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The Ploughman
"Y Llafurwr", known in English as "The Ploughman" or "The Labourer", is a poem in the form of a ''cywydd'' by the 14th-century Welsh poet Iolo Goch. Often compared with William Langland's Middle English ''Piers Plowman'', it presents a sympathetic portrayal of the meek and godly ploughman; no other Welsh bardic poem takes an ordinary working man as its subject. It has been called the most notable of Iolo's poems, comparable with the finest works of Dafydd ap Gwilym, and its popularity in the Middle Ages can be judged from the fact that it survives in seventy-five manuscripts. It is included in ''The Oxford Book of Welsh Verse''. Summary The poem begins by picturing all men gathered together on the Day of Reckoning. The peasant who has paid his tithes can then expect his reward, for he is generous and peace-loving, not judgmental, aggressive, larcenous, harsh or fraudulent. Long-suffering and irreplaceable, he follows his plough rather than demolishing towers like some Art ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William John Gruffydd
William John Gruffydd (14 February 1881 – 29 September 1954) was a Welsh scholar, poet, writer and editor, and the last Member of Parliament to represent the University of Wales seat. Gruffydd was elected to Parliament as a Liberal Member of Parliament (MP) for the University of Wales seat on 29 January 1943 after the sitting MP Ernest Evans became a County Court Judge. Gruffydd's opponent in the by-election was Plaid's Saunders Lewis, and he had effectively split the Welsh-speaking community. He was comfortably re-elected in the 1945 general election and sat until the abolition of university seats in 1950. He did not stand again for Parliament. Historians' judgment The 1945 general election brought a reduction in Liberal strength in the House of Commons and was particularly savage for its leadership. Sir Archibald Sinclair the party leader lost his seat in Caithness and Sutherland, the Chief Whip Sir Percy Harris and William Beveridge were also beaten. In fact apart from G ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alfred Perceval Graves
Alfred Perceval Graves (22 July 184627 December 1931), was an Anglo-Irish poet, songwriter and folklorist. He was the father of British poet and critic Robert Graves. Early life Graves was born in Dublin and was the son of The Rt Rev. Charles Graves, Church of Ireland Lord Bishop of Limerick, Ardfert and Aghadoe, and his wife Selina, the daughter of Dr John Cheyne (1777–1836), the Physician-General to the British Forces in Ireland. His sister was Ida Margaret Graves Poore. His paternal grandmother Helena was a Perceval, and the granddaughter of the Earl of Egmont. His grandfather, John Crosbie Graves, was a first cousin of "Ireland's most celebrated surgeon", Robert James Graves. Alfred was educated both in England, at Windermere College, Westmorland, and in Ireland, at Trinity College Dublin. As an undergraduate he contributed to the literary magazine ''Kottabos'', starting in 1869. See e.g. ''Kottabos'', first issue (1869)p. 39 fifth issue (1870)p. 134 signed as "A.P ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Idris Bell
Sir Harold Idris Bell (2 October 1879 – 22 January 1967) was a museum curator, a British papyrologist (specialising in Roman Egypt) and a scholar of Welsh literature. Bell was born at Epworth, Lincolnshire to an English father and a Welsh mother. His maternal grandfather, John Hughes of Rhuddlan, was a Welsh speaker.Thomas Parry (2001)Bell, Sir Harold Idris (1879–1967), scholar and translator In ''Dictionary of Welsh Biography''. He was educated at Nottingham High School and Oriel College, Oxford. In 1903, he joined the British Museum as an assistant in the Department of Manuscripts and remained there his entire working life, becoming Deputy Keeper of the Department in 1927 and Keeper in 1929. He retired in 1944, and in 1946 he went to live at Aberystwyth, naming his house Bro Gynin, a sign of his respect for the poet Dafydd ap Gwilym. Bell was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 1920 civilian war honours for his wartime services as editor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Welsh Triads
The Welsh Triads ( cy, Trioedd Ynys Prydein, "Triads of the Island of Britain") are a group of related texts in medieval manuscripts which preserve fragments of Welsh folklore, mythology and traditional history in groups of three. The triad is a rhetorical form whereby objects are grouped together in threes, with a heading indicating the point of likeness; for example, "Three things not easily restrained, the flow of a torrent, the flight of an arrow, and the tongue of a fool." Contents The texts include references to King Arthur and other semi-historical characters from sub-Roman Britain, mythic figures such as Brân the Blessed, undeniably historical personages such as Alan IV, Duke of Brittany (who is called ''Alan Fyrgan'') and Iron Age characters such as Caswallawn (Cassivellaunus) and Caradoc (Caratacus). Some triads simply give a list of three characters with something in common (such as "the three frivolous bards of the island of Britain") while others include substantial ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Wind (poem)
"The Wind" (Welsh: ''Y Gwynt'') is a 64-line love poem in the form of a ''cywydd'' by the 14th-century Welsh poet Dafydd ap Gwilym. Dafydd is widely seen as the greatest of the Welsh poets, and this is one of his most highly praised works. Rachel Bromwich called it "one of the greatest of all his poems", while the academic critic Andrew Breeze has hailed it as "a masterpiece" and "a work of genius", noting especially its "rhetorical splendour". Summary The poet opens by addressing the wind, calling it a strange being, going where it wills, and subject to none of the physical or legal restraints of ordinary human life. After praising it for its power the poet goes on to compare it to an author, a sower of leaves, and a jester. Then he asks the wind to visit Uwch Aeron [the northern part of Ceredigion, from where Parth came], and, paying no heed to her husband Bwa Bach to visit the poet's lover Morfudd, on whose account he is an exile from his native land. The wind is to send th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Le Pèlerinage De Charlemagne
