Guto'r Glyn (c. 1412 – c. 1493) was a

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 ...

poet and soldier of the era of the ''Beirdd yr Uchelwyr'' ("Poets of the Nobility") or ''Cywyddwyr'' ("

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 ...

-men"), the itinerant professional poets of the later Middle Ages. He is considered one of the greatest exponents, if not the greatest, of the tradition of "praise-poetry", verse addressed to a noble patron.The Poetry of Guto'r Glyn
, University of Wales

Biography

Valle Crucis Abbey, Denbighshire, Wales - geograph

Guto is associated with the Ceiriog Valley, in the modern

Wrexham county borough Wrexham County Borough ( cy, Bwrdeistref Sirol Wrecsam) is a county borough, with city status, in the north-east of Wales. It borders England to the east and south-east, Powys to the south-west, Denbighshire to the west and Flintshire to the ...

of north-east

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...

, and many of his patrons lived in the same region, although he visited houses across Wales in the course of his journeys.Guto'r Glyn, Dictionary of Welsh Biography
/ref> His early life is obscure, but

Glyn Ceiriog Glyn Ceiriog is the principal settlement of the Ceiriog Valley and a community in Wrexham County Borough, north-east Wales. Glyn Ceiriog translates simply as Ceiriog Valley, though there are other villages in the valley. The village and commun ...

Glyndyfrdwy Glyndyfrdwy (), or sometimes Glyn Dyfrdwy, is a village in the modern county of Denbighshire, Wales. It is situated on the A5 road halfway between Corwen and Llangollen in the Dee Valley (the river Dee is ''Afon Dyfrdwy'' in Welsh). History A ...

have been suggested as his places of birth in the years between 1412 and 1420. It is also possible that ''y Glyn'' refers to

Valle Crucis Abbey Valle Crucis Abbey (Valley of the Cross) is a Cistercian abbey located in Llantysilio in Denbighshire, Wales. More formally ''the Abbey Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Valle Crucis'' it is known in Welsh both as ''Abaty Glyn Egwestl'' and ''A ...

, and various suggestions and references within his poetry infer that he may have been a child adopted by and brought up at the abbey itself, explaining some of his later association with Cistercian institutions: he was certainly not from the noble or gentry class and may have come from a farming family.Rees, E. ''A life of Guto'r Glyn'', Y Lolfa, 2008, pp. 19–20 Guto is a diminutive of the Welsh name Gruffudd, and his father's name was Siancyn, so he was probably christened Gruffudd ap Siancyn using the

patronymic A patronymic, or patronym, is a component of a personal name based on the given name of one's father, grandfather (avonymic), or an earlier male ancestor. Patronymics are still in use, including mandatory use, in many countries worldwide, alt ...

system of the time. His poetic career seems to have blossomed relatively early and he was already a well-known poet by the early 1430s, while in 1441 he is known to have enlisted to fight in the Hundred Years War. From various of his poems we know that Guto was large and physically strong, recognised for his courage and sporting prowess, wore a beard and had black hair (though he rapidly went bald, leading him to jokingly compare himself to a tonsured monk wandering the countryside). Poets of the time commonly traded insults in verse, and the Hanmer poet Dafydd ap Edmund wrote that Guto was not good-looking and had a nose like a

billhook A billhook or bill hook, also called a pruning knife or spar hook, is a versatile cutting tool used widely in agriculture and forestry for cutting woody material such as shrubs, small trees and branches. It is distinct from the sickle. It was ...

, while another poet described him as having the alarming features of a bear. He was acknowledged as a master of praise poetry forms, an opinion echoed by the poet

Tudur Aled Tudur Aled (c. 1465 – 1525) was a late medieval Welsh poet, born in Llansannan, Denbighshire (Sir Ddinbych). He is regarded as a master of cynghanedd. Beginnings It is uncertain when Tudur Aled started to write poetry. A remark by him in his el ...

, though he was also skilled at satirical poetry and like most bards of the period could exhibit a sharp humour on occasion. Work as a drover led to an incident in which he lost the

priest A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in partic ...

