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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 reflection i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Traditional Welsh Poetic Metres
The traditional Welsh poetic meters consist of 24 types of poetic meter, called Y Pedwar Mesur ar Hugain in Welsh language, Welsh. They are all written in cynghanedd of varying degrees of complexity. Although called "traditional," they were compiled – and later redefined at least once – in the Late Middle Ages and omit some of the older forms such as the ''englyn milwr''. Only a few of them were widely used by the professional poets (''Beirdd yr Uchelwyr''), and the use of some of the more complicated ones is confined to occasional poems of technical virtuosity dating to the end of the Middle Ages. The twenty four traditional Welsh poetic meters are: *Awdl-gywydd *Byr-a-thoddaid *Cadwynfyr *Clogyrnach *Cyhydedd Fer *Cyhydedd Hir *Cyhydedd Naw Ban *Cyrch-a-chwta *Cywydd Deuair Fyrion *Cywydd Deuair Hirion: see Cywydd *Cywydd Llosgyrnog *Englyn#Englyn Poest Cyfnewidiog, Englyn Proest Cyfnewidiog *Englyn#Englyn Proest Cadwynog, Englyn Proest Cadwynog *Englyn#Englyn Unodl Crwca, E ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Canu Llywarch Hen
''Canu Llywarch Hen'' (modern Welsh /'kani 'ɬəwarχ heːn/, the songs of Llywarch Hen) are a collection of early Welsh ''englyn''-poems. They comprise the most famous of the early Welsh cycles of ''englynion'' about heroes of post-Roman North Britain. Contents and themes As edited by Jenny Rowland, the contents of ''Canu Llywarch Hen'' are as follows: The poems contemplate martial, masculine culture, fate, and old age from a critical standpoint. As with the other so-called 'saga ''englynion''’ (pre-eminently ''Canu Urien'' and ''Canu Heledd''), there is considerable uncertainty and debate as to how the poems of ''Canu Llywarch'' might originally have been performed. It is usually assumed that they must have been accompanied by some kind of prose narrative, to which they provided emotional depth; but this is not certain. In all the independent witnesses bar NLW 4973a, the Llywarch Hen poems are preceded by the ''englyn''-poem ''Claf Abercuawg'', which in the White Book is e ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Claf Abercuawg
''Claf Abercuawg'' (IPA /klav ˌaber'ki:aug/, 'the leper of Abercuawg') is the modern title of a 32-stanza medieval Welsh ''englyn''-poem. According to Jenny Rowland, 'most critics would classify it among the most sophisticated and moving all the early ''englynion'' poems'; it is 'the classic example' of meditative, lyric, at least implicitly religious, early Welsh poetry. Content and style The poem gradually reveals itself as a monologue by a person who is ill, probably with leprosy, as he laments his exile from society and the ruin of his homestead. It is characterised by the use of the natural world as a frame and reference point for human emotion, shifts of focus from the speaker's observations on his particular situation and gnomic observations on life in general, and jumps from one subject to another producing tantalising juxtapositions. The poem has frequently been compared (and contrasted) with the roughly contemporaneous Old English poems '' The Wanderer'' and '' The Sea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Canu Heledd
''Canu Heledd'' (modern Welsh /'kani 'hɛlɛð/, the songs of Heledd) are a collection of early Welsh ''englyn''-poems. They are rare among medieval Welsh poems for being set in the mouth of a female character. One prominent figure in the poems is Heledd's dead brother Cynddylan. Summary Dorothy Ann Bray summarised the cycle thus: The entire cycle of the Heledd poems ... is a statement of mourning from which a background story has been deduced: Cynddylan, prince of Powys, and his brothers along with his heroic band are slain in battle, defending their country against the English in the mid-seventh century. Heledd, his sister, is one of the few survivors, who witnessed the battle and the destruction of Cynddylan's hall at Pengwern. She has lost not only all her brothers, but also her sisters and her home, and the poems suggest that she blames herself for the destruction of Cynddylan's court because of some ill-spoken words. As with the other so-called 'saga ''englynion''’ (p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kyntaw Geir
''Kyntaw geir'' (IPA /'kəntau gəir/, named for its first line, 'kyntaw geir a dywedaw', 'the first speech I will utter') is a medieval Welsh ''englyn''-poem. It is a relatively rare example of religious poetry in the ''englyn'' form. Contents and style In the assessment of Jenny Rowland, 'the narrator-persona displays very human foibles, including the attempt to deny them. This naturalism makes it tempting to view the poem as a personal lyric, but it is undoubtedly misleading. The slightly bumbling, overly sincere narrator of "Kintaw geir" has a shrewd observer of human nature behind him. The incredible impression of spontaneity also conceals art and very tight organization.' The poem opens with the pilgrim preparing himself for his journey and seeking God's protection, perhaps alluding to other journey prayers like the Old English '' Journey Charm''. However, his preparations are disturbed by a sneeze, which seems clearly to have been viewed as a bad omen. In stanzas 4-7 he ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Englynion Y Clywaid
