Medieval Welsh literature
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 to the works of the 16th century.
The Welsh language became distinct from other dialects of Old British sometime between AD 400 and 700; the earliest surviving literature in Welsh is poetry dating from this period. The poetic tradition represented in the work of "Y Cynfeirdd", as they are known, then survives for over a thousand years to the work of the Poets of the Nobility in the 16th century.
The core tradition was praise poetry; and the poet Taliesin was regarded as the first in the line. The other aspect of the tradition was the professionalism of the poets and their reliance on patronage from kings, princes and nobles for their living, similar to the way Irish bards and Norse skalds were patronized for the production of complex, often highly alliterative forms of verse. The fall of the Kingdom of Gwynedd and the loss of Welsh independence in any form in 1282 proved a crisis in the tradition, but one that was eventually overcome. It led to the innovation of the development of the cywydd meter, a looser definition of praise, and a reliance on the nobility for patronage.
The professionalism of the poetic tradition was sustained by a Guild of Poets, or Order of Bards, with its own "rule book" emphasising the making of poetry as a craft. Under its rules poets undertook an apprenticeship of nine years to become fully qualified. The rules also set out the payment a poet could expect for his work. These payments varied according to how long a poet had been in training and also the demand for poetry at particular times during the year.
Alongside the court poet, kings, princes and nobles patronised an official storyteller. Like poets, the storytellers were also professionals; but unlike the poets, little of their work has survived. What has survived are literary creations based on native Welsh tales which would have been told by the storytellers. The bulk of this material is found in the collection known today as the Mabinogion. Medieval Welsh prose was not confined to the story tradition but also included a large body of both religious and practical works, in addition to a large amount translated from other languages.
Welsh poetry before 1100
In Welsh literature the period before 1100 is known as the period of Y Cynfeirdd or Yr Hengerdd. It roughly dates from the birth of the Welsh language until the arrival of the Normans in Wales towards the end of the 11th century.The oldest Welsh literature does not belong to the territory we know as Wales today, but rather to northern England and southern Scotland, and so could be classified as being composed in Cumbric, a Brythonic dialect closely related to Old Welsh. Though it is dated to the 6th, 7th, and 8th centuries it has survived only in 13th- and 14th-century manuscript copies. Some of these early poets' names are known from the 9th-century Historia Brittonum, traditionally ascribed to the historian Nennius. The Historia lists the famous poets from the time of King Ida, AD 547–559:
Of the poets named here it is believed that works that can be identified as Aneirin's and Taliesin's have survived.
Taliesin
The poetry of Taliesin has been preserved in a 14th-century manuscript known as Llyfr Taliesin. This manuscript contains a large body of later mystical poetry attributed to the poet, but scholars have recognised twelve poems that belong to the 6th century. They are all poems of praise: one for Cynan Garwyn, king of Powys about 580; two for Gwallawg, king of Elmet, a kingdom based around the modern Leeds; and nine other poems associated with Urien Rheged, a ruler of the kingdom of Rheged, located around the Solway Firth, and his son, Owain.Taliesin's verses in praise of Urien and Owain became models for later poets, who turned to him for inspiration as they praised their own patrons in terms that he had used for his.
Aneirin
, a near-contemporary of Taliesin, wrote a series of poems to create one long poem called Y Gododdin. It records the Battle of Catraeth, fought between the Britons of the kingdom of Gododdin and the Saxon kingdoms of Deira and Bernicia in the north east of England. This battle was fought at Catterick in about the year 598. It has survived in Llyfr Aneirin, a manuscript dating from c. 1265.Llywarch Hen and Heledd
The poetry associated with Llywarch Hen, Canu Llywarch Hen and with Heledd, Canu Heledd, dates from a somewhat later period: the whole of Canu Heledd is generally thought to be from the 9th century; while the earliest parts of Canu Llywarch are probably also 9th century, other parts of the cycle may be as late as the 11th or 12th century. These poems, in the form of monologues, express the sorrow and affliction felt at the loss of the eastern portion of the Kingdom of Powys to the English, but they are also works where nature is an important element in the background, reflecting the main action and feelings of the poetry itself.Other early poetry
Though the Anglo-Saxon invaders seem to break Welsh hearts in most of the early poetry, there are some poems of encouragement and the hope of an eventual and decisive defeat that would drive them back into the sea. One such poem is the 10th-century Armes Prydein from the Book of Taliesin which sees a coalition of Irish, British, and Scandinavian forces defeating the English and restoring Britain to the Welsh.This period also produced religious poetry, such as the englynion in praise of the Trinity found in the 9th-century Juvencus Manuscript, which is now at Cambridge University Library. In the Book of Taliesin we find a 9th-century poem Edmyg Dinbych, probably produced by a court poet in Dyfed to celebrate the New Year. The book also includes important poems which were probably not composed by Taliesin, including the Armes Prydein and Preiddeu Annwfn,, and the Book of Aneirin has preserved an early Welsh nursery rhyme, Peis Dinogat. Much of the nature poetry, gnomic poetry, prophetic poetry, and religious poetry in the Black Book of Carmarthen and the Red Book of Hergest is also believed to date from this period.
