Edward Williams, better known by his

bardic name A bardic name (, ) is a pseudonym used in Wales, Cornwall, or Brittany by poets and other artists, especially those involved in the eisteddfod movement. The Welsh term bardd ("poet") originally referred to the Welsh poets of the Middle Ages, who m ...

Iolo Morganwg (; 10 March 1747 – 18 December 1826), was a

Welsh Welsh may refer to: Related to Wales * Welsh, referring or related to Wales * Welsh language, a Brittonic Celtic language spoken in Wales * Welsh people People * Welsh (surname) * Sometimes used as a synonym for the ancient Britons (Celtic peop ...

antiquarian An antiquarian or antiquary () is an fan (person), aficionado or student of antiquities or things of the past. More specifically, the term is used for those who study history with particular attention to ancient artifact (archaeology), artifac ...

, poet and collector.Jones, Mary (2004)
"Edward Williams/Iolo Morganwg/Iolo Morgannwg"
From ''Jones' Celtic Encyclopedia''. Retrieved 11 June 2009 (only USA, see

. He was seen as an expert collector of

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 ...

, but it emerged after his death that he had forged several manuscripts, notably some of the Third Series of

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 ...

.Mary Jones (2003)
"Y Myvyrian Archaiology"
From ''Jones' Celtic Encyclopedia''. Retrieved 11 June 2009 (in US only

. Even so, he had a lasting impact on Welsh culture, notably in founding the secret society known as the Gorsedd, through which Iolo Morganwg successfully coopted the 18th-century

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, a ...

revival. The philosophy he spread in his forgeries has had an enormous impact upon

neo-Druidism Druidry, sometimes termed Druidism, is a modern spiritual or religious movement that promotes the cultivation of honorable relationships with the physical landscapes, flora, fauna, and diverse peoples of the world, as well as with nature deit ...

. His bardic name is Welsh for "Iolo of

Glamorgan , HQ = Cardiff , Government = Glamorgan County Council (1889–1974) , Origin= , Code = GLA , CodeName = Chapman code , Replace = * West Glamorgan * Mid Glamorgan * South Glamorgan , Motto ...

Early life

Edward Williams was born at Pen Onn, near

Llancarfan Llancarfan is a rural village and community in the Vale of Glamorgan, Wales. The village, located west of Barry and near Cowbridge, has a well-known parish church, the site of Saint Cadoc's 6th-century clas, famed for its learning. Cainnech o ...

, Wales, and raised in the village of

Flemingston Flemingston (also Lanmihangel y Twyn, or Treffelemin, or Michaelston Le Mont, or Flimstone) is a small village in the Vale of Glamorgan in south Wales. It is located northwest by road from the town centre of Barry. It contains the Church of St. ...

(or Flimston; ''Trefflemin'' in Welsh). He followed his father as a

stonemason Stonemasonry or stonecraft is the creation of buildings, structures, and sculpture using stone as the primary material. It is one of the oldest activities and professions in human history. Many of the long-lasting, ancient shelters, temples, mo ...

. In Glamorgan he took an interest in manuscript collection, and learnt to compose Welsh poetry from poets such as Lewis Hopkin, Rhys Morgan, and especially

Siôn Bradford Siôn Bradford (1706–1785) was a Welsh language poet, from Betws, Tir Iarll, Glamorgan, in south Wales. Although a minor poet himself he is important as the poetic teacher of Edward Williams (Iolo Morganwg Edward Williams, better known by ...

. In 1773 he moved to

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

, where the antiquary

Owen Jones Owen Jones (born 8 August 1984) is a British newspaper columnist, political commentator, journalist, author, and left-wing activist. He writes a column for ''The Guardian'' and contributes to the ''New Statesman'' and '' Tribune.'' He has two ...

introduced him to the city's Welsh literary community, and where he became a member of the

Gwyneddigion Society The Gwyneddigion Society ( cy, Cymdeithas y Gwyneddigion) was a London-based Welsh literary and cultural society. The original society was founded in 1770 and wound up in 1843. It was briefly revived in 1978. Its proceedings were conducted through ...

: he would later also be active in the

Cymreigyddion Society The Cymreigyddion Society ( cy, Cymdeithas y Cymreigyddion) was a London-based Welsh social, cultural and debating society, which existed from 1794 or 1795 until about 1855. History The Cymreigyddion Society was stated in later accounts to have b ...

