08: Gwaith Gronw Gyriog, Iorwerth ab y Cyriog ac Eraill

This volume contains an edition of the surviving work of five poets from Anglesey and Caernarfonshire: Gronw Gyriog, his son Iorwerth ab y Cyriog, Mab Clochyddyn, Gruffudd ap Tudur Goch and Ithel Ddu. The first three flourished in the first half of the fourteenth century, and the other two probably sang in the second half of the same century. There is an interesting variety of poems in the volume: a praise poem to Madog ab Iorwerth from Coedymynydd, who was bishop at Bangor; two elegies to Gwenhwyfar the wife of Hywel ap Tudur of Coedan in Anglesey, a noble lady who descended from the royal family of Powys and who was buried in the Franciscan friary of Llan-faes; an awdl to God; and some other rather enigmatic pieces, including some satirical englynion to a false poet, warning him not to come close to Anglesey; a dream poem by a poet obviously well learned in medieval prose of the period; and a satirical and narrative cywydd to a tree stump. Included also in the volume are two very interesting cywydd poems which have been wrongly ascribed to Iorwerth ab y Cyriog: the first is a fifteenth-century poem claiming to be an elegy upon the death of one Einion ap Seisyll, who actually lived at the end of the twelfth century, and the other satire describing in vivid detail a cold and unwelcome house in Drws-y-nant, Merioneth, which the bard had visited.

This publication can be ordered online from: gwales.com