DAFYDD LLWYD ap LLYWELYN ap GRUFFUDD
, of
Mathafarn
(
c.
1420
-
c.
1500
),
poet
.
He is best known as the
author of some fifty of the 200 extant vaticinatory poems
(
cywyddau brud
) of his generation. In his day he was also famed as an
interpreter of the old Welsh prophetic books
. His home was in
Llanwrin
parish, and the pedigrees record that both he and
Margaret
, his wife, were sprung from leading families in that part of the country. He outlived his children, of whom three sons were named
Ieuan
,
Meredudd
, and
Llywelyn
, mention being also made of a daughter named after her mother (
Powys Fadog
, vi, 37), and possibly of other sons. Besides the vaticinatory poems, there remain poems of controversy between him and
Llywelyn ap Gutun
(q.v.)
and others. Not having to compose for a living, he did not leave many petition poems, panegyrics, or elegies. The objects of his praise, moreover, are men whom he really admired, usually from anaoeg the leading
Welshmen
of the day, and some of his finest work is to be found in his elegies. His
cywydd
to
S.
Tydecho
(q.v.) is valuable as the only extant ‘vita’ of that
saint
, and his poem to the
river Dovey
is a work of great beauty, and fine passages of natural description revealing acute observation are by no means rare in his other poems. The earliest of his poems which can be dated is his elegy to
Sir
Gruffudd
Vaughan
(d.
1447
)
, and the
poet
lived to sing the praises of
Arthur
, son of
Henry
VII
, who was born in
1486
-if we can accept the testimony given in
Mont. Coll.
, xxxi, 195. he was composing as late as
1497
. No elegy by him
Arthur
(d.
1501
) is known, nor to
Henry
VII
(d.
1509
)
, the poet's greatest hero. Contemporary poets praised
Dafydd Llwyd
as a
soldier
, a
huntsman
, an
esquire
(an honour bestowed on him after the victory at
Bosworth
), as a
poet
, and as an upholder of the prophetic tradition of
Merlin
.
In his vaticinatory poems, he puts into verse much traditional material, but often as
political propaganda
. He is capable of praising
Dafydd ap Ieuan ab Einion
(q.v.)
, as well as his enemy
William
Herbert
(q.v.)
, but there is no inconsistency in this as he cared little for the
English
dynastic struggle of the day, except in so far as the
Wars of the Roses
might give his chance to a liberator of the
Welsh
nation. The main sources of inspiration for
Dafydd Llwyd
were the yearning for the unity and freedom of his people, and resentment towards the
English
for the disabilities which they had imposed on the
Welsh
. Apart from his
cywyddau
there remain only his
awdl
to
S.
David
(which is also vaticinatory) and a few
englynion
. There is a tradition that
Henry
Tudor
spent a night with
Dafydd Llwyd
at
Mathafarn
on his journey to
Bosworth
, and that the poet's wife advised him (as if that were necessary) to foretell that prince's good fortune.
Bibliography:
-
Unpublished M.A. thesis by
Leslie Richards
;
-
Bulletin of the Board of Celtic
Studies
, iv, 310;
-
Collections Historical and Archaeological
relating to Montgomeryshire
, xxx, 195;
-
Heraldic Visitations
of Wales and Part of the Marches
, 1846
, i, 296;
-
H. T. Evans
,
Wales and the Wars of the Roses
,
1915
;
-
Garmon Jones
, ‘Welsh Nationalism and Henry Tudor’ in
The Transactions of the Honourable Society
of Cymmrodorion
,
1917-8
.
Author:
David Myrddin Lloyd, M.A., (1909-81), Aberystwyth / Scotland