Welsh poetry, 1100–1600
From c. 1100 to 1600 Welsh poetry can be divided roughly into two distinct periods: the period of the Poets of the Princes who worked before the loss of Welsh independence in 1282, and the Poets of the Nobility who worked from 1282 until the period of the English incorporation of Wales in the 16th century.Poets of the Princes (c. 1100 – c. 1300)
In Welsh this period is known as Beirdd y Tywysogion or Y Gogynfeirdd. The main source for the poetry of the 12th and 13th centuries is the Hendregadredd manuscript, an anthology of court poetry brought together at the Cistercian Strata Florida Abbey from about 1282 until 1350.The poets of this period were professionals who worked in the various princely courts in Wales. They were members of a Guild of poets whose rights and responsibilities were enshrined in native Welsh law; and as such, they worked within a developed literary culture and with inflexible traditions. Bardic families were still common—the poet Meilyr Brydydd had a poet son and at least two poet grandsons—but it was becoming more and more usual for the craft of poetry to be taught formally, in bardic schools which might only be run by the pencerdd. The pencerdd was the top of his profession, and a special chair was set aside for him in the court, in an honoured position next to the heir. When he performed he was expected to sing twice: once in honour of God, and once in honour of the king. The bardd teulu was one of the 24 officers of the court and he was responsible for singing for the military retinue before going into battle, and for the queen in the privacy of her chamber. The lowest ranking poets were the cerddorion.
The poetry praises the military prowess of the prince in a language that is deliberately antiquarian and obscure, echoing the earlier praise poetry tradition of Taliesin. There is also some religious poems and poetry in praise of women.
With the death of the last native prince of Wales in 1282, the tradition gradually disappears. In fact, Gruffudd ab yr Ynad Coch's elegy on the death of Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, is one of the most notable poems of the era. Other prominent poets of this period include:
- Meilyr Brydydd, fl. c. 1100–1137; the earliest of the Gogynfeirdd
- Bleddyn Fardd, fl. c. 1258–1284;
- Cynddelw Brydydd Mawr; fl. c. 1155–1200;
- Dafydd Benfras, fl. c. 1220–58; and
- Llywarch ap Llywelyn, fl. 1174/5-1220.
Poets of the Nobility, or Cywyddwyr (c. 1300 – c. 1600)
The poetic tradition thrived in Wales as long as there were patrons available to welcome its practitioners. Until 1282, Wales consisted of a number of 'kingdoms', each with its own independent ruler; this ensured that there was no shortage of courts available to the travelling professional poet or "bard". After 1282 the poetic tradition survived by turning to the land-owning nobility to act as patrons, and these included some Norman lords who had successfully integrated themselves with the Welsh.Much of the poetry of this period is praise poetry, in praise of the patron and his family, his ancestors, his house and his generosity; and the cywydd is the most popular poetic metre used. Because of the popularity of the cywydd, this period is also known as the period of the Cywyddwyr. The poetry was very often sung to the accompaniment of the harp. Though praise was the main matter of poetry, satire also thrived. The poets organised themselves into a Guild to protect their professional status, and from time to time their rules were revised and updated. Perhaps the most important such revisions were those concerning patronage and poetic rank made at the Caerwys eisteddfod of 1523. The work of numerous poets of this period survives; some are anonymous, but very many are identified. Here are a few of the most prominent and influential of these: