Dafydd Ddu o Hiraddug (died 1371), also known as Dafydd Ddu Athro o Hiraddug, was a
Welsh language
Welsh ( or ) is a Celtic language family, Celtic language of the Brittonic languages, Brittonic subgroup that is native to the Welsh people. Welsh is spoken natively in Wales, by some in England, and in Y Wladfa (the Welsh colony in Chubut P ...
poet
A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral or writte ...
,
grammarian, and
Roman Catholic priest
The priesthood is the office of the ministers of religion, who have been commissioned ("ordained") with the Holy orders of the Catholic Church. Technically, bishops are a priestly order as well; however, in layman's terms ''priest'' refers only ...
in the
diocese of Llanelwy
The Diocese of Saint Asaph is a diocese of the Church in Wales in north-east Wales, named after Saint Asaph, its second bishop.
Geography
The Anglican Diocese of St Asaph in the north-east corner of Wales stretches from the borders of Chester i ...
(
St Asaph
St Asaph (; cy, Llanelwy "church on the Elwy") is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and community (Wales), community on the River Elwy in Denbighshire, Wales. In the United Kingdom Census 2011, 2011 Census it had a population of 3,355 ...
). He was once believed to be the son of a certain Hywel ap Madog of Tremeirchion, but this has now been disproven.
[R. Geraint Gruffydd, ''op. cit.'', p. 103.]
Dafydd composed poems on religious themes; his surviving work includes poems on the
Ten Commandments
The Ten Commandments (Biblical Hebrew עשרת הדברים \ עֲשֶׂרֶת הַדְּבָרִים, ''aséret ha-dvarím'', lit. The Decalogue, The Ten Words, cf. Mishnaic Hebrew עשרת הדיברות \ עֲשֶׂרֶת הַדִּבְ ...
,
Salvation
Salvation (from Latin: ''salvatio'', from ''salva'', 'safe, saved') is the state of being saved or protected from harm or a dire situation. In religion and theology, ''salvation'' generally refers to the deliverance of the soul from sin and its c ...
, and on the ephemeracy of human life and of God's judgement to come after death. Dafydd is also thought to be the composer of the (''Mary's Service''), a poetical translation of the Latin "Horae beatae Mariae virginis" (a
Book of Hours
The book of hours is a Christian devotional book used to pray the canonical hours. The use of a book of hours was especially popular in the Middle Ages and as a result, they are the most common type of surviving medieval illuminated manuscrip ...
) into Welsh.
Dafydd's greatest fame lies with his revised edition of the or bardic grammar of
Einion Offeiriad
Einion Offeiriad ("Einion the Priest") (died 1356) was a Welsh language poet and grammarian.
Einion lived in Ceredigion, where he was a chaplain to Sir Rhys ap Gruffudd ap Hywel ap Gruffudd ab Ednyfed Fychan, a wealthy nobleman. Amongst Einion' ...
.
Dafydd was probably buried in
Dyserth
Dyserth ( cy, Diserth) is a village, community and electoral ward in Denbighshire, Wales. Its population at the 2011 United Kingdom census was 2,269 and was estimated by the Office for National Statistics as 2,271 in 2019. It lies within the h ...
, north
Wales
Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...
.
References
Bibliography
*R. Geraint Gruffydd and Rhiannon Ifans (eds.), ''Gwaith Einion Offeriad a Dafydd Ddu o Hiraddug'' (Aberystwyth, 1997)
External links
Gwenllian's Poetry Primer an introduction to the poetic metres of the grammar.
Welsh-language poets
1371 deaths
Year of birth unknown
14th-century Welsh poets
{{Wales-writer-stub