Background
Williams was born in the iron town of Dowlais situated above the industrial metropolis of Merthyr Tydfil.
(Three hundred years before Columbus, Madoc, son of Prince...)
Three hundred years before Columbus, Madoc, son of Prince Owain Gwynedd, sailed to North America in order to settle there. Soon thereafter, he returned to Wales, leaving behind some of his people to colonize the newly discovered land. First reported by Dr. John Dee to Queen Elizabeth I and publicized as the official view in 1580 in order to justify the English raids on Spanish-controlled North America, this myth greatly influenced American and Welsh history. Though now largely discredited, it still maintains a presence, as seen by the construction in 1958 of a monumental plaque in Alabama that commemorates Madoc's landing. Gwyn Williams offers the first full-length analysis of the Madoc myth, including a full description of how and why the Elizabethans developed it. He explores, in depth, the "Madoc fever" that gripped both sides of the Atlantic in the 1790s, concentrating particularly on the rapid increase in Welsh immigrations to the United States that resulted from the rush to discover the lost tribe of white, Welsh-speaking Indians left behind by Madoc. This unique work of historical detection not only recovers the factual origins of strange stories and influential beliefs, but also investigates how myth can actually create and shape history.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0192851780/?tag=2022091-20
(An exploration of the Arthurian legends - of Arthur and h...)
An exploration of the Arthurian legends - of Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table, the Sword in the Stone, the Quest for the Grail, and Merlin - from pre-Celtic times to the present. The legends have an extraordinary power and persistence which can be seen from the many different genres in which they appear - poetry, music, literature, art, film. This work includes the following themes: the origins of legends in the pre-Celtic age; the emergence of the historical Arthur as leader of the Britons against the Saxons after the collapse of the Roman Empire; the stories of Arthur and Merlin found in Welsh chronicle histories, poetry and romances; the spread of legends through Europe, particularly France and Germany during the time of the Crusades, when they assumed a holy purpose; the invention of the Grail story; the dwindling influence of the legends in Europe in the later Middle Ages, followed by a politicization of legends in Britain in the 16th century, and an upsurge of a British national mythology in the Elizabethan Age; the revival in the 19th and 20th Centuries - in romantic evocation of the Golden Age - in various guises: from Tennyson and the Pre-Raphaelites to 20th-century fiction and films.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0563370203/?tag=2022091-20
(On 2 June 1831, thousands of workers under a red flag bro...)
On 2 June 1831, thousands of workers under a red flag broke into insurrection. The rebels drove the military out of the town and were crushed only after some 800 troops had concentrated at Merthyr. One man was hanged as an example: Richard Lewis, a miner of 23, known as Dic Penderyn. Today, Dic Penderyn is more alive than Richard Lewis ever was: as a martyr and folk hero, he has lived on in the memory of south Wales. The author examines in depth the reality and the mythology of that martyrdom; he tells the story of this remarkable year in detail and largely through the words of the people who bore witness. He argues that the events of 1831 in Merthyr were central to the emergence of a working class in south Wales: in that year its pre-history came to an end and its history began.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0856644935/?tag=2022091-20
Williams was born in the iron town of Dowlais situated above the industrial metropolis of Merthyr Tydfil.
He attended the Cyfarthfa Grammar School and later read History at University College Wales, Aberystwyth.
During World World War II, he joined the British Army and fought at Normandy. Williams received his doctorate for a dissertation later published as Medieval London: from commune to capital.Gwyn was also a committed Marxist however he became disillusioned with the Russian system following the atrocities committed by Stalin. In 1954, Williams was appointed Lecturer in Welsh History at Aberystwyth University where he worked with another historian of Wales David Williams.
He left Aberystwyth for the University of York where he was Chair of History from 1965 to 1974.
He moved back to Wales in 1974, becoming Professor of History at the University of Wales, Cardiff, where he stayed until his retirement in 1983. Throughout his career, Williams was known as an exciting lecturer, capable of drawing large crowds from across the university.
After his retirement, he continued to write, but he focused more and more on television and film, presenting, with Wynford Vaughan-Thomas, a 13-part series in 1985 by HTV and Channel 4 on Welsh history entitled The Dragon Has Two Tongues. In 1983 Williams took early retirement from his Chair at Cardiff and began making films with Teliesyn, an independent Welsh broadcasting company based in Cardiff.
He eventually moved from Cardiff to the village of Dre-fach Felindre, in Carmarthenshire.
(An exploration of the Arthurian legends - of Arthur and h...)
(Three hundred years before Columbus, Madoc, son of Prince...)
(On 2 June 1831, thousands of workers under a red flag bro...)
(Book by Williams, Gwyn Alfred)
(Book by Williams III, Jay G.)
Williams was also a supporter of Republicanism. And later a member of Plaid Cymru, he praised the anti-monarchy book The Enchanted Glass by Tom Nairn.