The Court Poet in Medieval Wales 0773486348, 9780773486348

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The Court Poet Medieval Wales An Essay

The Court Poet

Medieval Wales An Essay

J.E. Caerwyn Williams

Welsh Studies Volume 14

The Edwin Mellen Press

Lewiston •Queenston • Lampeter

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This book has been registered with the Library of Congress.

This si volume 14 in the continuing series

Welsh Studies Volume 14 ISBN 0-7734-8634-8 WeS Series ISBN 0-88946-479-0

ACIP catalog record for this book si available from the British Library. Copyright © 1997 The Edwin Mellen Press All rights reserved. For information contact

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Contents

CYNFEIRDD AND GOGYNFEIRDD I; THE CYNFEIRDD 2; ORAL POETRY ;8 F POETRY 10; ORAL COMPOSITION I2; INSPIRATION 16; TRANSMISSION O

F LITERACY 18; THE INFLUENCE O F THE CHURCH 20; THE QUESTION O WELSH CENTRES OF LEARNING 24; IRISH INFLUENCE? 27; THE TWELFTH-CENTURY RENAISSANCE 34; LATIN COMPOSITIONS 38; PROSE WORKS N I THE VERNACULAR 4I; THE POETS IN T H E LAW-TEXTS 51;

THE LITERATE CLASSES 58; MANUSCRIPTS AND THEIR PROVENANCE 6I; THE BARDIC PROFESSION 67; VENEDOTIAN PATRONS 70; CONSERVATIVE FEATURES O F THE WELSH BARDS 73; INDO-EUROPEAN ANALOGUES 78;

MEILYR BRYDYDD 86; PROPHECY 88; DEATH-BED SONG 90; THE

MEMORIAL ODE AND EULOGY 92; EINION OFFERIAD 100; PRYDYDD /

PENCERDD 102; GWALCHMAI 108; GENEALOGY 110; RELIGIOUS ODES I15; GORHOFFEDDA 122; NATURE PROLOGUES 128; POEMS TO WOMEN 129; CYNDDELW BRYDYDD MAWR 140; OWAIN CYFEILIOG

' RYDYDD YMOCH' P LLYWELYN P 164; DADOLWCH I67; LLYWARCH A E H 170; CERDDI BYGWTH 17I; METRES 173; STYLE 189; APPENDIX: T

POETS AND THEIR PATRONS 207; ABBREVIATIONS 215; A SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY 219; INDEX TO PERSONAL NAMES 225

Acknowledgements This essay was written some years ago as a revised version of my

The Poets of the Welsh Princes (1978), but even without any notes

and references, ti was far too long for the 'Writers of Wales' series

. Brinley Jones. However, edited by Mr Meic Stephens and Dr R

Dr N.G. Costigan, a former student of mine, undertook to type a

disc-copy, and Dr Ann Parry Owen, a student of another former

student, was kind enough to make a camera-ready copy. Without

their labours, the essay would not have been published. It was written before Cyfres Beirdd y Tywysogion ('The Poets of the Welsh

Princes Series'), seven volumes under the general editorship of Professor R . Geraint Gruffydd, F.B.A., began to be published. That is why the references to the poems are generally to the one-

volume Llawysgrif Hendregadredd (1933, 1971), but as the seven

volumes have now been published, references to them have been added. Professor Gruffydd has read the essay and has removed some of its errors. For those that remain, I am solely responsible.

My debt to Professor Gruffydd, Dr Costigan and especially to Di Parry Owen is immense. I should add that I am still indebted to those who helped me in the preparation of the original The Poets

of the Welsh Princes (1978, 1994) as many of its topics are here reexamined, and that I have had permission to draw on the work of the same translators: .J Lloyd-Jones (The Court Poets of the Welsh

Princes, 1948), Anthony Conran (The Penguin Book of Welsh Verse, 1967, 3rd edition published under h te title Welsh Verse: Translations by Seren Books, 1992) and Joseph P. Clancy (The

Earliest Welsh Poetry, Macmillan, 1970).

T H E C O U RT POET IN MEDIEVAL WA L E S

'The struggle for independence which absorbed the energies of the Welsh ni the middle of the twelfth century had', according to J.E. Lloyd, 'one result which is often found to follow ni the wake of a great patriotic movement—it led to a literary revival. The leaders

of that struggle were, of course, the Welsh princes, and to hte fore

of the literary revival were their court poets who have been called

Phri veyr god reason Berid yTwysogoin, hte Poest fohte They are also called the Gogynfeirdd, i.e., the fairly early or not

so early poets, as opposed to the Cynfeirdd, the first or earliest poets in the Welsh literary tradition, and the title Gogynfeirdd has

the merit that it can include those poets who, like Casnodyn (A.

1320-40), sang some time after the last of the princes had died, but yet in much the same style and idiom as their predecessors. C Y N F E I R D D AND G O G Y N F E I R D D

Neither Cynfeirdd nor Gogynfeirdd is a designation of great anti-

quity. The former title was coined by the antiquary and bibliophile Robert Vaughan of Hengwrt (1592?-1666) to denote

the Welsh poets of the earliest period, from the sixth to the

eleventh century, i.e., the composers of the Hengerdd or Early

Poetry, most of which is to be found in the Book of Taliesin and the Book of Aneirin with some ni the Black Book of Carmarthen,

three of the so-called 'Four Ancient Books of Wales'. The title,

Gogynfeirdd, was given by Lewis Morris (1701-65) to the poets who flourished from the beginning of the twelfth to the middle of the fourteenth century.

Recently the incongruity of designating all the poets of the period from the sixth to the end of the eleventh century as Cyn-

' HW i, 462.

2

THE C O U RT POET IN MEDIEVAL

T H E C O U R T P O E T IN M E D I E VA L WA L E S

WALES

feirdd ni spite of their manifest differences has been increasingly recognized. There has been a tendency to distinguish between the

Early Cynfeirdd, Taliesin and Aneirin, and the authors of two

anonymous poems dated to the first half of the seventh century on

the one hand, and on h te other hte Late Cynfeirdd, sometimes

called Beirdd yBwlch, or 'Poets of the Intermission', the anony-

mous authors of the Llywarch Hen and Heledd Cycle of Poems

and some others dating from the second half of the seventh to the

end of the eleventh century. This distinction, however, should not be taken to mean that the Late Cynfeirdd were altogether different from the Early Cynfeirdd or that the designation Gogynfeirdd has lost all its usefulness, for a certain homogeneity is found in the work of the Gogynfeirdd and the Cynfeirdd. In some respects there

si greater similarity between the work of the Gogynfeirdd and that of the Early Cynfeirdd than between their work and that of the Late Cynfeirdd. However, this apparent greater similarity may be

due to uneven and erratic manuscript transmission. As we shall

see, relative to their number, more of the work of the Early Cynfeirdd has survived than of the work of the Late Cynfeirdd, and the

similarity underlying the work of both must be kept in mind. This is one reason why any discussion of the work of the Gogynfeirdd must include some reference to the work of the Cynfeirdd. THE C Y N F E I R D D

A synchronism to be found ni the Historia Brittonum,? a compos-

ition assigned to the beginning of the ninth century, would have us believe that at the time of Ida, according to one calculation King

3

of Northumbria from 547 ot 5593, Eudeyrn, aBritish, i.., aWelsh

king somewhere ni the north of England fought bravely against the Angles, and that, Then Talhaern Tat Aguen gained renown ni poetry; and Neirin and Taliessin and Bluchbard and Cian who is called

Gueinth Guaut gained renown together at the same time ni British (i.e., Welsh) poetry. It si significant that Talhaern, i.e., Talhaearn, si called 'Tad Awen', 'Father of the Muse',4 and that the Historia Brittonum synchronism would place his floruit c. 550 fi Ida ruled over Northumbria from 547 to 559, because it was about that time, the middle of the sixth century that Welsh, according to the late

Kenneth H . Jackson, was emerging as a separate language from its

parent Brittonic.' It si no less significant that 'Angar Kyfyndawt',

one of the poems preserved ni the Book of Taliesin, mentions

Talhaearn twice (BT 19.3, 22), Cian once (BT 19.4) and Aneirin

again once if, that is, BT 20.4 Ef ae rin si to be emended to Euaerin, to Enaerin or Aneirin. Another synchronism ni the Historia Brittonum would have us

believe that Urien, a British or Welsh king, was opposed by Theodoric, one of Ida's successors on the throne of Northumbria, and that he was one of the four Welsh kings who fought against P xi; KH . . Jackson, The Gododdin (Edinburgh, 1969), 9, n.1, and 24, 3 See T

'Ida, whose reign ni Bernicia was probably 558-79'. * It should be remembered that ni 'Englynion y Beddau' (The Stanzas of the

' ad Awen'. On these Graves'), another poet, Tedei, si given the appellation T

stanzas see Thomas Jones, 'The Black Book of Carmarthen stanzas of hte 2 DN . . Dumville si engaged ni editing the various versions of the Historia

Brittonum; see his The Historia Brittonum .3 The "Vatican'

Recension

(Cambridge, 1985), and until his edition si completed, all statements concerning ti have to eb regarded as tentative. See, however, his 'Historia Brittonum: an Insular History from the Carolingian Age', ni Historiographie im frühen Mittelalter, Anton Scharer

(München, 1994), 406-34.

und Georg Scheibelreiter (hrsg.)

paA nda 1987r,-i Eyair Barini (Edniburgh, 1953,) ,5621. Profesor graves R

Patrick Sims-Williams, 'Dating the Transition ot Neo-Brittonic: Phonology and History, 400-600*, Britain 400-600: Language and History, ed. Alfred Bammesberger and Alfred Wollmann (Heidelberg, 1990), 217-61, argues for an earlier date. See also I. Williams, When did British become Welsh?' ni The . Bromwich (Cardiff, 1972), 1-15 (repr. from Beginnings of Welsh Poetry, ed. R TAAS, 1939, 27ff).

THE C O U RT POET IN MEDIEVAL WALES

4

Hussa, another successor; the other three were Rhydderch Hen,

Gwallawg and Morgant.®

The Historia Brittonum has been shown to be what one of its

early editors claimed, namely, an accumulation of extracts from literary sources' with the addition, apparently, of oral material, some of which seems to be taken from the lore handed down by one generation of poets to the next. Indeed, there is every reason

to believe that the reference to Talhaear n and the other poets named as his contemporaries came from traditional bardic lore.

Oral sources are well-known for their disregard for precise dates,

and this fact, coupled with the fact that the science of assigning

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POET IN MEDIEVAL

WALES

5

the war-band sent apparently by Mynyddawg Mwynfawr of Din or Ysgor Eidyn in the vicinity of modern Edinburgh around 600 t o c a p t u r e Catraeth, modern Catterick—or the nearby Richmond-from the Angles, si at least partially, fi not verbatim, the genuine work of Aneirin, the poet mentioned in conjunction

with Taliesin in our first synchronism. The 'Gododdin' with some accretions has been preserved for us in the Book of Aneirin, and both Aneirin and Taliesin, who also has an elegy to his name, can

stand as the prototypes of the eulogizing and elegizing Gogynfeirad of a much later date. There can be no doubt that Aneirin, like

Taliesin, must have composed more poems than have survived,

dates to events had declined in this period in Britain and elsewhere

but it is significant that Aneirin, as the putative author of the

after the break with Rome, should make us suspicious of the synchronisms ni Historia Brittonum.

extant "Gododdin', emerges as the poet of Mynyddawg Mwynfawr's warband rather than of Mynyddawg Mwynfawr

However, two of the poets named in the first synchronism have poems assigned to them in the Book of Taliesin® and the Book of Aneirin? and although we cannot accept that all these poems are

genuinely theirs, some appear to be authentic. Thus a formidable case has been made for accepting that beside a legendary Taliesin

who became the centre of a cycle of poems, there was also a historical Taliesin some of whose songs in praise of Urien and Gwallawg, two of the kings mentioned in our second synchronism from the Historia Brittonum, have been preserved in the Book of

Taliesin. 1º As panegyristiof these kings, this historical Taliesin

stands out among the Cynfeirdd as the prototype of the eulogizing Gogynfeirdd. A similar case has been made for accepting that the 'Gododdin', a poem comprising a series of elegies on members of 6 PT xi-xii.

1 1b. x. 8 BT. 9 BA.

01 It should be remembered that Welsh has preserved references to another

poet as Urien's, namely Tristfardd; see .I Williams, 'Tristfardd, Bardd Urien', BBCS viii (1935-7), 331-2; Thomas Jones, 'Tristfardd, Bardd Urien', BBCS xili (1948-50), 12.

himself, although as poet of the former he could not fail to be that

e of the latter as well. It si possible, of course, indeed ti si, as w shall see, probable that Taliesin and Aneirin as eulogists and elegists were continuing a poetic tradition rooted ni Brittonic, but

re-established ni Welsh by Talhaearn, 'Tad Awen', and other

poets.

The next generation of poets has given

us

'Moliant

Cadwallawn' ('The Praise of Cadwallon'), perhaps composed by the poet Afan Ferddig, and 'Marwnad Cynddylan' ('Elegy ot Cynddylan (ap Cyndwyn)'), plausibly attributed to the poet Meigant." Cadwallon, apparently, fell ni battle c. 634, and Cynddylan was slain not long afterwards.

These

poems were

composed before 650, i.e., ni the period of the Early Cynfeirdd. 11 .I Williams, 'Hengerdd (1) Moliant Cadwallon...', BBCS vii (1933-5), 2332; R. Geraint Gruffydd, 'Canu Cadwallon ap Cadfan' in Astudiaethau ar yr

Hengerdd: Studies ni Old Welsh Poetry, ed. R. Bromwich and R.B. Jones

(Caerdydd, 1978), 25-43; EWSP 130-1; I. Williams, 'Marwnad Cynddylan', BBCS vi (1932-3), 134 41; CLIH 50-2; EWSP 174-89. Cynddelw refers ni a poem ni praise of Hywel ab Owain Gwynedd to Afan Ferddig, and so do

Gwilym Ddu o Arfon (c. 1280-1320) and Hywel Ystorm (c. 1300-1350). Cf. TYP 268. For references to Arofan, Self ap Cynan's poet, see ib., 19, 274.

6

THE C O U RT POET IN MEDIEVAL

WALES

When we turn to the longer period of the Late Cynfeirdd (650-

1100) we are immediately struck by the comparative paucity of the

surviving examples of the eulogy and the elegy genres, and we are

astonished that no poems addressed to Merfyn Frych, Rhodri Mawr, Hywel Dda and Gruffudd ap Llywelyn have been

preserved and no indication even that such ever existed. It is true that tradition has kept for us the names of other poets

and as some of these names have been preserved with the names of patrons we can assume that they sang the praises of these patrons: Morfran, the reputed author of an elegy on some Einiawn

(?Einiawn Yrth ap Cunedda); Henin or Heinin, the poet of Maelgwn Gwynedd; Cywryd, the poet of Dunawd (?Dunawd ap Pabo); Tristfardd, the poet of Urien; Dygynnelw, the poet of

Owain ab Urien; Arofan, the poet of Selyf ap Cynan who was slain at the Battle of Chester, c. 615. All these poets, however, seem to belong to the Age of the Early Cynfeirdd, and we are

prompted to ask whether this means that eulogistic poetry was neglected or declined in the Age of the Late Cynfeirdd.

We have referred to the 'legendary Taliesin'. The historical

poet became the centre of a legend in which he was more of a

shaman than a poet, and was characterized more by the boasting of his ability and knowledge than of his art. A number of poems

are ascribed to him in the Late Cynfeirdd Period ni the same way as some poems were ascribed to the legendary Myrddin, traditionally the poet of Gwenddolau ap Ceidiaw who was

defeated at the Battle of Arfderydd c. 575. Indeed, ni one poem ni

the Black Book of Carmarthen,12 these two prognosticators are

made to converse with each other, and we assume that poems were

T H E C O U R T P O E T IN

M E D I E VA L

WA L E S

7

their names.13 The former of these cycles si regarded as a

prosimetric saga concerning Llywarch Hen and his sons and surviving only ni a series of englynion composed in the ninth or

tenth century. The latter, also extant in the form of englynion, si taken to be all that is left of a prosimetric saga about Heledd. She

was a member of the royal house of Powys and is portrayed as

grieving for the past misfortunes of her country ni hte light of its

present defeat and tragedy. Heledd may have been chosen as a

spokeswoman under the influence of the mythological idea that

the land or the country was the spouse or queen to whom the king

was wedded, an idea which, according to some, resurfaces ni a few of the poems of the Gogynfeirdd and ni the Welsh prose

romances. 41

But to return to the Book of Taliesin, Ifor Williams listed among its contents some eulogies and elegies ni addition to those

which he attributed to the historical Taliesin, but they are few ni number and some even of them are to legendary heroes. In other words, the contents of the Book of Taliesin seem to confirm the general impression that eulogistic and elegiac poetry was not

much cultivated by the Late Cynfeirdd. But having said that, we must add that we should not in all probability expect the contents of the Book of Taliesin to reflect all the kinds of poetry that were

produced during the period of the Late Cynfeirdd, for the poetry of the Cynfeirdd, both Early and Late, was essentially oral poetry, like that of their predecessors among the Celts, and all oral poetry

was originally sung or, at least, chanted, and certainly not written. 51

ascribed to both. In much the same way poems were ascribed to

the legendary Llywarch Hen and Heledd of the cycles bearing 31 See the edited poems ni CLIH. 21 Ymddiddan Myrddin a Thaliesin, gol. A.O.H. Jarman (Caerdydd, 1951,

*1 G.W. Goetinck, 'Sofraniaeth yn y Tair Rhamant', LICy vii (1964-5), 16882; R. Bromwich, 'Celtic dynastic themes and hte Breton Lays', CÉ xi (1960-

1967); The Black Book of Carmarthen, ed. J. Gwenogryn Evans (Pwilheli, 1906), 1-7; Llyfr Du Caerfyrddin, gol. A.O.H. Jarman (Caerdydd, 1982), 1-2.

Gogynfeirdd', BBCS xxvii (1976-8), 23-30; EWSP passim. y The Celtic Bard (The Hallstatt Lecture, 1991). 51 Se m

1), 439-74; Rh. Andrews, 'Rhai agweddau ar Sofraniaeth yng ngherddir

8

THE C O U RT POET IN MEDIEVAL

WALES

THE C O U RT POET IN MEDIEVAL WALES

9

O R A L POETRY

The two series of englynion which ti contains were copied into it,

Sextus Pompeius Festus (s.v.) tells us Bardus Gallice cantor

perha,ybhte same person,ni l probabity asieric, snice literan

appellatur qui virorum fortium laudes canit (In Gaulish the singer,

who sings the praises of brave men, is called a bard.'). Ammianus

Marcellinus (xv. ix.8) makes the same point: Bardi quidem fortia virorum illustrium facta heroicis conposita versibus cum dulcibus

lyrae modulis cantitarunt (Bards indeed, sang the brave deeds of illustrious heroes, composed in heroic verses, to the sweet ones of

the lyre.'). What Festus and Ammianus have to say about the

subject of the bards' songs, the praise of mighty men and their deeds, is by no means irrelevant to our main theme, but our immediate concern is with their use of the Latin verb cano and

was almost exclusively the mark of a cleric, and, possibly, at a

monastic centre subject to Irish influence. The first series is a poem

in praise of God, the second seems to belong to a narrative cycle of the same kind as that of the Llywarch Hen Cycle.

It is assumed that the B version of some of the odes of the

'Gododdin'' is based on an exemplar which, to judge from some of the Old Welsh orthographic features, was written between the end of the eighth and the eleventh century, perhaps as early as the end of the eighth. Both A and B versions seem to be copies of

with its Celtic derivatives. fI one of the early meanings of cano was

older exemplars, and this points to a literary transmission over a

much the same meaning. Taliesin refers to one of his compositions as 'cân' and Aneirin's 'Gododdin' si introduced in the earliest manuscript copy in the words 'Hwn yw e gododin. aneirin ae cant'. Long after they had given up the practice of singing or chanting their poems, Irish and Welsh poets referred to the act of

When the 'Gododdin' was first committed to writing, we shall never know, but it is reasonable to assume that ti was

aliquem carminibus laudare, to praise someone ni songs, ti can be said that the verb's Irish and Welsh cognates (canaim, canaf) had

composing and communicating their poems as canaim, canaf.

It has been said that to qualify as oral, poetry must meet one

or more conditions: ti must be orally composed, orally

communicated or orally transmitted.

In the absence of evidence for the literary transmission of

Welsh poetry in the early period, the case for oral transmission

seems overwhelming. The earliest manuscript containing Welsh

poetry si the Cambridge University Juvencus MS. (MS.ff. ,4 42), 61 61 .I Williams, 'Tri englyn y Juvencus', BBCS vi (1931-5), 101-10, N ' aw Englyn y Juvencus', ib., 205-24. On the dating of the Juvencus MS., see W.M.

Lindsay, Early Welsh Script (Oxford, 1912), 16. See also M. Lapidge, 'Latin Learning ni Dark Age Wales: Some Prolegomena', Proceedings of the Seventh

International Congress of Celtic Studies Oxford, 1983 (Oxford, 1986), 91-107, esp. 96-101. The 'Old Welsh Verse' discussed by .I Williams in NLWJ ii

(1941-2), 69-75, could be of greater antiquity than its transcription.

few centuries. (Both versions were written into the Book of Aneirin manuscript ni the second half of the thirteenth century.)

communicated first orally, and transmitted orally, as well as scribally for some time, and that the oral transmission must have

started immediately after it was first communicated.

We are told both in the Book of Taliesin and in the Book of

Aneirin that ni bardic competition, memorization of certain verses earned the competitor a number of marks or points. Thus we learn from the Book of Aneirin that each ode of the 'Gododdin' merited

one mark, and from the Book of Taliesin that twenty-four marks each were allotted to four songs in ti and three hundred each to another three. We may question whether the marks were allotted

invariably and precisely ni this way, but it seems evident that ni competition with each other, the bards had to show that they had 71 See now Llyfr Aneirin, ed. D. Huws (Aberystwyth, 1989), introduction, but I. Williams's introduction to Canu Aneirin (Caerdydd, 1938) remains important, although one must take into account D.N. Dumville, 'Palaeographical considerations in the dating of early Welsh verse', BBCS xxvii (1976-8), 246-51; id., Britons and Anglo-Saxons in the Early Middle Ages (Aldershot, 1993), ch. v.

IO

T H E C O U R T P O E T IN M E D I E VA L WA L E S

THE COURT

memorized some at least of the songs of Taliesin and Aneirin, and so we can assume that these songs were transmitted orally before they were ever committed to writing and that they continued to be

transmitted orally as long as they were a necessary part of the

répertoire of the bards. 8 The question arises: were hte poems of

poets other than Taliesin and Aneirin made essential parts of the

bardic répertoire, and if not, what was the reason why so many of

the verses by Taliesin and Aneirin has been preserved and so few of the verses of others?

One of the most historically significant poems ni the Book of Taliesin is 'Armes Prydain'. ' Close study of its text reveals that ti

was composed before 937, ostensibly as a prophecy but really as

an incitement to the Celts of Wales, Cornwall, Brittany, Ireland,

and the Old North in conjunction with the Scandinavians of

Dublin, to join forces against the English under Athelstan and to

drive them out o f Britain. The author seems to have been wellversed in the native traditions and to have been interested in the

politics of the period, and ti has been suggested that he must have been a monk in a south Wales monastery. As such we can assume that he was a Welshman instructed in the poetic art of his country

and as a cleric well-accustomed to the written word in Latin if not

in Welsh. Dare one suggest that in 'Armes Prydain' we have a poem that may very well have originated as a written composition, ni other words, that ti may have been communicated scribally to its public? TRANSMISSION OF POETRY

But scribal communication must have been exceptional at this

early date.

The common

practice

must have been

oral

communication either by the poet himself or by a deputy. We have in Wales references to datgeiniaid and in Ireland to rec(c)airí or

81 .I Williams, H ' en Chwedlau', repr. from THCS, 1947, 10. 91 Id., Armes Prydein ..,English version by R . Bromwich (Dublin, 1972). Cf.

D.N. Dumvile, op.cit. (footnote 2), ch. xvi.

POET IN MEDIEVAL

WALES

II

rakrys. Their function was to declaim the poems of the poets ni the

presence of the patrons to whom they were addressed. But hte

poets in both countries were not bound to employ the services of a

declaimer or reciter; indeed, the relation between poet and reciter in both countries was probably as complex as the relation between

the doõós and the paruõós ni Greece. Rhapsodic activity ni that

n of country may have degenerated in the end to a mere declamatio pieces learned by heart from the epic repertory, but creation and

communication were originally two aspects of that activity, and it

is reasonable to assume that Welsh and Irish poets exercized

themselves ni both. One cannot readily believe that the fledgling-

poet who had won a bardic contest by memorizing the songs of Taliesin and Aneirin would not use those songs subsequently

either as a means of instructing his own pupils or of entertaining his patrons.

But what of Taliesin and Aneirin? Did they use a datgeiniad?

One should like to know what are the implications of the words ni Poem vi of the Taliesin corpus, taliessin gan tidi ae ditan, emended by Ifor Williams to taliessin gan dit ae ditan, to mean 'Taliesin's song for thee will entertain them (i.e., the people of Llwyfenydd

and the whole of Erch)'. Do the words imply that the song was

declaimed by someone other than Taliesin himself? The late Professor Kenneth H. Jackson explains one of the ( 2= A 52) as the words of a reciter." odes of hte 'Gododdin' B 'Here the reciter of the poem stands up in the hall and prefaces the

recitation of the poem with the verse . . . "Gododdin, I make m y claim boldly on your behalf ni the presence of hte throng ni hte

court, with the lay of the son of Dwywai of high courage-may it manifest in one place that ti vanquishes [all others]"? This verse

throws light on the oral transmission of the 'Gododdin', but it does not preclude the possibility, indeed the probability, that ni the first instance Aneirin himself declaimed or chanted his

02 PT 58.

. . Jackson, op.cit. (footnote 3,) 23, 90. 12 KH

12

THE C O U RT POET IN M E D I E VA L WALES

elegies. Unfortunately, the poem itself makes ti extemely difficult to suggest the circumstances ni which such an oral delivery could have occurred.

THE C O U RT POET IN MEDIEVAL WALES

13

approv'd of (according as it requir'd) either the same or fresh

subjects were given against hte next Day.24

The Memoirs were published in 1722 but the innate conservatism

ORAL C O M P O S I T I O N

A great deal of attention has been given ni recent years to oral composition thanks to the pioneer researches of Milman Parry

and A.B. Lord who together have thrown light on the creative processes involved in the composition of Homeric and other epics. There is, of course, a great difference in kind between these epics and the songs of Taliesin and Aneirin, and Kenneth H. Jackson

was undoubtedly right to warn the adherents of the Milman-Lord

theory that 'there si not the slightest evidence for so-called

"improvisation" ni the well-known history of the oral poetic tradition in the Celtic literatures' 32 Jackson was, of course, well-

aware of the practice enjoined on bardic students according to the

famous description of a bardic school ni the Memoirs of the Right Honourable The Marquis of Clanricarde. They were to retire after

being given a subject for their compositions.

The said Subject (either one or more as aforesaid), having been given over Night, they work'd ti apart each by himself

of the Irish bards makes ti probable that the practices described ni ti are of considerable antiquity. In any case, there si other evidence

that the Irish bards used to compose their poems in the dark on

their beds and the suggestion that ni this they were following an

ancient practice with its origins ni pagan times and with religious

implications si not unreasonable? On the other hand, committing poems to writing cannot be very ancient as a general practice, and

Jackson's statement can be accepted as broadly true that:

. . [Celtic] poetry was composed ni the head and without the use of writing; was recited orally to the assembled company ni the chief's hall; and was handed down orally, being learned by heart by subsequent reciters and so passed on for generations; and that all this was fostered and practised by the institution of 'bardic schools' in which budding poets were given an

elaborate training ni their profession, ni oral composition of

poetry, and its recitation and transmission when learned yb

heart. 62

upon his own Bed, the whole next Day ni the Dark, till at a certain Hour in the Night, Lights being brought in, they c o m m i t t e d it t o writing.

Being a f t e r w a r d s d r e s s ' d a n d c o m e

together into a large Room, where the Masters waited, each Scholar gave ni his Performance, which being corrected or

42 The Memoirs of the Right Honourable The Marquis of Claricarde (London,

' ardic 1722; Dublin, 1744). The description is reproduced in O. Bergin, B

Poetry, The Journal of the Ivernian Society, v, 153-66, 203, and ni J.F.

Kennedy, The Sources for the Early History of Ireland: Ecclesiastical (1968), 36-7. R. Finnegan, Oral Poetry (Cambridge, 1977), 19, 48-9, 189-90, 194-5,

has interesting things to say on schools of poetry as well as on the training of

poets in general, pp. 65, 171, 173-4, 183-4, &c. Incidentally, unlike the

Memoirs, she refers to the activity of such schools in teaching the work of

2 See M.E. Owen, H ' wn yw e Gododin. Aneirin ae cant' in Astudiaethau ar yr

Hengerdd. Studies in Old Welsh Poetry, ed. R . Bromwich and R.B. Jones (Caerdydd, 1978), 122-50; T.M. Charles-Edwards, 'The Authenticity of the Gododdin', ib., 44-71. 32 K.H. Jackson, op.cit. (footnote 3), 60, n.1.

former poets to their successors. 52 It seems natural to assume from what we know of the circumstances that

Cadmon generally required a period of meditation for his compositions like

Egil Skallagrimsson who si reported to have laboured through the night to

produce a drapa in praise of his patron King Eric Bloodaxe: Egil's Saga .. by

E.R. Eddison (Cambridge, 1930), 139. 62 K.H. Jackson, op.cit. (footnote 3), 60.

14

THE C O U RT POET IN MEDIEVAL WALES

This description preserves our traditional emphasis on the role of

the bardic schools, but in the poetry of the Cynfeirdd and the Gogynfeirdd, side by side with this emphasis on instruction, there si equal, if not an even greater, emphasis on the need for

inspiration, and although these emphases are not mutually incompatible, one wonders whether the question of inspiration

(and the improvisation implied) has been sufficiently explored. Milman Parry's analysis of the formulaic character of Homeric

diction? was followed in 1962 by E.L. Bundy's convincing demonstration of the equally formulaic character of parts of the subject-matter and thematic structure of the epinician or victory

odes of Pindar and Bacchylides.28 Bundy's followers have tended

to view the victory odes as totally formulaic ni character; ni other

words, to regard them as skilful manipulations of the conventions of an elaborate encomiastic etiquette with minimal attention to anything beyond the identity of the victor and the number of

T H E C O U R T P O E T IN M E D I E VA L

WA L E S

15

that the Gogynfeirdd seem to be engaged in 're-working' the material of the Cynfeirdd rather than in creating their own. On the other hand, it may well be that ni concentrating on the

similarities between the diction of the Cynfeirdd and that of the

e have Gogynfeirdd we have lost sight of differences, and that w

failed to see that the latter sought to achieve diversity within a larger pattern of similarity. It si now generally admitted that Milman Parry and A.B. Lord went too far in stressing the differences between oral and written story-song and in assuming that there were no transitional texts

sharing some of the features of the techniques required for both. A.B. Lord revised some of his earlier opinions.

The fact of the matter is that oral traditional style is easy to

imitate by those who have heard much of it. Or, to put it ni

Bundy, epinician poetry si a succession of topoi ready to be used by any laudator for any laudandus. One could make a case for

another way, a person who has been brought up in an area, or lived long ni one, in which he has listened to the singing and found an interest in it, can write verse using the general style and some of the formulas of the tradition. After all, the style was devised for rapid composition. If one wishes to compose rapidly in writing and comes from or has had much contact

compare with those of Taliesin and Aneirin, we might discover

formulas, or something very like them, but normally does. The style is natural to him. When the ideas are traditional the

victories that might distinguish him, the totally depersonalised laudandus, from any other athlete or that might distinguish any

one celebratory occasion from another. For these followers of

regarding the odes of the Gogynfeirdd in the same way. If we had some of the poems sung by Talhaearn, Bluchbard and Cian to

with an oral traditional poetry one not only can write in

that the Early Cynfeirdd's poems were very formulaic ni character,

formulas may be those of the oral traditional poetry; when the ideas are not traditional, they will not. 03

who succeeded Taliesin and Aneirin were equally formulaic.

Lord does not mention the possibility that a traditional style

and it would be no surprise to find that the poems of the poets Furthermore it is to be remarked that some scholars have argued

cogently with convincing examples that the Gogynfeirdd used the same formulas as the Cynfeirdd, for that si what si meant by saying

might be taught at a bardic school. In any case, a specialist ni oral poetry, Ruth Finnegan, has shown that a sharp and total contrast between oral and written literature does not stand up to the

empirical tests of her African fieldwork. We have to reckon with 72 See the chapter on the role of inspiration by Sister Bosco, 'Awen y i BaTh 14-38. Cynfeirdd a'r Gogynfeirdd' n 82 E.L. Bundy, Studia Pindarica, :I The Eleventh Olympian Ode; II: The First Isthmian Ode (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1962).

92 TJ.. Morgan, 'Dadansoddit Gogynfeirdd, BBCS xii (1948-50), 169-74, xv (1952-4), 1-8

03 AB . . Lord, 'Perspectives on Recent Work on Oral Literature', Forum for Modern Language Studies, 10 (1975), 187-210, 188.

THE COURT POET IN MEDIEVAL

WALES

'transitional texts', mutual influences and parallel traditions of

written and oral literature and a wide range of possible modes within oral poetry. 13 I N S P I R AT I O N

As to the possibility of believing ni inspiration while depending to a large extent on training, Bruno Gentili ni his Poetry and its

Public in Ancient Greece has drawn attention to the existence in

eighteenth-century Italy of a school of learned poets who seem to illustrate this clearly. They sang to the accompaniment of a guitar or harpsichord. They apparently sang their poetry ni extempore composition from a stock of formulas which they had memorized beforehand. However their poetry was not composed and then memorized; rather ti was composed as ti was sung. The poets

depended not so much on memorizing the compositional units as on their ability to recall those units and to put them together in a poem composed on the occasion of its communication or delivery. It should be noted that these poets and their audience regarded

their art as divinely inspired, and not without reason, for the effort of recalling and building the units into one composition produced in the poets a state of tension and excitement akin to the state of

inspiration. The liberty accorded to the audience to choose a subject for the poem demanded of the poet simultaneous

THE C O U RT POET IN MEDIEVAL WALES

17

constructing them into a structure, a process which would be well expressed in Welsh as knitting together (gwau) or of building (eilio). Such a mode of procedure would not exclude belief ni

inspiration. But fi the poems of Taliesin were composed during the process of communication, like those of Gentili's eighteenthcentury Italians, why, unlike the latter, did they survive? Is the

existence of bardic sodalities and more especially of bardic schools sufficient explanation? Gerald of Wales tells us that there were in his day among the

Wathalasswa l

Welsh a class of people who were called awenyddion. 3 The name si significant; it seems to suggest that they were dependent on the awen ni a special way. They were seers o r inspired men because when people came to them for information, they fell into a trance

and uttered a great deal of what appeared to be nonsense though

in the midst of this nonsense those who had come for an answer to

their questions, somehow or other, found it. Gerald si careful to distinguish between the awenyddion and the bards, but the fact

that both laid claim to hte ability to prophesy and ot be inspired by the awen,53 seems ot suggest that originally both were offshoots of the same stock. One wonders whether what Gerald called

nonsense was gibberish or some esoteric poetic language.36 tI should be noted that he uses the adjective ornatus to describe the

composition and communication. Admittedly, the choice of

subjects was not unlimited. Most of these extempore songs have

not survived; they were not composed to survive but to serve the occasion. If Taliesin and his successors were the products of such

a general oral culture, ti si possible that they composed ni their

heads and memorized their compositions for oral delivery, as Jackson would argue. On the other hand it is not impossible that

they had amassed and stored in their memories a stock of

formulas which they put together in an act which consisted both of recalling formulas and of putting them together, of . Finnegan, Oral Poetry (Cambridge, 1977), 8-9. 13 R

. Gentili, Poetry and its Public ni Ancient Greece (Baltimore and London, 23 B 1988), 13.

33 Gerald of Wales: The Journey Through Wales / The Description of Wales, trans. L . Thorpe (London, 1980), 246-7. 43 Like the early Irish filid, lit. 'see-ers'. 53 Note the examples of the use of awen with a verb signifying prophesying in T 13.2 Dygogan awen dygobryssyn, 16.6 Dysgogan awen dydaw ydyd, 70.16 B Dygogan awen dygobryssyn, and its use ni a wider context ib. 27.13 Kyfarchaf

m y ren yystyryaw awen, 31.23 awen cwdechuyd ar veinyoeth veinyd, 33.7 Rac

brochuael powys a garwys vyawen, 34.15 Areith awdyl eglur. awen tra messur, 80.4 Rygoruc vy awen y voli vy ren.

63 Giraldus Cambrensis, Opera (Rolls Series, ed. J.F. Dimnock, London, 1986), v,i 194.

18

THE COURT

POET

IN MEDIEVAL

WALES

answers or pronouncements that the awenyddion finally delivered

in t h e i r t r a n c e .

Many centuries separated Gerald from Gildas and the

probability is, that the poets who praised Maelgwn Gwynedd, offended Gildas, not only because they praised a prince whom he

regarded as unworthy of any commendation, but also because they chanted or declaimed that praise in a way which was

repugnant ot him. Actually the manner of the delivery may have

been as much part of the ritual as its subject. The spoken word chanted or declaimed by a priest or poet on a ceremonial occasion distinguished itself from the spoken word in ordinary speech and

was regarded as having the efficacy of magic, an efficacy which would have been reduced, according to one view, if the work had been committed to writing. Indeed, Georges Dumézil has argued

persuasively that the druids in Gaul eschewed the use of writing

not simply because, as Caesar thought, they wished to keep secret their teaching, but because they thought that divorcing the word from the breath that uttered it, diminished its authority and its

force.38 Of course, there came a time when the written word was

regarded with similar awe.39

THE C O U RT POET IN MEDIEVAL WALES

19

or write'. We have mentioned that no poems addressed to Merfyn

Frych, Rhodri Mawr or Gruffudd ap Llywelyn have survived. We

should add that as far as we know these princes could neither read nor write, and would not have had any reason to request that any

poems addressed to them should be committed to writing. But on the other hand, Cynan Garwyn, Urien Rheged and Gwallawg, the

three princes whom Taliesin is supposed to have addressed in poetry, were, we assume, equally illiterate, and why should some of that poetry have been preserved to us?

One should remember that during the period under discussion 'literate' meant, for the most part, literate' in Latin, the language of learning, the language par excellence. The illiterate comprised not only those who could neither read nor write-th e modern

meaning of hte term-but also those who did not know Latin, and it si significant that they were described as idiotae, simplices and

rudes as well as illiterati. It follows that almost all the literati were

clerici. Indeed, the two terms became for some synonymous.

Isidore of Seville ni hte seventh century defined the clericus as o' ne

who dedicates himself to the religious life and searches for moral

perfection'. In the thirteenth century Jacobus ed Viterbo declared

THE Q U E S T I O N OF LITERACY

that 'sometimes any lettered person si improperly called a cleric

One aspect of the oral poetry of the Early and Late Cynfeirdd

von Megenburg calls all schoolmen 'clerics' without distinguishing

for the fact that clerics must be lettered'. A century later Konrad

seems to be emphasized if we read the evidence concerning it correctly. It was composed, communicated and for the most part

the level of their studies or the disciplines they were taught. 04

largely illiterate society, taking 'illiterate' to mean 'unable to read

Middle Ages not even all the clerics were literate. The standard of literacy of priests and deacons on the Continent had risen

transmitted orally by a largely illiterate sodality of bards to a

But as this semantic development illustrates, ni the early

73 H . Williams, Gildas: De Excidio Britanniae (London, 1899), 81. 83 G. Dumézil, 'La tradition druidique et l'écriture: el Vivant et la Mort', Revue de l'Histoire des Religions, 122, 125-33. On the interdiction of writing

considerably when, as a result of the Carolingian Renaissance,

261 f., 440.

Prayer,

sacred lore see S. Grandz, 'The Dawn of Literature', Ostris (Bruges, 1939),

they were required to know how to read and write, to be able to

recognize the symbols of the Apostles, and to know the Lord's the

Gregorian

Sacramentary,

the exorcisms,

the

93 See D. Crystal, 'The Magic of Language', The Cambridge Encyclopedia of

penitential, the calendar, the 'Roman' (i.e., the 'Gregorian) chant

1969), 72-90; Toshihiko Izutsu, Language and Magic (Tokyo, 1956), passim.

04 .J Le Goff (ed.), The Medieval World, trans. L.G. Cochrane (London, 1990), 182.

Language (Cambridge, 1987), 8-9, and cf. B . Malinowski,'The Language of Magic' in The Importance of Language, ed. M . Black (Ithaca and London,

20

THE C O U R T P O E T I N M E D I E VA L WA L E S

and h te Pastoral of Gregory the Great. How far they were able to comply with these requirements si another question. THE I N F L U E N C E OF THE C H U R C H

The discipline imposed on monks was stricter than that imposed on priests and deacons. Generally speaking, monks had to learn to

read. The Benedictine monastery was designed as a' school of the Lord's service' to train the novice in spirituality, and in the monk's carefully ordered daily routine, reading was enjoined along with manual work and communal prayer. There was, in fact, a connection between reading and the spiritual life: it was a

THE C O U RT POET IN MEDIEVAL

WALES

2I

Saint Columcille's attitude to the filid of Ireland was to be that of most of his ecclesiastical successors with the result that Irish scholarship and culture were to blossom during the following centuries and Ireland became as famous for its Latin and its Irish scholars as for its peripatetic and its stationary saints. It would be

rash to blame Gildast but there was no parallel blossoming of Welsh-Latin scholarship. It could be said, of course, that Gildas's

attitude to the native learning was more consistent with the attitude of Latin scholars to native learning on the Continent than

was that of Saint Columcille. Alcuin, ni a letter written to

necessary preliminary to meditatio, the oral repetition of biblical

Hygbald, bishop of Lindisfarne in 797, refers reprovingly to the predilection which the monks showed to listening to a harpist

It is difficult to assess the Latin learning of the Welsh Church

legantur in sacerdotali convivio. Ibi decet lectorem audire, non

texts committed to memory.

in the early Middle Ages. The Church itself was part of the so-

called 'Celtic' Church, the separate identity of which is now being

questioned, and should have participated ni the classical learning

for which Ireland became famous. Gildas is the only Welsh or British ecclesiastical author who can stand comparison with the Irish Saint Columcille and Saint Columbanus in the sixth century. He was earlier than both. His Latin writing does not exhibit the versatility of that of Saint Columbanus. Furthermore it si symptomatic of the different ways in which the Irish and Welsh Church reacted to the native learning that Saint Columcille si regarded as a representative of the Irish nobility and as the great

protector of the Irish bards or filid, whereas Gildas si famous for

his diatribe against the British or Welsh princes of his time and for his unsympathetic attitude towards the Welsh bards in Maelgwn

singing heathen songs such as those about Ingeld. Verba dei

citharistam, sermones patrum, non carmina gentilium. Quia Heniellus (i.e., Ingeld) cum Christo? Angusta est domus utrosque tenere non

poterit. 34 Indeed, even pagan classical scholars were objects of

hostility to most monks until after 1000 A.D. Thus the presence of a codex of Virgil was held responsible by the biographer of Hugh

of Cluny for the decline of monastic discipline at the monastery of Saint-Marcel ni Chalon-sur-Saône (PL 159, cols 871f.) and at hte end of the eleventh century the catalogue of the library of Pomposa registers the brothers' objections when the abbot,

Girolamo, used the monastery's resources to acquire hte works of

pagan authors. One can sympathize with their objections, for if, as

the anonymous Accessus ad auctores of the twelfth century

24 It si possible that it was the native traditional tales that Gildas condemned

crew yelling forth, like bacchanalian revellers, full of lies and

as 'scandalous tales of men of the world', although H. Williams, Gildas's editor, thought he was referring to pagan classical literature. 34 Se Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Epist. Merov. et Carol. aevi, IV, Nr.

tuneful voice of Christ's followers'. 14

eleventh century that he never thought of Augustine or Gregory but always of

Gwynedd's court: he contrasts their voice, that 'of the rascally

foaming phlegm, so as to besmear everyone near them' with 'the

14 H. Williams, op.cit. (footnote 37), 81.

124. A complaint was made against Bishop Gunther of Bamberg in the

King Etzel and Dietrich von Bern and the like (Nunquam ille Augustinum, nunquam ille Gregorium recolit, semper ille Attalam, semper Amalungum et

cetera di potare [?portenta] tractat); Dieter Kartschoke, Geschichte der deutschen Literatur m i frühen Mittelalter (München, 1994), 54, 184.

T H E C O U R T P O E T IN M E D I E V A L W A L E S

THE C O U RT POET IN MEDIE VAL WALE S

declared, the aim of all reading in the monastery should be the inculcation of good and the extermination of bad morals, ti would

far from deep and that ti is impregnated with superstition. He accuses his countrymen of neglecting their past but does little to

22

be difficult, it seems, to justify the reading of such an author as

Ovid. Objections to pagan literature persisted after 1000 A.D. So did the objections to involvement in the creation of secular

literature. It is interesting to note that the Cistercian Chapter felt it necessary to stipulate that monks who wrote verse should be transferred to another house, and that they should not be

readmitted to their house of origin except by a special decision of the General Chapter.* Was this typical attitude towards secular

literature one of the reasons why so few poems of the Late

23

further their scholarship: for him folklore seems to take the place of learning. But unlike Gildas he does not seem to have despised

the bards and their learning. It is to them, in all probability, that he owes his knowledge of Talhaearn, Taliesin, Aneirin, Bluchbard and Cian. It is from one of their poems apparently that he has derived his list of Arthurian Battles, and his slender knowledge of a 'Life early Welsh history has been gleaned from them and from of Saint Germanus'.

Scholars have laboured to prove that Aneirin was a Christian

preserved?

because of hte few references ot Christianity in his poem the 'Gododdin' 4 But even a close reading of the 'Gododdin' and hte

own achievements. According to the Rhuis Life, he was educated at the school of 'Hildutus', the Saint Illtud of Welsh tradition. It must have been an excellent school. Although Gildas castigates his

fI Christianity had made much progress ni Wales between the time of Gildas and that of the author of the Historia Brittonum, we

Cynfeirdd or of the so-called intermission period have been

Gildas's attitude to the Welsh bards should not blind us to his

Historia Brittonum fails to convince us that their authors were Christian in the same sense as Gildas.

fellow-Britons he does not do so because of their paganism but

should have some reason to suppose that there would have been a

because of their depravity. He knows that they once worshipped pagan deities, but that was long ago. He himself was apparently

change would have affected the way the bards regarded their kings

the heir of a Roman-Christian culture with the wealth of the Latin

have suggested that the dearth of poems addressed to such kings

brought up ni a purely Christian atmosphere and si proud to be

language at the tip of his quill as his De Excidio et conquestu

change ni the perception of the office of kingship and that that

e could even and the way they addressed them ni their poems. W

as Merfyn Frych, Rhodri Mawr, &c., was the result of such a

Britanniae*S shows.

change.

The author of the Historia Brittonum at the beginning of the ninth century is altogether different. His Latin is inferior. He does

not occur even in more Christianized countries. According to J.M.

not criticize his fellow-countrymen for their failure to live up to

their Christianity, and his work shows that his own Christianity si 4 For the contents of this paragraph I am indebted to .J Le Goff, op.cit.

( f o o t n o t e 40), 68.

45 See F. Kerlouégan, 'Le latin du De Excidio Britanniae' in Christianity in Britain, ed. M.W. Barley and R.P.C. Hanson (Leicester, New York, 1968): 151-7, and id., 'Gildas's education and the Latin culture of sub-Roman

. Lapidge and D.N. Dumville Britain' in Gildas: New Approaches, ed. M

(Woodbridge, 1984), 27-50.

But as far as the evidence goes, such a change in perception did

Wallace-Hadrill, 74 Conversion to Christianity did nothing to weaken belief, or at

least, interest, ni descent from the gods, whether descent of

.. Evans, 'Aneirin bardd Cristnogol?, YB x (1977), 53 44. Note A. 64 DS ,5 'We cannot accept Ross, Pagan Celtic Britain (London, New York, 1967),

and cf. .L the view that, with the coming of the Christians, paganism died',

Alcock, Arthur's Britain (London, 1971), 308.

74 Early Germanic Kingship ni England and no the Continent (Oxford, 1971), .9

THE C O U R T

24

POET

IN

M E D I E VA L WA L E S

peoples or of kings. Indeed, it may have done something to

strengthen :ti the sacred character of Christian kingship could be read back into the past.

Gregory's instructions to the missionary Augustine are well-

known. He wrote to Athelbert, Wallace-Hadrill asserts, t'o assure

THE COURT

POET IN MEDIEVAL

WAL E S

25

better scholar and Latinist than the author of the Historia Brittonum, although he was inferior to Gildas, and his biography si unsatisfactory in other ways; as J.E. Lloyd has said, it 'cannot be

said to remove the impression that the life of the Welsh Church at this time ran a somewhat sluggish and pedestrian course. 05

the new convert that a Christian king's gifts were special and came from God who would render his fame more glorious to posterity. In a word, something is being offered to take the place of the

However, there is evidence that ti was running a more lively and a more notable course in the eleventh century, for then Bishop Sulien and his sons made Llanbadarn Fawr and St. David's

pagan basis, whatever it was, of the king's prestige'. 84 The Irish Pseudo-Cyprian wrote a tract on the conduct of a

Fawr that Sulien was first educated, but he went to Ireland and

famous for their learning.' Apparently, it was at Llanbadarn

king. According to Wallace-Hadrill, the tract's view of kingship is

Scotland for further study before returning to make the school there famous for its learning though he was called on two

as it si compatible with a Christian society and a little specifically

occasions to be bishop of St. David's. He was fortunate to have

Old Testament, but 'fundamentally, however, the picture si not

by two of them, leuan and Rhygyfarch, has survived: ti shows that literary studies were energetically pursued ni Llanbadarn Fawr in the late eleventh century, and that Sulien was able to educate his sons from the resources of a considerable library'. 25

part-Christian, part-pagan, a' traditional view si retained ni so far

Christian matter is worked into it.' There are influences from the

Christian at all'.49

It cannot be assumed, then, that it was a change in the

perception of the office of kingship that caused the dearth of

poems addressed by poets to such kings as Merfyn Frych, Rhodri

Mawr and Hywel Dda. Apart from the fact that such an assumption lacks confirmation, it would leave to be answered the

question why poems addressed to Gruffudd ap Cynan and his successors were sung from the twelfth century onwards. WELSH C E N T R E S OF L E A R N I N G

Respect for scholarship must have increased ni Wales during the hundred years that elapsed after the composition of the Historia

Brittonum, otherwise King Alfred would not have sent for Asser (ob. 909), Bishop of St. David's and Sherborne, to assist him ni his endeavour to revive learning in Wessex. Asser has left us his story

ni his biography of King Alfred, a text which shows that he was a

his own talented sons as pupils. Some of the Latin poetry written

Rhygyfarch's 'Planctus' or 'Lament' is illuminating. It portrays the coming of the Normans as an unmitigated disaster: Now the labours of earlier days lie despised; the people and the priest are despised by the word, heart and work of the Normans. For they increase our taxes and burn our properties. One vile Norman intimidates a hundred natives with his command, and

terrifies (them) with his look.'53 It also gives us a glimpse of what Rhygyfarch cherished ni the old way of life that now seemed doomed to disappear.

os H W ,i 227-8. See also Dorothy Whitelock, The Genuine Asser (University

of Reading, 1968).

15 E J.. Lloyd, 'Bishop Sulien and his Family', NLW] i (1941-2), 1-6; id., The

Story of Ceredigion (Cardiff, 1937); Studies ni the Early British Church, ed. .N Chadwick (Cambridge, 1958), 163-76.

84 1b., 30.

25 M. Lapidge, 'The Welsh-Latin Poetry of Sulien's Family', SC vit/ix (1973-

Hellmann (hrsg.) (Texte und Untersuchungen, 34. Leipzig, 1909).

35л.., 90-1.

94 Ib., 57. See also Pseudo-Cyprianus: De xii Abusiuis Saeculi, Siegmund

4), 68-106, 75-6.

26

THE C O U RT POET IN MEDIEVAL WALES

Nothing is of any use to me now, but the power of giving: neither the law, nor learning, nor great fame, nor the deep-

resounding glory of nobility, not honour formerly held, not

riches, not wise teaching, not deeds nor arts, not reverence of

God, not of old age, none (of these things) retains its station, nor any power. 45

No youth, the 'Planctus' tells us, 'takes delight ni pleasantries,

there si no pleasure in hearing the poems of poets'. It is no wonder that 'each company is sad, the court is sad' (queque cohors tristis, tristis et aula), for the court was the place for pleasantries

and for the declamation of the poems of poets, and it is reasonable to believe that at least some of the poems were in Welsh and that

THE COURT POET IN MEDIEVAL

WALES

27

Ifor Williams was ready to assume? He sees sufficient resemblance

between this quatrain and the 'Gododdin' ot make it likely that its

author was familiar with the 'Gododdin' and used it as model-

and this suggests that he was one of the professional bards, for hte

'Gododdin' was part of their stock-in-trade. Such a poem to a saint would be the prototype for the odes sung yb the Poets of the Princes to Cadfan, Tysilio and Dewi."° IRISH INFLUENCE?

However, so few poems ni praise of chiefs and saints have

survived from the Late Cynfeirdd Period that some scholars have argued that the tradition of composing them must have been

they had more than a little to do with the 'deep-resounding glory

dying and would have died, had it not been revived under hte Irish

they were poems of the kind that we associate with the Poets of

Gruffudd ap Cynan over Gwynedd which ended ni 1137. Gruffudd ap Cynan is unique among Welsh princes in that a

of nobility', and with the 'formerly held honour'; ni a word, that

the Princes or the Gogynfeirdd.

It is possible, however, that Rhygyfarch was referring to poems of previous ages. In the Corpus Christi College Cambridge

MS. 109 there si a scrap of Old Welsh poetry on the top margin

fol.11" ni the hand of Ieuan ap Sulien. It si a verse apparently on

the pastoral staff of his patron Saint Padarn. To quote Ifor Williams:

It may be his own composition; ni this very manuscript there is a long Latin poem from his pen . . . Or ti may be an apt

quotation from a long poem sung in honour of Padarn by an Old Welsh bard. I favour the second alternative. 75 Did Rhygyfarch have in mind poems like the 'long poem sung in

honour of Padarn by an Old Welsh bard', the existence of which 54 Ib.

5 1b.

65 According to H. Bradshaw, Collected papers of Henry Bradshaw (1889), 465, the poem must have been written between 1080 and 1090.