. In 1777 he returned to Wales, where he married and tried farming, but without success. During this time he produced his first forgeries. Williams's son, Taliesin (bardic name,

Taliesin ab Iolo Taliesin Williams (bardic name Taliesin ab Iolo or Ab Iolo; 9 July 1787 – 16 February 1847) was a Welsh poet and author, and son of the notable Iolo Morganwg. He was born in Cardiff, went to school in Cowbridge, and became an assistant teach ...

), whom he had named after the early medieval bard

Taliesin Taliesin ( , ; 6th century AD) was an early Brittonic poet of Sub-Roman Britain whose work has possibly survived in a Middle Welsh manuscript, the '' Book of Taliesin''. Taliesin was a renowned bard who is believed to have sung at the courts ...

, later went on to collect his manuscripts in 26 volumes, a selection being published as the

Iolo Manuscripts Edward Williams, better known by his bardic name Iolo Morganwg (; 10 March 1747 – 18 December 1826), was a Welsh antiquarian, poet and collector.Jones, Mary (2004)"Edward Williams/Iolo Morganwg/Iolo Morgannwg" From ''Jones' Celtic Encyclop ...

by the

Welsh Manuscripts Society The Welsh Manuscripts Society, also known as the Society for the Publication of Ancient Welsh Manuscripts, was an organisation formed in Abergavenny, Wales, in 1837. It was led by prominent members of the clergy and other notables including Tal ...

in 1848.

Literary career

From an early date Williams was concerned with preserving and maintaining the literary and cultural traditions of Wales. He produced a large number of manuscripts as evidence for his claims that ancient

Druid A druid was a member of the high-ranking class in ancient Celtic cultures. Druids were religious leaders as well as legal authorities, adjudicators, lorekeepers, medical professionals and political advisors. Druids left no written accounts. Whi ...

ic tradition had survived the Roman conquest, the conversion of the populace to

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...

, the persecution of bards under King

Edward I Edward I (17/18 June 1239 – 7 July 1307), also known as Edward Longshanks and the Hammer of the Scots, was King of England and Lord of Ireland from 1272 to 1307. Concurrently, he ruled the duchies of Aquitaine and Gascony as a vassal o ...

, and other adversities. His forgeries develop an elaborate mystical philosophy, which he claimed as a direct continuation of ancient Druidic practice. Williams's reportedly heavy use of laudanum may have been a contributing factor. Williams first came to public notice in 1789 for ''Barddoniaeth Dafydd ab Gwilym'', a collection of the poetry of the 14th-century

Dafydd ap Gwilym Dafydd ap Gwilym ( 1315/1320 – 1350/1370) is regarded as one of the leading Welsh poets and amongst the great poets of Europe in the Middle Ages. Life R. Geraint Gruffydd suggests 1315- 1350 as the poet's dates; others place him a little ...

. Included were a large number of hitherto unknown poems by Dafydd that he claimed to have found; these are regarded as Williams's first forgeries. His success led him to return to

in 1791, where he founded the Gorsedd, a community of Welsh

bard In Celtic cultures, a bard is a professional story teller, verse-maker, music composer, oral historian and genealogist, employed by a patron (such as a monarch or chieftain) to commemorate one or more of the patron's ancestors and to praise t ...

s, at a ceremony on 21 June 1792 at

Primrose Hill Primrose Hill is a Grade II listed public park located north of Regent's Park in London, England, first opened to the public in 1842.Mills, A., ''Dictionary of London Place Names'', (2001) It was named after the natural hill in the centre of ...

. He organised the occasion according to what he claimed were ancient Druidic rites. In 1794 he published some of his own poetry, which was later collected in a two-volume ''Poems, Lyric and Pastoral''. Essentially his only genuine work, it proved quite popular. Williams worked with

and

William Owen Pughe William Owen Pughe (7 August 1759 – 4 June 1835) was a Welsh antiquarian and grammarian best known for his ''Welsh and English Dictionary'', published in 1803, but also known for his grammar books and "Pughisms" (neologisms)."The Inventio ...

on '' The Myvyrian Archaiology of Wales'', a three-volume collection of medieval Welsh literature published in 1801–1807. This relied partly on manuscripts in Williams's collection, some his forgeries. The forged material included a false '' Brut'' chronicle and a book attributed to Saint

Cadoc Saint Cadoc or Cadog ( lat-med, Cadocus; also Modern Welsh: Cattwg; born or before) was a 5th–6th-century Abbot of Llancarfan, near Cowbridge in Glamorgan, Wales, a monastery famous from the era of the British church as a centre of learni ...

