertheless, there is something slightly curious about the book in question, since Festschriften to both men alr…
Gildas and the Schools of Cirencester
The life of Gildas by an eleventh-century Breton monk mentions his education at ‘Iren’. Though often taken to mean ‘Ireland’, this is more probably a corruption of ‘Cerin’, the Old Welsh name of ‘Corinium’ or Cirencester. If so, it implies the survival in sixth-century Britain of traditional Roman schools
The Legend of St Brendan: A Comparative Study of the Latin and Anglo-Norman Versions . J. S. Mackley
Does Corieltavi Mean ‘Army of Many Rivers’
The British people formerly known to scholars as Coritani , but now commonly referred to as Corieltauvi , lived in the region of Leicester, Nottingham and Lincoln, with their capital at Ratae , or Leicester. Their name was recovered as follows. They appear in Ptolemy as Coritani (variant Contavi ) and the Ravenna Cosmography as Rate Corion (taken as an abbreviated form). Coritani and Corion resisted every attempt to extract a meaning from them
The Welsh Academy Encyclopaedia of Wales
Journal Article The Welsh Academy Encyclopaedia of Wales Get access The Welsh Academy Encyclopaedia of Wales, ed. John Davies, Nigel Jenkins, Menna Baines, and Peredur I. Lynch (Cardiff: U. of Wales P., 2008; pp. xxviii + 1,059. £65). Andrew Breeze Andrew Breeze University of Navarre, Pamplona Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The English Historical Review, Volume CXXIV, Issue 508, June 2009, Pages 666–667, …
Gildas and the Schools of Cirencester
The life of Gildas by an eleventh-century Breton monk mentions his education at ‘Iren’. Though often taken to mean ‘Ireland’, this is more probably a corruption of ‘Cerin’, the Old Welsh name of ‘Corinium’ or Cirencester. If so, it implies the survival in sixth-century Britain of traditional Roman schools
The transmission of Aldhelm's writings in early medieval Spain
Although writings of Aldhelm ( c. 635– c. 709) were widely known in early Spain, in modern Spain they are hardly known at all. An entry on Aldhelm in a recent Spanish book on medieval Latin makes the latter point vividly: ‘Bibliografía: Escasa. Autor casi olvidado. Totalmente ausente en algún catálogo bibliográfico.’ A survey of the transmission of Aldhelm's writings from a Spanish viewpoint, however, is able to alter this perspective and to show…
Politics and the Four Branches of the Mabinogi
Politics and the Four Branches of the Mabinogi
The Virgin Mary, daughter of her son
Andrew Breeze, La Vierge Marie fille de son fils Le thème patristique de Marie mère et fille du Sauveur peut être retrouvé en Irlande (dans des hymnes hiberno-latins et irlandais), au Pays de Galles (dans de nombreux poèmes médiévaux) et en Angleterre
The transmission of Aldhelm's writings in early medieval Spain
Although writings of Aldhelm ( c. 635– c. 709) were widely known in early Spain, in modern Spain they are hardly known at all. An entry on Aldhelm in a recent Spanish book on medieval Latin makes the latter point vividly: ‘Bibliografía: Escasa. Autor casi olvidado. Totalmente ausente en algún catálogo bibliográfico.’ A survey of the transmission of Aldhelm's writings from a Spanish viewpoint, however, is able to alter this perspective and to show…
Maldon 68: Mid prasse bestodon
The book of Habakkuk and Old English Exodus
(1994). The book of Habakkuk and Old English Exodus. English Studies: Vol. 75, No. 3, pp. 210-213
Armes Prydein, Hywel Dda, and the reign of Edmund of Wessex
Armes Prydein, Hywel Dda, et le règne d’Edmond de Wessex. Deux textes témoignent de relations entre Edmond de Wessex (939-46) et Hywel le Bon (f 950), de Dyfed : ce sont le poème politique Armes Prydein «La prophétie de Grande-Bretagne» et une note annalistique pour 945 recueillie par le chroniqueur du XIIIe siècle. Roger de Wendover. On montre que des allusions jusque ici obscures, dans le poème, se rapportent à la capitulation d’Edmond devant l…
Old English wann “dark; pallid”: Welsh gwann “weak; sad, gloomy”
(1997). Old English wann “dark; pallid”: Welsh gwann “weak; sad, gloomy”. ANQ: A Quarterly Journal of Short Articles, Notes and Reviews: Vol. 10, No. 4, pp. 10-13
A Celtic Etymology for Maggle “to Spoil” in Dunbar and Gavin Douglas
A Celtic Etymology for Scots Gully “Large Knife”
Pictish chains and Welsh forgeries
An ascertainment of the existence of twelve Pictish silver chains, rather than the ten cited by most authorities. Also cautions against reliance on references to such objects in the text of Brut Aberpergwm, which was probably written by Iolo Morgannwg (1747--1826) even though he claimed it was a chronicle originally written in the twelfth-century