' n Odl Welsh Verse', NLW]ni (1941-2), 69-75. 75 I. Wiliams, A

influences exerted on Welsh literature during the reign of

chronicle of his life was written in Latin and that it has survived in

a Welsh translation, Historia Gruffud vab Kenan. Professor D . Simon Evans, ° the editor of the Welsh Historia, after very careful consideration, has concluded that the Latin original must have been written about 1165, subsequent to Henry I's abortive attack

on Gruffudd ap Cynan's son, Owain Gwynedd. Its author, obviously a cleric and probably a monk, was acquainted with some of the vitae and chronicles of the period; both his method and style owe something to them, but he drew on oral as well as

on literary sources: he knew of Arthur's twelve famous battles and

85 Ib.

5 For the 'Britannicus versificator' who is said to have sung to St. Gwyn-

lyw, see HW i, 531 and n.185. 06 HGVK cexlix; A . Jones, The History of Gruffydd ap Cynan (Manchester, was written at an early date after 1900), 25, believed that the Latin original

Gruffudd's death. Marie Therese Flanagan, 'Historia Gruffud vab Kenan

and the Origins of Balrothery, CMCS 28 (Winter 1994), 71-94, makes out a

case for dealing more critically with hte Historia than either of its editors have

done.

28

THE C O U RT POET IN MEDIEVAL

THE COURT POET IN MEDIEVAL WALES

WALES

29

must have had a copy of one of Myrddin's prophecies before him if he did not quote from memory. It is difficult to imagine him as

n was an Gelhig and Gellan in the Book of Llandâv.63 Even if Gella as Irishman, ti would be easier to think of him as a musician than

even a native.

Irish poet to fight alongside his patron-chief. In any case, the

anything but a resident ni Owain Gwynedd's domain, perhaps It is interesting to note that Sulien, Bishop of St. David's,

blessed Gruffudd ap Cynan's troops and those of his ally, Rhys ap Tewdwr, before they set out to win their signal victory over Trahaearn of Gwynedd, Meilyr ap Rhiwallon ap Cynfyn, and Caradog ap Gruffudd, at the Battle of Mynydd Carn (1081). Did one of Suliens's protégés come under the fascination of Gruffudd

ap Cynan's personality at that time, enough to attach himself later to his household and to write his memorial?

There is a tradition that Gruffudd ap Cynan brought

musicians and poets with him from Ireland and this at first sight

does not seem unlikely since we are told that he depended a great deal on Irish troops in his early attempts to gain the throne of

Gwynedd, although it si important to remember that the Irish poets, unlike their Welsh counterparts, did not fight alongside their patrons. There is also a tradition that Gruffudd ap Cynan

was responsible for some reforms in the arts of music and poetry. This tradition was so strong in the sixteenth century that the organizers of the Caerwys eisteddfod of 1523 thought that the rules that they then formulated, would be more readily accepted if they

had the authority of Gruffudd ap Cynan's name, and so they were proclaimed as 'The Statute of Gruffudd ap Cynan'. 16 The tradition that Gruffudd ap Cynan brought musicians and poets with him from Ireland gains credibility fi Gellan, the telynor

pencerdd, who was killed in one of Gruffudd's battles, was an Irishman. To Professor D. Simon Evans the name 'Gellan' seems

to be Irish, 2 but .J Lloyd-Jones connected ti with the Welsh adjective gell which occurs as a personal name, and with Gelhi, 16 T. Parry, 'Statud Gruffudd ap Cynan', BBCS v (1929-31), 25-33.

26 HGVK c, but of. p. 87.

a poet, since, as it has been observed, ti was not hte practice of hte

that description telynor pencerdd is ambiguous. It might mean

Gellan was harpist to a pencerdd 'chief poet' or 'harpist master-

craftsman'. As he seems to have been a combatant, Gellan could have been a harpist to a pencerdd acting on this occasion as a

bardd teulu, bard of the king's troops. The Welsh Laws tell us that both the bardd teul and the pencerdd were entitled to the gift of a harp.

Of the scholars who have indirectly, fi not directly, linked the

revival of Welsh praise poetry ni the twelfth century with

Gruffudd ap Cynan, perhaps the most prominent was the late Professor T. Gwynn Jones. He concluded

that the tradition si well founded that Gruffudd ap Cynan introduced Irish minstrels and bards and that he is likely to

have made some regulations for the government of the bards

and musicians,64 and went on to write that 'Irish influence is traceable in the style

and structure of the poems of this period (sc. the twelfth century)'. Unfortunately, some of the examples of Irish influence that he instances, the use of the prefixes dy- and ry with infixed pronouns

and the use of hte word derwyddon, would not be accepted as such today, nor would the use of 'ceangal', if by 'ceangal' he meant dúnad or arcomarc. The embellishment dúnad, the last word or

syllable of the final stanza repeating or echoing the first word or syllable of the poem, occurs ni early and syllabic Irish verse, but ti si found also in very early Welsh verse under the name of cyrchu.

Thus 'Marwnad owein', poem x ni Ifor Williams's edition of hte

36 J. Lloyd-Jones, Geirfa Barddoniaeth Gynnar Gymraeg, s.n. gell. 46 T. Gwynn Jones, 'Bardism and Romance: a Study of hte Welsh Literary

Tradition', THSC, 1913-14, 282.

30

T H E C O U R T P O E T IN M E D I E VA L WA L E S

poems of Taliesin, ends with the same words as it begins. Dúnad in Irish verse and cyrch-gymeriad in Welsh verse must be regarded as independent developments or, fi the embellishment was also found

ni Celtic verse, as parallel developments. The late Professor W.J. Gruffydd was prepared to believe that Irish influence could be detected in the poetry of the Poets of the Princes in what is called

THE COURT

POET

IN MEDIEVAL

WALES

31

influences on skaldic verse on the basis of the similarities between Irish and skaldic verse, and the dissimilarities between skaldic and

Eddic poetry. This is not hte place to recapitulate the various arguments. Let it suffice to say that hte consensus of opinion regarding Irish influence on skaldic verse si that ti si not proven. 7

It was possible to give more weight than was proper to the

Owain Gwynedd and Owain Cyfeiliog and in Gwalchmai's

theory that Gruffudd ap Cynan was able to reintroduce or reanimate Welsh praise poetry because traditionally Meilyr

Perhaps it should be said that there are examples of one

first of the Poets of the Princes; in other words that he had no

their 'personal poetry', more especially ni the poetry of Hywel ab

'gorhoffedd'. s6

Brydydd, Gruffudd ap Cynan's pencerdd, was believed to be the

literature exercising considerable influence on another, and that

immediate forerunner. 'Meilyr

some scholars have argued that Irish influence is to be seen in the

the earliest of the "Gogynfeirdd" of the Welsh poetic renascence, sang very differently of the vanquished of 1081 and of Gruffydd

development of Norse skaldic poetry although such influence has been strongly denied by others.

...,the harbinger of the new era,

ap Cynan ni 1137; in the interval he had learnt hte art of a

sustained and trumpet-like music of which there is no trace in his

The Icelander Finnur Jonsson may be taken as a representative of the nativist school. He argued that for the literature of one

first poetic effort 86 This, as we shall see, was a misconception and

people to influence that of another, the two peoples need to live

there is evidence in Meilyr Brydydd's elegy on Gruffudd ap Cynan

together and in peace over a lengthy period. This the Irish and the

Vikings manifestly did not do, and so there can be no question of

literary influence. It could be said that Jónsson was perhaps too

dogmatic. Political relations between the Germans and the French

ni the Middle Ages were hardly less hostile than those between the Irish and the Vikings, yet German poets borrowed successfully

Provençal sentiments. B u t Jónsson could have deployed other arguments, had he not been so convinced that this single argument was decisive.

that there were other Welsh poets at the royal court. The main argument, however, against the idea that praise-poets were somehow introduced to Welsh poetry by the intervention of Gruffudd ap Cynan, si the fact that the poets were an order or a sodality as firmly entrenched in Welsh society as they were in Ireland, that they were as much a social institution and part of the structure of society, quite as basic and as deeply-rooted in the past. They were part and parcel of the social structure which

most influential, have argued very strongly the case for Irish

engendered them, and their position, privileges and benefits are clearly defined ni the laws'. Writing of the Celtic bard, Kenneth H. Jackson, says, "The bard was the propagandist and upholder of

56 See W.J. Gruffydd, 'Rhagarweiniad i farddoniaeth Cymru cyn Dafydd ap Gwilym', THSC, 1937, 237-83, esp. 268-9. Gruffydd's suggestion in Math vab Mathonwy (Cardiff, 1928), 342, that 'The district which cradled the mythology

76 Perhaps it should be noted that .J Opland, Anglo-Saxon Oral Poetry (New Haven and London, 1980), 174, believed that 'The hypothesis that an oral

up See ot theWConquest' , has not found acceptance. .P. Lehmann, The Development of Germanic

86 CF. HW ,i 531.

On the other hand, scholars of whom Sophus Bugge was the

and legend of Lleu ni Wales was Irish ni speech, probably ni hte remote parts, 1956), 184-5.

Verse Form (Austin,

the whole structure of the aristocratic social order to an extent

tradition of Anglo-Saxon eulogistic poetry in imitation of the skaldic

te reign of Athelstan si reasonable? tradition was revived during h

6 K.H. Jackson, op.cit. (footnote 3), 38-9.

32

T H E C O U R T P O E T IN M E D I E VA L

THE C O U RT POET IN M E D I E VA L WALES

quite unknown ni any other European society.'7 The suppression of the bardic institution in Wales would have meant a revolution

in the country's social structure. Apart from the fact that the Irish

bards would have needed an Irish audience to function in Wales, it

WA L E S

33

years and wisdom, the prior of the monastery of Chester and many priests and scholars anointing his body with sacred oil according to the injunction of the Apostle James.72 Unfortunately we cannot believe everything that the Historia tells

can be taken for granted that the Welsh bards would have resisted any attempt to curtail their rights, not to mention any attempt to reform or displace them.

us. Like other vitae of the period it followed a stereotype pattern and ni all probability endowed Gruffudd with some of the virtues

We need not, however, deny all influence to Gruffudd ap

Gruffudd's son, Owain, with an ideal to emulate as well as with

Cynan: indeed, it si easy to believe that his military, political and cultural contribution did a great deal to reanimate the tradition of

praise poetry and to give the poets a more vital role. Both could have resulted from his efforts to raise the level of general culture

enjoyed ni his kingdom. The Historia tells us: Then every kind of good increased in Gwynedd and the people began to build churches in every part therein, sow woods and plant them, cultivate orchards and gardens, and surround

them with fences and ditches, construct walled buildings, and

live on the fruits o f the earth after the fashion of the men of

Rome. Gruffudd also built large churches ni his own major courts, and held his courts and feasts always honourably.

Furthermore, Gwynedd glittered then with lime-washed churches, like the firmament with the stars."

of the ideal sovereign. It was also written probably to provide

grounds for rightful pride. But the overall intention of the author

was to paint Gruffudd as a powerful cultural as well as a

successful warring leader, as one who saw himself imitating the cultural activities of Charlemagne on the Continent, of Alfred ni England and of Brian Ború in Ireland. Indeed it si not at all

incredible that Gruffudd, born as he was of a 'mixed' marriage, a Welsh nobleman and a Scandinavian princess, and reared ni a

foreign country, ni Ireland and not far from Dublin, would have

come to the throne of Gwynedd realizing that it was a backward

country which needed cultural changes. On the other hand, Meilyr Brydydd's elegy to Gruffudd ap Cynan suggests that the Welsh bardic tradition was flourishing: it refers more than once to the bards and their songs, e.g.,

Py dawant anant na frydant wawd? Why are the poets who do not compose poetry, silent?

After he had become old and blind, Gruffudd, we are told,

resolved to go on his own to a secret place, to lead a godly life, and to despise completely all his worldly dominion. And to witness his end,

there came the greatest and wisest men of all the territory,

David Bishop of Bangor, Archdeacon Simon, a man mature ni 07 CPWP .4 For an introduction to the structure of Celtic society see C.C.

Crumley, Celtic Social Structure (Ann Arbor, 1974).

" D.S. Evans, A Medieval Prince of Wales. The Life of Gruffudd ap Cynan

(Llanerch, 1990), 81-2. Note the interesting expression 'after the fashion of the m e n o f R o m e ' .

Ny want vanueirt ... The minor bards know not ..

Apart, however, from these references to the existence of poets

other than Meilyr Brydydd ni Gwynedd and ot their relationship to Gruffudd ap Cynan as their patron, we have evidence that similar poets were active ni other parts of Wales and ni the service

of other patrons during this period. It comes ot us in two songs to be found in the Black Book of Carmarthen. One is a eulogy for

21 Tb,. 83.

34

THE COURT

POET

IN M E D I E VA L

THE C O U R T P O E T I N M E D I E VA L WA L E S

WA L E S

Hywel ap Goronwy, who was made lord of Ystrad Tywi, Gwyr and Cydweli by Henry I, and was treacherously murdered by his

son's foster-father, Gwgon ap Meurig, ni 1106. The other is a . Geraint Gruffydd eulogy for Cuhelyn Fardd, who, as Professor R has shown, must have been living ni the cantref of Cemais, north

Dyfed, ni the first part of the twelfth century, с. 1100-1132.73

35

material progress ni Western Europe which led up to the event.

The evidence for this material progress seems to have been drawn in the main from France, but no doubt ti was not limited to that

country. There it was characterized by the diffusion of coinage,

the extension of land under cultivation and the increase in

population. No doubt these phenomena were inter-related. The

Historia tells us that more land was brought under cultivation in

Unfortunately, we do not know who composed these songs but that their authors were early Gogynfeirdd is obvious from the text:

Gwynedd ni Gruffudd ap Cynan's time. That would have

they wrote in the same diction, used the same metres and enjoyed the same relationship with their patrons. In this connexion it is interesting to note that according to the

more churches were built, by the king and perhaps by others, and

Doomsday Book, Berddig, the king's poet, was granted land free

supported an increase in the population. We are also told that

this implies an increase in wealth. In Europe generally the Church was quick to take advantage

of all dues ni Gwent-Is-Coed by Gruffudd ap Llywelyn who, before he died ni 1063 had been ruler of Gwynedd and Powys, and

of the new wealth ni the hands of the kings and the nobles. Both were expected to devote some of ti to the enterprise of building

representative of the local dynasty, either Meurig ap Hywel or his son Cadwgan, before it had been ousted by Gruffudd ap Llywelyn, but even so, this grant seems to be evidence that Gruffudd was acquainted with the bardic institution and that he knew how to reward a king's poet. This takes us back to a period

donations but in time the nobles also were pressurized to emulate the kings.

after 1055, over all Wales. 4 Perhaps Berddig had been poet to the

considerably earlier than Gruffudd ap Cynan and Meilyr Brydydd. THE T W E L F T H - C E N T U RY RENAISSANCE

But perhaps we should not think of Gruffudd as a cultural ruler ni

the mould of a King Alfred, but rather as a child of his times, as a ruler whom those times needed.

Georges Duby expressed a degree of dissatisfaction with Charles Homer Haskins's fine book on The Renaissance of the

Twelfth Century because of its disregard of the long movement of . Geraint Gruffydd, A 37 See R ' Poem ni Praise of Cuhelyn Fardd from the Black Book of Carmarthen', CS x/xi (1975-6), 198-209 and his edition of the two poems n i GMB, poems 1 and 2.

47 HW ii, 367.

new churches. At first it was the kings who were expected to make There is evidence that greater literacy was required from the aristocracy, from the kings and from the nobles. Duby recounts from the History of the Counts of Anjou an anecdote about Count

Fulk the Good who died about 960.75 The king's intimates

laughed when they saw the count singing the Office ni the midst of

the canons but afterwards they began to understand his conduct

when they read his words, 'an illiterate king si a crowned ass', and were to learn that 'sapientia, eloquence, and letters were as

' appropriate for counts as for kings® t o Duby, there i s more and more evidence that According from the end of the eleventh century young men who neither

belonged to the ranking nobility nor were destined for the Church, were yet taught to read and to understand a little Latin? This

57 G . Duby, T ' he Culture of hte Knightly Class. Audience and Patronage' ni

Renaissance and Renewal ni the Twelfth Century, ed. R.L. Benson and G. Constable (Oxford, 1982); C.H. Haskins, The Medieval Renaissance of the Twelfth Century (Cambridge, Mass., 1927), 259.

67 1b,. 255.

THE C O U R T

P O E T IN

M E D I E VA L W A L E S

demand for education meant that more and more money was

spent to maintain residential clerics to teach the young members

of the aristocratic families as well as to help with the administration of the estates. Some nobles spent money, not on churches, but on colleges for canons fi they did not already exist

near

their

residences.

Thus there were more

and more

opportunities for young clerics who had concluded their studies,

THE COURT

POET IN MEDIEVAL WALES

37

members, especially those who held royal office, literate. One

should, of course, remember that the term 'court' covers judicial, legislative and festive assemblies and that it was ni the festive

assemblies that the poets came into their own. Owain Gwynedd would have maintained similar courts. Was the cleric who wrote hte Latin original of the Historia a member of hte royal entourage? Would he have written that Latin original, did not some other

and ever greater opportunity for their training.

In this milieu more members of the aristocracy became literate,

members have sufficient knowledge of the language to understand it? Whatever the answer to the last question may be, it must be

and to be literate became one of the aspirations of the aristocracy and one of the doors opening to their ranks for those whose only

true that the standard of literacy, in both its modern and medieval

sense, was rising among the aristocracy ni Wales as in other

other qualification was their wealth. Adalberon, Bishop of Laon,

European countries,

ni a poem addressed to King Robert the Pious ('Carmen ad Rodbertum Regem'), c. 1030, describes the constituents of society as the oratores, the bellatores and the laboratores, those who pray,

those who fight and those who work. This tripartition corresponds to the trifunctional structure which G. Dumézil saw as basic to all ancient Indo-European societies, and its persistence despite its non-biblical antecedents reflects an innate conservatism. The new culture was primarily a courtly culture. At the courts

the milites and the clerici met under the auspices of the lords, and not only of the lords but also of their ladies. And some of these

ladies and their daughters could and did become more thoroughly litteratae than their men folk on whom life outside the court made greater and far different demands.

The Historia informs us that Gruffudd ap Cynan 'built large

churches in his major courts, and that he held his courts and feasts

honourably 8? One should like to know what is meant by 'major

courts' in this context. The words could refer to buildings but the Welsh kings also held peripatetic courts. Whether the court was a building or an assembly, an important part of the personnel were clerics and they must have played a part in making the other

77 See .J el Goff, op.cit. (footnote 40), 11-12. 87 D.S. Evans, op.cit. (footnote 71), 81.

and that this was due to the so-called

Twelfth-century Renaissance, although h te full effects of that as soon as they did ni Wales reached renaissance may not have

some other European countries. If Welsh literature can be said to start with Taliesin and

Aneirin, lonely relics of a dim past, it can be said to have restarted

ni the twelfth century, or at least to have been reanimated in that century under the influence of the renewed struggle to preserve

political independence and perhaps even more so under the influence of the West-European Renaissance.

'Everywhere ni Western Europe during the twelfth century', w e are told, 'in France, Germany, England, Italy and Spain, men's

hearts and minds were waking to a new appreciation of the world, its colour, its vastness, its aspects, the world of men, the world of the spirit, the world of the cosmos and the world of nature.'80 As i Leben of the poetry of the " The royal courts were the predominant Sitz m Gogynfeirdd and as such deserve special study. See J.G. Edwards, T ' he Royal Household and the Welsh Law Books', Transactions of the Royal Historical

Society, fifth series, xiii (1963), 163-76; M.E. Owen, 'Literary Convention and

Historical Reality: The Court in the Welsh Poetry of the Twelfth and

Thirteenth Centuries', ÉC xxix (1992), 69-85. 08 .F Heer, The Medieval Mnid (Mentor Books, 1963), 101. On the twelfth-

century renaissance see also C.H. Haskins, op.cit. (footnote 75); G. Paré, .A . Brunet, P. Tremblay, La Renaissance du douzième siècle (Paris, 1933); C

Brooke, The Twelfth Century Renaissance (London, 1969).

38

T H E C O U R T P O E T IN

M E D I E VA L WA L E S

Georges Duby has reminded us, this renaissance differed from its predecessors. Whereas in the past, attempts at renaissance were conceived as the rescue from degeneration and the restoration of

the pristine glory of former achievements, now those achievements

were taken up to exploit them 'as settlers exploited virgin lands, ni order to take more from them'.

There was a conviction that former achievements were there not only to be restored but also to

be improved, and surpassed, if not ni some cases, to be superseded.81

Because of its paramount position in society the Church promoted as well as experienced this renaissance and needless to

say, it played as decisive a role ni Wales as elsewhere. As part of an international body ti provided a channel for the influx of new cultural ideas, and as an institution ni Wales, ti brought AngloNorman and continental influences to bear on the life of the

people. It is well for us to remember that, however far removed

from him they were geographically and culturally, Abelard (1079-

1142) and Bernard of Clairvaux (1091-1151) were fulminating against each other during the same half-century as Meilyr

Brydydd was at the height of his poetical powers at the court of Gruffudd ap Cynan. That the Welsh literary revival was not and could not be

confined to poetry is patent, just as ti is obvious that the poets were not its sole promoters. L AT I N C O M P O S I T I O N S

It occurred at the same time as the revival of Latin learning in Wales and elsewhere. In 1136, perhaps a year or two later,

Geoffrey of Monmouth published his Historia Regum Britanniae 28 Although apparently of Breton rather than of Welsh parentage, he

THE

C O U RT POET IN MEDIEVAL WALES

39

of inspired him to collect and to give general currency to that part

Welsh lore which was to form the nucleus of the Arthurian Cycle

of Romance. Geoffrey was not a historian, and he took a dim view

of the Welsh of his day, but eh gave them a glorious past, and ti was natural that they embraced it as a matter of pride.

Sometime after the publication of Geoffrey of Monmouth's

Historia Regum Brittaniae, probably, as we have seen, as late as

around 1165, another cleric wrote the Latin original of Historia Gruffud vab Kenan. The author and his readers must have felt that

this work was redressing the wrong Geoffrey of Monmouth had done to the reputation of contemporary Welshmen: it showed that

culturally, politically and militarily Gwynedd was not a backward kingdom. They must also have been aware that Gwynedd, like the rest of Wales, had undergone and was undergoing great changes,

just as aware as the annalist or annalists who were compiling the

Latin original of Brut y Tywysogyon. The chronicle, as J.E. Lloyd

observes, almost dies of inanition towards hte end of Henry I's reign, 'But suddenly, at the end of 1135, (it) bursts into life and eloquence once more. The reason si not far to seek. Death has removed the strong hand of the king; his successor, Stephen, ... si

powerless to control Wales.'83 The chronicle si interesting also from another standpoint. It includes what may be regarded as

obituary notices' of the Welsh princes and these, ni some respects,

resemble the marwnadau, the elegies or memorial odes written on them by their poets, reflecting, to some extent, the same sense of values and the same outlook on l i f e . For these annalists,

removed as they were ni their cloisters from the ordinary life of the 38 J.E. Lloyd, 'The Welsh Chronicles', PBA xiv (1928), 384-5; id., HW ii,

469-86. See also Brut y Tywysogyon Peniarth MS. 20, ed. T. Jones (Cardiff,

had been reared ni Monmouth and had taken a deep interest ni Welsh and Breton traditions, and ti was this interest which

1941); Brut y Tywysogyon or the Chronicle of the Princes Peniarth 20 Version (Cardiff, 1952), Brut y Tywysogyon or the Chronicle of the Princes Red Book

18 Duby, cap.cit. (footnote 75).

48 Se T. Jones, 'Molawd a Marwnad yr Arglwydd Rhys: Fersiynau

28 J.S.P. Tatlock, The Legendary History of Britain (Berkeley, 1950).

Hergest Version, ed. T. Jones (Cardiff, 1955); Brenhinedd y Saesson or the

Kings of the Saxons, ed. T. Jones (Cardiff, 1971).

Ychwanegol', BBCS xxiv (1970-2), 276-82:

40

THE C O U R T

POET IN

THE C O U RT POET IN MEDIEVAL WALES

M E D I E VA L WA L E S

4I

achievements of their contemporaries.

directed that in future priests were ot preach ni everyday Romance and Germanic. This shows that Odl French and Old High Germare an

The earlier parts of the Latin original of Brut y Tywysogyon were based on an annalistic record kept at St. David's, a record

universal, though dead, language, helping to create a Europe

people, the traditions of earlier ages were still alive in their original

epic style, a style they were prepared ot imitate ni recording the

which probably owed something to the close relation between the clas there and Ireland, a relation which continued at least to the time of Bishop Sulien and his sons. As we have seen, one of those

sons, Rhygyfarch, was inspired to write a 'Planctus' bemoaning

the increasing oppression of the Normans on his countrymen. He

must by that time have been widely used in the Church. There other indications that as Latin embarked on its career as a unified by one culture, the vernaculars were emerging as literary

languages. They were to express a separate and different cultural tradition mainly centred on the cult of the warrior. Epics in the Romance and Teutonic tongues, such as the celebrated Chanson de

Roland, the Cantar de Moi Cid (1140), and the Nibelungenlied (c.

was also moved or induced to compose the Latin 'Vita Beati

1200) that had been passed on orally and in unstable forms from

Davidis Archiepiscopi et Confessoris' about 1095, to further, ti would appear, the metropolitan claims of St. David's, claims

expression. 68

which were to be eagerly espoused and vigorously championed

about a century later by Gerald of Wales. Gerald, of course, was a

prolific writer and could claim to be a pioneer in one genre of literature, in the ethnographic Descriptio Kambriae and

generation to generation, then for hte first time found literary

PROSE WORKS IN THE VERNACULAR Some of the legends that must have been circulating ni Wales for

centuries, also found literary expression around about this time.

Both his Descriptio and his Itinerarium

When they are taken together with somewhat later literary

Kambriae c o n t a i n m u c h material which could be used to b o o s t the

compositions, they bring the realization that the age of the Poets of the Princes coincided to a large extent with the golden age of

Topographia Hibernica.

claims of the Welsh to nationhood, and both provide information

which si pertinent to any study of the work of the Poets of the

Princes. It si significant, for instance, and ni accord with the heroic

epic style of some of the annalistic entries ni the original of Brut y

Tywysogyon, that Gerald tells us that the Welsh regarded it an honour to die in battle and a disgrace to die in bed. 58 These literary works have been mentioned to show the extent

to which Wales participated ni the Latin literary revival. It should be noted that the rediscovery of Classical Latin was taking place when Latin was ceasing to be spoken and when the vernaculars were emerging as literary languages, the Council of Tours in 813 58 Gerald of Wales: The Journey Through Wales / The Description of Wales, . Thorpe (London, 1980), 233; cf. Claudius Aelianus, Var. Hist., xii.23, trans. L who remarks that the Celts strive most of all after danger and that the subject of their songs are the men who have died a noble death in battle.

medieval Welsh prose, that is, the age of 'Culhwch and Olwen',

'The Four Branches of the Mabinogi', 'The Dream of Maxen', 'Lludd and Levelys' and 'The Dream of Rhonabwy' to name the entirely native compositions, and the age of the Three Romances ('Peredur', 'Owain' and 'Geraint'), the compositions that were subjected to French influences.

i Mittelalter (Bayreuth, 1975), 87, 'Zwischen 500 und 900 68 K. Bosl, Europa m kam auch romanisches und germanisches Erzählgut in Berührung; und auf

diese Weise entstanden die Stoffe auch der germanischen Heldendichtung.

Heldendichtung eignet dem Adel, ist gemeineuropäisch und findet sich bei

West- und Nordgermanen, Romanen, Slawen und Byzantinern.' F. Maurer,

Dichtung und Sprache des Mittelalters (Bern, München, 1963), 11, remarks on the remarkable burst of literary activity connected with the names of Harmann von Aue, Wolfram von Eschenbach, Gottfried von Strassburg, and

Walther von der Vogelweide which occurred in Germany between 1180 and

1230.

42

T H E C O U RT

P O E T IN

M E D I E VA L WA L E S

For obvious reasons two of our prose classics deserve more

attention than this passing reference. firstly, they point ot considerable activity in prose at the same time as the poetic revival began. Secondly, they seem to show a conscious desire on the part of their redactors to collect and co-ordinate the several legends

which belonged to different parts of the country. Thirdly, they display a considerable degree of literary sophistication and

artistry. And fourthly, the Poets of the Princes themselves may have had a hand ni giving them their final shape; in other words,

T H E C O U R T P O E T IN M E D I E VA L WA L E S

43

an attempt by a native of Dyfed to unite the stories of his own

province with those of Gwynedd and Gwent when all three provinces were under one ruler, Gruffudd ap Llywelyn ap Seisyll,

i.e., sometime between 1055 and 1062, when poets and storytellers would have been free to travel throughout the land, to learn its

traditions and to visit its legendary sites. For Ifor Williams, the

most likely time for the composition of the 'Four Branches' would

be around 1060.9 Saunders Lewis argued that they were written

between 1170 and 1190.' Dr Thomas Charles-Edwards has

they may have been among their redactors.

reviewed the arguments of both Williams and Lewis and has

Foster once suggested that it was redacted in its present form ni

concluded that the most likely period of writing si between 1050 and 1120.9 Perhaps we shall never find a definitive date acceptable

'Culhwch and Olwen' cannot eb dated very precisely.87 Idris

hte second half of the eleventh century, perhaps about 1081.88 This

was the year that Gruffudd ap Cynan crossed the Irish Sea to land at Porth Clais and to win with the help of Rhys ap Tewdwr the Battle of Mynydd Carn and the year that Rhys ap Tewdwr concluded a lasting peace with William the Conqueror on his visit to his kingdom and to St. David's. Dr Rachel Bromwich and Professor D. Simon Evans would date 'Culhwch and Olwen' to the last decades of the eleventh century, possibly to about 1100.

They add that this si about the same time as Rhygyfarch

composed his Latin 'Life of Saint David', and since both texts are

associated with S.t David's, they once suggested that ti si possible that both texts emanated from the same centre, but now they seem

to favour the priory at Carmarthen as the provenance of 'Culhwch and Olwen'.89

Ifor Williams, who gave us the classic edition of 'The Four

Branches of the Mabinogi, suggests that they had their origin ni 78 'Culhwch and Olwen and Rhonabwy's Dream', Arthurian Literature in the Middle Ages, ed. R.S. Loomis (Oxford, 1959), 31-43; Culhwch and Olwen, ed

R. Bromwich and D.S. Evans (Cardiff, 1992). 88 Loomis, op.cit., 38-9.

98 Culhwch ca Olwen, gol. R . Bromwich a D.S. Evans (Caerdydd, 1988),

. Bromwich and D.S. Evans (Cardiff, Ixxxix, but cf. Culhwch and Olwen, ed. R

1992), 1xxxi.

to all scholars, but ti is interesting to note that the dates suggested by Ifor Williams and Dr Thomas Charles-Edwards carry the implication that the 'Four Branches' could have been written

sometime before or soon after 'Culhwch and Olwen', and that there is a possibility that both texts could have emanated from a centre in Dyfed. However, there are considerable differences ni

style and milieu between them and these differences call for an explanation.

In his study, Branwen Daughter of Llfr," a study now superseded by his two books on the 'Mabinogi', especially his last

(1992),94 Professor Proinsias Mac Cana showed that a reasonable case could

be made for

attributing

Branwen—and the Mabinogi as a whole-to Rhygyfarch or

his father Sulien, or to the two in collaboration. It si an attractive possibility but in view of the gaps ni our knowledge

09 .I Williams, Pedeir Keinc yMabinogi (Caerdydd, 1930), xli. 19 S. Lewis, 'Math Fab Mathonwy', YTraethodydd, cxxiv (1969), 192.

. . Charles-Edwards, T'he date of the Four Branches of the Mabinogi, 29 TM THSC, 1970, 263-98.

39 P . Mac Cana, Branwen Daughter of Llÿr (Cardiff, 1958). ** Id,. The Mabinogi (Cardiff, 1992).

THE C O U R T P O E T IN M E D I E VA L

44

THE C O U RT POET IN MEDIEVAL WALES

WA L E S

of the general background of the period, ti can scarcely become more.?5

On the other hand, it reflects the impression given of the presence

of clerical influenc e on the redactio n of the 'Mabinogi'.

As we have seen, Ifor Williams made use of the temporary

unification of the Welsh kingdoms under Gruffudd ap Llywelyn as

an argument for dating 'The Four Branches' to c. 1060:96 it was a time when Welsh poets and story-tellers could travel all around Wales. He seems to have forgotten that he himself had argued that Taliesin after a period in the service of Cynan Garwyn in Powys

45

The Fourth Branch of the 'Mabinogi' has something to tell us about the poets in olden times if not in the times of the redactor.

To create an opportunity for his brother Gilfaethwy to have Goewin, Math son of Mathonwy's footstool-maid, Gwydion engineers a distraction, a hostile encounter between Pryderi and

Math which will compel the latter to leave his court. Gwydion's machinations begin with a visit to Pryderi's court ni Dyfed and a request for the swine that Pryderi has had from Arawn king of Annwn.

Gwydion, we are told, went as one of twelve men in the guise

been a good deal of contact between the poets of the various túatha and suggests that their organization in the country as a

of bards to ask for the swine. They arrived at Rhuddlan Teifi, where Pryderi had a court. It si possible that the number twelve si significant. According to Uraicecht na Ríar, an ollam or chief poet was allowed twenty four people ni his retinue when engaged on public business, twelve when pursuing a claim, ten at feasts of hospitality, eight on a circuit with a king." And in the guise of bards they came inside. They made them welcome. Gwydion was placed at Pryderi's one hand that

whole was headed by a chief or head poet. However, the unification of the Welsh provinces under Gruffudd ap Llywelyn must have left a lasting impression on the royal family of

custom with us that the first night after one comes to a great

had moved to Rheged to serve Urien" and that it appears that ni

Wales, as in Ireland, the poets formed an organization whose

authority transcended the boundaries of territorial kingdoms. An

Irish text on distraint refers to 'the right of a poet beyond a

boundary, 89 i.e., outside his own tuath, a right enjoyed by only a

few professions, and other evidence reveals that there must have

e have a tale from night. 'Why,' said Pryderi, 'gladly would w some of the young men yonder.' 'Lord,' said Gwydion, 'it si a

haunting dream, an ever-beckoning ideal for its

man, the chief bard (pencerdd) shall have the say. I will tell a tale gladly? Gwydion was the best teller of tales ni the world.

with the kings, several of them were closely associated with the

story-telling till he was praised by every one ni the court and it

which included, with the unification of Wales under one sovereign lord, the promotion of a homogeneous culture. Needless to say,

better than I myself?' "Not so,' he answered, a' right good

Gwynedd, for the restoration and continuance of that union

became ai

successive rulers. As we shall see, the poets were closely associated

kings of Gwynedd and even shared their political ambitions,

the poets had a vested interest in establishing such a homogeneity. 59 Id., Branwen Daughter of Llfr, 187. 69 .I Williams, Pedeir Keinc y Mabinogi, xli. 97 PT lix-Ix.

89 F. Kelly, AGuide ot Early Irish Law (Dublin, 1988), .5

And that night he entertained the court with pleasant tales and

was pleasure for Pryderi to converse with him. And at the end

thereof, 'Lord,' said he, will any one do my errand to thee

tongue is thine? "This then, lord, si my errand: ot beg of thee the animals that were sent thee from Annwn.'100

. Breatnach (Dublin, 1987), 104-5. 9 Uraicecht na Ríar, ed. L 10 G. Jones and .T Jones, The Mabinogion (London, New York, 1957), 56-7.

See also Sioned Davies, Crefft y Cyfarwydd (Caerdydd, 1995), 1-2.

46

THE COURT POET N I MEDIEVAL WALES

Pryderi answered that he could not give the swine because he had

covenanted with his subjects not to let the swine go until they had bred twice their number in the land. To free Pryderi from that

covenant, Gwydion arranged an exchange which it would be foolish for any one to refuse.

And then he (Gwydion) betook him to his arts, and began to

display his magic. And he made by magic twelve stallions and

twelve greyhounds, 1º

all with the most wonderful accoutrements.

It will have been noted that Gwydion went to Pryderi's court

as the chief (pencerdd) of twelve bards. Did eh himself go as a bard

because at that time it was difficult for any one to refuse a bard's request, and did he go as a member of a bardic company because

s a company? It si a it was customary for bards to travel a recurring theme in Irish literature that because people acceded to

T H E C O U R T P O E T IN M E D I E VA L WA L E S

47

Rhydderch Hael. His request si granted, thanks to a miracle

performed by the saint. 103 Gwydion appears throughout the Fourth Branch as a

powerful magician, but before Pryderi he appears as a pencerdd 'chief bard' who 'betook himself to his arts, began to display his magic', and, later on, to restore Lleu Llawgyffes from the form of

a dying eagle to the form of a human being, he sings three

englynion with magical effect. Do we have here a relic of the time

when Celtic bards were a branch of the druidic order and as such

endowed with magical powers? And is the chanting of englynion another relic? In dealing with the supernatural powers of the Irish poet Irish scholars emphasize that the filid, the early Irish poets, were the Christian successors of the pagan druids, a fact for which

there is ample evidence ni early Irish literature, much more than si suggested ni the books on the druids by NK . . Chadwick and Stuart Piggott. 104

requ ests b e c a m e m o r e a n d more preposterous, and bards travelling together and descending on a lord's court came to be

As a pencerdd Gwydion si given the place of honour next to Lord Pryderi. As we shall see, the Welsh Laws tell us that the pencerdd had a special place assigned to him in the king's court.

this incident ni the Fourth Branch of the 'Mabinogi' an echo of

the king from another kingdom, but ti is reasonable to suppose

the requests of bards for fear of being satirized by them, those

regarded as a plague to be feared above everything. 102 Have we in

this Irish literary theme? If so, the redactor or one of his predecessors has treated the theme in such a way as to make it

hardly recognizable, but it remains significant that Gwydion went

with his request to Pryderi as one of twelve men ni the guise of bards. It seems certain that he had precedents to follow. Jocelyn of

Furness ni his 'Life of Kentigern' refers to a joculator who, not satisfied with the gifts he had already received, requests the

They do not tell us what place was assigned to a pencerdd visiting that ni giving Gwydion a place beside Pryderi, the redactor, or one

of his predecessors, was acquainted with the practice of hte day

and made Pryderi conform to it.

Finally, Pryderi took ti for granted that the bards visiting him

could tell tales, that they were story-tellers. Gwydion does not question Pryderi's right to expect stories from him and his band of

poets, but he seems to invoke a practice peculiar to them, that on

seemingly impossible, a dish of blackberries ni winter from

the first night of a visit to a lord, the chief poet or pencerdd, ni this case Gwydion himself, should recite tales: fi he was like an Irish ollam he had a greater number of tales ni his repertory than the

101 Ib., 57.

103 See A.P. Forbes, The Lives of S.t Ninian and S.t Kentigern. Historians of

102 The story which best illustrates the excessive demands of the Irish poets is

Imthecht na Tromdáime: see M. Joynt, Tromdámh Guaire (Dublin, 1931).

Scotland, v (Edinburgh, 1874), ch. 37. 104 See F. Kelly, op.cit. (footnote 98), 44.

48

T H E C O U R T P O E T IN

M E D I E VA L WA L E S

other bards to choose from. An Irish text states categorically niba

fili cen scéla, ni other words, to be a poet one must have stories. 105 and another, Uraicecht na Ríar, affirms that the number of stories which a poet must know depends on his grade: an ollam, the

THE

COURT

POET

IN

M E D I E VA L

WA L E S

49

Di Rachel Bromwich has suggested that the author of T ' he Dream of Rhonabwy' had Cynddelw Brydydd M a r, the young

Cynddelw, in mind in his portrayal of Cadyrieith, and her suggestion has not been rejected by the editors of Cynddelw's

highest ni rank, is required to know 350 tales (dréchta), a fochloc, the lowest in rank, only 30 tales. 106

work. 108 It is interesting to note that the poets arrive as a company or band of men, just as Gwydion and his men arrived as a band at

Before we leave the 'Mabinogi' we should consider what the

Pryderi's court, and that prominence is given to the richness of the rewards given to them; not only are they given all the tribute of gold and silver brought by the a s s e s and, somewhat

'Dream of Rhonabwy' has to say to us about Cadyrieith

(Cadriaith, 'fine' or 'powerful of language) son of Saidi. 'There was not in Britain a man more mighty ni counsel than he', and it is implied that he was a bard, although he is not described as such. On the contrary, he is introduced as the last named in a long list of

incongruously, the asses as well, but all these gifts are given a' s an earnest of reward'; they were to be given the actual payment for

their song during the truce. 'For each poem commissioned by a

Arthur's counsellors including, 'many a man of Norway and Denmark, and many a man of Greece along with them? However,

patron, the (Irish) poet receives a fee (dúas) depending on the nature of the composition . . . For the most prestigious type, the anamain, the poet is entitled to a chariot worth a cumal, whereas

by their patrons, and ti si perhaps significant that ti was

for the least admired type, the dían, only a three-year-old dry heifer (samaisc) and a cauldron are due. A successful poet could become very rich .109 It is true that we are not told that the poets

we know that both in Wales and in Ireland poets were consulted

Cadyrieith's counsel that was finally accepted ni this instance. And thereupon, lo, bards coming to chant a song to Arthur. But never a man was there might understand that song save

Cadyrieith himself, except that it was ni praise of Arthur. And thereupon, lo, four-and-twenty asses coming with their burdens of gold and silver, and a weary worn man with each of them, bringing tribute to Arthur from the Isles of Greece. Then Cadyrieith son of Saidi asked that a truce be granted to

Osla Big-knife till the end of fortnight and a month, and that the asses which had brought the tribute be given to the bards,

and what was upon them, as an earnest of reward, and that

during the truce they should be given payment for their song. And they determined upon that. 107

demanded all this: they had no need to demand anything when Cadyrieith provided for them so well!

However, what si probably the most suggestive fi not the most

important detail ni the description of the poets in 'The Dream of Rhonabwy' si the statement that Cadyrieith's song si unintelligible

to all except to the poet himself. For this underscores the question which has occurred to all students of the work of the Poets of the

Princes: ot what extent was ti intelligible ot the patrons ot whom it was addressed, and to their followers who, with the patrons,

formed the audience? The various professions, as we might expect, had their own technical language or jargon. In Old Irish we have references to bérla Féne, the language of the Féne or legal language. Perhaps one should note that our remote ancestors may

have had different ideas from ours as to the degree of intelligibility . Thurneysen, Mittelirische Verslehren (Irische Texte, 111) 11, par. 91. 105 R 106 Uraicecht na Ríar, ed. L. Breatnach (Dublin, 1987), 102-3. 107 G. Jones and .T Jones, op.cit. (footnote 100), 151.

108 GCBM ,i xxv.

109 F. Kelly, op.cit. (footnote 98), 45.

50

THE C O U R T

POET

desirable in poetry. W.E. Roth reported of the natives of North

Queensland, Australia, A' tribe wil learn and sing by rote whole corroborees in a language absolutely remote from their own and not one word of which the audience or performers can understand the meaning of.'110

The poetry of the Gogynfeirdd is more 'difficult' than the poetry of their predecessors, the Cynfeirdd, both Early and Late. They seem to have imposed greater constraints on themselves-in

cynghanedd, vocabulary

and

THE COURT

M E D I E VA L WA L E S

IN

syntax-and,

correspondingly,

greater demands on their audience. There seems to be in skaldic verse a parallel development and a

double reaction among scholars, one emphasising the difficulty of skaldic verse and the lack of information conveyed by it, the other

POET IN MEDIEVAL

WALES

15

act and the cowardly, the loyal retainer and the treacherous.

And fi his central task was to catch and keep those fleeting

moments of joy, of heightened consciousness, ni which man

seemed illumined by a divine or demonic force, it was up to his hearers to summon intellectual and affective responses

comparable ni intensity ot his own; ti was the obligation of the

connoisseurs ni his audience to puzzle out what combination of dark thoughts gave rise to his sunset or sea-skerry, what triumphant hopes brought forth the blood-stained eagle and

corpse. Ill

T H E P O E T S IN THE L A W - T E X T S

nI our appreciation of the literary art of 'Culhwch and Olwen', the

minimizing both. There is evidence that the skalds' audience found their verses difficult to understand, but as these verses

'Four Branches' and the 'Romances', we tend to forget that they

retained their popularity in the North for some five centuries, they

entertainment, then as now, was only a part of the business of living. A much more pervasive and embracing influence on life

must have said something to their public, although, as si the case with most oral poetry, much of it was already known. We shall have to return to the matter of the style of the

Gogynfeirdd, but ni the meantime we should bear in mind the words of a modern scholar, Dr Roberta Frank, on the peculiar style of the skalds.

... the nineteenth century knew what ti was doing when it lamented the vagueness and fuzziness of the verse, mourned how minute a role facts and figures seemed to play ... For the

skald seems to have conveyed fundamental values, meanings,

were

composed

to

entertain

t h e i r audiences

and

that

was social order or the law, and it should be remembered that fi the history of Welsh law falls into three periods, ending respectively with the work of Hywel Dda ni the mid-tenth century, with the death of Llywelyn ap Gruffudd ni 1282, and with the Act

of Union ni 1536, the second period coincided to some extent with the period of the Poets of the Princes. It was a period of considerable legal activity and of increasing sophistication ni the

application of the law to the social and political changes which were occurring. It is no wonder that the law-texts of this period

and feelings through his ingenious variations on a few themes

have something to tell us about the legal position of the poets ni

and formulas: heroic death, enduring love, the voyage of

society. Unfortunately, according to Professor Dafydd Jenkins, it

discovery, the good statesman and the grasping, the generous 10 Quoted ni L. Lévy-Bruhl, How Natives Think (London, 1926), iii, pp. 11015. On bérla Féne, see F. Kelly, op.cit. (footnote 98), 52, 242, and the

comment on p. 48 on sui cach bérlai ollaman, '"lit. an expert of every form of

language with the rank of ollam", whom the glossator may well be right ni identifying as the ollam filed "chief poet"

is neither as unambiguous nor as comprehensive as we could

wish. 12 It may be, as Mr Eurys Rowlands has argued, that what 111R. Frank, 'Skaldic Poetry', in Old Norse-Icelandic Literature, ed. C.J. Clover and .J Lindow (Ithaca, London, 1985), 183-4; cf. id., Old Norse Court Poetry (Ithaca, London, 1978), 28-9.

B xiv (1988), 19-46. 112D. Jenkins, 'Pencerdd a Bardd Teulu', Y

THE C O U RT POET IN M E D I E VA L WALES

T H E C O U R T P O E T IN M E D I E VA L WA L E S

we have in the laws is an attempt to synthesize two different

the Gwynedd Code, the eleventh according to the others. His

52

53

traditions, namely, the tradition that a pencerdd or chief bard had special functions under the authority and protection of the king, and the tradition that as head of his profession, taking precedence

nawdd, i.e., his protection, extended as far as the penteulu. His

constitutional power of the regional monarch. 13 Mr Rowlands

a villein, i.e., fi he was that foolish, he was to sing until he was

over others ni it, he had an authority independent of the

could have cited evidence for the existence of these two traditions

ni Ireland with regard to the Irish ollam. Eochaidh Ó hEoghusa (ob. 1612) in an ode to his patron Hugh Maguire introduces a contrast between ollamh flátha and ollamh filiodh, the ollamh of the prince and the ollamh of the poets. In trying to define the precise meanings of cerddor, bardd eulu and pencerdd, one should realize that they probably developed and changed with the passage of time. For example, ni BT 24.2 kenynt gerdoryon kryssynt katuaon,

'the cerddorion sing, the troops attack', does kerdoryon here stand for beirdd teulu or for beirdd generally, including beirdd teulu? According to the Laws, a cerddor or poet under instruction from a pencerdd was to pay him twenty-four pence on completion

of the course and was to pay amobr, a marriage fee, to him when

one of his daughters got married. Furthermore, cerddorion were allowed to make a progress or circuit on the villeins in another

country while they waited for a gift from its king if he were at all inclined to bestow such a gift. The son of a villein was not allowed to take up the craft or profession of a cerddor any more than that

of an ysgolhaig, a cleric, without the king's permission.

The bardd teulu, poet of the household(-troops), 14 ' was one of

the twenty-four officers of the court, the fourteenth according to 13 E.I. Rowlands, 'Nodiadau ar y Traddodiad Moliant a'r Cywydd', in LICy vii (1963), 217-43.

14 Welsh teulu has had hte meaning 'family' for a long time but it should be

remembered that cenedl at one time had as one of its meanings 'teulu hyd nawfed ach', 'family to the ninth generation', and that teulu like the Latin . Bosl, 'Die "Familia" als familia underwent semantic changes. See K

,and that euul

Grundstruktur der mittelalterlichen Gesellschaft' in Die Gesellschaft in der

Geschichte des Mittelalters (Göttingen, 1975), ch. v, 84-111.

place was with that of the physician in the penteulu's lodgings. If he came with a request to the king, he was to sing one song, if to a nobleman, he was to sing three songs. If he came with a request to

exhausted! If he sang to the king's household troops on a pillaging raid, he was to have the best of the captured beasts, and if he sang

to them before a battle he was to sing 'Unbeiniaeth Prydain' ('The Lordship of Britain'). On assuming office, he was to be presented

with a harp by the king, a harp from which he was never to part,

and with a ring by the queen. He was to have a man's share like

any other member of the teulu and he was to sit next to the penteulu. The heriot (ebediw) to be paid to the lord or the king on his death was a pound. The bardd teulu was originally the bard of the lord's retinue.

The Old Irish cognate to teulu si teglach and, like teulu, ti had the two meanings (1) household, family, (2) household troops. In its second meaning teulu was synonymous with gosgordd and the

teulu / gosgordd was an institution ni both Celtic and Germanic societies derived from the earliest times. Julius Caesar tells us that

the Gaulish prince had a retinue of soldurii who had sworn

permanent allegiance ot their lord, ls' the same kind of allegiance

as the Germanic comitatus swore to its dux according to Tacitus, 16

and fi battle provides the context most frequently quoted by 15 See C.J. Caesar, Bellum Gallicum III.22, (trans. H.J. Edwards, The Loeb Classical Library, 1930). Apparently solduri were also called ambacti: see .A Holder, Alt-celtischer Sprachschatz (Leipzig, 1896), s.n. ambactos. On the Welsh teulu, see .I Williams, CA Ivii; K.H. Jackson, op.cit. (footnote 3), 16;

J.E. Lloyd, HW i, 306 and especially J.B. Smith, Llywelyn ap Gruffudd (Caerdydd, 1986), 208-11 where the evidence in Letters 147 and 199 in J.G. Edwards, Littere Wallie (Cardiff, 1940), si discussed. 16 Tacitus, Germania, xiv (illum [sc. principem] defendere, tueri, sua quoque

fortia facta gloriae eius assignare praecipuum sacramentum est.) On the Germanic comitatus see Christopher Brooke, From Alfred to Henry III. 871-

1272 (Edinburgh, 1961), 87.

THE C O U RT POET IN M E D I E VA L WALES

T H E C O U R T P O E T IN M E D I E VA L WA L E S

Roman historians for the performance of Germanic song or

payment; he takes precedence over the bardd teulu and is expected

54

poetry, we should not be surprised that it provided some contexts for Celtic songs. We can assume that the king had his own retinue just as each lord had, and that each lord brought both his own allegiance and that of his retinue to the service of the king. It is difficult to imagine that any bardd teulu would take precedence

over a pencerdd when the latter was present with the king either in

peace or war, and the pencerdd attached to a king at the head of

his army would, ti seems, be automatically his bardd teulu. On the

other hand, in the absence of a pencerdd in the court as well as in battle, the bardd teulu would automatically be the most important poet, and did not need to confine his services to the teulu as such.

Even when a pencerdd was present at the court, the position of the bardd teulu was safeguarded by his right ot sing three songs, o gerdd amgen (?of a different kind'), after the pencerdd had sung his two songs, and by the right of the queen to invite him to sing

to her any number of songs as long as he did so quietly and so as

not to disturb activities ni the hall. It si strange that no one, as far as I know, has suggested explicitly that some of the rhieingerddi

5

to sing before him, ni particular two songs, one about God and one about the king. Among his privileges is the gift of a harp from

aidenismar ied1eThepenceriddwa Neading-easti t, whenam

usually regarded as the pencerdd of some king or other and this implies that he stood in a special relationship to that king. There were also unofficial poets, beirdd ysbyddaid and gofeirdd ysbyddaid. Phylip Brydydd had to compete with these and had to press his claims against them at the court of Lord Rhys leuanc ni Llanbadarn Fawr.!! On them, as, unfortunately, on other matters, the law si silent. As we have suggested, the bardic sodality was part of the structure of medieval Welsh society and we cannot begin to understand its position ni that society without understanding that

structure as a whole.120 Although the Welsh Law-texts shed considerable light on the matter, they themselves are the product

of lawyers anxious to make them reflect contemporary practice and perhaps too ready to eliminate archaic features. In its origins

that have survived may have been sung by the poets acting as beirdd teulu and singing at the request of a queen. The pencerdd was the highest ranking among the poets. He is

Welsh society like the Irish must have been familial (i.e., the family, not the individual, was its unit), rural, tribal and hierarchical, and of these terms the last si the most difficult for us

won a chair, 17 i.e., in competition with others. According to one

connotation for us. Thus, early Irish law distinguishes between those who are nemed 'sacred, privileged' and those who are not

defined in Llyfr Blegywryd and Llyfr Cyfnerth as a poet who has

text eh si to give to the nad llys a drinking horn and a golden ring

after winning a chair. One source tells us that he is to sit next to

the ynad llys, other sources that his place si next to the edling, the

heir-apparent. However, he is not to be counted among the court's officials and in some things he is above the law. As we have seen, he teaches the cerddorion and is entitled to 24 pence from them as

17 D. Jenkins has discussed the testimony of the law-texts regarding pencerdd

and bardd teulu. See n. 108, and also Brinley Rees, 'Y Pencerdd a'r Brenin'

BBCS xxxix (1992), 46-53; J.E. Caerwyn Wiliams, C ' erdd a Phencerda', LICy xvi (1989-91), 205-11.

to understand since it does not any longer carry a religious

18 P. Mac Cana, 'An Archaism in Irish Poetic Tradition', Celtica, vili (1968), 174-81; id. 'Elfennau Cyn-Gristnogol yn y Cyfreithiau', BBCS xxiii (196870), 316-20. 19 See H 226-9; GDB poems 14 and 15. Apparently clêr, although it came to

be used predominantly of the inferior class of bards and musicians, could be minstrels, musicians, at one time without derogatory

implications. Se R 1210.2-3 Dihagyr oed glybot yglot gan gler, 'Splendid was it to hear his fame [proclaimed] by the clêr.

