Y diawl a’m llaw chwith
Caradoc Evans, Geraint Goodwin, W.J. Griffith (forthcoming), James Harries, T. Gwynn Jones (forthcoming), Richard Hughes Williams, T.J. Llewelyn Pritchard, Morgan Llwyd, Rob Mimpriss, Daniel Owen, William Rees (forthcoming), A.L. Reynolds (forthcoming), Claud Vivian, Ellis Wynne, Owen Wynne Jones.
© 2019 Cockatrice Books
New and Forthcoming
Since the start of 2015, Cockatrice has been publishing groundbreaking short stories, masterful novels, brilliant nonfiction by the best of Welsh authors, original fiction by Rob Mimpriss, and fiction by A.L. Reynolds to come. The hell with your red dragon: it’s the cockatrice leads the way.
Morgan Llwyd (1619-1659), the nephew of a professional soldier and magician, was a Roundhead, a millenialist, a chaplain in the army of Oliver Cromwell, and later a civil servant of the commonwealth in Wales.
His famous religious allegory, A Book of Three Birds, is considered the most important Welsh book of the Seventeenth Century, and an enduring masterpiece of Welsh prose. With its introduction reflecting on the political upheavals of our time, this new translation by Rob Mimpriss brings to life the pungency of Morgan Llwyd’s writing, the richness of his religious and political thought, and the urgency of his drama and characterisation.
‘Lucid, skilful, and above all, of enormous timely relevance.’
Jim Perrin
Morgan Llwyd (1619-1659), the nephew of a professional soldier and magician, was a Roundhead, a millenialist, a chaplain in the army of Oliver Cromwell, and later a civil servant of the commonwealth in Wales.
His Welsh-language writings, grounded in Puritan theology, yet enriched by his mysticism and esotericism, are considered masterpieces of imagery and cadence, among the best prose ever written in Welsh. His three English-language essays, first published in 1655 and collected here, display the depth and richness of his religious thought, and his passionate engagement in the tumultuous events of his day.
Owen Wynne Jones, also known as Glasynys (1828-1870) was a school-teacher, and clergyman, an editor and poet, and an influential figure in the eisteddfod movement. But he was a also a folklorist and short-story writer, whose contributions to the Welsh anthology, Cymru Fu (1864), influenced T. Gwynn Jones among others, and now, in this new translation by Rob Mimpriss, a body of his work is available to English readers.
Combining horror, romance, humour and adventure with his own moving descriptions of the hospitality and generosity of ordinary people, these stories provide an account of a way of life now vanished, and a glimpse into the extraordinary richness of the Welsh oral tradition.
‘An invaluable translation.’
Angharad Price