''Cerdd dafod'' (literally ''tongue craft'') is the Welsh tradition of creating verse or poetry to a strict

metre The metre (British spelling) or meter (American spelling; see spelling differences) (from the French unit , from the Greek noun , "measure"), symbol m, is the primary unit of length in the International System of Units (SI), though its prefi ...

in the

Welsh language Welsh ( or ) is a Celtic language of the 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 Province, Argentina). Historically, it has ...

History

The history of ''cerdd dafod'' can be traced to 6th century Welsh poets 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 ...

, but is probably much older. Studies also suggest that features of this form of poetry are comparable to the ancient Irish versifications and therefore point to an older shared Celtic inheritance. The composition of ''cerdd dafod'' requires strict observance of the rules of

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 ...

: an intricate system of sound-arrangement in respect of

stress Stress may refer to: Science and medicine * Stress (biology), an organism's response to a stressor such as an environmental condition * Stress (linguistics), relative emphasis or prominence given to a syllable in a word, or to a word in a phrase ...

alliteration Alliteration is the conspicuous repetition of initial consonant sounds of nearby words in a phrase, often used as a literary device. A familiar example is "Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers". Alliteration is used poetically in various ...

, and internal rhyme within each line. One of the earliest texts on the subject is credited to Einion Offeiriad (fl c. 1320–c. 1349) a bard considered to have been under the patronage of

Sir Rhys ap Gruffydd Sir Rhys ap Gruffydd or Rhys ap Gruffudd ( 1283–1356),Griffiths also known as 'Syr Rhys', Rhys Hen ('the elder') or Rhys Griffith, was the wealthiest nobleman in 14th-century Wales. He was the most prominent of the native supporters of the Eng ...

, a powerful nobleman of south-west Wales. In it, he lists 24 canonical metres used for all poems in the writing of ''cerdd dafod''. This was later revised by

Dafydd ap Edmwnd Dafydd is a Welsh masculine given name, related to David, and more rarely a surname. People so named include: Given name Medieval era :''Ordered chronologically'' * Dafydd ab Owain Gwynedd (c. 1145-1203), Prince of Gwynedd * Dafydd ap Gruffydd (12 ...

who, in an

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, ac ...

held at

Carmarthen Carmarthen (, RP: ; cy, Caerfyrddin , "Merlin's fort" or "Sea-town fort") is the county town of Carmarthenshire and a community in Wales, lying on the River Towy. north of its estuary in Carmarthen Bay. The population was 14,185 in 2011, ...

circa 1450, changed two of the Offeiriad's metres to two more complicated versions of his own. These changes were adopted by future competitions as the preferred canon. In 1925 the Celtic linguist

Sir John Morris-Jones ''Sir'' is a formal honorific address in English language, English for men, derived from Sire in the High Middle Ages. Both are derived from the old French "Sieur" (Lord), brought to England by the French-speaking Normans, and which now exist i ...

published ''Cerdd Dafod'', an in-depth study of the traditional metres of the ''cynghanedd'' and a text now seen as the definitive work on the topic.Davies (2008), p. 574 This was brought about after his desire to see a return to traditional poetry and use of strict metre in ''eistedfoddau''. The end of the twentieth century saw a renaissance in ''cerdd dafod'', especially in the metres known as ''

englyn (; plural ) is a traditional Welsh and Cornish short poem form. It uses quantitative metres, involving the counting of syllables, and rigid patterns of rhyme and half rhyme. Each line contains a repeating pattern of consonants and accent ...

'' and ''

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 ...

'', attributed to the poet

Alan Llwyd Alan Llwyd (born 1948), original name Alan Lloyd Roberts, is a Welsh poet, literary critic and editor. He is one of the most prolific Welsh-language poets in the last quarter of the 20th century. He is also known under the Bardic name Meilir Emr ...

Notes

Bibliography

* {{Western medieval lyric forms Welsh poetry Medieval Welsh literature Welsh-language literature Western medieval lyric forms Poetic rhythm