120 An Old Irish Tract on h te Privileges and Responsibilities of Poets', ed. E. ' túath without an ecclesiastical Gwynn, Ériu, xiii (1940) tells us (p.31) that A scholar, without a church, without a fili (sc. poet), without a king is no túath.

THE COURT POET IN MEDIEVAL WALES

T H E C O U R T P O E T IN M E D I E VA L WA L E S

nemed. 21 The chief categories of nemed were kings, lords, clerics

Thus Calvert Watkins has shown that the Old Irish creth 'poetry', surviving only ni glossaries, has its Welsh cognate ni pryd ni prydydd "poet', pryd-u "to compose poetry', that Old Irish fáth 'prophecy, prophetic wisdom' (of. fáith "prophet, seer')

56

and poets, and of these the most numerous was that of lords.

Indeed, ti could be said that Early Irish society consisted of lords

and commoners, and that intercalated between them were the aos

dána who included the leech, the skilled wright, the jeweller, and

most important of all, the poet, the historian, the musician and the

57

corresponds to Welsh gwawd 'poetry', and that OIr. aí, gen. uath, 'poetic art', is cognate with Welsh awen. 124

lawyer. Indeed, ti has been claimed that originally h te last four

fI the literacy of the Welsh intelligentsia ni their own language can be judged by the extent to which that language is to be found

and that ti was only with the passage of time that they became honour or rather of its violation. The highest grade of poet was

in the manuscripts that have survived, then the thirteenth is the century in which they became or began to become more generally literate. If those manuscripts reflect the degree of literacy demanded from the various classes of the intelligentsia, the

the ollam; he had the same honour-price as the king of the túath, a clear indication of his high status. He was accompanied by a

greatest demand was made on the lawyers. This is what we would expect, for, in the central Middle Ages, law, next to theology,

formed one class, the successor in Christian times to the druids, 122

separate.

Al these categories had their special status, the price of their

retinue of twenty-four persons and could give protection for a month. The lowest grade was the fochloc who had the honour-

price of a sét gabla or 1½ sét, was accompanied by two persons and could give protection for a day. 123 The pencerdd's honour-price is not stated in the Welsh Laws but one cannot imagine that he did not have one, and ti is important to compare the ollam's role ni early Irish society with that of the pencerdd ni Welsh society: otherwise ti will be difficult to understand the important part which the pencerdd played ni

became the most prestigious of academic disciplines, a training for

the literate élite who rose through the ranks of government. If we leave aside the manuscripts containing Latin versions of the Welsh Laws, we find that some ten copies of the Welsh Laws are to be

found in Welsh manuscripts written as far as can be judged ni the thirteenth century. Perhaps it would be right to assume that these copies were written for Welsh lawyers. We know that some of the

scribes of the law-texts wrote non-legal texts. Thus the legal text ni BL Harleian 4353 was written by the same scribe as the Book of

that society. After all, both these societies had developed from a

Taliesin (Peniarth MS. 2) 12s On the other hand, ti si likely that at

common Celtic basis: witness the correspondence between Welsh

least some lawyers made copies of law-texts for their own use. One

. teyrn, Ir. tigern, tigernae. And gwlad, Irish flath; W. rhi, Ir. rí; W

would like to know whether 'Gwilym Was Da' who wrote the

there are equally striking similarities between the words used to

Trinity College, Cambridge O . vii. copy and, ni al probability,

121 On nemed see Kelly, op.cit. (footnote 98), 9, 12, 57, &c. 12 The Old Irish terms fili and drui could be used at one time synonymously

Celtica, xi (1976), 270-7. Also J.E. Caerwyn Williams, 'Anant, ffriw', BBCS

describe the art of poetry and its practitioners ni both countries.

and fili could denote a jurist or judge (brithem) and a historian (senchaid) as well as a poet. See J.E. Caerwyn Williams, The Court Poet n i Medieval Ireland (from PBA lvii), 17.

123 As well as a fixed unit of value (a sét gabla, a forked (?) sét), sét meant a' jewel, treasure, valuable'; see Kelly, op.cit. (footnote 98), 321.

xxiv (1970-2), 44-55.

13. Payogo Ymu, Abery: Ast is, Apparenylt Na Costhad,

Peniarth 6 (Pt. iv), Peniarth 2=( Llyfr Taliesin), BL Harley 4353 are all by the

58

THE C O U R T P O E T IN M E D I E VA L W A L E S

the Peniarth MS. 36A and 36B, copies of the Blegywryd LawText, was himself a lawyer. 126

In his articles on Y ' r Ynad Coch' and 'Torwerth ap Madog', 721

Professor Dafydd Jenkins has made suggestions on the way some lawyers were invited or induced to go to Anglesey to serve the

princes of Gwynedd. 'Yr Ynad Coch', probably the same person

THE

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59

scriptoria began to lose their importance as manuscript producers and disseminators. Indeed there is evidence that even in the

twelfth century it was not unusual to find scribes living by the art of copying and to find monasteries hiring their labour. Thus at

Abingdon Abbey there were rules for the maintenance of hired scribes, 130 and this suggests that it was a well-known practice. But

as 'Madog Goch Ynad', was, of course, the father of Gruffudd ab

even fi the monasteries had lost some of their importance as

yr Ynad Coch who elegized Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, and Professor

scriptoria, they retained a great deal of ti as disseminators of

cousin to Einion ap Madog ap Rhahawd of whom we know

should not be overlooked. According to the Book of Blegywryd, 'The court priest has three kinds of service to give in sessions: to delete from the roll every case which has been determined; second

Jenkins has shown that Gruffudd ab yr Ynad Coch was third

nothing except that he addressed a poem to Gruffudd ap

Llywelyn, the father of Llywelyn ap Gruffudd. Gruffudd ab yr Ynad Coch may have been a lawyer as well as

a poet. The late Professor J.E. Lloyd has shown that Einion ap

literacy. Morover, the importance of the literate court priest

is to keep ni writing up to judgment every case until it si determined; third is to be ready and unintoxicated at the King's

of twelve, six Welshmen and six Englishmen, appointed to decide how land should be distributed among the princes of south Wales

after the war of 1223.128

need, to write letters and to read them. 131 A well-known disseminator of literacy in south-west Wales was the Cistercian abbey of Strata Florida. Whether or not ti was founded by Rhys ap Gruffudd, Lord of Deheubarth, on the banks

T H E L I T E R AT E C L A S S E S

was he and his descendants who continued to extend to it their

Had these Welsh manuscripts been produced ni previous centuries

patronage so that it came to surpass Llanbadarn Fawr ni importance and to excel it as a centre of learning. One of Lord

Gwalchmai, himself a poet as we shall see, served on a commission

one could have assumed that they were the products of monastic

scriptoria,12 but from the thirteenth century onwards these

126 M.E. Owen, D. Jenkins, 'Gwilym Was Da (Trinity College, Cambridge O. VII. 1 MS)', NLWJ xxi (1979-80), 429-30.

127D. Jenkins, Y ' r Ynad Coch', BBCS xxii (1966-8), 345-6; id., 'Torwerth ap

Madog: gwr cyfraith o'r drydedd ganrif ar ddeg', NLWJ viii (1953-4), 104

10; id., 'A family of medieval Welsh lawyers', in Celtic Law Papers, ed.

Dafydd Jenkins (Bruxelles, 1973), 121-33.

128 J.E. Lloyd, 'Einion ap Gwalchmai', BBCS vi (1933-5), 340. For further

evidence of the importance of Einion ap Gwalchmai, see David Stephenson,

The Governance of Gwynedd (Cardiff, 1984), 14, 98, 109, 110, 131, 132, 202,

129 .J Lloyd-Jones, CPWP 2, assumes that it was the monks who repaid their benefactors in the royal house of Gwynedd by copying and preserving the encomiums of their poets and thus safeguarded their fame in enduring

of the Fflur, it was he who moved it to the banks of the Teif and it

Rhys's descendants was Maredudd ab Owain who died in Llanbadarn Fawr in 1265 but was buried in Strata Florida.

Maredudd ab Owain had a daughter called Efa and ti was for

her sake, we are told, that some monk called Gruffudd Bola

translated the Athanasian Creed or rather the Quicunque Vult into

Welsh, explaining to her at the same time that in translating from

memorials. Cf. J.E. Lloyd, HW i, 604, but see N. Denholm-Young, Handwriting ni England and Wales (Cardiff, 1964), 42. 130 N . Denholm-Young, ib., 53 and n.6 where he cites the evidence of Chron.

Mon. de Abingdon (Rolls Series), ii, 371, but adds 'On the other hand hired scribes were f o r b i d d e n at S e m p r i n g h a m ( C . H . H a s k i n s , The Renaissance o f the

Twelfth Century, p. 134).' 13 The Law of Hywel Dda, ed. and trans. D. Jenkins (Llandysul, 1986), 12.

60

T H E C O U R T P O E T IN

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one language to another, it did not do to translate verbatim for that would violate the idiom of the language of translation. 132

It is generally assumed that Brother Gruffudd Bola was a member of the Strata Florida community but he may have been a

member of the community of Llanbadarn Far. However, we can be sure that he would not have translated the Quicunque Vult for

Efa nor troubled to explain to her the proper way to translate, had

she not been literate. It has been pointed out that she si the first

Welsh woman of whom we can confidently say that she was

literate ni her native language. Perhaps we can add that she was among the first persons outside the professions to be so. And fi any poet addressed a poem to her father we can be certain that she

would have asked him for a copy to read for herself. Would he have been able to comply with her request had she provided him

T H E C O U R T P O E T IN

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61

composed and orally communicated. In fact there is reason to believe that our earliest copies of some of the poems composed by

the Poets of the Princes were written before Efa's father, Maredudd ab Owain, died, and fi those copies were written by

others, why should the poets themselves not have had the ability

to make copies? On the basis of his reading of 'Moliant Dinbych Penfro' ('Praise of Dinbych Penfro'), Ifor Williams maintained that there was in the old fortress at Tenby, in the last quarter of. the ninth century, a room or cell in which was kept ysgrifen

Brydein, 'Britain's script or manuscript', and to which the bard, the author of the poem, would retreat, perhaps in the company of

Bleiddudd, lord of the fortress, to peruse the script. 134 We do not know whether the writing was ni Latin or Welsh, but the balance

of probability si that ti was ni Welsh, and that suggests that even

with a slate or, less probably, with wax-tablet or parchment?133 Efa belonged to a literate family. We must not forget that it was for her brother Gruffudd ap Maredudd that another cleric Madog

language. Gerald of Wales tells us that ni his day (c. 1146-1223)

ap Selyf translated the Transitus Beatae Mariae and the Chronicle of Turpin into Welsh. It will be noticed that we assume that her

old manuscripts that were, of course, written ni Welsh and not ni Latin, as he and his readers would have expected. There can be no

father's poet did not read his poem but recited ti from memory, ni other words that we are still ni a society where poetry is orally 132 H . Lewis, 'Credo Athanasius Sant', BBCS v(1929-31), 193-203. Se also Y Traddodiad Rhyddiaith yn yr Oesoedd Canol, gol. G. Bowen (Llandysul, 1974), 335.

In his book, Geschichte der deutschen Literatur m i frühen Mittelalter

in the ninth century some of the Welsh bards could read their own

the Welsh bards preserved the genealogies of the princes ni their

doubt that these poets like their Irish counterparts prided themselves on their learning. Cynddelw Brydydd Mawr tells that

he si called aprifardd dysg, a' chief poet of learning'. The question

si whether they felt the need to know more than was needed to

exercise their craft successfully. 13s

(München, 1994), 18, Dieter Kartschoke argues that it was the daughters of the nobility who first learned to read and to become the first patrons of

courtly literature: 'Es waren besonders die dem praktischen weithin entzogenen Töchter adliger Herkunft, die lesen lernten. Die adligen Frauen bildeten denn auch einen bestimmenden Anteil des höfischen Literatur-

MANUSCRIPTS AND THEIR PROVENANCE

The earliest manuscripts to contain poems by court poets are:

publikums'.

13 On slate as material to write on, see E.D. Jones, 'Ysgriflechi Cymraeg

Ystrad Fflur', LiCy i (1950-1), 1-6. On wax, note that excavations at the

monastery of Nendrum produced several iron styli for writing on wax tablets;

see L. Alcock, Alfred's Britain, 267. On the general topic of literacy, see The . McKitterick (Cambridge, Uses of Literacy ni Early Medieval Europe, ed. R New York, &c., 1990); J.K. Hyde in Literacy and its Uses, ed. D. Waley (Manchester, 1993).

81GerS, fo,75: T eh Journey Thorugh W easl IT eh Description ofWaels, trans. .L Thorpe, 223. For a survey of the learning of the Poets of the Princes,

see D. Myrddin Lloyd, Rhai Agweddau ar Ddysg y Gogynfeirdd (Caerdydd, 1976).

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T H E C O U R T P O E T IN M E D I E VA L W A L E S

(a) Peniarth MS. 29 (The Black Book of Chirk)136 contains a

poem, now hardly legible, to Llywelyn ab lorwerth by Dafydd Benfras written in a space left blank by the original scribe.

According to RWM ,i 359, the manuscript 'seems ot have been

written about 1200', but Mr Daniel Huws, formerly Keeper of

Manuscripts at the National Library of Wales, suggests 1250 with a margin of error of 25 years on either side.

(b) Peniarth MS. 1 (The Black Book of Carmarthen) contains three poems by Cynddelw Brydydd Mawr and two by anonymous authors, one in praise of Hywel ap Goronwy (ob. 1106) and the other ni praise of Cuhelyn Fardd (A. 1100-30). Some of its anonymous religious poetry may also be by court poets. The MS.

was written .c 1250 and for some time afterwards.

(c) Peniarth MS. 3 si ni two parts, the first part contains poems

by Cynddelw Brydydd Mawr and was written between c. 1230 and

1250 according to RWM ,i 303, but between 1250 and 1300 according to Mr Daniel Huws. It will be seen that if we depended on these manuscripts alone,

the poems of the Welsh Court Poets would be very few in number and would hardly merit much attention.

Fortunately we have

three other manuscript sources, and these together, if not singly, have rescued from oblivion the works of a most remarkable

school of poets. They are: (a) The Hendregadredd Manuscript;

THE C O U RT POET IN MEDIEVAL

WALES

63

(b) The Red Book of Hergest;

(c) The National Library of Wales MS. 4973B. 137 We shall discuss them in their reverse chronological order. NLW MS. 4973B in the hand of Dr John Davies, Mallwyd, (called Liber B to distinguish it from Liber A, BL Add 14,869, a

copy of the Hendregadredd Manuscript ni the same hand), si important because it contains copies of some 27 poems by the Poets of the Princes not found either in the Red Book of Hergest

or ni the Hendregadredd Manuscript, and because, although some of the poems are also found ni the Red Book of Hergest, they do not seem to be copied from it. The Red Book of Hergest was written towards the end of the

fourteenth century ni three hands, those of Hywel Fychan and two unknown scribes, one of whom copied Peniarth MS. 32.138 The late Professor G.J. Williams thought that it was written in a

Glamorgan monastery (? Neath), while others (e.g., N. DenholmYoung) have thought ti more probable that ti was written ni Strata Florida. There can be no doubt that it was written for Hopcyn ap Thomas of Ynystawy. The Hendregadredd Manuscript was completed in several

stages.139 According to Mr Daniel Huws it was planned by a

scribe, whom he designates a or alpha, as a systematic collection of the poetry of the Poets of the Princes, starting chronologically

136 On the date of the Black Book of Chirk, see N . Denholm-Young, op.cit.

with Meily Brydydd and ending with Bleddyn Fardd's elegy on

Jenkins, Llyfr Colan (1963), xx, agreed with Denholm-Young. M. Watkin, NLWJ xiv (1975-6) believed that it was not earlier than 1250 and might be as

three whose works are not represented ni alpha's collection: Elidir

. (footnote 129), 40, who suggested that it was copied as late as 1250. D

late as 1275. J.G. Evans who in 1902 in RWM i, 339, gave '1200' as its date, suggested ni 1924, YCymmrodor, xxxiv, 76, that it could be as late as 1220. I.

Williams, BBCS iii (1926-7), 8, suggested that the poem on Llywelyn ab Iorwerth was inserted in the MS. shortly after 1240. Daniel Huws, 'Llyfrau

Cymraeg 1250-1400', NLWJ xxviii (1993-4), 1-21, dates the manuscript ot the middle of the thirteenth century. See now P. Russell, 'Scribal (in)competence in thirteenth-century North Wales: the orthography of the

Black Book of Chirk (Peniarth MS. 29)', NLW] xxi (1995-6), 129-76.

Llywelyn ap Gruffudd. Of the important poets, there are only

137 G. Morgan, 'Testun Barddoniaeth y Tywysogion yn Lisgr. N.L.W. 4973,

BBCS xx (1962-4), 95-103, and 'Nodiadau ar Destun Barddoniaeth y

Tywysogion yn Llsgr. NLW 4973', BBCS xxi (1964-6), 149-50.

138 See G. Charles-Edwards, 'The Scribes of the Book of Hergest', NLWJ xxi (1979-80), 246-58; P. Morgan, 'Glamorgan and the Red Book', Morgannwg, xxii (1976-9) 42-60.

139 D . Huws, 'Llawysgrif Hendregadredd', NLWJ xxii (1981-2), 1-23.

THE C O U R T POET

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Sais, Einion Wan and Gruffudd ab yr Ynad Coch; Dafydd

Benfras is represented by only one poem. The scribe, according to

Mr Daniel Huws, was also an editor. He set out to provide a manuscript or book consisting of the poetry addressed to the

Welsh Princes. He can be said to be the creator of the literary abstraction-'Poets of the Princes'. It si due to him rather than to anyone else that we think of Beirdd y Tywysogion as professional

poets who sang to the Welsh Princes ni the period which opened with Gruffudd ap Cynan's successful ascent to the Venedotion

throne and ended with the disastrous death of the last prince to rule from it. The fact that he starts his corpus of poetry with

THE C O U RT POET IN MEDIEVAL

WALES

65

Gruffudd Bola translated the Quicunque Vult into Welsh, and that ti was for her brother Gruffudd ap Maredudd that another cleric Madog ap Selyf translated the Chronicle of Turpin and the Transitus Beatae Mariae into Welsh. 4I0 Ieuan Llwyd's son was the Rhydderch whose name is connected with the White Book of

Rhydderch, Peniarth MSS. 4 and ,5 and Rhydderch's son was leuan ap Rhydderch, a poet and apparently a graduate from Oxford. Mr Daniel Huws has proposed that the White Book of

Rhydderch, 'envisaged as a collection of Welsh secular narrative and traditional lore was commissioned for Rhydderch, by himself

or by someone else', and that Strata Florida played a crucial role

Meilyr Brydydd's elegy on Gruffudd ap Cynan has, ni all

in its production.

probability, contributed to the traditional idea that there was a

However, we are more concerned with stage I in the development of the Hendregadredd Manuscript, and we have

dramatic new departure ni the course of Welsh poetry at this time and that the impetus for it arose in Gwynedd. Although ti si not impossible that the editor-scribe was preparing a manuscript or book for his own use, ti seems more likely that he was preparing ti for a patron and at his request. Mr

Daniel Huws has argued convincingly that the Hendregadredd Manuscript was completed in three stages and that the third stage's contents show that it was completed as the duanaire or

poem-book of leuan Llwyd ab leuan ap Gruffudd Foel of Parchydderch ni the parish of Llangeitho about ten miles from Strata Florida.

Mr Huws believes that the Hendregadredd

Manuscript was begun in Strata Florida, and indeed, there is

every indication that in its first two stages it was written in a large scriptorium with a pronounced interest in Welsh culture, and this

suggests a Cistercian monastery, almost certainly Strata Florida;

its proximity to Parcrhydderch would explain how it found its way

there into the possession of Ieuan Llwyd.

suggested that the editor-scribe was working for a patron. Unfortunately we do not know who that patron was but we can

assume, I believe, that he was one of Lord Rhys's descendants, although this leaves us with the question why, ni the selection of poems, precedence was given to those sung to the princes of Gwynedd rather than to the princes of Deheubarth.

Lord Rhys's descendants continued his interest ni Strata

Florida. The Cistercians established twelve monasteries in Wales

between 1130 and 1201, and except for Tintern, all of them were endowed and protected by Welsh princes even when the initial grants had been made by Norman lords. The frequent appearance of Welsh names ni the lists of abbots seems to indicate that the

Cistercians appealed in a special way to the Welsh. 142 Lord Rhys 140 S.J. Williams, Ystorya de Carolo Magno (Caerdydd, 1930), xxix; BBCS xviii

131-57, esp. 139; A.C. Rejhon, Cân Rolant: The Medieval Welsh Version of the

Ieuan Llwyd on his mother's side was great-grandson to Maredudd ab Owain who died in 1265 and was a descendant of

So, Roan e r Coely, hyde, CoM12mat 191), 1-37, esp.

Lord Rhys ap Gruffudd, effective founder of Strata Florida. We have seen that it was for Maredudd ab Owain's daughter Efa that

142 See D.H. Williams, The Welsh Cistercians (Caldey Island, Tenby, 1984),

23-4.

vol. 1, 1-13, appendix 1; F.G. Cowley, The Monastic Order in South Wales

1066-1349 (Cardiff, 1977), 46.

66

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67

himself was the son of Gruffudd ap Rhys ap Tewdwr and Gwenllian, daughter of Gruffudd ap Cynan. From his wife

religious texts into the important manuscript Llyfr Ancr

(among them Gruffudd ap Rhys, Rhys Gryg and Maelgwn) and

note. 143 Mr Daniel Huws has identified scribe B's hand in T ' he

Gwenllian, daughter of Madog ap Maredudd, he had eight sons,

one daughter, Gwenllian, who married Ednyfed Fychan, distain or

seneschal to Llywelyn ab Iorwerth. One of Ednyfed Fychan's great-grandsons was Sir Gruffudd Llwyd (ob. 1335) who is described in the genealogical tables as Lord of Tregarnedd in

persuaded the Anchorite of Llanddewibrefi to transcribe various

Llanddewibreft ni 1346, as the Anchorite himself informs us ni a White Book of Rhydderch' with that of the Anchorite, adding

that the same hand also wrote, in collaboration with another,

Anglesey and of Dinorwig in Caernarfonshire, but ti should be

Peniarth MS. 18 ('Brut yTywysogion), and, on its own, Peniarth MS. 46 ('Brut y Brenhinedd'), and Peniarth MS. 47, part i ('Dares Phrygius'), 14

and in Cardiganshire. The connection between Ednyfed Fychan's

THE B A R D I C P R O F E S S I O N

noted that he also held lands in Denbighshire, ni Carmarthenshire descendants and Strata Florida is probably too late to be taken

into account even if it could be proved, but the fact that Lord Rhys was himself the recipient of some of the poems of the Poets

The fact that the names of so many of the Poets of the Princes are

of the Princes (Cynddelw Brydydd Mawr, Seisyll Bryffwrch,

known to us points to a new conception of authorship. By this time poets had begun to feel that they had proprietary rights over their poems: unlike the poets of the Late Cynfeirdd period some of whose poems were attributed to prototypes, and unlike the

marriage with the royal house of Powys, would be incentive enough for one of his descendants, some of whom were also the

Olwen' and other texts, whose names have not been kept,

addressees of such poems, to desire to see the works of the Poets of the Princes collected ni one manuscript volume, especially as the significance of the death of Llywelyn ap Gruffudd as the end

rather than authors, the Poets of the Princes felt or came to feel that their poems were peculiarly their own artefacts and that they

Gwynfardd Brycheiniog), and the fact that eh was connected through his mother with the royal house of Gwynedd and through

of a period became more obvious. Furthermore the proximity of those descendants to Strata Florida and their interest in it would make it the ideal choice for the realization of that desire. Perhaps

one could go a step further and suggest that it was one of

Maredudd ab Owain's descendants who induced the editor-scribe

to undertake his task. We have seen that Maredudd ab Owain's

daughter Efa and his son Gruffudd persuaded clerics to translate texts from Latin and French into Welsh. They had a brother

Owain who died in 1275. Owain had a son named Llywelyn who

died ni 1309. This Llywelyn had a daughter Elin who married

Llywelyn ap Phylip and had by him a son called Gruffudd, and ti was this Gruffudd ap Llywelyn ap Phylip ap Trahaeamn who

redactors of the 'Four Branches of the Mabinogi, 'Culhwch and

presumably because ti was felt that they were redactors or editors

were not to be dissociated from them. In the same way, Cynewulf

apparently appended his signature to his work so that he might be known to his readers: Nu da cunnon miht / wha on bam wordum was

werum oncyig ('Fates of the Apostles',

105-6).

Moreover,

Juvencus stressed that poets who praised God found favour in His eyes; as such they would naturally desire their names to be

known. 145

Not all the poems that have survived have named authors and it would be foolish to assume that all the poems composed by any 143 The Elucidarium and other tracts in Welsh from Llyvyr Agkyr Llandewivrevi,

A.D. 1346, ed. J. Morris-Jones and J. Rhys (Oxford, 1894), .2

144D. Huws, 'Llyfr Gwyn Rhydderch', 8

145 See P. Klopsch, Einführung ni die Dichtungslehren des lateinischen Mittelalters (Darmstadt, 1980), 4.

68

THE COURT POET IN MEDIEVA L

WA L E S

one poet are extant. We do not know who composed the poems

addressed to Hywel ap Goronwy and Cuhelyn Fardd. The latter,

to judge by his appellation, was a poet; there is a late tradition that he was a storyteller and a seer, but no poems attributed to

him have survived. There are some thirty-four named poets but

the verses assigned to them vary considerably in number. Cynddelw Brydydd Mawr has left us some 3749 lines of verse,

Llywarch ap Llywelyn 'Prydydd y Moch' some 1680, Dafydd

Benfras 802. At the other end of the scale Gronw Foel has left us 8 lines, a fragment of a poem, Gwernen ap Clyddno 12 lines. It is

inconceivable that the last two should have composed so few verses or that only the verses of minor poets like them should have

been lost. Cnepyn Gwerthrynion was one of the penceirddiaid of hte thirteenth century who have left us no verses. tI has been argued that he was also a grammarian. 146

Not all the poets were professional poets.

There were

traditionally two poet-princes, Hywel ab Owain Gwynedd and

Owain Cyfeiliog or Owain son of Gruffudd brother of Madog ap

Maredudd, Prince of Powys, three fi we include Cuhelyn Fardd, fi

THE C O U R T

POET

IN

M E D I E VA L WA L E S

included under the name of Poets of the Princes. There must also

have been more than one poet-cleric to follow in the steps of the

author of 'Armes Prydain' although we know of only one yb

name, Madog ap Gwallter, a friar, probably of the Franciscan

Order, 4'8 who, we surmise, was originally from Llanfihangel Glyn 41 It si probable that some professional Myfyr, then ni Edeirnion. % poets retired to monasteries before they died.

148 The Franciscan presence in Wales dates from 1245 when the Grey Friars

established the first of three Welsh houses. Their influence derived not only from those houses, however, but also from the activites of Thomas Wallensis installed as bishop of St David's ni 1247, who had served as regent master of the Franciscans in Paris and as a reader to the order at Oxford.

149 Madog ap Gwallter was apparently first given the title Brawd ('Brother, Friar') by Dr John Davies of Mallwyd (c. 1567-1644) and the religious character of his poems seems to indicate that he was a monk, perhaps a Franciscan Friar. In one of his poems he says that Saint Michael, i.e. Mihangel Sant, was the patron saint of his native parish, i.e., that he was from a certain Llanfihangel. He has been taken to be the same person as the Frater Walensis Madocus Edeirnianenses referred to in Cardiff MS. 2.611, in a

poem prefixed to a Latin text, Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum

he was a poet as well as lord of the hundred of Cemais in Dyfed

Frater Walensis Madocus Britanniae with the additional matter. Edeirnianenses, we are told, 'collected the text of the Historia from thick books, refreshing us (nos) or you (uos) by them'. It has been generally

nobleman not to have a harp and, presumably, unusual for him

assumed that the correct reading of

We are told that it was unusual at this period for a Welsh

not to be able to play .ti Anumber of royal patrons of poetry were

themselves composers of love lyrics in twelfth- and thirteenthcentury Europe: Frederick I of Sicily, Thibaut of Champagne, the Emperor Henry VI, and Guillaume IX of Aquitaine. A number of

love stanzas in the Old Norse sagas are attributed to royal

authors: Haralör Hárfagri, Haralör Harrádi, Magnus Berfœttr, and Saint Olafr. 47 Naturally w e know more about the activities of the two poet-princes than of any of the thirty or so poets usually 146 See I. Daniel, 'Awduriaeth y Gramadeg a briodolir i Einion Offeriad a

the text is uos,

that

Madocus

Edeirnianenses was the author of the poem and the editor of the prose text and that he was addressing his fellow friars (uos). However, it is not certain

that we should read o s rather than nos, the nos referring to both the author of the poem and its readers, and uniting them n i their appreciation of the

copy of the Historia which follows. The manuscript itself has been dated to the end of the thirteenth or the beginning of the fourteenth century. .J Hammer thought that it was a copy of an older text—it has numerous

e r r o r s - a n d D.N.

Dumville believes that the prose text cannot have been

composed later than c. 1250.

The poem contains the phrase nomen

grandissonum which may or may not be an oblique reference to Otto de Grandison, appointed Justice of North Wales by Edward I and holding that

post until 1285. Whether Ifor Williams was right in making one person of

Dafydd Ddu Hiraethog', Y B xii (1985), 178-208.

Madog ap Gwallter of Llanfihangel and the Frater Walensis Madocus Edeirnianenses we shall never know, but fi Madog ap Gwallter's work

1923), 37, classifies the troubadours, the trouvères and the Minnesinger as 'those who sang by inclination and those who sang by profession'.

end of the thirteenth century. For further references, see Dr Rhian Andrews's

147 K.J. Holzknecht, Literary Patronage ni the Middle Ages (Philadelphia,

b e t r a y s a s t r o n g F r a n c i s c a n i n fl u e n c e , h e c a n n o t be d a t e d m u c h later t h a n the

edition of Madog ap Gwallter's work in GBF.

70

THE C O U RT POET IN M E D I E VA L WALES

As we would expect, some valuable information can be gleaned about a number of poets from their poems. If we could assume that a poet invariably lived within the domain of his patron or patrons on the grounds that he would wish to live as

near as possible to the source of his livelihood, we could suppose

as .J Lloyd-Jones did, that, leaving aside Gwernen ap Clyddno,

seventeen or eighteen were resident in Gwynedd, eight or more ni Powys, one in Brecknock and three ni the south-west province of

Deheubarth. As we shall see, grants of land were made by the

princes to the poets they patronized, and rightly or wrongly we

associate Trefeilyr and Trewalchmai (now Gwalchmai), two places

ni Anglesey, with the poets Meilyr Brydydd and his son Gwalchmai. Gruffudd ab yr Ynad Coch also held land ni Anglesey while Dafydd Benfras had land ni Eifionydd in the

vicinity of Llangybi, and Llywarch ap Llywelyn 'Prydydd y Moch'

had land near Wigfair in the commote of Rhos-Is-Dulas. 150 V E N E D O T I A N PAT R O N S

The connection between the poets and all the various dynasties

cannot be pursued ni detail here. 151 It will suffice to show by means of the poems that have survived, ni all probability comparatively few of the many that once existed, which poets sang to the most important dynasty, that of Gruffudd ap Cynan, and

which of its members were the recipients of their songs. It si

150 For the lands held by Meilyr, his son Gwalchmai and his grandsons see .n 186 below. For the lands held by the family of Gruffudd ab yr Ynad Coch,

se .I Williams BBCS xvii (1956-8), 84. For Prydydd y Moch's 'gafael', his

'gwely' and his 'melin' see H 354; M. Richards, Denbighshire Historical

' he Tribal System ni Wales', WHR i Society, xi (1962), 110-11; G.R.J. Jones, T

(1960-3), 126. For 'Pentref y Beirdd', 'Gwely Prydyddion' and 'Tre't Beirdd' see HW i, 529, n.174. 15 See Herman Fränkel, Early Greek Poetry and Philosophy, trans. M. Hadas

and .J Willis (Oxford, 1973). On the Welsh courts ni the period of the Welsh

THE C O U R T

POET

IN

M E D I E VA L WA L E S

71

interesting to note that fi we were to judge the relative importance

of the Welsh princes by the number of poems addressed to them, alive or dead, we would find that their ranking would not be altogether out of line with their ranking in modern histories of the

period. The exception is Llywelyn ap Gruffudd and this could be at least partially explained by the political circumstances of his death.

Only one poem to Gruffudd ap Cynan has survived, the elegy

by Meilyr Brydydd.

To Gruffudd ap Cynan's son, Owain Gwynedd, there are poems by Gwalchmai ap Meilyr 1( [in five parts]), Cynddelw Brydydd Mawr (4), Seisyll Bryffwrch (1), Llywelyn Fardd I (1) and Daniel ap Llosgwrn Mew (1). Poems were addressed to four of Owain Gwynedd's sons: ot Iorwerth Drwyndwn by Seisyll Bryffwich (1); to Hywel by

Cynddelw Brydydd Mawr (1) and by Peryf ap Cedifor (2); to Rhodri by Gwalchmai ap Meilyr (1), by Llywarch ap Llywelyn

'Prydydd y Moch' (4) and by Elidir Sais (1); to Dafydd yb Gwalchmai ap Meilyr (1), by Llywarch ap Llywelyn 'Prydydd y Moch' (3), by Gwilym Rhyfel (2), and by Elidir Sais (1). No poems addressed to Owain's son Cynan have survived but

poems addressed to Cynan's sons are extant: to Gruffudd, an awdl

and a bygwth by Llywarch ap Llywelyn 'Prydydd y Moch' as well as an elegy according to the Hendregadredd Manuscript (in the

Red Book of Hergest the elegy is attributed to Daniel ap Llosgwrn Mew); to Maredudd an elegy by Llywarch ap Llywelyn 'Prydydd

y Moch' (1).

Owain's grandson, Gruffudd ap Hywel, was addressed by Prydydd y Moch (1), as was his great-grandson Hywel ap

Gruffudd ap Cynan, again by Llywarch ap Llywelyn 'Prydydd y Moch' (1). It si not without reason that Prydydd y Moch has been named

Princes see now Morfydd E. Owen, 'Literary Convention and Historical

as the most prominent of the court poets of Gwynedd after Owain

Centuries', EC xxix (1992), 69-85.

Gwynedd's death.

Reality: The Court ni the Welsh Poetry of the Twelfth and Thirteenth

72

THE C O U RT POET IN M E D I E VA L WALES

THE C O U RT POET IN MEDIEVAL WALES

Llywelyn ab Iorwerth was addressed by more poets than anyone else on the Venedotian throne: by Llywarch ap Llywelyn

'Prydydd y Moch' (9), Dafydd Benfras (4, if we include the one to God and the prince), Einion Wan (2), Elidir Sais (1), Gwgon Brydydd (1), Einion ap Gwalchmai (1), Llywelyn Fardd I (1), and Einion ap Gwgon (1). No doubt it is due to the poets to some extent that Llywelyn ab Iorwerth si remembered as 'Llywelyn the Great', Llywelyn Fawr. Several poems to the sons of Llywelyn ab lorwerth have

survived, four to Gruffudd ap Llywelyn, one each by Llywarch Llywelyn 'Prydydd y Moch', Dafydd Benfras and Einion Madog ap Rhahawd; three to Dafydd ap Llywelyn, two Dafydd Benfras and one by Einion Wan. There is also

ap ap by an

anonymous elegy to him and a series of anonymous celebratory englynion to him and his retinue (teulu).

To Gruffudd's son Llywelyn, four, one each by Dafydd

Benfras, Llygad Gwr, Bleddyn Fardd and Gruffudd ab yr Ynad Coch. (Dafydd Benfras, ti should be remembered, elegized Gruffudd ap Llywelyn with his brother Dafydd and his father together on the notable occasion of the interment of his body after its retrieval from London.)

To the other sons of Gruffudd ap Llywelyn several poems were addressed. Bleddyn Fardd addressed two poems to Dafydd ap Gruffudd ap Llywelyn. Five poems were addressed in all to Owain

Goch ap Gruffudd ap Llywelyn, two each by Y Prydydd Bychan and Hywel Foel ap Griffri and one by Bleddyn Fardd. The three

sons of Gruffudd ap Llywelyn, Llywelyn, Dafydd and Owain

Goch were elegized together by Bleddyn Fardd. 251

73

CONSERVATIVE FEATURES OF THE WELSH BARDS It is natural to deduce that the Poets of the Princes were court

poets and thus to call their poetry court poetry, but one must remember that Welsh courts of this period were unlike the French and German courts of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, the mise-en-scène of the troubadour and the Minnesinger and the authors

of

the

hofischer

Roman

and

the

roman

courtois.

Paradoxical though ti may seem, if the Welsh courts of this period are to eb judged by the poetry produced by the poets, they were

more like the courts described by Homer in the Iliad and the Odyssey, and the Welsh court poets were more like Demodocus

and Phemius, the singers at those Homeric courts. The history of the höfischer Roman began with the adaptation about the middle of the twelfth century of classical themes, the

stories of Alexander, Thebes, Aeneas and Troy (romans d' antiquité), and followed with the development of the matière de

Bretagne including the Arthurian Romances. The central figure ni the early history of the latter was, of course, Chrétien de Troyes. But more interesting from our standpoint is the Heldenlied or more particularly the chanson de geste. The earliest and most famous examples are the Chanson de Roland (1060-1130) and the pélerinage de Charlemagne (1080-1150). The ideas behind the

chansons de geste are more akin to the ideas behind the poetry of the Welsh Princes than are those behind the hofischer Roman. The

fact that the European courts of the twelfth century took delight ni the Chanson de Roland ni France, the Cantar de Mio Cid (c. 1140) ni Spain and the Nibelungenlied ni Germany (c. 1200), all works manifesting an heroic-epic frame of mind, indicates that ni spite of their difference from the Homeric courts ni some respects,

they were not different ni all respects, and to that extent they

resembled the Welsh courts of the twelfth and thirteenth century. 152 See Table I ni Morfydd E . Owen, 'Beirdd a Thywysogion' ni BaTh 97 and also Tables 2 and 3 for the poems addressed to the princes of Powys and Deheubarth, ib. 81, 83.

In other words, the European courts of this period had not shed

all resemblance to their earlier prototypes ni Homer.

W ' e may

suppose', says W.P. Ker, writing. of the most characteristic

74

T H E C O U R T P O E T IN M E D I E VA L W A L E S

product of Heroic Age Literature, 'that where the epic poem flourishes there is, among the contemporary people who are not

poetical, something like the epic frame of mind, a rudimentary heroic imagination which already gives to mere historical events and situations a glimmering of their epic significance. The

"multitude" in an heroic age interprets life heroically; and it si this common vague sentiment of heroism, not any bare uncoloured

unaccommodated thing in which the epic poets make their beginnings. 1'53 The höfischer Roman si the typical expression of the Age of

Chivalry, and the connection between chivalry and feudalism is

well known, but it is not always realized that ti was by breathing

new life into the Heroic Age Ideal, with its emphasis on military prowess and honour, that feudalism produced the ideals of the Age of Chivalry. These ideals J. Froissart expressed memorably in his Chroniques, ni his description of the Combat of the Thirty at Ploërmel ni 1351, where he makes the English captain say: 'And let us there (sc. in the Combat) try ourselves and do so much that

people will speak of it in future times ni halls, ni palaces, ni public

places and elsewhere throughout the world. 154

In tracing the origins of European feudalism the eminent

French historian M . Bloch found that they emerge into view ni that period when the Teutons, the Hungarians, the Moslems and the Vikings were raiding and laying waste the Continent. At that time society reverted to an old structure-pattern ni which groups of warriors banded themselves together around a leader to whom

they gave service and allegiance in return for protection and the

other rewards of military co-operation. Bloch writes: 'We catch glimpses of peasant communities under their chiefs, to whom various families (in the wide sense) that made up the group owed

ritual gifts, and no doubt assistance ni a general way, which would be sure to take the form of certain services. The existence of these 153 W.P. Ker, The Dark Ages (New York, Mentor Books, 1958), 60.

154 J. Froissart, Chroniques (ed. Siméon Luce, Paris, 1873), IV.112.

T H E C O U R T P O E T IN

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75

village chieftains si clearly attested ni Gaul before the invasions: ti may be traced in the society of Armorica;

it appears more

distinctly ni Wales. We can add, 'and still more distinctly ni

Ireland', 15 where, as Edmund Spenser tells us, the common saying

of their followers to the chieftains, as late as the reign of Queen

Elizabeth was, 'Spend me and defend me', that is, 'use me as you wil so long as you protect me'. Indeed, M. Bloch himself adds, 'We may assume something of the sort in ancient

Europe

everywhere'—a sentence which is given added significance by Stuart Piggott's pronouncement in the conclusion to his Ancient

Europe: 'In this book I have tried to indicate that there is evidence

to suggest that the pattern of society demanded by Bloch could ni fact be very ancient, and characteristic of barbarian Europe for millennia. 156 In other words, the origins of the Heroic Ages of the Greeks, the Teutons and that Celts are to be found in a pattern of

society which is at least as old as Indo-Europa. As far as Welsh society si concerned, one has only to recall the campaigns and battles of Gruffudd ap Cynan to realise that they could not have been much, if at all, fewer in number than those of

Urien Rheged, and if Meilyr Brydydd praised Gruffudd ni the same terms as Taliesin praised Urien, it is partly because he had

no choice in the matter: both princes were living ni a society which had not lost its Heroic Age lineaments. 157 Gerald of Wales had not been born when Gruffudd ap Cynan

died, but his Descriptio Kambriae si ni some respects quite valuable . Bloch, T ' he Rise of Dependent Cultivation and Seignorial Institutions,' 51 M Cambridge Economic History, i (1941), ch. vi.

156S. Piggott, Ancient Europe from the Beginnings of Agriculture o t Classical

Antiquity (Edinburgh, 1965), 260.

157 And one could almost say of Gwynedd under Gruffudd ap Cynan, as indeed of the rest of Wales, what was said by Leslie Alcock of the Britons, including the Welsh, ni the sixth century ni his Arthur's Britain, 314, 'One

cultural trait was shared by all these essentially barbarian peoples: the pursuit

of warfare as a major activity of society.' Cf. H. Fränkel, op.cit. (footnote

151), 35, 'Brutality, hardness, joy in conflict and battle obviously this comprises the greatness of earlier (sc. Homeric) humanity.

76

THE C O U RT POET IN MEDIEVAL WALES

T H E C O U R T P O E T I N M E D I E VA L WA L E S

as a description of the background to the Poets of the Princes. We

not on the Anglo-Saxons but on his fellow Welsh princes.

77

This

have already referred to his statement that the Welsh thought it an honour to be killed ni battle, a disgrace to die in bed. 158 He si

seems to refer to the same practice as that followed by Irish kings

puzzled by Gildas's words, In war they (i.e., the Welsh or Britons)

are cowards and you cannot trust them in times of peace', and he quotes the Britons' belief that when Gildas criticized his own people so bitterly, he did so because he was infuriated by the fact that King Arthur had killed his own brother who was a Scottish

on their inauguration whereby they raided the territories of other kings to demonstrate their suitability for office and to acquire not

Welsh

only a heroic reputation but also the wealth to play the generous lord. Donnchadh Corrái n quotes as a typical example the exploit recorded ni the Annals of Ulster for the year 1083: 'Domnall Ua Lochlainn seized the kingship of Cenél nEóghain. He made a royal foray (crech ríg) upon the Connaile and granted

chieftain. Gildas's charge of cowardice against the

conflicted with Gerald's own judgment that they were brave, that they were so ready to shed their blood for their country that 'for

fame they sacrifice their lives'. 15º It is true that he says of them that they deemed it right to devote themselves to pillaging and to live on plunder, theft and robbery, not only from foreigners and people hostile to them, but also from each other. According to Caesar it was true of the Germans also that 'Acts of brigandage committed outside the borders of each several state involve no

disgrace; in fact, they affirm that such are committed in order to practise the young men and diminish sloth'. 160 Gerald does not

seem to have noticed that the Normans when they took over a

Welsh lordship availed themselves of the traditional rights to raid neighbouring lordships and to claim a third of the spoils. This

right to anraith si mentioned ni the Welsh Laws; there are

tuarastal (or royal gifts indicating the giver's supremacy) to the men of Farney on that raid'. 163 It is worth remembering that in these early times there was probably no real demarcation between

war and pillaging and that the number of men involved made ti difficult to differentiate between them.

In the laws of Ine of

Wessex aggressors numbering less than seven are 'thieves'; fi more numerous, they are a band of brigands and fi over thirty five, an army. The so-called Age of Feudal Anarchy, the late ninth to the eleventh century probably persisted longer in some countries than

ni others. 164 If, as Ifor Williams thought, ti was Taliesin who sang 'Trawsganu Cynan Garwyn', and if he sang ti on the occasion of

Cynan Garwyn's inauguration ot the kingship of Powys, Taliesin was performing the same traditional function as countless ollams

frequent references to ti in the Bruts, and ti must have been very

(ollamain) performed in Ireland, and we can take his song as further support for the thesis proposed by Professor Proinsias

Cynan Garwyn, prince of Powys, is praised for the raids he made

for a well-organized class of learned men, who controlled and

old. O n e of the oldest extant poems on the Welsh language, 162 hte oldest of al according ot Ifor Williams, si the eulogy ni which

Mac Cana that 'only among Celtic peoples si there clear evidence

maintained the structures of ideology of native kingship. 165 158 Gerald of Wales: The Journey Through Wales / The Description of Wales, trans. L. Thorpe, 257, 259.

160 Belum Gallicum, VI.23. (trans. H.J. Edwards, Loeb Classical Library, 1930), 349. . Edwards, 'The Normans and the Welsh March', PBA xlii (1956), 16 .J G 158-77, esp. 170-1.

162 PT 1, 'Trawsganu Kynan Garwyn mab Brochfael'.

. ÓCorráin, Ireland before the Normans (Dublin, London, 1972), 37. 163 D 164 KJ.. Leyser, Ruel and Conflict ni an Early Medieval Society (Oxford, 1989),

well illustrates the conflicts endemic in a tenth-century West-European

soop. M ca Cana, Regnum and Sacerdotium,' B P A xvI (1979), 45.

78

THE C O U RT POET IN M E D I E VA L WALES

I N D O - E U R O P E A N ANALOGUES

Georges Dumézil has argued convincingly that the basis of this

ideology is Indo-European, 16 and that ti is reflected in the Hindu myth of the promotion of the primeval king Prthu to kingship. Dumézil distinguishes three acts ni that promotion-first,

designation by the gods; second, recognition by the wise men;

third, acceptance by the people. In the consecration of the king the

T H E C O U R T P O E T IN M E D I E VA L WA L E S

79

haughty "purohita" who summoned the gods to hover near and win the day, that cheered on the clansmen and made them win the

day. 169 The "purohita" or domestic chaplain swayed the policy of the tribe and ruled the king's thoughts. The "purohita" w a s elected from among the ranks of the poet priests or Brahmans

who knew or composed hymns honoured as of special merit or

potency. It appears that the suta, the court poet, developed from

essential part was his eulogy by the bards, the sutas, and it is

the purohita, the court poet-priest. 170

shower gifts on the bards and on the people, thus giving proof

Ireland has been attributed to the geographical remoteness of

significant that as soon as Prthu is consecrated, he proceeds to

that the local Earth-Goddess is once again fertile and that he

himself si truly an vididâtr, a giver of the means of subsistence. 167 As the title of his book, Servius et al Fortune, suggests, Dumézil

has examined Roman as well as Hindu sources for this type of

promotion to kingship and has found traces of it in the legend of

The survival of such a powerful bardic institution in India and

these countries. This presupposes that its innovation took place ni Indo-Europa, and somewhere at its centre, and that once the

peoples who initiated it, or their descendants, had arrived at these

farthest reaches, their innate conservatism would uphold .ti

Geographical remoteness could be invoked to explain the presence

Servius Tullius who, it wil be remembered, was made king by the

in northern Europe of the skalds and the scops who in their functions resemble the Irish bards and the Hindu sutas. However,

instit utor of the census.

the other reason which has been invoked to explain the existence

acclamation of the people in Rome and was honoured as the

Further light is thrown on the origins of the Celtic bard by the

role played by the Hindu purohita. By the king's side, we are told,

'stood his priestly counterpart, the "purohita", who, by his solemn

invocations and charms of noted potency, held his position secure.

On the election of a chieftain to be king, the chosen poet(-priest) of the people poured forth his benediction ni flowing verse ' 168 It should be noted that the purohita had a role to play in the wars

waged by the king. 'Not by the king's valour nor by his welknown heroic might, not by the impetuous rush of the conquering

of the bardic institution ni Ireland and India, the preservation of its basis ni bardic and brahminic schools, would not hold for

northern Europe, for there si no evidence there for the training of either skalds or scops ni any kind of school. Be that as ti may, there is a basic similarity ni the official position of Hindu suta, Irish and Welsh bard, Scandinavian skald and Anglo-Saxon scop.

Many skalds, we are told, were members of a king's or chieftain's retinue and were often highly trusted. Their task was to praise

him, to preserve his memory and his deeds and ot increase his

tribes was the victory to be gained. It was the incantations of the

166 G. Dumézil, Servius et la Fortune: essai sur la fonction sociale de louange et de blâme et sur les éléments indo-européens du sens romain (Paris, 1943).

167 Cynddelw's line gnawd y uart endigaw haelon H ( 163, GCBM i, 10.12), "Customary it is for a bard

to bless noble (or generous) ones', seems to echo

the part played by the Indian sutas n i the inauguration of kings.

168 R.W. Fraser, ALiterary History of India (New York, 1971), 21.

169 Ib., 22. On the purohita, see also M . Winternitz, A History of Indian

Literature (New Delhi, 1972), I, 146.

170 On the sútas, see bi. I, 315, and cf. G. Dumézil, op.cit. (footnote 166), 203, 'Panégyriste, généalogiste, aède, gardien des gloires dynastiques et enregistreur des titres nouveaux, el súta, el barde indien n'existe que pour el

roi; c'est au roi qu'il consacre son art, son savoir précieux, sa technique puissante.'

80

81

THE C O U RT POET IN MEDIEVAL WA L E S

T H E C O U R T P O E T IN M E D I E VA L WA L E S

fame by performing the poetic art for an audience-often at his

synonym for kléos, but it seems to have become unintelligible at an early stage even to the Greeks themselves. According to E.

great hall. There must be some relation between the Scandinavian skald

Benveniste, kudos was a magical power the possession of which

and the Anglo-Saxon scop as he appears ni 'Beowulf, 'Widsith'

conferred superiority, especially in battle where ti was a guarantee

and 'Deor'. 1" Like the skald the scop was accorded a high status ni

of victory. Only the gods could bestow it, and those on whom it

society and was a court poet whose official function was to praise

was bestowed were raised to their ranks for it was a divine

heroes and princes. It has been suggested, with some probability,

attribute-if one may call ti that without losing sight of the fact

that the Anglo-Saxon scop did not emerge into prominence until

the Vikings had settled ni England and that he did so under their

influence. 172

The description of the characteristic product of the Hindu suta

and his counterparts simply as 'praise of princes'173 or, ni German, Fürstenpreislied, and still more accurately, Fürsten-preislied-

Zeitgedicht, although acceptable, si not of much help to our

understanding of their great importance ni society. To describe it as 'the fame of princes' is not much better. We have to transport ourselves in imagination to much earlier times when Indo-

European poets sang of 'immortal glory', or, to put it concretely

as they did, of 'unfading glory'; or when this was reflected by the

Greek poets as they sang of kléos 'áphthiton, of 'ásbeston kléos, and

of 'athánaton kléos, and by ancient Hindu poets as they sang of áksiti srávah, sometimes substituting mrtyu 'deathless' for áksiti

'unfading', and sometimes substituting sámsa-, cognate with Lat. cens- (censor, &c.), for srávas- 174 In one Greek context instead of méga kléos (corresponding to

Vedic máhi srávah) we have méga kudos. Apparently kudos was a

171E. Werlich, D ' er westgermanische Skop', Zeitschrift für deutsche Philologie,

86 (1967), 352-375. 172 .J Opland, op.cit. (footnote 67), 171-4.

173 M. Winternitz, op.cit., I, 314, tells us that 'songs ni praise of men' (gatha

that it was something concrete and tangible. Indeed, it seems that the possession of kudos must have been originally a precondition to the possession of kléos.

The r e l e v a n c e o f these facts b e c o m e s c l e a r e r w h e n we c o n s i d e r

them in relation to the function of the court poet. Every primitive

poet was to some extent a shaman or magician; ni other words, he claimed the ability to exercise power over persons and things, and his poetry was the means to that end. The early court poet

practised his poetry to instil into men those qualities which they prized above all others. Of course, those qualities were the gifts of the gods but the poet ni declaring that his patron had them, was ni a way forcing the hands of the gods: he made these qualities exist,

or, fi they already existed, he made them stronger. In a sense, then, by affirming the courage and honour of his patron, he gave and confirmed this courage and honour, and in so doing he ensured for him fame.l? The Welsh court poet Phylip Brydydd who flourished ni the thirteenth century and who told his prince

gwneuthum it glod, I' made fame for thee, 671 could have been translating the words of an Indo-European court poet, but

whereas the Welsh poet was thinking primarily of the effect of his

songs on his present and future audience, the Indo-European poet

would be thinking of the effect on the hero whom he was

eulogizing. These songs were strengthening or creating ni him

nãräs amst) are often mentioned beside the Itihasas (narratives) and Puranas, among the texts which are pleasing to the gods.

174É. Benveniste, Le Vocabulaire des institutions indo-européennes (Paris, 1969), ii, 57-69. Note that Cynddelw ni his 'arwyrain' to Madog ap Maredudd refers to the 'agreeable custom, the praise of esteem (of a kind) that si not transient' (pergnawd parch uolawd ual nad diulan, H 117).

feats', R 1219.21-2.

