The Girls of Llanbadarn

An anonymous 19th century imaginary portrait of Dafydd ap Gwilym.

"The Girls of Llanbadarn", or "The Ladies of Llanbadarn" (Welsh: Merched Llanbadarn), is a short, wryly humorous poem ^[1] by the 14th-century Welsh poet Dafydd ap Gwilym, in which he mocks his own lack of success with the girls of his neighbourhood. Dafydd is widely seen as the greatest of the Welsh poets, ^{[2] [3] [4] [5]} and this is one of his best-known works. ^{[6] [7]} The poem cannot be precisely dated, but was perhaps written in the 1340s. ^[8]

Summary

Dafydd curses the women of his parish, lamenting his lack of success with them. He ponders what flaw exists in him or them that none will meet him in the woods. Comparing himself to Garwÿ, he admits to always being in love with some girl but never winning her heart. He confesses that every Sunday, he sits in church, turning his head away from the congregation to stare at some girl. Dafydd imagines such a woman gossiping about his appearance and character with her friends. The poet ultimately concludes that he must abandon these pursuits and live as a hermit, since despite his persistent ogling, he remains without a girl.

Commentary

Dafydd often refers to Llanbadarn in his poems, reflecting the fact that he was born at Brogynin, in the parish of Llanbadarn Fawr, and lived there for many years. ^[9] He shows his knowledge of Welsh legend with his reference to Garwy Hir, who was renowned as a lover, and whose daughter, Indeg, was herself loved by King Arthur. ^{[10] [11]} The line in which the poet is said to be "Pale and with his sister's hair" ^[12] are consistent with a third-hand description of Dafydd given in a 16th-century document: "tall and slender, with long curly yellow hair, full of silver clasps and rings". ^[13] It has been suggested that the first of Dafydd's two disparagers is the woman whom in many other poems he calls Morfudd, the object of his often rejected devotion. ^{[14] [15]}

Theme and analogues

The first few lines of the poem in Peniarth MS 54, a manuscript dating from c. 1480.

The poem's theme, Dafydd's habitual failure in love, is a very common one in his work. As the novelist and scholar Gwyn Jones wrote:

No lover in any language, and certainly no poet, has confessed to missing the mark more often than Dafydd ap Gwilym. Uncooperative husbands, quick-triggered alarms, crones and walls, strong locks, floods and fogs and bogs and dogs are for ever interposing themselves between him and golden-haired Morfudd, black-browed Dyddgu, or Gwen the infinitely fair. But a great trier, even in church. ^[16]

Parallels to Dafydd's amused and ironic reportage of his own inadequacies can be found in Chaucer's works, and elsewhere in medieval literature; also in the poems of Dafydd's avowed model Ovid. ^[17] But Dafydd is also, more seriously, pointing up the superficiality of the girls' criticism of his appearance as compared with an implied judgement of his true worth. ^[18]

Poetic art

In common with other Middle Welsh poems of the form called cywyddau "The Girls of Llanbadarn" follows complex rules of construction. It uses the system of alliteration and internal rhyme known as cynghanedd , except in the lines recording the comments of the two girls, where, in contrast with the rest of the poem, the diction is plain and conversational. ^[19] Sangiad, the breaking-up of the syntactical structure of the sentence, is used in most of the poem. The scholar Joseph Clancy illustrated this with a literal translation of the last lines, in which the second half of each line interrupts the narrative flow with the poet's commentary on it:

From too much looking, strange lesson,
Backwards, sight of weakness,
It happened to me, strong song's friend,
To bow my head without one companion. ^[20]

Influence

The 20th-century Welsh poet Raymond Garlick wrote a poem, "Llanbadarn Etc.", inspired by "The Girls of Llanbadarn" and addressed to a contemporary who, though displaying behaviour similar to that depicted in Dafydd ap Gwilym's poem, has

