Welsh poetry refers to poetry of the Welsh people or nation. This includes poetry written in Welsh, poetry written in English by Welsh or Wales-based poets, poetry written in Wales in other languages or poetry by Welsh poets around the world.
Wales has one of the earliest literary traditions in Northern Europe, stretching back to the days of Aneirin (fl. 550) and Taliesin (second half of the 6th century), and the haunting Stafell Cynddylan, which is the oldest recorded literary work by a woman in northern Europe.[ citation needed ]
The 9th-century Canu Llywarch Hen and Canu Heledd are both associated with the earlier prince Llywarch Hen.
Welsh poetry is connected directly to the bardic tradition, and is historically divided into four periods. [1] The first period, before 1100, is known as the period of Y Cynfeirdd ("The earliest poets") or Yr Hengerdd ("The old poetry"). It roughly dates from the emergence of the Welsh language from Common Brittonic in the sixth century to the arrival of the Normans in Wales towards 1100. The second period, the period of the "Poets of the Princes" (Beirdd y Tywysogion, also called Y Gogynfeirdd), lasted from about 1100 until 1350, or until 1282, the date of the overthrow of Llywelyn. The final classical period of Welsh poetry, referred to as the period of the Poets of the Nobility (Beirdd yr Uchelwyr) or simply Cywyddwyr, lasted from 1350 to 1600. These included Dafydd ap Gwilym and Iolo Goch, and they produced many cywyddau. There was a lull in the production of poetry after the union with England in the 16th century. The year 1600 is generally taken to mark the beginning of modern Welsh poetry.
Throughout this time, serving as a bard was one of the few ways that one might better oneself socially, by becoming either a chief poet or a household poet. [1] Both of these categories of bards could achieve status through a grading system, with the lowest being a minstrel (who was technically an ungraded bard), the lowest graded status of a disciple, a graduated disciple of poetry, a disciplined disciple, a disciple of chief-poet-craft, and finally a chief poet. [2]
The earliest poem in English by a Welsh poet dates from about 1470. More recently, Anglo-Welsh poetry has become an important aspect of Welsh literary culture, as well as influencing English literature.
The works of the great hymn writers of the 18th and 19th centuries are also poetic: in particular William Williams Pantycelyn and Ann Griffiths. Around 1900, there was a renaissance with poets such as T. Gwynn Jones. Other notable writers were T. H. Parry-Williams and D. Gwenallt Jones; and around 1950 others such as Waldo Williams. Many poets in the late 20th century produced work of a high standard, many of them in cynghanedd.
Welsh poets often write under bardic names to conceal their identity in Eisteddfod competitions.
Dafydd ap Gwilym is regarded as one of the leading Welsh poets and amongst the great poets of Europe in the Middle Ages.
Aneirin, Aneurin or Neirin was an early Medieval Brythonic war poet who lived during the 6th century. 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, he was usually known as Aneurin.
In Welsh culture, an eisteddfod is an institution and festival with several ranked competitions, including in poetry and music. The term eisteddfod, which is formed from the Welsh morphemes: eistedd, meaning 'sit', and fod, meaning 'be', means, according to Hywel Teifi Edwards, "sitting-together." Edwards further defines the earliest form of the eisteddfod as a competitive meeting between bards and minstrels, in which the winner was chosen by a noble or royal patron.
The Red Book of Hergest, Oxford, Jesus College, MS 111, is a large vellum manuscript written shortly after 1382, which ranks as one of the most important medieval manuscripts written in the Welsh language. It preserves a collection of Welsh prose and poetry, notably the tales of the Mabinogion and Gogynfeirdd poetry. The manuscript derives its name from the colour of its leather binding and from its association with Hergest Court between the late 15th and early 17th century.
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".
Y Gododdin is a medieval Welsh poem consisting of a series of elegies to the men of the Brittonic kingdom of Gododdin and its allies who, according to the conventional interpretation, died fighting the Angles of Deira and Bernicia at a place named Catraeth in about AD 600. It is traditionally ascribed to the bard Aneirin and survives only in one manuscript, the "Book of Aneirin".
