Talhaearn Tad Awen

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Talhaearn Tad Awen (fl mid-6th century), was, according to medieval Welsh sources, a celebrated British poet of the sub-Roman period. He ranks as one of the earliest, if not the earliest, named poets to have composed and performed in Welsh. The better known poets Aneirin and Taliesin, who may have been slightly younger contemporaries, also belong to this early generation, the first of those known to modern scholars as the Cynfeirdd ("first poets"). [1] Whereas medieval Welsh manuscripts preserve verse composed by or otherwise ascribed to the latter two figures, no such work survives for Talhaearn and in fact, his former fame seems to have largely vanished by the later Middle Ages. [1]

Sub-Roman Britain

Sub-Roman Britain refers to the period in Late Antiquity in Great Britain, covering the end of Roman rule in the late 4th and early 5th centuries, and its aftermath into the 6th century. The term "sub-Roman" was originally used to describe archaeological remains such as potsherds found in sites of the 5th and 6th centuries, and hinted at the decay of locally-made wares from a previous higher standard that had existed under the Roman Empire. It is now more often used to denote this period of history instead. The term Post-Roman Britain is also used, mainly in non-archaeological contexts.

Welsh language Brythonic language spoken natively in Wales

Welsh or y Gymraeg is a member of the Brittonic branch of the Celtic languages. It is spoken natively in Wales, by some in England, and in Y Wladfa. Historically, it has also been known in English as "Cambrian", "Cambric" and "Cymric".

Aneirin[aˈnɛirɪn] or Neirin was an early Medieval Brythonic poet. He is believed to have been a bard or court poet in one of the Cumbric kingdoms of the Hen Ogledd, probably that of Gododdin at Edinburgh, in modern Scotland. From the 17th century, his name was often incorrectly spelled "Aneurin".

Contents

Historia Brittonum

An interpolated passage in the Historia Brittonum (9th century) describes him as a famous poet, along with Aneirin, Taliesin and two lesser known figures, Blwchfardd and Cian:

The History of the Britons is a purported history of the indigenous British (Brittonic) people that was written around 828 and survives in numerous recensions that date from after the 11th century.

Tunc Talhaern Tat Aguen in poemate claruit, et Neirin, et Taliessin, et Bluchbard, et Cian qui vocatur Gue[ni]th Guaut, simul uno tempore in poemate Brittanico claruerunt. [2]
"Then Talhaearn Tad Awen (MS. Talhaern Tataguen) was renowned in poetry, and Neirin and Taliessin and Bluchbard and Cian, who is called Gueinth Guaut, together at the same time were renowned in British poetry." [1]

The epithet Tataguen or the later form Tad Awen means "father of the Muse" or "father of (poetic) inspiration", [1] and his first name, which has in common with Taliesin the first element tal ("brow, forehead"), translates as "Iron-brow". [2] The context of the passage seems to link these five poets to the middle of the 6th century, when an otherwise unknown chieftain called Eudeyrn (MS. [O]utigirn) fought against the English, notably Ida, king of Bernicia, and when Maelgwn ruled the kingdom of Gwynedd. [2] Talhaearn's honorific nickname and the place accorded to him in the enumeration of British poets may indicate that he was regarded as the "father" of early Welsh poetry, [1] possibly preceding the others by a short period. [2]

Ida of Bernicia King of the Anglian kingdom of Bernicia

Ida is the first known king of the Anglian kingdom of Bernicia, which he ruled from around 547 until his death in 559. Little is known of his life or reign, but he was regarded as the founder of a line from which later Anglo-Saxon kings in this part of northern England and southern Scotland claimed descent. His descendants overcame Brittonic resistance and ultimately founded the powerful kingdom of Northumbria.

Maelgwn Gwynedd was king of Gwynedd during the early 6th century. Surviving records suggest he held a pre-eminent position among the Brythonic kings in Wales and their allies in the "Old North" along the Scottish coast. Maelgwn was a generous supporter of Christianity, funding the foundation of churches throughout Wales and even far beyond the bounds of his own kingdom. Nonetheless, his principal legacy today is the scathing account of his behavior recorded in De excidio et conquestu Britanniae by Gildas, who considered Maelgwn a usurper and reprobate. The son of Cadwallon Lawhir and great grandson of Cunedda, Maelgwn was buried on Ynys Seiriol, off the eastern tip of Anglesey, having died of the "yellow plague"; quite probably the arrival of Justinian's Plague in Britain.

