interests as an author were by no means exclusively Celtic. Indeed, even when 
composmg the ltinerarium Kambriae he had already begun writing a major political 
work, the De Principis Instructione, focused primarily on the reign of King Henry II, 
as well as the Speculum Ecclesiae, a wide-ranging critique of the Church and es¬ 
pecially the religious orders, both of which were finally completed only in retirement 
in Lincoln (in c. 1217 and c. 1220 respectively).88 The diversity of his literary output 
reflects his ability to encompass the two worlds represented by Wales and England. 
Indeed, his adoption of the role of author and scholar can be seen, to a significant 
degree, as a creative response to the difficulties he encountered in crossing the 
boundaries between those worlds. Sensitive to the conflicts inherent in Anglo-Welsh 
relationships, Giraldus’s own life is a remarkable testimony to one individual’s 
attempt to transcend ethnic and cultural borders in medieval Europe. 
88 Giraldus, Opera 6 pp. 47, 53; Bartlett (as n. 6) pp. 219-20. 
60