At that conference at the weekend, I was struck by the importance of mediaeval (and earlier) history and literature to Welsh and Irish poets writing today. Perhaps there should be a revivial of Middle and Old English in contemporary English poetry? Simon Armitage's version of Gawain and the Green Knight is a start, although it's notable that the most celebrated version of the headandshoulders best Old English poem, Beowulf, is by an Irish poet (Seamus Heaney).
I'm not condoning the nationalism behind some of the harking back to earlier literature ( I won't be crying out 'For England, Geoffrey and St George!' any time soon) but there's something appealing about the immediacy that the Mabinogion seems to have for Welsh writers.
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