''Le Pèlerinage de Charlemagne'' (''The Pilgrimage of Charlemagne'')Also called the ''Voyage de Charlemagne à Jérusalem et à Constantinople'' (''Charlemagne's Voyage to Jerusalem and Constantinople''). is an Old French ''chanson de geste'' (epic poem) dealing with a fictional expedition by Charlemagne and his paladins. The oldest known written version was probably composed around 1140.The ''Trésor de la langue française'' credits ''Voyage de Charlemagne'' as ca. 1140. See for example the etymology otournoyer Two 15th-century reworkings of the story are also known. The romance is preserved in a single manuscript, the British Library Royal, 16. E. VIII. However, the manuscript was lost in 1879,''Pèlerinage ou Voyage de Charlemagne à Jérusalem et à Constantinople'' on ' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chanson De Geste
The ''chanson de geste'' (, from Latin 'deeds, actions accomplished') is a medieval narrative, a type of epic poem that appears at the dawn of French literature. The earliest known poems of this genre date from the late 11th and early 12th centuries, shortly before the emergence of the lyric poetry of the troubadours and trouvères, and the earliest verse romances. They reached their highest point of acceptance in the period 1150–1250.Hasenohr, 242. Composed in verse, these narrative poems of moderate length (averaging 4000 lines) were originally sung, or (later) recited, by minstrels or jongleurs. More than one hundred ''chansons de geste'' have survived in approximately three hundred manuscripts''La Chanson de Roland,'' 12. that date from the 12th to the 15th century. Origins Since the 19th century, much critical debate has centered on the origins of the ''chansons de geste'', and particularly on explaining the length of time between the composition of the ''chansons'' a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Glanmor Williams
Sir Glanmor Williams (5 May 1920 – 24 February 2005) was one of Wales's most eminent historians. Sir Glanmor was born in Dowlais, into a working-class family, and was educated at Cyfarthfa Grammar School in Merthyr Tydfil. He studied at Aberystwyth alongside Alun Lewis and Emyr Humphreys, becoming a specialist in the early modern period of Welsh history. His long academic career included 37 years at the University of Wales, Swansea, between 1945 and 1982, and ten as vice-president of the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth. He joined Swansea University in 1945 and was Professor of History at Swansea University from 1957 to 1982, his research interests focused on the Protestant Reformation and its impact on Welsh life and culture. His exceptional study of the Welsh Church after 1282, ''The Welsh Church from Conquest to Reformation'' was published in 1962. In subsequent works, such as ''Owen Glendower'' (1966), ''Recovery, Reorientation and Reformation'' (1987), and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Canterbury Tales
''The Canterbury Tales'' ( enm, Tales of Caunterbury) is a collection of twenty-four stories that runs to over 17,000 lines written in Middle English by Geoffrey Chaucer between 1387 and 1400. It is widely regarded as Chaucer's ''Masterpiece, magnum opus''. The tales (mostly written in verse (poetry), verse, although some are in prose) are presented as part of a story-telling contest by a group of pilgrims as they travel together from London to Canterbury to visit the shrine of Saint Thomas Becket at Canterbury Cathedral. The prize for this contest is a free meal at the The Tabard, Tabard Inn at Southwark on their return. It has been suggested that the greatest contribution of ''The Canterbury Tales'' to English literature was the popularisation of the English vernacular in mainstream literature, as opposed to French, Italian or Latin. English had, however, been used as a literary language centuries before Chaucer's time, and several of Chaucer's contemporaries—John Gower, W ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Geoffrey Chaucer
Geoffrey Chaucer (; – 25 October 1400) was an English poet, author, and civil servant best known for ''The Canterbury Tales''. He has been called the "father of English literature", or, alternatively, the "father of English poetry". He was the first writer to be buried in what has since come to be called Poets' Corner, in Westminster Abbey. Chaucer also gained fame as a philosopher and astronomer, composing the scientific ''A Treatise on the Astrolabe'' for his 10-year-old son Lewis. He maintained a career in the civil service as a bureaucrat, courtier, diplomat, and member of parliament. Among Chaucer's many other works are ''The Book of the Duchess'', ''The House of Fame'', ''The Legend of Good Women'', and ''Troilus and Criseyde''. He is seen as crucial in legitimising the literary use of Middle English when the dominant literary languages in England were still Anglo-Norman French and Latin. Chaucer's contemporary Thomas Hoccleve hailed him as "the firste fyndere of our ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
General Prologue
The General Prologue is the first part of ''The Canterbury Tales'' by Geoffrey Chaucer. It introduces the frame story, in which a group of pilgrims travelling to the shrine of Thomas Becket in Canterbury agree to take part in a storytelling competition, and describes the pilgrims themselves. Synopsis The frame story of the poem, as set out in the 858 lines of Middle English which make up the General Prologue, is of a religious pilgrimage. The narrator, Geoffrey Chaucer, is in The Tabard Inn in Southwark, where he meets a group of 'sundry folk' who are all on the way to Canterbury, the site of the shrine of Saint Thomas Becket, a martyr reputed to have the power of healing the sinful. The setting is April, and the prologue starts by singing the praises of that month whose rains and warm western wind restore life and fertility to the earth and its inhabitants. This abundance of life, the narrator says, prompts people to go on pilgrimages; in England, the goal of such pilgrimage ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
_Ystoria_Carolo_Magno_-_Rhamant_Otfel.jpg "Click for more on -> Le Pèlerinage De Charlemagne")
