Cerdd Dafod
   HOME
*





Cerdd Dafod
''Cerdd dafod'' (literally ''tongue craft'') is the Welsh tradition of creating verse or poetry to a strict metre in the Welsh language. History The history of ''cerdd dafod'' can be traced to 6th century Welsh poets such as Aneirin and Taliesin, but is probably much older. Studies also suggest that features of this form of poetry are comparable to the ancient Irish versifications and therefore point to an older shared Celtic inheritance. The composition of ''cerdd dafod'' requires strict observance of the rules of cynghanedd: an intricate system of sound-arrangement in respect of stress, alliteration, and internal rhyme within each line. One of the earliest texts on the subject is credited to Einion Offeiriad (fl c. 1320–c. 1349) a bard considered to have been under the patronage of Sir Rhys ap Gruffydd, a powerful nobleman of south-west Wales. In it, he lists 24 canonical metres used for all poems in the writing of ''cerdd dafod''. This was later revised by Dafydd ap Edmwnd ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Wales
Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in 2021 of 3,107,500 and has a total area of . Wales has over of coastline and is largely mountainous with its higher peaks in the north and central areas, including Snowdon (), its highest summit. The country lies within the north temperate zone and has a changeable, maritime climate. The capital and largest city is Cardiff. Welsh national identity emerged among the Celtic Britons after the Roman withdrawal from Britain in the 5th century, and Wales was formed as a kingdom under Gruffydd ap Llywelyn in 1055. Wales is regarded as one of the Celtic nations. The conquest of Wales by Edward I of England was completed by 1283, though Owain Glyndŵr led the Welsh Revolt against English rule in the early 15th century, and briefly re-establis ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Dafydd Ap Edmwnd
Dafydd is a Welsh masculine given name, related to David, and more rarely a surname. People so named include: Given name Medieval era :''Ordered chronologically'' * Dafydd ab Owain Gwynedd (c. 1145-1203), Prince of Gwynedd * Dafydd ap Gruffydd (1238–1283), Prince of Wales ** Dafydd Goch, said to be the illegitimate son of Dafydd ap Gruffydd * Dafydd ap Gwilym (c. 1315/1320–c. 1350/1370), Welsh poet * Dafydd ap Llywelyn (1215–1246), Prince of Gwynedd and first Prince of Wales ** Dafydd ap Dafydd ap Llywelyn (born between 1240 and 1246-?), illegitimate son of Dafydd ap Llywelyn * Dafydd Bach ap Madog Wladaidd (fl. 1340-1390), Welsh poet * Dafydd Benfras (fl. 1230-1260), Welsh court poet * Dafydd Ddu o Hiraddug (died 1371), Welsh poet, grammarian and cleric * Dafydd Gam (1380-1415), Welsh soldier and nobleman who died at the Battle of Agincourt * Dafydd ab Ieuan or David Holbache (died 1422/3), Welsh politician * Dafydd Gorlech (c. 1410-c. 1490), Welsh poet * Dafydd Llwyd ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Welsh-language Literature
Welsh-language literature ( cy, Llenyddiaeth Gymraeg) has been produced continuously since the emergence of Welsh from Brythonic as a distinct language in around the 5th century AD. Huws Daniel National Library of Wales and Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic studies. 2022. ''A Repertory of Welsh Manuscripts and Scribes C.800-C.1800.'' Aberystwyth: National Library of Wales and the Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies. The earliest Welsh literature was poetry, which was extremely intricate in form from its earliest known examples, a tradition sustained today. Poetry was followed by the first British prose literature in the 11th century (such as that contained in the Mabinogion). Welsh-language literature has repeatedly played a major part in the self-assertion of Wales and its people. It continues to be held in the highest regard, as evidenced by the size and enthusiasm of the audiences attending the annual National Eisteddfod of Wales (''Eisteddfod Genedlaethol Cymru''), ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  




Medieval Welsh Literature
