Event Type: Branch

Takes Place: 20th September 2025

Time: 11am

Venue: National Waterfront Museum, Swansea

Description: Gerald of Wales was a medieval man of many roles: priest, scholar and reformer; author and traveller; courtier and diplomat; and Welsh patriot. Over and above all these things, he was also a man with an insatiable curiosity about the world around him. His interpretation of ‘natural history’ was wide: it included not only the habits of birds and beasts and the properties of hills, lakes and standing stones, but also miracles, omens and wonders, the scheming of demons and the vengeance of saints. He described the behaviour of poltergeists in the same matter-of-fact way that he wrote about that of beavers, while expressing the same wonder at both, because in Gerald’s world both were equally marvellous. For him, the natural, the apparently unnatural and the supernatural were all part of the same scheme, all demonstrations of the working of God’s will. Biography

How to book: No booking required

Price: Free

Email: historyliz1565@yahoo.com

Website: www.haswansea.org.uk/

Comments: Colin Wheldon James is a history graduate of the University of Wales Swansea, where he also gained a Diploma in Local History, and until recently lectured on Medieval European History at Swansea University’s Department of Adult Continuing Education. He

Region: Wales

Branch: Swansea