This thesis explores three issues in the prose Gereint vab Erbin to argue that the text has roots in the culture, politics, and rhetoric of the Welsh narrative tradition. The text is placed in its Welsh contexts, historical and literary, and interpretations are considered. Without reference to the French "romance” tradition, a purposeful “native tale” can be discerned. There are three substantive chapters, which address the following: an examination of the deployment of the rhetorical figure of rhethreg; an exposure of the persistent use of the issue of advice in the narrative; a consideration of the problem of the anger of Gereint.

It contains a total of five chapters: an introduction, including a survey of relevant scholarship; a chapter on the rhetorical figure of rhethreg in Gereint and compares it to Breudwyt Rhonabwy (the other Welsh prose narrative that engages a significant percentage of the rhetorical figure); a chapter on advice in the tale in question; a chapter on the anger of Gereint; a conclusion. In the chapters concerning advice and anger, there is a chronological explication de texte that exposes the persistent, purposeful, and intertwined uses of the three issues addressed in the present work. There are two appendices which compare the distribution of rhethreg across Gereint vab Erbin and Breudwyt Rhonabwy.