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THE C O U RT POET IN MEDIEVAL

WALES

qualities of mind and body which would produce the actions of which everyone would soon be talking. But fi the Indo-European

poet could create certain qualities of mind and body in his hero

and make him succeed by his praise, he could also destroy him by

his satire. .L Renou has shown that the Vedic root sams- can

denote an action designed to exercise a baneful effect, a fact

reflected ni the meaning of Lat. cens-or, census, 17 and Georges Dumézil has made brilliant use of the story of Bres ni the Second Battle of Moytura to show how the king who does not provide subsistence for his people is to be contrasted with the king who provides abundance, and how the former is satirized, the latter

eulogized. 178 Al this emphasizes the unique relationship that existed between king and poet in ancient times, between the skald

and his chieftain ni the Nordic lands, between the scop and his chief in Anglo-Saxon England, and between ollam and pencerdd and kings and princes among Insular Celts. 179 Two themes seem to pervade this early poetry, the theme of

fame or honour and the theme of generosity. Wilhelm Grönbech

17 L. Renou, Journal asiatique, cexxxi (1939), 177-8, quoted by Dumézil, Idées romaines (Paris, 1969), 107.

178 See 'Bress (sic), el roi avare, et l'invention de al satire', ni Dumézil, Servius

et la Fortune, 230 ff. 179 The existence of the Fürstenpreislied in Irish from a very early period is attested in the fragments which have survived of the work of Colmán mac

Léneni (c. 530-c. 604/6), the fili who became a monk. These show that Colmán eulogized Fergus, king of Ui Liathain in south Munster, elegized Aed

T H E C O U R T P O E T IN M E D I E VA L WA L E S

83

in his book on Kultur und Religion der Germanen opens his chapter

on 'Ehre als dei Seele der Sippe' with the words, 'Ohne Ehre ist

das Leben unmöglich; es ist nicht nur wertlos, sondern läßt sich

nicht behaupten', 180 Without honour life si impossible: it si not

only worthless, but it does not let itself be maintained.' Satire

destroys a man's honour. The ability to satirize a person even to

death was claimed by the Irish poets. Apparently there were seven types of satire, apart from the categories of justified and unjustified. Icelandic Laws reveal how seriously the insult ni skaldic nio was taken during the thirteenth century: it could bring

upon its composer total outlawry. 18 Examples of satires by the

Welsh Court Poets are fewer than we expect. Perhaps the threats (bygythion) to satirize made by some of them may be taken to

indicate the seriousness with which they were viewed. Examples of the genre become more numerous in the late fourteenth and the

fifteenth century, but by that time they seem to have become

exercises in broad humour and even in ribaldry. 182

On the other hand, honour compels giving, it dictates

generosity. nI hte myth of hte inauguration of the primal king

Prthu, he has to give in order to prove that the Earth-goddess has

accepted him as her spouse and has become fertile. But according

81 every gift ot Hindu mythology, as Marcel Mauss has shown, 3 . Grönbech, Kultur und Religion der Germanen, 1 (Darmstadt, 1980), 114. 180 W See also M.F. Greindl, Z ' um Ruhmes- und Ehrbegriff bei

Sláine (ob. 604) and sang a poem of thanks to Domnall, king of Tara,

Woockar er i, Rishishes Musedar Photogus, 59, 1 34 (1934), 201

probably c. 565-6, for the gift of a sword. See R. Thurneysen, ZCP xix (19312), 193-209, ib. xvii (1928), 263-76, James Carney, Eriu, xxii (1971), 23-80.

. Frank, Old Norse Court 18 See F. Kelly, op.cit. (footnote 98), 43-4; ib., 137; R

24.

Poetry (Ithaca, London, 1978), 125-6. As one could expect, considerable

The oldest Fürstenpreislied n i German verse apparently is by Otfrid von Weißenburg, a monk of the ninth century, on Ludwig I. Otfrid compared the king to the Biblical King David and invokes God's blessing on him. With this

attention has been given to skaldic satire. For references see id.,

song should be compared the 'Ludwigslied', an elegy on Ludwig III who

a Ggi Ynyd: The Poet as Satirist ni ' oganwr m 281 See Dylan Foster Evans, G

defeated a Norman host at Saucourt at the beginning of August 881. The Ludwigslied' is a genuine Fürstenpreislied. Although, according to its rubric,

an elegy, it si vividly aware of its subject, his presence and his actions. See

Dieter Kartschoke, op.cit. (footnote 43), 168-72.

'Skaldic

Poetry' in Old Norse-Icelandic Literature, ed. C.J. Clover and J. Lindow (Ithaca, London, 1985), 181-2.

Medieval Wales (Aberystwyth, 1996).

. Mauss, The Gift. Forms and Functions of Exchanges ni Archaic Societies 183 M (London, 1970), 56. P. von Moos, Hildebert von Lavarden 1056-1133 (Stuttgart, 1965), 152 ff., has some pertinent remarks on the role of giving ni

84

THE COURT

POET IN MEDIEVAL WALES

THE COURT

POET

IN

M E D I E VA L

WA L E S

given must be repaid. Prthu receives and must give. 'It is in the

very ancient and characteristic of barbarian Europe for millennia.

nature of food to be shared; to fail to give others a part is to "kill its essence", to destroy ti for oneself and for others. Such is the interpretation at once materialistic and idealistic that Brahminism gave to charity and hospitality. Wealth is made to be given away.

Another answer lies ni the fact that court poetry was ni its origins

the rich". "He who eats without knowledge kills his food, and his

to celebrate God and one to celebrate the king or his ancestors.

properly treated, is always productive of more.'

presen t-that this practice conceals an archaism. On the basis of

Were there no Brahmins to receive it "vain would be the wealth of

food kills him." Avarice interrupts the action of food which, when Second to bravery and valour, generosity is the virtue most praised by court poets, and generosity is shown in the giving of gifts and of feasts. As we shall see, the Welsh court poets were

conscious that they themselves were donors, they regard their poems as gifts, but their emphasis is on the generosity of their

patrons. R.W. Frazer has a very pertinent remark, 'No greater glory could the devout Aryan win than to bestow his wealth on the tribal laureate. Those who gave rich garments lived long; those who gave gold enjoyed undyingness; liberality was held the best

armour for a wise man to wear.' 184

It may be objected that ni invoking the past, and ni particular

the Indo-European past, to explain the function of court poets at the end of the first millennium A.D. we seem to be postulating an unnecessary and an improbable link between them and that past.

One answer to this objection has already been mentioned.

As

Stuart Piggott185 and M. Bloch18 have shown, the society in which these court poets functioned had a pattern which could have been . Eliade, Cosmos and History. intellectual circles ni a much later period. Cf. M The Myth of the Eternal Return (New York, 1959), 61: 'Alimentation had a

religious poetry and as such was inherently conservative. As we have seen, the pencerdd, according to the Welsh Law

Books, was expected to sing on request two songs, one 'of God and the other 'of the king, which in practice must have meant one

There is a possibility—to put it no higher than that for the

parallels drawn from the literatures of the ancient Hindus and Persians in the East and the Romans and Scandinavians in the

West, Professor F.R. Schröder has argued that two kinds of

hymns were composed ni Indo-European society. One praised and glorified a single mighty act of god, the other celebrated a number of such acts. The first category was sung to those remote deities

who were far removed from men and their affairs, the second to

h had takenna active setni hte wodlr fo htose hero-defies ow hymn Schröder gives the name Aufreihlied, and takes as one of his examples the original behind the Virgilian praise-song to Hercules (Aeneid viii.287-303). In the Aufreihleid he finds with good reason

the prototype of the Fürstenpreislied, the song ni praise of the king or prince, alive and dead, for ni primitive societies ti was believed that those who had been mighty in their lives did not cease to be mighty when dead, and the Goths were not the only people who, as Jordanes tells us, proceres suos, quorum quasi fortuna vincebant,

non puros homines, sed semideos, id est, Ansis, vocaverunt. 18 It si

interesting to note that the Gothic word hazeins 'praise' occurs

ritual meaning in all archaic societies'.

184 R.W. Frazer, op.cit. (footnote 168), 27; cf. C. Watkins, 'The Etymology of Irish dúan', Celtica, xi (1976), 270-7, esp., 272-3, 'Poet and patron exist on a reciprocal gift-giving basis: the poet's gift is his poem'.

185S. Piggott, Ancient Europe from the Beginnings of Agriculture to Classical Antiquity (Edinburgh, 1965), 260. 186 M. Bloch, 'The Rise of Dependent Cultivation and Seignorial Institutions', Cambridge Economic History, i (1941), ch. .1

187 F.R.

Schröder, 'Eine indogermanische Liedform. Das Aufreihlied',

Germanisch-Romanische Monatsschrift, NF 4 (1954), 179-85. It would not be irrelevant here to discuss hte different origins suggested for the 'Heldensage'

by Schröder and J. de Vries: see Klaus von See, Germanische Heldensage

(Wiesbaden, 1981), 38-9. 18 On Jordanes's testimony concerning Gothic songs to dead heroes, see .J Opland, op.cit. (footnote 67), 257-8.

86

87

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T H E C O U R T P O E T I N M E D I E VA L WA L E S

twice with the meaning 'hymn' and that the Anglo-Saxon word

occasion no surprise fi he was accorded the same primacy by

of the praise poems of the court poet and one can understand why some scholars have invoked the fact that primitive or archaic man acknowledges no act which has not been posited and lived by someone else, some other being who was not a man. As Mircea

Gwalchmai, his son, succeeded him ni the Venedotian court as official poet to Gruffudd ap Cynan's son, Owain Gwynedd, and he ' y father exalted his mighty royal father.' proudly proclaims M Gwalchmai had two sons who composed poetry, Meilyr ap Gwalchmai and Einion ap Gwalchmai. He had another son called Elidir and ti si not impossible that Elidir was the poet known to us

weorbung 'honour' came to mean 'modulatio vel cantus'. 189 All this suggests that there was something archaic in the nature

Eliade puts it, 'What he does has been done before. His life is the

others, for he was the father and the grandfather of poets.192

ceaseless repetition of gestures done by others.'19 Thus the feast in

as Elidir Sais. 193 There are other suggestions that there were bardic

which he participates is the repetition of a primal feast: ti is not a

families in Wales. Cuhelyn Fardd, already mentioned

mere carousal, not a mere eating and drinking. The presence of the priest raises it to a higher plane, to a celebration of

community, to a ceremonial of communion. In the same way the court poet's praise of the chieftain who presides over the feast is

praise of his retinue as well, and not only that but praise of past

as

the

subject of a praise poem ni the Black Book of Carmarthen, was the son of Gwynfardd Dyfed. As Cuhelyn Fardd is depicted ni

tales recorded late ni the sixteenth century as a story-teller and seer, there seems no doubt the he was a poet as his cognomen

suggests, and so, to judge from his father's name, he was the son

chieftains and past retinues whose bravery and generosity are

of a poet and his name should be added to those of Hywel ab

being recalled as they are being re-enacted ni the present. The

Owain Gwynedd and Owain Cyfeiliog ni our list of poet-princes. Dafydd Benfras, fi we are to believe Bleddyn Fardd, was the son of Llywarch, perhaps Llywarch ap Llywelyn 'Prydydd y Moch', 491

chieftain to Caswallon or to Hercules, he si doing more than using a literary topos: he is linking the present to the past and

C .. 192 We know Meilyr Brydydd's genealogy on his father's side. See P

Welsh poet feels that he stands in the direct line of succession to Taliesin and Aneirin'91 and in a way he has no choice other than to invoke the assistance of their Muse, and when he compares his demanding for the present the same glory as the past. M E I LY R B R Y D Y D D

As we have observed, although Meilyr Brydydd, who wrote an elegy for Gruffudd ap Cynan, cannot be regarded as the first of the Welsh court poets, he was accorded chronological primacy by the editor-scribe who conceived and completed the first stage in

the preparation of the Hendregadredd manuscript, and ti would 189 A. Heusler, Dei altgermanische Dichtung (Darmstadt, 1957), 123. 190 M. Eliade, op.cit. (footnote 183), .5

191 See the references to Taliesin and Aneirin in H 278.7-10, GLIL1 25.3

(Llywarch ap Llywelyn 'Prydydd yMoch'), MA 217a, 218b, GDB 25.5-6, 37 (Dafydd Benfras), H 229.9-13, GDB 15.33 (Phylip Brydydd).

Bartrum, Early Welsh Genealogical Tracts (Cardiff, 1966), 111-22 where under

'Llwyth Aelan' Einion ap Gwalchmai ap Meilyr's genealogy si given on both

his father's and his mother's side.

193 For the lands held by Gwalchmai's progeny see T ' he Extent of Anglesey'

printed n i Registrum Vulgariter Nuncupatum 'The Record of Caernarvon', ed

H . Ellis (1838), 44-89, and again ni an English translation by A.D. Cart, The Extent of Anglesey, 1352', TAAS, 1971-2, 158-272. See esp. pp. 161, 163, 165, 171, 243. The place-names Trefeily and Gwalchmai (Trewalchmai)

appear to preserve the names of Meily Brydydd or Meilyr ap Gwalchmai

and Gwalchmai. See HW i, 2, n.190, a cf. 529, n.174. Geoffrey Keating tells us that bardic families in Ireland had certain lands set aside for them 'in order

that they might be able to support themselves for the cultivation of the arts,

and that poverty might not diminish them.' G. Keating, The History of Ireland, trans. by D. Comyn, I (London, 1902), 73.

194 D.W. Wiliam, 'Dafydd Benfras a'i ddisgynyddion', TAAS, 1980, 33-5, has

provided reason to doubt this. Einion ap Gwgon, it has been suggested, may have been the son of Gwgon Brydydd, but the suggestion has no support apart from the coincidence of the names. See GDB 251.

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THE C O U RT POET IN M E D I E VA L WALES

T H E C O U R T P O E T IN M E D I E VA L WA L E S

There is ample evidence in Ireland for the existence of bardic families: indeed, three things were required of a poet according to

his death-bed song (marwysgafn). Of these, the most unusual si the second. According to the rubric ti si an ode (awdl) sung in the

one tract, hte proper family background, ability, and study.195

Incidentally in Ireland they had a name for a poet's son who had not inherited his father's poetical art, bard ne, just as they had a

name for a poet-lord (tigernbard 'a bard who si also a lord'), 196 As H.J.S.

Maine has reminded

us in his discussion of

Hindu

Brahminic and Irish brehon schools, the nucleus and model of

ancient schools was the family.197 We have seen that the Welsh Law Books refer to the training of the cerddorion by the

penceirddiaid and to the fees they paid them, yet the references to these bardic schools in the poems themselves are very few: far

fewer than the references to them in Ireland, a fact which may suggest that the Welsh bardic schools were never as well organized

as their Irish counterparts. It is significant that ti is Cynddelw

Brydydd MawI, himself a most learned poet, who boasts that 'Our

pupils know our learning' and adds that he teaches brilliant bards. 198

PROPHECY

Three poems by Meilyr Brydydd have survived»-his elegy (marwnad) to Gruffudd ap Cynan, possibly his prophecy,200 and 195 Uraicecht na Ríar, ed. L. Breatnach (Dublin, 1987).

196 One of the necessary qualifications of an ollam was that he was the son of a

poet and the grandson of another, os é mac filid 7 aue araili (L. Breatnach,

op.cit., 102, 103). 197 H.J.S. Maine, Lectures on the Early History of Institutions (London, 1875),

I 105.17 R y dysgaf disgywen ueirtyon; cf. GCBM ,i 6.236 198 H

199 For an edition of Meilyr Brydydd's poetry, see GMB poems 3-5.

20 This prophecy was accepted as Meilyr Brydydd's by J. Loth, La métrique

galloise (1901), ILi 146, by T. Gwynn Jones, THSC, 1913-14, 231, and by

i HW ii, 531. It was rejected by .J Morris-Jones ni CD xxiv, and J.E. Lloyd n D.S. Evans ni HGVK xxxix, .n 116, si inclined to follow him. Of the metre,

89

hosting where Trahaearn ap Caradawe and Meilyr ap Rhiwallawn

sa athtat m it eni het is safeot es i e at ei er Badyad w

service of one of these chieftains and that his poetic career had begun before Gruffudd ap Cynan had established himself ni Gwynedd. Again, fi Meilyr wrote the prophecy as well as the elegy

on Gruffudd ap Cynan (1137) his poetic career must have extended over a great number of years, but not greater than that

of his patron, so that it is not impossible that the attribution is genuine. If we can believe that the two princes named were killed

on a Thursday as the prophecy declared they would, it is a vaticinium post eventum. However that may be, this si the only

prophecy atributed ni hte verse this peroid is si sumiter ,t

vaticinations, mostly attributed actually, or by implication, ot the

legendary Myrddin and the legendary Taliesin, no other vaticinatory poem directly attributed to a court poet survives. 201 In Ireland there are several such poems, and this is in no way surprising, for as descendants of the Gaulish druids or more particularly of the Gaulish vates, some of the court poets could be

expected to be prophets. It is possible that Gerald of Wales's

awenyddion202 may have taken over this function, ni which case the

question arises, were the prophetic poems attributed to the

legendary Myrddin and Taliesin composed by the awenyddion? The style of these prophecies si different from that of the 201 I. Williams lists the following poems in the Book of Taliesin as prophecies

' rmes Prydain Fawr' .c 930, sung before 1100: 'Glaswawd Taliesin' 916-40, A

'Cywrysedd Gwynedd a Deheubarth' .c 946, 'Armes Dydd Brawd' c. 1000.

Apparently, the 'Afallennau', the political prophecies so-called, were sung ni

the twelfth century when the Normans were attacking the Welsh. See A.O.H.

awdl-gywydd, .J Morris-Jones, CD, 311-12, says that it was used in the early

Jarman, Ymddiddan Myrddin a Thaliesin (Caerdydd, 1951), 51. 202 Gerald of Wales: The Journey Through Wales / The Description of Wales,

gwerin. It is, of course, the metre of Taliesin's marwnad to Owain ab Urien.

trans. L. Thorpe, 246.

Gogynfeirdd period, but that it was then left to eb used by h te clêr and the

THE C O U RT POET IN M E D I E VA L WALES

T H E C O U R T P O E T IN M E D I E VA L WA L E S

panegyrics. However, there can be no doubt that the legendary

numerous than the three that have survived imply.20 They are

90

Taliesin was regarded as a prophet and that 'Armes Prydain Fawr' was taken later to be his poem, either as a legendary or historic

figure, and these facts must have kept alive the idea that prophecy was one of the functions of the Gogynfeirdd; it certainly was one of

the functions of their successors, the Cywyddwyr, as they showed

ni their brutiau. The Irish poet, apparently, derived his gift of prophecy from his imbas forosna 'encompassing knowledge which

illuminates'. At the beginning of the saga Táin Bó Cuailnge, Queen Medb is setting off on her expedition against the Ulstermen when she meets a maiden ni a chariot, Fedelm, a woman-poet of Connacht (banfhili de Chonnachtaib) who has just returned from

learning the art of poetry (filidecht) ni Britain. Medb addresses

Fedelm as a prophetess (banfhaith) and asks her to use her skill in imbas forosna to foresee the outcome of her expedition. E. Knott

' poem of prophecies' ni Ériu, xviii (1958), 55-84, has published A which reflects the changing social and political atmosphere of the

91

really last hour or final repentance songs and they remind us of

confession-songs ni Middle Irish. A Modern Irish poem 'Aithreachas an Bhráthar Bhoicht', 'The Repentance of the Poor Friar, 2 06 and the story attached to ti illustrates the belief ni its effectiveness; ti secured for the mendicant Brother admission into heaven when all other means had failed.207 As we shall see, the marwysgafn has similarities to the dadolwch "poem of

appeasement'. Of the three that have survived, the marwysgafn of Meily Brydydd, Bleddyn Fardd and Cynddelw Brydydd Mawr, the first si by modern standards the finest. It ends:

Me, the poet Meilyr, a pilgrim to Peter, The gate-ward who assesses qualities of perfection,

When the time to rise will come for us

All who are entombed, support Thou me.

Awaiting the call, may I be ni the precincts

Of the monastery against which beats the tide,

twelfth century. 203 Nevertheless, the fact that no other prophecy is attributed to a Welsh court poet of this period seems to suggest

205 Although there is no resemblance between the Anglo-Saxon 'Death-Song'

D E AT H - B E D S O N G

marwysgafnau it gives a meaningful context to the latter. Translated ti reads: 'Before setting forth on that inevitable journey, none is wiser than the man

Marwysgafn ni its literal meaning is 'death-board (or -bed: ysgafn

done, and what judgment his soul will receive after departing.' See J. Opland,

that the court poets dissociated themselves from the vaticinators.204

< Lat. scamnum)' and the fact that it came to mean 'death-bed

song or poem' indicates that ti developed a technical sense, and suggests that such 'death-bed' poems must have been more

attributed to Bede as the song he uttered on his death-bed and the Welsh who considers-before his soul departs from here-what good or evil he has

op.cit. (footnote 67), 139-41.

The marwysgafn is related to the penitential

hymn, the Penitential Psalms (i.e., 6, 31, 37, 50, 101, 129 and 142), and hte

penitential lyric. See P.S. Diehl, The Medieval European Religious Lyric

(Berkeley, Los Angeles, London, 1985), 67-9. For examples of penitential or . McKenna, Aonghus Ó Dálaigh (Dublin, confessional songs ni Irish see L

te history of Britain or of Wales' the 203 From the meaning a' chronicle of h word brut came to mean 'prophecy, vaticination'. See M.E. Griffiths, Early Vaticination in Welsh with English parallels, ed. T. Gwynn Jones (Cardiff, 1937); R.W. Evans, Y Daroganau Cymraeg hyd at amser y Tuduriaid

1936), 134. 207 1b. For 'Claf Abercuawg and Penitential Lyrics' see EWSP 196-228.

204 Giraldus Cambrensis refers to a certain Meilyr

who lived in the

numerous in medieval European literature and have not been uncommon ni

occult and foretell the future, Gerald of Wales: The Journey Through Wales /

only a typical "self"-that this (penitiential) mode entailed made ti an

'Meilyr Brydydd a Meilyr Awenydd, Barn, rhif 313, Hydref 1980, 313-16.

Western Middle Ages.', P.S. Diehl, op.cit. (footnote 205), 68.

(Traethawd M.A. Prifysgol Cymru, Caerdydd, 1935).

neighbourhood of the City of Legions (Caerleon) who could explain the

The Description of Wales, trans. L. Thorpe, 116-20. See R.G. Gruffydd,

1919), poems xxiii, xxiv, xxxix.

602 Printed ni Énri Ó Muirgheasa, Dánta Diadha Uladh (Baile Átha Cliath,

'Penitential poems following the lead of the Biblical Penitential Psalms were

the modern period. It si important to remember the concentration on self-if

important precursor of the subjective first-person-singular later poem of the

92

THE C O U RT POET IN M E D I E VA L WALES

THE C O U RT POET IN MEDIEVAL

Which si secluded, and of undying fame,

WALES

93

magician. When the thing to be controlled is the spirit of a dead

man, potentially a hostile force, his origins and deeds and perhaps

With its graveyard in the bosom of the sea, The isle of wondrous Mary, holy isle of the saints— Glorious within its resurrection to await.

also his death and vengeance may be sung. Epic has a close connection with the cult of the dead'. 21 The Hendregadredd Manuscript has preserved almost sixty marwnadau, not all bearing the title marwnad. The title itself is

Christ of the prophesied Cross, who knows me, wil deliver me

usually translated 'elegy' ni English, but 'elegy' like the Greek

From a banished existence in violent hell, The Creator, who created me, wil receive me Among the saintly parish of the band of Enlli (i.e., Bardsey). 802

elegeia is a somewhat ambiguous term, defying a precise

definition. The Greek elegeiai, we are told, were not devoted to death, but to war and love. Lament for the loss of someone and melancholy resignation seem to be predominant sentiments in

THE MEMORIAL ODE AND EULOGY

If, as we assume, Meilyr became Gruffudd ap Cynan's official

modern elegiac lyrics. Aneirin's 'Gododdin' si said to be a series of elegies. According to Ifor Williams its mood throughout is that of

poet, he must have composed many an ode to him as his patron. Unfortunately, only his marwnad to him has been preserved, a fact

Jarman? have argued that ti si a heroic song. Indeed, according

which would indicate perhaps that it was the most highly prized by Gruffudd ap Cynan's family, the author's own contemporaries and the scribes. There are earlier m a r w a d a u . The marwnad to

Cynddylan ap Cyndrwyn is linked with the name of Meigant. Not all the marwnadau in the Book o f Taliesin need be earlier than

Meilyr Brydydd's but it should be noted that some of them are for

legendary heroes, presumably taken from their sagas. That seems to indicate that even a legendary tale about such heroes was not regarded as complete without a marwnad and to justify taking laus

'canu cof, 21 but Kenneth H. Jackson?13 and Professor A.O.H.

to the latter, ti is the classic and only full-length exposition of the

ideals of the Heroic Age ni Welsh literature, and ni such an age the desire for revenge is more pronounced than the impulse to

grieve. Revenge, however, si not the proper response to death

from natural causes, and there is friendship in war as in peace, as

Aneirin was wel aware-kyveillt a golleis diffleis oedwn a' friend I lost: unswerving I was'. Nevertheless, the 'Gododdin' is more a celebration of valour than an expression of grief, and this si true almost without exception of the marwnadau of the Welsh court

that

poets. Perhaps the most striking difference between a marwnad

Gwrtheyrn defunctus est non cum laude.209 In an interesting article on 'Narrative Poetry', 210 A.B. Lord refers to the myths of origin ni

and an awdl foliant, between a memorial ode and an eulogistic

as

carmen

laudis

in

the

Historia

Brittonum

statement

Finnish lore as the best to be found, and proceeds, 'In order to

gain control over na axe whcih has caused awound, one chants 208 .J Lloyd-Jones, CPWP 17. 209 For references to Gwrtheyrn Gwrthenau in Welsh literature, see TYP 392-6,

and esp. the references in 'Englynion y Beddau'; C 67.4 E bet yn ystauacheu / y mae paup yn y amheu / bet gwrtheyrn gurtheneu.

210 Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics (1974), 542-50.

21 Pp. 543-4.

212 СА хс-хсі.

213 K.H. Jackson, op.cit. (footnote 3), 36-7. i Beitrage zur 214 A.O.H. Jarman, 'The Heroic Ideal in Early Welsh Poetry' n Indo-germanistik und Keltologie, Wolfgang Meid (hrsg.) (Innsbruck, 1967),

' he Meaning of a Heroic Age', see C.M. Bowra in Language 125-212. For T and Background of Homer, ed. G.S. Kirk (Cambridge, 1964), 3-28. Bowra, of

course, refers to H.M. Chadwick, The Heroic Age (Cambridge, 1926) and ot the relevant chapters in H.M. and N.K. Chadwick, The Growth of Literature,

I-III (Cambridge, 1932, 1968).

94

THE COURT POET IN MEDIEVAL WALES

T H E C O U R T P O E T IN M E D I E VA L WA L E S

95

ode, is that in a marwnad the poet is more than ever before aware

Most of the marwnadau are dedicated to the patrons o f the

that his patron now needs God's protection and mercy and that ti is his duty to pray for him. With the Welsh marwnadau we should

poets who composed them. The frequent references in them to the

compare the Old Icelandic erfidrápa or memorial ode to which

grave suggest that they were composed after burial. There is some evidence that ti was a custom of the Cywyddwyr to submit their

most of the Norse kings between 900 and 1100 were treated. They

m a r w a d a u by the end of a month or thereabouts after the

combined eulogy and lament and often concluded with a statement to the effect that the departed had been the best prince under the heavens, and it will be a long time before one equally great will be seen.

death, although the burial itself would seem to be a more fitting

occasion.

Dafydd Benfras's triadic marwnad to Llywelyn ab

Iorwerth and his two sons, Dafydd and Gruffudd, ni 1248 on the

occasion o f the interment of the remains of Gruffudd with those

reminds us that 'when one of Máire Ní Dhuibh's (O'Donoghue's) sons had died, a relative's wife-a Mrs Charles Philip O'Connell,

of his father and his brother in the Abbey of Aberconwy suggests that it was composed for that event.218 Was Bleddyn Fardd imitating the example of his master Dafydd Benfras when he

Máire Ní Dhuibh herself looked on in chilled astonishment; and

composed his elegy to the three sons of Gruffudd ap Llywelyn possibly on the occasion of the execution of Dafydd ap Gruffudd?219 As Dafydd Benfras composed separate elegies on

Writing of the elegies of Aogán Ó Rathille, D. Corkery215

newly settled among the Gaels, ignorant of their immemorial customs came to the wake, and fell on her knees ni silent prayer,

at last, failing to contain herself, broke out upon her ni violent abuse. Was this her way of making grief? Had she no words of praise or sorrow to cry out above the dead? Then, as fi to teach her, she clapped her hands and gave free utterance to her

Llywelyn ab Iorwerth and his sons before he composed a

combined elegy to the three, ti si obvious that a poet could elegize the same person more than once and that he could elegize several

persons together. Cynddelw Brydydd Mawr elegized Rhirid

suddenly-raised emotion in a flood of words: "Where are the dark women of the glens, who would keen and clap their hands, and

brother Arthen. Gruffudd ap Gwrgenau elegized his companions,

(The Last Colonel of the Irish Brigade). One should, however,

elegize persons outside the royal dynasties, and even women.

distinguish between the non-literary and the semi-literary Irish marbhnadh 'elegy' as one distinguishes between the non-literary Latin nenia 'dirge' and the literary Latin laudatio funebris, although, unlike the Latin nenia, the Irish caoineadh, as the welknown Caoineadh Airt Uí Laohaire testifies, has sometimes been

Einion ap Gwalchmai elegized Nest the daughter of Hywel. Cynddelw Brydydd Mawr elegized a mab aillt from Llansadwrn,

would not say a prayer until the corpse was laid ni the grave?"

given literary form.216

215 D. Corkery, The Hidden Ireland (Dublin, Melbourne, 1967), 164.

216 See T. Crofton Croker, The Keen of h te South of Ireland as illustrative of Irish Political and Domestic History, Manners, and Superstitions (London, Percy Society, 1844); R. Bromwich, 'The Keen of Art O'Leary, its background and

its place ni the tradition of Gaelic Keening, Eigse, v(1945-7), 236-52; Seán Ó

Flaidd twice, once on his own and another time jointly with his

one of them the poet Gwilym Rhyfel. Obviously it was possible to

and a mab aillt could be an unfree landholder, a villein or a serf, a

slave, a bondman or simply a farmer. The poets could elegize each other, Cynddelw elegized the Bleddyn Fardd (?Bleddyn Du) who

Tuama, Caoineadh Airt Uí Laoghaire (Baile Atha Cliath, 1961); Breandán Ó Madagain, Gnéithe den Chaointeoireacht (eag.) (Baile Átha Cliath, 1978).

. Bosco, SC xxii/xxiii 217E.D. Jones, Arch Cam cxii (1963), 5, and Sister M (1987-8), 86 n. 1. 218 See CPWP 18.

219 Ib., 19; Rhian M . Andrews, 'Triwyr a gollais: yr awdlau marwnad i dri mab Gruffudd ap Llywelyn gan Fleddyn Fardd', BaTh 166-79.

T H E C O U R T P O E T I N M E D I E VA L WA L E S

THE C O U R T P O E T IN M E D I E VA L WA L E S

was killed in a battle perhaps near Chester (ger traeth kaer, ?Coleshill)220 and the other Bleddyn Fardd elegized Dafydd Benfras who was killed in south Wales and buried in Llangadog. In this case Bleddyn Fardd could have been elegizing his preceptor in the art of poetry. On the other hand, both Cynddelw and Bleddyn Fardd may have elegized their fellow-poets not as such but because they died on the field of battle. There was a close bond between the members of the prince's retinue and probably

common metre for elegy with some of the Gogynfeirdd, e.g., with

96

between them and the poets so that it is no wonder that Cynddelw

Brydydd Mar elegized the retinue of Owain Gwynedd. Still less wonder that some poets elegized members of their own family,

that Cynddelw, for instance, elegized his son Dygynnelw. Peryf ap Cedifor's Tra fuam yn saith ... ('While we were seven ...') may be fell with their regarded as an elegy to those of his brothers who foster-brother, Hywel ab Owain Gwynedd, at Pentraeth in 1170.

One should note that because Cynddelw Brydydd Mawr

and Rhirid composed two elegies each to Madog ap Maredudd the form of Flaidd, one in the form of an ode and the other in and englynion, and because Bleddyn Fardd composed odes

englynion on Llywelyn and his two brothers, Owain and Dafydd,

Lloyd-Jones suggested that the odes (awdlau) and the englynion

were originally composed for two different audiences, that

97

Y Prydydd Bychan. At first sight ti would appear that the elegy originated ni a Sitz

im Leben different from that of the praise song to a living person. It could be argued that the praise of an ancestor was tantamount

to praising the living descendant. But it is well known that in ancient times there was widespread fear of the dead, a far reaching

awe of their power and hence a compelling reason to placate them 222 There are stories of dead heroes returning to help their people in adversity, and it was the belief that they could return and act as saviours that prompted the Welsh to believe that Arthur, Hiriell, Cadwallon, &c., were not dead but awaiting the time to return and deliver their people. The pagan cult of heroes survived in the Christian cult of the saints.223 However, when we compare the elegies and the celebratory

odes of the Gogynfeirdd, ti is their similarity rather than their difference that strikes us. Perhaps, as w e have suggested, the only

outstanding difference si that the person elegized is now ni particular need of the good will and favour of his Creator.

Whereas ni the praise.song he si the dispenser of protection, he si ni need of protection ni the elegy. But somewhat ironically he si praised in the elegy in much the same way as he si praised ni the

eulogy, exactly as if the poet assumes that the Creator has the

Cynddelw ni his odes was a pencerdd, but a bardd teulu in his

same view of life as the poet and his patron. Obviously elegies and

who composed the Llywarch Hen and Heledd Cycles used the

22 CE . . Vulliamy, Immortal Man (London, 1926), R . Th. Christiansen, The Dead and the Living (Studia Norvegica, No. ,2 Oslo, 1946); Mircea Eliade, A

englynion?21 He seems to have been influenced by the fact that in Ireland the use of some metres was the preserve of certain grades of poets. On the other hand ti must be remembered that the poets

englyn as their favourite metre, that the englyn was especially appropriate for elegy, and that it seems to have become the most 20 .J Lloyd-Jones, Geirfa Barddoniaeth Gymraeg Gynnar (Caerdydd, 1931-46), 57 s.n., CPWP 3; Nerys Ann Jones, 'Marwnad Bardd-Ryfelwr, YB xx, 90221 CPWP 9.

History of Religious Ideas, I (Chicago, 1978), ch. 8, has given a very plausible reason why our distant ancestors erected memorial stones to perpetuate the memory of their heroic dead and one should remember the runic inscribed stones, especially the Swedish Karlevi stone on the Island of Öland with its inscription in the skaldic 'drottkvætt' metre. 223 For the belief that Frederick Barbarossa would return to deliver the Germans in their hour of need, see H.A. Guerber, Märchen und Ezählungen

für Angänger, vol. 1 (London, s.d.), 30-3, and the study by Karle Hampe, Kaiser Frederich Il in der Auffassung der Nachwelt (Stuttgart, 1925).

T H E C O U R T P O E T IN M E D I E VA L

WA L E S

eulogies cannot be discussed separately nor singly here. It must suffice to treat them collectively and in general.

The first point to make is that there si no great difference in the standpoint of the Gogynfeirdd from that of the Cynfeirdd. In the 'Gododdin' we have the famous line: Beird byt barnant wyr o gallon. 24 The bards of the world adjudge men of valour.

It seems to eb echoed in Meilyr Brydydd's line: Nid aduarn kerteu, nyd geu daerawd. 25 Songs are not false judgments, not false si daerawd (a tribute).

It si assumed that the princes and heroes who are praised have a deep thirst for fame, that this fame can only be achieved by

valour and courage displayed ni battle, and that even then, it

cannot be realized unless it is endorsed in song by the poets. They are the 'makers' of fame. The result is that in the poems a curious feeling is conveyed that the prince who is praised stands apart from other mortals, and to a lesser extent that the only other

person who matters is the poet who praises him, or at least that he matters more than the prince's other supporters.

The late Professor T. Jones Pierce argued very persuasively that behind the political and military struggles of Llywelyn ab

224 CA 12.285. The editor suggests that instead of the pl. wyr, the sg. ur should

3 4u re:, 1322( CaM 2 50me) 9.153) Angut but beirnyeid gyuradwch 'manifest the profit of the generosity of

THE C O U RT POET IN MEDIEVAL

99

WALES

lorwerth and Llywelyn ap Gruffudd was their effort to establish Wales as a separate feudal kingdom capable of defending itself against another feudal kingdom, England.226 There can be no

doubt that feudalizing forces were at work ni Wales, and a feudal society was a society based on lordship in a hierarchy of vassals

and lords culminating ni the king or prince. The tenurial basis of this society was the fief, the land held of a lord by his vassal ni return for honourable service, including military service, aid and

counsel. Its origin could be traced back to the military revolution

whereby the

Franks, who had hitherto fought

on

foot,

increasingly adopted heavy cavalry with the consequence that the military élite became a social élite and the ancestors of a new,

feudal nobility. There can be no doubt that the Welsh princes whom the Gogynfeirdd eulogized were dependent on vassal lords

but there is no mention of this in the eulogies, any more than there is mention of the support rendered by the poets as soldiers.

Literary scholars have taken that those poets who held land from

their patrons, Meilyr Brydydd, Gwalchmai, Llywarch ap Llywelyn 'Prydydd y Moch', Dafydd Benfras, to mention only those whose land tenure has left traces ni names of places, held that land as reward for their poetical activity, but ti would be quite as reasonable to assume that they did so as reward for their military exploits or for both. In other words, it si reasonable to assume that the poets came to be regarded as the vassals of their patrons. It si an interesting aspect of the poet-prince relationship that the poet who eulogizes his prince does not regard himself as one among many vassals, and that he accords to that prince a solitary

and unique position ni his world. In this way the prince si lauded

as the paragon of all virtues. The constant refrain seems to be:

adjudicators', H 113.26 (GCBM ii, 9.196) Gwynnuyd beirt beirnyad wyf uinheu

'The blessedness of poets, an adjudicator am I too'. Note also the use of

dadfarn 'to condemn, reprobate' and dadfer 'to proclaim, proclaim again

(judgment)', ot describe the activity of the poets in R1441.31 (GCBM i, 8.10)

nyt beird ae datuarn bard ae datuer and H 97.1-2 (GCBM ii, 4.265-6) As barn

nwy daduarn ae daduer yn yawn I na wnaeth crawn crynnoder. 25 H 1.13; GMB 3.13.

226 See T. Jones Pierce on Llywelyn ab Iorwerth in The Dictionary of Welsh

Biography down ot 1940 (London., 1959), s.n., and of. id,. 'Social and historical aspects of the Welsh Laws', WHR (special number, 1963), 36-7.

100

THE C O U RT POET IN MEDIEVAL

Ni wnaeth Duw fwich ar falch naf.227 God made no defect in the brave lord. J. Lloyd-Jones, T.J.

THE

WALES

Morgan,228 and others have drawn

attention to the similarity between the themes of the poetry of the

Gogynfeirdd and those of the Cynfeirdd, a similarity which

prompted Saunders Lewis to argue that the great contribution which Taliesin made to the Welsh bardic tradition was the

idealistic portrait of the hero-prince in his panegyrics to Urien

Rheged. Taliesin was probably portraying Urien as the Brittonic poets before him portrayed their chieftains. However, in

so far as Welsh poets looked no farther back than Taliesin and

Aneirin there is some truth in Saunders Lewis's argument. In any

case, fi we assume, as presumably w e may, that originally the poets eulogized and elegized only the successive rulers of their

people, a new departure of considerable importance occurred when they began to feel free to bestow their praise on other individuals within the ruling class and exceptionally outside it. EINION O F F E R I A D

Einion Offeriad whose floruit is given as c. 1330, sought ni his

Gramadeg to categorize the attributes for which different classes of

persons should be eulogized by the poets.230 According to him a 27 MA 189; GCBM ii, 13.4. 28 J. Lloyd-Jones, CPWP 13-14; T.J. Morgan, 'Dadansoddi'r Gogynfeirdd', BBCS xii (1948-50), 169-74, xv (1952-4). 1-8. 229S. Lewis, 'The Tradition of Taliesin', THSC, 1968, 293-8.

230 On the disputed authorship of the Gramadeg (in one version ti is attributed

to Dafydd Ddu Athro oHiraddug), see T. Parry, A' Welsh Metrical Treatise', PBA xIvi (1961), 178-82, and n. 142. On Einion Offeriad se .J Beverley

Smith, 'Einion Offeriad', BBCS x (1962-4), 339-47. See also Ceri W . Lewis,

'Einion Offeriad and the Bardic Grammar' in A.O.H. Jarman and G.

Hughes, A Guide to Welsh Literature, vol. i (Swansea, 1979), 58-87. For an unorthodox view see lestyn Daniel, 'Awduriaeth y Gramadeg a briodolir i Einion Offeriad a Dafydd Ddu Hiraddug', YB xiii (1985), 178-208. On Dafydd Ddu Hiraddug, see R . Geraint Gruffydd's Sir John Rhys lecture to

C O U RT POET IN M E D I E VA L WALES

IOI

lord, the pinnacle of Welsh society at that time, as there were no

kings or princes, was to be praised for his lordship, governance

(authority or power), magnanimity, courage, righteousness, generosity, gentleness and other lordly qualities.231 John Morris-

Jones232 believed at one time that Einion Offeriad's thesis was an authoritative work, the basis of all we know about the bardic craft'. Later he modified his views. Thomas Parry took a more

radical view. Einion Offeriad,233 according to him, utilized

traditional material but manipulated ti to suit his own preference

and predilection. It should, ni any case, be remembered that Einion Offeriad, as his name indicates, was not a poet and

probably viewed Welsh poetry as a contemporary phenomenon,

not from a historical perspective. Certainly some of the qualities he mentioned can be questioned from such a perspective.

Gentleness, for example. Some of the princes were praised for their gentleness at court but mainly in contrast to their ferocity in

battle. In fact, certain words for anger, ferocity, even savagery, occur frequently and probably reflect h te fact that without a certain degree of violence no one could hope to gain lordship, much less ot retain it.234 Again, righteousness. The emphasis ni the poetry is not so much on righteousness as on the ability to assert

one's rights and to defend them. It is true that great store si set on the generosity of the prince, especially on his generosity to the poet himself and to his kind. The people in general do not seem to have benefited from the prince's largesse, although he was, of course, obliged to protect them. Although the do ut des principle si invoked in the context of the relationship between the poet and his

the British Academy n i the press and his 'Dafydd Ddu o Hiraddug, LICy xviti (1995), 205-20. 231G.J. Williams and E.J. Jones, Gramadegaur Penceirddiaid (Caerdydd, 1934).

C vi. 23 THCS, 1923-4, 28. Compare and contrast Morris-Jones, D ' Welsh Metrical Treatise', PBA xlvii (1961), 182. 23 .T Parry, A

234 The 'battle-fury' which characterized Cú Chulainn and other heroes was not an accidental feature added by the saga-redactor as an embellishment: it

was regarded as a necessary part of the hero's character.

THE C O U RT POET IN MEDIEVAL WA L E S

T H E C O U R T P O E T IN M E D I E VA L WA L E S

lord, it might have been non-existent as a fundamental principle of feudal society as far as the poets and their poetry were concerned.

himself as Llywelyn ap Madog ap Maredudd's and as Einion ap

102

It will be noticed that we have taken Einion Offeriad's haelder to

mean 'generosity', but as the etymology of the word 'generosity'

suggests, haelder could mean 'nobility (of blood)' and, nobility of blood was a prerequisite for lordship. Although ti occasions some surprise that Einion Offeiriad gives such priority to 'courage' as there was certainly less need for courage in a lord in his time,

courage was the virtue par excellence required in a lord in the Age of the Princes. His class retained their role as defenders of their people and their lands, as aggressors when aggression was required, and as providers, real providers when there was booty to

share, as redistributors rather than providers ni respect of the products of their own lands. P RY D Y D D / P E N C E R D D

103

Madog ab Iddon's bardd. It seems then that the fact that Meilyr Brydydd does not call himself Gruffudd ap Cynan's pencerdd does not mean that he was not such. Several references in his marwnad imply that he had a

privileged position ni Gruffudd ap Cynan's court, e.g. yueis gan

deyrn o gymn eurawc, 'I drank from golden drinking-horns with a sovereign', yn llys aberfraw yr faw fodyawc leithi[glawc, 'in the court of Aberffraw successful one, I sat beside the king on Brydydd's statement that he had shared

/ Bum o du gwledic ny for the fame of the the throne' 239 Meilyr Gruffudd ap Cynan's

couch and his wine reminds us of Seán Ó Clumháin's lines ni his poem seeking reconciliation with his chief Aodh Ó Conchobhair

(1293-1309), 'Let us not be any longer, O fair one, without lying

together on one couch, nor let us be without drinking wine from a single cup, O branch of Suca. Your right shoulder was mine until I

It is from Meilyr Brydydd's marwnad to Gruffudd ap Cynan that we learn of the special relationship between them. Meilyr calls himself prydydd ni his marwysgafn: mi veilyr brydyt beryerin y bedyr.

nor the mead nor the wine of your golden beaker.

Seisyll Bryffwrch to be Madog ap Maredudd's pencerdd, Rym

Gáiridhe 240 Meilyr also tells us that he received gifts from

Cynddelw calls himself prydydd ni his ymryson, 'contest', with gelwir ... yn brydyt yn brifuart dysc.235 In that ymryson Seisyll Bryffwrch claims that he himself should be the pencerdd, Mi bieu bod yn bennkert. I y yawnllin yawn llwyth culuart 236 Cynddelw refers to himself as pencerdd three times (once ni his englynion to Owain Cyfeiliog, twice ni his ymryson with Seisyll Bryffwrch (ry bytwn bennkert benn cor / ry bytwn bennkert benn kun).237 Dafydd Benfras

tells us that he si Llywelyn ap Gruffudd's pencerdd but this does

not prevent him from calling himself Gruffudd ab Ednyfed's bardd: Cedwis fi ei fardd m i gelwir?38 Cynddelw too refers to 532 H 181; GCBM ii, 12.25, 28.

236 H 80; GCBM i, 12.21-2. See also infra, pp. 149-50.

237 H 158, 180; GCBM ,i 17.8, GCBM i, 12.12, 20. 238 MA 224, 225; GDB 35.79, 33.41.

did myself a disservice by it: remove me not from your shoulder, I am your

official, O branch of Aughty, I was ever your bed companion; I am the one at your bright shoulder, O bright fresh crop of

Gruffudd ap Cynan, ni particular horses, indeed that he was enriched by him, but his patron's generosity was not confined to himself (ny duc neb keinyad nac o hanawd, 'no songster had refusal

from him'41). The poet apparently had acted as Gruffudd ap Cynan's intermediary or messenger (his negessawc). As a comment on Meilyr Brydydd's claim to have been Gruffudd ap Cynan's negessaw one could refer to the fact that Florence Mac Carthy Mór ni treating with the Munster chiefs on behalf of Sir Robert Cecil in 1602 sought the services of 'messengers' who were 'best 239 H 3; GMB 5.73, 75-6.

240.L Mac Cionnaith, Dioghluim Dána (Baile Átha Cliath, 1969); P.A.

' he Chief's Poet', Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, 83, C3, Breatnach, T 142 H;1 GMB 14.

I04

THE C O U RT POET

IN MEDIEVAL WALES

learned and spoken in that language and of special trust, credit and authority'. These were "Rimers" to be trusted only by those gentlemen whose followers they are by linear descent, and on w h o m d e p e n d s t h e i r l i v i n g '242

Most significantly perhaps Meilyr

Brydydd refers to the kerenhyt which existed between him and his patron: yny uwyf gynneuin a derwin wyt. / Ny thorraf am car vy gerenhyt (Until I be habituated to an oak coffin / I shall not

renounce my friendship with my friend.). All the political implications of the death of Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, affectionately remembered by the Welsh as Ein Llyw Olaf, 'Our Last Prince', could not have been realized at the time, but the event evoked from Gruffudd ab yr Ynad Coch, a member of one of the families of civil servants drawn into the service of the princes of Gwynedd, fi not himself a civil servant, an elegy which

stands out among the elegies composed for the Welsh Princes. It is

justly famous, not only because of its subject, but also because of its own unique nature. In its expression of personal loss and grief it

transcends the usual conventional limits and involves its

audience ni a way seldom found in previous elegies: indeed, ti

seems that the circumstances of Llywelyn ap Gruffudd's death compelled the poet to communicate the feelings of all the Welsh nobility if not the feelings of all the Welsh people. I give the translation made by Anthony Conran: Cold heart under a breast of fear grieved

For a king, oak door of Aberffraw, Whose hand dealt gold new-minted, Whom the gold diadem befitted.

Gold cups of a golden king bring me no oy— j Llywelyn si not free to robe me. Woe for my lord, falcon unblemished, Woe's me that foul misfortune felled him, Woe's me his loss, woe for the destiny, 242 See P.A. Breatnach, art.cit., 55.

THE C O U R T P O E T IN M E D I E VA L WA L E S

Woe I should hear what wounds were on him!

A camp like Cadwaladr's, the sharp auger's pledge, He of the red spear, gold-handed ruler. He dealt out riches, and every winter His own apparel put about me.

That lord, rich ni cattle, does not profit our hands— Eternal life awaits him!

Mine now to rage against Saxons who've wronged me, Mine for this death bitterly to mourn.

Mine, with good cause, to cry protest to God Who has left me without him.

Mine now his praise, without stint or silence, Mine, henceforth, long to consider him.

Grief, for as long as I live, I shall have for him; As I am full with it, so I must weep. I've lost a lord, long terror is on me,

A lord of a king's court a hand has killed. — e O righteous Lord and true-minded, hear m

How high I mourn, alack such mourning! A lord of advantage, till eighteen were slain, Aliberal lord-his estate is the grave. Brave lord like a lion, directing the world: There is no rest from his destruction.

Alord all-triumphant, until he left EmraisNo Saxon had dared to touch him.

A lord of Wales, there's a stone roof round him, Prince of Aberffraw by right of his lineage. Lord Christ, how am I grieved for him,

Atrue lord, freedom came from him:

O heavy swordstroke caused him to stumble!

O long swords urged furious against him!

105

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THE C O U RT POET IN MEDIEVAL

WALES

O wound to my prince, it makes me tremble

To hear of him prostate, lord of Bodfaeo!

There indeed was a man, till a foreign hand killed him, All the privilege of his ancestry ni him: Candle of kingship, strong lion of Gwynedd, Throned, there was need of him, with honour! For the death of all Britain, protector of Cynllaith, Dead lion of Nantcoel, breastplate of Nancaw,

Many a slippery tear scuds on the cheek, Many a flank gaping and crimson,

Many a pool of blood round the feet, Many a widow crying aloud for him, Many a heavy thought goes errant, Many a fatherless child's abandoned, Many a homestead flecked from the fire's path, And many a looted wilderness yonder, Many a wretched cry, as once was at Camlan, Many a tear has run down the cheek:

Since the buttress si down, gold-handed chieftain, Since Llywelyn si slain, my mortal wit fails me. The heart's gone cold, under a breast of fear; Lust shrivels like dried brushwood.

See you not the way of the wind and the rain? See you not oaktrees buffet together? See you not the sea stinging the land? See you not truth in travail?

See you not the sun hurtling through the sky, And that the stars are fallen?

Do you not believe God, demented mortals? Do you not see the world's danger?

Why, O my God, does the sea not cover the land? Why are you left to linger?

THE C O U R T

P O E T IN M E D I E VA L WA L E S

107

There is no refuge from imprisoning fear,

And nowhere to b i d e O such abiding! I see no counsel, neither lock nor opening, No way to escape fear's sad counsel. Each retinue was rightly for him,

All the warriors guarded round him: Not a man but swore by his hand, Not a land or ruler but was his.

Cantref and township, all are invaded,

Every lineage and clan slips under. The weak and the strong were kept by his hand, It si every cradled child that screams.

It did me no good, so to deceive me, When the head was off, to leave me mine. When that head fell, men welcomed terror, When that head fell, it were better to stop.

Soldier head, head praised hereafter, Head of a dragon, a hero's head on him, Fair head of Llywelyn, harsh fear to the world That an iron stake should rive it.

Head of m y lord, the pain of his downfall, y soul, no name upon ,ti Head of m A head that, once, nine hundred lands honoured, Nine hundred feasts gave homage. Head of a king, iron flew from his hand, Proud head of a king hawk, he breached the war-line, Head of a kingly and thrusting wolf-

O high king of heaven, be refuge for him! High lord and blest prince, support of the host,

Ambitious even to Brittany, The true and regal king of Aberffraw,

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THE C O U RT POET IN M E D I E VA L WALES

May heaven's white land now be his home!243 G WA L C H M A I

The Hendregadredd Manuscript scribe copied the work of

T H E C O U R T P O E T IN M E D I E VA L WA L E S

109

'Arwyrein ywein (gwynet) gwalchmei ae cant', but the other three give the author's name ni the well-known formula 'Gwalchmei ae cant' or 'Gwalchmei ae cant y ywein'. The last part si made up of

only four lines. The title 'arwyrein', which si found ni the

Gwalchmai ap Meilyr immediately after that of his father beginning with an Ode to God, the only ode to God which has

Gwalchmai245 Cynddelw wrote an arwyrain to Madog ap

'Breuddwyd Gwalchmai' (H 22-3) could also claim to be regarded as another. 'Breuddwyd' ni Middle Welsh can be translated

an arwyrain to Owain Gwynedd, and Llywarch ap Llywelyn

survived in Gwalchmai's corpus of poems, although the ode

"vision' as well as 'dream', and indeed the ode can be understood

as an appeal to God, an appeal, a prayer for his guidance. It is ni

the 'Breuddwyd' that we are told that one of Gwalchmai's sons

was called 'Goronwy', that his wife was called 'Genilles' and that both predeceased him. There is another ode (H 23-4) to which has

been added a prefatory note by Robert Vaughan, 'Gwalchmai y ' fa' ni the ode Eua y wreic' (H 336), but there is no mention of E

itself, only a reference to gwraig, which can mean wife' or 'woman'. It is a curious piece, both ni form and content, as we

shall see below. 244 There are among the odes of Gwalchmai one ode, apparently

ni five parts, ot Owain Gwynedd (H 12-15), and one ode each to Dafydd ab Owain and Rhodri ab Owain, i.e., Owain Gwynedd,

Gruffudd ap Cynan's son, as well as one ode to Madog ap Maredudd, prince of Powys. It is not certain whether the one five-

introduction to the ode to Madog ap Maredudd, is not unique to

Maredudd,246 to Owain Fychan ap Madog, three to Owain Gwynedd, and one to Rhys ap Gruffudd. Llywelyn Fardd wrote 'Prydydd y Moch' wrote three (two to Rhodri ab Owain and one

to Llywelyn ab Iorwerth). One would like to know what was the precise difference between an ordinary awdl and an awdl

arwyrain.247 Al five parts of Gwalchmai's arwyrain to Owain Gwynedd and his arwyrain to Madog ap Maredudd start with the word ard(dwyreaf, and the fourth part contains the significant lines,

Ardwyrews vyn tad y ureisc vrenhindad. ar awen amnad y rad racuras.

