Using the Website

Where do I find a map of the site?
How do I get to the poems?
How do I find the poem I’m looking for?
What help can I get to understand the poems?
Is there a quick way of viewing manuscript readings?
Where are the manuscript images?
What other pictures are on the site?
How do I get to sections in the Introduction?
Where is information about manuscript sources?
How do I print pages?
Can I move frames around and make them bigger?
Who edited which poems?
Where do I find information about technical specifications?

 

After choosing your language on the first screen, you will arrive at the homepage. From there you can read ‘About the Project’ or go straight to either the Poems or the Introduction.

 

When you click on ‘The Poems’ you will see a drop-down menu entitled ‘Choose’ at the bottom left of the screen. Pulling that down will reveal a list of the 170 poems in the edition. You can select any one of these by clicking on the title. The window will then divide into two frames, with the edited text of the poem appearing in the left-hand frame. Clicking on any line of the text will bring up the readings of the principal manuscript copies for that line in the right-hand frame.

 

Across the bottom right of the screen you will see a row of options. Note that the poems menu remains at the bottom left of the screen to enable you to select another poem.

 

The options offer the resources listed below. Click on the appropriate button to select the option you require and to move from one to another.

 

• ‘sources’ brings up a table from the database listing all manuscript copies of the poem;

 

• ‘stemma’ brings up a diagram showing the relationships between the manuscript copies of the poem (for conventions used in the stemmas see Introduction);

 

• ‘paraphrase’ gives a modern Welsh rendering of the poem in the right-hand frame alongside the edited text;

 

• ‘translation’ gives an English translation of the poem in the right-hand frame alongside the edited text;

 

• ‘audio’ enables you to listen to a recorded reading of the poem. You can follow the edited text in the left-hand frame. The audio should play automatically on a Microsoft Windows PC. Microsoft Windows PC users can also control the audio player in the right-hand frame (controls such as play, pause and volume are available). Users of other operating systems, such as Apple Mac and Linux should click on the link in the right hand frame where it says ‘Play poem #.mp3’  to hear the audio.

 

• ‘notes’ brings up an introduction to the poem alongside the edited text, with notes explaining references in the poem;

 

• ‘Welsh notes’ brings up fuller notes in Welsh, including discussion of manuscript sources and textual issues;

 

• ‘manuscript texts’ provides a list of the texts which are available in full transcription; clicking on any one brings up that text in the right-hand frame alongside the edited text. At the top of that frame you will see a drop-down menu which enables you to move to another manuscript text. (For transcription conventions see Introduction);

 

• ‘manuscript images’ provides a list of the manuscript copies for which digitised images are available; clicking on any one brings up a transcription of that manuscript text in the right-hand frame with thumbnail images of the pages; click on any of these to bring up the full-size image in the left-hand frame. You can zoom in and out by selecting a percentage from the ‘Zoom Value’ menu. When you move your cursor over the manuscript image the cursor will change into the shape of a hand; by holding down the left button of your mouse you can take hold of the image and move it as you wish. (If your cursor happens to wander away from the image bring it back and click again to release it.) You can also choose to view the image in a new window by clicking on the button at the top of the frame. At the top of the right-hand frame there is a menu which enables you to select another manuscript;

 

• ‘line-orders’ shows the order of the lines in the poem for each of the manuscript copies transcribed in the edition;

 

• ‘edited text’ takes you back to the screen displaying just that text.

 

• For two poems, nos 33 and 73, there is a further option available, ‘cynghanedd’, which brings up a separate text demonstrating the cynghanedd in each line, with the option to show or conceal the names of the various cynganeddion by clicking on ‘dangos / cuddio cynghanedd’. (An explication of cynghanedd is available in the Introduction, see below.)

 

The vertical scroll bar in the middle of the window moves the left-hand frame, and the scroll bar on the right of the window moves the right-hand frame.

 

Either frame can be widened by hovering your cursor over the right edge of the vertical bar in the middle and left clicking to drag it across as you wish.

 

Any section of the screen can be printed by first clicking on it and then choosing ‘print’ on your computer. You may find it easier to print by first clicking on the ‘print-friendly’ icon on the screen.

 

The website also contains a number of resources relating to the edition. To access these go back to the homepage (which is always available at the top of the screen) and click on ‘Introduction’. You will then see a drop-down menu listing the following sections:

 

• The project history, which introduces the team and explains who is responsible for each section of the work

 

• Acknowledgements

 

• A list of the abbreviations used in the edition

 

• A bibliography listing all publications relating to Dafydd ap Gwilym

 

• A list of the 170 poems included in the edition, divided into those which are considered to be the genuine work of Dafydd ap Gwilym (poems 1–151) and poems of uncertain authorship (152–170); the genuine poems are arranged in group according to subject

 

• An alphabetical list of first lines of poems

 

• An alphabetical list of titles of poems

 

• The ‘Concordance’ package which enables you to search for any word in the edited texts, displaying every example in its context

 

• The poet (not yet in place)

 

• The literary context (not yet in place)

 

• Metrics (Welsh-language only)

 

• Explication of cynghanedd

 

• The musical background

 

• The principles of the edited texts (Welsh-language only)

 

• Authorship of the poems (not yet translated)

 

• The apocrypha, an annotated list of the 204 poems wrongly attributed to Dafydd ap Gwilym in manuscripts

 

• The manuscript tradition

 

• A complete list of the manuscripts containing poems in the edition, with concise details

 

• Conventions used in transcriptions and stemmas

 

• Database searchable by manuscript and by poem

 

• Video recording of recital held on 4 April 2007

 

• Recording of the voice of Sir Thomas Parry reading part of ‘Y Gwynt’

 

Technical Specifications

The website is best viewed with the following computer hardware and software:

·         A 17inch monitor - at the very least

·         A computer with at least 256Mb of RAM

·         Microsoft Windows 2000 or newer, Mac OS X 10.2 or newer

·         A graphics card with at least 16Mb of RAM set to display at 32bit (thousands of colours)

·         Microsoft Internet Explorer 4 and above, Mozilla 4 compatible and above, Safari 2 and above