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 ...

poetry, an ''awdl'' () is a long poem in strict metre (i.e. ''

cynghanedd In Welsh-language poetry, ''cynghanedd'' (, literally " harmony") is the basic concept of sound-arrangement within one line, using stress, alliteration and rhyme. The various forms of ''cynghanedd'' show up in the definitions of all formal Welsh ...

''). Originally, an ''awdl'' could be a relatively short poem unified by its use of a single end-rhyme (the word is related to ''odl'', "rhyme"), using

; such early ''awdlau'' are associated with the

Cynfeirdd 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 t ...

such as

Aneirin Aneirin , Aneurin or Neirin was an early Medieval Brythonic war poet. He is believed to have been a bard or court poet in one of the Cumbric kingdoms of the Hen Ogledd, probably that of Gododdin at Edinburgh, in modern Scotland. From the 17th c ...

and

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 ...

as found in collections such as the ''

Book of Taliesin The Book of Taliesin ( cy, Llyfr Taliesin) is one of the most famous of Middle Welsh manuscripts, dating from the first half of the 14th century though many of the fifty-six poems it preserves are taken to originate in the 10th century or before ...

'', the ''

Black Book of Carmarthen The Black Book of Carmarthen ( cy, Llyfr Du Caerfyrddin) is thought to be the earliest surviving manuscript written solely in Welsh. The book dates from the mid-13th century; its name comes from its association with the Priory of St. John the Ev ...

'', the '' Hendregadredd Manuscript'' or ''

The Red Book of Hergest The ''Red Book of Hergest'' ( cy, Llyfr Coch Hergest, Oxford, Jesus College, MS 111) is a large vellum manuscript written shortly after 1382, which ranks as one of the most important medieval manuscripts written in the Welsh language. It preserv ...

''. By the nineteenth century however it came to its modern definition as a long poem using at least two of the twenty-four recognised "official" strict forms (without the single end-rhyme). Each year at the

National Eisteddfod The National Eisteddfod of Wales (Welsh: ') is the largest of several eisteddfodau that are held annually, mostly in Wales. Its eight days of competitions and performances are considered the largest music and poetry festival in Europe. Competitors ...

the bardic chair is awarded for the ''awdl'' judged worthiest; this competition is the most famous and prestigious in the Eisteddfod, and perceived to be the most difficult.

History

''Awdlau'' in the early period are to be distinguished from ''Englynion'', which are short, three or four-line stanzas. Since the recorded beginnings, ''awdlau'' were highly ornamental, and the forms permitted became stricter and stricter until the high Middle Ages. The 11th –13th centuries saw the royal court poets (Poets of the Princes) develop the art to a remarkable level of skill and accomplishment. After the extinction of Welsh royalty with the death of

Llywelyn ap Gruffudd Llywelyn ap Gruffudd (c. 1223 – 11 December 1282), sometimes written as Llywelyn ap Gruffydd, also known as Llywelyn the Last ( cy, Llywelyn Ein Llyw Olaf, lit=Llywelyn, Our Last Leader), was the native Prince of Wales ( la, Princeps Wall ...

in 1282, standardisation and codification of the rules of professional poetry led to recognition of 24 strict metres, each of which must use ''

''. By this period, the ''englyn'' metres as well as the ''

cywydd The cywydd (; plural ) is one of the most important metrical forms in traditional Welsh poetry (cerdd dafod). There are a variety of forms of the cywydd, but the word on its own is generally used to refer to the ("long-lined couplet") as it is b ...

'' metres were included within the 24, and the term ''awdl'' ''simpliciter'' became used for any long poem composed in metres chosen from the permitted range, with end-rhyme staying constant within individual sections of the poem. Among those known to have used the form in the early 17th century was

Dafydd Llwyd Mathau Dafydd Llwyd Mathau (fl. 1601–1629) was a 17th-century Welsh poet and strolling minstrel. It was thought by the bibliographer John Humphreys Davies (1871–1926) that he may have been from the Llangeitho area of Ceredigion (Cardiganshire). Po ...

in 1611.

Prestige

Such poems are judged to be among the finest work a poet can aim to produce. Prizes are given at ''

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 ...

au'' for the best ''awdl'', the most lauded being that of chair at the

National Eisteddfod of Wales The National Eisteddfod of Wales (Welsh language, Welsh: ') is the largest of several eisteddfodau that are held annually, mostly in Wales. Its eight days of competitions and performances are considered the largest music and poetry festival in Eur ...

, held each year in August. While 19th-century ''awdlau'' could run to thousands of lines, it is unusual to find such extensive pieces these days; the National Eisteddfod limits competitors to a few hundred lines. Perhaps the best known early ''awdl'' is an apocalyptic elegy by

Gruffudd ab yr Ynad Coch Gruffudd ab yr Ynad Coch ( fl. 1277–1282) was a Welsh court poet. Gruffudd composed a number of poems on the theme of religion. His greatest fame however, lies with his moving elegy for Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, Prince of Wales Prince of Wa ...

, marking the death in 1282 of Llywelyn ap Gruffudd. Well known 20th-century examples include ''

Ymadawiad Arthur ''Ymadawiad Arthur'' ("The Passing of Arthur") is a Welsh-language poem, some 350 lines in length, by Thomas Gwynn Jones. It won its author the Chair at the National Eisteddfod in 1902 but was several times heavily revised by him in later year ...

'' by T. Gwynn Jones, and ''Yr Arwr'', by

Hedd Wyn Hedd Wyn (born Ellis Humphrey Evans, 13 January 188731 July 1917) was a Welsh-language poet who was killed on the first day of the Battle of Passchendaele during World War I. He was posthumously awarded the bard's chair at the 1917 National ...

, which won the Eisteddfod chair in 1917 shortly after the death of its author in the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

References

Welsh poetry Welsh-language literature Medieval Welsh literature Eisteddfod Western medieval lyric forms {{Wales-stub