Ardwyreaf inneu uann kyntorawr fossawd. ar barabyl perwawd ar draethawd dras.248

part ode to Owain Gwynedd should be taken as such or as five

245 Arwyrain si found as the verb-noun of arwyreaf and as a noun (and adjective). GPC translates the verb as 'to rise, elevate; extol' and the noun as 'praise, exaltation, song of praise, panegyric'. Some nine poems are

separate odes. The first and last parts are entitled by the scribe,

arddwyreaf, the word which Gwalchmai uses to introduce the five parts of his

designated as arwyreiniau in the Hendregadredd MS. Cf. the meanings of

ode ot Owain Gwynedd, (1) 'to exalt; extol, celebrate ni song, praise'; (2) o"t

rise, arise', 246 Madog ap Maredudd was married to Susanna, daughter of Owain

243 The Penguin Book of Welsh Verse, trans. A . Conran (Harmondsworth, 1967), 128-31. For an edition of the original poem, see GBF 414-33. 244 Gwalchmai had at least five sons: Goronwy mentioned in the 'Breuddwyd',

Gwynedd, and perhaps this should be borne in mind in accounting for Gwalchmai's ode to Madog ap Maredudd.

Einion ap Gwalchmai and Meilyr ap Gwalchmai. The reference to Goronwy

ardwyreaf and not all of them are designated arwyrain ni the title. E.g., 'Audyl

Elidir and Dafydd, mentioned in the Record of Caernarvon, and the two poets

si poignant: 'Although I am grey-haired, the death of Goronwy, the shield-

bearing warrior, is not a dim memory with me, truly by his death I was bereft/deprived', n y agal gofal dyfal dyfrwyd, 'in grief bitter tears were unceasing.'

perhaps

247 Some seventeen poems in the Hendregadredd MS. begin with the word

a gant prydyt y moch y Ruffut m. llywelyn' on pp. 282-3 commences . Owen points out to me Ardwyreaf dreic dragon nenn prydein. Ms. Morfydd E that the arwyreiniau do not in general commence with an invocation to God.

248 H 14.23-6; GMB 8.61-4.

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THE C O U R T P O E T IN M E D I E VA L WA L E S

III

My father exalted his mighty royal father

show their knowledge of genealogy in some of their poems but not

(and) with the skilful Muse his extremely great generosity I for my part exalt a chieftain, leader ni battle, with the utterance of sweet song, with the distinction of

in all. It is said that as monarchy became more feudalized, the

acclaim.

with the suggestion that arddwyrain and arwyrain occur in an arwyrain, and that arwyrain was the proper duty of a pencerdd.

Unfortunately, lexicographers translate arwyrain as 'praise,

exaltation, song of praise, panegyric, and cannot give it a more

precise technical meaning. GENEALOGY

Gwalchmai's five arwyrain ni his ode to Owain Gwynedd begin with a reference to one of his ancestors, o hil gruffut (of the race, the progeny of Gruffudd', o hil yago, o hil rodri, o hil eneas and o

hil balch run. Indeed the fifth mentions other ancestors, Ardwyreaf hael o hil balch run / o vaelgwn gwynet gwinuaeth reitun / o gadwallawn llawhir llawr uab einyawn yrth / o arth orben aer bost

cadkun.249 Giraldus Cambrensis refers to the interest and pride of hte Welsh ni their ancestry, an interest and pride they shared

with the Irish. Later Welsh poets were, as we know, genealogists

and we assume that they were from the earliest time the

genealogists of the Welsh princes and nobles. The Gogynfeirdd 249 H 12-15; GMB poem .8

king derived more real power from his feudal rights as suzerain,

the lord of lords, than from time-honoured 'royalty', but ti would

be a mistake to conclude that paucity of genealogical references ni

the poems of the Gogynfeirdd reflected that process in Wales. We

can assume that ni Wales, as ni Ireland, a man at one time enjoyed his status, rights and privileges by virtue of his descent and that knowledge of his genealogy was not a matter of mere curiosity or

antiquarian interest. An Old Irish text enjoins 'Memories shall

determine to whom inherited land belongs: old antiquaries shall be questioned on their conscience truthfully ni thy presence. 152 It appears that one of the tasks of the Indo-European poet from the very beginning was the preservation and transmission of

royal genealogies and that ni order to do so effectively they cast them in verse. Genealogical verses (anu vamsa sloka) formed an

essential part of old Indian heroic poetry. Indeed, the first book (Adiparvan) of the Mahabharata, 'the great (tale) of the

descendants of the prince Bharata, contains a whole section,

entitled Sambhavaparvan or 'section of the origins' in which the genealogy of the heroes is traced back to their first ancestors.252 The Homeric poems contain genealogies but they are seldom given for more than three generations. The longest is that of Aineias ni

the Iliad (xx.215 ff.) and includes Zeus himself, a fact which reminds us that some of the Anglo-Saxon kings traced their

250 You have to bear ni mind that the Welsh bards, singers and jongleurs kept accurate copies of the genealogies of these princes ni their old manuscripts, i Welsh', Gerald of Wales: The Journey which were, of course, written n Through Wales / The Description of Wales, trans. L. Thorpe, 223. It would

descent from the god Woden. The ideological importance of genealogies si illustrated ni Hesiod's Theogony which gives a genealogy of the gods. 253 Part of that importance was political. It

Welsh bards, singers and jongleurs as 'artistes' were able to write out the

251 Se Donncha Ó Corráin, Ireland before the Normans (Dublin, London,

perhaps be too much to assume that Gerald would have us believe that the

"acts' they 'performed', had they, a very unlikely event, been required to do

so. In any case, our suspicions are aroused by the incongruous nature of his group of 'artistes', and we cannot see why the singers and jongleurs should have the same incentive as the bards to keep written genealogies. On the

Welsh herald-bard of a later age, see E.D. Jones, 'Presidential Address', Arch Cam cx lii (1963), 1-12.

1972), 76. Traditionally, the antiquaries to be questioned would have been the bards. On genealogical poetry see .J de Vries, Altordische Literatur-

geschichte, I(Berlin, 1956), 15-16.

. Winternitz, AHistory of Indian Literature (New Delhi, 1972), I, 376. 252 M 253 H.M. and N. Chadwick, The Growth of Literature (Cambridge, 1932, 1968), ,1 270 f.

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has been shown that genealogies were often changed in the interest of families who had acquired political power at the expense of

other families. But interest ni genealogy remained strong ni Ireland and Wales long after political power had passed from the

native ruling families to the English crown. Aogán Ó Rathille's

elegy on Diarmuid Ó Laoghaire of Killeen has some fifty lines of genealogical matter.

His elegy on Domhnall Ó Ceallacháin

illustrates how it could be woven into the fabric of the praise.

Son of Ceallachn, the manly, hte high-spirited, the vivacious,

Son of Conchu bhar, a noble who was bold and brave,

Son of Donogh, son of Tadhg, the staying strength of the learned,

Son of Conchubhar Laighneach, who did not show weakness, 254

and so on. One can assume that when Meilyr Brydydd refers to Gruffudd ap Cynan as cad gyffro o Anarawd and when Gwalchmai

refers to Owain Gwynedd as o hil Gruffudd, o hil Yago, o hil

Rhodri, o hil Eneas, o hil balch Run, the ancestral

names they

mention conjured up a wealth of heroic achievements in the minds of his audience. We are reminded of Bleddyn Fardd's awdl

farwnad to Owain Goch ap Gruffudd ap Llywelyn which refers in succession to hil Gruffudd, hil lorferth, hil Madawg, hil Maredudd and hil edfynt Bleddynt, bleidd ymwryaw. There is nothing ni Welsh

T H E C O U R T P O E T IN M E D I E VA L WA L E S

Of the five parts that commence with a reference to one of

Owain Gwynedd's ancestors, the fourth 'Ardwyreaf hael o hil eneas' indicates clearly that the poet has ni some way incurred the wrath of his patron and contains a plea for reconciliation.

would therefore be regarded as partly a dadolwch poem, one of a gloes eissyoes esgar: am kur mal karchar:

ac angert anwar gnaws dar dan yas.

Ac yn oreu dyn duw yr kreas. kyn y uar arnaf neuaf nam llas. Ac or meint yssyt arnaf o ger(e)yt

kymyt ath brydyt ny bryd yn uas. 257 The pang of separation, however, from him whose violent

passion is like a flaming oak, hurts me like a fetter. He is the

best man that God has created, and I grieve that I was not slain before his wrath was kindled against me; and however greatly I am at fault, do thou make peace with thy poet whose song si

thoughtful!258 The third arwyrain part by Gwalchmai to Owain Gwynedd celebrates his military prowess ni the characteristic way of the Gogynfeirdd but with a more extensive description of one battle

than si usual. One can understand why J.P. Clancy gave 'The

Battle of Tâl Moelfre' as the title to his translation.

I celebrate Rhodri's bounteous heir,

Britain's true lord, trial-hardened Owain, King who neither cringes nor covets.

254 D. Corker y, The Hidden Ireland (Dublin, Melbourne, 1967), 165.

One from Ireland, a second with soldiers

25 S. Sturluson, Heimskringla (trans. Hollander, Texas, 1964), xix, 3; Joseph R. Strayer, Dictionary of the Middle Ages (New York, 1989), xii, 725-6. 256 T. Jones, 'The Black Book of Carmarthen stanzas of the graves', PBA liti

(1977), 93-137.

It

genre to be discussed later:

comparable to the skaldic poem 'Ynglingatal' ot King Rognvald ni which thirty of the king's forefathers? are reckoned and the death and burial places of each are given, although 'Englynion y Beddau' ('The Stanzas of the Graves) testify to hte bardic interest ni the burial places of famous men. 256

113

Border-land's guardian, rightful ruler,

Three legions came, sea-surge's vessels, Three strong navies seeking to crush him,

752 H 15.11-16; GMB 8.79-84. 258 CPWP 17-18.

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M E D I E VA L WA L E S

THE COURT POET IN MEDIEVAL WALES

From the Norsemen, long prows of the deep,

Perished, the third of May, three hundred ships Of the king's own navy,

T H E C O U R T POET

IN

And the third sailing from Normandy,

115

And a thousand lords fled before

And the task for it dire and dreadful.

A beardless champion at Menai.260

And Môn's dragon, savage his mood in war,

And clamour, bold their call for battle,

RELIGIOUS ODES

And clash and havoc and tragic death,

Gwalchma's Ode to God (H 9-12), the first of its kind to be

And before him a grim wild welter

Troop on bloodstained troop, throb on frightened throb,

copied into the Hendregadredd Manuscript, may not be the

At Tâl Moelfre a thousand war-cries,

earliest to be preserved-there are some of unnamed authorship 61-but ti seems to be the earliest extant poem to God

Shaft on shining shaft, spear upon spear, Fear on deep fear, drowning on drowning.

attributed to a well-known Gogynfardd. Whether the Welsh Lawtexts reflect the structure and custom of the contemporary or an

And no ebb in Menai from tides of blood, And the stain of men's blood in the brine. And grey armour and ruin's anguish,

And corpses heaped by a red-speared lord, And England's horde and engagement with it And them demolished in the shambles.

And the fame raised of a savage sword

In seven-score tongues to praise him long. 259

Owain's son, Hywel ab Owain Gwynedd has an ode on a seabattle which may well be the same

as that in Gwalchmai's

arwyrain, and should be compared with it. When crows made merry, when blood ran freely, When men's blood was poured out,

When war came, when horses turned red, When shore was red, when court burned red, When ruby-red flame flared high as heaven, Home offered no refuge.

Easy to see its bright burning From the white fort on Menai's bank. 259 J.P. Clancy, The Earliest Welsh Poetry (London, 1970), 118.

earlier state of society, their prescript that the pencerdd should sing before the bardd teulu and that he should sing first of, or

about, God and then about the king, i.e., ni praise of them, suggests that there must have been many odes to God in existence

at some time, even fi the prescript did not mean that the pencerdd

should sing a 'new' song to God each time, and even fi there are

indications that other court poets beside Meilyr Brydydd felt that they should have used their talents more in God's service than in

the king's. Furthermore, the existence of the prescript seems to imply that there was a time when it was the duty of the Celtic bards to praise the gods and ti can be taken as additional proof

that their songs in praise of human heroes originated ni songs ni

praise of gods, just as similar songs did among early middle-

eastern peoples. The collection of Sumerian and Akkadian hymns

. von Soden 26 . Falkenstein and W and prayers published by A contains songs ni praise of gods and kings. There are hymns to heroes among the Homeric Hymns. The term 'hymn' with its 260 Tb,. 131.

. Haycock, Blodeugerdd Barddas o Ganu Crefyddol Cynnar (Barddas, 261 M 1994). See also Oliver Davies, Celtic Christianity ni Early Medieval Wales (Cardiff, 1996), 28-91. 262 A . Falkenstein und W . von Soden, Sumerische und akkadische Hymnen und Gebete (Zürich-Stuttgart, 1953).

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IN MEDIEVAL WALES

117

modern associations is probably misleading. Saint Augustine

However, the odes to God by the Poets of the Princes do not

defined the hymn as laus Dei cum cantico 'praise of God ni song' and he was followed by the majority of authors ni the Middle Ages. This definition is comprehensive enough to include the odes

all follow the same pattern and are more varied in character than

the general title 'Awdl i Dduw' would suggest. Commenting on

of the Gogynfeirdd as hymns, but to us a hymn si a composition to be sung by a congregation and ti is difficult to imagine that the

Cynddelw's two odes to God, Dr Ann Parry Owen says that they are hardly the kind of odes that would have been sung before odes to princes. T h e one emphasizes the gravity of sin and the need

odes composed by the Gogynfeirdd would be sung in that way.

for penance and repentance, the other stresses the insignificance of

Early Wales does not seem to have produced hymns, either in Latin or in the vernacular, on the same scale as Early Ireland. 263 The meaning of the Greek hymnos, a word of uncertain origin,

princes and their deeds. Dr Parry Owen suggests, nevertheless, that Cynddelw was aware of the obligation to sing to God before

could include praise of men as well as of gods, and the Greeks, like other ancient peoples, did not distinguish as sharply as we do between deity and men. It should also be remembered that ancient

singing to the prince. In his "awdl ddadolwch' (*song of appeasement) to Lord Rhys he addresses God and asks Him for awdurdod or power to praise Christ first and then Lord Rhys Am rotwy rwyf nef rwysc awdurtawd kert:

hymns were mostly cult-hymns and that they were associated with

nym gwnel cart o nebawd.

sacrificial meals or feasts.

y uoli mab duw dibechawd. Dibechdoeth kyuoeth kyvundawd. Eil digabyl parabyl parhawd. Per awen parhaus hyd urawd... y adrawt aerulat eurulawd y ysgwyd

To us the court poet who sang to God before singing to the king seems to be trespassing on the domain of the court-chaplain, but, as we have suggested, the tribal poet and tribal priest in

ancient times were almost identical.264 Unfortunately, the Welsh

odes to God that have been preserved do not contain any evidence that they were sung before odes to the princes, any more than the

mal ysgwyd rwyd rahawd. 26

May the Governor of Heaven give me the splendour of the power

latter have any evidence that they were sung after the former. A

of song-

considerable number of odes to the princes begin with an

He will not shame me in anything—

invocation to God and remind us that, however much the princes

To praise the sinless Son of God, The blameless wisdom of the might of concord,

yearned for praise and everlasting fame, they yearned no less for a life of bliss after death.

A second faultless lasting utterance

Sweet inspiration until Doomsday ... To acclaim the one who strikes terror ni battle, fine bloom

263 See Wiltrud aus der Fuenten, Maria Magdalena ni der Lyrik des Mittelalters:

his shield

Zum Wesen religioser Lyrik. Wirkendes Wort Schriftenreihe 3 (Düsseldorf,

Like the shield of the snare of Rhahawd.

1966), 10n7. 264 According to Juvencus, Evangelium Libri iv, Prol., a song praising the

deeds of Christ (and of God) had to be more lasting than a song praising the

deeds of a man as the former dealt with what was true while the latter dealt

with a mixture of truth and falsehood. See P. Klopsch, op.cit. (footnote 145),

3-4.

265 Ann Parry Owen, 'Cynddelw Brydydd Mawr a'i Grefft', BaTh 143-65, esp. 148-9.

26 H 107.19-24, 29-30; GCBM ii, 9.1-6, 11-12.

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WA L E S

And he begins his song to Tysilio by addressing and praising God

first before presenting his second gift eilrod, gyhyded, / Areilrec to Tysilio. Furthermore ni his eulogy to Owain Gwynedd he refers to it as a second song,

yn eil gert ym rwyf yn rwyt yd uein.

yn eil geir molyant moli ywein.

T H E C O U R T P O E T I N M E D I E VA L WA L E S

119

the Old Testament than of the New, the God of War rather than

of Peace, we should not be surprised to find that they applied to Him many of the epithets they applied to their earthly patrons.271 They leave the impression that they do not distinguish very clearly between the First and the Second Person of the Deity, between

God and Christ; the blurred distinction drawn by the ancients between gods and heroes is allowed to resurface. And the Christ

as if his first song had been to God.

they depict si Christus Victor, not the Suffering Christ. Among the

followed by Cynddelw and so many others of his fellow poets of prefacing praise of a patron with praise to God shows that they were conscious of the legal obligation to praise God first of all. This prompts the question whether by that time this obligation

Harrowing of Hell, to which there are many references. A second would return to judge the quick and the dead. Needless to say the Last Judgment exercised the mind and imagination of the poets as

other hand, the invocatio si frequent as an Exordial-topik in Latin

Not all the court poets left us odes to God. None are assigned

However, Dr Parry Owen's final suggestion that the practice

too had been commuted to an obligation to begin every song of praise with an invocation to God or with praise to Him. On the poetry and the explanation for its presence there cannot in any

way be linked with the practice followed by the penceirddiaid. 268

e have one awdl by Dafydd Benfras which appears to be in two W parts, the first to God and the second to Llywelyn ab lorwerth, 962 but tempting though ti si to see ni this a poet complying with the prescript of the Laws, it is perhaps better to take the first part as an example of a poet extending the invocatio. Perhaps we should not expect the Gogynfeirdd's odes to God to

mighty deeds of Christus Victor, the deed par excellence was the

mighty deed was to be expected and would occur when Christ

it did the mind and imagination of their audience. Llywelyn Fardd I was moved to sing of the 'Last Signs before Doomsday'.

to Seisyll Bryffwich, Llywarch Llaety, Daniel ap Llosgwrn Mew, Peryf ap Cedifor, Gwilym Rhyfel, Einion ap Gwgon, Llywarch ap Llywelyn 'Prydydd y Moch', Gwynfardd Brycheiniog, Gruffudd

ap Gwrgenau, Gwgon Brydydd, Llywelyn Fardd II, Gwernen ap Clyddno, Phylip Brydydd, Y Prydydd Bychan, Goronwy Foel,

Einion Wan, Hywel Foel ap Griffri ap Pwyll Wyddel, Bleddyn

Fardd and Llygad Gir. In the count, we are disregarding the marwysgafnau, the 'death-bed songs' and the three odes ostensibly

be truly devotional exercises, delivered as they were, more often than not, ni the court of a secular lord and after or during a feast.270 And as the God they worshipped was more the God of

sung to the saints, 'Canu i Dysilio' (Cynddelw), 'Awdl i Gadfan' (Llywelyn Fardd I), 'Canu i Ddewi' (Gwynfardd Brycheiniog).

267 H I 83.9-10; GCBM i, 9-10.

Brefi and at their churches. 272

269 MA 218b-219b; GDB poem 24.

rather than as odes, e.g.

268 On the invocatio ni medieval Latin verse, see P. Klopsch, op.cit. (footnote 145), 10 ff. 270 On the religious poetry of the Gogynfeirdd see C.A. McKenna, The Medieval Welsh Religious Lyric (Massachusetts, 1991). It should eb noted that almost all the religious poetry of the early Gogynfeirdd is to be found together in columns 1143-93 of the Red Book of Hergest. Cf. CPWP 15. The Black

Book of Carmarthen contains some poems which could be taken as hymns

These three were addressed presumably to the abbots and the

monastic communities (clasau) at Meifod, Tywyn and Llanddewi 'Arduireau etri,' 36.11-39.3.

'Gogonedauc argluit hanpich guell', 35.1-36.10,

172 J.E. Caerwyn Williams, Canu Crefyddol y Gogynfeirdd (Llandysul, 1977), 272 ME .. Owen, 'Prolegomena to the Study of the Historical Context of

Gwynfardd Brycheiniog's Poem ot Dewi', SC xxvi/xxvii (1991-2), 51-79.

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Meifod was the principal church in Powys and as such the

principal church of the Powys princes: indeed, it had been established by Saint Tysilio, son of Brochfael Ysgithrog and

brother of Cynan Garwyn, the prince to whom Taliesin had sung

one of his songs, possibly the oldest song preserved to us in the Welsh language. The monks at Meifod, we can be sure, had kept

the memory of their founder very much alive, fi only to remind the contemporary royal house of its duty to patronize the church, and

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121

war of 1223.27 Elidir Sais, fi we explain the cognomen Sais correctly, had been for sometime ni England and it si no wonder

that he shows evidence of being better informed on the affairs of

the day than most court poets. H e refers to llyfrau llên, 'books of literature', that cannot be doubted, and ot Dafydd ab Owain's

enforced retirement to England as a transgression second only to the capture of Christ's grave by Saladin, Treis Jerusalem gan

Syladin (R 1144).

Cynddelw must have been aware of all this. Can we assume that

Meilyr Brydydd's wish to be buried on Bardsey Island suggests

Cynddelw delivered his ode to Saint Tysilio at the church, with the

that he contemplated taking the monastic 'habit' before he died as his patron may have done and the number of religious songs attributed to his grandsons would lead us to believe that they

monastic community ranged on one side of him, the prince (? Madog ap Maredudd) and his retinue on the other?273

Prydyt wyf rac Pryd[ein] dragon.

Priawd kert cadeir prydytyon ...

Caraf y barch y harchdiagon Carada[wc] ureinnyawc ureisc rotyon. 274 A poet am I before the hero of Prydain, The rightful possessor of the song of the chair of poets ... I love the respect of its archdeacon,

The privileged Caradawg of the great gifts.

Gwalchmai's poet-sons wrote several odes to God: Meilyr, six e include his 'Awdl Weddi'; Elidir, five if we include his 'Awdl fi w i'I Grawys'; and Einion, three. As a family with father (Gwalchmai) and grandfather (Meilyr) official poets to two rulers of Gwynedd, they must have been highly cultured and ni close contact with the clerics of that kingdom. We have seen that Meilyr Brydydd tells us that he had been a negesawg a messengerin

the service of Gruffudd ap Cynan; Einion ap Gwalchmai, his grandson, had acted as one of the commissioners set up after the 273For Cynddelw's ode to Tysilio, see A . Parry Owen, 'Canu Cynddelw Brydydd Mawr i Dysilio Sant', YB xviii (1992), 73-99.

274 H 82.1-2, 19-20.

could have followed his precedent. It should be noted that all six of Meilyr ap Gwalchmai's songs are religious and have been

preserved in the Red Book of Hergest and that none has been preserved ni the Hendregadredd Manuscript. Does this mean that they were inaccessible to the Hendregadredd scribe alpha and that they had been kept not ni the duanairi of the princely families but

in the scriptorium or library of a monastery? We do not know

whether any secular poems by Meilyr ap Gwalchmai have been lost; only his religious poems have survived, but these show that

there is every reason to assume that he received the same poetic training as his brothers at the feet of his father Gwalchmai. Taken

together, the evidence regarding the bardic family of Meilyr

Brydydd suggests that they were closely associated with the clergy

of their period and that at least one of them, Einion ap Gwalchmai, was also associated with the lawyers. It also suggests that the bardic tradition was somewhat impoverished when the family bardic school disappeared Three religious poems are attributed to Madog ap Gwallter.

All three occur in John Davies's manuscript NLW 4973B, two ascribed to y Brawd Madawg and one to y Brawd, and the contents of all three, and especially that of the Nativity Hymn, suggest that 275 See note 128 above.

THE C O U RT POET IN M E D I E VA L WALES

THE COURT POET IN MEDIEVAL WALES

he was a Franciscan: devotion to the Infancy of Christ was made

There si an old proverb, hanner y wledd, hoffedd w y ('half a feast si (made up of] boasting'), and we can assume that the

122

popular with the support of Saint Francis himself. However, if, as Ifor Williams maintained, Madog ap Gwallter is to be identified with the author of the twenty-six verse Latin poem ni Cardiff MS.

2.611 (late 13th or early 14th century), which claims that Geoffrey of Monmouth translated the poems of the Welsh bards for the

material of his Historia Regum Britanniae, it si reasonable ot

assume that he had been trained as a bard before he became a

Franciscan and that he may have composed some secular songs.276 GORHOFFEDDAU

In some of the hymns to pagan gods, the gods are made to praise

themselves and this brings us to the third type of song to which we

are introduced by Gwalchmai, namely the gorhoffedd, which si defined ni one of its meanings as a type of boastful poetical

123

gorhoffeddau were sung during or more probably at the end of a feast when the ceremonial panegyrics had been chanted, and there was need to relieve the tension and to introduce entertainment in a

lighter vein. Ieuan ap Rhydderch has a cywydd "Cywydd y Fost' ('Cywydd of the Boast') ni which he refers ot Hywel ab Owain Gwynedd's gorhoffedd. In ti he says that Hywel, mab maeth medd /

Awen gain Owain Gwynedd, 'the mead-bred and fine poetry composing son of Owain Gwynedd', made 'a song, the mighty sword of a gorhoffedd, firm and bright' to show his merits as an heroic king, and that he, leuan himself, before finishing with the mead wil sing a gorhoffedd, a song of felicitous word. leuan ap Rhydderch's 'Cywydd y Fost' si therefore a counterpart of

composition peculiar to the Gogynfeirdd period and containing amatory and nature poetry. To the catalogue 'amatory and nature poetry' we would add 'war poetry'

Hywel's gorhoffedd, despite the statement ni 'Gramadegau'r Penceirddiaid 278 that boasting (ffrost) is unseemly (anweddus) ni a song. In later times, as we know, the Welsh poets followed a custom, which may have been very old, of setting up one of

Only two poems are designated as gorhoffeddau, one by Gwalchmai and another by Hywel ab Owain Gwynedd, but other

feast (gwledd neithior), no doubt as part of the festivities which

themselves as a laughing-stock, a figure of fun, after a wedding

poems have gorhoffedd characteristics and should perhaps be

were invariably associated with such an occasion.279 On the other hand, one should remember that boasting was socially acceptable ni olden times and that there are innumerable instances of heroes

Gwynedd's gorhoffedd could be regarded as two poems, one expressing delight in land or country, the other celebrating love of

bragging of the exploits that they had or were to accomplish. Ancient Indian heroes boasted before they engaged ni battle. Abhimanyu bragged before he fought Duhsasana. In the Iliad we

regarded as such.? There are striking as well as remarkable differences between these two. Indeed, Hywel ab Owain

women, but both communicate enjoyment, pleasure, gratification, and are ni a sense complementary. The boasting element is more striking in Gwalchmai's gorhoffedd than in Hywel ab Owain

find Hector boasting over Patroclos as the latter died. Sigeforth

vaunts his feats and his lineage ni the fragmentary Finn (24 ff.)

Gwynedd's.

and before his last battle Roland boasts to Oliver. The Irish heroes

276 See note 149 above.

278 GP 135. 279 See John Davies ('Siôn Dafydd Rhys'), Cambrobrytannico Cymraecœve

277J. Lloyd-Jones, CPWP 24, mentions two poems which contain elements of gorhoffedd, Cynddelw's rhieingerdd to Efa, the daughter of Madog ap

Maredudd, and Llywarch ap Llywelyn 'Prydydd y Moch"s awdl to Gwenllian, daughter of Hywel of Gwynllwg, and observes that in each case a

steed is dispatched as a love-messenger.

Waning of the Middle Ages (Penguin Books, 1965), 106-7 on bridal festivities in the Middle Ages.

124

THE COURT POET IN MEDIEVAL WALES

boast of their feats before the feast in Scéla Muice Meic Dathó and

Fled Bricrend. Apparently the heroes elegized ni the 'Gododdin' boasted of what they would do ni battle: there are references to

their arfaeth and their amod 280 This habit of boasting after a feast

gave ritaly oems caeld gabsni France, gapsni Provence, and Perhaps one should in this connexion stress the importance of the feast as the Sitz im Leben, as the social context, of many of the

productions of the court poets. The court feast was important in the life of the teulu or gosgordd. Mynyddawg Mwynfawr, we are

THE COURT

POET IN MEDIEVAL

WALES

125

modern Greece in ways very reminiscent of the past. Some festivals were predominantly for merry-making. One thinks of the

Saturnalia and of the two festivals which were not unlike it, the

Kronia celebrated at Athens and elsewhere, and the Sacaea, a

Babylonian festival perhaps of the New Year?82 and kept up by the Persians as a time of general licence, feasting and disguising, when slaves ruled their masters and criminals were given royal

rights for the five days of the feast and then put to death.

The Middle Ages continued some of the practices of the

ancient world. Festival and feasting times were often merrymaking times even at the monasteries. At the synodical council held at Clofeshoh in 747 it was thought necessary to warn monks

told, feasted for a year the war-band he sent to recapture Catraeth. The chef on that occasion, Gwlyged Gododdin, was important enough to be named ni the poem which praised the expedition. One cannot imagine a better context for the recitation of that poem later on than the feasts which preceded and followed

against the widespread practice of celebrating major feasts with

We have already mentioned the

eating. 283 Canon 12 tells us that priests ought not to babble in

similar expeditions thereafter.

bond which was created between men by the very act of sharing

vanities, games, horse-racing and feasting, and to inveigh against intemperate

drinking

and

scurrilous

entertainments

while

church ni the style of secular poets lest with awful noise they

the s a m e meal. But o n e m u s t n o t t h i n k of a feast a s t o o s e r i o u s a n aff air. In

disfigure and confuse the composition and division of the Sacred

ancient as ni medieval times, life oscillated between times of plenty

garriant, ne tragico sono sacrorum verborum compositionem ac

Word, ut presbyteri saecularium poetarum modo ni ecclesia non

and times of famine; even the presence of plenty was an occasion for celebration. In the same way life oscillated between times of

distinctionem corrumpant vel confundant. The verb garrire used to

peace and times of danger, and the men who shared together its

suggests rapid or histrionic declamation. The whole canon reminds us of Alcuin's letter to the Bishop of Lindisfarne AD

dangers, were those best able together to enjoy its pleasures.

Moreover, feasts often accompanied festivals, and festivals,

although originally religious celebrations and occasions of worship, gave rise to merry-making, to games and markets. Such festivals were called panegyries in ancient Greece and occur in

describe hte way secular poets adopted ni delivering their poetry,

797284 previously referred to, with its injunction that the Word of God should be read and heard at meal-times, not pagan songs

such as those about Ingeld. It indicates that even the monks were accustomed to hear stories about pagan heroes. We are also

280 On arfaeth, see .I Williams, CA 75; GPC s.v. arfaeth, 'intentions, design,

reminded of the tenth-century proscription by Alfric of priests attending funerals unless invited and if they went they should

(footnote 3), 39-40, compares the hero's arfaeth and amod with the gilp of the

. Eliade, op.cit. (footnote 183), 66-70, on New Year festivities. 282 M

281C. Voretzsch, Einführung ni das Studium der altfranzösischen Literatur (Halle, 1925), 182f.

482 Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Epist. Merov. et Carol. Aevi iv, Nr. 124.

purpose, plan'. On amod see CA 75, GPC s.v. amod, 'contract, agreement; ... promise', and note line CA 217 er amot aruaethei. K.H. Jackson, op.cit. Anglo-Saxon hero.

283 Councils and Ecclesiastical Documents, ed. W. Haddan and W . Stubbs (Oxford, 1871); .J Opland, op.cit. (footnote 67), 141.

THE COURT POET IN MEDIEVAL WALES

126

forbid the heathen songs of the laity and their loud laughter. In his Sermo de Memoria Sacrorum Alfric lists among the things to be avoided laughter and one of its causes, iactantia. Jeff Opland?85 has suggested that the Old English translation of iactastis in the sentence Quid me felicem totiens iactastis amici (Why, my friends, did you boast of my happiness so often?') as secgan odõe singan (pat ic gescellic mon/wœre on weorulde) might possibly, though not

necessarily, imply that the boasting was ni aliterary form and to

be recited or sung 286 The Battle of Maldon', 182 a poem that refers to an encounter between Viking raiders and an East-Saxon force

in 991, has striking examples of heroes boasting of what they have

THE C O U RT POET IN MEDIEVAL WA L E S

127

Splendid ni manner am I, fearless in battle,

A lion am I before the host; flashing si my onset.

I watched all night guarding the border, Murmuring are the water-fords of Dygen Freiddin, The virgin grass si green, beautiful si the water, Loud is the nightingale of familiar song;

The gulls sport on the bed of the waves, Sparkling their plumage, noisy groups. Far wandering are my thoughts ni spring-time On account of my loving a young lady of Caerwys.288

done and will do. In the case of individuals boasting it is not

One should not, of course, be surprised that military should be

necessary ot imagine that they did so ni a literary form outside a

sure way to a maiden's affection. In Egil Skallagrimsson's Saga

linked with amatory prowess. In that age feats of valour were a

literary work. How-ever, when it is said that a war band or an army boasted of their prowess before engaging ni battle it si

(ch. 48), Egil as a young man visits an earl's court and inadvertently takes the seat of the earl's daughter when she is

fi not a literary, form. If, as Ammianus Marcellinus (xxx1. 7, 11) tells us, the Goths entered battle shouting the glories of their

in my seat? You have not seen the raven screaming over blood in

to do so properly would be by giving those glories a formulaic

meeting.' Professor D.J. Bowen suggests that the martial element and the prominence of horses ni several of the rhieingerddi makes ti likely that these poems were declaimed ni the main hall, not ni

natural to think that the boasting had a ritual and a semi-literary,

ancestors, that is, boasting by glorifying their ancestors, the way pattern and repeating it.

Gwalchmai's long Gorhoffedd defies analysis on account of its seemingly disjointed character; indeed, it seems to carry the

Gogynfeirdd's habit of following an associative rather than a sequential logic to extremes. Time and again he refers to his feats

of valour ni the service of Owain Gwynedd, time and again he mentions his female admirers. The poem begins:

Early rising is the sun of the approaching summer,

Gentle is the singing of the birds, fine and pleasant the weath er,

285 Op.cit. (footnote 67), 180. 286 Op. c.ti 181. 287 On the Battle of Maldon see E.V. Gordon, The Battle of Maldon (London, 1937).

moving about. After returning she asks 'What are you doing, boy,

the autumn. You have not been where sharp-edged blades were

the separate chamber of the queen or princess and her attendants,

but even so we should not assume that martial and chivalric deeds

did not interest the court ladies. 289

If Hywel ab Owain Gwynedd's gorhoffedd si taken as two poems, the first poem si unique ni early medieval Welsh poetry,

just as the second and the poet's other love songs are among its outstanding songs ni praise of women. Here are a few lines of the

first poem ni Lloyd-Jones's translation: I love its sea-plains and its mountains, And its forts near its wood, and its fair domains, 288 H 16-17; GMB 9.1-12.

289 D.J. Bowen, Y ' Cywyddwyr a'r Noddwyr Cynnar', Y B xi (1979), 63-108.

128

T H E C O U R T P O E T IN

M E D I E VA L WA L E S

And its water meadows and its vales,

And its white sea-gulls and its lovely women ... With thrust of lance performed I glorious work Among the warriors of Powys and fair Gwynedd.

And on a grey steed, adaring venture,

May I achieve release from exile ...

I love the sea-plain ni Meirionnydd Where a white arm my head did pillow, I love the nightingale on luxuriant trees

Where two waters meet ni pleasant vale 2..90

THE COURT POET IN MEDIEVAL

These nature prologues present the literary critic with a

indication of the time or season of the occurrence celebrated by the poet, or an allusion to the harmony or discord between the aspect presented by nature and the human emotions to be

expressed. They have their counterparts ni other literatures, including Dark Age Latin literature, and perhaps they should eb regarded at least ni some instances as simply introduction topoi. They all show clear signs of a deliberate and conscious effort to achieve verbal brilliance and beauty.

Kalan hyturef tymp dyt yn edwi;

calaf gan lloer uann lwrw uenegi.

Judged by the poetry of the Gogynfeirdd, Hywel ab Owain

kyntwryf yn ebyr llyr yn llenwi. kyngyd gaeafar hwyluawr heli.

explanation. After all, he was a prince, and not a professional poet very much beholden to a patron. Nor do we need to invoke his Irish blood on his mother's side to explain his love of nature or the influence of the troubadours to explain his love of women.

Both reflect a very human interest, one which is as old as human nature, although it si alien to the warrior-ethos of heroic poetry ni

general and of Gogynfeirdd poetry in particular.

Apart from the gorhoffeddau, nature poetry ni the work of these poets seems to be confined to the nature prologues, the Natureingange found prefixed to panegyrics and elegies. The first two lines of Gwalchmai's gorhoffedd are a good example. They may be short as ni Dafydd Benfras's opening line to his elegy on

Llywelyn ap Gruffudd and his two sons, Gruffudd and Dafydd: It is May, less and less is the flood ni the river,

or more extended as in Einion ap Gwalchmai's elegy on Nest,

daughter of Hywel.

keluytodeu reen rannwyd a m.i 292 October Kalends, the season of declining day, The stalks under a high moon indicating the path,

Tumult ni the estuaries of the sea-tide filling, Raging brine si the intention of the winter-time,

The arts of the Lord have been shared with me.293

P O E M S TO W O M E N

The second part of Hywel ab Owain Gwynedd's gorhoffedd may, as we have seen, be taken as a poem in praise of women, but as the

boasts of Gwalchmai ni his gorhoffedd, including his amorous conquests, the subject need not be regarded as unfitting to hte main theme. In any case Hywel's praise of women ni his gorhoffedd and his other songs to women belong to the wide range

of songs to the opposite sex. . . Caerwyn Williams, 'The Nature Prologue ni Welsh Court Poetry', 291 See JE

SC xxiv/xxv (1989-90), 70-90.

290 CPWP 23.

129

difficult problem.29) Lloyd-Jones saw ni them either a deliberate

N AT U R E P R O L O G U E S

Gwynedd's strikes an unconventional note. This should not need

WALES

292 H 262.7-11; GLIL1 2.1-5. 293 CPWP 20-2.

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130

Although the Church banned the singing of amatoria cantica (or orationes amatoriae)294 and thus showed its disapproval of popular love-songs, there must have been considerable pressure on the court poets to compose songs to women. There is reason to

believe that the king's spouse, the queen, was a person of considerable importance at the court. The Law-texts tell us

The penteulu shall have from the queen, of the mead that the distain (seneschal) serves her, a hornful at every feast (cyfeddach) 2.9.5 The priest of the queen shall have a steed as a gift from the q u e e n ...

THE COURT POET IN MEDIEVAL WALES

WALES

296

When the bardd teulu enters on his office he shall have a harp

from the king and a gold ring from the queen 2.9.7

The bardd teulu has a right to a suit of woollen cloth (brethyn) from the king and his linen clothes (llyeynwisc) from the queen 298

According to the same source, the queen's father would have given

the pencerdd a cyfarws neithior ('a wedding gift') or amobr

('maiden fee') on the occasion of her marriage. 29

It was said of Branwen when she first arrived in Ireland that

'not one great man or noble lady would come to visit [her] to whom she gave not either a brooch or a ring or a treasured royal 294H.M. and N.K. Chadwick, The Growth of Literature (Cambridge, 1932,

1968), I, 363.

13I

jewel, which ti was a wondrous sight to see departing' 30 If Branwen's generosity was repeated by royal ladies, it si no wonder that Culhwch's mother, Goleuddydd, the daughter of Anlawdd

Wledig, said to her husband, 'I am going ot die of this sickness,

and thou wilt wish for another wife. And these days wives are the

dispensers of gifts but ti si wrong for thee to despoil thy son.'301 She was obviously apprehensive of the power wielded by wives

through their ability to dispense gifts and her apprehension was well founded for, as we have seen, the giving of any gift, whether ritual or otherwise, established a bond between the donor and the

receiver, a bond of mutual obligation or fealty. It must be significant that some officials at the court were given gifts by both

king and queen, and ti is equally significant that the bardd teulu,

i.e., originally the bard of the household troops, could be requested by the queen to enter her chamber and ot sing to her

and presumably to the other ladies that were with her, provided that he did not sing so loudly as to disturb the business transacted ni the hall.302 As we should expect, the aura attached to a royal family could not fail to envelop to some extent its female

members, nor could the part that they played ni dynastic marriages fail to enhance it.

Some thirteen songs to women are included among the poems

of the Poets of the Princes, some thirty if we include their poems and those of their immediate successors. These are usually referred to as rhieingerddi (sg. rhieingerdd)303 with some justification

295S.J. Williams, .J Enoch Powell, Llyfr Blegywryd (Caerdydd, 1942), 10.

. Jones and T. Jones (1949), 31. 30 The Mabinogion, trans. G

. . Wiliam, Llyfr Iorwerth (Caerdydd, 1960), par. 13 (lines 1-3). It may be 298 AR that literary historians should exercise the same scepticism as social historians

302 Every one vaguely interested in the semantic history of the German word Frauenzimmer will realize the long-term social and cultural implications of the separate existence of a room in the court set apart for the queen and other

and practices. See T. Jones Pierce, 'Social and historical aspects of the Welsh

303 Rhiain, the first element in rhieingerdd, is a literary word in Modern Welsh,

Lan WR (Special umber, 1963), 3 Archasimni Irish Poecit Traditon,'

could be translated 'lady' and its Irish cognate rigain 'queen', related to Irish

296 1b,. 13. 297 1b., 22.

in dealing with the Welsh law-texts as guides to comtemporary conditions

Celtica, viii (1968), 174-81; id., 'Elfennau Cyn-Gristnogol yn y Cyfreithiau',

BBCS xxiii (1968-70), 316-20.

301 Ib., 95.

ladies.

and generally translates the English word 'maiden', but in Middle Welsh it

rí, Welsh rhi, 'king', suggests that originally it meant a 'royal lady', &c.

'queen',

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132

THE COURT POET IN MEDIEVAL WALES

because 'Gramadegau'r Penceirddiaid' categorizes three kinds of

Caraf y gaer ualchweith or gyuyllchi ...

songs: 304

(H 320)

Asswsiswn y heddiw warch gloyw liw

Peniarth MS. 20, Teir prifgerd prydydyaeth ysyd: gwengerd, a rieingerd, ac wnbengerd.

Jesus 9, Tri ph(r)ifgerdd prydyddiaeth yssydd: gwengerdd, rhieingerdd, ac vnbenngerdd. Comparing the Peniarth MS. 20 text of the 'Gramadegau' with

that ni the Red Book of Hergest we see that whereas the latter says

that a rhiain si to eb praised for her appearance, &c., the former

says that it is a morwyn yeuang rieinyeid who si to be so praised, but if Peniarth MS. 20 is right, rhieingerdd would hardly apply to a song or songs to the matronly wife of a nobleman, e.g., Mab y y wenhwyuar wreic howel vab Clochyddyn's Englynion ac odleu.. tudur vab gruffud (R 1350-2).

Among the songs sung by the Poets of the Princes to women (including the Gorhoffeddau) we can list: Gwalchmai ap Meilyr

'Gorhoffedd' (H 16)

Cynddelw Brydydd Mawr

Kalan hyture kein kynwyre ... (H 23) 'Rieingerd eua uerch uadawe uab

Hywel ab Owain Gwynedd

( 121) maredud' H

Gweleis ar worwyn uwyn waur rydic ... (H 345) "Gorhoffedd' Tonn wenn orewyn a orwlych bet ... (H 315)

Karafy asser haf amssathyr gorwyt ... (H 318) Uyn dewis y riein uirein ueindec …

(H 319) Karaf y gaer wennglaer o du gwennylann . . . (H 319) 304 GP 57.25-6, 136.33-4.

133

glas..

Llywarch ap Llywelyn

'Prydydd y Moch'

Einion ap Gwalchmai lorwerth Fychan ab

Iorwerth ap Rhotbert

H ( 320)

'Audyl wenllian dec verch hywel' (H 280) 'Audyl uarwnad...

y nest verch

( 40) hywel' H Medwl a dodeis medwid wy kofein ... (H 324)

Neut wyf digeryd neut wyf digeryd..

Goronwy Foel

(H 325) 'Awdyl.. y varyred verch Rys

( 64)305 vychan.' H

It will be observed that the poems addressed to women ni the

period ending ni 1282 are few ni number. Probably many more have been lost than have survived; they would not have been

regarded as being as important as the songs addressed to the men. Close perusal reveals that they fall into different categories and vary ni character. One would expect some of them to be poems praising women in much the same way as the poems praising men

except that the qualities or virtues praised would be different. For

instance, we should expect Cynddelw's poem to Efa, Madog ap Maredudd's daughter, to place her on a pedestal not unlike that

on which Cynddelw places her husband, Cadwallon ap Madog ab

Idnerth of Maelienydd, in his elegy to him. It si true that the poet places her on a pedestal but ni his protestations of love he does not leave her there.

Splendid prancer, a prize I praise, Gold-mantled, cold girl, far from my sight. 305 For a list of poems addressed to women after 1282, see my 'Cerddir

Gogynfeirdd i Wragedd a Merched, a'u Cefndir yng Nghymru a'r Cyfandir', LICy xiii (1974-79), 3-112, esp. 73.

134

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WA LES

Golden one so cautious, lost am I,

Lost my wit to reply, cost of love. Mind in a whirl, for a girl I have gone

Sleepless, restless may I find favour. 306

T H E C O U R T P O E T I N M E D I E VA L W A L E S

135

I sing a sorrowful song for her, The song of her elegy, a great pity.

He sings his sorrow while describing her beauty, her goodness, her

wisdom. Apart from the poet's description of Nest and his sorrow

after her, perhaps the most striking features of the marwnad are

Much more in tune with our expectations is Einion ap Gwalchmai's memorial ode to Nest daughter of some unidentified

Hywel 307 She was buried ni Caduan lan ger Disynni, ni or beside monastic church dedicated to Saint Cadfan in Tywyn, Meirionnydd, not far from the estuary of the river Dysynni. The

the

poet's relationship with her si described ni the line gwreic nyd oetuny urad garyad genthi, a lady who regarded me as a true love(r).

He used to visit her. He had sung her praise; indeed, many had sung her praise, keintum gert y nest kyn noe tregi. cant cant y molyant mal eliuri. I sang a song to Nest before she died.

Ahundred sang her praise like Elifri.

This suggests that Einion ap Gwalchmai's song or songs to Nest

while she was alive have been lost together with many other songs to her sung by other bards. He had not sung to her without remuneration,

Gnawd oet dal eur mal yr y moli...

Usual was ti ot receive payment ni fine gold for praising her

But now he is singing her elegy:

the Natureingang introduction and the long prayer dénouement. The poem begins:

It is May-time. Long is day. Easy it is to give, *Tis trees that are not ni bondage. Fine coloured is copse.

Articulate are birds. Calm is sea. Hoarse-crying is the

wave ni the subsiding wind.

Arms are the talents of the purpose of entreaty.

It si a quiet retreat. It si no silence of mine. In translation all the poetic embellishments are lost. Amser Mei. Meith dydd. Neud rhydd rhoddi.

Neud coed nad ceithiw. Ceinlliw celli. Neud llafar adar. Neud gwar gweilgi.

Neud gwaeddgreg gwaneg gwynt yn edwi. Neud arfeu donieu goddeu gweddi.

Neud argel dawel. Nyd meu dewi.

The poem ends: There was no person more dear to me than she, Let not Peter spare any pain to succour her.

God will be reluctant to refuse her (anything); Let not Nest be deprived. Heaven be her lot.

And this is the kind of song we should expect a court poet to sing for his patron's daughter on her death. No one can question the

seriousness of his mood.

306 J.P. Clancy, The Earliest Welsh Poetry (MacMillan, St. Martin's Press, 1970), 138. 307 H 40-1; GMB poem 26.

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THE COURT POET IN MEDIEVAL WALES

At the opposite end of the spectrum we have, as in

Gwalchmai's 'Gorhoffedd', 30s the poet celebrating his own past

amorous conquests and his future expectations. Gwalchmai's gorhoffedd ends:

And he (Owain) will present me a maiden, a fine radiant figure,

Who has been accustomed to maintain a prolonged

T H E C O U R T P O E T IN M E D I E VA L WA L E S

137

Lynch has argued that we should read Robert Vaughan's title as

'Gwalchmai to Eve the woman', 310 but the important question si whether the rubric was found by Vaughan ni a manuscript or

added by him as his personal explanation. As befits the involuted thought, the metrical pattern of this awdl is unique, although it resembles the song 'Cyntefin ceinaf amser' ni the Black Book of Carmarthen. First we have a couplet of octosyllabic lines or

cyhydedd fer. Then come three englynion unodl union, though ti si a

intimacy with me. And came to me bestowing new pride

variation of the traeanog metre rather than the toddaid byr that

And in the beautiful court I shall be the object of desire

have three traeanogion.

With long dark grey eyelids and long tender cheeks,

(Tonight I wil come a marvel fi I be let free!), And if God from heaven will prosper me

There will be bliss with the peerless one for me, [her] champion, ni my slumber. 309 Here the mood is playful and joyful and ni keeping with a song

composed to be sung towards the end of a feast with the object of entertaining the audience.

With Gwalchmai's protestations of passion for a maid, one

forms the paladr (the first two lines) in each case. To conclude we

A more direct expression of emotion is found ni 'Breuddwyd Gwalchmai' ('Gwalchmai"s Vision'),311 where there are references to the poet's son, Goronwy, and his wife Genilles as well as to Madog ap Maredudd. Though I am grey haired not dim for me is the memory

l Thon ham

Of the death of Goronwy, the shield-bearing warrior; It is no untruth that I was bereft by his death

In the pain of grief dire and overwhelming.

should compare his 'kalan hyture kein kynwyre', a song, according to the title added by Robert Vaughan, y' Eua y wreic', i.e., to Efa his wife or Efa the woman. Efa si not mentioned in the poem and his wife, we learn from other sources, was called

The poem refers to the three great losses suffered by Gwalchmai,

addressed to his wife? The fact that ti is obscure, enigmatic and rather gnomic in expression, does not preclude that possibility. One can imagine the poet choosing an indirect way to assert his grief. Interwoven with the gnomes and proverbs there are genuine expressions of personal feelings and these utterances are made

storms of his life. Such use of the poetic art was unusual in this period. We are reminded of Egil Skallagrimsson's poem

Genilles. Should we dismiss any claim that the poem was

more poignant by the background of commonplaces. Di Peredur 308 H 16-22; GMB poem 9.

309 H 22.1-8; GMB 9.161-8. (With this translation, cf. that of .J Lloyd-Jones

in CPWP 24.)

the loss of prince Madog ap Maredudd, the loss of his son, and

the loss of his wife. It was obviously sung, like 'Kalan hyture kein

kynwyre', not for an audience but to assuage the feeling of

grievous loss still felt by an old man as he looked back on the

'Sonatorrek'. According to his saga, the poet lost two of his sons within a short time and ni his sorrow he shut himself up in his

bedroom and refused all food. His daughter was sent for and ' ân Gwalchmai "Y Eua yWreic", Y B xix (1993), 29013 See Peredur Lynch, C 31 H 22-3; GMB poem 12. The usual meaning of breuddwyd, of course, is 'dream', but the meaning 'vision' is well-attested in Middle Welsh. 'Breuddwyd Pawl' is the title of the Welsh translation of "Visio Sancti Pauli'.

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WALES

gradually she persuaded him to compose an elegy for his sons. His spirits revived with the effort and he returned to the family

circle. 312 Some of Hywel ab Owain Gwynedd's love songs may have been sung like his Gorhoffedd to entertain his companions, but

others, and especially the one which refers to his ladylove in the second person, appear to be a genuine expression of feeling and deserves to be quoted in translation.

My choice is a maiden, wondrous slender and fair,

Beautiful and tall ni her purple-hued cloak; And my choice sensation to watch the womanly one

While she barely whispers becoming wisdom; And my choice lot to companion the maid, And privy be to her charm and her boon: My choice si a lady of the beauty of the wave,

Shrewd in thy land, and whose Welsh si refined. My choice art thou; how reckest thou me?

Why wilt thou not tell, who ni silence art sweet? I have chosen a maiden, and no regret have .I

It is proper to choose a choice lady and fair. 313 With Hywel ab Owain Gwynedd's five (or six) awdlau to women

one should perhaps include Cynddelw's 'Gweleis ar worwyn uwyn waur rydic', but it is too short a poem to be categorized with

certainty. The poet praises the girl's beauty and regrets that he cannot have her or even share her with another. The reference to

eiddig, the jealous one, gives the impression that ti is about an unsuccessful wooing, i.e., the kind of poem which was to become very familiar ni Dafydd ap Gwilym's hands.

312 N. Kershaw, Anglo-Saxon and Norse Poems (Cambridge, 1922), 126 ff.

313 C P W P 26.

The experts warn us not to look for 'sincerity' in medieval

literature. Generally speaking, the poets express the feelings of their audience.

. Dragonetti, La technique poétique des trouvères dans la chanson See R

courtoise. Contribution à l'étude de la rhetorique médiévale (Brugge, 1960),

T H E C O U R T P O E T IN M E D I E VA L WA L E S

139

W e have already referred to Cynddelw's song to Efa, the daughter of Madog ap Maredudd, and to its profession of love for her. In that profession it resembles Llywarch ap Llywelyn 'Prydydd y Moch's song to Gwenllian the daughter of Hywel of Gwynilwg. Both poets seem to express profound devotion and

even passion for the women they address. But as .J Lloyd-Jones has pointed out, 34l these poems show some of the features of the

gorhoffeddau and I am inclined to regard them as panegyrics ni which the poets exult ni the attraction which their patroness have for them, rather than to follow those who have regarded them as

two love-songs composed by Welsh poets imitating Provençal troubadours. Of special interest is the fact that ni both poems a

horse si sent as llatai or love-messenger; indeed, Cynddelw begins

each section with the phrase gorfynnawg drythyll 'proud (and) spirited (steed)', and Llywarch ap Llywelyn 'Prydydd y Moch'

suggests that the horse will not be riderless. It is difficult to

imagine a suitable Sitz m i Leben for these poems in the court other than after a feast and in the same spirit as the gorhoffeddau 315 However, once the custom of addressing noble ladies, of

describing their beauty, and of professing devotion and love to them had been established, ti could not be confined to one particular Sitz m i Leben. Like artists ni all ages, the Poets of the Princes were susceptible to the beauty of nature, and their nature

prologues show how they could respond to the challenge of describing it.

Susceptibility to the beauty of nature is often

associated with, fi not increased by, susceptibility to feminine

beauty, and the challenge, ot describe the latter with all hte

resources of their poetic art was one which these poets must have 314 CPWP 24.

