The Other in the Opinions of Medieval Intellectuals. The Accounts of Welshmen by Walter Map (c. 1140–c. 1209) and Gerald of Wales (c. 1146–1223)

Abstract

The article focuses on the issue of perceiving the others understood as representatives of peripheral peoples living on the fringes of the Western civilization in the Medieval Latin Europe. The author carries out an analysis of two narratives of the 12th century’s Anglo-Norman intellectuals, i.e. Walter Map and Gerald of Wales expressing their opinions on the Welsh. The aim of this discussion is to look for an answer to the question about the causes of this mostly critical view entertained by those authors of the neighbors of England. The author also attempts to show common features included in the accounts in question with other works of this type in the context of usual stereotypes of others over the centuries and countries of the Old Continent, which already originated in antiquity.