Bardic Circles - National, Regional and Personal Identity in the Bardic Vision of Iolo Morganwg (Hardcover, Illustrated Ed)

Bardism was the idiosyncratic vision of the Romantic forger Iolo Morganwg--a radical Druid revival that asserted Welsh identity and downplayed the influence of Christianity. It furnished the Welsh nation with a pantheon of heroes; asserted liberty, equality, freedom of speech, and opposition to war; and repudiated the tired contemporary stereotype of the barbarous Celt. "Bardic Circles" discusses the national, religious, and personal identities made explicit in Bardism and its relation to Iolo's self-definition, Romantic forgeries, and contemporary Welsh self-image.