315 The two lines Rianet iti a dywedynt. / Rieingert eua a vawrheynt (H 121.21-

22) ni Cynddelw's 'Rhieingerdd Efa' seem to imply that there was an earlier version of the poem and that it had gained popularity among the ladies at

court. For an edition and a Welsh translation see GCBM ,i poem 5 and Ann

Parry Owen, 'Rhieingerdd Efa ferch Madog ap Maredudd', Y B xiv (1988), 56-86.

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THE COURT POET IN MEDIEVAL WALES

found irresistible. There must have been other examples but the

(retinues) of the three provinces Powys, Gwynedd and Deheubarth although his principal attachment was to the court of

140

two poems by lowerth Fychan ab Iorwerth ap Rhotbert (А. с.

1250) preserved ni Hendregadredd Manuscript, f. 123", 123" and

Powys. Among his less official poems there si an elegy to his son,

124', one to Gweirful and the other to Gwelliant, show us how

Dygynnelw, an awdl to a young girl who apparently preferred a jealous lover's bed to his, an englyn to a monk at Ystrad Marchell

effect ti had on its admirers.316 In all probability they also reflect

who refused him permission to be buried there, and fi the attribution si genuine, englynion ni which he elegized his dead

successful the poets could be in describing feminine charm and the the fact that as the womenfolk of the nobility became more literate and better educated, the poets found in them greater appreciation

of their art and culture, and were able to establish with them a special rapport.

C Y N D D E LW B RY D Y D D MAWR

cockerel.

It is important to remember that Cynddelw began his bardic career in Powys, presumably as a native of that principality and as the pupil of a bardic teacher who had himself been born and

Several of the poets of the Princes merit separate treatment but none more so than Cynddelw Brydydd Mawr who stands head

trained there. We know more of the early court poets of Gwynedd than we do of those of Powys, but this si partly because Gwynedd under Gruffudd ap Cynan was ni the van of the successful

apparently, ni physique.317 He si by far the most prolific of the

opposition mounted against the Normans in north Wales and because Powys had not been able to rival Gwynedd in this respect

and shoulders above the others in poetic genius as much as he did,

court poets: he has left us some 3847 verse-lines in forty eight

songs. He sang to the most important princes of his age, Madog

ap Maredudd, prince of Powys (ob. 1160), Owain Gwynedd, (ob.

1170), Rhys ap Gruffudd, Lord of Deheubarth (ob. 1197), possibly Llywelyn ab lorwerth (ob. 1240), as to lesser princes, Hywel ab Owain Gwynedd (ob. 1170), Owain Cyfeiliog (ob. 1197), Cadwallon ap Madog ab Idnerth of Maelienydd (ob. 1179), Iorwerth Goch, Madog ap Maredudd's brother, and Gwenwynwyn ab Owain Cyfeiliog (ob. 1216) as well as to

noblemen such as Rhirid Flaidd and Arthen his brother, Einion

ap Madog ab Iddon, Ednyfed, Lord of Crogen, Heilyn ap Dwywg and Ithel ap Cedifor. He sang also to the teuluoedd or gosgorddau

on account of its geographical position, vulnerable as it was to attacks both from its Welsh and its Norman neighbour. It is not

without reason that Madog ap Maredudd, apparently Cynddelw's

first, and during his early career, foremost patron, allied himself to Henry II against Owain Gwynedd, Gruffudd ap Cynan's son, and that he was regarded as a very successful ruler of his kingdom. The

author of 'Breuddwyd Rhonabwy' informs us that Powys was his in its entirety yn ei theruyneu... o Porford hyt yg Gwauan y8 gwarthaf Arwystli318 In such a period of prosperity we would expect Powys to become espicially conscious of its traditions and to take pride in them, and there is a certain amount of evidence

that Madog ap Maredudd's court promoted an active interest ni

316 On lorwerth Fychan ab lorwerth ap Rhotbert, see Daniel Huws,

them. These traditions must have been very rich.

317 See GCBM i, i-l, for an account of Cynddelw's life and work, including

extended well beyond its later boundaries to the north and to the

'Llawysgrif Hendregadredd', NLWJ (1981), 1-26, esp. 20, and GBF 307-43.

references to his genealogy and to lands held by him and his descendants.

Needless to say, I am indebted to the edition of Cynddelw's work by N.A. Jones and A. Parry Owen and to the articles written by them on some of his poems.

At one time and

before the erection of Offa's Dyke, Powysian territory must have

east: indeed ni earlier times, it may have had common borders . Richards, Breudwyt Ronabwy (Caerdydd, 1948), 1. 813 M

THE COURT POET IN MEDIEVAL WALES

THE COURT POET IN MEDIEVAL WALES

with Rheged and Elfed. If it had a common border with Rheged in the sixth century, that would render more plausible Ifor Williams's theory that Taliesin was court poet to Cynan Garwyn,

language no one else could understand. Following others we have

142

Prince of Powys, before he migrated northwards to become the court poet of Urien Rheged, and it would add significance to the poem composed to Cynan Garwyn by Taliesin according to Ifor

143

suggested that Cadyryeith was intended ot be identified with Cynddelw and the suggestion deserves serious consideration.

Cynddelw's arwyrain and elegy to Madog ap Maredudd

concentrate on his virtues and achievements as a warrior-prince, and apart from telling us that he was a friend of poets and

composed ni Powys as well as ni Wales. As its contents show,

bestowed gifts on them, ti gives no prominence to his culture and intellectual gifts, but this does not mean that he could not have done so had he thought ti necessary. For Cynddelw in praising

To this poem we can link the poetry produced ni Powys ni the ninth century, a very critical time ni the province's history, and the

Owain Cyfeiliog, Madog ap Maredudd's nephew, did not dwell on his intellectual gifts whereas Giraldus Cambrensis went out of his

Williams: it would make it the earliest extant Welsh poem

Cynan Garwyn was a most aggressive prince.

legends which form its background. In these legends Llywarch

Hen, Urien's cousin, has been made a poet, hence the 'Llywarch

way to record that he had an eloquent tongue, an intelligent mind and that he was one of the three Welsh princes who were

Hen Cycle', and together with Urien, has been relocated in Wales.

illustrious for their justice, their wisdom and their moderation. It

than his father ni the Powysian traditions. There si direct evidence of this ni 'Breuddwyd Rhonabwy' and indirect evidence ni the

culture ni his patrons, and we need to recall that about this time a

Urien's son, Owain ab Urien, seems ot have figured even more

may very well be that Cynddelw took for granted some degree of Welsh nobleman was expected to have a harp and some

romance 'Owain a Luned'. Whatever the latter's connections with

proficiency ni

Chrétien de Troyes's Yvain (or Le chevalier au Lion) may be, ti

accomplishment we need have no doubt,

seems safe to assume that it started its career on the lips of the

storytellers of the Welsh marches who had become bilingual and entertained both Norman and Welsh lords with stories of Franco-

Cambrian origin.

Various dates have been assigned to 'Breuddwyd Rhonabwy' ranging from the middle of the twelfth to the end of the thirteenth

century, but it locates itself ni Powys during Madog ap

playing

it.

Of Owain Cyfeiliog's artistic

if the two poems to him are actually his and not

traditionally attributed Cynddelw's, as Professor Gruffydd Aled Williams has argued

forcibly. One is the series of englynion, sung, according to the Red Book of Hergest, by his retinue as they progressed through Wales, though actually only through Powys and Gwynedd. The other si

the still more illuminating 'Hirlas Owain' (The long grey [drinking-horn] of Owain (Cyfeiliog]'). The main importance of

Arthurian legends by contrasting the men of the narrator's age

the 'Hirlas', as we shall see, lies in the fact that it is patently based on Aneirin's 'Gododdin', and shows that the sixth-century poem

in the past.

composed ni the twelfth century. Can we also assume that, as the

Maredudd's reign and it sets out to satirize society and the

who are dwarfs, with the alleged giants who peopled the province In the story Owain ab Urien is anachronistically

depicted as playing chess with Arthur and his ravens play havoc with Arthur's men. As we have seen, one of the characters in the story is

Cadyryeith ('He of the fine language). He praises Arthur using a

was sufficiently well-known to become the model of a poem

note in the manuscript 'Book of Aneirin' tells us, the

memorization of the poem earned marks for any contender ni a poetic contest in the twelfth century and in Powys in particular? fI we can, we can also reasonably conclude that Cynddelw, at some

T H E C O U R T P O E T I N M E D I E VA L W A L E S

THE COURT POET IN MEDIEVAL WALES

stage of his training memorized the song for which Aneirin is

to be taken as due to the influence of the medieval books of artes

famous and possibly some of Taliesin's songs since they also

poeticae which drew on Aristotle's treatise on classic Rhetoric. But

144

earned marks in a poetic contest.

One striking feature of Cynddelw's poetry si the immense

learning it displays. It shows that Cynddelw was steeped in the

history of his people. He refers to the battles of Arfderydd,

145

there are indications that Cynddelw was more than a student of

the past, that he could almost be said to be obsessed with it. For

instance he called his son Dygynnelw, presumably after Owain ab Urien's bard.

Argoed Llwyfain, Meigen, Cogwy, Camlan and Baddon. He

Was it Cynddelw, we wonder, who was responsible for naming

branhes Owain suggests that he knew more about it than we can

after his son a kind of englyn unod union with no rhyme to which 'Gramadegau'r Penceirddiaid' (GP 218) refers as dull dygynelw? It

mentions Urien Rheged and his son Owain; his reference to

ever gather from 'Breuddwyd Rhonabwy'. His reference to Pasgen wrys 'Pasgen's battle' may be to Pasgen, another son of Urien, although ti is more likely a reference to the Pasgen whose name occurs on the Valle Crucis Pillar. He mentions the various rulers of Gwynedd, Hiriell, Maelgwn, Rhun ap Maelgwn, Caswallon, Cadwaladr, &c. For him the men of Powys are canawon Selyf 'Selyf (ap Cynan)'s brood'. He shows familiarity with the various

story-cycles, e.g. with the 'Mabinogi' by mentioning Brân, Llýr, Pryderi, Lleu, Maxen, Gwenddolau ap Ceidiaw and possibly Elen,

though she may be the Helen of Troy rather than Elen Luyddog,

for he knew of the international or classical heroes Hector,

Hercules and Alexander. He knew of the heroes of the Arthurian

legends, of Llachau, the son of Arthur, of Myrddin, of Cai, of

Medrawd, of Culfanawyd, father of Esyllt, of the Twrch Trwyth

was not Cynddelw, but poets of a later age ni all probability, who called the clogyrnach metre (a couplet of cyhydedd fer and

traeanog) 'dull Cynddelw' 319

The outstanding feature of the so-called 'Llywarch Hen and

Heledd Poems' was that they used the englynion metres

exclusively, metres admirably suited to the expression of powerful but not related emotions with little or no regard for the thought

sequence. Cynddelw's englynion, 'Godwrf a glywaf..., appear ot

reproduce their style ni that they ignore the need for consecutive thought, and that their appeal si to the resonance of place-names, Maelienydd, leithon Hir, &c., and hero-names such as Benlli Gawr, Cynon and Arthur, not to visual impressions. And Cynddelw's art does not achieve maturity until ti succeeds ni

and of Celliwig. Not surprisingly he was familiar with the triadic

subordinating learning to the charms of form, in making knowledge an intrinsic part of the poetic structure.

mnemonic classification of bardic lore: he alludes to the tri diwair deulu.

definite advance on the 'Godwrf a glywaf...' sequence, precisely

It could, of course, be argued that we have a slightly exaggerated idea of Cynddelw's knowledge since he was for the most part merely following the practice of other court poets in

joining his heroes' names with those ni the past who were regarded

as incorporating certain virtues to such an extent as to be regarded

as standard, and of using such words as hafal, hefelydd (like'), moes ('custom'), eisor ('similar') ni the process. Incidentally, this practice is deeply rooted in the Welsh poetic tradition and is not

The 'Ym maes Bryn Actun' sequence of englynion marks a

because it is so structured, possibly the first structured sequence composed by a court poet. It should be noted that the first nine englynion in 'Ym Maes Bryn Actun' are englynion unodl union and that each refers to a battle won by Madog ap Maredudd. The next

englyn is not an englyn unodl union but an englyn of heptasyllabic

lines on one rhyme and it deals with Llywelyn ap Madog's contribution to Madog ap Maredudd's success. There then follow

319 CD 336.

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THE COURT POET IN MEDIEVAL WALES

an englyn unodl union on the deaths of the father and the son and

two englynion cyrch. And here Cynddelw shows that he is not merely learned but percipient ni his awareness that their deaths mark the end of a period in the history of Powys, that things will never be the same again. Myrddin Lloyd rightly drew attention to the significance of the verb ystyried ni the line Y n Ystrad Langwm ystyriais ein glyw as revealing that Cynddelw was a deeply

thoughtful poet, that he looked beyond events to their significance

although glyw here probably means 'host, retinue' and not 'lord'. A notable example of Cynddelw's success ni using his vast

knowledge of Welsh antiquity ni the service of his bardic art si the

first of his three arwyreiniau to Owain Gwynedd. It is obvious from the beginning that Cynddelw wished to endow his contemporary, Owain, Prince of Gwynedd, with the majesty of his precursor, Owain, son of Urien, Prince of Rheged, and not only with his actual majesty but also with the majesty which he had

acquired during the centuries that had elapsed since his death. Owain Gwynedd's victories at Tegeingl and Aberteifi re-enacted

for Cynddelw the ancient victories at Baddon and Argoed

Llwyfain. Here is Professor J.P. Clancy's translation of Cynddelw's first arwyrain to Owain Gwynedd:

In Praise of Owain Gwynedd I praise a patron high-hearted ni strife,

Wolf of warfare, challenging, charging,

Singing the pleasure of his presence,

Singing his power, mead-nourished worth, Singing his fervour, swift-winged falcon, Singing a lofty soul's lofty thoughts,

Singing daring deeds, lord of war-hounds,

Singing of one who inspires high praise,

Singing a song for my lavish lord, Singing words of praise to praise Owain.

THE C O U RT POET IN MEDIEVAL

WALES

In arms against Angles ni Tegeingl's lands,

Blood spilling in streams, blood pouring forth.

Dragons encountered, rulers of Rome, A prince's heir, red their precious wine. In strife with the Dragon of the East, Fair Western Dragon, the best was his. Ardent the lord, sword bright above sheath, Spear in strife and outpouring from sword, Sword-blade ni hand and hand hewing heads,

Hand on sword and sword on Norman troops,

And constant anguish from the sight of death, And swilling of blood and revelling,

Blood covering men, their skulls bloodied. For flesh I heard a pledge to the birds, In the piercing thrust of spear in hand, In the blood-trail inviting ravens. They rode on corpses for a thousand crows,

Brynaich's riders, Owain's war-ravens, Slaughter by the barrel, carcasses stiff, A tidbit for them, dead men's entrails. In hosts we went, for his prize, for his praise, Many minstrels for Owain's bounty, To Cadell Hiriell Hiriein's bold offspring, To Coel's line's guardian, for their reward. Battlefield's spear-thrust, lavish with praise, Buckler-bearing, onrushing eagle, Court's courageous, alert defender, Three-coloured his spear, savage assault. At Aberteifi they cut through falling spears As at Badon Fawr, valiant war-cry. I saw war-stags and stiff red corpses, It was left to the wolves, their burial;

I saw them routed, without their hands, Beneath birds' claws, men mighty ni war;

147

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M E D I E VA L WA L E S

I saw their ruin, three hundred dead, I saw, battle done, bowels on thorns; I saw strife cause a dreadful uproar,

Troops contending, a rout collapsing.

I saw struggle, men falling from sea-cliffs,

I saw their fortress, enemy slain, I saw soldiers' spears round a stone wall, I saw lances red from Owain's rush, I saw for Saxon s sorry corpse s,

Long day at an end, princes' reaping. Battle won, prince of his country's sons, Battle dear-bought, he may scorn pursuit.

I saw at Rhuddlan a bright red tide, Hero's host, for a man, for glory,

I saw in Penfro a flawless ruler,

I saw ni Penardd a lord roving, I saw their brave slaughter, brave troops down

That a brave land bears, seagull's bounty.

I saw fierce throngs, I saw scurrying,

THE COURT POET IN MEDIE VAL WALES

149

was during this last period that he sang to Owain Cyfeiliog and his

son Gwenwynwyn and to Lord Rhys of Deheubarth. 321 The second way is to assume that Cynddelw never left the court of Powys, that he started his poetic career as Madog ap Maredudd's court poet and that he remained with him until he

died (1160), thereupon becoming the court poet of his son, Owain Fychan. When Owain was murdered ni 1187, Cynddelw became court poet to Owain Cyfeiliog, a nephew of Madog ap Maredudd.

It was as official poet to the court of Powys that Cynddelw sang to

Owain Gwynedd and to Lord Rhys. This was possible because, although there was intermittent war between the three provinces, there were times when they were allies as in 1164 when they

presented a common front against the threat mounted by Henry Il, or as ni 1187 when Owain Gwynedd and Lord Rhys attacked Cyfeiliog and won Caereinion for Owain Fychan. Moreover some of these princes were connected by marriages, and, as we have

seen, there is evidence that poets were sometimes employed as envoys or ambassadors and it is not impossible that Cynddelw

was visiting Owain Gwynedd and Lord Rhys as an envoy when he

I saw rout of troops, of comrades,

sang to them. 32 Whichever way we look at Cynddelw's career ti illustrates many features which must have been characteristic of the bardic

They were not, Gwynedd's valour, mere boys: You were fearless, shepherd of Britain. 320

sodality to which he belonged. He attained his position pencerdd to Madog ap Maredudd as the result of a poetic contest with

I saw zeal cry, resounding signal,

I saw strife round Caer, round Coed Llwyfain.

There are two ways of explaining Cynddelw's poetic career. According to the first, he began as court poet to Madog ap Maredudd in Powys. After the latter's death he became Owain

Gwynedd's court poet but when Owain and his son died he returned to the court of Owain Fychan ap Madog ni Powys, and ti

S e velB esiveredinthr bythemm1tTaricerohow ntrathd 123 The late D. Myrddin Lloyd ni The Dictionary of Welsh Bibliography down ot 1940, s.n. Cynddelw Brydydd M a r, seems to favour this alternative, and it

should be noted that Cynddelw claims that Hywel ab Owain Gwynedd had granted him his cadair ymryson, i.e. the pencerdd's chair, at his court.

32 For example, Lord Rhys's mother, Gwenllian, was Gruffudd ap Cynan's daughter and hence Owain Gwynedd's sister.

His wife, Gwenllian, was

Madog ap Maredudd's daughter. Madog ap Maredudd's wife was Susanna,

daughter of Owain Gwynedd.

320 J.P. Clancy, The Earliest Welsh Poetry (London, &c., 1970), 145-6; see also GCBM i, poem .1

323 See GCBM ii, poem 12 and N.A. Jones, 'Cerdd Ymryson Cynddelw

Brydydd Mawr a Seisyll Bryffwrch', Y B xvi (1988), 47-55. There si a

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verses transmitted to us cannot be regarded as an actual record of

the contest; they are hardly a display of poetic pyrotechnics, and perhaps they are to be regarded simply as testifying to a tradition

that Cynddelw won his position as pencerdd to Madog ap Maredudd as the result of a poetic contest. Although ti is generally taken for granted that both were at the time competing for a vacant post on the assumption that a pencerdd's office was

for life, it si not self-evident that Seisyll was not displaced by Cynddelw. Seisyll claims:

'Tis for me to be a pencerda, For me and the lawful line of the lawful tribe of

Culfardd;

As for the ancestors of Cynddelw, that giant of song, From them no bards are descended. 324

THE C O U RT POET IN MEDIEVAL

WALES

151

In his elegy for Cadwallon ap Madog ab Idnerth (ob. 1179) he says that his song is accustomed to prevail ni competition: Customary (for me it is) by my song to win in a contest As when learning (leg. lên) wins in (/by) the book of rules. 326

This suggests that Cynddelw was involved ni several poetic contests but it is difficult to find a context for such contests.

Indeed, Cynddelw's claims raise several questions. In praising Hywel ab Owain Gwynedd he maintains that the prince had granted him his cadair ymryson. Is cadair ymryson here just another name for cadair pencerdd? And what does the poet mean when he asserts that he will keep it? Does he mean more than that

he will never relinquish the privilege to another poet?

We assume that ti was after Madog ap Maredudd's death he

nI other words, for Seisyll Bryffwrch, Cynddelw's claim to be a

became Owain Cyfeiliog's pencerdd. After all, by becoming Madog ap Maredudd's pencerdd he had become the pencerdd of

poets. But Cynddelw si by no means dismayed by that fact. I should (demand to) be a pencerdd, head of a bardic

his domain, and though Owain Cyfeiliog did not succeed to the

pencerdd would have been stronger had he been descended from

assembly ...

I should (demand to) be a pencerdd, head of a bardic throng ...

I am called (Rym gelwir) ...

A poet and chief poet of learning n brydyt yn brifuart dysc). 325 memorable scene of poetic contest before a prince between Hrafn and

Gunnlaugr ni Gunnlaugs saga ormstungu. Competition si explicit ni Deor

i comic form ni the Old where the hero si displaced by a rival singer, n Icelandic story of Sneglu-Halli, and perhaps ni a poem on the coronation of

Athelstan in 925 preserved in a twelfth-century source (ille strepit cithara,

decertat plausibus iste 'one makes the harp resound, another contends with praises'); .J Opland, op.cit. (footnote 67), 176. 324 H 180.29-32; GCBM ii, 12.20-4.

325 H 180.17, 181.2, 6-8; GCBM i, 12.12, 20, 25-8.

whole of that domain, he succeeded to an important part of it, and

we can assume that Cynddelw had a right to hold his official

position ni Owain Cyfeiliog's court, although that court was no longer the court of the whole of Powys.

When,

however,

Cynddelw praised Owain Gwynedd and his son Hywel ab Owain

Gwynedd, did he arrogate to himself a privilege which was by

right Gwalchmai ap Meilyr's? Was the pencerdd like a modern professor? Once given a chair and the title, could he expect to be respected throughout the country as the holder of that chair? We

recall J.E. Lloyd's ecclesiastical analogy. According to him, the bardd teulu was like the court chaplain, the pencerdd like the

bishop of the diocese, and perhaps we can add, recognized as a

bishop outside his diocese. It is interesting to note that a

distinction was made between ollam fláthe a' chief's poet' and 326 H 131.15-16; GCBM i, 21.184-5.

THE COURT POET IN MEDIEVAL WALES

152

ollam cuarta a' visiting poet' ni Ireland, although ti si often difficult to decide in which capacity a poet is composing. It should be noted that Cynddelw is content on occasions to be

THE COURT POET IN MEDIEVAL WALES

Our pupils know our learning. 328 It is no wonder that he can take a superior attitude to other poets:

Thus, in praising Madog ap Maredudd, he dismisses other poets

called the bardd (bard) of his patron. He was proud to call himself Llywelyn ap Madog ap Maredudd's bard (H 125.11) and Einion ap Madog ab Iddon's bard (H 142.18), and not without reason,

as outsiders, outlanders,

pencerdd. Cerddawr does not carry for us the same resonance as

and calls on them to be silent, while he sings, Court-silentiaries, demand silence. Silence, bards! you shall hear a bard!330

for bardd was the generic term which included the species

bardd, but ni his song of praise to Lord Rhys of Deheubarth, Cynddelw calls himself cerddar. However, we can be certain that he would have objected to being called purawr, for he boasted that

153

Arise, sing, I will sing of my chief, While I am inside, bards, and you outside!329

Cynddelw seems to take a special pride in his name for he

the Lord of Heaven had made a prydydd of him out of a purawr a' ( 81.29-30) and w e songster' or perhaps ni this case a' poetaster' H

refers to himself by name time and again. He seems to play on the

pencerdd, else he would have not been content with the sobriquet

and one should not put it past him to have known or guessed that

can assume that prydydd was as honourable a title as bardd or

'Cynddelw Brydydd' ni his song of praise to Efa, and he must have been called Brydydd Mawr at a very early date. The titles Cynddelw Fawr and Cynddelw Brydydd Mawr both occur in the

Black Book of Carmarthen.

As we shall see, Cynddelw seems ot have had a feeling for the

original meaning of words and it would be hazardous to assume

that he was not aware that prydydd, from pryd-u, pryd, meant 'the one who shapes or forms', ni other words a 'creator'. The Old Irish cognate to pryd si creth which occurs ni the sense of 'poetry'

literal meaning of Cynddelw, cyn-d(d)elw 'proto-type', 'archetype,

cynddelw was related to cynnelw, also from cyn and delw, and its derivative cynhelwaf, key-words for the understanding of the relationship between the bard and his patron. A glance at the dictionary will show that cynnelw has two distinct meanings,

mme so me a

protection a n d raise, fave,

expresses on the one hand what the poet expects from his patron, support, succour, protection, and on the other what the patron

expects from his poet, praise, eulogy. As we should expect,

and survives only in glosses.

cynnelw, like its derivative cynhelwaf, is found with the prepositions o and gan. The first examples of cynnel apparently

bards-some of them brilliant,

occur in the Black Book of Carmarthen and the Book of Taliesin, both with the preposition o. My reason for suggesting that

Cynddelw refers to himself as one who instructs would-beI am the instructor of brilliant bards. 327

They appreciated his knowledge,

Cynddelw knew or guessed the connection between his name and

cynnelw is that he links them together several times:

kyndelw (ae) kynnelw yn y kynnhor. 31 327 H 105.17; GCBM ii, 6.236. Llygad Gir also refers to his own gift as a teacher:

he declares that he will praise his patron like a teacher of

understanding, perhaps, rather than of genius, as the word ethrylithawe si generally understood (mal athro ethrylithawc, H 64.5; GBF 28.21).

328 H 131.18; GCBM i, 21.187.

329 H 117.29-30; GCBM ,i 1.33-4.

30 H151.3-4; GCBM i, 11.16.

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mi gyndelw a gynnelw gennwch.332 kyndelw wyf kynhelwaf o vreint. 3

cann gyndel kynnelw kannhorthwy.334 The reason for this may, of course, be the demands of alliteration,

but why should not the reason be twofold? (I note that Old Irish

has condalb, condolb 'mindful of kin', and condalbae 'affection for

kindred, love', &c.). One might suggest that the explanation of the

second meaning of cynnelw, 'praise, eulogy' lies in the idea that the

laudandus to merit praise (laus) is first identified with the

exemplary type, the prototype (cyn-ddelw, cynnelw) of hte hero.

Mircea Eliade has reminded us that the 'mythicization of the historical prototypes who gave the popular epic songs their heroes takes place ni accordance with an exemplary standard: they are

"formed after the image" of the heroes of ancient myth' 35

Cynddelw's verses show profound knowledge of the traditions

relating to the bardic profession.

It is to him we owe the

information or confirmation that Morfran composed an elegy on

some Einiawn (? Yrth), that Afan Ferddig and Arofan composed panegyrics. It si not surprising that Dr Rachel Bromwich has argued persuasively that he had a hand ni drawing up the original text of 'Trioedd Ynys Prydain'. He has added to our precious scraps of information about Cyridwen, her cauldron, and about

Ogren, all regarded as sources of inspiration by the Welsh poets.

His song is a 'cerdd Ogrfen', he himself is one of the poets of Ogren. He si familiar with all the intricate subtleties of the Cyridfen Muse: Mor wyf gyrin fyrt kyrt Kyrriduen:36 'so privy am I

THE C O U RT POET

IN MEDIEVAL WALES

155

Cyridwen and her cauldron of knowledge, although he si more than willing to acknowledge that his inspiration is derived ultimately from God. 3 In his elegy to Cadwallon ap Madog ab Idnerth he prays to God for the awen of unfailing talent, Dymgwallouwy duw diheudawn awen338 and ni his elegy to Madog ap Maredudd he asks the King (of Heaven) as he has done a hundred times-kyuercheis ganweithy broui prydu om prifyeith eurgert.—

ym arglwyt gedymdeith339 To prove the composing of an excellent song in my superior language

For my companion lord.

If Cynddelw arrogates to himself superiority over his fellow poets, he does not regard himself as inferior to any of his patrons. fI they are essential to him, so si he indispensable to them. To Lord Rhys his words are:

Ti hebof nyd hebu oet teu. mi hebod ny hebaf uinheu. 340 Without me, thou couldst not speak

Without thee, I will not speak. To Owain Fychan ap Madog: hael hebod ny hebaf nosweith.

O honawd handid uy gobeith.

O honaf hanbych well ganweith!341

to the secrets of the myriad hosts of Cyridfen', i.e., of the Muse

37 Llywarch ap Llywelyn 'Prydydd y Moch' also has a reference to Cyridwen: y ren kyuarchuawr awen. I kyfreu kyrriduen rwf bartoni, H 2787.Kyuarchaf m

31 H 86.30; GCBM ii, 2.54. 32 H 112.12; GCBM i, 9.150. 33 R 1166.34; GCBM ,i 3.80.

38 H 125.22; GCBM i, 21.1 39 H 118.5-6; GCBM i, 7.3-4.

35 M . Eliade, op.cit. (footnote 183), 42.

341 H 121 8-10; GCBM ,i 58-60.

334 R 1176.30-1; GCBM ii, 16.194.

36 GCBM i, 24.8.

8; GLILI 25.1-2.

340 H113.3-4; GCBM ii, 9.173-4.

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WA L E S

Generous one, without thee I will not speak any night, My hope comes from thee, On account of me mayest thou fare well a hundred times!

The reciprocity in the relationship between patron and poet is admirably stated in Cynddelw's verses to Owain Fychan ap Madog. After saying:

yt wyf penn prifueirt om prifyeith, 243

by virtue of my great diction I am head of the chief bards, he goes on to say:

Delw yt wytt wawr toryf koryf (corr.) kyureith.

yt wyf dann deduryd wyd oleith. 34

As you are lord of a host, upholder of the law, So am I bound to avoid fault.

There si not the same explicit insistence ni Welsh as ni Irish

THE C O U RT POET IN M E D I E VA L WALES

157

Among Cynddelw's contributions ot the relationship between

his patron and himself, his primary contribution is to bestow

praise and fame. The words moli, moliant, molawd, clod occur

again and again

As molaf mal yt adroter. 345 I shall praise him so that it shall be recited.

Molaf y lyw ae dyrllyt. 346 I praise the leader who deserves it. Cynddelw refers more than once to the gold he has received. Kelennic ruteur am rotei ririd. 347

Agift of red gold Rhirid would give me.

Am rotes (sc. Owain Gwynedd) rut eur gymyrret. 348 He (Owain Gwynedd) gave me honour in red gold. The reference to kelennic (from calan 'calends') ni the first of these

literature that a pencerdd deserves the utmost respect from his patron. We do not have the equivalent of such statements as

quotations reminds us that there were specified times such as New

or mór an t-ainm ollamh flatha 'great is the title a chief's poet'.

inaccessible to the poets with their poems and requests. But the

dighidh ollamh urraim rogh 'a poet has a right to a chief's respect'

Cynddelw's attitude to his patrons, however, implies that he si entitled to their respect, indeed that he should be highly honoured as well as greatly rewarded.

b ot heform e bet l, Tous de ronRardFaidChde asserts that his attitude to him remains unchanged in spite of death.

Delw yt oet wrthyf y yt wyf wrthaw. 34 As he was to me, so I am (remain) to him.

Year's Day when a poet could expect gifts and when no one except the niggardly would dare absent himself from home and be

gifts Cynddelw received were of various kinds: he mentions gifts

of food, of drink, spirits and mead (including the finest), clothes of

different materials (brethyn, pali) and of different colours (including the most honourable, purple), cattle (once a hundred

kine) horses fed on the pasture of the fields and others fed on corn

ni stables, and all in full harness. Once he refers to a gift of 20 pounds34 in cash from Cadwallon ap Madog ab Idnerth of

Maelienydd-the equivalent, so ti si calculated, of €40,000 ni

today's money. Perhaps the strangest gift of all to our minds is 345 H97.3; GCBM i, 4.268. 346 H 164.20; GCBM i, 10.34.

342 H 120.30; GCBM ,i 13.48.

343 H 120.31-2; GCBM ,i 13.49-50.

34 H 143.14; GCBM ,i 24.92.

347 H 179.5; GCBM ,i 25.9. 348 H 92.31; GCBM ii, 4.137. I 128.27, ugein punt oe vot am rotes yn rot; GCBM 21.101. 349 H

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THE C O U R T P O E T IN MEDIEVAL

WA L E S

that of a taeawg, a villein. Owain Cyfeiliog, apparently, was prepared to give taegion away: he did not regard them as too valuable,

Na thaeawc mygawe na mygdwn. 350 either a long-haired or a short-haired villein. One wonders sometimes whether the bards exaggerated the

generosity of their patrons on the principle that the more their generosity was praised, the more they gave. Professor D. Ó Corráin refers to a text, to be dated not later than the eleventh

century, which states that a man's wage for a year was a cow351

and a cloak, a' payment which was a little more generous than that of the Norse herdsman ni the Orkneys ni the tenth century whose yearly pay was a cow'. Llywarch ap Llywelyn 'Prydydd y

Moch' tells us that Llywelyn ab Iorwerth would give him the

THE C O U R T P O E T I N M E D I E VA L WA L E S

159

Nyd adwyd hebof heb gof heb gor.

Nyd eti hebod raciod ragor.353

You were not let past me without remembrance, without a song,

Superior renown has not missed you. We are reminded of the verse of the 'Gododdin' concerning

Gwenabwy fab Gwên, Cam e adaw heb gof (line 292), 'It si wrong

to leave him without remembrance? What is more surprising si that Cynddelw emphasizes the tangible aspect of the cof, the

moliant and the clod. He assumes that his poems are and will be

heard (clywed) by the ears of men. Yn urtyant molyant mal yd glywer.354

In majesty of praise so that it shall be heard.

moon if he asked for it (H 277.23-4), and the idea is echoed by

Perhaps we should expect Cynddelw to use clywed 'to hear' and clod together frequently, because they alliterate and because of

services were such that no recompense was too much. One of

their common derivation from Indo-European *kleu-, *kleua-,

Dafydd Benfras (MA 222b23 4). Put ni another way, the poet's

those services was to proclaim and propagate his patron's fame. Ho|nlitor y glod o gyflawnder kyrt

kertoryon ae daduer. 352

His fame will be asserted in plenitude of songs songsters will proclaim it again.

Another service was to preserve his memory among people. 350 H 138.6; GCBM ,i 16.180.

*klu, &c., if he had, as we assume, an instinctive feeling for that

common derivation, but he uses it with moliant, moli, &c., and ni other collocations, with the result that it seems that he wishes the aural nature of his poetry to be stressed.

nI return for conferring praise and fame on his patron, the poet expects. to be, and, ni the event, si amply rewarded and Cynddelw would have us believe that, as he gave in great measure,

so he also received in great measure

Ry dogneis uawr gert am y uawrged. 53 I have provided a great song for his great gift.

. Corráin, Ireland before the Normans, 47. In Beowulf there are two 351 DÓ

common synonyms for a king- -'the giver of treasure' and 'the lord of songs',

i.e., treasures of gold cups, gold ornaments, and of gold rings. Christopher observes 48, Brooke, From Alfred to Henry III: 871-1272 (Edinburgh, 1961), as in other this 'In d: Englan century eighthn i gold little very that there was

respects there si an archaic flavour about the poem: it holds up the past as a

mirror to the present'.

352 H 138.11-12; GCBM ,i 16.185-6.

ny tholyes uy lles llyw rybut,

353 H86.21-2; GCBM ,i 2.45-6.

354 H 115.8 (cf. 103.16, 125.4); GCBM ii, 8.7. 35 H 130.10; GCBM ,i 21.148.

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T H E C O U R T P O E T I N M E D I E VA L WA L E S

161

dubious whether we should draw the conclusion, that J. Lloyd-

ny tholyaf a ganaf hep gut. 356

Jones did, that Cynddelw was addressing different audiences ni

He was not mean with my welfare, lord of menace, I will not be mean with what I sing without concealment.

different metres.

However, if, as we have seen in the Law-texts, the pencerdd took precedence over the bardd teulu in the court, it is difficult to

Caffwn y rade caffawd an gwawdeu. 357 If we have his gifts he shall have our songs.

believe that he did not take precedence over him everywhere, and

that he could not usurp the bardd teulu's functions at will, and as he could use englynion to address his lord, there is no reason to

pan ym daw anaw o annwyd uyg kert. 358 When wealth comes to me because of the nature of my song.

Cynddelw seems to have taken more than the usual poetic

interest ni military retinues, the teuluoedd, the gosgorddau of some princes. Thus he sang 'I osgordd Madog ap Maredudd pan fu

farw' and 'Marwnad Gosgordd Owain Gwynedd', and although

there can be no doubt that he was a pencerdd, he seems to qualify

ni this respect as a 'bardd teulu' and proves that a pencerdd could

function as a bardd teulu. It would be in keeping with Cynddelw's knowledge of traditional lore that he saw the historical and deeper significance of the teulu. It corresponds to the comitatus described

by Tacitus, i.e., to the German Männerbund, hte Anglo-Saxon

(ge-)dryht and the Russian druzhina. With regard to the German

Männerbund, it has been suggested that its centre was ni the

worship of the god Woden who was or became the patron god of young warriors and that its initiation rites signified acceptance

into adult society. Its origins may have been in the need to protect

cattle and ward off attacks on them 359 As we have seen, ti is

believe that he had to use englynion in addressing the teulu. In any case there is no evidence that Cynddelw's poems to the war-bands were not delivered at a court nor is there evidence that his

audience was substantially different when he celebrated his

patron's mighty deeds and when he celebrated the deeds of his patron's war-band. After all, the patron's mighty deeds were performed with the help of warriors directly or indirectly under his command, some at least of whom would be well-known at his

court. The men who were too old to serve as warriors would not

find it difficult to identify themselves with those who were still

young enough to do so. But when Cynddelw addressed the war-

band of Madog ap Maredudd, did that war-band include the war-

bands of those subject lords who professed allegiance to Madog

ap Maredudd? And did the war-band of the subject lords have their own bardd teulu?

The late D. Myrddin Lloyd360 remarks that Cynddelw was the first poet to make extensive use of englyn unodl union metre and

that ti is in Cynddelw's work we see the awdl tradition of Taliesin

and Aneirin coming together with the tradition of Llywarch Hen and Heledd. Later grammarians called the clogyrnach metres described below as dull Cynddelw, i.e., as Cynddelw's form or

356 H 147.16-17; GCBM ,i 26.47-8. 357 H 100.9; GCBM i, 6.71-2. 358 H 148.5, cf. Pen. .3 9-10; GCBM ,i 26.67.

practice.

359 See Jan de Vries, Altgermanische Religionsgeschichte (Berlin, 1956), 79, 454.

The primary authorities on the Germanic comitatus are Caesar, Ga lli cu m,

Bellum

VI.23, Tacitus, Germanica, xili-xv, Pomponius Mela, De

Choreographia / De Situ Orbis, iii.26-8. On the Celtic comitatus, the soldurii or

ambacti, see Polybius II.17, Caesar, Bellum Gallicum III.22, VI.15. For the significance of the Männerbund, &c., see Oscar Stig Wikander, Der arische

Männerbund (Lund, 1938), and Otto Höfler, Kultische Geheimbünde der Germanen (Frankfurt, 1934). 063 The Dictionary of Welsh Biography down ot 1940, s.n. Cynddelw.

I62

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WA L E S

Two other songs by Cynddelw are concerned with military

retinues although they are called respectively 'Gwelygorddau Powys' and 'Breiniau Gwyr Powys'. They occur together in the Hendregadredd Manuscript and in the Red Book of Hergest and

it was together they were copied afterwards. They are in the same metre, stanzas made up of a combination of toddaid byr and cyhydedd fer (a couplet of rhyming octosyllabic lines) rather than the more usual combination of toddaid byr and a couplet of

cywydd deuair hirion (a couplet of heptasyllabic lines with

alternately accented and unaccented end-rhymes). Both poems have an archaic flavour and for this reason they have been regarded as of only antiquarian interest: both refer to

Meigen, a battle fought in the seventh century ni which Cadwallon of Gwynedd was victorious. In the 'Gwelygorddau' there are

references to some of the ancient heroes of Powys, some of whose names such as Cadell and Cyndwyn are known from other sources, others with unfamiliar names such as Aroddion,

in obscure legal language. However, close inspection reveals that

the two poems deal with contemporary situations and seem to be

immediately relevant. One of the meanings of 'gwelygordd' is

'retinue' and Cynddelw seems to refer to the retinues of

contemporary Powys each ni turn, although he links their exploits with those of past heroes.

In the second poem, the 'Privileges of the Men of Powys' are

listed as privileges won at the Battle of Meigen, and Di Thomas Charles-Edwards has suggested that Cynddelw's object was to

demonstrate the injustice of hte present ni hte light of the past ni

that the hard-won privileges of the past were now being taken

away from the Powys retinue. For instance, the sixth englyn tells us that now they have to yield a third of the battle spoils to hte

prince whereas ni the past they had a right to it all. Furthermore, ti si suggested that they are to lose the status of freemen which

IN MEDIEVAL WALES

163

they had enjoyed in the past because the princes of Powys are

adopting the practice of their English contemporaries. The poem states,

kynnytws brenhinet breinhyeu, 163 i.e., the kings or princes have augmented their own privileges at

the expense of the lords under them and challenges those lords to resist this encroachment on their rights. The 'Gwelygorddau'

poem has the same general theme. Unfortunately no precise date

can be given to either of these poems, but the period following the division of Powys into two provinces, Powys Fadog and Powys Wenwynwyn, provides a suitable context, for at that time there would have been pressure on the princes to take advantage of the

new situation to increase their own power by curtailing that of their subject lords. 362 It is well-known that privileges were given ni

the Middle Ages and jealously guarded. The men of Arfon were given at some unspecified time the privilege of being the first to attack in battle and the last to retreat. The Men of Powys must

have had the same privilege, for ni the twelfth englyn of the 'Breintiau' Cynddelw says that ti was their part to lead the vanguard ni battle and to defend the rearguard in any retreat. ym blaen caduaon (corr.) cadw aruod

ac yn ol diwetwyr dyuod. 36 Evidence that privileges of this kind were granted to certain groups of Irishmen could be quoted.

However, what si remarkable about these two poems is that Cynddelw takes ti upon himself to espouse and defend the cause of the minor lords against their sovereign lord. He assumes that he has the authority to do so. We have already remarked on the knowledge of antiquarian lore which his poetry displays and we 361 H 166.19; GCBM ,i 11.12.

362 H W ,i 234, ii, 690.

363 H 167.25-6; GCBM 11.47-8.

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THE COURT POET IN MEDIEVAL WALES

know that as a poet and, like other poets, ti was his duty to preserve the traditions of his people. But here he appears in the role of defender of that tradition and defender of the rights of

minor lords against their lord paramount. In other words, he si taking a prominent part ni the politics of his day. O WA I N C Y F E I L I O G

Two compositions invite comparison with Cynddelw's poems to war-bands. They are Owain Cyfeiliog's 'Hirlas Owain' and his

'Kylchaw Kymry'. Indeed, these are so similar ni diction and style

to Cynddelw's poems that Professor Gruffydd Aled Williams has argued that they are his work rather than that of the traditional author.

Owain Cyfeiliog was the son of Gruffudd ap Maredudd who

died ni 1128, but it was not until 1149 that he was installed by his

uncle, Madog ap Maredudd, as lord of Cyfeiliog, whence the byname. In 1164 he joined Owain Gwynedd against the English, but in 1167 he changed sides and remained loyal to the English crown thereafter in all border conflicts. A man of keen intelligence and

ready wit, he won the respect of his subjects as a just and

enlightened ruler and remained ni possession of his lordship until

he decided to retire from the world and to take the habit of a

monk ni the monastery of Ystrad Marchell, a Cistercian abbey, which he himself had founded. He was to remain there until his death ni 1197.364 If Owain Cyfeiliog learned the poetic art, as tradition implies, he was following ni the steps of another prince, Hywel ab Owain Gwynedd, and if the poems attributed to him are his, they are characterized by the same high order of poetic genius and the same originality of approach.

'Hirlas Owain' refers to the long grey drinking-horn which Owain's menestr or cup-bearer is enjoined to take to members of 364 For Gerald of Wales's estimation of him, see Gerald of Wales: The Journey

Through Wales / The Description of Wales, trans. L. Thorpe, 202-3.

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165

the retinue, each in turn, now that they have returned from their

foray under Owain's leadership and can relax. The members are

named individually and their bravery praised, Rhys, Gwgan, Cynfelyn, Gruffudd, &c., and intermingled with their praise there are descriptions of the drinking-horn. In the course of his poem

the author recalls the expedition made by the men of Mynyddawg

Mwynfawr

'Gododdin'.

against

Catraeth and celebrated ni

Aneirin's

kigleu am dal med mynet pleit (corr.) cattraeth: kywir eu haruaeth arueu lliweit. Gosgord vynydawc am eu kysgeit

cawssant eu hadrawd cas vlawd vlaenyeit. 365 I heard that a host went to Catraeth for the reward of mead, True was their purpose with their sharp (leg. lifeit) weapons,

The war-band of Mynyddawg for their attackers (leg. ffysgeit)

They were acclaimed, precursors in the ugly battle-tumult and there are other indications that the author knew Aneirin's

poem, the 'Gododdin', and deliberately echoed some of its lines.

Compare, for instance his line, as given ni GLIF, Nyt ynt hyll dihyll na heu diheu

with line 325 of the 'Gododdin', ny bu hyll dihyll na heu diheu. Whoever was the author of 'Hirlas Owain', he was exceptionally

well-versed in the bardic lore of his time. If we take the poem to be

the work of Owain Cyfeiliog, it gives us the clearest picture that

we have of the close companionship that existed between the

Welsh princes and their retinue ni the twelfth century. 365 R 1435; GLIF 14.123-6.

I66

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THE COURT POET IN MEDIEVAL WALES

POET IN M E D I E VA L WA L E S

Go, lad, from me and do not address anyone

The other poem associated with Owain Cyfeiliog is the 'Eglynyon a gant teulu ywein kyueilyawc y gylchaw kymry', i..., The Englynion that Owain Cyfeiliog's retinue sang to make a

Unless it be my mistress,

Speed on a fleet slender speckled steed Tell (her) that we are coming ot Llannerch.

circuit of Wales' 366 It will be seen from the title which occurs in

the Hendregadredd but not ni the Red Book of Hergest text, that

the englynion are put into the mouths of the men but, in fact, the poet speaks for himself. They are addressed to a gwas or gennad who is enjoined to go to certain places, in some cases with a

message, from Fforddun or 'Forden', to the north of Montgomery, first to Ceri and Arwystli, ot Penweddig ni Ceredigion, to Meirionnydd, to Ardudwy, &c., but although the englynion end e with the statement kylch kymry kymerassam ('a tour of Wales w and have made'), the journey has encompassed only Powys

Gwynedd. There are some intriguing references. dos y west ar nest neuyn

dywed an dyuod leyn. 367 Go for a night's stay to Nest of Nefyn,

Tell (her) that we are coming to Lleyn.

Dos was y gennyf ac nac annerch nep

ony byt uyg gorterch dywan ar vuan ueinerch. dywed an dyuod lannerch. 368 63 H 313-15; GLIF poem 15. Professor Gruffydd Aled Williams has

167

D A D O LW C H

In Cynddelw's corpus of poems there are two described as dadolwch. The meaning of the word si appeasement, propitiation, reconciliation'. Both poems are addressed ot Lord Rhys of

Deheubarth, one is an ode, the other a series of englynion, and both were composed to appease Lord Rhys and to regain his good

will. Whether they were occasioned by one and the same event, and whether the second was composed because the first had failed

ni its object, si difficult to say. Cynddelw may have offended Lord Rhys on two separate occasions. fI he was, as he has been described, the most arrogant of the poets of the princes, 369 perhaps one should be surprised that he was not obliged to compose more than two poems of dadolwch. In any case, the relationship between

poet a n d p a t r o n was so close and i n t i m a t e that it was almost

inevitable that the two should occasionally quarrel with each other

and that the poet should seek reconciliation by means of a dadolwch poem. The earliest of such poems si found among the

poems of Taliesin, 'Dadolwch Urien' 370 tI si not exceptional that

Taliesin gives us no indication of his offence against Urien. He could have earned his patron's displeasure by visiting the courts of other princes and by celebrating their deeds. He praised Cynan Garwyn

perceptively pointed out that the manuscript testimony for the attribution of

the 'Englynion' ot Owain Cyfeiliog si weak, and with exemplary thoroughness he has built up a case, based mainly on the similarities ni vocabulary and ideas to be found ni the 'Englynion' and h te 'Hirlas' on the one hand, and in

the poems of Cynddelw on the other, against accepting hte attribution of both the 'Englynion' and the 'Hirlas' ot the prince, and for regarding them as hte work of the prince's poet Cynddelw. See BaTh 180-201. 367 H 314.15-16; GLIF 15.27. 368 H 314.25-8; GLIF 15.37-40.

369 CA . . McKenna, The Medieval Welsh Religious Lyric (Belmont, Mass.,

1991), 27. 370 PT poem IX. Ifor Williams also saw a trace of dadolwch in the poem

'Edmig Dinbych', see THCS, 1940, 66-83, esp. p. 81. Dyhuddiant has more or

less the same meaning as dadolch and the Book of Taliesin includes a poem

entitled 'Dyhuddiant Elphin'.

168

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Tegyrned truan crinyt rac kynan . . .

kylch byt go huan (corr.) keith ynt dy gynan 17 Miserable kings, tremble before Cynan ...

Round the world under the sun, slaves are they ot Cynan,

ni words that show that eh did not hesitate to use hyperbole ni his odes.

One of Gwalchmai's poems to Owain Gwynedd bears some of the characteristics of a dadolwch, although ti is not given that

name. Among other things he says: kyn y uar arnaf neuaf nam llas. Ac or meint yssyt a r n a t o g e r y t (corr.),

kymyt ath brydyt ny bryd yn uas.372 Before his wrath descended on me, I grieve that I was not killed

And from what offence that I have committed Be reconciled with thy poet who sings profoundly.

It should be remembered that a poet was faced with the dilemma which one of the candidates to support whenever the throne

became vacant. A s Meilyr Brydydd tells us after Gruffudd ap

Cynan's death: Ny want vanueirt ny m a r gynnyt.

pwy a ennillo or do yssyt. 37

The petty poets who do not make great progress Know not which of the present generation will win. And so it was almost inevitable that the poets sometimes supported the wrong candidate. In his ode to Dafydd ab Owain Gwynedd, Gwalchmai refers to the patronage he had received

THE C O U RT POET IN MEDIEVAL

WALES

169

Rhodri and Dafydd are left, and are at odds with one another, he

turns to Dafydd, having apparently failed to win Rhodri's favour: Nym rwytgeidw rodri nyd reitus vrthyf nyd gwerthfawr ganthaw u.i 374 Rhodri does not generously support me, he does not need me,

He does not value me.

The other dadolwch poems are by Gwilym Rhyfel to Dafydd ab Owain, by Elidir Sais to Llywelyn ab lorwerth, by Einion Wan to Dafydd ap Llywelyn, by Llywelyn Fardd I to Owain Fychan ap Madog ap Maredudd and by Phylip Brydydd to Rhys Gryg. Phylip Brydydd's dadolwch (H 231-2) seems to give in its

manuscript title gwedy ssorri wrthaw am brydu y neb namyn itaw ef ('after he (Rhys Gryg) had become vexed with him for versifying to anyone apart from himself'), the reason for Rhys Gryg's displeasure, but this si not substantiated by anything ni the poem itself which suggests rather that the poet may have uttered a disparaging word about his patron: he could, of course, have done this implicitly by praising someone else. Phylip Brydydd's words on the matter are:

O dywedeis yeir ar wekry (corr.) heb porth parth eurgolofyn kymry.

diwygaf honnaf hynny difwyn a gymer duw ury. 375 If I said a word in fecklessness without cause

Regarding the excellent pillar of the Welsh, I make recompense, I declare it, Expiation is accepted by God above.

from the three sons of Owain Gwynedd ni turn, but now that only

Llywelyn Fardd I's dadolwch to Owain Fychan ap Madog ap Maredudd si ni englynion and like Phylip Brydydd's dadolwch

371 PT 1.21, 25. 372 H I 15.14-16; GMB 8.82-4.

374 H 29.7-8; GMB 10.11-12

37 H 6.1-2; GMB 3.141-2.

375 H 232.15-18; GDB 12.41-4.

170

THE COURT POET IN MEDIEVAL WALES

seems to give the reason why it is necessary. In a rubric we are told

'here we have an englyn that Llywelyn Fardd the son of Cywryd sang to Owain Fychan the son of Madog the son of Maredudd for

assuming (presuming) (tybiaw arnaw) that he ravished his wife.'

There follows an englyn and another rubric, 'Then Owain set his

displeasure on Llywelyn Fardd and he (on his part) sang these englynion dadolwch'. The englynion leave us in no doubt that

Owain Fychan was genuinely angry and that Llywelyn Fardd was equally ni earnest ni seeking reconciliation with him (R 1389-91).

THE C O U RT POET

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171

exceed even that of his near contemporary. He witnessed the same

kind of political turmoil and upheaval in Gwynedd as Cynddelw did in Powys 376 He saw the sons of Owain Gwynedd, Dafydd and Rhodri, contending with each other, and watched the spectacular rise of Llywelyn ab Iorwerth, Llywelyn the Great. H e was a constant upholder of the authority of Aberffraw, the traditional seat of the princes of Gwynedd. Although he gave his support ni turn to the sons of Owain Gwynedd, Dafydd and Rhodri, and to

Owain Gwynedd's nephew, Gruffudd, and advocated the use of

Perhaps the reason for Llywelyn ab lorwerth's displeasure

force to attain supremacy, he did not see the authority of

be as we have suggested, that Elidir Sais got his by-name Sais

Llywelyn the Great, overcame his rivals, and it is not surprising

with Elidir Sais presents itself too readily here to be true. It may

because he had spent some time ni England, possibly as an exile. It si clear from his poems that he did not approve of Llywelyn ab Iorwerth's aggression and expansionist policies. He laments Rhodri ab Owain Gwynedd's death with deep emotion: now there is no one left to ystwng treiswyr, to curb oppressors, and when

Dafydd, Rhodri's brother, si forced by Llywelyn ab lorwerth to flee to England, the event si as heinous for the poet as the rape of

Christ's tomb by Saladin. We can understand why ni these circumstances Elidir should have incurred Llywelyn's displeasure and was forced to sing a song of appeasement. That he did so unwillingly is suggested by the fact that Llywelyn's death in 1240

appeared to him to prove that aggression by the mighty against

the weak did not pay. Elidir's other poems prove that he was a

religious man, and his statement Bardd fyddaf i Dduw tra fwyf ('A poet to God I will be as long as I live') may mark a turning point ni his career, coinciding possibly with a decision to don hte

Aberffraw effectively realized

until

Llywelyn

ab

Iorwerth,

that he sang at least nine songs to his hero. In his 'Canu Mawr', on the occasion when Llywelyn was being threatened by the men

of Powys, he appealed to the latter on national grounds to accept Llywelyn, that it was better to be ruled by a native than by a foreigner, and that after all Llywelyn was Madog ap Maredudd's nephew as well Owain Gwynedd's. In his 'Canu Bychan' he looks back on Llywelyn's triumphant career and follows ti to his

victories ni 1220 when Aberffraw's supremacy was for him a sign of Welsh unity and the source of justifiable Welsh pride. C E R D D I BYGWTH

Llywarch ap Llywelyn 'Prydydd y Moch' has two poems bearing the somewhat unusual title 'Bygwth' ('Admonition'), one to Dafydd, presumably Dafydd ab Owain Gwynedd, the other to

Gruffudd ap Cynan ab Owain. The title si justified because the poems contain threats. The first includes the lines

monastic habit.

