ABSTRACT
In attempting to map out the principal constituents of a structural analysis, we seem these days to be thinking of medieval traditional narrative from two main standpoints. The aspect of systématisation that has gained most attention from students of medieval Welsh narrative and by the Welsh Folk Museum at St. Fagan’s has been the work carried out by what is called the Finnish school. In reading the native medieval tales of Wales, one rather disconcerting point of structure has bothered modern critics. Professor Brynley F. Roberts rightly refers to this uneasiness in analysing Breuddwyd Macsen: “For modern readers the Dream is marred a little by a lack of unified structure as the author progresses beyond what may strike us as the end of his story.” The theory that accepts the Ruhepunkt as normal in medieval tales contrasts pointedly with the criticisms of modern scholars, and perhaps underlines the need to describe medieval narrative structure primarily on its own terms.
