Natur Merch a Dyn: Gender fluidity in the Welsh Bard
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.33353/scf.157515Abstract
Aspects of gender fluidity and gender transgression occur frequently in medieval Welsh literature, particularly in the figure of the bard. Touched by divine or magical inspiration, bards transgress the boundaries of gender both physically and performatively, incorporating multiple literary functions in order to move comfortably across binary oppositions. While their bodies are most often (but not exclusively) male, bards are found as both fathers and mothers, wives and husbands, in the martial sphere and the domestic. The hybridity of this polyvalent figure allows for a wide spectrum of uses and interpretations by medieval redactors, who can invoke the poet-figure to question, subvert and uphold ethical systems within texts.
This paper examines three examples from disparate medieval Welsh texts: Gwydion of the Fourth Branch of Y Mabinogi, Heledd from the poetic cycle which bears her name, and Taliesin (in both ‘historical’ and ‘legendary’ incarnations). In exploring how each of these fulfils bardic functions and subverts gender expectations, this discussion finds a recurring motif that crosses generic categories. It discusses the bardic model, its genderfluid nature, and how it can be used to draw queer perspectives from medieval Welsh texts.
