Background
Bromwich was born Rachel Amos in Hove, England, in 1915. Her father, Maurice Amos, was an English legal expert who served as international law adviser to the Egyptian government. Her mother was Scottish and strongly associated with the Quakers.
Education
In 1934 Rachel Amos attended Newnham College, Cambridge, where she studied the Anglo-Saxon language before shifting departments to focus on Middle Welsh.
Career
Her focus was on medieval Welsh literature, and she was Emeritus Reader in Celtic Languages and Literature at the Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic at Cambridge until her death. Among her most important contributions to the study of Welsh literature is Trioedd Ynys Prydein, her edition of the Welsh Triads. The family moved frequently before settling in Cumbria in 1925.
In 1938 she moved to the University College of Wales, Bangor and studied under Ifor Williams.
Amos took a great interest in Medieval Welsh literature, and particularly the Arthurian legend. lieutenant was Williams" suggestion that she edit the Welsh Triads.
As a university teacher, she combined rigorous scholarship with great personal kindness, always ready to help and share knowledge with her students, taking a close interest in their careers. She was awarded the degree of Doctor of Literature by the University of Wales for her services to Welsh scholarship.
She became interested in medieval literature and the Welsh language in college.
In 1961 she published Trioedd Ynys Prydein, her influential edition of the Welsh Triads. A third, thoroughly revised edition was published in 2006. lieutenant is much more widely consulted by scholars than might be supposed from the specialised nature of the text, thanks to her extensive notes on the names of a wide range of characters in Welsh myth and legend.
Her other major contribution to Welsh scholarship was her series of books and articles on Dafydd ap Gwilym, the outstanding Welsh poet of the period, mostly summarised in Aspects of the Poetry of Dafydd ap Gwilym (Cardiff, 1985).
With Doctorate. Simon Evans she produced editions of the major medieval Welsh tale Culhwch and Olwen in both Welsh (1988) and English (1992).