Corwen Corwen is a town and community in the county of Denbighshire in Wales. Historically, Corwen is part of the county of Merionethshire. Corwen stands on the banks of the River Dee beneath the Berwyn mountains. The town is situated west of Llango ...

's sheep, instigating a poetic controversy with his rival Tudur Penllyn. While Guto chides Penllyn, who worked as a drover and wool-merchant, for not assisting him and vows never to set foot in the Marches again, Penllyn responds by describing a fantastical end for Guto's flock and suggests that Guto has in fact stolen the sheep to give to his wool-combing wife in Oswestry, in the process including digs at Guto's baldness.Rees, 2008, p. 105 His finest and, to modern understanding, most powerful poems were written at the end of his long life and reflect on mortality, while he dismissed his earlier work as "babbling sweet nonsense continually" (''"malu son melys ennyd"''). As a soldier, Guto fought on the

Yorkist The House of York was a cadet branch of the English royal House of Plantagenet. Three of its members became kings of England in the late 15th century. The House of York descended in the male line from Edmund of Langley, 1st Duke of York, t ...

side during the

Wars of the Roses The Wars of the Roses (1455–1487), known at the time and for more than a century after as the Civil Wars, were a series of civil wars fought over control of the English throne in the mid-to-late fifteenth century. These wars were fought bet ...

, and composed poems in praise of King Edward IV and prominent Yorkists such as William Herbert and

Sir Roger Kynaston Sir Roger Kynaston of Myddle and Hordley (ca. 14331495) was a Knight of the Realm and English nobleman. He was a member of the Kynaston family, of North Shropshire and the Welsh Marches. Early life Kynaston was the son of Griffin Kynaston ( ...

. Despite this, after the

Battle of Bosworth The Battle of Bosworth or Bosworth Field was the last significant battle of the Wars of the Roses, the civil war between the houses of Lancaster and York that extended across England in the latter half of the 15th century. Fought on 22 Au ...

he praised Welsh Lancastrian Rhys ap Thomas for killing Richard III, writing that he "killed the boar, shaved his head".Griffith, Ralph, ''Sir Rhys ap Thomas and his family: a study in the Wars of the Roses and early Tudor politics'', University of Wales Press, 1993, p. 43. He also fought in

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

, and was widely travelled by the standards of his time. From one of his poems, ''In praise of Oswestry'', it is apparent he lived for some years in the Shropshire town of which he described himself "Long wedded here, a burgess am I" (i.e. a

freeman Freeman, free men, or variant, may refer to: * a member of the Third Estate in medieval society (commoners), see estates of the realm * Freeman, an apprentice who has been granted freedom of the company, was a rank within Livery companies * Free ...

of the

borough A borough is an administrative division in various English-speaking countries. In principle, the term ''borough'' designates a self-governing walled town, although in practice, official use of the term varies widely. History In the Middle A ...

).Anthology of prose and poetry, in which this is his only poem published. He spent his last years in blindness as a lay guest at the Cistercian abbey of Valle Crucis, near

Llangollen Llangollen () is a town and community, situated on the River Dee, in Denbighshire, Wales. Its riverside location forms the edge of the Berwyn range, and the Dee Valley section of the Clwydian Range and Dee Valley Area of Outstanding Natural Bea ...

Editions

Ifor Williams Sir Ifor Williams, (16 April 1881 – 4 November 1965) was a Welsh scholar who laid the foundations for the academic study of Old Welsh, particularly early Welsh poetry. Early life and education Ifor Williams was born at Pendinas, Tregarth near ...

(ed.), ''Gwaith Guto'r Glyn'' (University of Wales Press, 1939). Annotated edition of the poems, in Welsh.

References

;Sources *Stephens, Meic (Ed.) (1998), ''The new companion to the literature of Wales''. Cardiff : University of Wales Press. . {{DEFAULTSORT:Guto'r Glyn 1430s births 1490s deaths Welsh-language poets 15th-century Welsh poets People of the Wars of the Roses Welsh soldiers 15th-century Welsh military personnel