LLYWARCH AP LLYWELYN 'PRYDYDD Y MOCH' Space does not permit us to give Llywarch ap Llywelyn 'Prydydd y Moch' the same attention as we have given Cynddelw, although he deserves .ti His interest ni the politics of his day can be said to

ot his gafael 'holding of land', his gwely 'stock-land' and his melin 'mill', and A.D. Carr, 'Prydydd y Moch: Ymateb Hanesydd', THSC, 1989, 161-80.

172

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WALES

Gwnn yny gwanwyf gwenwynic ui.

gwyth wastawd tauawd nas tyf eli. 37 I know that wherever I stab, injurious will be the wrathful course of my tongue for which no healing ointment grows. The second has the lines:

Ny ystyr llythwyr uy llethrid ym kert, gyrr di yr cart y wrthid. Ac onys gyrry di gyrraf wrid. yth deurut yth dewrwarth ganlid. 378 Ignoble ones do not esteem my brilliance in my song: Do thou cast (them) away from thee for shame And unless thou dost I will bring a blush To thy cheeks to follow you in great disgrace.

Apparently both Dafydd and Gruffudd had shown signs of reluctance to accept Llywarch ap Llywelyn 'Prydydd y Moch'

either as a court poet or at his own estimation of himself as a poet,

and had thus become the objects of his wrath. They must mend

their ways and make amends or else! Whereas ni a dadolwch the poet supplicates restoration to favour, here he threatens reprisals,

and as the words,

Ac onis gyrry-di, gyrraf wrid I'th ddeurudd ith ddewrwarth ganlid, indicate, he threatens them with a satire. One of the results of satirizing in Ireland was to raise blemishes on the face of the satirized. The commentary on Amra Choluim Chille remarks about

the person satirized, 'if he did not perish at once, poisonous ulcers would grow on his face, so that he was recognizable by every one', and according to Cormac's Glossary the fili Néde mac Adnai 377 H 262.21-2; GLILI 2.15-16.

378 H284.3-6; GLIL1 8.17-20.

THE C O U RT POET IN MEDIEVAL

WALES

173

made a glam dichenn, i.e., a satire, on a king and three blisters

came forth on the king's cheek causing him to fle ni shame, so that none might see h i m . Although Llywarch ap Llywelyn's

threat to raise blushes si not so drastic, ti and the general attitude expressed ni the poem carry the implication that the poet has it ni his power to exact revenge for any insult or slight. METRES

A word has to be said about the metres or measures used by the Gogynfeirdd. They do not lend themselves to summary treatment and yet a full description cannot be attempted within the limits of this essay. The reader is advised to read the classic analysis in

Cerdd Dafod (1925) by John Morris-Jones and the supplementary studies published by others. 380 One of the difficulties inherent even in a summary treatment is

that the metrical system was evolving ni the period under

consideration and had not assumed the static standard form

which ti did later in the hands of the Cywyddwyr. Thus the term englyn unodl union cannot be avoided, but it would be a mistake to 379 See .J Travis, A ' druidic prophecy, the first Irish satire, and a poem ot raise

blisters', Proceedings of the Modern Languages Association of America, 57 (1942), 909-15. Perhaps the earliest reference we have to satire in England is . Heusler, Die altgermanische the gloss on carmen invectum 'bismerlêop': A

Dichtung (Darmstadt, 1957), 100.

083 HI. Lewis, 'Toddaid a Chyhydedd Hir', BBCS v(1929-31), 96-100; D.M. ' ome Metrical features ni Gogynfeirdd Poetry,' SC xi (1968), 39-46; Lloyd, S

R.M. Jones, 'Mesurau Cerdd Dafod', BBCS xxvii (1976-8), 533-51; D. Ellis

'Rhagarweiniad i astudiaeth o fydryddiaeth y Gododdin', Astudiaethau ar yr Hengerdd. Studies in Old Welsh Poetry, ed. R . Bromwich

' ome Aspects of and R.B. Jones (Caerdydd, 1978), 89-122; .J Rowland, S Proest ni Early Welsh Poetry', BBCS xxx (1983), 234-8; EWSP 305-55; RM ..

Jones, Seiliau Beirniadaeth Lenyddol, cyfrol 2 (Aberystwyth, 1986); R.M.

Andrews, A ' mrywiad ar Doddaid Byr a Thraeanog', BBCS xxxv (1988), 14

19; id., 'Cynganeddion Bleddyn Fardd', SC xxviii (1994), 117-52; P. Lynch,

"Yr Awdlau a'u Mesurau' in BaTh 258-287. For an account of a similar reappraisal of early Anglo-Saxon and Norse-Icelandic metrics see J.

Kristjánnson, Eddas and Sagas, trans. P. Foote (Reykjavik, 1988), 33-6. See

also R . Frank, art.cit. (footnote 111), 157-8.

THE C O U RT POET IN M E D I E VA L WALES

THE C O U RT POET IN M E D I E VA L WALES

think that the earliest examples of it conform to the rules

system, and Morris-Jones's analysis of lines according to the number of stresses or beats is on the whole persuasive, but there are lines which do not seem to submit to the rigorous imposition of his scheme. 383

174

subsequently prescribed for this kind of englyn. It wil be seen that John Morris-Jones states that the gwawdodyn metre was used by

the Gogynfeirdd, but the name was not coined until later, and

whereas it was then described as a four line combination of a

couplet of cyhydedd naw ban (a line of nine syllables) and a

toddaid, which si regarded as a double line of nineteen syllables,

structured ni four sections, three of five syllables, and the fourth of four syllables with a rhyme pattern generally of 5 +(4a + 1b) +

5b +4a with b as the internal rhyme and a as the main end-rhyme,

According to Morris-Jones, Cerdd Dafod, 358, the metrical system followed by the poets at the end of the period of the

Gogynfeirdd can be described thus (the names of the metres are italicised): Stanzas (penillion)

1. englyn; 2. two couplets of cyhydedd naw ban; 3. gwawdodyn; 4. two linked cyhydeddau hir; .5 two linked toddeidiau.

the Gogynfeirdd combined any number of cyhydeddau naw ban couplets with the toddaid, either following or preceding it. The

Gogynfeirdd were also apparently more tolerant of 'irregularities' than their successors. In a laisse or verse-paragraph, Morris-

Jones's traethgan or caniad, made up of cyhydeddau naw ban

Gwynfardd Brycheiniog's 'Canu i Ddewi3' 81 Moreover, all or

Traethganau (metres in odes) 6. cyhydedd naw ban / toddaid / cyhydedd hir; 7. rhupunt;

embellishment though the cynghanedd system did not attain its standard, fully developed form until the end of the thirteenth

9. cyhydedd ferltoddaid byrltraeanog. Cywyddau (metres used by the clerwyr)

couplet-lines, each of nine syllables (naw ban), one finds lines of

ten and eight syllables. See Gwalchmai's. 'Gorhoffedd' and

8. couplets of cyhydedd fer;

almost all the lines in the various metres have cynghanedd

century.

10. cywydd deuair fyrion;

Another difficulty is that Morris-Jones believed that the old Welsh metres could all be derived from lines of four or six beats or

11. awdl-gywydd;

12. cywydd deuair hirion.

stresses (curiadau) if double lines of eight and half lines of three

beats are included, and furthermore dealt with the development of

these metres throughout the period when the accent shifted from the ultimate to the penultimate syllable. 382 There si no doubt that accent was and si an all important feature ni the Welsh metrical . 16-22, 197-206; GMB poem 9, GLIF poem 26. 381 H

382 The accent moved from the ultimate syllable to the penultimate according . Jackson, Language and History of Early Britain (Edinburgh, to Kenneth H

1953), 299-301, 684-7, in the eleventh century, but see also T.A. Watkins,

'The accent-shift ni Old Welsh', Indo-Celtica: Gedächtnisschrift für Alf Sommerfelt, H. Pilch, J. Thurow (hrsg.) (München, 1972), 201-5.

175

383 It si significant that Ifor Williams n i his discussion of the metres of the

'Gododdin' in CA Ixx-Ixxiii, si somewhat non-committal. After saying that Morris-Jones ni CD 310-18 essays ot classify the metres according to hte

stresses ni them as well as according to the number of syllables, he says that a

term like cyhydedd naw ban for a nine syllable line favours hte latter while the number of lines of irregular syllabic length among the many of regular

syllabic length favours the former, and he proceeds to discuss the metres ni

terms of syllabic length although he eschews the use of the terms like cyhydedd

naw ban and cyhydedd fer as terms used by metricians of a later age. But see

EWSP 308-14 and M. Haycock, 'Metrical Models for the Poems n i the Book

of Taliesin', Early Welsh Poetry, ed. B.F. Roberts (Aberystwyth, 1988), 16677.

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T H E C O U R T P O E T IN M E D I E VA L WA L E S

John Morris-Jones has ni Cerdd Dafod, 359-60, an interesting

paragraph in which he describes how a four line laisse of various kinds came to be perceived as a stanza. In fact, of the metres he

describes as stanzaic (1-5 above), the first only, the englyn, was

really stanzaic before the end of the Gogynfeirdd period. In the corpus of poetry by the Gogynfeirdd that has survived there are some 138 awdlau and the metres used in these are 1.

cyhydedd fer, .2 cyhydedd naw ban, 3. toddaid byr, 4. toddaid, 5. traeanog, 6. cyhydedd hir, 7. rhupunt, 8. awdl-gywydd. Examples of all these are to be found in the work of the Cynfeirdd, and they are

listed among the standard twenty four metres in the so-called Grammar associated with the names of Einion Offeriad and

Dafydd Ddu Hiraddug, but it should be noted that six of them are named there for the first time, that the term toddaid byr dates from the nineteenth century, and that the term traeanog was invented by Morris-Jones. We have no proof that the Gogynfeirdd used any of these terms since none is demonstrably older than the Grammar. One can describe the metres mentioned above in general terms as follow s:

Cyhydedd fer consists of couplets of octosyllabic rhyming lines

which aer formed of three parts (3/3/2, 3/2/3, or 2/3/3 syllables), each part bearing one stress or beat.

Cymýrrws/ ei hóedl/ ei hýder Yng ngórwydd/ glásfre/ rhag glásfer:

Yn nhrymglais,/ yn nhráis,/ yn nhrymder, Yn nhrómgad,/ yn nhámwy,/ cwyner. 384

Cyhydedd naw ban consists of rhyming nine-syllable lines, each

t o parts, each part bearing w t o stresses or beats. line formed of w

THE C O U RT POET IN MEDIEVAL WALES

Yni fwyf gynéfin/ a dérwin wýdd,

Ni thórraf âm cár/ fý ngharénnydd. 385 Normally the first part has five syllables, the second has four. Toddaid byr is one metrical line generally set out as two sections of 5, 5 and 6 syllables or as two half-lines of 8 syllables each. Normally each section has two stresses and the end of the

second section is linked by rhyme or consonance with the beginning of the third. The end of the third section rhymes with a final syllable within the second section.

Neud mí a fynnwn,/ yf náf-oth gániad/ O'th gáriad ith grédaf. 683 Toddaid is one metrical line usually set out as two consisting of

four sections of 5/5/5/4 syllables with two stresses each and with a

caesura, a break after the third stressed word and with the syllable following the stress rhyming with the final syllable of the fourth section, and the final syllable of the second section rhyming with the final syllable of the third.

Nid digérydd Dúw,/ neud digárad- cyrdd/ Neud llai gwyrdd i fýrdd/ o féirdd yn rhád;

Neud lliaws frwyn cwyn/ cánwlad yng nghystudd/ O'th átal, Rúffudd,/ wáywrudd róddiad. 387 Traeanog, as the name (traean = 'third') implies, si made up of three sections of 5, 5 and 6 syllables, each with two stresses, forming two lines of 10 and 6 syllables each. O bén Pumlúmon,/ hyd bórth Caer Lléon,/

Pair drágon, draig fúrthiad. 38

Grúffudd grym wriawr/ o'i fáwr féuydd Ni'm didóles nú,/ ní bu gélwydd;

385 C.f H 6.13-16; GMB 3.153-6.

386 M A 190a; GCBM i, 18.19-20.

384 Cf. H 146.11-14; GCBM i, 26.9-12

177

387 R 1226; CD 339. 38 H 26; GMB 7.73-4.

178

THE COURT POET IN MEDIEVAL WALES

The first two sections rhyme with each other and with the middle of the third section while the final syllable of the third bears the end-rhyme. However, in actual use the basic pattern admits of several variations.

Cyhydedd hir is one metrical line usually set out as two of 10

and 9 syllables forming four sections, each with two stresses; the first three sections rhyme with each other while the fourth bears the end-rhyme. 389

Gwae fí o'r gólled,/ gwae fi o'r dýnged,/ Gwae fí o'r clywed/ fod clwyf árnaw.390 In this metre again the basic pattern seems to be more honoured in

the breach than in the observance. Perhaps the most frequent

variant si that in which the first two sections are linked by consonance rather than by rhyme but other variants are quite common.

Handid o'm cyfoeth/ o'm cyfeirch pan wyf, O'm rhiau, o'm rhwyf/ rhy gystlynir. 193 Rhupunt is made up of 12 syllable lines with six stresses and dividing into three sections of four syllables each, the first two sections rhyming with each other, and the third bearing the endrhyme. In the early period an internal syllable ni the third section rhymes with the final syllable of the second. Later consonance

could provide the link, as ni the following: Duw a'm amug, Duw a'n gorug, Duw an gwarawd Duw ein gobaith, teilwng perffaith, teg ei burffawd. 392

389 C.A. McKenna, The Medieval Welsh Religious Lyric, 9, defines the cyhydedd hir ("long equivalence') as a' nineteen syllable couplet, with a rhyme peculiar to the couplet at syllables five, ten, and fifteen, and prifodl, or main rhyme, at

THE COURT POET IN MEDIEVAL

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179

Awdl-Gywydd has two heptasyllabic lines, and the final syllable

of the first line rhymes with the final syllable of a word within the second, while the final syllable of the second line bears the endrhyme.

Cad a fydd ym Mynydd Carn,

A Trahaearn a ladder,

Amab Rhiwallawn, rhwyf mỳr,

O'r gyfergyr nid adfer. 39

The Gogynfeirdd discarded the three-line or triplet kind of

englynion and used instead the quatrain variety, including (a) englyn unodl union, normally toddaid byr and cywydd deuair hirion, i.e., a couplet of heptasyllabic lines, rhyming with each other ni alternately stressed and unstressed syllables and with the end-rhyme of the toddaid byr. (b) englyn unodl c r c a (made up of the same elements as the englyn unodl union, except that the cywydd deuair hirion couplet

precedes the toddaid byr).

(c) englyn cyrch (consisting of a cywydd deuair hirion couplet and awdl-gywydd, all with the same end-rhyme). (d) englyn gwastad (made up of four heptasyllabic lines)

(e) englyn proest (four heptasyllabic lines with the final syllable

of each line forming not a rhyme (odl) but a proest with each

other). The difference between a rhyme (odl) and a proest is that ni

the former the correspondence begins with the vowel or diphthong

of the final syllable and includes any consonants), whereas ni the latter the correspondence si limited to the final consonants), or ni the absence of consonants) to the final vowel or diphthong,

subject to certain restrictions regarding the length of the vowels

syllable nineteen.'

and the nature of the diphthongs and of the clusters of the vowels.

390 R 1417; GBF 36.9-10. 391 H 125.9-10; GCBM ,i 123-4. 392 C 39.

393 H 7.16-19; GMB 5.9-12.

180

THE

THE

C O U RT POET IN M E D I E VA L WALES

Pawb a ddaw yr ddaear long.

pobyl vychein druhein a dreng (corr.) a vacco treul gyffro trang.

yn vnawr y llawr ae liwng. 34

If we exclude for the moment the poets of the Llywarch Hen and

Heledd Cycle, one striking difference between the metrical system

of the Cynfeirdd and that of the Gogynfeirdd is that while the Cynfeirdd retained the idea that the verse-unit was the single line albeit divided into two or three sections, the Gogynfeirdd gradually became conscious of the need of larger verse-units, of units comprising more than one line. This si illustrated by the fact that the word which later came to mean stanza, pennill, was originally used to denote a metrical line measured ni syllables. Thus we are

C O U RT POET IN MEDIEVAL

WALES

181

twelve to eighteen and even twenty lines and that for him a line of

six, seven, eight, nine or ten syllables was a half-line and a line of three, four, or five syllables was a third- or quarter-line. However,

despite his reluctance to identify a fixed number of lines by the name used later far a certain metre, Ifor Williams sees ni awdl LXIII of the 'Gododdin' an example of rhupunt hir usually defined

as comprising four sections of four syllables each, the first three

rhyming with each other, and the fourth bearing the end-rhyme. Angor dewr daen, sarph seri raen, sengi wrymgaen, e mlaen bedin

As

we have

already

3.98

noted,

the movement

towards

told ni 'Gramadegau'r Penceirddiaid'395 that Messur ynglynn proest

standardization

metre of an englyn proest is twenty eight syllables, seven in each

description of the gwawdodyn metre.39 The Gogynfeirdd sang a

yw wyth sillaf ar hugeint, seith pob un o'r pedwar pennill, i.e., the

one of the four penillion lines. % 63 And Ifor Williams was able to

is

well

illustrated

in John

Morris-Jones'

toddaid or cyhydedd hir (described above as a double line of

sum up his description of the metrics of the 'Gododdin' by saying

nineteen syllables divided into four sections of ,5 ,5 ,5 4 syllables with two beats each, the first three sections rhyming with each

of ten or nine syllables but that some are of eleven syllables,

other and the fourth bearing the end-rhyme) among couplets of

that the majority of the lines ni the monorhymed awdlau (odes) are several of eight and a few of seven. The half-lines also vary in

syllabic length. Instead of five syllables we sometimes find six,

sometimes four. In other words, a variation of plus or minus one

syllable is tolerated. As we have already mentioned, 793 Williams was loath to use such terms as cyhydedd naw ban and cyhydedd fer

to describe the metrical lines composing an awdl ni the

"Gododdin' because he was not certain that the poet thought of

them as such although it is obvious that he sang ni long lines of I 191.24-7; GDB 32.1-4. 394 H 395 GP 49.

cyhydedd naw ban with complete disregard for the number of such couplets and for the position of the toddaid or cyhydedd hir, i.e., they could either follow or precede the couplets. There occurred early on, however, a tendency to alternate a couplet of cyhydedd naw ban and a toddaid or cyhydedd hir. Examples are to be found ni Meilyr Brydydd's marwysgafn and ni Gwalchmai's shorter awdlau. Later, Gwynfardd Brycheiniog sings a complete awdl made up of couplets of cyhydedd naw ban alternating with a toddaid or a cyhydedd hir and ending with a couplet of cyhydedd

naw ban, and he begins his awdl to Saint David with a similar

couplet. Llywelyn Fardd I begins his awdl to Saint Cadfan with a

396 Peredur Lynch, BaTh 261, says that although the Gogynfeirdd use

laisse of nine combinations of cyhydedd naw ban couplets and a

397 See footnote 383.

399 CD 340-1.

Cyhydedd Fer almost without exception in couplets, we have proof that at times they thought of it in terms of single lines.

398 CA 29, lines 717-20.

T H E C O U R T P O E T IN M E D I E VA L WA L E S

THE C O U R T P O E T IN M E D I E VA L WA L E S

toddaid (although there is one instance of cyhydedd hir taking the

or the first word of the following caniad consonates or alliterates

gwawdodyn. The bardic grammar does not tell us that the second

the following caniad can echo the sense of the last word of the preceding. In this way we have cymeriad cyrch (repetition), cymeriad cynganeddol (consonance or alliteration) and cymeriad

I82

place of a toddaid) and it was this combination which was admitted into the twenty-four metres system under the name of

component in the combination has to be a toddaid, only that it has

to consist of nineteen syllables. However, ni the example which it gives the second component is a toddaid and ti is assumed that to form a gwawdodyn, the component had to be a toddaid, although

the toddaid quite frequently had the same rhyme pattern as the cyhydedd hir. J. Morris-Jones gives the following example: 40 Er dy góron ddréin, géin gedérnyd, A'th ddólur, Fab Méir, uwch créir créulyd, Erbyn gymen Wén (wýnfyd- enrhýdedd/ I'th wledd a'r fúchedd ddiafiéchyd.

Aur glán ag árian /ýma gérir, Ag o wán állu, / á gynúllir;

Ada'r byd i gýd a gédwir-dros brýd, / A da'r byd i gýd / ýma gédir.

One striking difference between the metrical system of the Cynfeirdd and that of the Gogynfeirdd is that the Cynfeirdd wrote

their awdlau (odes) either in one or more caniadau, i.e., laisses or verse-paragraphs, whereas the Gogynfeirdd, even though they kept

for hte most part the practice of singing ni caniadau, began to sing

183

with the last word of the preceding. Alternatively the first word of

synhwyrol (synonymy).401 As one might expect, the Gogynfeirdd

developed their metres from lines of different lengths and

structures which they used for the most part ni the caniadau, and ti

is characteristic of their art that they used various forms of cymeriad to link englynion also in a chain.

As far as rhyme si involved, the odes of the Gogynfeirdd do not

fall into stanzaic patterns but rather into caniadau. However, as far as syntactical patterns are involved there appears to be, as ni the case of the Elegy on Gruffudd ap Cynan by Meilyr Brydydd,

at least some consciousness of stanzaic construction and this consciousness is reflected in the way the different metres are used.

Note the way Bleddyn Fardd fairly regularly uses cyhydedd naw

ban alternately with a toddaid, i.e., producing the metre called

gwawdodyn. But ti si difficult to be dogmatic, and it must be emphasized that a scrutiny of Dafydd Benfras's poetry, like that of others, from the standpoint of either syntactical or metrical construction, does not convince us that they felt the need to

compose in stanzas except in the definitely stanzaic englynion. The second striking difference between the metrical systems of the Cynfeirdd and the Gogynfeirdd si that the latter introduced the

increasingly in stanzas. Awdl (ode) is the same word as odl (rhyme) and originally

englyn-metres into their praise poetry while the former, excluding, of course, the poets of the Llywarch Hen and Heledd Cycles,

each other. Since there is a limit to the number of words rhyming

101 On the various kinds of cymeriad ('taking up') see .J Morris-Jones,

'Taliesin', Y Cymmrodor, xxviii (1918), 176-7. It has points of resemblance

different rhymes in order to write a long poem, a long awdl, and

'a resumption'). In Provençal poetry we have coblas capfinidas, the repetition

denoted a number of lines of a particular length rhyming with

with each other, the poets combined a number of caniadau on

with the rhetorical figure epanalepsis (Gr. a' taking up again', Lat. resumptio

connected them by a device called a cymeriad, whereby the final word of one caniad is repeated at the beginning of the following,

of the last word or phrase in a stanza at the beginning of the first line of the

40 Ib., 341.

folk-song.

next.

The Portuguese term leixa-pren designating the repetition of a whole line

with or w i t h o u t s o m e v a r i a t i o n is the n a m e of a poetical device f o u n d in e a r l

Galician-Portuguese, in the medieval Latin rondeau, and in the late French

184

THE COURT POET IN MEDIEVAL WALES

employed the awdlau or caniadau metres almost exclusively. It is

dangerous to generalize about the Cynfeirdd since so little of their

work has been preserved and since our views on their use of the

englyn-metres are determined by its use ni the Llywarch Hen and Heledd Cycles and by its earlier use in the two Juvencus poems,

one obviously, as ni the two cycles, part of a narrative structure, and the other a religious poem, a fact which should warn us against excessive dogmatism. As we have seen, the Gogynfeirdd used the quatrain rather than the triplet variety of englynion, and they made much use of the englyn unodl union. It should be noted that there is only one

example of its use ni the Llywarch Hen and Heledd corpus,

whereas it accounts for 72% of the englynion-chains of the Gogynfeirdd.

As one could expect, both the Cynfeirdd and the Gogynfeirdd

used englynion sequences or chains (cadwynau). The sequences of

the former are made up of between 15 and 20 englynion, those of

the latter consist of an average of some nine englynion, but the usage varies from poet to poet. Cynddelw has in one sequence as

few as two englynion, ni another as many as thirty six. Llywarch ap Llywelyn 'Prydydd y Moch' has one sequence of six englynion

THE COURT POET IN MEDIEVAL WALES

185

function of hte awdl', probably under hte influence of Cynddelw,

and proceeded to say:

Unlike, however, the author of the nine religious englynion of the Cambridge Juvencus, the oldest Welsh religious poem, and later poets of another school, not one of our earlier Gogynfeirdd employed englynion alone, but always the awdl ni their strictly religious poetry, and the awdl was never sung in

eulogy or elegy on anyone outside nobility. 402

He went on to argue, as we have mentioned, that when we have

two elegies sung, as for instance by Cynddelw on Madog ap

Maredudd and Rhirid Flaidd, one an awdl, the other an englynion-

sequence, hte poet ni the awdl sings as a pencerdd, and ni the

englynion as a bardd teulu.

Di Jenny Rowland, on the other hand, has pointed out that

the early englynion-songs as well as the awdlau were sung by the

same class of professional bards, and has argued that ti si possible that it is sheer accident that so few englynion-songs praising God and the nobility have survived. 403

While admitting that more religious and praise songs ot hte

century have fewer englynion ni their sequences. The majority of

princes are ni the awdl-metres than the englyn-metres and more of the songs to the lower nobility and to the members of the gosgorddau are ni englyn-metres than ni awdl-metres, Dr Nerys

six and nine englynion. In this connection it is illuminating to note the frequency of

Jones's contention that the englyn-metres were never used to praise God and royalty. 404 This si her table of statistics:

and another of twenty-five. Their successors in the thirteenth

Prydydd Bychan's and Bleddyn Fardd's sequences have between

the use made by the Gogynfeirdd of englynion sequences. Cynddelw, with twenty four, has most. Y Prydydd Bychan with

Ann Jones has shown that the statistics do not bear out Lloyd-

nineteen comes second, and Llywarch ap Llywelyn 'Prydydd y

Moch' comes third with eleven. The other Gogynfeirdd use one or two sequences.

.J Lloyd-Jones noted that the englynion sequences, a' series

linked together by word-repetition or alliteration, and the last word of the poem repeating the first, came ultimately to fulfil the

402 CPWP .8 403 .J Rowland, 'Genres' ni Early Welsh Poetry: Studies in the Book of Aneirin, ed. B.F. Roberts (Aberystwyth, 1988), 179-206, esp. 189-91; id., Early Welsh Saga Poetry: AStudy and Edition of the Englynion (Cambridge, 1990), 355-63. . . Jones, Y 104 NA ' Gogynfeirdd ar' Englyn' ni BaTh 288-301, esp. 296.

186

THE C O U RT POET IN M E D I E VA L WALES

Genre

Religious Songs Praise (and elegy) of Princes Praise (and elegy) of Nobles

Praise of gosgorddau

Love songs and gorhoffedd

Others

Odes (awdlau) 30 80

5

THE COURT POET IN MEDIEVAL WALES

Englynion 2

46 22

1

10

15

0

2

3

Perhaps one should observe that neither the awdl-metres nor

the englyn-metres as they were used by the Gogynfeirdd can be

considered to be ideal for narrative verses. In the Llywarch Hen and Heledd Cycles the englyn-verses carry forward the narrative so

little that they have been considered to have belonged originally to a prose narrative structure and to have been used principally to

express the heightened or dramatic emotions of the characters. The awdl-verses of both Cynfeirdd and Gogynfeirdd, declaimed as

they were in the presence of the persons they eulogized, have a deictic rather than a narrative purpose. The poets declare the patron to be the proud possessor of various traits and qualities, and his actions are taken to have occurred mostly ni the past. It is

illuminating to note, as Lloyd-Jones has done, that whereas the

Gogynfeirdd do not mingle the englyn with other metres within the

187

of course, that the traethodl-metre, a couplet of rhymed heptasyl-

labic lines, from which it si assumed that the cywydd-metre was developed, was devoid of cynghanedd, and that the cynghanedd of

the cywydd was derived from the cynghanedd of the englyn and the

awdl.) Thomas Parry ni his pioneering article 'Twf y Gynghan-

edd'406 has shown how cynghanedd groes and cynghanedd draws comprising cytseinedd, consonance (correspondence of consonants) only, how cynghanedd lusg comprising rhyme only, and how cynghanedd sain, comprising consonance and rhyme, al developed. Although his statistics need revision, his contention stands that cynghanedd ni its various forms became increasingly an obligatory embellishment. 407 The transition from cynghanedd rydd to cynghanedd gaeth

involved standardization but it would be a mistake to assume that

cynghanedd rydd was invariably less complicated. This si illustrated

ni the following lines, technically cynganeddion sain dwbl. Brad cad ced waywar dramawr dromaf

Doeth coeth cywrennin gwin a gwener,

and ni the following lines of cynghanedd sain where there are three and four internal rhymes instead of the regular two. Arwyrein Owein cein cenitor.

body of the awdl, but rather introduce an occasional heptasyllabic

couplet at its ending, so we have at least four poets appending to

Mein virein riein gein Gymraeg.

at least seven awdlau an englyn with the same rhyme as the awdl or

its last section. 40s The main poetic embellishment used by the Gogynfeirdd was,

as we have seen, cynghanedd, i.e., cynghanedd rydd 'free cynghanedd' and not cynghanedd gaeth 'strict cynghanedd'. Cyng-

hanedd gaeth became the rule sometime after the end of the

407 .T Parry's thesis that at the beginning of the Gogynfeirdd period

cynghanedd was optional has been refuted by .J Lloyd-Jones, CPWP 12-13, who has also corrected Parry's article ni three ways, (1) by showing that the

Gogynfeirdd used not only consonance (correspondence of consonants) but

also assonance (correspondence of vowels) at the beginning of words; (2) by

thirteenth century and it was not apparently systematized until after it had been introduced into the comparatively short line of the cywydd-couplet and standardized. (It should be remembered,

consonants and their mutated forms; (3) by showing that there are also a few examples of half rhymes (-yn, -yrn, -ann, -arn), not to be confused with proest

405 CPWP 9-10.

the Gogynfeirdd are referred to in n.359 above.

showing

that

there are numerous examples of consonance

between

(see T. Parry, A History of Welsh Literature, trans. H.I. Bell (Oxford, 1955),

25). O t h e r s c h o l a r s w h o h a v e c o n t r i b u t e d to o u r k n o w l e d g e of t h e metrics of

188

T H E C O U R T P O E T IN M E D I E VA L

WA L E S

The Gogynfeirdd used other embellishments which were

regarded as aspects of the system of the cynghanedd-system once ti

became the subject of serious study. We have already referred to one of these—the use of cymeriadau. In the old songs or awdlau metres cyrch-gymeriad was used to connect one laisse or verse-

paragraph with another; in other words, when the rhyme was

changed. However, we have ni 'Cyngogion Elaeth' seven englynion

T H E C O U R T P O E T IN M E D I E VA L WA L E S

189

STYLE

No description of the poetry of the Gogynfeirdd would be complete without some account of its language and style.409 For

whereas h te diction of poetry and the diction of prose in all later periods of Welsh literature have had a vast tract in common, in the period of the Gogynfeirdd that tract seems to have been

repeating the first word of the first englyn, and apparently

r hte alnguage the nes oar heir alnguage difes radical om

(cadwyn) of englynion. There are several examples of cyngogion in the work of the Gogynfeirdd.

the Four Branches of the 'Mabinogi'. It differs most clearly ni the following features: (i) its unusual word-order; (i) its concise

cyngogion was the technical name for such a sequence or chain

These embellishments bring into relief the aural aspect of this

poetry and underline the point made by Thomas Parry in his A

sistor as ewlipiteratue sense, htat merte and cynghaned, het

whole frame work of verse, are as much part of the aesthetic effect

as what is said. The tendency of modern criticism has been to consider

primarily the thought expressed ni a poem; as for the rhythm, the rhymes, the alliteration, they are desirable no doubt but are regarded as an adornment of the verse, additional

elements, so to say, introduced ot give beauty ot the work. The

poetry of today si read with the eye, and the eye si the door of the understanding. The poetry of old was heard with the ear, was recited or sung, and the ear is the gateway to the heart. 408

408 T. Parry, op.cit., 48. Cf. R. Guiette, 'Questions de Littérature', Romanica Gandensia, vii (1960), 9-23, and esp. 21, 'Le langage doit être utilisé pour sa valeur incantatoire'. It is not claimed that Welsh medieval poetry was unique ni being composed mostly for the outer ear; ni fact, almost all medieval poetry was composed for the performing voice-speaking, intoning, chanting or singing and to be conveyed to the outer ear. But perhaps it can be

claimed that the Welsh metrical system helped its poetry to achieve more successfully what even modern poetry strives to achieve, although it speaks primarily to the inner ear, namely the appreciation that a word should be perceived as a word and not merely as a proxy for the denoted object or the

expression and compactness: it seems to eschew wherever possible the use of what we could call mots accessoires, using a term current among French grammarians but with a wider

connotation, e.g., including the definite article and prepositions,

and even to shun the use of the finite verb in favour o f the verb-

noun. These features obviously involve both linguistic and stylistic

usage and ti is not surprising that they have attracted the attention of philologists as well as literary critics.

In his Zaharoff lecture, La poésie galloise des XIIe-XIIIe siècles

dans ses rapports avec al langue (1930), and, ot a lesser extent, ni

his Académie des Inscriptions lecture, La poésie de cour en Irlande et Galles (1932), J. Vendryes gave careful consideration to some aspects of the style and language of the Gogynfeirdd. He drew attention to some similarities between the court poetry of Anglo-

Saxon England, Scandinavia (including Iceland), Ireland and Wales, and ni particular to the similarities in the use of fixed

metaphor, heiti (e.g., 'runner' for 'horse') and kenning (e.g., 'horse

expressed emotion. See Peter Steiner, Russian Formalism: A Metapoetics (Ithaca, 1984), 201-5. % 04 One can almost say of the poetry of the Gogynfeirdd what has been said of medieval writing in general, 'L'œuvre médiévale est style'. Cf. P. Zumthor, 'Recherches sur les topiques dans la poésie des XII® et XIII® siècles', Cahiers de civilisation médiévale, 2 (1959), 409-27, esp. 409. Cf. 'Le centre de

préoccupation de l'écrivain est al "qualité" (au sens scholastique du mot) de son style, qualité définie par une ornementation déterminée', p. 426.

THE C O U RT POET IN M E D I E VA L WALE S

T H E C O U R T P O E T I N M E D I E VA L WA L E S

of the sea' for 'ship').410 Then he considered hte possibility of

centuries. Kenneth H. Jackson has argued that Brythonic had

190

postulating literary influence or borrowing as an explanation for them, only to reject it because the foundations of the Welsh poetic tradition had been laid long before Anglo-Saxon or Scandinavian influences could have been brought into play and because the correspondences between Welsh and Irish poetic practices can be best explained by derivation from the same Celtic stock. With reference to some of the linguistic and stylistic features we have mentioned, he recalled .J Loth's suggestion that the nature of

Welsh metres called for the close juxtaposition of noun-phrases

and the avoidance of unaccented particles, prepositions, &c. He

found Loth's idea valid and acceptable, but at the same time he obviously felt the need to explain why the Gogynfeirdd could

eschew hte use of prepositions, &c,. and ni order ot do os eh put

forward the theory that they had inherited a language which had

dispensed with the use of inflections such as noun and adjective

191

become Welsh by hte second half of the sixth century, and for him, and especially for those who have argued for an even earlier

date, it si difficult to believe that the influences deriving from hte

inflectional character of Brythonic could have survived over a

period of five and a half centuries. (ii) fI the linguistic features

which Vendryes sought to explain in the poetry of the Gogynfeirdd were due to the survival of the influence of Brythonic, these

features should be more clearly seen ni the poetry of the Cynfeirdd

than in the poetry of their successors, but this is certainly not the case, for the diction of the Gogynfeirdd differs almost as much from that of the Cynfeirdd as it does from the contemporary prose writers. iii) The final and main objection, however, is that the linguistic and stylistic features of the poetry of the Gogynfeirdd can be explained in a different and more satisfactory way. Saunders Lewis's contribution to our understanding of the

inflections but had retained some of the features of a language

Gogynfeirdd si to be found ni the second chapter of his fascinating

period could dispense, for example, with the preposition ni such e shall come ot sentences as dywed y down Arwystli, 'say that w e shall come to w that ay s ' nyd Arwystli', dywed y down Feirion Meirionnydd', as well as with a fixed order syntax such as verb + subject + object in favour of verb + object + subject order (e.g. dygystudd deurudd dagreu, 'tears wear out cheeks'), precisely

as the element common to the work of the Gogynfeirdd and other

which had made use of them. In other words the Welsh of their

because Brythonic could do so by virtue of its nominal inflections. Interesting and ingenious though this theory is, there are three

objections to it. (i) Vendryes, following Loth, did not believe that

Welsh had evolved from Brythonic until the end of the seventh f inflectional century, and for him the period for the influence o some four Brythonic to survive in non-inflectional Welsh was 410 This si too much of a simplification. T ' he word kenning promises "a making known", but the thing itself works by rendering obscure, rather like our definition of the term: a two-part substitution for a noun in ordinary

discourse ... ; a multiexpandable nominal compound ... ; a transform of a relative clause..', R . Frank, art.cit. (footnote 111), 163.

Braslun o Hanes Llenyddiaeth Gymraeg, i (1932). He takes 'order'

poets. Whereas the latter base the 'order' ni their poetry on syntax

with the object of achieving meaning, the Gogynfeirdd base the

'order' ni theirs on metre (including cynghanedd) with the object of achieving 'merit' or 'value', i.e., musical value. Lewis sees hte Gogynfeirdd using words primarily not for their meaning but for

their 'aura'. Presumably, they believed with T. Gray that 'the language of the day is never the language of poetry', hence their

predilection for words with a special 'aura': old words, including

the names of ancient heroes, as well as another class of strange

words, i.e., new or recently formed compound words. These words

they used ni a pattern in which the sound or music was more important than the meaning. As syntax si the medium by which

the meanings of words are interwoven to yield an over-all

statement, it was avoided in favour of the medium of metre and

cynghanedd used to form a word-pattern in which sound has

192

THE COURT POET IN MEDIEVAL WALES

primacy over meaning, music has primacy over statement. In other words the Gogynfeirdd were trying to achieve their own kind of poésie pure. In stressing the musical quality of the poetry of the

Gogynfeirdd, Lewis rendered an invaluable service to Welsh literary criticism, for he established once and for al the critical

standpoint for the true appreciation of the Welsh poetic tradition. of In the poetry of all nations each word reverberates like the note is a well-tuned lyre, but in cynghanedd the sound of one word orchestrated with the sound of another so that the ear quickly

divines a pattern which it expects to be completed. Old words have their attraction. They lend 'a kind of majesty to style . . . for they

have hte authority of years.' So also have new compound nouns

and adjectives from the days of Homer to our own. Yet Lewis's

THE C O U RT

POET

IN M E D I E VA L WA L E S

193

Welsh poetic tradition as a whole than with the Gogynfeirdd.

However, by setting that tradition in the context of European

literature and literary criticism in the Dark and Early Middle Ages

he has rendered invaluable service to Welsh scholarship. Perhaps the most pertinent to our study is the consideration which he gives

clarity, economy, rationality and syrometry, hteal or sitivatiny. complexity, obscurity, prolixity, fantasy and irregularity. The Asiatic style, sa he shows, had a special appeal for the North

Africans and the Celts during the Roman Empire and its decline. An extreme form of it is seen in the Irish Hisperica Famina,

'Western Sayings', a sixth century collection of writings ni which the less usual word si substituted for the one in normal use, the familiar word is given a meaning not elsewhere recognized, a large

theory as an explanation of the language and style of the

number of words are new creations formed by the addition of

it is not without syntax: indeed, it si the opposite of the language

for its own sake. It will be apparent from this characterization that the differences ni style between the Hisperica Famina and the work of the Gogynfeirdd is greater than the similarities, but the literary taste which the Hisperica Famina indulged does throw considerable light on the literary standards cultivated by the

Gogynfeirdd si not satisfactory. For whatever else their language is,

of the Chanson de Roland which E. Vinaver once characterized in

hte phrase s'on extrême nudité syntaxique,41 for, fi there aer

degrees ni the use which poets can make of syntax, ti can be claimed that no poets, certainly no Welsh poets, have ever made greater use of it than the Gogynfeirdd ni their work. Moreover, if

unusual suffixes, and obscurity in general seems to be cultivated

Gogynfeirdd. More recent critics would have very little sympathy with our distinction between Attic and Asiatic styles and would apply to

Lewis's theory were valid, we should expect the later Gogynfeirdd to use less or less complicated cynghaned, as they made greater use of normal or prose syntax. Instead, we find that they make greater and more complicated use of cynghanedd as they

defamiliarization with the implication that in one sense all forms

their predecessors.

order to give us a new perspective and an unfamiliar picture.

increasingly abandon the more intricate syntactic structures of

Another scholar, D. Myrddin Lloyd, has succeeded ni shedding new light on our subject ni his 'Estheteg yr Oesoedd Canol',412 a study based on Edgar de Bruyne's Études d'ésthetique

médiévale (Brugge, 1946), although he is more concerned with the

41 .E Vinaver, Àal recherche d'une poétique médiévale (Paris, 1970), 54. 412 LICy i (1950), 153-68, 220-38.

the analysis of the style of the Gogynfeirdd the concept of

of literature aim at distorting our common picture of reality ni

Whatever view w e take of this concept, ti can be proved that ni

some periods writers seem to have made it their object to jolt their

readers into seeing things ni a different way. It remains

THE COURT POET IN MEDIEVAL WALES

THE COURT POET N I MEDIEVAL WALES

questionable, however, whether the Gogynfeirdd ever had this

modelot be imitated ni their own poems. End odnie sasi

194

objective. 413

We have remarked on the similarity between the obscurity ni the style of the Gogynfeirdd and that in the style of the skalds. Critics have drawn attention to the obscurity which characterized

Alexandrian poetry. For example, A.H. Couat writes, The Alexandrian poets like to have their meaning guessed at

rather than understood; occasionally we recognize them by the fact that they are unintelligible . . . Each poet ni turn writes

ingenious verses ni which the exquisiteness of the subtle

language and versification makes us forget how improbable of and banal the subject is, and in which the reminiscences

antiquity, the forgotten proper names of towns and heroes, mingling with the audacities of the modern language, create a

charm of more piquant novelty. 41

T.J. Morgan did not address himself specifically to the problem which si engaging our attention, but his work on hte style of the awdl and hte cywydd contains some important clues. 415 nI emphasizing the resemblance between the basic ideas of the Cynfeirdd and the Gogynfeirdd and ni stressing the similarity ni their respective vocabularies, he demonstrated a willingness and

even an active desire on hte part of the Gogynfeirdd ot imitate their predecessors. A striking proof and example si provided ni the way 413 R.H. Stacy, Defamiliarization ni Language and Literature (Syracuse U.P., 1977).

414 A.H. Couat, Alexandrian Poetry under the First Three Ptolemies, trans. J. Loeb (London, New York, 1931), 103, 136.

415 T.J. Morgan, 'Arddull yr Awdl a'r Cywydd', THSC, 1946-7, 276-313. It

may be pointed out that although the Gogynfeirdd may have been unique in the extent to which they were content to imitate theit predecessors, their general disregard for the need to be original seems to have been characteristic of the medieval attitude to authorship, and well illustrated in Layamon's confession that when he composed his Brut, he did no more than take three books, one in English, one in Latin, and one in French, and compress them i n t o one.

195

'Marwnad Teulu Owain Gwynedd' by Cynddelw, the other poem si hte so-called 'Hirlas Owain' by Owain Cyfeiliog.

'Hirlas Owain', ti will be remembered, si traditionally by a prince, not by a professional poet, but fi a prince knew the

'Gododdin' so well, and could use his knowledge of it so effectively, ti gives us an indication of the thoroughness of bardic

training during this period and of the extent to which the work of the Cynfeirdd, not to mention the work of contemporary poets, was studied and absorbed. And the fact that the Gogynfeirdd could

echo the phrases and imitate the lines of the Cynfeirdd indicates that they were aware of the poetic effect of la résonance du cliché, le dynamisme du déjà dit,416 a poetic effect after which T.S. Eliot and others in our age have striven. It may seem surprising that one school of poets could voluntarily restrict itself to work within some of the limits which a

previous school had imposed upon itself, but the history of

literature has other examples. Thus ni Arabic literature between 500 and 1000 A.D. the traditionalist school dominated poetry to

such an extent that the freedom granted to a poet in the

composition of certain genres was severely restricted. Because the

pre-Islamic ode gasidah written ni the desert by Bedouin poets used to begin by mentioning 'the desert dwelling places and the

relics and traces of habitation', the urban Muslim poet centuries later was not allowed to abandon that custom, 'so as to halt at an inhabited place or to weep at a walled building', and because the former had said that the land had brought forth desert plants, the

latter could not say that ti brought forth prune and apple trees. 417

416 P . Zumthor, Langue et techniques poétiques á l'époque romane (XIe-XIIIe

siècles) (Paris, 1963), 202. 417 A. Hamori, On the Art of Medieval Arabic Literature (New York, 1974), 1314.

THE

196

COURT POET IN MEDIEVAL WALES

To come nearer home, let us recall how trouvères, writing in

the langue d'oil ni medieval France, imitated the troubadours writing in the langue d'oc or Provençal, to the extent that an

authority can say of them, 'Il n'y a rien chez nos chansonniers qui n'ait déjà chez les troubadours: même pensées,., même images, même métaphores, même style. 418

To understand the French trouvères and the Welsh Gogynfeirdd we must disabuse our minds of the m o d e r n

preconception that poetry should make us 'feel vividly, and with a vital consciousness, emotions which ordinary life rarely or never

supplies occasions for exciting', and that a poet's sole excuse for

writing is 'to write down himself, to unveil for others the sort of world which mirrors itself ni his individual glass.419 For the Gogynfardd, like every medieval artist, was first and foremost a

craftsman, an artifex, intent on producing an object, an artefact,

through the exercise of his technical skill. In fact, he was a

craftsman working in a tradition; 'un être de tradition' ni two ways. The artefact which he was called to produce was of a kind whose structure was rigidly prescribed by tradition. Within those structural lines he had considerable liberty: outside of them he had none. He was traditiona l also in the sense that the means and even

the methods of his craft or skill were handed down to him by his

predecessors and imposed upon him by his contemporaries, both

colleagues and customers. As F. Gennrich has expressed it:420 the

418 Cf. A . Jeanroy, La poésie lyrique des troubadours (Toulouse, Paris, 1934),

II, 116, 'Il y a dans le style des troubadours, même les meilleurs, beaucoup de formules toutes faites, de clichés, et l'on peut dire que cette res nullius en constitue proprement le fond.'

419 See T.S. Eliot's 'Tradition and the Individual Talent' ni T.S. Eliot, Selected Essays (1917-1932) (London, 1932), 13-22, and his book After Strange Gods: APrimer of Modern Heresy (London, 1934) which developed the theme of the essay.

420 .F Gennrich, Musikenwissenschaft und romanische philologie; ein Beitrag zur Bewertung der Musik als Hilfswissenschaft der romanischen Philologie (Halle a.S., 1918); id., Grundriss einer Formenlehre des mittelalterlichen Lieder als

THE COURT POET IN MEDIEVAL WALES

197

fundamental idea behind Gothic cathedrals is always the same, but in the execution of that idea there is immense variety. This is true even of the songs. The matter is always incredibly the same.

The ideas are identical, but they are clothed differently.

Individualism shows itself in the creation of forms, not in ideological content. The variety, ti should be noted, does not derive from the choice of means and methods. Perhaps the best single word to denote the means and methods available to the medieval poet si 'rhetoric' in its broad sense. Europe, it has been said, has not known a more profoundly rhetorical poetry than that of the troubadours, but in one sense, all medieval poetry is

profoundly rhetorical. That of the Gogynfeirdd was no exception. Rhetoric was part of their technicité.21 They inherited ti with their

ideas. It imposed limitations upon them, but rather than rebel against these limitations, they exploited them; they used them as the precondition of the excellence for which they strove. 'Leur but suprême n'était pas de sortir, en poésie ou en musique, du cercle resserré de leur art, mais bien de briller parmi ceux qui s'y renfermaient avec un scrupule religieux.' In other words, they

accepted that 'the great constructive element in both life and art is

the dealings of genius with the continuity of tradition'. In the history of art there are times when one generation of

artists realizes that ti cannot improve on the achevements of its predecessors, that ti must either strike out ni an entirely different

direction or cease its artistic endeavours. The Gogynfeirdd had not

reached any such impasse: they obviously thought that they could improve on the Cynfeirdd ni several ways, and part of the fascination of studying their work comes from remarking on some of these ways. Grundlage einer musikalwissenschaftlichen Formenlehre des Liedes (Halle a.S.,

1932). 421 'Le caractère fondamental de l'art médiéval est sans doute sa technicité.'.

P . Zumthor, 'Recherches sur les topiques dans la poésie lyrique des XIIe_

XIIIe siècles', Cahiers de civilisation médiévale, i (1959), 409-27, esp. 409.

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THE COURT POET IN MEDIEVAL WALES

THE COURT POET IN MEDIEVAL WALES

As we have seen, the Gogynfeirdd inherited their metrical

system from the Cynfeirdd. It was based, according to .J Morris-

Jones, on lines of either four or six stress accents. It has been

199

melodic because it is designed to be chanted; it is prosodic because of its metrical structure; and it is stylistic because of its choice of

vocabulary and syntax. We need not pursue Zumthor here, but it

conveniently called 'the epic metre,' consisted of a couplet of short

édification' in the sense of 'élévation morale et construction d'un

and this reminds us that the normal ancient Germanic verse,

lines, each of which had two stress accents. This metre is mentioned because on it the Anglo-Saxon poets developed the continuous style of their epic and the Old Norse poets developed

the 'discrete' style of their skaldic poetry. The former cultivated

the long drawn phrase and an arrangement of sentences for which the metrical limits of the one were disguised while the latter

cultivated a style which allowed the line to ring out clearly and

give full force to the natural emphasis of the rhyme. Whether the Gogynfeirdd could have developed their line in the same direction as the Anglo-Saxon poets si an academic question. If, as we

believe, they cultivated prose for narrative purposes, they had no need to develop the epic-style line. Perhaps ti is not entirely

fortuitous that ni developing the 'discrete' style, like the Old Norse

to stress the

Gogynfeirdd's poems.

"monumentary' nature of

the

suggested that the smallest unit was a line of two stress accents

is important

To borrow Zumthor's words they aimed at

édifice? They wrote not only to be heard by an audience in the present and in the future, but also to be recited and 'reproduced' by their colleagues and their successors.423 A ganaf, a genir gwedi

("What I sing, shall be sung hereafter'), or to quote Dafydd Benfras A genais a genir wedy ('What I sang shall be sung

hereafter').

In addition to their metres, the Gogynfeirdd inherited the Cynfeirdd's system of embellishments, basically consonance and rhyme, and a combination of both, such as that found n i

Taliesin's,

Kyscit Lloegr llydan nifer A lleuver yn eu llygeit.

and Irish poets, they also like them developed a style of poetry

In other words, they inherited free cynghanedd and proceeded to develop strict cynghanedd. The whole nature of cynghanedd verse

artificial known to the West.

demands that words should be placed in an order which may be

which has been described as among the most difficult, artistic and

For the Gogynfeirdd the purpose of poetry was not narration but declaration. Compare the descriptions given of the battle of

Mynydd Carn by the Latin author of 'Historia Gruffudd ap

Cynan' and by Meilyr Brydydd in his elegy to Gruffudd ap Cynan, and the difference between the different styles required in

each case will be all too obvious. To borrow P. Zumthor's

categories,422 one could say that the Gogynfeirdd aimed at achieving a "monumentary'

rather

than

a 'documentary'

statement, for, the former differs from the latter ni three ways: ti si

42 See P. Zumthor, Langue et techniques poétiques a l'époque romane (XIeXIIIe siècles), 27-69, and 'Document et monument (à propos des plus anciens

textes de langue française', Revue des sciences humaines (1960), 5-19.

quite different from the sense order, and to meet the exigencies of metre and cynghanedd the Gogynfeirdd, like their successors, the Cywyddwyr, developed a certain kind of style involving the use of sangiadau (chevilles) and torymadroddion (intercalations), i.e., breaking up sentences and intertwining them so that a few words of one are followed by a few words of the other.

423 This is the reason why poets n i the Welsh language, and here w e may add, ni the Irish language, were conscious that they had a unitary and dynamic

national literary tradition long before some of their counterparts in other European languages who had to wait for the advent of the printing-press before they could become generally aware of the productions of their

colleagues. See the observations made on medieval writers by J.A. Burrow,

Medieval Writers and their Work (Oxford, 1982), 123-4.

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T H E C O U R T P O E T I N M E D I E VA L W A L E S

T H E C O U R T POET IN M E D I E VA L WA L E S

Dygnaf, Duw eurnaf, diwarnawd dygnddu,

Fu ddoe gan dri llu, ddogn o drallawd,

Dwyn eurwas difas defawd diweccry I dy dirwely daear waelawd. 424

20I

tranc, cyfranc. Once certain words had been brought together to form a consonating or rhyming collocation, they would be remembered as such, and would be stored for future use, not only

'God excellent lord (Duw eurnaf), most dire (dygnaf) on a

by the poet who was first responsible for their collocating, but by poets who came to know his work. Today, each poet has way to create his own language of poetry. This, no doubt, was true to some extent of the Gogynfardd, but one could say of

drallawd) the bearing of an excellent youth, thoughtful, not frivolous in manner (dwyn eurwas difas defawd diweccry), to an

everyday use, but of the language used by his fellow-poets. In the creation of that language the schools played a decisive

pressingly gloomy day (diwarnawd dygnddu) was yesterday (fu ddoe), by three hosts (gan dri llu) - enough tribulation (ddogn o earthen bed abode down in the earth (i dy dirwely daear waelawd).' Perhaps ti may be said that this is an elaborately embroidered way

of saying: 'Most dire was the bearing of an excellent youth to an earthen bed abode' (Dygnaf fu dwyn eurwas i dy dirwely). Again, Neb ny oruc duw, wr[t]hyd bennlli gawI, banni[ljef beirt yth uoli, trin elyn tranc arglwyti, treul melgyrn, teyrn ual ti. 425

si a mosaic expression built round the statement 'God has not made anyone a ruler like thee' ni the form 'Anyone (neb) God has not made (ny oruc duw), [thou] of the valour of Benlli GawI (wrhyd Benlli Gawr), the acclaim of bards praising thee (bannllef beirt yth

uoli), an enemy ni battle (trin elyn), destroyer of lords (tranc

arglwyti), consumer of mead-horns (treul metgyrn), a ruler like thee (teyrn ual ti).'

