Tudur Penllyn

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Tudur Penllyn (fl. c. 1420 1490) was a Welsh language poet during the time of the Beirdd yr Uchelwyr, the professional poets of the late Middle Ages.

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Tudur's place of birth is uncertain, but he was probably brought up in the Hundred of Penllyn, centred on Llandderfel, Merioneth (Penllyn is a pen-name or bardic name rather than a surname: his full name under the Welsh patronymic system was Tudur ap Ieuan ap Iorwerth Foel). Little is known of his background although he did trace his ancestry from Meirion Goch, a nobleman of Edeirnion, and was of the minor gentry class. [1] As an adult he lived in the parish of Llanuwchllyn at Caer-Gai, where the manor house he occupied still exists as a farm. [2]

Sheep on the slopes beneath Caer-Gai, where Tudur Penllyn farmed. Tudur worked as a drover, trading the wool of his flocks in English markets. Boundary between two fields. - geograph.org.uk - 139620.jpg
Sheep on the slopes beneath Caer-Gai, where Tudur Penllyn farmed. Tudur worked as a drover, trading the wool of his flocks in English markets.

Tudur lived through the Wars of the Roses, in which his patrons (notably Rheinallt ap Gruffudd of Mold, also a patron of Lewys Glyn Cothi, and Dafydd Siencyn, a supporter of Jasper Tudor) mainly adhered to the Lancastrian party. As well as travelling throughout Wales as a poet, Tudur seems to have worked as a drover, grazier, and trader in wool. His fellow poet Guto'r Glyn chided him in humorous verse after he failed to assist Guto in a disastrous droving venture (he also gives a clue to Tudur's personal appearance, describing him as long-haired in comparison to Guto's own baldness). [3]

Tudur Penllyn's surviving poems illustrate a range of themes: poems in praise of noblemen who fought against the English; religious poems, including penitential poems and poems in praise of holy places; and meditations on life and suffering. However he would also take on humorous or amorous themes as the occasion arose: one cywydd attributed to him is written in alternate Welsh and English sections, and depicts the poet attempting to seduce an unwilling Englishwoman, exploiting their mutual incomprehension for comic effect. [4]

Tudur was married to Gwerful Fychan (Gwerful ferch Ieuan Fychan ap Ieuan ap Hywel y Gadair ap Gruffudd ap Madog ap Rhirid Flaidd, not be confused with Gwerful Mechain), who was herself a poet. Their son, Ieuan ap Tudur Penllyn, also became a poet.

See also

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References

  1. Tudur Penllyn, Dictionary of Welsh Biography
  2. Caer Gai, Gwynedd Archaeological Trust
  3. Rees, E. A life of Guto'r Glyn, Y Lolfa, 2008, p.105
  4. Smith, Llinos, "The Welsh and English Languages in Late-Medieval Wales" in Trotter, D. A. (ed). Multilingualism in later medieval Britain, Boydell & Brewer, 2000, p.7