Guto'r Glyn (c. 1412 – c. 1493) was a

Welsh language Welsh ( or ) is a Celtic languages, Celtic language of the Brittonic languages, Brittonic subgroup that is native to the Welsh people. Welsh is spoken natively in Wales by about 18% of the population, by some in England, and in (the Welsh c ...

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 ...

-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

Guto is associated with the Ceiriog Valley, in the modern

Wrexham county borough Wrexham County Borough () is a Principal areas of Wales, county borough, with city status in the United Kingdom, city status, in the North East Wales, north-east of Wales. It borders the English ceremonial counties of Cheshire and Shropshire to ...

of north-east

Wales Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the England–Wales border, east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic ...

, 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 or

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

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, 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 The Cistercians (), officially the Order of Cistercians (, abbreviated as OCist or SOCist), are a Catholic religious order of monks and nuns that branched off from the Benedictines and follow the Rule of Saint Benedict, as well as the contri ...

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 (more specifically an avonymic), or an earlier male ancestor. It is the male equivalent of a matronymic. Patronymics are used, b ...

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, 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, 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 deity, deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in parti ...

of Corwen'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 Oswestry ( ; ) is a market town, civil parish and historic railway town in Shropshire, England, close to the England–Wales border, Welsh border. It is at the junction of the A5 road (Great Britain), A5, A483 road, A483 and A495 road, A495 ro ...

, 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, th ...

side during the

Wars of the Roses The Wars of the Roses, known at the time and in following centuries as the Civil Wars, were a series of armed confrontations, machinations, battles and campaigns fought over control of the English throne from 1455 to 1487. The conflict was fo ...

, and composed poems in praise of King

Edward IV Edward IV (28 April 1442 – 9 April 1483) was King of England from 4 March 1461 to 3 October 1470, then again from 11 April 1471 until his death in 1483. He was a central figure in the Wars of the Roses, a series of civil wars in England ...

and prominent Yorkists such as William Herbert and Sir Roger 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 ...

he praised Welsh Lancastrian

Rhys ap Thomas Sir Rhys ap Thomas (1449–1525) was a Welsh soldier and landholder who rose to prominence during the Wars of the Roses, and was instrumental in the victory of Henry Tudor at the Battle of Bosworth. He remained a faithful supporter of Henry ...

for killing

Richard III Richard III (2 October 1452 – 22 August 1485) was King of England from 26 June 1483 until his death in 1485. He was the last king of the Plantagenet dynasty and its cadet branch the House of York. His defeat and death at the Battle of Boswor ...

, 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 located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

, and was widely travelled by the standards of his time. From one of his poems, ''In praise of

'', 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, Freeman's or Freemans may refer to: Places United States * Freeman, Georgia, an unincorporated community * Freeman, Illinois, an unincorporated community * Freeman, Indiana, an unincorporated community * Freeman, South Dako ...

of the

borough A borough is an administrative division in various English language, 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 ...

).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 (Wales), community, situated on the River Dee, Wales, 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 Val ...

Editions

* Ifor Williams (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