no words now to crown it with
or turn it to a cywydd. ^{[21] [22]}

English translations and paraphrases

• Bell, H. Idris, in Bell, H. Idris; Bell, David (1942). Fifty Poems. Y Cymmrodor, vol. 48. London: Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion. pp. 197, 199. Retrieved 2 July 2015. With the Middle Welsh original in parallel text.
• Bollard, John K., ed. (2019). Cymru Dafydd ap Gwilym/Dafydd ap Gwilym's Wales: Cerddi a Lleoedd/Poems and Places. Dyffryn Conwy: Gwasg Carreg Gwalch. pp. 52–53. ISBN   9781845277192 . Retrieved 15 February 2020. With the Middle Welsh original in parallel text.
• Bromwich, Rachel, ed. (1985) [1982]. Dafydd ap Gwilym: A Selection of Poems. Harmondsworth: Penguin. pp. 136, 138. ISBN   0140076131 . Retrieved 15 June 2015. With the Middle Welsh original in parallel text.
• Clancy, Joseph P. (1965). Medieval Welsh Lyrics. London: Macmillan. pp. 29–30. Retrieved 15 June 2015.
  • Rev. repr. in his The Poems of Dafydd ap Gwilym. Bath: Brown Dog. 2016. pp. 39–40. ISBN   9781785450891 . Retrieved 24 February 2020.
• Conran, Anthony; Williams, J. E. Caerwyn, eds. (1967). The Penguin Book of Welsh Verse. Harmondsworth: Penguin. pp. 141–142.
• Edwards, Huw Meirion. At "137 - Merched Llanbadarn". Gwaith Dafydd ap Gwilym. Welsh Department, Swansea University. Retrieved 21 June 2015. With the Middle Welsh original.
• Ford, Patrick K., ed. (1999). The Celtic Poets: Songs and Tales from Early Ireland and Wales. Belmont, Mass.: Ford & Bailie. pp. 292–293. ISBN   9780926689053 . Retrieved 21 November 2020.
• Green, Martin (1993). Homage to Dafydd ap Gwilym. Lewiston/Queenston/Lampeter: The Edwin Mellen Press. pp. 22–23. ISBN   0773493182.
• Gurney, Robert, ed. (1969). Bardic Heritage. London: Chatto & Windus. pp. 74–75. ISBN   0701113286 . Retrieved 15 June 2015.
• Heseltine, Nigel, ed. (1968) [1944]. Twenty-Five Poems by Dafydd ap Gwilym. Banbury: Piers Press. pp. 31–32.
• Humphreys, Nigel (2015). Edmunds, Catherine (ed.). The Love Song of Daphnis & Chloe and 5 Dafydd ap Gwilym Poems (c1320 to c1370). Hastings: Circaidy Gregory Press. pp. 128–129. ISBN   9781906451882 . Retrieved 15 February 2020.
• Humphries, Rolfe. "Dafydd ap Gwilym gives up on the girls from Llanbadarn". The Colorado Quarterly. 7 (1): 33–34. Summer 1958. Retrieved 17 June 2015.
  • Repr. in his Collected Poems. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. 1965. pp. 256–257. Retrieved 17 June 2015.
• Jackson, Kenneth Hurlstone, ed. (1971) [1951]. A Celtic Miscellany. Harmondsworth: Penguin. pp.  209–210. ISBN   0140442472.
• Jones, Glyn (1996). Stephens, Meic (ed.). The Collected Poems of Glyn Jones. Cardiff: University of Wales Press. pp. 225–226. ISBN   0708313884 . Retrieved 15 February 2020.
• Lofmark, Carl (1989). Bards and Heroes. Felinferch: Llanerch. pp. 97–98. ISBN   0947992340 . Retrieved 15 June 2015.
• Loomis, Richard Morgan, ed. (1982). Dafydd ap Gwilym: The Poems. Binghamton: Center for Medieval & Early Renaissance Studies. pp. 125–126. ISBN   0866980156 . Retrieved 21 June 2015.
  • Rev repr. in Loomis, Richard; Johnston, Dafydd (1992). Medieval Welsh Poems. Binghamton: Medieval & Renaissance Texts & Studies. pp. 64–66. ISBN   0866981020.
• Merchant, Paul (2006). Some Business of Affinity. Hereford: Five Seasons Press. pp. 111–112. ISBN   0947960392 . Retrieved 15 February 2020.
  • Rev. repr. in Unless She Beckons: Poems of Dafydd ap Gwilym. Translated by Merchant, Paul; Faletra, Michael. La Grande, Oregon: Redbat. 2018. pp. 25, 27. ISBN   9780997154993 . Retrieved 15 February 2020. With the Middle Welsh original in parallel text.
• Norris, Leslie (1996). Collected Poems. Bridgend: Seren. pp. 159–160. ISBN   1854111329.
• Thomas, Gwyn, ed. (2001). Dafydd ap Gwilym: His Poems. Cardiff: University of Wales Press. pp. 101–102. ISBN   0708316646 . Retrieved 17 June 2015.
• Walters, Bryan (1977). From the Welsh. Aberystwyth: Celtion. pp. 10, 12. ISBN   0860530086 . Retrieved 3 January 2021.
• Watson, Giles (2016). Rivals of Dafydd ap Gwilym: A Treasury of Fourteenth and Fifteenth Century Welsh Verse. npp: pp. pp. 8–9. ISBN   9781326900458 . Retrieved 15 February 2020.
• Webb, Harri (1995). Stephens, Meic (ed.). Collected Poems. Llandysul: Gomer. pp. 178–179. ISBN   1859022995 . Retrieved 21 November 2020.
• Williams, Gwyn, ed. (1956). The Burning Tree. London: Faber and Faber. pp. 93–95. Retrieved 16 June 2015.
• Wood, John (1997). The Gates of the Elect Kingdom. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press. pp. 40–41. ISBN   0877455813. Archived from the original on 29 June 2010. Retrieved 28 June 2021.