Medieval Welsh literature is the literature written in the Welsh language during the Middle Ages. This includes material starting from the 5th century AD, when Welsh was in the process of becoming distinct from Common Brittonic, and continuing to the works of the 16th century.
Robert Geraint Gruffydd FLSW FBA was a scholar of Welsh language and literature. From 1970 to 1979, he was Professor of Welsh Language and Literature at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth, and was made Emeritus Professor in 1993.
Awen is a Welsh, Cornish and Breton word for "inspiration".
Sir Ifor Williams, was a Welsh scholar who laid the foundations for the academic study of Old Welsh, particularly early Welsh poetry.
Llywarch Hen, was a prince and poet of the Brythonic kingdom of Rheged, a ruling family in the Hen Ogledd or "Old North" of Britain. Along with Taliesin, Aneirin, and Myrddin, he is held to be one of the four great bards of early Welsh poetry. Whether he actually wrote the poems attributed to him is unknown, and most of what is known about his life is derived from early medieval poems which may or may not be historically accurate.
Dafydd ap Edmwnd was one of the most prominent Welsh language poets of the Later Middle Ages.
Madog ap Gwallter was a medieval Welsh language poet.
Welsh-language literature has been produced continuously since the emergence of Welsh from Brythonic as a distinct language in around the 5th century AD. The earliest Welsh literature was poetry, which was extremely intricate in form from its earliest known examples, a tradition sustained today. Poetry was followed by the first British prose literature in the 11th century. Welsh-language literature has repeatedly played a major part in the self-assertion of Wales and its people. It continues to be held in the highest regard, as evidenced by the size and enthusiasm of the audiences attending the annual National Eisteddfod of Wales, probably the largest amateur arts festival in Europe, which crowns the literary prize winners in a dignified ceremony.
Culture and Society in Gwynedd during the High Middle Ages refers to a period in the History of Wales spanning the 11th, 12th, and 13th centuries. The High Middle Ages were preceded by the Early Middle Ages and followed by the Late Middle Ages. Gwynedd is located in the north of Wales.
Canu Llywarch Hen are a collection of early Welsh englyn-poems. They comprise the most famous of the early Welsh cycles of englynion about heroes of post-Roman North Britain.
Evan Evans, was a Welsh clergyman, poet, hymnwriter, journalist, translator and devotional writer, who was three times chaired at the National Eisteddfod. His works were almost all written in the Welsh language, the poems being published under his bardic name, Ieuan Glan Geirionydd. Seven of his poems are included in The Oxford Book of Welsh Verse. His best-known poems are perhaps Ysgoldy Rhad Llanrwst, Glan Geirionydd and Cyflafan Morfa Rhuddlan, and his hymns include Rwy'n sefyll ar dymhestlog lan and Mae 'nghyfeillion adre'n myned.
"The Snow" is a 14th- or 15th-century Welsh-language poem in the form of a cywydd evoking a landscape which, to the poet's chagrin, is covered with snow. It has been described as an imaginative tour de force. Manuscripts of the poem mostly attribute it to Dafydd ap Gwilym, widely seen as the greatest of the Welsh poets, though some name Dafydd ab Edmwnd or Ieuan ap Rhys ap Llywelyn as the author. Modern literary historians have differed as to whether it is indeed by Dafydd ap Gwilym, but the two most recent editions of his poems have rejected it. The poem has nevertheless remained popular with translators and it continues to appear in anthologies, including Thomas Parry's own Oxford Book of Welsh Verse and Gwyn Jones's Oxford Book of Welsh Verse in English.
"Gorhoffedd Hywel ab Owain Gwynedd", sometimes known in English as "Hywel's Boast", has historically been considered a poem by the mid-12th-century prince, warrior and poet Hywel ab Owain Gwynedd. However, some scholars now believe it to be two quite separate poems by Hywel which have become fused together in the process of manuscript transmission. It is his best-known work. In the first half the poet expresses his love of his native Gwynedd – its scenery, its men and women – and boasts of his own prowess in defending them; in the second he praises several Welsh ladies and tells us how many of them are sexual conquests of his. According to the writer Gwyn Williams, "The sharpness and clarity of the North Wales landscape has never been so well caught in words, nor have tenderness and humour been better mingled in the expression of love".
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