University of Wales, Aberystwyth

Caerwyn Williams, who has died aged 87, was the greatest Celtic scholar of our times. "The Grand Old Man" of Welsh letters mastered all the Celtic languages and became the undisputed master of that notorious academic minefield - the poetry of the Gogynfeirdd (the poets of the Welsh princes). He read widely in the history of ideas, comparative literature, modern literary theory, theology and biblical studies. He could speak and write with authority and assurance on authors as diverse as Dietrich Bonhoeffer, TS Eliot, Meilyr Brydydd, Nietzsche, Lévi-Strauss and Wittgenstein.