The Coelbren y Beirdd (English: "Bards' lot") is a script created in the late eighteenth century by the Welsh antiquarian and literary forger Edward Williams, best known as Iolo Morganwg. [1]
The script, an alphabet compared to that of Ancient Greek by Welsh writer Jane Williams, consisted of forty letters- twenty base letters, and a further twenty devoted to long vowels and consonant mutations. It could be carved on four-sided pieces of wood and fitted into a frame called a "peithynen". [1] [2] Morganwg presented wooden druidic alphabets to friends and notables, and succeeded in persuading many of its authenticity.
A Welsh Bardic and Druidic essay, written by his son Taliesin Williams and published as a pamphlet in 1840, defended the authenticity of the alphabet and won the Abergavenny Eisteddfod in 1838. [3] [4]
Taliesin Williams's book was written about other Coelbrennau'r Beirdd, which is the name of a Welsh language manuscript in the Iolo Manuscripts and two manuscripts in Barddas, one with the subtitle "yn dorredig a chyllell". Iolo Morganwg suggested they were originally the work of bards from Glamorgan who had their manuscripts copied into collections stored at Plas y Fan, Neath Abbey, Margam Abbey and Raglan Library, and compiled by Meurig Dafydd and Lewys Morgannwg, amongst others, in the 1700s. These were suggested to have again been transcribed by Edward Dafydd, John Bradford and Llywelyn Siôn. Morganwg suggested that he had collected some of Siôn and Bradford's manuscripts, while the majority, including all of Lewys Morgannwg's sources, were lost. This claim to authenticity has been questioned by numerous scholars such as Glyn Cothi Lewis. [5] [6] [7] [8]
Table of letters in Celtic Researches (1804) by Edward Davies (1756–1831):
Archdruid is the title used by the presiding official of the Gorsedd. The Archdruid presides over the most important ceremonies at the National Eisteddfod of Wales including the Crowning of the Bard, the award of the Prose Medal and the Chairing of the Bard. Although Iolo Morganwg was the first to preside over the Gorsedd when the National Eisteddfod came into being, his successor David Griffith, under the bardic name "Clwydfardd", was the first to be known by the official title "Archdruid".
Edward Williams, better known by his bardic name Iolo Morganwg, was a Welsh antiquarian, poet and collector. He was seen as an expert collector of Medieval Welsh literature, but it emerged after his death that he had forged several manuscripts, notably some of the Third Series of Welsh Triads. Even so, he had a lasting impact on Welsh culture, notably in founding the secret society known as the Gorsedd, through which Iolo Morganwg successfully co-opted the 18th-century Eisteddfod revival. The philosophy he spread in his forgeries has had an enormous impact upon neo-Druidism. His bardic name is Welsh for "Iolo of Glamorgan".
The Oxford Book of Welsh Verse in English is a 1977 poetry anthology edited by the author and academic Gwyn Jones. It covers both Welsh language poetry in English translation and poetry written in English by Welsh poets.
Awen is a Welsh, Cornish and Breton word for "inspiration".
Lewys Glyn Cothi, also known as Llywelyn y Glyn, was a prominent 15th-century Welsh poet who composed numerous poems in the Welsh language. He is one of the most important representatives of the Beirdd yr Uchelwyr or Cywyddwyr ("cywydd-men"), the itinerant professional poets of the period between the 1284 Statute of Rhuddlan and c. 1600.
Thomas Stephens was a Welsh historian, literary critic, and social reformer. His works include The Literature of the Kymry (1849,1876), Madoc: An Essay on the Discovery of America by Madoc ap Owen Gwynedd in the Twelfth Century (1858,1893), and Orgraff yr Iaith Gymraeg (1859), as well as a number of prize-winning essays presented at eisteddfodau between 1840 and 1858. He was the first Welsh historian and literary critic to employ rigorous scientific methods, and is considered to have done more to raise the standards of the National Eisteddfod than any other Welshman of his time. Stephens also figured prominently in efforts to implement social, educational and sanitary reforms both locally in Merthyr Tydfil and more broadly throughout Wales.
Dafydd ab Edmwnd was one of the most prominent Welsh language poets of the Later Middle Ages.
Côr Tewdws or Bangor Tewdws is a fictional Romano-British ecclesiastical college that in the 18th and 19th centuries was understood to have been the predecessor of the historically attested 6th century College and Abbey of Saint Illtud at what is now Llantwit Major in Glamorgan in Wales. The supposed Roman college is believed to have been invented by the historian of ill-repute, Edward Williams, more generally known as Iolo Morganwg.
Druidic alphabets are supposedly ancient writing systems believed by some neopagans to stem from the pagan culture of the Druids. One, the Coelbren y Beirdd was created in the late eighteenth century by the literary forger Edward Williams, best known as Iolo Morganwg.
David Griffith, known by the bardic name of Clwydfardd, was a Welsh poet and Archdruid of the National Eisteddfod of Wales.
Taliesin Williams was a Welsh poet and author, and son of the notable Iolo Morganwg.
Raglan Library was a library located in Raglan Castle in the county of Monmouthshire in south east Wales.
Barddas is a book of material compiled and written by the Welsh writer Iolo Morganwg. Dressed as an authentic compilation of ancient Welsh bardic and druidic theology and lore. It was posthumously published by John Williams for the Welsh Manuscripts Society in two volumes, in 1862 and 1874.
The Brandenburg stone is an inscribed stone slab found in Brandenburg, Kentucky, United States in 1912, on the farm of Craig Crecelius. The stone contains a strip of linear markings that resemble letters of a script. Crecelius exhibited the stone several times, but was unable to find anyone who could identify the markings.
Peniarth 109 is a Welsh manuscript dating to the second half of the 15th century in the hand of the poet Lewis Glyn Cothi. It is part of the Peniarth Manuscripts collection at the National Library of Wales.
Meurig Dafydd was a Welsh bard, genealogist and historian, at one time one of the leading literary figures in Glamorgan. However, his poetry was formal and uninspired.
Edward Dafydd, also known as Edward David, was a 17th-century Welsh poet from Margam, Glamorganshire.
Gorsedd Cymru, or simply the Gorsedd, is a society of Welsh-language poets, writers, musicians and others who have contributed to the Welsh language and to public life in Wales. Its aim is to honour such individuals and help develop and promote their fields in addition to maintaining relationships with other Celtic nations and Y Wladfa in Patagonia. The Gorsedd is most prominent at the National Eisteddfod of Wales where it is responsible for the main ceremonies held.
The Oxford Book of Welsh Verse (1962), edited by Thomas Parry, is an anthology of Welsh-language poetry stretching from Aneirin in the 6th century to Bobi Jones in the 20th. No translations of the poems are provided, but the introduction and notes are in English. It was the first anthology to give the reader a thorough idea of Welsh poetry in its entirety through 1400 years, containing as it does 370 poems, of which 59 cannot be securely attributed while the rest are the work of 146 named poets. It went through eight editions in its first 21 years, and was supplemented in 1977 by the publication of Gwyn Jones's Oxford Book of Welsh Verse in English.