Much debate has been focused on the dating of the Four Branches of the Mabinogi. Ifor Williams offered a date prior to 1100, based on linguistic and historical arguments,Andrew Breeze, The Origins of the Four Branches of the Mabinogion (Leominster 2009), p. 69. while later Saunders Lewis set forth a number of arguments for a date between 1170 and 1190; Thomas Charles-Edwards, in a paper published in 1970, discussed the strengths and weaknesses of both viewpoints, and while critical of the arguments of both scholars, noted that the language of the stories best fits the 11th century, (specifically 1050–1120),Andrew Breeze, The Origins of the Four Branches of the Mabinogion (Leominster 2009), p. 72. although much more work is needed. In 1991, Patrick Sims-Williams argued for a plausible range of about 1060 to 1200, which seems to be the current scholarly consensus (fitting all the previously suggested date ranges).Sims-Williams, Patrick, 'The Submission of Irish Kings in Fact and Fiction: Henry II, Bendigeidfran, and the dating of the Four Branches of the Mabinogi', Cambridge Medieval Celtic Studies, 22 (Winter 1991), 31–61.