. The second volume, which collected the

, contained an additional "third series" of forged triads, as well as Williams's alterations to the authentic ones. After Williams's death some of his collection was compiled into ''The Iolo Manuscripts'' by his son, Taliesin Williams. His papers were used by many later scholars and translators, and for reference by

Lady Charlotte Guest Lady Charlotte Elizabeth Guest (née Bertie; 19 May 1812 – 15 January 1895), later Lady Charlotte Schreiber, was an English aristocrat who is best known as the first publisher in modern print format of the '' Mabinogion'', the earliest prose l ...

as she translated the prose collection ''

Mabinogion The ''Mabinogion'' () are the earliest Welsh prose stories, and belong to the Matter of Britain. The stories were compiled in Middle Welsh in the 12th–13th centuries from earlier oral traditions. There are two main source manuscripts, create ...

''. She did not, however, rely on William's editions of the tales themselves, except for ''Hanes Taliesin''. Later still, further Williams forgeries were published in a text known as '' Barddas''.Jones, Mary (2004)
"Barddas"
From ''Jones' Celtic Encyclopedia''. Retrieved 11 June 2009. (For the United States, se

. This work, published in two volumes in 1862 and 1874, was claimed to be a translation of works by

Llywelyn Siôn Llywelyn Siôn (1540 – c. 1616) was a Welsh language poet and bard. His instructors included Meurig Dafydd and Thomas Llewelyn. Around 1575, he is mentioned under the name Lewelyn John by Sir Edward Mansel in his ''History of the Norman Conques ...

, detailing the history of the Welsh bardic system from its ancient origins to the present day. Though it contains nothing of authentic Druidic lore, it is the fullest account of the mystical cosmology Williams developed. Other works by Williams include the " Druid's Prayer", still used by the Gorsedd and by neo-Druid groups, a treatise on Welsh

metrics Metric or metrical may refer to: * Metric system, an internationally adopted decimal system of measurement * An adjective indicating relation to measurement in general, or a noun describing a specific type of measurement Mathematics In mathema ...

called ''Cyfrinach Beirdd Ynys Prydain'' ("The Mystery of the Bards of the Isle of Britain"), published posthumously in 1828, and a

hymn A hymn is a type of song, and partially synonymous with devotional song, specifically written for the purpose of adoration or prayer, and typically addressed to a deity or deities, or to a prominent figure or personification. The word ''hymn'' ...

series published as ''Salmau yr Eglwys yn yr Anialwch'' ("Psalms of the church in the wilderness") in 1812.

Philosophy

Iolo's philosophy represented a fusion of

Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...

and

Arthurian King Arthur ( cy, Brenin Arthur, kw, Arthur Gernow, br, Roue Arzhur) is a Legend, legendary king of Great Britain, Britain, and a central figure in the medieval literary tradition known as the Matter of Britain. In the earliest tradition ...

influences, a romanticism comparable to that of

William Blake William Blake (28 November 1757 – 12 August 1827) was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his life, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of the poetry and visual art of the Romantic Age. ...

and the Scottish poet and forger

James MacPherson James Macpherson (Gaelic: ''Seumas MacMhuirich'' or ''Seumas Mac a' Phearsain''; 27 October 1736 – 17 February 1796) was a Scottish writer, poet, literary collector and politician, known as the "translator" of the Ossian cycle of epic poem ...

, the revived

enthusiasm for all things "

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language * Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Fo ...

", and such elements of bardic heritage as had genuinely survived among Welsh-language poets. Part of his aim was to assert the Welshness of

South Wales South Wales ( cy, De Cymru) is a loosely defined region of Wales bordered by England to the east and mid Wales to the north. Generally considered to include the historic counties of Glamorgan and Monmouthshire, south Wales extends westwards ...

, particularly his home region of Glamorgan, against the prevalent idea that

North Wales , area_land_km2 = 6,172 , postal_code_type = Postcode , postal_code = LL, CH, SY , image_map1 = Wales North Wales locator map.svg , map_caption1 = Six principal areas of Wales common ...

represented the purest survival of Welsh traditions. The

metaphysics Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that studies the fundamental nature of reality, the first principles of being, identity and change, space and time, causality, necessity, and possibility. It includes questions about the nature of conscio ...

elucidated in his forgeries and other works proposed a theory of concentric "rings of existence", proceeding outward from

Annwn Annwn, Annwfn, or Annwfyn (in Middle Welsh, ''Annwvn'', ''Annwyn'', ''Annwyfn'', ''Annwvyn'', or ''Annwfyn'') is the Otherworld in Welsh mythology. Ruled by Arawn (or, in Arthurian literature, by Gwyn ap Nudd), it was essentially a world of de ...

