Owain Owain (11 December 1929 – 19 December 1993) was a Welsh novelist, short-story writer and poet. He also founded ''

Tafod y Ddraig ''Tafod y Ddraig'' (which translates as "The Dragon's Tongue", ), or ''Tafod'', is a monthly Welsh language magazine dedicated to the promotion and preservation of the Welsh language. This magazine was the only voice of Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymr ...

'' (The Dragon's Tongue), which became the

Welsh Language Society The Welsh Language Society ( cy, Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg, often abbreviated to Cymdeithas yr Iaith or just Cymdeithas) is a direct action pressure group in Wales campaigning for the right of Welsh people to use the Welsh language in every as ...

's main voice from its birth in the 1960s to the present day. Having worked as a nuclear scientist in

Windscale Sellafield is a large multi-function nuclear site close to Seascale on the coast of Cumbria, England. As of August 2022, primary activities are nuclear waste storage, nuclear waste processing and storage and nuclear decommissioning. Former act ...

for a few years, he returned home to Wales in 1956 with his wife Eira, and settled down in Bangor to raise a family of four children, one of whom is

Robin Llwyd ab Owain Robin Llwyd ab Owain is a Welsh author, poet, and Wikipedian. He won the chair at the National Eisteddfod of Wales in 1991. In 2013, he was appointed Wikimedia UK's first Wales Manager. He is the son of poet and writer Owain Owain. Writing In ...

. He was a member of

Mensa International Mensa is the largest and oldest high-IQ society in the world. It is a non-profit organisation open to people who score at the 98th percentile or higher on a standardised, supervised IQ or other approved intelligence test. Mensa formally compr ...

, and created new protests for the

as the secretary of the first branch, located at Bangor. Owain also sketched the society's logo (a red dragon's tongue) which continues to be their badge and logo. This early sketch can be seen at the National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth and on his official website (see below). Leading politician

Dafydd Iwan Dafydd Iwan Jones (born 24 August 1943) is a Welsh singer and nationalist politician who rose to fame writing and performing folk music in the Welsh language. From 2003 to 2010, Iwan was the president of Plaid Cymru, a political party which ad ...

says on his website, "He inspired my generation and laid down strong foundations on which the

was built." His science fiction book entitled ''Y Dydd Olaf'' ("The Last Day") was described by the Welsh literary critic Pennar Davies in the book's preface: "Nothing like this book has been seen before either in our language or in any other language. We should rejoice that such brilliance exists in Welsh writing."''Y Dydd Olaf'' by Owain Owain published by Christopher Davies Publishers, Swansea, 1976.

References

External links

* 1929 births 1993 deaths Welsh-language writers Welsh novelists Welsh-language poets Welsh short story writers People from Bangor, Gwynedd Mensans 20th-century British novelists 20th-century Welsh poets {{Wales-writer-stub