Elis Gruffydd

Elis Gruffydd was a sixteenth-century Welsh soldier, administrator, translator, and chronicler known as the Soldier of Calais. His enormous Welsh-language Chronicle of the Six Ages of the World brings together written sources, oral traditions, eyewitness history, and stories preserved from his homeland. Tales of Merlin, Arthur, and the Magic Arts presents selections from that chronicle in English translation by Patrick K. Ford, with an introduction by Jerry Hunter. University of California Press published the collection in 2023. Its episodes revisit Merlin, Arthur, Welsh rulers, saints, dragons, prophecy, and magic through traditions that often differ from familiar later retellings. The National Library of Wales preserves the chronicle manuscripts and identifies Gruffydd's work as an exceptionally extensive narrative text in Welsh. Tales of Merlin, Arthur, and the Magic Arts makes part of that vast record accessible while retaining the distinct cultural setting and narrative range of Gruffydd's original compilation.