Gryngolet, the Name of Sir Gawain?s Horse
Does Corieltavi Mean ‘Army of Many Rivers’
The British people formerly known to scholars as Coritani , but now commonly referred to as Corieltauvi , lived in the region of Leicester, Nottingham and Lincoln, with their capital at Ratae , or Leicester. Their name was recovered as follows. They appear in Ptolemy as Coritani (variant Contavi ) and the Ravenna Cosmography as Rate Corion (taken as an abbreviated form). Coritani and Corion resisted every attempt to extract a meaning from them
The Date of the Ruthwell Cross Inscription
(2003). The Date of the Ruthwell Cross Inscription. ANQ: A Quarterly Journal of Short Articles, Notes and Reviews: Vol. 16, No. 2, pp. 03-05
Philology on Tacitus's Graupian Hill and Trucculan Harbour
Considers evidence for the site of Mons Graupius and the meaning of the name
Manchester's Ancient Name
Mamucium, the Roman name of Manchester, is often explained as ‘place on the breast-shaped hill’ from the hypothetical British mamma ’breast; breast-shaped hill’. But the name of Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, suggests this is baseless. A likelier etymology is ‘place on the river called Mamma, “mother”’, apparently the old name of the River Medlock, perhaps revered as a Celtic goddess
The Name of Truro, Cornwall
Truro's name seems to come from the Cornish cognate of Welsh tryferau, ‘ spears, javelins ’, referring to the city's rivers
Tacitus, Ptolemy and the River Forth
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The Date and Politics of ‘The Song of the Welsh’
The Latin war-poem ‘The Song of the Welsh’ poses problems of dating and origin, as also does the identity of a mysterious ‘Broinsius’ mentioned in it. Yet the last seems to be the fifth-century British hero Ambrosius Aurelianus; while the influence of bardic verse on the poem suggests it is not from thirteenth-century England, but from a Welsh school (perhaps located at St Davids) of similar date
Love and Ethics in Gower's “Confessio Amantis”
PETER NICHOLSON Ann Arbor, University of Michigan Press, 2005 x + 461 pp., ISBN: 0-472-11512-X, $80.00/£46.00 Nicholson's study of Confessio Amantis must be one of the longest books ever written on
The Legend of St Brendan: A Comparative Study of the Latin and Anglo-Norman Versions . J. S. Mackley
The Welsh Academy Encyclopaedia of Wales
Journal Article The Welsh Academy Encyclopaedia of Wales Get access The Welsh Academy Encyclopaedia of Wales, ed. John Davies, Nigel Jenkins, Menna Baines, and Peredur I. Lynch (Cardiff: U. of Wales P., 2008; pp. xxviii + 1,059. £65). Andrew Breeze Andrew Breeze University of Navarre, Pamplona Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The English Historical Review, Volume CXXIV, Issue 508, June 2009, Pages 666–667, …
The Name of Bernicia
The Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Bernicia has a Celtic name, sometimes explained as ‘land of dwellers in mountain passes’. But this analysis suggests a fiercer interpretation: ‘land of piercers of battle-lines, territory of those making gaps between enemy warriors’
Gildas and the Schools of Cirencester
The life of Gildas by an eleventh-century Breton monk mentions his education at ‘Iren’. Though often taken to mean ‘Ireland’, this is more probably a corruption of ‘Cerin’, the Old Welsh name of ‘Corinium’ or Cirencester. If so, it implies the survival in sixth-century Britain of traditional Roman schools
Wales and the Wider World: Welsh History in an International Context, ed. T.M. Charles-Edwards and R.J.W. Evans
Here is an offering to the memory of two fine Welsh historians: Sir Rees Davies (1938–2005) of Oxford, and Sir Glanmor Williams (1920–2005) of Swansea. By a trick of fate, the latter appears in his own memorial volume. He died after presenting a contribution for R.R. Davies, so the editors chose to commemorate not one scholar but two. Nevertheless, there is something slightly curious about the book in question, since Festschriften to both men alr…
The Ravenna Cosmography, Argistillum and Wales
The location of Argistillum in the Ravenna Cosmography has been obscure. This paper uses linguistic and historical analysis to suggest that it was the Roman fort at Caersws, in the cantref (district) of Arwystli, still with a name relatable to Argistillum
History (32 works) · Art (29 works) · Historical Studies of British Isles (26 works) · Medieval Literature and History (26 works) · History (23 works) · Classics (20 works) · Philosophy (19 works) · Archaeology (16 works) · Ancient history (14 works) · Classics (12 works)