Medieval Welsh literature is the literature written in the Welsh language during the Middle Ages. This includes material starting from the 5th century AD, when Welsh was in the process of becoming distinct from Common Brittonic, and continuing to the works of the 16th century. The Welsh language became distinct from other dialects of Old British sometime between AD 400 and 700; the earliest surviving literature in Welsh is poetry dating from this period. The poetic tradition represented in the work of ''Y Cynfeirdd'' ("The Early Poets"), as they are known, then survives for over a thousand years to the work of the ''Poets of the Nobility'' in the 16th century. The core tradition was praise poetry; and the poet Taliesin was regarded as the first in the line. The other aspect of the tradition was the professionalism of the poets and their reliance on patronage from kings, princes and nobles for their living. The fall of the Kingdom of Gwynedd and the loss of Welsh independence in a ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Welsh Poetry
Welsh poetry refers to poetry of the Welsh people or nation. This includes poetry written in Welsh, poetry written in English by Welsh or Wales based poets, poetry written in Wales in other languages or poetry by Welsh poets around the world. History Wales has one of the earliest literary traditions in Northern Europe, stretching back to the days of Aneirin (fl. 550) and Taliesin (second half of the 6th century), and the haunting ''Stafell Cynddylan'', which is the oldest recorded literary work by a woman in northern Europe. The 9th century '' Canu Llywarch Hen'' and ''Canu Heledd'' are both associated with the earlier prince Llywarch Hen. Welsh poetry is connected directly to the bardic tradition, and is historically divided into four periods.Loesch, K. T. (1983). Welsh bardic poetry and performance in the middle ages. In D. W. Thompson (Ed.), ''Performance of Literature in Historical Perspectives'' (177–190). Lanham, MD: University Press of America. The first period, be ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Alan Llwyd
Alan Llwyd (born 1948), original name Alan Lloyd Roberts, is a Welsh poet, literary critic and editor. He is one of the most prolific Welsh-language poets in the last quarter of the 20th century. He is also known under the Bardic name Meilir Emrys Owen. Upbringing Born in Dolgellau, Gwynedd, Llwyd was brought up on a farm at Cilan and educated at Bangor University. Since then he has been manager of a bookshop at Bala, worked as an editor for the Christopher Davies publishing company, and served as an editorial officer for the Welsh Joint Education Committee. Works He published his first volume of poetry, ''Y March Hud'' (The Magic Horse), in 1971 as Alan Lloyd Roberts. This was followed by a series of others. He came to prominence with the rare feat of winning both the Crown and the Chair at the 1973 National Eisteddfod and then repeating the feat in 1976. On the second occasion there was some controversy, as another popular poet, Dic Jones, lost out on the chair through a te ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Cywydd
The cywydd (; plural ) is one of the most important metrical forms in traditional Welsh poetry (cerdd dafod). There are a variety of forms of the cywydd, but the word on its own is generally used to refer to the ("long-lined couplet") as it is by far the most common type. The first recorded examples of the cywydd date from the early 14th century, when it is believed to have been developed. This was the favourite metre of the Poets of the Nobility, the poets working from the fourteenth to the seventeenth centuries, and it is still used today. The cywydd consists of a series of seven-syllable lines in rhyming couplets, with all lines written in cynghanedd. One of the lines must finish with a stressed syllable, while the other must finish with an unstressed syllable. The rhyme may vary from couplet to couplet, or may remain the same. There is no rule about how many couplets there must be in a cywydd. The and the related , and the all occur in the list of the twenty four tradi ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  




Englyn
(; plural ) is a traditional Welsh and Cornish short poem form. It uses quantitative metres, involving the counting of syllables, and rigid patterns of rhyme and half rhyme. Each line contains a repeating pattern of consonants and accent known as . Early history The is found in the work of the earliest attested Welsh poets (the ), where the main types are the three-line and . It is the only set stanzaic metre found in the early Welsh poetic corpus, and explanations for its origins have tended to focus on stanzaic Latin poetry and hymns; however, it is as likely to be a development within the Brittonic poetic tradition. Whereas the metrical rules of later are clear (and are based on counting syllables), the precise metre of the early is debated and could have involved stress-counting. The earliest are found as marginalia written in a tenth-century hand in the Juvencus Manuscript. Many early form poems which seem to represent moments of characters' emotional reflecti ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