The absence of articles, prepositions and other auxiliary words ni these verses should be noted. As .J Loth saw, it si due, at least partly, to the demands of the metre and cynghanedd. The latter

itself dictated the call for certain collocations in which the exacting demand for consonance and/or rhyme was satisfied. Thus the use

of Kymry called for consonating words like kymri, kymrwyn, kymradw, and the choice of franc called for rhyming words like 124 MA 334b; see R 1261 for different readings.

524 H 184.5-8; GLIF 28.25-8.

also in a also him

that he created his own poetic language, not out of the language ni

part, for, like the classical schools of rhetoric, they devoted a great

deal of time to studying the work of past generations. We know that in Ireland the bardic schools created a standardized language in which most dialect traces had been eliminated with the result

that one cannot decide from a poet's language whether he came

from southern or northern Ireland. In Wales we know that poets were called upon to memorize the works of Aneirin and Taliesin,

and that they could not have done so without taking at least some

interest ni their language. This would be reflected ni their own

language, for the emphasis ni the schools would be mainly on the practice and not on the theory of poetry. As Gervais de Malkley

warns: Cautum est igitur ut studiosis animis brevis sit hujus artis theoria: in practica plenius elaborent tam aliorum opera legendo

26 The language of ancient medullitus quam propria componendo. 4 poets, reflecting as ti did the language of their own periods, would present archaic features to the contemporary pupil-poet, but, as ni every language learned at school, the distinction between archaic

and present usage tends to be blurred. As it easily becomes a

matter of pride for a pupil to display the range of his knowledge,

we could expect to find archaisms in the language of the

Gogynfeirdd, just as we find archaisms ni the language of the Latin poets-indeed, there they are found side by side with Graecisms! 426 Quoted by E. Faral, Les arts poétiques du XIIe et du XIIIe siècles (Paris, 1924), 328.

202

THE COURT POET IN MEDIEVAL

WALES

Unfortunately, it is difficult to decide what features should be

classified as archaic, although the use of the infixed pronoun

THE C O U RT POET IN MEDIEVAL WA L E S

203

collocations the mutation of the initial of the word or its absence

can make a great difference. Thus llum (Lwm-) fryn means 'bare

of Gwalchmai, could be an example.

hill', but lum bryn means 'bare si (the) hill'. Add to this the fact that the system of initial mutation had not been fixed to the extent that it was later, and you get a glimpse of how the Gogynfeirdd could compose stanzas without the use of the finite verb or of the

linguistic resources of the language in meeting the demands of

so-called auxiliary words.

between preverb and stem, e.g., dy-m-hunis woke me' ni the work

The schools, however, would perform one of their more fundamental functions by teaching the students how to exploit the cynghanedd metre. To judge from the results, they certainly taught

hte Gogynfeirdd how ot form compound words of various kinds,

how to collocate words and how to achieve conciseness o f

expression ni general. Nouns and adjectives are freely compounded ni Welsh, so that

the following types of compounds can be found: (1) noun +

Neud amser gaeaf gwelwaf gweilgi. gweilgig moradar hwyluar heli.

neud oerllen aryen eryri weithyon. neud uchel gwenndon gwyndir enli. 427 It is winter time, most grey si the ocean, Perched are the sea birds, the brine si a rush of rage,

adjective, (2) adjective +noun, (3) adjective + adjective, (4) noun

Eryri now is in a cold mantle of frost:

fact that a compound of the second class mein ael (adjective +

High is the white crested wave on Enll's blest land,

+ noun. The possibilities of these compounds are illustrated in the

noun) may be understood as (1) a noun: 'fine brow', (2) an adjective: 'fine browed', (3) a noun: 'fine browed one'. As an

adjective meinael 'fine browed' may eb placed before or after the noun it qualifies.

The relation between the noun in the genitive case and the

noun on which it is dependent is so varied that it is most

conveniently described as 'adjectival', and like an adjective, a noun in the genitive may precede as well as follow the noun on

which it is dependent: thus beside nodded cenedl 'support(-er) of

the clan' we find cenedl nodded. The verb-noun, as its name

implies, partakes of the nature of a noun as well as a verb, and si

To turn to the subject matter of the Gogynfeirdd. As almost all

their poetry si celebration poetry, it is naturally and almost necessarily restricted in themes and ideas. Princes are mainly praised for their prowess as warriors and for their generosity as

providers and donors. Although they are individuals, very little of

their individuality is allowed to obtrude into the panegyric, and although the relationship between prince and people, and prince and poet, must have varied considerably from reign to reign, little cognizance is taken of the variations. Consequently, fi the panegyrics are read for the ideas which they express, the reader si

soon bored, and even fi they are read for their total artistic effect,

followed by a noun in the genitive. But as genitive + noun is

he misses the variety and novelty which modern literature has led

possible, genitive + verb-noun si also possible with the result that side by side with rheoli gwlad (ruling a country') ti si possible to

him ot expect; he longs for 'originality'. To us, 'originality' si the hall-mark of imagination, and imagination si almost the sine qua non of a poet. But we should

say gwlad-reoli ('country ruling) and use the expression as noun or an adjective. (It should be noted that ni some compounds the stem of the verb rather than the verb-noun is used: e.g. ffrwyngno "bit-biting, champing'.) In these various syntagmata or

not make the mistake of thinking that our idea of what poetry

427 H 67.13-16; GBF 54.1-4.

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204

WALES

should be has absolute and sempiternal validity, any more than our evaluation of the imagination. One of Aristotle's followers in the sixth century, John Philoponus, differentiated between two kinds of phantasia: one collects impressions, the other unites the

elements of impressions to create something new. Obviously, ti is call the second kind of phantasia which comes nearest to what we

THE COURT POET IN MEDIEVAL WALES

205

so fruitful a manner that no one else would easily have discovered

how much lay hidden therein'. Accordingly, the typical

Gogynfardd would look at the work of his predecessors to try to

see the hidden relationship between the elements of a given motif

and to find ways and means of bringing them to the surface, of

expressing them, so that he could give to his audience the pleasure

'imagination', but Philoponus does not accord ti the value which we set on imagination.428 On the contrary, he tells us that

or satisfaction of seeing ambiguity removed and latent meanings made manifest. In illustration we could quote the changes which

inferior to judgment (doxa) and thought (dianoia). On no account

the 'out-doing' topos, as E.R. Curtius calls it.

we would not think o f literature as first and foremost the

most pressing of artistic problems was how to avoid satietas and

phantasia is misleading and for that reason it should be considered

should we give ti primacy ni literature. fI w e followed Philoponus

were rung on traditional topoi such as the 'puer-senex' topos and

For the Gogynfeirdd, as for most medieval poets, one of the

expression of imagination, i.e., of things newly and for the first

how to achieve variatio, and how to do both without breaking the

That would be contrary to the three expressed

familiar, ot arrive at the unusual without relinquishing the

time imagined, for it cannot be the intention of literature to lead

anyone to error.

objectives of literature, namely, entertainment, education and

preservation of the past. The Gogynfeirdd, I am sure, would have

had no hesitation ni agreeing with Philoponus, for there can be no

doubt that they regarded themselves ni ascendant degrees of importance as entertainers of their lords (albeit in the medieval

sense of the Welsh word diddanu rather than in the modern sense

of the English word 'entertainment'), as their educators-every prince they praised was given an ideal to follow and set up as an

example to o t h e r s - a n d as custodians of their honour and their

fame.

It

follows

that

they

would

not

have

understood

Wordsworth's reference to the poet's function as 'the widening of the sphere of human sensibility

... the introduction of a new

element into the intellectual universe.' For them ti sufficed 'savoir ce qui était connu et dit, à ranimer par un jeu d'oppositions et de contrastes ce qui existait déjà'

For the Gogynfeirdd, originality was not 'the saying of something never said before about something now for the first

time perceived', but rather the 'ability to develop a received idea in

428 Commentaria in Aristotelem Graeca (Berlin, 1897-1909), 13-17.

tradition. They had to effect novelty without abandoning the

customary, to attain the effect of surprise without seeming to

reject the natural. Strange though it may seem, the Gogynfeirdd, I believe, would have been able to understand some of the pronouncements made by Valery and his compatriots when they called for poetry which was 'to excite emotions by means of forms and objects which owe

their emotive power to art alone' and was also work deriving 'its entire beauty from combining sounds, from building up an independent intuitive order.' Their kind of poetry had a long tradition behind it. Indeed, the

best description of their ideal which I have found is in a quotation

from Andromenidas given by the Stoic Crates of Mallus who was

born c. 200 B.C.

The poet's charm lies ni the way ni which he perfects the language and its vocabulary, and his task is, not to say what

no one else has said, but to speak ni a way which no one else

THE C O U R T P O E T IN M E D I E VA L

206

WA L E S

has been able and to appropriate to himself a pure impression and the rhythm and sound and harmony of the Muses."

Appendix The work of the Poets of the Princes is found in the following principal manuscripts: NLW =( National Library of Wales)

Peniarth MS. 1, 'The Black Book of Carmarthen', c. 1250 (referred to below as C); Peniarth MS. 3, 1250-1300 (referred to below as Pen); MS. NLW 6680B, 'The Hendregadredd Manuscript', .c 1300

and thereafter (referred to below as H); MS. Jesus College Oxford

111, 'The Red Book of Hergest', c. 1400 (referred to below as R); MS. NLW 4973B, c.1631 (N).

It will be obvious that the floruit given for each poet is extremely

tentative. There are anonymous poems to Hywel ap Goronwy, Cuhelyn Fardd, Llywelyn ab Iorwerth and to God. POETS

PATRONS / PERSONS CELEBRATED

Meilyr Brydydd с.1081-c.1137 (H)

God

Trahaearn fab Caradog (ob. 1081)

ni conjunction with

Meilyr fab Rhiwallon fab Cynfyn (ob. 1081) and Caradog ap

Gruffudd (ob. 1081) Gruffudd ap Cynan (ob. 1137) Gwalchmai ap Meilyr

с. 1140-с.1180

(H)

429 See W . Kroll, Studium zum Verständnis der römischen Literatur (Stuttgart, 1924), 40.

God Madog ap Maredudd (ob. 1160)

Owain Gwynedd (ob. 1170) Rhodri ab Owain Gwynedd (ob. 1195)

Dafydd ab Owain Gwynedd (ob. 1203)

208

THE C O U R T P O E T IN M E D I E VA L WA L E S

THE COURT POET IN MEDIEVAL WALES

Hywel ab Owain Gwynedd

Various women

ob. 1170

? war-band

Owain Cyfeiliog

Songs to his war-band

Efa ferch Madog ap Maredudd

Cadwallon ap Madog ab Idnerth (ob. 1179)

Rhirid Flaidd ap Gwrgenau

Arthen ap Gwrgenau Owain Cyfeiliog (ob. 1197) Gwenwynwyn ab Owain Cyfeiliog

ob. 1197 (H, R)

Seisyll Bryffwrch

с.1155-1175

(N,?H)

Llywelyn Fardd I с.1140-с.1180

(H, R)

(ob. 1216)

O w a i n G w y n e d d (ob. 1170)

Ednyfed, Lord of Crogen

lorwerth Drwyndwn ab Owain

Gwynedd (ob. c.1174) Rhys ap Gruffudd (ob. 1197) ? Madog ap Maredudd (ob. 1160)

Einion ap Madog ab Iddon Hellyn ap Dwywg Rhys ap Gruffudd (ob. 1197)

Saint Cadfan

band

Owain Gwynedd (ob. 1170) Cedifor ap Genillyn Owain Fychan ap Madog ap

Pyll of Llansadwrn

Rhys ap Gruffudd (ob. 1197)'s war-

?Llywelyn ab lorwerth (ob. 1240) The Fighting Men of Powys

Dygynnelw ap Cynddelw AProud Maiden

Maredudd (ob. 1187)

Cynddelw Brydydd Mawr .с 1155-с.1195 (Pen, C, H, R, N)

209

God

Saint Tysilio

Bleddyn Fardd (?ob. 1157)

Madog ap Maredudd (ob. 1160)

Madog ap Maredudd's war-band Llywelyn ap Madog (ob. 1160)

Iorwerth Goch ap Maredudd (ob. c.1171)

Hywel ab leuaf (ob. 1185) Ithel ap Cedifor Wyddel (ob. 1167)

Owain Gwynedd (ob. 1170) Owain Gwynedd's war-band Hywel ab Owain Gwynedd

(ob. 1170)

Owain Fychan ap Madog ap

Maredudd (ob. 1187)

Llywarch Llaety

.с 1155-c.1160 (H)

Llywarch y Nam

(?= Llywarch Llaety) с. 1155-с.1160

Llywelyn ap Madog ap Maredudd

(ob. 1160)

Llywelyn ap Madog ap Maredudd (ob. 1160)

(H)

Peryf ap Cedifor с. 1170

Hywel ab Owain Gwynedd

(H, N)

(ob. 1170) The Sons of Cedifor Wyddel

Daniel ap Llosgwrn Mew

Owain Gwynedd (ob. 1170)

.с 1170 (H)

210

THE COURT POET IN MEDIEVAL WALES

THE COURT POET IN MEDIEVAL WALES

Dafydd ab Owain Gwynedd

с. 1175-с.1180

Saint David Rhys ap Gruffudd (ob. 1197)

Gwilym Rhyfel

Dafydd ab Owain Gwynedd

Hywel ab Arthen Tegwared ab larddur (?ob. 1246)

Gwynfardd Brycheiniog

(ob. 1203)

Llywelyn ab lorwerth (ob. 1240)

(H, R)

с.1170-1200 (H)

(ob. 1203)

Ednyfed Fychan (ob. 1246)

Gruffudd ap Gwrgenau

Gruffudd ap Cynan ab Owain

Gwgon Brydydd

с.1170-с.1200 (H)

Gwilym Rhyfel (ob. c. 1200)

(N)

Llywarch ap Llywelyn

'Prydydd y Moch'

с. 1173-с.1220 (H, R, N)

(ob. 1200)

and others

Rhodri ab Owain Gwynedd (ob. 1195) Gruffudd ap Cynan ab Owain (ob. 1200)

Dafydd ab Owain Gwynedd (ob. 1203)

Maredudd ap Cynan ab Owain

(ob. 1212)

Hywel ap Gruffudd ap Cynan

(ob. 1216)

Gruffudd pa Hywel ab Owain Gwynedd Rhys Gryg (ob. 1234)

Madog ap Gruffudd Maelor

с.1211-c.1214

Meilyr ap Gwalchmai

c. 1200

Gruffudd ap Llywelyn (ob. 1244) Gwenllian ferch Hywel Elidir Sais

God

с. 1195-с.1246

Rhodri ab Owain Gwynedd (ob. 1195)

(H, R, N)

God

(R)

Einion ap Gwalchmai

с. 1216-с.1223 (H)

God

Llywelyn ab Iorwerth (ob. 1240)

Nest ferch Hywel

Einion ap Gwgon c.1215 (H)

Llywelyn ab lorwerth (ob. 1240)

Llywelyn Fardd II с. 1215-c.1280 (H, R)

God

(ob. 1236)

Llywelyn ab Iorwerth (ob. 1240) lorwerth ap Rhotbert

Llywelyn ab Iorwerth (ob. 1240)

Dafydd Benfras

с. 1220-c.1258

(H, R, N)

Llywelyn ab Iorwerth (ob. 1240) Owain ap Gruffudd ap Gwenwynwyn (ob. 1293) God

Llywelyn ab lorwerth (ob. 1240)

Gruffudd ap Llywelyn (ob. 1244)

Dafydd ap Llywelyn (ob. 1246)

Llywelyn ap Gruffudd (ob. 1282)

Gruffudd ab Ednyfed (ob. 1256-7)

211

212

THE COURT POET IN MEDIEVAL WALES

Gwernen ap Clyddno

God

c. 1250

Phylip Brydydd .с 1222-c.

1230

Rhys leuanc (ob. 1222)

Rhys Gryg (ob. 1234)

(H) Y Prydydd Bychan с. 1222-с.1268 (H)

Rhys leuanc (ob. 1222)

c.1250

(H)

Owain Goch ap Gruffudd (ob. c.1282)

Hywel Foel ap Grifiri ap Pwyl Gwyddel

Goronwy ba Ednyfed (ob. 1268)

(H, R, N)

Iorwerth ap Rhotbert

Morgan ap Rhys (ob. 1251)

Bleddyn ap Dwywg Blegywryd Madog Môn Gwên ap Goronwy

Marared ferch Rhys Fychan

Christ

Saint Michael

(R, N)

Cynan ap Hywel

(ob. 1235)

Samson ap Meurig

.с 1205-c.1245

Madog ap Gwallter

Iorwerth Fychan ab

Rhys ap Llywelyn Rhys Foel

Einion Wan

(H)

Rhys Gryg (ob. 1234) Owain ap Gruffudd ap Rhys

Llywelyn ap Rhys ab lorwerth

Goronwy Foel

Rhahawd c.1237

c.1275

Maredudd ba Owain (ob. 1265)

.с 1260 (H)

THE COURT POET N I MEDIEVAL WALES 213 Gruffudd ap Llywelyn (ob. 1244) Einion ap Madog ap

с.1255-c.1277

Gweirful Gwenlliant

An unnamed girl

Owain Coch ap Gruffudd (ob. c.1282)

(H)

Gruffudd ab yr Ynad Coch God

с.1282 (R)

Llygad Gwr c.1258-1292/3

(H, R)

Llywelyn ap Gruffudd (c.1282)

Gruffudd ap Madog ap Gruffudd Maelor (ob. 1269)

Llywelyn ap Gruffudd (ob. 1282) Hywel ap Madog ap Gruffudd Maelor (ob. 1267-9)

Llywelyn ap Gruffudd ap Madog

(ob. 1282) Madog ap Gruffudd Maelor

Llywelyn ab lorwerth (ob. 1240) Gruffudd ap Llywelyn (ob. 1244) Dafydd ap Llywelyn (ob. 1246)

Bleddyn Fardd .c 1258-c.1284 (H)

God

Owain Goch ap Gruffudd (ob. c.1282)

Llywelyn ap Gruffudd (ob. 1282) Dafydd ap Gruffudd (ob. 1283)

214

THE COURT POET IN MEDIEVAL WALES

Dafydd ap Gruffudd ab Owain Brogyntyn

Rhys ap Maredudd (ob. 1290) Goronwy ab Ednyfed (ob. 1268)

Hywel ap Goronwy ab Ednyfed Gruffudd ab Iorwerth ap

Abbreviations

Arch Cam

Archaeologia Cambrensis (1846-)

BA

BaTh

.J Gwenogvryn Evans, Facsimile and Text of the Book of Aneirin (Pwilheli, 1908) . Owen a Beirdd a Thywysogion, gol. Morfydd E Brynley .F Roberts (Caerdydd ac Aberystwyth, 1996)

BBCS

Bulletin of the Board of Celtic Studies (1921-1994)

Maredudd

Dafydd Benfras (ob. 1258)

BT

J. Gwenogryn Evans, Facsimile and Text of the

Book of Taliesin (Llanbedrog, 1910) CA

Canu Aneirin, gol. Ifor Williams (Caerdydd, 1938)

CLIH

Canu Llywarch Hen, gol. Ifor Williams (Caerdydd, 1935)

CMCS

Cambridge Medieval Celtic Studies (1981-1993);

Cambrian Medieval Celtic Studies (1993-) CPW P

J. Lloyd-Jones, 'The Court Poets of the Welsh

Princes' from PBA xxxiv (1948), 167-97, also

separately 1948

ÉC EWSP

Études celtiques (1936-) Early Welsh Saga Poetry: AStudy and Edition of the Englynion, ed. Jenny Rowland (Cambridge, 1990)

GBF

Gwaith Bleddyn Fardd ac Eraill o Feirdd Ail Hanner y

Drydedd Ganrif ar Ddeg, gol. Rhian Andrews et al., 'Cyfres Beirdd yTywysogion', VI (Caerdydd, 1996)

216

GCBM i

Gwaith Cynddelw Brydydd Mawr, i, gol. Nerys Ann

GCBM i

Tywysogion', III (Caerdydd, 1994) Gwaith Cynddelw Brydydd Mawr, ii, gol. Nerys Ann Jones ac Ann Parry Owen, 'Cyfres Beirdd y

GDB

GMB

GP GPC

MA

The Myvyrian Archaiology of Wales (second ed., Denbigh, 1870)

NLWJ

The National Library of Wales Journal, 1939-

I (Caerdydd, 1995) Tywysogion', V

PBA

Proceedings of the British Academy, 1903-

Gwaith Dafydd Benfras ac Eraill o Feirdd Hanner Cyntaf y Drydedd Ganrif ar Ddeg, gol. N.G. Costigan

P L

Patrologia Latina, ed. J.-P. Migne (Paris, 1844 64)

PT

The Poems of Taliesin, ed., Ifor Williams, English

Jones ca Ann Parry Owen, 'Cyfres Beirdd y

Gwaith Llywelyn Fardd I ac Eraill o Feirdd y

HGVK

R

The Poetry ni the Red Book of Hergest, ed. J.

Gwenogvryn Evans (Llanbedrog, 1911) RC

Revue celtique (1870-1934)

Gwaith Llywarch ap Llywelyn 'Prydydd y Moch', gol.

RWM

Report on Manuscripts in the Welsh Language, ed. .J Gwenogryn Evans (London, 1898-1910)

Beirdd yTywysogion', V(Caerdydd, 1989)

SC

Studia Celtica (1966-)

Gwaith Meilyr Brydydd a i Ddisgynyddion, gol. J.E. Caerwyn Williams et al., 'Cyfres Beirdd y Tywysogion', I (Caerdydd, 1994)

THSC

The Transactions of the Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion (1892/3-)

TYP

R . Bromwich, Trioedd Ynys Prydein (Cardiff, 1961) Welsh History Review (1960-) Ysgrifau Beirniadol, gol. J.E. Caerwyn Williams (Dinbych, 1965-)

Elin Jones gyda chymorth Nerys Ann Jones, 'Cyfres

Gramadegaur Penceirddiaid, gol. G.J. Williams ac E.J. Jones (Caerdydd, 1934) Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru: ADictionary of the Welsh Llawysgrif Hendregadredd, gol. Rh. Morris-Jones, J. Morris-Jones a T.H. Parry-Williams (Caerdydd, 1933, 1971) Historia Gruffud vab Kenan, gol. D. Simon Evans

(Caerdydd, 1977) HW

version by J.E. Caerwyn Williams (Dublin, 1969)

Ddeuddegfed Ganrif, gol. K.A. Bramley et al., 'Cyfres Beirdd y Tywysogion', I (Caerdydd, 1994)

Language (Caerdydd, 1950-)

H

217

Liên Cymru (1950- )

(Caerdydd, 1995)

GLILI

WALES

LICy

(Bosco) et al., 'Cyfres Beirdd y Tywysogion', VI

GLIF

THE COURT POET IN MEDIEVAL

THE COURT POET IN MEDIEVAL WALES

J.E. Lloyd, AHistory of Wales (London, 1911, 1912, 1939)

WHR Y B

A Select Bibliography (a) Texts

Evans, J. Gwenogryn (ed.): The Poetry in the Red Book of Hergest

(Llanbedrog: J.G. Evans, 1911). Evans, J. Gwenogryn (ed.): Poetry by Medieval Welsh Bards, Vol.

II, Llanbedrog: 1926 (reprint from RC xl. 241-329, xli. 65-106,

413-71).

. . (ed.); The Myvyrian Jones, O., Williams, E., Pughe, WO Archaiology of Wales, vol. 1 (London: Printed by S. Rousseau ... for the editors, 1801). Second Edition (I, I & IlI ni one, Denbigh:

Thomas Gee, 1870). Morris-Jones, Rh., Morris-Jones, J., Parry-Williams, T.H. (ed.): Llawysgrif Hendregadredd (Caerdydd: Gwasg Prifysgol Cymru, 1933; Second Printing 1971). The University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies at Aberystwyth has edited the works of the Poets of the Welsh Princes in seven volumes. The General Editor is Professor R. Geraint Gruffydd. I Gwaith Meilyr Brydydd a'i Ddisgynyddion, gol. J.E. Caerwyn Williams et al. (Cardydd: Gwasg Prifysgol Cymru, 1994)

II

Cymru, 1994) III Gwaith Cynddelw Brydydd Mawr, ,i gol. Nerys Ann Jones ac Ann Parry Owen (Caerdydd: Gwasg Prifysgol Cymru, 1991)

IV Gwaith Cynddelw Brydydd Mawr, i, gol. Nerys Ann Jones ac Ann Parry Owen (Cardydd: Gwasg Prifysgol Cymru, 1995)

THE COURT

THE C O U RT POET IN MEDIEVAL WALES

220

Prifysgol Cymru, 1989) VI Gwaith Dafydd Benfras ac Braill o Feirdd Hanner Cyntaf y Drydedd Ganrif ar Ddeg, gol. N.G. Costigan (Bosco) et al.

(Caerdydd: Gwasg Prifysgol Cymru, 1995) VII Gwaith Bleddyn Fardd ac Eraill o Feirdd Ail Hanner y A n d r e w s et al. a r Ddeg, gol. R h i a n

Drydedd Ganrif

(Caerdydd: Gwasg Prifysgol Cymru, 1996) See also:

Charles-Edwards, G.: 'The Scribes of hte Red Book of Hergest', NLW] xxii (1980), 246-56.

Huws, Daniel: 'Llawysgrif Hendregadredd (LIsgr. N.L.W 6680B), NLW] xxii (1981-2), 1-26.

. Myrddin: 'La Poésie de Cynddelw Brydydd Mawr et el Lloyd, D

POET IN MEDIEVAL WALES

221

. (ed.): Llyfryddiaeth Llenyddiaeth Gymraeg, Parry, T., Morgan, M Caerdydd: Gwasg Prifysgol Cymru, 1976, 32-7; Watts, Gareth O. (ed.): Llyfryddiaeth Llenyddiaeth Gymraeg. Cyfrol 2. Aberystwyth 1976-1986: Gwasg Prifysgol Cymru/Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru

1993, 42-7. See especially Jones, Nerys Ann: 'Discussions on the Work of Gogynfeirdd. A bibliography', SC xxii/xxiii (1987-8), 42-

8, and for English translations of poems by the Gogynfeirdd,

Sims-Williams, Patrick: 'Cyfieithiadau o Waith y Gogynfeirdd', Y B хії (1985), 39-47.

Bell, H. Idris: The Development of Welsh Poetry. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1936, 37-57. Bosco, Sister M.: 'Dafydd Benfras and his Red Book Poems', SC xxii/xxiii (1987-8), 49-117. Gruffydd, R. Geraint: 'The early court poetry of South West

Wales',?, SC xiv/xv (1979-80), 95-106.

manuscrit Peniarth 3,' ÉC v(1949-51) 87-104.

' poem ni praise of Cuhelyn Fardd from Gruffydd, R. Geraint: A

Morgan, Gerald: 'Testun Barddoniaeth y Tywysogion yn Lisgr.

eLis, Ca,r T . Coutr poets: hteri function, status nda craft,

N.L.W 4973', BBCS xx (1962-4), 95-103.

Morgan,

Gerald: 'Nodiadau ar destun barddoniaeth y

the Black Book of Carmarthen', SC x/xi (1975-6), 198-209.

Tywysogion yn Llsgr. N.L.W 4973', BBCS xxi (1964 6), 149-50.

Literature, i. Swansea: Christopher Davies, 1976, 123-56. 2nd edn., Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1992.

Morgan, Prys: 'Glamorgan and the Red Book', Morgannwg, xxi

Lewis, Saunders: Braslun o Hanes Llenyddiaeth Gymraeg, .i

(1978), 42-60.

Williams, G.J.: 'Hanes cyhoeddi'r Myvyrian Archaiology', Journal of the Welsh Bibliographical Society, x(1), 2-12. (b) Books, Articles, &c. Apart from articles or books mentioned ni the text, only items in English or French are listed. A more exhaustive bibliography will be f o u n d in

Caerdydd: Gwasg Prifysgol Cymru, 1932, 13-30. Ail argraffiad, 1986.

Lewis, Saunders: 'The Tradition of Taliesin', THSC, 1968, 293-8. Lloyd, D. Myrddin: 'The Poets of the Princes', ni Jarman,

A.O.H., Hughes, G.R. (ed.): op. cit., 157-88. 2nd edn., Cardiff, University of Wales Press, 1992.

222

THE C O U RT POET IN M E D I E VA L WA L E S

' he Poets of the Princes', ni Roderick, A.J. Lloyd, D. Myrddin: T

(ed.): Wales through the Ages, i. Llandybie: Christopher Davies, 1959, 97-104.

. Myrddin: 'Estheteg yr Oesoedd Canol', Liên Cymru, ,i Lloyd, D 153-68, 220-38.

Lloyd, D. Myrddin: 'The later Gogynfeirdd', ni Jarman, A.O.H.,

Hughes, G.R. (ed.): A Guide to Welsh Literature, ii. Swansea:

THE COURT POET IN MEDIEVAL

WALES

223

Vendryes, J.: La Poésie Galloise des XI® et XII® siècles dans ses rapports avec la langue (The Zaharoff Lecture.) Oxford: Clarendon

Press, 1930. Vendryes, :.J La Poésie de cour en Irlande et en Galles. (Lecture

faite á l'Acad. de Insc. de 25 Novembre 1932.) Paris: Typographie de Firman-Didot, 1932. . Vendryes, :J. Choix d'études linguistiques et celtiques. Paris: C

Christopher Davics, 1976, 36-57.

Klincksiek, 1952, 209-304.

Lloyd-Jones, J.: 'The Court Poets of the Welsh Princes', Sir John

Williams, Gwyn: An Introduction ot Welsh Poetry from the Beginnings to the sixteenth century. London: Faber and Faber.

Rhỷs Memorial Lecture. PBA xxiv, 167-97. Also separately, 1948. Morgan, T.J.: 'Arddull yr awdl a'r cywydd', THSC, 1946-7, 276313.

McKenna, Catherine: The Medieval Welsh Religious Lyric. Poems of

the Gogynfeirdd, 1137-1282. Belmont, Massachusetts. Ford and Bailie, 1991.

Matonis, A.T.E.: Traditions of panegyric in Welsh poetry: the

heroic and the chivalric, Speculum, liii (1976), 667-87. Matonis, A.T.E.: 'The rhetorical patterns ni Marwnad Llywelyn

ap Gruffudd by Gruffudd ab yr Ynad Coch', SC xiv/xv (1979-80), 188-92.

Owen, Morfydd E., a Roberts, Brynley F. (gol.): Beirdd a Thywysogion (Gwasg Prifysgol Cymru, Llyfrgell Genedlaethol

Cymru, 1996)

Parry, J.J.: 'The Court Poets of the Welsh Princes', Publications of the Modern Language Association of America, Ixvii, 511-20. Parry, Thomas: A History of Welsh Literature. Translated by Bell,

H. Idris. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1955, 43-66.

1953, 71-94.

Williams. J.E. Caerwyn: 'The nature prologue in Welsh court poetry', SC xxiv/xxv (1989-90), 70-90.

Williams, J.E. Caerwyn: The Poets of the Welsh Princes, Cardiff

University of Wales Press, 1978. 2nd edn., 1994.

Index to personal names A Abelard, 83

Berddig, 43

Bernard of Clairvaux, 38 Bleddyn ap Dwywg, 212 Bleddyn Du, 95

Abhimanyu, 123 Adalberon, Bishop of Laon, 36

Bleddyn Fardd (12th cent.), 95,

Aeneas, see also Aineias, 73

Bleddyn Fardd (13th cent.), 63, 72,

Aed Sláine, 82

Afan Ferddig, 5, 154

Aineias, see also Aeneas, 111

Alcock, Leslie, 57

Alcuin, 21, 125

Alexander, 73, 144 Alfred, 24, 33, 34

Alfric, 125, 126 Ammianus Marcellinus, 8, 126 Andromenidas, 205 Aneirin, 2, 5, 8, 10, 11, 12, 14, 23, 37, 86, 93, 100, 143, 144, 161, 165, 195, 201

Anlawdd Wledig, 131 Aristotle, 145, 204 Arawn, 45

Aroddion, 162 Arofan, 5, 6

Arthen, brother of Rhirid Flaidd, 95, 140, 209

Arthur, 27, 48, 76, 97, 142, 145

Asser, 24 Athelbert, 24

Athelstan, 10, 150 Augustine, Saint, 21, 24, 116 — B—

Bacchylides, 14

Barbarossa, Frederick, 97

208

87, 91, 95, 96, 112, 119, 183, 184,

213 Blegywryd, 212 Bleiddudd, 16

Bloch, M,. 75, 48

Bluchbard, ,3 14, 32 Bosl, K., 14 Bowen, DJ.,. 127 Brân, 144

Branwen, 130, 131 Bres, 82 Brian Ború, 33

Brochfael Ysgithrog, 120 Bromwich, Rachel, 42, 49, 154 Brooke, Christopher, 158

Bugge, Sophus, 30

Bundy, E.L, 41

-CCadell, 162

Cadfan, Saint, 27, 134, 181, 208 Cædmon, 31 Cadwaladr, 144 Cadwallon, ,5 97, 162

Cadwallon ap Madog ab Idnerth,

133, 140, 151, 155, 157, 209

Cadwgan ap Meurig, 43 Cadyrieith (Cadriaith), 48, 94

Bede, 91

Caesar, 18, 76

Benfras, Dafydd, 118

Casadgap Gurfludd,82

Benlli Gawr, 145

Benveniste, E., 81

Cai, 144

226

I MEDIEVAL WALES THE COURT POET N

THE COURT POET IN MEDIEVAL WALES

Caswallon, 86, 144 Cecil, Sir Robert, 103 Cedifor ap Genillyn, 208

Chadwick, N.K., 47 Charlemagne, 33

Charles-Edwards, Thomas, 43, 162

Chrétien de Troyes, 73, 142 Christ, 20, 119, 121, 122, 170, 213 Cian, 3, 14, 23 Clancy, J.P., 113

Claudius Aelianus, 40

Cnepyn Gwerthrynion, 68 Colmán mac Léneni, 82 Columbanus, Saint, 20

Columcille, Saint, 20, 21 Couat, A.H., 194 Crates of Mallus, 205 Cú Chulainn, 101

Cuhelyn Fardd, 34, 62, 68, 87

Culfanawyd, 144 Culhwch, 131

Curtius, E.R., 205

ーD ー

Dafydd ab Owain Gwynedd, 71,

108, 121, 168, 169, 170, 171, 172,

210, 211

Efa, ?wife of Gwalchmai ap

Efa, daughter of Madog ap

72, 95, 128, 169, 211, 212 Dafydd Benfras, 62, 64, 68, 70, 72, 86, 87, 95, 99, 102, 128, 158, 183,

Efa, daughter of Maredudd ab Owain, 59, 60, 61, 64, 6

Dafydd ap Llywelyn ab lorwerth,

199, 211, 214

Dafydd Ddu Hiraddug, 100, 176

133, 138, 139, 140, 141, 143, 144, 145, 146, 148, 149, 150, 151, 152, 153, 154, 155, 156, 157, 159, 160,

161, 162, 163, 164, 166, 167, 170,

184, 185, 195, 208 Cynddylan, 5 Cyndrwyn, 162 Cynewulf, 67

Maredudd, 122

Meilyr, 108, 136

Maredudd, 132, 133, 139, 152,

Egil Skallagrimsson see under Skallagrimsson

Finnegan, Ruth, 13, 15 Flanagan, Marie Therese, 72 Foster, Idris, 42

Francis, Saint, 122

Frank, Roberta, 50, 190

Fränkel, H ,. 57 Frazer, R.W., 84 Frederick I of Sicily, 68

Froissart, J., 47

Fulk the Good, Count, 53

Einiawn (?Yrth ap Cunedda), 6,

Daniel, lestyn, 100

Einion ap Gwalchmai, 58, 72, 87, 95, 108, 120, 121, 128, 133, 134,

Genilles, wife of Gwalchmai ap

Einion ap Gwgon, 72, 87, 119, 211

Gennrich, F., 196 Gentili, Bruno, 16

David, Bishop of Bangor, 32 David, King, 82 David, Saint, 181, 210

Denholm-Young, N., 59, 62, 63 Dewi, 27 Domnall a Lochlainn, 7 Domnall, King of Tara (ob. 566), Duby, Georges, 34, 35, 38 Duhsasana, 123

Dumézil, Georges, 18, 36, 78, 79,

Einion ap Madog ab Iddon, 103, 140, 152, 209

Einion ap Madog ap Rhahawd, 58, 72, 213

Einion Offeriad, 100, 101, 176 Einion Wan, 64, 72, 119, 169, 212

Elen, 144

Elen Luyddog, 144

Eliade, Mircea, 86, 97, 123, 154 Elidir Sais, 64, 71, 72, 87, 120, 121,

169, 170, 210

Elin, daughter of Llywelyn ab

Owain, 66 Eliot, T.S., 195

Dumville, D.N., 2, 69 Dunawd (?Dunawd ap Pabo), 6

Elizabeth, Queen, 75

Cynfelyn, member of Owain Cyfeiliog's gosgordd, 165

Dygynnelw, poet of Owain ab

Etzel, King, 21

Cyridfen, Cyridwen, 154, 155 Cywryd, 6

Dygynnelw, son of Cynddelw Brydydd Mawr, 96, 141, 145, 209

Evans, D . Simon, 27, 28, 8

Cynon, 145

Fedelm, 90

Daniel ap Llosgwrn Mew, 71, 119,

de Malkley, Gervais, 201 de Vries, J., 85 Demodocus, 73

61, 62, 66, 68, 71, 78, 80, 88, 91, 95, 96, 102, 118, 119, 120, 132,

i Liatháin, 28 Fergus, knig of U

Ednyfed, Lord of Crogen, 140, 209

Dafydd ap Gruffudd ap Llywelyn, 72, 95, 96, 213 Dafydd ap Gwilym, 138

Cynan ap Hywel, 212

Cynddelw Brydydd Mawr, 5, 49,

Edward ,I 69

Efa daughter of Madog ap

Cwewll Fyrion, 162

Cynan Garwyn, 19, 44, 76, 77, 120, 142, 167

- F Falkenstein, A., 115

Dafydd ap Gruffudd ab Owain,

de Bruyne, Edgar, 192 de Grandison, Otto, 69

Cynan ab Owain Gwynedd, 71

⼀ E⼀ Ednyfed Fychan, 66, 211

Dwywai, 1

Urien, 6

Eric Bloodaxe, King, 31 Esyllt, 144 Eudeyrn, 3

227

Gellan, 28, 29

Meilyr, 108, 136, 137

Geoffrey of Monmouth, 38, 39,

Geoffrey of Monmouth, 69

Gerald of Wales, 17, 40, 61, 75, 89 Gildas, 18, 20, 21, 22, 23, 76

Gilfaethwy, 54

Giraldus Cambrensis, 90, 110, 143 Girolamo, Abbot, 12 Goewin, 54

Goleuddydd, 131

Goronwy ab Ednyfed, 212, 214

Goronwy Foel, 119, 133, 212

Goronwy, son of Gwalchmai ap

Meilyr, 108, 137 Gray, T., 191

Gregory, 21

Gregory the Great, Pope, 24 Gronw Foel, 68 Gruffudd ab Ednyfed, 102, 211 Gruffudd ab lorwerth ap Maredudd, 214

228

THE C O U RT

P O E T I N MEDIEVAL

Gruffudd ab yr Ynad Coch, 58, 64, 70, 72, 104, 213

Gruffudd ap Cynan, 24, 27, 28, 29, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 38, 42, 64, 70, 71, 75, 86, 87, 88, 89, 92, 102, 103, 108, 110, 112, 120, 141, 168, 183, 198 Gruffudd ap Cynan ab Owain, 71, 171, 172, 210

Gruffudd ap Gwrgenau, 95, 119 Gruffudd ap Hywel ab Owain

Gwynedd, 71, 210

Gruffudd ap Llywelyn ab

lorwerth, 58, 72, 95, 128, 210, 211, 212, 213

Gruffudd ap Llywelyn ap Phylip ap Trahaearn, 66

Gruffudd ap Llywelyn ap Seisyll, 6, 19, 34, 43, 44

Gruffudd ap Maredudd, 164

Gruffudd ap Maredudd ab Owain, 60, 65, 66

Gruffudd ap Rhys ap Gruffudd, 66 Gruffudd ap Rhys a p Te w d w r, 66

Gruffudd Bola, 59, 65

Gruffudd Llwyd, Sir, 66 Gruffudd, member of Owain

Cyfeiliog's gosgordd, 165 Gruffydd, R. Geraint, 34

Gruffydd, W.J., 30 Gruffudd ap Cynan, 75

Gruffydd, R . Geraint, 100

Gruffydd, W.J., 30 I of Aquitaine, 68 Guillaume X Gunnlaugr, bard, 150 Gunther of Bamberg, Bishop, 21

Gwalchmai ap Meilyr, 30, 70, 71, 87, 99, 108, 109, 112, 113, 114,

120, 121, 122, 126, 128, 129, 132, 134, 136, 137, 151, 168, 174, 181,

207

Gwallawg, 4, 19 Gweirful (unknown), 140, 213 Gweirnon, 162

I MEDIEVAL WALES THE COURT POET N

WA L E S

Gwên ap Goronwy, 212

Gwenabwy fab Gwên, 159 Gwenddolau ap Ceidiaw, 6, 144

Gwenllian, daughter of Gruffudd

ap Cynan, 66

Gwenllian, daughter of Gruffudd ap Cynan, 149 Gwenllian, daughter of Hywel,

122, 133, 139, 210

Gwenllian, daughter of Madog ap

Maredudd, 66 Gwenllian, daughter of Rhys ap

Gruffudd, 66 Gwenlliant (unknown), 140, 213

Gwenwynwyn ab Owain Cyfeiliog,

140, 149, 209 Gwernen ap Clyddno, 68, 70, 119, 212

Gwgan, member of Owain

Cyfeiliog's gosgordd, 165

Henry II, 141, 149

Henry VI, Emperor, 68 Hercules, 85, 86, 144 Hesiod, 111

1k1.68

Hiriell, 97, 144 Holzknecht, K.J., 68

Homer, 73, 192

Hugh of Cluny, 21 Hussa, 4

Huws, Daniel, 62, 63, 64, 65, 67

Hygbald, 21

Hywel ab Arthen, 211 Hywel ab leuaf, 208 Hywel ab Owain Gwynedd, 5, 68,

71, 87, 96, 114, 122, 123, 127, 128, 129, 132, 138, 140, 151, 164, 208, 209

Gwgon ap Meurig, 34

Hywel ap Goronwy, 34, 62, 68 Hywel ap Goronwy ab Ednyfed,

Gwilym Rhyfel, 71, 95, 119, 169,

Hywel ap Gruffudd ap Cynan, 71,

Gwilym Was Da, 57

Hywel ap Madog ap Gruffudd

Gwydion, 45, 46, 47

Hywel Dda, 6, 24, 51 Hywel Foel ap Griffri ap Pwyll Wyddel, 72, 119, 213

C wi ybakATor, 3119,211 210

Gwrtheyrn Gwrthenau, 92

Gwynfardd Brycheiniog, 66, 119,

174, 181, 210 Gwynfardd Dyfed, 87 Gwynn, E., 5

Maelor, 213

Hywel Fychan, 63 Hywel Ystorm, 5

—I

-H-

Hammer, J., 69 Haralor Harrádi, 68

Haralör Hárfagri, 68 Haskins, Charles Homer, 34 Hector, 123, 144 Heilyn ap Dwywg, 140, 209 Heledd, 6, ,7 161 Helen of Troy, 144 Henin or Heinin, 6

Henry I, 34, 39

Iorwerth Fychan ab lorwerth ap Rhotbert, 133, 140, 213 lorwerth Goch ap Maredudd, 140, Isidore of Seville, 91

Ithel ap Cedifor Wyddel, 140, 208

- J

Hopcyn ap Thomas, 63 Hrafn, bard, 150 Hugh Maguire, 52

229

Jackson, Kenneth H,. 3, 11, 12, 16, 31, 93, 174, 191 Jacobus de Viterbo, 91 James, Apostle, 33 Jarman, A.O.H., 93 Jenkins, Dafydd, 54, 58, 62

Jocelyn of Furness, 46

John Davies, Malwyd, 63, 69, 121 Jones, A ,. 72

Jones, Nerys Ann, 185 Jones, T. Gwynn, 29, 8 Jónsson, Finnur, 30

Jordanes, Gothic historian, 85 Julius Caesar, 53 Juvencus, 67, 116

K Kartschoke, Dieter, 06

Keating, Geoffrey, 87 Ker, W.P., 73

Knott, E., 90 Konrad von Megenburg, 19

Lewis, Saunders, 43, 100, 191, 192

Ida, 2, 3

Leyser, K.J., 77

Ieuan ap Sulien, 25, 26 leuan Llwyd ab leuan ap Gruffudd Foel, Parchrhydderch, 64

Lleu Llawgyffes, 47, 144 Lloyd, D. Myrddin, 146, 149, 192 Lloyd, J.E., 1, 25, 39, 58, 151

leuan ap Rhydderch, 65, 123

Illtud, Saint, 2 Ine of Wessex, 7 Ingeld, 21, 125

lorwerth ap Rhotbert, 210

lorwerth Drwyndwn, 71, 208

Llachau son of Arthur, 144

L 2, 20,139861,184,183,18, Llygad Gwr, 72, 119, 152, 213 Llÿr, 144

230

THE COURT POET IN MEDIEVAL WALES

T H E C O U R T P O E T IN M E D I E VA L WA L E S

Llywarch ap Llywelyn 'Prydydd y Moch', 68, 70, 71, 72, 86, 87, 99,

109, 119, 122, 133, 139, 155, 158, 170, 171, 172, 173, 184, 210

Llywarch Hen, 6, 142, 161

Llywarch Llaety, 119, 209

Llywarch y Nam, 209

Llywelyn ab lowerth, 62, 66, 72,

95, 99, 109, 118, 140, 158, 169, 170, 171, 209, 210, 211, 212

Llywelyn ab Owain, 66

Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, 51, 58, 63, 66, 71, 72, 96, 99, 102, 104, 211, Llywelyn ap Gruffudd ap Madog, 213

Llywelyn ap Madog ap Maredudd,

103, 145, 152, 208, 209 Llywelyn ap Phylip, 66

Llywelyn ap Rhys ab lorwerth, 212

Llywelyn Fardd I, 71, 109, 119,

169, 170, 208

Llywelyn Fardd II, 72, 119, 211 Lord, A . B . , 12, 15, 92

Loth, J., 190, 200 Ludwig II, 82 Ludwig III, 82

Lynch, Peredur, 137, 180 Mac Cana, Proinsias, 43, 77

Mac Carthy, Florence Mór, 103 Madocus Edeirnianenses, Frater Walensis, 69 Madog ap Gruffudd Maelor, 210, 212

Madog ap Gwallter, 69, 122, 213 Madog ap Maredudd, 68, 80, 96,

102, 109, 120, 122, 137, 140, 141,

143, 145, 148, 149, 151, 153, 155, 160, 161, 164, 171, 185, 208

Madog ap Selyf, 60, 65 Madog Goch Ynad, 58

Madog Môn, 212

Maelgwn ap Rhys, 66 Maelgwn Gwynedd, 6, 18, 20, 144

Magnus Berfœttr, 68 Maine, H.J.S., 88 Máire Ni Dhuibh, 94

Marared ferch Rhys Fychan, 212

Maredudd ab Owain, 59, 61, 64, 66, 212

Maredudd ap Cynan ab Owain, 71, Maryred, daughter of Rhys

Fychan, 133 Math son of Mathonwy, 45 Maurer, F., 41 Mauss, Marcel, 83 Maxen, 144

McKenna, C.A., 178 v e d b, Q ue e n, W 0

Medrawd, 144

Meigant, 5, 92 Meilyr ap Gwalchmai, 87, 108,

120, 121, 211

Meilyr ap Rhiwallon ap Cynfyn, 28, 89, 207 Meilyr Brydydd, 31, 33, 34, 38, 63, 64, 70, 75, 86, 87, 88, 89,91, 92,

98, 99, 102, 103, 112, 115, 120, 121, 168, 181, 183, 198, 207 Merfyn Frych, 6, 19, 23, 24 Meurig ap Hywel, 34 Michael, Saint, 69, 213 Morfran, 154 Morgan ap Rhys, 212 Morgan, T.J., 100, 194 Morgant, 4

Morris, Lewis, 1

Morris-Jones, J., 88, 101, 173, 174, 175, 176, 181, 182, 198 Mynyddawg Mwynfawr, 5, 165 Myrddin, 6, 28, 89, 144

Nest, daughter of Hywel, 95, 128, 133, 134, 135, 211 — Ó-

ÓCeallacháin, Domhnall, 112

Ó Clumháin, Seán, 103 O'Connell, Mrs Charles Philip, 94

ó Corráin, D., 158

O hEoghusa, Eochaidh, 52 O Laoghaire, Diarmuid, of Killeen, 112

ÓRathille, Aogán, 94, 112• -0-

Parry Owen, Ann, 117, 118

Parry, Milman, 12, 14, 51

Pasen, Sonor on, 871,88

Patroclos, 123

Peryf ap Cedifor, 71, 96, 119, 209 Phemius, 73

Philoponus, John, 204

Phylip Brydydd, 55, 81, 86, 119, 169, 212

. Jones, 98, 9 Pierce, T

Piggott, Stuart, 47, 75, 84 Pindar, 41

Oliver, 123

Pryderi, 45, 46, 47, 49, 144

Opland, Jeft, 126

Osla Big-knife, 48

Ovid, 2 Owain ab Urien, 6, 88, 142, 144, 145, 146

Owain ap Gruffudd ap

Gwenwynwyn, 211

Owain ap Gruffudd ap Llywelyn, Owain ap Gruffudd ap Rhys, 212 Owain ap Maredudd ab Owain, 66 Owain Cyfeiliog, 30, 68, 87, 102,

140, 143, 149, 151, 164, 165, 166,

195, 208 Owain Fychan ap Madog, 109, 148, 149, 155, 156, 169, 170, 208 Owain Goch ap Gruffudd ap Llywelyn, 72, 112, 212, 213

Owain Gwynedd, 27, 28, 30, 33, 37, 71, 87, 96, 108, 109, 110, 112,

Prthu, 78, 38

Pseudo-Cyprian, 24

Pyll of Llansadwrn, 209

Renou, L., 82 Rhirid Flaidd, 95, 96, 140, 156, 157, 185, 209

Rhodri ab Owain Gwynedd, 71, 108, 109, 169, 170, 171, 210 Rhodri Maw, 6, 19, 23, 24

Rhun ap Maelgwn, 144

Rhydderch ab leuan Llwyd, 65

Rhydderch Hael, 47 Rhydderch Hen, 4 Rhygyfarch, 25, 26, 40, 42

Rhys ap Gruffudd (ob. 1197), 59, 64, 65, 109, 117, 140, 149, 152, 155, 167, 208, 209, 210

Rhys ap Llywelyn, 212

Rhys ap Maredudd, 214

113, 118, 123, 126, 140, 141, 146,

Rhys ap Tewdwr, 28, 42

171, 208, 209

Rhys Gryg, 66, 169, 210, 212

148, 149, 151, 157, 160, 164, 168, Owen, Morfydd E., 109

Neirin see also Aneirin, 3 Nest of Nefyn, 166

— PPadarn, Saint, 26

Ogrien, 154

Olaft, Saint, 68

231

Rhys Foel, 212

Rhys leuanc, 55, 212 Rhys, member of Owain

Cyfeiliog's gosgordd, 165

232

233

THE COURT POET IN MEDIEVAL WALES

Robert the Pious, 36

Rognvald, King, 112

— -Y

Tedei, 3

Tegwared ab Iarddur, 211

Ross, A., 23

Theodoric, 3 Thibaut of Champagne, 68

Rowland, Jenny, 185

Trahaearn ap Caradawe, 89

Roland, 123

Thomas Wallensis, 69

Roth, W.E., 50 Rowlands, Eurys, 51

- S -

Saladin, 121, 170

Trahaearn of Gwynedd, 28

Tristfardd, 4, 6

Tyngorion, 162

Tysilio, Saint, 27, 118, 120, 208

Samson ap Meurig, 212

Schröder, F.R., 85

Seisyll Bryffwrch, 66, 71, 102, 119, 149, 150, 208

Selyf (ap Cynan)'s brood, 144 Selyf ap Cynan, 5, 6 Servius Tullius, 78 Sextus Pompeius Festus, 8

Sigeforth, 123 Simon, Archdeacon, 32

Sims-Williams, Patrick, 3

Skallagrimsson, Egil, 13, 127, 137 Smith, J.B., 53 Sneglu-Halli, 150

Spenser, Edmund, 75 Stephen, 39

Sulien, 25, 28, 40

Susaya, dages, of Onw ia T --

Tacitus, 53, 160 Talhaearn, 4, 5, 14, 23

Talhaern (i.e. Talhaearn) Tat Aguen, 3

Talhaern, i.e., Talhaearn, 3

Taliesin, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11,

12, 14, 16, 19, 23, 30, 37, 75, 77,

86, 89, 90, 100, 120, 142, 153, 161, 167, 201

0—

Urien Rheged, 3, 4, 6, 19, 44, 75, 100, 142, 144, 146, 167

_ VValèry, P., 205

Vaughan, Robert, of Hengwrt, 1,

108, 136, 137

Vendryes, J., 189, 190 Vinaver, E., 192 Virgil, 21

von Bern, Dietrich, 21

von Moos, P., 83

von Soden, W., 115 _ W -

Wallace-Hadrill, J.M., 23, 42 Watkin, M., 62 Wiliam, D.W., 87

William the Conqueror, 42 Williams, G.J., 63

Williams, Gruffydd Aled, 143, 164

Williams, Gruffydd Aled, 166

Williams, Ifor, 7, ,8 26, 29, 42, 43, 44, 61, 62, 69, 76, 89, 93, 122,

124, 142, 167, 175, 180, 181 Winternitz, M., 80 Wordsworth, 204

YPrydydd Bychan, 72, 97, 119, 184, 212

Yr Ynad Coch, 58

Zeus, 111

Zumthor, P., 189, 198, 199