To: Multiple recipients of list WELSH-L In-Reply-To: Leslie Jones "sin-eating and novel research" (Jan 28, 12:49pm) >yes, i know, more information than anyone wants and all in english too) A question for Leslie Jones: I am trying to find critical material (in English) on the _dyn hysbus_ of Welsh tradition. I posted this question earlier to this net and got next to no response, except from my friend Ifan, who sent me a lovely book in Welsh. But it's slow going. I am especially interested in anything on gender distinctions in practiced Welsh magic. In Old Norse traditions, male and female magic were segregated, and it was considered a disgrace for a man to engage in _seithr_, although many distinguished gods and sorcerors did, including Odin in the Ynglingasaga. But what of magic men and magic women in Welsh? In _Ystoria Taliessin_, Cerridwen is _dysgedic_ in _hud, sossri, and witshcrafft_. Two of these are English words. Dysgedic means "learned," and "hud," as far as I can tell, has nothing to suggest that it is gender oriented, in the way that _dysgedic_ may be-- as men were normally the learned ones, the readers, the clerics. Is the dyn hysbus a reader? Does he practice different magic from the gwraig hysbus? Is there such a woman? I'm talking about more than just midwifery, here-- is there a cultural conception of magic that is different when it is practiced by a man or a woman in Welsh tradition? Your remarks about sin-eating were fascinating. Can a woman be a sin-eater in Welsh tradition? Sarah Higley slhi@troi.cc.rochester.edu