(the

Otherworld The concept of an otherworld in historical Indo-European religion is reconstructed in comparative mythology. Its name is a calque of ''orbis alius'' (Latin for "other Earth/world"), a term used by Lucan in his description of the Celtic Otherwor ...

) through Abred and Ceugant to Gwynfyd (purity or

Heaven Heaven or the heavens, is a common religious cosmological or transcendent supernatural place where beings such as deities, angels, souls, saints, or venerated ancestors are said to originate, be enthroned, or reside. According to the belie ...

). Outside his shop in

Cowbridge Cowbridge ( cy, Y Bont-faen) is a market town in the Vale of Glamorgan, Wales, approximately west of the centre of Cardiff. The Cowbridge with Llanblethian community and civil parish elect a town council. A Cowbridge electoral ward exists for e ...

was a sign saying his sugar was from plantations that employed no

slaves Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...

. However, he contested a will in order to receive a legacy from one of his three brothers, all of whose plantations in Jamaica used slave labour. By 1799 he had become a Unitarian and a leading spirit when a Unitarian Association was formed in South Wales in 1802. It was he who drew up its ''Rheolau a Threfniadau'' (Rules and Procedures), published in 1803.

Bardic alphabet

Iolo Morganwg developed his own runic system based on an ancient druid alphabet system, in Welsh Coelbren y Beirdd ("the Bardic Alphabet"). It was said to be the alphabetic system of the ancient druids. It consisted of 20 main letters, and 20 others "to represent elongated vowels and mutations." These symbols were to be represented in a wooden frame, known as ''peithynen''.

Exposure

Towards the end of the 19th century, the grammarian Sir

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 ...

was involved in exposing Iolo as a forger, which led to the bard being labelled a charlatan. Morris-Jones called Iolo "hateful" and said it would be an age "before our history and literature are clean of the traces of his dirty fingers." After the First World War, the scholar Griffith John Williams (1892–1963) was the first to make a full study of Iolo's work, consulting original documents donated to the

National Library of Wales The National Library of Wales ( cy, Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru), Aberystwyth, is the national legal deposit library of Wales and is one of the Welsh Government sponsored bodies. It is the biggest library in Wales, holding over 6.5 million boo ...

by Iolo's descendants in 1917. Williams aimed to find out exactly how much of Iolo's output was based on imagination rather than fact. He established that the poems Iolo attributed to

were forgeries. His researches led him to become a defender of Iolo's reputation as well as a critic. It has been suggested that some of Iolo's claims were supported by oral tradition: recent research has revealed that the tale of Ieuan Gethin, a soldier in the

Glyndŵr Glyndŵr was one of six local government districts in the county of Clwyd in Wales from 1974 to 1996. History The district was created on 1 April 1974, under the Local Government Act 1972. It covered the area of six former districts and two p ...

revolt, might have basis in fact.

Legacy

Such was the extent of his forgery that, even into the 21st century, some of his tampered versions of medieval Welsh texts are better known than the original versions.Rachel Bromwich, ''Trioedd Ynys Prydein''. University of Wales Press, 2006, p. 213. A Welsh-language school in

, Ysgol Iolo Morganwg, is named after him, and

Super Furry Animals Super Furry Animals are a Welsh rock band formed in Cardiff in 1993. For the duration of their professional career, the band consisted of Gruff Rhys (lead vocals, guitar), Huw Bunford (lead guitar, vocals), Guto Pryce (bass guitar), Cian Ciaran ...

vocalist

Gruff Rhys Gruffudd Maredudd Bowen Rhys (; born 18 July 1970) is a Welsh musician, composer, producer, filmmaker and author. He performs solo and with several bands, including Super Furry Animals, which obtained mainstream success in the 1990s. He formed ...

dedicated a song to him on his 2014 album, ''

American Interior ''American Interior'' is the fourth solo album by Gruff Rhys, released on 5 May 2014. It is a concept album based on the life of the explorer John Evans. It peaked at number 24 in the UK.http://www.officialcharts.com/artist/_/gruff%20rhys/ Tr ...

''.

References

External links

Iolo Morganwg and the Romantic Tradition in Wales
Project at the Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies, University of Wales

(English) in ''Dictionary of Unitarian and Universalist Biography'' (DUUB)

(English text only) at Internet Sacred Text Archive

(English text only) at Internet Sacred Text Archive
Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales, Antiquaries in Wales
{{DEFAULTSORT:Morganwg, Iolo 1747 births 1826 deaths Bards of the Gorsedd Forgers Literary forgeries Mythopoeic writers Neo-druids People from Glamorgan Pseudepigraphy St Athan Stonemasons Welsh-language poets Welsh poets Welsh Unitarians