Notes

1. Bromwich 1974, p. 59.
2. Koch, John T. (2006). Celtic Culture: A Historical Encyclopedia. Volume 5. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO. p. 1770. ISBN   1851094407 . Retrieved 19 July 2015.
3. Bromwich, Rachel (1979). "Dafydd ap Gwilym". In Jarman, A. O. H.; Hughes, Gwilym Rees (eds.). A Guide to Welsh Literature. Volume 2. Swansea: Christopher Davies. p. 112. ISBN   0715404571 . Retrieved 18 July 2015.
4. Baswell, Christopher; Schotter, Anne Howland, eds. (2006). The Longman Anthology of British Literature. Volume 1A: The Middle Ages (3rd ed.). New York: Pearson Longman. p. 608. ISBN   0321333977.
5. Kinney, Phyllis (2011). Welsh Traditional Music. Cardiff: University of Wales Press. p. 6. ISBN   9780708323571 . Retrieved 18 July 2015.
6. Ruud, Jay (2000–2014). "Dafydd ap Gwilym". Encyclopedia of Medieval Literature. Retrieved 21 June 2015.
7. Conran, Anthony (1992). "The redhead on the castle wall: Dafydd ap Gwilym's "Yr Wylan" ("The Seagull")". Transactions of the Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion: 21. Retrieved 22 June 2015.
8. Lloyd, Thomas; Orbach, Julian; Scourfield, Robert (2006). The Buildings of Wales: Carmarthenshire and Ceredigion. New Haven: Yale University Press. p. 495. ISBN   0300101791 . Retrieved 21 June 2015.
9. Bromwich 1985, pp. xiii, 157.
10. Bromwich 1985, p. 158.
11. Bromwich, Rachel, ed. (1978) [1961]. Trioedd Ynys Prydein: The Welsh Triads. Cardiff: University of Wales Press. p. 354. ISBN   070830690X.
12. Jones 1977, p. 38.
13. Gurney, Robert, ed. (1969). Bardic Heritage. London: Chatto & Windus. p. 76. ISBN   0701113286 . Retrieved 21 June 2015.
14. Bromwich 1974, pp. 36–48, 59.
15. Bowen, D. J. (1982). "Cywydd Dafydd ap Gwilym i ferched Llanbadarn a'i gefndir". Ysgrifau Beirniadol. 12: 78–79.
16. Jones 1977, p. 289.
17. Bromwich 1974, pp. 2, 59.
18. Fulton, Helen (1989). Dafydd ap Gwilym and the European Context. Cardiff: University of Wales Press. p. 196. ISBN   0708310303 . Retrieved 21 June 2015.
19. Parry, Thomas (Spring 1973). "Dafydd ap Gwilym's poetic craft". Poetry Wales. 8 (4): 38. Retrieved 4 July 2015.
20. Clancy, Joseph P. (1965). Medieval Welsh Lyrics. London: Macmillan. p. 11. Retrieved 4 July 2015.
21. Dale-Jones, Don (1996). Raymond Garlick. Cardiff: University of Wales Press. p. 74. ISBN   0708313221 . Retrieved 18 February 2020.
22. Garlick, Raymond (Spring 1973). "Llanbadarn etc". Poetry Wales. 8 (4): 79–80. Retrieved 18 February 2020.

References

• Bromwich, Rachel (1974). Dafydd ap Gwilym. Cardiff: University of Wales Press. ISBN   0708305725.
• Bromwich, Rachel, ed. (1985) [1982]. Dafydd ap Gwilym: A Selection of Poems. Harmondsworth: Penguin. ISBN   0140076131.
• Jones, Gwyn, ed. (1977). The Oxford Book of Welsh Verse in English. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN   0192118587.

External links

• Full text in Middle Welsh at Welsh Wikisource
• The Joseph Clancy translation
• The Kenneth Hurlstone Jackson translation.