Englynion y Clywaid (or Englynion y Clyweit) is a collection of Welsh stanzas. The stanzas date to around the 10th century or the late 12th or early 13th century according to Ifor Williams, as well as other academics. The earliest manuscript witnesses are Jesus College MS 3 (c. 1350) and NLW Llanstephan MS 27, the Red Book of Talgarth (c. 1400), the latter almost exclusively in the hand of Hywel Fychan, main scribe of the Red Book of Hergest). The series consists of 73 stanzas with proverbs that are attributed to characters from Welsh folklore or Welsh saints. Style The poems are melodic, with each englyn beginning with the opening phrase "A glyweist-di a gant...?" ("Did you hear what ... said/declaimed?"), followed by the name of a character from Welsh tradition, or one of the Welsh saints. The answer is in the form of a traditional proverb, most of which are attributed to characters from Welsh folklore, or Welsh and foreign saints. The exceptions are those given in the mo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Englynion Y Beddau
The ''Englynion y Beddau'' ( en, The Stanzas or Verses of the Graves) is a Middle Welsh verse catalogue listing the resting places (''beddau'') of legendary heroes. It consists of a series of ''englynion'', or short stanzas in quantitative meter, and survives in a number of manuscripts. The collection is thought to be considerably older than its earliest manuscript, the 13th-century Black Book of Carmarthen, and provides an important early glimpse at medieval Welsh heroic tradition and topographical folklore. Transmission The stanzas, or more specifically, englynion, are transmitted in four classes of medieval Welsh manuscripts and later transcripts. The earliest, best known and most reliable version of the text is the collection of 73 englynion preserved in the Black Book of Carmarthen.Jones, "Black Book," p. 98. The first 69 stanzas were copied in the first quarter of the 13th century, while the last four were added at a later stage, probably in the same century. Five further e ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Juvencus Manuscript
The Juvencus Manuscript (Cambridge, Cambridge University Library, MS Ff. 4.42; cy, Llawysgrif Juvencus) is one of the main surviving sources of Old Welsh. Unlike much Old Welsh, which is attested in manuscripts from later periods and in partially updated form, the Welsh material in the Juvencus Manuscript was written in the Old Welsh period itself; the manuscript provides the first attestation of many Welsh words. Around the second half of the ninth century, someone copied two Old Welsh poems into the margins: a nine-stanza ''englyn'' poem on the wonders of God's creation (generally known as the 'Juvencus nine'), and, on folios 25-26, a three-stanza poem which seems to represent a warrior lamenting his misfortunes (known as the 'Juvencus three'). These are the earliest surviving ''englynion''. The parts of the manuscript containing the 'Juvencus three' were cut out of the manuscript and stolen in the early eighteenth century by the antiquary Edward Lhuyd (1660-1709), but were found ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Geraint Son Of Erbin
''Geraint son of Erbin'' (Middle Welsh ''Geraint uab Erbin'') is a medieval Welsh poem celebrating the hero Geraint and his deeds at the Battle of Llongborth. The poem consists of three-line ''englyn'' stanzas and exists in several versions all in Middle Welsh. The earliest surviving version is in the Black Book of Carmarthen, completed around 1250, though the poem may have been composed in the 10th or 11th century.Bollard, pp. 14–16. The poem is significant for its early mention of King Arthur. Poem and context The poem's subject, Geraint mab Erbin, was a popular figure in Welsh tradition and is known through a variety of subsequent sources. Later genealogies associate him with southwestern Britain and South Wales in the late 6th century.Bollard, p. 14. The early poem ''Y Gododdin'' mentions a "Geraint before the South", conceivably a reference to Geraint mab Erbin.Bollard, pp. 14–15. However, Geraint achieved his greatest fame as the hero of the prose romance ''Geraint and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Diphthongs
A diphthong ( ; , ), also known as a gliding vowel, is a combination of two adjacent vowel sounds within the same syllable. Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with two different targets: that is, the tongue (and/or other parts of the speech organ, speech apparatus) moves during the pronunciation of the vowel. In most International Phonetic Alphabet chart for English dialects, varieties of English language, English, the phrase "no highway cowboy" () has five distinct diphthongs, one in every syllable. Diphthongs contrast with monophthongs, where the tongue or other speech organs do not move and the syllable contains only a single vowel sound. For instance, in English, the word ''ah'' is spoken as a monophthong (), while the word ''ow'' is spoken as a diphthong in most varieties (). Where two adjacent vowel sounds occur in different syllables (e.g. in the English word ''re-elect'') the result is described as hiatus (linguistics), hiatus, not as a diphthong. (The English word ''h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Robertson Davies
William Robertson Davies (28 August 1913 – 2 December 1995) was a Canadian novelist, playwright, critic, journalist, and professor. He was one of Canada's best known and most popular authors and one of its most distinguished " men of letters", a term Davies gladly accepted for himself. Davies was the founding Master of Massey College, a graduate residential college associated with the University of Toronto. Biography Early life Davies was born in Thamesville, Ontario, the third son of William Rupert Davies and Florence Sheppard McKay. Growing up, Davies was surrounded by books and lively language. His father, senator of Kingston, Ontario, from 1942 to his death in 1967, was a newspaperman from Welshpool, Wales, and both parents were voracious readers. He followed in their footsteps and read everything he could. He also participated in theatrical productions as a child, where he developed a lifelong interest in drama. He spent his formative years in Renfrew, Ontario (and ren ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