John Morris-Jones
Sir John Morris-Jones (17 October 1864 – 16 April 1929) was a Welsh grammarian, academic and Welsh-language poet. Morris-Jones was born John Jones, at Trefor in the parish of Llandrygarn, Anglesey the son of Morris Jones first a schoolmaster, then a shopkeeper and his wife Elizabeth. He had a younger brother William Jones. In 1868 the family moved to Llanfairpwllgwyngyll where he received elementary education. In 1876 he entered Friars School, Bangor. In 1879 the headmaster of Friars School, Daniel Lewis Lloyd, was appointed to Christ College, Brecon, and John Jones accompanied him there. In 1883 he attended Jesus College, Oxford, where he graduated with honours in mathematics in 1887. While at Oxford, Morris-Jones studied Welsh books and manuscripts in the Bodleian Library, and attended lectures by Sir John Rhys (1840–1915), the professor of Celtic. Morris-Jones and Rhys prepared an edition of ''The Elucidarium and other tracts in Welsh from Llyvyr agkyr Llandewivrevi A ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Carmarthen
Carmarthen (, RP: ; cy, Caerfyrddin , "Merlin's fort" or "Sea-town fort") is the county town of Carmarthenshire and a community in Wales, lying on the River Towy. north of its estuary in Carmarthen Bay. The population was 14,185 in 2011, down from 15,854 in 2001, but gauged at 16,285 in 2019. It has a claim to be the oldest town in Wales – ''Old Carmarthen'' and ''New Carmarthen'' became one borough in 1546. It was the most populous borough in Wales in the 16th–18th centuries, described by William Camden as "chief citie of the country". Growth stagnated by the mid-19th century as new settlements developed in the South Wales Coalfield. History Early history When Britannia was a Roman province, Carmarthen was the civitas capital of the Demetae tribe, known as Moridunum ("Sea Fort"). It is possibly the oldest town in Wales, recorded by Ptolemy and in the Antonine Itinerary. The Roman fort is believed to date from about AD 75. A Roman coin hoard was found nearby in 20 ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Eisteddfod
In Welsh culture, an ''eisteddfod'' is an institution and festival with several ranked competitions, including in poetry and music. The term ''eisteddfod'', which is formed from the Welsh morphemes: , meaning 'sit', and , meaning 'be', means, according to Hywel Teifi Edwards, "sitting-together." Edwards further defines the earliest form of the eisteddfod as a competitive meeting between bards and minstrels, in which the winner was chosen by a noble or royal patron.Hywel Teifi Edwards (2015), ''The Eisteddfod'', pages 5–6. The first documented instance of such a literary festival and competition took place under the patronage of Prince Rhys ap Gruffudd of the House of Dinefwr at Cardigan Castle in 1176. However, with the loss of Welsh independence at the hands of King Edward I, the closing of the bardic schools, and the Anglicization of the Welsh nobility, it fell into abeyance. The current format owes much to an 18th-century revival, first patronized and overseen by the L ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Sir Rhys Ap Gruffydd
Sir Rhys ap Gruffydd or Rhys ap Gruffudd ( 1283–1356),Griffiths also known as 'Syr Rhys', Rhys Hen ('the elder') or Rhys Griffith, was the wealthiest nobleman in 14th-century Wales. He was the most prominent of the native supporters of the English kings during this early period of English settlement in Wales.Jones Pierce Rhys was the son of Gruffydd ap Hywel and his wife Nest, daughter of Gwrwared ap Gwilym of Cemais. His father was first cousin of Welsh rebel Sir Gruffydd Llwyd, while on his mother's side he was related to poet Dafydd ap Gwilym. Rhys was great-great-grandson of thirteenth-century nobleman and dynastic founder Ednyfed Fychan. He inherited from his grandfather substantial lands around Llansadwrn, in Carmarthenshire, and held several lucrative offices in the southwest of Wales, as well as in 1308 being steward of Cardigan. In 1310 he raised and commanded troops for the English campaign against Scotland, and in 1316 against the Welsh rebel, Llywelyn Bren, ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]