Ystorya Adaf is the most commonly accepted title of a medieval Welsh translation of the Latin

Latin

Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...

 text Historia Adam, a version of the popular "Legend of the Rood

Legend of the Rood

The Legend of the Rood is a complex of medieval tales loosely derived from the Old Testament.In its fullest form, the narrative tells how the dying Adam sends his son Seth back to Paradise to seek an elixir which will render him immortal. This part of the tale is sometimes referred to as "the...

" (or De ligno sancte crucis). The Ystorya Adaf should not be confused with Ystorya Adaf ac Eua y wreic (The Story of Adam and his wife Eve), a Welsh translation of an Old Testament Midrash text, Vita Adae (et Evae)

Life of Adam and Eve

The Life of Adam and Eve, also known, in its Greek version, as the Apocalypse of Moses, is a Jewish pseudepigraphical group of writings. It recounts the lives of Adam and Eve from after their expulsion from the Garden of Eden to their deaths. It provides more detail about the Fall of Man, including...

.

The Ystorya Adaf survives in four manuscripts, Peniarth 5, Peniarth 7, Peniarth 14, and Havod 22, and has been edited three times. The version in Peniarth MS. 5 misleadingly titles the work Euengl Nicodemus (Efengyl Nicodemus, Gospel of Nicodemus). Although the Nicodemus

Nicodemus

Saint Nicodemus was a Pharisee and a member of the Sanhedrin, who, according to the Gospel of John, showed favour to Jesus...

 legend and the Rood

Rood

A rood is a cross or crucifix, especially a large one in a church; a large sculpture or sometimes painting of the crucifixion of Jesus.Rood is an archaic word for pole, from Old English rōd "pole", specifically "cross", from Proto-Germanic *rodo, cognate to Old Saxon rōda, Old High German ruoda...

 legend commonly became attached to each other in many medieval permutations, the Welsh text is not one of them. The sequence in which the Ystorya Adaf appears in Peniarth MS 5, where it is followed by the Passion

Passion (Christianity)

The Passion is the Christian theological term used for the events and suffering – physical, spiritual, and mental – of Jesus in the hours before and including his trial and execution by crucifixion...

 story from the Gospel of Matthew

Gospel of Matthew

The Gospel According to Matthew is one of the four canonical gospels, one of the three synoptic gospels, and the first book of the New Testament. It tells of the life, ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth...

 and a Welsh translation of the Inventio Sancte Crucis, suggests that the scribe took the Ystoria to be a prelude to the Crucifixion legend and the Inventio its follow-up story, with the Gospel account providing a link between them.

Though the story is slightly elaborated after the typical manner of Middle Welsh narrative prose, by and large it adheres closely to the Latin text as reconstructed by Meyer. Such few connections as there are between the motifs of the story and native Welsh tradition seem coincidental. For example, the motif of the withered footsteps (Seth finds his way back to Paradise by following the footsteps left by Adam and Eve

Adam and Eve

Adam and Eve were, according to the Genesis creation narratives, the first human couple to inhabit Earth, created by YHWH, the God of the ancient Hebrews...

 years before, on which nothing ever grew again), which finds an analogue, but only that, in Triad 20W:

"But one was more of a red-reaper than the three: Arthur was his name. For a year neither grass nor plants would come up where one of the three walked, but for seven years none would come up where Arthur walked."

The Rood legend is also referred to by the 14th-century Welsh poet Gruffudd ap Maredudd.

Editions and translations

• Jenkins, John (ed.). "Medieval Welsh Scriptures, Religious Legends, and Midrash." Transactions of the Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion
  Transactions of the Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion
  Transactions of the Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion / Trafodion Anrhydedd Gymdeithas y Cymmrodorion is the annual journal of the Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion, published from 1893 ; it and contains historical and literary essays and reviews...
  
  (1919-20), pp. 121-131. Edition based on Peniarth 5 with variants from Peniarth 14 and Hafod 22.
• Jones, Thomas Gwynn (ed.) and G. Hartwell Jones (tr.). Ystorya Addaf' a 'Ual a Cauas Elen y Grog': Tarddiad, Cynnwys, ac Arddull y Testunau Cymraeg a'y Lledaeniad [dissertation]. TYCCh 847.
• Williams, Robert (ed.). Selections from the Hengwrt Manuscripts, vol. 2 (London, 1892), 243-50. Based on Peniarth 5. Available from the Internet Archive

General studies

• • Williams, J. E. Caerwyn, "Medieval Welsh Religious Prose," Proceedings of the Second International Congress of Celtic Studies, 1963 (Cardiff, 1966), 65-97.
  • For the source, see main entry Legend of the Rood
    Legend of the Rood
    The Legend of the Rood is a complex of medieval tales loosely derived from the Old Testament.In its fullest form, the narrative tells how the dying Adam sends his son Seth back to Paradise to seek an elixir which will render him immortal. This part of the tale is sometimes referred to as "the...
    
    .