The Four Ancient Books of Wales

This is William Skene's anthology of dark-age Welsh Bardic poetry sourced from this collection. Often cited, this book contains every remaining piece of Bardic poetry known. The poems are translated from four manuscripts: THE BLACK BOOK OF CAERMARTHEN, THE RED BOOK OF HERGEST (source of the Mabinogion), THE BOOK OF TALIESSIN and THE BOOK OF ANEURIN, all of which date from the twelfth to the fifteenth centuries A.D. The poems themselves date from much earlier, probably from the sixth century by internal evidence.