who spent some time copying a manuscript which might well have been the Red Book. In 1701, two years after Wilkin's death, his son Thomas Wilkins the Younger donated the manuscript to Jesus College, Oxford. Internal evidence, a note by the latter Wilkins, suggests that Edward Lhuyd then held the manuscript on loan, but that the college was able to retrieve it only 13 years later, after Lhuyd's death. The book was given on 17 February 1701 to Jesus College by Reverend Thomas Wilkins the younger of Llanblethian. The college keeps the manuscript on deposit at the Bodleian Library. Content The first part of the manuscript contains prose, including the Mabinogion, for which this is one of the manuscript sources, other tales, historical texts (including a Welsh translation of Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae), and various other texts including a series of Triads. The rest of the manuscript contains poetry, especially from the period of court poetry known as Poetry of the Princes (Welsh: Gogynfeirdd or Beirdd y Tywysogion), including the cycles Canu Llywarch Hen, Canu Urien, and Canu Heledd. It contains also poems by Myrddin Wyllt. The Red Book is similar in content to the White book of Rhydderch, of which it has at times been supposed to be a copy. Both are now thought, however, to descend from a lost common ancestor or ancestors. The manuscript also contains a collection of herbal remedies associated with Rhiwallon Feddyg, founder of a medical dynasty that lasted over 500 years – 'The Physicians of Myddfai' from the village of Myddfai just outside Llandovery. Influence Some researchers believe that J. R. R. Tolkien borrowed the title for the Red Book of Westmarch, the imagined legendary source of Tolkien's tales. Proposed return to Wales The Red Book of Hergest has been cited as one of the important Welsh artefacts for return to Wales, from England. See also White Book of Hergest White Book of Rhydderch Notes Sources 'Red book of Hergest'. In Meic Stephens (Ed.) (1998), The new companion to the literature of Wales. Cardiff : University of Wales Press. . Thomas, Richard Biography of Thomas Wilkins, Welsh Biography Online (National Library of Wales) Further reading External links Red Book of Hergest, or Jesus College MS. 111. Full colour images available on Digital Bodleian. Catalogue record for Jesus College MS. 111 Mary Jones, Celtic Encyclopedia: Llyfr Coch Hergest (entry on manuscript) Mary