Allusions in Middle Welsh poetry

The figure of Talhaearn makes brief side-appearances in several later, Middle Welsh texts. In the Welsh Triads , nos. 33 and 34, his patron appears to be same chieftain who killed Aneirin. The first of these, Triad 33, holds one Heidyn son of Enygan or Heiden son of Efengad, possibly a ruler of the "Old North", [3] responsible for a fatal hatchet-blow on Aneirin's head. [4] [5] In the version of this triad found in the White Book of Rhydderch, Heiden is identified as "the man who used to give a hundred kine every Saturday in a bath-tub to Talhaearn". [6] The precise nature of these rewards remains unclear; can muv may, for instance, be a scribal error for can mu, a unit of value described elsewhere. [7] In any event, the probability is that Heiden was Talhaearn's patron [8] and it is possible therefore that the passage alludes a lost story about rivalry between the two great poets. [9] Listing the "Three Unfortunate Hatchet-Blows" of Britain, Triad 34 also alludes to the anecdote (though using the variant name Eidyn), but only one late manuscript version of the triad mentions Talhaearn. [10]

Middle Welsh is the label attached to the Welsh language of the 12th to 15th centuries, of which much more remains than for any earlier period. This form of Welsh developed from Old Welsh.

Welsh Triads group of related texts in medieval manuscripts

The Welsh Triads are a group of related texts in medieval manuscripts which preserve fragments of Welsh folklore, mythology and traditional history in groups of three. The triad is a rhetorical form whereby objects are grouped together in threes, with a heading indicating the point of likeness; for example, "Three things not easily restrained, the flow of a torrent, the flight of an arrow, and the tongue of a fool."

Hen Ogledd area of northern Britain between c. 500 and c. 800

Yr Hen Ogledd, in English the Old North, is the region of Northern England and the southern Scottish Lowlands inhabited by the Celtic Britons of sub-Roman Britain in the Early Middle Ages. Its denizens spoke a variety of the Brittonic language known as Cumbric. The Hen Ogledd was distinct from the parts of northern Britain inhabited by the Picts, Anglo-Saxons, and Scoti as well as from Wales, although the people of the Hen Ogledd were the same Brittonic stock as the Picts, Welsh and Cornish, and the region loomed large in Welsh literature and tradition for centuries after its kingdoms had disappeared.

Further mention of Talhaearn is made in a difficult Middle Welsh poem entitled Angar Kyfyndawt, which is singly preserved in the Book of Taliesin. Taliesin is staged here as the first- and third-person speaker of the poem, who presents himself as a skilled and inspired poet. In passing, he is made to refer, once to Cian and twice to Talhaearn. [11] Talhaearn is praised as the "greatest of the wise men" (mwyhaf y sywedyd), [9] a reputation which is hinted at some lines earlier. The edition and the translation attempted by Sarah Lynn Higley runs as follows:

Book of Taliesin manuscript

The Book of Taliesin is one of the most famous of Middle Welsh manuscripts, dating from the first half of the 14th century though many of the fifty-six poems it preserves are taken to originate in the 10th century or before.

kerdwn duw yssyd
trwy ieith talhayarn.
bedyd budyd varn.
Avarnwys teithi
angerd vardoni.

It is God's minstrel [kerdwn emended to kerdwr "singer, musician"],
through the language of Talhaearn, [cf. trwy ieith taliessin "through the language of Taliesin", line 7]
the baptism of the diviner of judgment,
who judged the qualities
of the gift of poetry. [1]

  1. ^ Angar Kyfyndawt, ed. and tr. Higley, lines 68–72.

See also

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Lewis, "The historical Background of Early Welsh Verse", p. 31.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Koch, "Five Poets, Memorandum of the"
  3. ↑ Bromwich, Trioedd Ynys Prydein, p. 74.
  4. ↑ Trioedd Ynys Prydein, ed. and tr. Bromwich, Triad 33 and 33W.
  5. ↑ In Triad 33W, Aneirin is called a daughter of Teyrnbeirdd (merch teyrnbeirdd), but to judge by the shorter version of the triad in Peniarth 51, this is evidently a corruption of mechdeyrn beirdd "overlord of bards". Bromwich, Trioedd Ynys Prydein, p. 72; Ford, "Death of Aneirin", p. 45.
  6. ↑ 'y gvr a rodei gan muv pob Sadarn yg kervyn eneint yn Talhaearn'. Trioedd Ynys Prydein, ed. and tr. Bromwich, Triad 33W.
  7. ↑ Bromwich, Trioedd Ynys Prydein, p. 73
  8. ↑ Ford, "Death of Aneirin", p. 45.
  9. 1 2 Bromwich, Trioedd Ynys Prydein, p. 509.
  10. ↑ Trioedd Ynys Prydein, ed. Bromwich, Triad 34 (C 18).
  11. ↑ Angar Kyfyndawt, ed. J. Gwenogvryn Evans, 19.4 (Cian), 20.4 (ieith Talhayarn), 21.16-7 (Talhayarn yssyd mwyhaf ysywedyd).

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